“It’s true. I don’t know why the brigade captain agreed so quickly.”
That morning, Yun Su was minding the distribution outlet while jotting down on paper the dowry she needed to prepare. Where she lived, when people got married, dowries included things like pots, pans, umbrellas, mirrors, combs, and scissors. Some families couldn’t scrape together enough industrial ration coupons to buy everything new, so they would put together a set of old items as a trousseau for their daughter.
Yun Su didn’t know much about this—her mother had only mentioned a few things before bed last night.
But she hadn’t been writing for long before Yun Ximei walked in, holding a pair of cloth shoes.
She said her mother had rushed to make the shoes, as a thank-you for Yun Su’s kindness toward Ximei.
Yun Su accepted the thanks and didn’t refuse the shoes.
The weather on the island was mild year-round, so the cloth shoes were the single-layer kind. Both the uppers and soles were made from scrap fabric. The gift wasn’t so expensive that it would be awkward to accept.
After receiving the gift, Yun Ximei didn’t leave. She sat down at the outlet and chattered away, sharing the latest gossip from the brigade over the past couple of days.
Among the topics was the latest development about Li Hong.
Seeing that Yun Su was surprised, Ximei happily shared more: “My mom says Li Hong must be very good at handling people. And she’s really quick with her hands. Otherwise, the brigade captain wouldn’t have taken her on at the drying ground. Today is her first day on the job. We’ll see if she’s really that diligent. I heard she does all the housework at the Hu family’s place. And Hu Daqiang, of all people…”
Yun Su amusedly cut her off: “If you say anything more, Auntie Lin will come after me.”
Yun Su knew Ximei was about to say that Hu Daqiang could no longer function sexually. So why would Li Hong marry him and even do housework to serve a useless man?
Hu Daqiang was truly useless now—not just in that sense, but in that he hadn’t left the house since his injury. He no longer went out to sea to fish. Once the men in the brigade learned what had happened, no one pushed Hu Daqiang to come back to work.
As for Li Hong, Ji Xiangtian had already asked someone to look into her. They should have news soon.
Still, when Yun Su went home for lunch, she asked her mother about the situation at the drying ground.
—
“She seemed normal today. Li Hong came to work, but she wasn’t indoors. She was outside with the others, gutting fish.”
Yun Su’s mother hadn’t paid much attention to Li Hong. But since her daughter asked, she mentioned it.
“Why are you so focused on this person?”
Yun Su voiced her concern directly: “I just think the appearance of those two siblings is very strange. I can’t quite put my finger on it. But if she does anything odd, with so many eyes at the drying ground, someone will notice.”
“That’s true. Those women in our village have sharp eyes. The drying ground was pretty lively today, but the main focus wasn’t on Li Hong. Your Auntie Lin was deliberately talking about the processing plant recruitment. Everyone got together and decided they’d all go sign up together.”
Yun Su chuckled at this. Going together to sign up was fine. People were afraid of traveling far in those days—they were timid, worried about running into bad people. The processing plant wasn’t terribly far, but many villagers had never been anywhere farther than the town.
Going together to sign up would be safer.
“So Big Brother will go with them?”
Yun Huaimin shrugged: “I don’t mind either way. I’ll see how things go.”
The family was eating and chatting when, before they could finish their meal, a guest arrived.
—
“Grandma, Auntie Lin knows the specific recruitment requirements. Our family heard about it from her too.”
“Right, we don’t know anyone at the processing plant. Really, we don’t.”
Grandma Yun had come to discreetly ask whether Yun Su knew anyone at the processing plant.
Of course, Yun Su could only say she didn’t. In fact, she didn’t. The one who knew someone was Ji Xiangtian. As for why her grandmother was asking—it was still about First Uncle’s youngest son.
“Sigh, I don’t know if your uncle’s family can find anyone.”
Yun Su didn’t respond to this. To be honest, First Uncle’s family weren’t bad people. Compared to Second Uncle’s family, they were actually quite decent. Their principle was: we won’t take advantage of you, and you can’t take advantage of us.
So over the years, their family hadn’t had much contact with First Uncle’s family. When Yun Su had visited First Uncle’s house as a child, her aunt had looked at them like poor country relatives.
Both Yun Su and her older brother remembered that look of disdain.
Seeing that she couldn’t get any information about the recruitment, Grandma Yun finally asked about Yun Su’s visit to Ji Xiangtian’s house yesterday.
Yun Su didn’t go into detail. She just said the Ji family was coming to propose this weekend.
Yun Su’s mother spoke up then: “After we finish our discussion, come over for lunch, both of you. It’ll be good to meet them.”
Grandma Yun nodded. She wanted to ask whether Yun Su had run into anyone from the Gu family at the compound.
But when she saw the coolness on Yun Su’s face, she knew she couldn’t ask anymore.
She sighed inwardly, smiled, and headed back to Second Uncle’s house.
She understood. She knew that when it came to the younger generation, it was best not to meddle too much. But concerning Kangzi and Yun Feng’s future happiness, as a grandmother, she could only swallow her pride and ask.
…
“How did it go?”
As soon as Grandma Yun returned, she was surrounded by Liu Zhaodi and Yun Feng, both pressing her for answers.
“Yun Su really doesn’t know anything about the recruitment. And she’s had no contact with the Gu family.”
Upon hearing this, both of them looked deflated and slumped back into their chairs.
Liu Zhaodi was concerned about the recruitment because, before leaving yesterday, First Sister-in-law had secretly slipped her five yuan. She said if Liu Zhaodi could find a way through Yun Su, she would give her another five.
Yes, even though First Sister-in-law wasn’t entirely convinced Yun Su had that kind of connections, she was willing to try any method for her son’s sake.
As for Yun Feng, not getting any news about the Gu family from Yun Su only made her more anxious.
Gu Zhengrong had been away on his mission for so many days without a word. She was terrified that he might have dumped her. Or that something had happened to him.
She shouldn’t have been this anxious. Her relationship with Gu Zhengrong was supposed to be rock solid.
But Yun Su had gone to the Ji family’s house for dinner. Word had it she’d brought back plenty of return gifts. And Ji Xiangtian had driven her both ways.
News of this had spread throughout Yunjia’ao. Every woman in the village envied Yun Su for finding such a considerate, wonderful man.
And Yun Feng had been dragged into the comparison.
Both had recently found partners. Both men lived in the same family compound. Yet her treatment was completely different from Yun Su’s.
The disappointment brought on by these comparisons was eating Yun Feng alive.
—
“Why the long faces? You’re all useless. You can’t even find a man better than Yun Su. And on top of that, you’re all stupid. You barely made it through elementary school. I hear the processing plant requires at least a primary school diploma. Tell me, which of you even has that?”
Seeing Yun Feng’s miserable expression, Liu Zhaodi couldn’t help but start cursing. She had conveniently forgotten that she was the one who hadn’t let her daughters finish elementary school—let alone middle school.
She had pulled all her daughters out of school after third grade, saying, “What use is it for girls to study so much? They’ll just get married in the end. All that studying is for their in-laws’ benefit. Only fools educate their daughters.”
Back then, whenever Yun Su finished elementary school and moved on to middle school, then finished middle school and moved on to high school, Liu Zhaodi had mocked her mother almost every semester. Of course, she wasn’t mocking Yun Su—she was mocking Yun Su’s mother.
Calling her foolish for wasting money raising a wife for some future in-laws.
Yun Su’s mother never let her get away with it. Every time Liu Zhaodi mocked her, she cursed right back.
Thinking of those old memories made Liu Zhaodi even more uncomfortable. She’d never imagined that education could have such a purpose.
But her mouth kept running, cursing nonstop.
None of her daughters said a word, but each was quietly making her own calculations.
Sure enough, the second daughter, Yun Yan, spoke up: “When recruitment comes, let’s just go sign up and see. It doesn’t cost anything to register.”
—
The racket coming from Liu Zhaodi’s house could be heard even by Yun Su, who lived a street away.
But Yun Su just mentally rolled her eyes and continued listening to her mother talk about arrangements for her dowry.
“As for money, we have some saved. When the Ji family comes this weekend, we’ll see how much betrothal gift they propose. We won’t take any of that money—you can keep it for yourself. For your dowry, we can give you eighty yuan. It’s not much, but we don’t have a lot of liquid cash. We also need to buy your trousseau.”
Yun Su knew her family’s situation. They had few sources of income. The island wasn’t like other places where black markets were easy to run. And her family didn’t have time to go to the commune black market to speculate.
So yes, they didn’t have much spare cash.
“That’s fine. I’ve saved some money too. Don’t worry, Mom. I’m writing articles and submitting them now. The fees bring in eight or ten yuan a month.”
Yun Su’s mother nodded, then asked a question she’d been wanting to ask for a while: “Are you going to take the gold bars with you?”
The gold bars they had found were old-style Republic of China “big yellow croakers.” Each weighed over three hundred grams, and there were six of them. Yun Su’s mother meant for her daughter to take two to put at the bottom of her trousseau chest.
Yun Su thought for a moment, then said, “I won’t take any. But we should change where the gold is hidden.”
She had noticed before that the family kept all their valuables in a tin box tucked in the gap between the cabinet and the wall. It seemed secure, but it was actually quite easy to find.
The gold bars were of dubious origin. It was only 1974, and the official exchange price for gold wasn’t high. Even selling on the black market wouldn’t fetch much more than selling to the bank.
Of course, if they found someone with an “urgent need,” they could get a good price. But that kind of channel was unsafe and illegal—best not to try.
Yun Su thought it would be simpler to just dig a hole in the house and bury the gold.
Yun Su’s mother had always felt uneasy about this windfall of gold. Hearing her daughter’s suggestion, she immediately agreed.
That very night, she dragged Yun Su’s father along. They dug a meter-deep hole under the cabinet in her room, wrapped up the gold, threw it in, backfilled the hole, and pushed the cabinet back into place.
The whole process was done very quickly.
In short, when Yun Su heard about it the next day, she was quite surprised at how quickly her parents had acted.
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