Xu’s mother, still basking in the glow of the villagers’ effusive praise, felt her head spin with delight. As she walked home, she found herself unconsciously adopting the airs of a high-ranking official’s wife, taking small, measured steps, with a polite smile fixed on her face. But the moment she crossed her threshold, she let out a profound sigh of relief. “Oh my God,” she exhaled, “it’s too uncomfortable to be the wife of a high-ranking official! All that pretense! Fortunately, I’m just the captain’s wife. Being a ‘cultural person’ would be truly unbearable.”
Grandma Zhang, watching her daughter’s theatrical display, rolled her eyes in disgust. “Look how old you are! How embarrassing! Look at yourself!” she muttered, wishing the ground would swallow her whole.
But Xu’s mother was unperturbed. “Mom, what’s wrong with me?” she countered, her chest swelling. “Now that Yingying is so promising, I, her mother, can’t embarrass her!”
Grandma Zhang, realizing it was simply her daughter’s vanity at play, decided it wasn’t worth arguing. Her gaze softened as she looked at her granddaughter, Xu Ying, whose face radiated a quiet joy. How had this girl become so incredibly successful?
“Yingying,” Grandma Zhang began, her voice brimming with pride, “I heard your factory has placed so many orders! Now, more than half the people in our village work in your workshop. You don’t know how kind they are to your grandpa and me. Before, they’d despise us, saying our family was poor, with only daughters and no one to truly ‘stand up.’ Now, each one of them praises your grandpa as if he’s a national treasure!” A shadow of worry, however, crossed her face as she continued, “I don’t know when your second and third sisters will come back.”
“Mom, I just told you, my daughter is a lucky star!” Xu’s mother declared, her voice booming. “Her life will be good, and look, our whole family has been blessed because of her!” As if on cue, the two other Zhang sisters also arrived.
“Sister! Yingying!” Zhang Guilan, the third sister, cried out, her eyes red as she rushed towards Xu’s mother, her longing evident.
“Guilan! Dongquan is back!” Grandma Zhang announced as her second daughter, Zhang Guifang, and her husband, Chen Shaowen, appeared, laden with a large piece of pork and a big bag of cakes.
Xu’s mother’s eyes widened in surprise. “Shaowen, you’ve struck it rich!” she exclaimed, her gaze fixed on her second brother-in-law. “How can you carry so many things?”
“Guiying, what are you talking about?” Grandma Zhang chided her eldest daughter, a slight reprimand in her tone.
Chen Shaowen chuckled, unoffended by his sister-in-law’s bluntness. “Sister, with my temperament, I can’t possibly strike it rich. It’s just Chinese New Year, and after a year of no gains, I had to buy something good for my mother.”
Grandma Zhang’s face softened into a warm smile. “Even if you don’t buy anything, as long as you come to see Mom, Mom will be happy.”
Xu’s mother, however, watched him with suspicion as she ate her melon seeds. Her second brother-in-law, Chen Shaowen, was a good-for-nothing, worse even than her husband’s own younger brother. While her husband’s third brother was merely a lazy cook who gambled occasionally, Chen Shaowen was not only lazy but also a heavy drinker and gambler, having been caught stealing several times. And her second sister, poor fool, was a doormat with no temper. Xu’s mother had urged her to divorce him before, but Zhang Guifang had acted as if the sky was falling, weeping incessantly, until her own husband persuaded her to go home. Faced with the sister she had practically raised, Xu’s mother felt a conflicting mix of anger and pity.
“Mom, Shaowen has made some money this year, so please take these,” Zhang Guifang murmured, her voice thin and timid, a stark contrast to Xu’s mother’s boisterous nature.
Zhang Guilan, however, shared Xu’s mother’s fiery temperament, perhaps even more so. Upon hearing that Chen Shaowen had found a job, she was immediately suspicious. “Second sister, what kind of job did Shaowen get? It can’t be from some illegitimate background, can it? You’ve forgotten about that wave of arrests in the county a few months ago, haven’t you?”
Zhang Guifang quickly shook her head. “No, no, it’s not like that.”
Though Chen Shaowen’s demeanor had generally improved, he didn’t hold back when addressing Zhang Guilan, or rather, Xu’s mother by extension. “Third sister, what do you mean? Is it impossible for me, Chen Shaowen, to be successful in this life? Can I not find a job? Let me tell you, I am now self-reliant and have a job!”
His declaration stunned everyone in the room. Even Grandpa Zhang was shocked. He looked at Chen Shaowen and asked, “What job did you find? What are you going to do?”
Chen Shaowen smiled, glancing pointedly at Xu Ying, who felt a sudden surge of bewilderment. “Isn’t it Yingying who’s organizing people in the village to collect vegetables for the commune? I’m also following those people to collect vegetables.”
Xu’s mother was momentarily speechless. “Your commune isn’t the same as ours, so why did they start collecting vegetables?” she asked, baffled.
Xu Ying’s eyes widened slightly, a flicker of surprise in their depths.
Chen Shaowen’s eyes betrayed a hint of guilt as he chuckled. “Our captain is in charge of this, and I don’t know much about it either. Maybe the restaurant was short of food, so they asked someone from another village.”
Xu Ying, sensing something amiss, chose not to press further for now.
Zhang Guilan, however, couldn’t contain herself. She looked at Xu Ying. “Yingying, look how the vegetables in your second uncle’s village have been harvested. Why don’t you harvest the vegetables in our village too?”
Grandma Zhang, hearing her daughter’s request, immediately bristled. “The captain of your second brother-in-law’s village cooperates with the restaurant. You’re just one person in the village, asking Yingying to find someone else! What if other villages follow suit? Wouldn’t you cause trouble for your niece?”
Zhang Guilan, though unwilling, ultimately conceded to her mother’s firm rejection. The small episode passed quickly.
Finally, the three sisters were reunited. Grandma Zhang was overjoyed, holding them close and chatting for a long time.
Later, as Xu Ying prepared lunch in the kitchen, a nagging feeling persisted. The more she thought about it, the more she felt something was off. At the dinner table, Xu Ying couldn’t help but steer the conversation towards Chen Shaowen.
“Second uncle, your village is currently harvesting vegetables, so what exactly are you responsible for?”
Chen Shaowen, who had been loudly praising Xu Ying’s cooking, puffed out his chest, his eyes gleaming with pride at the attention. “I am now responsible for delivering food,” he boasted. “I deliver all the food collected in the village to the restaurant every day.”
“Second uncle, are you only responsible for your village? What about other villages?” Xu Ying probed.
“They don’t accept food at restaurants in other villages, so I will definitely only deliver food from our village,” Chen Shaowen declared proudly, his nostrils flaring slightly.
Xu Ying’s eyes darkened. Something was definitely wrong. If the restaurant truly lacked food, they would surely accept produce from several villages, not just one.
Later that afternoon, Xu Ying sought out Aunt Xu. Her suspicions were confirmed: the restaurant now only accepted rationed dishes, which their villages could easily supply. There was no mention of a shortage; in fact, sometimes there was too much food for the restaurant to use.
Xu Ying immediately went to the workshop and called Director Hong, her questions tumbling out. “Xiao Xu,” Director Hong replied, “I don’t know about the purchase of Chenjiacun’s vegetables. Now the restaurant only buys food from your Yushan Commune, not from other communes.”