Bai Fumei in the 70’s

After the sun had set, the village became quiet. Smoke rose from people's kitchen. Not sure from which muddy hole she returned from, He Sanya's sloppy head was covered with weeds. She walked like a cat, quiet and silent.

He Songbai noticed this movement and took her in one hand. He looked at her back and forth for a while. His face was a bit bad. "Fight with someone?"

He Sanya struggled, jumped to the ground, and ran behind her elder sister.3

He Songye plucked the grass from her hair and patted her head tenderly. It wasn't until she bathed the little girl that she found a large bruise on her leg, some blood, and the back of her ears were cut. She screamed and quickly gathered up a bunch of smelly grass. She put it in her mouth to chew it then applied it to He Songzhi's wound.

She comforted her little sister for some time, and then remembered Zhao Lanxiang who had just moved in.

"Go and call her, eat."

He Songye pointed at Zhao Lanxiang's room and gestured to her brother.

He Songbai's face was black and he knocked on Zhao Lanxiang's door. When there was no movement, he kicked the door and said impolitely, "Are there people inside? Where are you?"

He Sanya's eyes opened wide and she was so scared of her brother that she didn't dare to speak.

He Songye smiled and wiped the little girl's face with a towel.

"Don't fight, he will be angry. Does it hurt?" 

He Sanya grinned with pain, but when she saw a white plump bun in a bowl on the dinner table, her eyes were filled with incredible shock and joy. She pointed at the white bun, and Sister He nodded with a grin.

---

Zhao Lanxiang arrived after taking a shower and saw He Songbai standing impatiently in front of her room. The door was kicked by him, making a crunch sound.

He Songbai had lost his temper and was caught in an embarrassing situation. He stood so straight in front of the door of a girl's room, looking at her frivolously and casually.

Zhao Lanxiang twisted her wet hair between her fingers, looked at him with extremely cold eyes, and then returned to her room to get a towel to dry her hair.

He Songbai knocked hard on her door. "My sister saw that you haven't prepared anything for tonight, so you can eat with us. Tomorrow you will get something and make up for today, we don't cover meals!"

The woman's clear and sharp voice immediately comes from inside the house, "Okay." He Songbai also said, "You come out immediately."

Shouting like that, if he was her old man from twenty years later, she must teach him a lesson. However, for now, Zhao Lanxiang stopped her movements and pushed open the door.8

He Songbai came in with a pottery basin containing a bunch of grass that she didn't recognize.

He looked at the city girl's room openly and without realizing the consequences of breaking into a girl's private territory. His eyes glanced over the clothes scattered on her bed. There were many small items that had appeared in the room after just half an hour. Trinkets, two sky blue curtains on the window, the old table had been wrapped in clean floral paper, and a porcelain cyan vase filled with several wildflowers.

The entire room had been revitalized, revealing the freshness and tenderness of a woman.

He Songbai shut the windows of the house tightly and said lightly, "Pack up your clothes and valuables and come for dinner."

Zhao Lanxiang only collected the clothes from the bed but did not leave immediately. She leaned on the door to watch him.

He Songbai snorted, "Why don't you go to dinner? Do you fear that I will steal your stuff?"

Between words, he lit a match and set fire on the grass in the pot. Suddenly white smoke swelled in the room. He jumped out of the door with his two long legs and pushed the woman who was standing at the door stupidly, and closed the door with a loud bang.

Zhao Lanxiang's heart suddenly felt sweet, he was smoking her room with wormwood.

Although he was fierce, he was quite careful. Wormwood can be used to repel bugs and dehumidify the place. A room that had not been lived in for a long time was prone to moisture and insects. If she slept there tonight, she would be eaten up the next day.6

When she was with him, he was the one that pursued Zhao Lanxiang. He gave flowers every day, pruning and arranging them, made tea, and teased cats when they have nothing to do. Her old man chased her patiently and confidently for three years. And now... she turned her head to look at him.5

He Songbai at this age was far from being informed. He had such a fierce, cold and hard attitude, it was already good if he did not scare a girl away.

He Songbai also said, "We are rural people, poor, there is nothing to entertain you."

Zhao Lanxiang murmured vaguely, trying to make her voice appear normal, "I know."

He Songbai strode away indifferently, leaving the woman far behind, and walked back to the main house.

The He family's dinner was very simple.

It was slightly better than the food in the educated youth cafeteria. Anyway, at least she can see the grains of rice. But Zhao Lanxiang glanced at sweet potatoes in the bowls of Sister He and Little Sister He, and retracted her thoughts.

She put rice from her bowl into theirs and touched her belly with a smile. "The buns I ate in the afternoon have not been digested, and they hold up very well. You eat."

Zhao Lanxiang glanced at He Songbai, his bowl had almost no rice in it, so how can a big man eat all these things without oil or sauce all day?

She just wanted to give him her share of rice to eat, but He Songbai quickly swallowed the sweet potatoes in his big bowl in two gulps as if the food was very fragrant and had the satisfying taste of the mountain and the sea. After eating, he walked towards the back room where his grandmother stayed.

He Sanya bit into the steamed buns little by little and drank the rich soup. When she sucked the juice in the bun with her mouth, her eyes flashed happily. She had never eaten such delicious food. Even the meat she ate during Chinese New Year was not so delicious. It was so delicious that she wanted to cry.

He Songzhi stopped suddenly after eating half, swallowing her saliva, and gave the rest of the bun to her elder sister.2

---

When the educated youths went to work the next day, Zhou Jiazhen pulled Zhao Lanxiang away and asked her with disbelief, "You lived with the second He's family?"

She didn't hide the shock and contempt mixed in her tone.

"I was busy moving yesterday, and I didn't have time to ask you clearly. You're in big trouble, move out quickly!"

Zhao Lanxiang was surprised by Zhou Jiazhen's disgusted tone. Why did she suddenly mention her old man?

She smiles and asked, "What's wrong, is that place such a wolves' den and a tiger's nest, that I can't live there?" 

Zhou Jiazhen looked at Zhao Lanxiang who was still laughing and said angrily, "It's not just a wolves' den and a tiger's nest. That person is just a rogue, a rogue! You don't know..." 

She became angrier and angrier, and her face turned red. It was hard to tell what she was about to say. Zhou Jiazhen pushed Zhao Lanxiang into the cornfield.

"Last year, he and Pan Yu messed up. They were engaged in a relationship between men and women and were sent to labor reform for a while. They have just been released. How? how? Girl, what do you say... hey..."

With shame and anger on her face, she lowered her voice and said secretly, "Someone saw that they had done it in a cornfield, and Pan Yu had been forced."12

Zhao Lanxiang's heart was shocked, she never heard her old man mention it. 

She shook her head. "It shouldn't be as serious as you think. If that happened, he would have been shot."

"There may be a misunderstanding here." Zhao Lanxiang said.

In this era, the relationship between men and women is still very strict. Zhao Lanxiang had heard of an example in which a man broke into a female toilet and was sentenced to death. No couple was allowed to have intimate behavior in public. Don't even mention a major event that would destroy another person's innocence.

Zhou Jiazhen gritted her teeth and murmured, "Who knows. But in short, you should move out quickly. I would feel uneasy about staying in that kind of place for even an extra day."

"I have been in this village for so many years, and I have recognized all the people in the brigade. The second son of the He family is not a good person. Even if he was wronged, he is still not a good person. Otherwise, why would he be tangled in an unclear relationship with Pan Yu until now?" 

"I dare to say that his family is too poor, so the Pan family looks down on him, and he has no money to propose."

Zhao Lanxiang said vaguely, "I know, thank you."

Her mood was somewhat complicated. She was not happy. Actually, she was very unhappy.1

The old man concealed such a big thing from her, then pretended to be honest and said that she had been the first one he has feelings for, and if his behavior made her feel uncomfortable, please bear with him.

That doesn't seem to be the case now. When he was poor and down, he never got his peach blossom.

They also did it in a cornfield, huh... she hasn't done such a fashionable thing.28

Zhou Jiazhen felt proud of keeping her friends safe. She waved her hand and said, "I'll help you carry your luggage away when I'll finish my work."

"I live with your fellow now, at the branch secretary's house. I heard that the captain still has an empty room..."

Zhao Lanxiang refused decisively. "No need, I will buy some food in the county. Do you want to come together?"