NOVPUB
Chapter 116: Chapter 111: Reluctant Farewells
On the evening of the thirtieth, Shen Yunfang celebrated with a group of soldiers, making dumplings and watching the programs they had prepared themselves, which was quite interesting. During the event, she also saw the girlfriend of the company commander from the city, Bai Lian. Both her name and her person were so distinctive. Her personality was as fitting as her name suggested, pure and untainted, or in other words, haughty.
To Shen Yunfang, a peasant girl, and to women like Sister Wu, who were from the countryside, Bai Lian was dismissive and refused to associate with them. She stood alone, proud and aloof, all evening.
At first, Sister Wu had approached her with a spirit of unity and friendliness, attempting to strike up a conversation. However, after being rebuffed several times, she, too, gave up.
In the following days, Shen Yunfang didn’t see Bai Lian again; she heard that Bai Lian had left early on New Year’s Day.
Yunfang stayed in the army until the fifth of the first lunar month. During that time, Li Hongjun really didn’t have much time to accompany her, only managing to sit with her during meals. But at night, he came every day, either engaging in inconsequential conversations or finding any opportunity to take liberties with Yunfang.
This is the baseness of a man; before experiencing it, they can pretend to be gentlemen, but once they cross that line, they’re not humans but beasts.
Please forgive a soldier who, all year round, doesn’t even have a female mosquito by his side, for he is so lonely and desolate.
There’s only a limited time for family visits in the army; it’s not possible for anyone who comes to visit to stay indefinitely. Therefore, after a week, Shen Yunfang prepared to return home.
After driving Yunfang to the bus station, Li Hongjun bought her a ticket and helped her board the bus.
"Be careful on the way, and remember to write to me. Even if you’re mad at me, you can write and scold me, just don’t stop writing, understand? Also, if anyone from my family bothers you again, don’t mind them; I’ll handle it. As for the things needed for the wedding, you can start preparing them when you get home. Don’t skimp on money or rationing; buy what needs to be bought. If you lack anything, just write to me, and I’ll find a way on my end," Li Hongjun instructed as he held onto Yunfang who was about to board the bus.
"Mhm, okay, I got it," said Yunfang, noticing that the ticket collector was urging her to board.
"Leave those things to me. You just wait for me to come back to marry you," Hongjun whispered into her ear.
Yunfang gave him a glance and then squeezed onto the bus with her large bag. Finding her seat and settling in, she saw Hongjun standing stiffly below, staring at her without blinking.
On a sudden impulse, she rolled down the window and called out to Hongjun below, "That’s enough, you’ll turn into an old man if you keep frowning. I’ll take care of things at home; you don’t need to worry. You just need to make sure to communicate well with your family."
As the bus slowly left the station, Yunfang sat back properly in her seat only after Hongjun’s figure was no longer visible.
"So you’ve come for a family visit. Ah, it’s not easy being a soldier’s wife," said the man sitting next to Yunfang.
Yunfang, not in the mood to chat, responded with a vague grunt and leaned back in her seat, closing her eyes.
Even though she was an adult, she still felt a deep sense of unease at such farewells, her heart flipping over. Ah, women and their emotional nature.
In those days, she and Hongjun had several heartfelt conversations and had reached a consensus: they would marry when he came back for the New Year.
After the wedding, Yunfang would continue to live in her house in Gaijiatun. She would only need to visit Li Family on holidays to see her in-laws. As for other matters, such as Hongjun’s salary, they agreed after consultation that they could send twenty-five yuan each month to the Li Family as a token of filial piety. The money Yunfang earned from raising chickens and selling eggs would be her own, and the Li Family could not claim it.
Of course, this was Yunfang’s requirement, and whether the Li Family agreed or not was up to Hongjun. If a grown man couldn’t handle this much, he had no business getting married.
Yunfang arrived home in the afternoon of the seventh. After reaching the county at noon, she walked all the way back to Gaijiatun, vowing along the way that the next time she went to the county town, she would definitely buy a bicycle to avoid this hardship.
After entering the village, I saw several kids, unwavering in the severe cold, playfully setting off small firecrackers outside. Shen Yunfang spotted Ergouzi among the crowd at a glance, and since it was still during the Chinese New Year, she pulled a handful of candy balls from her bag, giving one to each child, with Ergouzi receiving two extra. Unexpectedly, it was these few candy balls that established a deep friendship between Shen Yunfang and these children.
Passing by Old Shen’s house, Shen Yunfang didn’t stop but kept on thinking she should first rest at her own home before going to see the old man.
Before reaching her own house, she saw smoke rising from her home’s chimney, which surely meant that Dashuan’s wife had lit the fire for her.
Knocking at her own door, it wasn’t long before Wang Dashuan came to open it.
"You’re back, you must have walked, come in quickly and warm up," Wang Dashuan said, surprised to see Yunfang at first but then quickly realized who it was, hurriedly opening the door wider for her to enter.
"Ah, I’m frozen," Shen Yunfang said while walking into the house and rubbing her hands together. The journey home, one foot deep and the other shallow, had taken nearly four hours, and it was a wonder she hadn’t gotten frostbite. "Sister-in-law is inside, isn’t she?"
"Yeah, she’s in the backyard feeding the chickens."
Dashuan’s wife heard Dashuan talking with someone in the front yard. Yunfang was a girl who rarely interacted with anyone in the village, and visitors were uncommon—who could it be? She quickly poured the chicken feed into the feed trough and hurried towards the front of the house.
"Sister-in-law, I’m back," Yunfang called out.
"My goodness, Yunfang, you’re back! I was just thinking that you should be almost home," Dashuan’s wife exclaimed upon seeing the newcomer, immediately stepping forward to hold her and looked her over, "Everything’s been alright?"
"Everything’s been fine," Shen Yunfang said with a smile.
Dashuan’s wife’s belly was already quite big, and she probably couldn’t even see her toes when bending down—by now, she must have been eight months along and was close to giving birth.
"It’s a relief that you’ve returned safely." When Shen Yunfang first said she was going alone to see Li Hongjun, her sister-in-law was quite worried, after all, Yunfang was only a seventeen-year-old girl who had never traveled far, setting out suddenly could lead to any number of troubles.
Afterward, Dashuan’s wife filled Shen Yunfang in on the major and minor happenings at home during her absence.
Dashuan and his wife had been living in her house for half a month by then, even during the New Year they would only come home to eat a meal at noon and in the evening before coming back to look after her house, as the warm shed in the backyard needed constant attention.
Only after coming over did Dashuan and his wife learn that Yunfang’s laying hens had started laying eggs. Every morning they could collect more than forty eggs, which worth two yuan per day. With so many eggs and so much money, who wouldn’t be envious? Any lack of care resulting in a problem would be beyond their means to compensate, so they were nearly afraid to leave them unattended.
However, working these past few days had made Dashuan’s wife determined to follow Yunfang’s lead after spring, after she’d given birth, by raising earthworms to feed the chickens. She hoped to collect dozens of eggs herself this year.
In just half a month, more than five hundred eggs had already been collected and put into Shen Yunfang’s cellar by Dashuan, where the temperature was just right and the eggs were less likely to spoil.
Additionally, a couple of days ago two old hens in the family had gone broody, and Dashuan’s wife had stuffed thirty eggs under each. Now it was up to Yunfang whether she wanted to raise them, and if Yunfang decided against it, she would buy them herself.
Naturally, Shen Yunfang was delighted; she had been thinking of hatching some chicks after her return. Even if they didn’t lay eggs, raising them until autumn to slaughter for meat was also good. She didn’t expect her wishes to come true so soon.
Nevertheless, she couldn’t let Dashuan’s wife labor for nothing. Sharing one clutch each would be fair, and she wouldn’t charge her either, considering it a token for the hard work the couple had put in during her absence.
