With the New Year approaching, the morning temperature was quite cold. Bai Lan felt like staying in bed a little longer, but since it was her first day as a newlywed, she ultimately got up to wash up.
Xu Jianbei knew her habits well. Seeing that she was getting up, he immediately mixed a basin of warm water. After she finished washing up, Bai Lan finally left the room.
At the Xu household, everyone except the children was already up. They were all sitting in the main room talking, seemingly waiting for breakfast before heading off to work.
When they saw Bai Lan and Xu Jianbei come out of their room, Miao Daju immediately called out, “Perfect timing—breakfast is almost ready. Go sit at the table.”
Bai Lan responded with a smile, walked past the partition under the eaves, and made her way to the door of the west wing’s side room. The Xu family lived in two main rooms of the west wing plus one side room. The two main rooms were divided among the four sons. The remaining side room was where the old couple lived with their two grandsons.
Because the side room was small, it couldn’t serve as a very large main room. So the small area in front of the side room had also been walled off to serve as the Xu family’s main room. The kitchen, like in other families, was a small partitioned space under the eaves.
So at that moment, Bai Lan and Xu Jianbei entered that partitioned main room one after the other.
If there was one inconvenience about marrying into this family, it was that the main room was too small. The bedrooms were also small, but since only the two of them lived in theirs, it was barely sufficient.
In the tiny main room, five adults were already seated. When Bai Lan and Xu Jianbei stepped in, there was hardly any space left to move.
“Hey, fourth sister-in-law. Our house is really comfortable, isn’t it? Otherwise, you wouldn’t have gotten up so late.”
“What nonsense are you talking? All these years you’ve been married into this family, have I ever rushed you to get out of bed?”
Miao Daju walked in carrying a pot of dumplings and, upon hearing her eldest daughter-in-law’s words, didn’t hesitate to snap back.
Su Xiaomei immediately shut her mouth. But her expression clearly showed she wasn’t convinced.
Seeing her like this, Bai Lan seriously doubted whether what Xu Jianbei had said the other day was correct. Previously, Su Xiaomei had been falling over herself to curry favor with her and Xu Jianbei. Why the sudden change?
Xu Jianbei could tell what she was thinking and smiled. He knew his eldest sister-in-law was like this—changing her mind every day, her attitude shifting as unpredictably as June weather.
Meanwhile, Miao Daju was already urging Bai Lan to eat the dumplings. The dumplings had been purposely saved from the day before—cabbage and egg filling. Bai Lan quite liked them. The filling had been seasoned by her own father, so eating them felt no different from being at home.
Su Xiaomei perked up as soon as she heard dumplings. She patted her husband, who was pretending to be deep in thought, urging him to eat quickly before the dumplings ran out. And after eating, she wanted him to bring up the housing issue with his little brother.
“There’s no work today, right?”
Bai Lan had only eaten two dumplings when Miao Daju started talking to her again. She wasn’t quite used to it yet, but she still nodded.
Seeing this, Xu Jianbei picked up the conversation. “That’s right. We both swapped shifts with others. We’re taking a day off.”
Miao Daju said, “That’s good. That’s good. Our family doesn’t have many rules. You two can do whatever you want.”
Bai Lan nodded. She already knew Miao Daju was easygoing. But now that she was actually living with her, hearing her say that made a good impression all over again.
After breakfast, Bai Lan and Xu Jianbei planned to go for a walk outside. But before they could even get up, they were stopped by two people.
——
“Eldest sister-in-law, third sister-in-law, is there something you need?” The ones who had stopped Bai Lan and Xu Jianbei were none other than Su Xiaomei and Liu Meiling.
Su Xiaomei, seeing that Liu Meiling was about to compete with her for attention, immediately cut in. “Nothing major. I just wanted to discuss something with my little brother.”
Bai Lan tugged Xu Jianbei’s hand to signal that she would handle it.
“What do you want to discuss?”
Su Xiaomei was a bit annoyed that Xu Jianbei wasn’t speaking, but she pressed on. “Third sister-in-law, now that you’ve married into the Xu family, we’re all family. I’m a direct person, so don’t take offense if I say something that rubs you the wrong way. You just saw it yourself—our main room is really small, isn’t it? It can’t compare to your family’s place at all.”
Bai Lan immediately knew she was going to bring up the housing issue. She just hadn’t expected her to start from this angle. It seemed her eldest sister-in-law wasn’t just a simple fool after all.
“You’re right,” Bai Lan agreed with a nod, wanting to see what other tricks she had.
Seeing Bai Lan nod, Su Xiaomei pressed on. “Little brother and the second brother share one main room. The second brother is still in the countryside, and there’s no telling when he’ll come back. I was thinking, maybe we could temporarily free up the second brother’s room for my two sons to live in. That way, Mom and Dad’s side room could be a little more spacious and serve as a proper main room.”
As soon as she said this, the entire main room fell completely silent. Bai Lan looked at Su Xiaomei in surprise. She had thought this woman was after her own half of the room. She never expected her target to be the second brother, Xu Jianxi.
Although she had no real relationship with Xu Jianxi, she knew that Xu Jianbei was close to this second brother. So she immediately spoke up. “No. That’s impossible.”
Xu Jianbei’s expression also turned cold. “Eldest sister-in-law, how many times have I told you? Stop eyeing us brothers’ rooms. Do you still remember why the second brother went to the countryside in the first place?”
Seeing the youngest brother lose his temper, Xu Jiannan immediately tried to mediate. “Eldest brother, did you ask your wife to say this?”
Xu Jiandong had been hunched over silently the whole time. Under the gaze of his two younger brothers, he reluctantly said, “Your sister-in-law is just thinking about the children. We’d only be lending the room to Jianxi’s own nephews.”
“Hmph. If you’re capable enough to have children, you should be capable enough to raise them. I don’t care what schemes you two are cooking up. I’ll say this once: don’t ever think about going after the second brother’s room or mine again. Otherwise…”
Before he could finish, Miao Daju stood up and said, “I’ll put my foot down right here. I have never favored any of you sons over the others. Which room belongs to whom was decided long ago. So from now on, don’t ever bring up anything about lending rooms or dividing rooms again. Whoever brings it up can pack their things and get out of here. If you’re really a man, go buy your own house outside. Real men don’t live off handouts.”
——
“Feeling better now?”
On the busy street, watching her own breath fog in the cold air, Bai Lan looked at Xu Jianbei’s still-stern face and asked softly.
Xu Jianbei replied, “I really can’t believe they had the nerve to go after Second Brother’s room.”
“Did something happen back then when Second Brother went to the countryside?”
This was a question Bai Lan had wanted to ask for a long time. Her mother had told her that Xu Jianxi had gone to the countryside at just 16. He’d been gone for seven years and hadn’t come back once.
Xu Jianbei sighed. “I didn’t want to bring this up and burden you with it.”
Bai Lan shook her head. “We agreed before we got married—we’d share everything, whether happy or sad.”
“The person originally supposed to go to the countryside wasn’t Second Brother. It was the eldest brother.”
Bai Lan knew right away there was a story there. And sure enough, what followed was an infuriating one.
Xu Jiandong had loafed around through high school. When graduation approached and he saw his classmates enthusiastically signing up to go to the countryside, he joined in too. He ran around with those classmates, showing off how politically conscious he was. He’d had quite a stretch of feeling impressive. But when it was almost time to go, he backed out—because he’d been assigned to the southernmost tip of the country.
Rumor had it that place was an island with nothing but coconut trees. His group was being sent there to reclaim wasteland.
But once you signed up, you couldn’t just change your mind.
“My grandmother was still alive back then, and she doted on my eldest brother the most. She’d opposed him signing up in the first place. When she found out he was being sent to reclaim land on an island, and with my eldest brother crying and carrying on about not wanting to go, my grandmother raised a huge fuss and made Second Brother take his place.”
Bai Lan thought about the ages of the four Xu brothers. The eldest, Xu Jiandong, was 25. Then came second brother Xu Jianxi, 23. Third brother Xu Jiannan, 21. And fourth brother Xu Jianbei, 19. When Xu Jiandong was 18, Xu Jianxi was barely old enough to meet the requirements for going to the countryside. The other two were too young to substitute.
“So you and your third brother were just lucky to be too young?”
Xu Jianbei nodded. “My second brother didn’t want to go either. He was only 16. He didn’t know anything. Although he’d only finished middle school and didn’t go to high school or have a proper job, he’d never done anything bad. He often scraped together money to help support the family.”
When Xu Jianbei was seven or eight, he’d moved with his grandfather to live at the screw factory. Among his brothers, the second brother was the one who visited them most often. That was why his relationship with Second Brother was the strongest.
When his grandmother threatened to kill herself to force Second Brother to take the eldest’s place in going to the countryside, Xu Jianbei immediately went to find his grandfather to stop it. Unfortunately, it didn’t work. Then again, if his grandfather had been able to communicate with his grandmother, they wouldn’t have separated and lived apart so early. In the end, they’d ended up with one living in the communal courtyard and the other at the screw factory, refusing to see each other until the day they died.
“Anyway, my grandmother’s only favorite grandchild was the eldest brother. She said he was the firstborn son of the firstborn son, destined to carry on the Xu family line.”
Hearing this, Bai Lan felt like complaining. Hadn’t this grandmother already burned bridges with the grandfather? Why was she acting as if protecting the Xu family line was her sacred duty?
Unaware of Bai Lan’s wandering thoughts, Xu Jianbei continued describing the situation before Second Brother went to the countryside.
“My grandfather couldn’t stop it. My parents couldn’t stop it either. Second Brother was truly afraid Grandmother would harm herself, so in the end, he agreed to go. My grandfather had no choice but to divide the house among us brothers before Second Brother left.”
At that time, Grandfather told Second Brother that no matter where he went, there would always be a place for him at home. And he entrusted Xu Jianbei with the important task of looking after Second Brother’s room.
Maybe Grandfather already knew back then that a day like today would come.
Although Xu Jianbei didn’t visit the communal courtyard often, he knew that his grandmother and eldest brother had always had their eyes on their shared room.
Yes, as the grandson raised by his grandfather, he was also one of the people his grandmother disliked.
To put it bluntly, Xu Jianbei didn’t like his grandmother either. Especially when Second Brother boarded the train to go to the countryside—he’d secretly cried several times. Just thinking about it now made Xu Jianbei’s heart ache.
Second Brother hadn’t come back once in all these years, and Xu Jianbei didn’t blame him at all.
Bai Lan hadn’t expected there to be such a hidden backstory to Xu Jianxi going to the countryside. After hearing it, her opinion of Xu Jiandong sank even lower. A person like that didn’t deserve to be called “eldest brother.”
“Then from now on, I’ll help you protect Second Brother’s room.”
Xu Jianbei took Bai Lan’s hand and put both of their hands into his coat pocket. He nodded. “Yeah. Together, we’ll wait for the day Second Brother comes back.”
Bai Lan knew that the mass return of educated youth to the cities was still a few years away. Even if Second Brother couldn’t come back now, he would be able to eventually.
Having talked this through, they both felt their feelings for each other deepen.
They were about to head to the supply and marketing cooperative up ahead when a voice called out from behind them. It was Liu Meiling.
——
“I’m not interrupting, am I?” Liu Meiling looked at the two of them with a warm smile.
Bai Lan shook her head. “Third Sister-in-law, is there something you need?”
Earlier, Su Xiaomei had cut Liu Meiling off. Bai Lan had been curious then about what Liu Meiling wanted to discuss. But after Su Xiaomei’s interruption, she’d completely forgotten about it.
“It’s about our little business.”
Hearing this, Bai Lan looked at Xu Jianbei. The cooperation with the third branch on the braised meat business had always been handled by him.
“Come on. I had your third brother find a place. Let’s sit down and have a proper chat.”
Seeing the ambition burning in Liu Meiling’s eyes, Bai Lan and Xu Jianbei exchanged a glance and decided to go along and hear her out.
At the same time, a tall, upright figure, leading a group of people carrying supplies, set out from that island at the southern tip of the country, heading north toward the city.
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