Chapter Eight Letters

  The weather is getting colder and colder, and it's already the sixth day of the twelfth lunar month.

  Because of the winter break, Zhao Juan went out less and less. Song Jie still didn't have a chance to search for the seeds at home. However, this morning there was a sudden turn of events, the village chief sent a message at dawn saying that there was a letter from Zhao Juan in Pingyuan County Town, asking her to go pick it up.

  From Xiaozhang Village to Pingyuan County, it takes almost half a day to go back and forth. Rushing quickly or slowly, they can barely make it in time for lunch. Zhao Juan was afraid she wouldn't be able to return, so she asked Song Jie to have lunch at Li Aunt's house.

  Song Jie nodded hastily after listening, but she was delighted in her heart. After seeing Zhao Juan out the door, she began a thorough cleaning like a ghost entering the village.

  After rummaging through the kitchen from top to bottom, she only found a packet of pitiful Sichuan pepper seeds in the corner of the drawer of the cupboard. Song Jie didn't give up and searched again, but really couldn't find anything else... Her morale was dampened by half.

  The kitchen can't be found, so it's only in the flat storage room.

  Arriving at the flat house, she struggled to open the large vat cover, inside was finely ground corn flour, and another large vat of unground corn kernels. The wotou (a type of steamed bun) they ate every day was made from this, wasn't it? In a small vat in the corner, there was a handful of millet, it seemed that when she was ill, Zhao Juan had almost used up all of it. Wasn't this opportunity that was finally found going to be wasted with empty hands?

  Can't give up, must be that I didn't look carefully enough. Song Jie searched inch by inch and finally found a tightly bound plastic bag in the corner.

  She picked up the bag, blew off the dust on it. After opening it, it was exactly the vegetable seeds that Song Jie had been longing for. However, there were only two separate packages, and it seemed that there were only two kinds left. At this time, she didn't know whether to be happy or sad.

  She opened the bags separately and exposed the seeds inside. Fortunately, they were all familiar to her, one packet of cucumber seeds and one packet of bean sprout seeds. The quantities were not large, each with only twenty or so seeds. Song Jie took three seeds from each packet and then sealed the seed packets again and put them back in their original place.

  Back in the house, her mood was somewhat heavy. These things reflected from the side how poor this family was. She felt that the burden on her body was getting heavier and the idea of changing her life was becoming more urgent.

  A clever woman cannot cook without rice!

  Song Jie flashed into the space, and the spiritual energy inside made her spirit shake. She clenched her fists to encourage herself, and a new life began with these few seeds.

  The land in the space is all top-grade black soil, very fertile. Song Jie had planned for the space long ago and had fantasized about it countless times in her mind, finally taking the first step now.

  Song Jing prepared to divide the land into five blocks, planting grains, vegetables, fruits and medicinal herbs respectively. Finally, she dug a fish pond by the small river, specifically for raising fish. At this time, she wouldn't think that with her small body, digging such a big fish pond would take how long.

  She came to the vegetable garden, spread out her slightly sweaty palms, and solemnly planted those few seeds, watering them with a little water. She also planted a few corn kernels in the grain field.

  Song Jie crouched on the ground and observed for a while, but didn't find anything. She felt a bit down, thinking that Aunt Li was coming to pick her up, so she quickly left the space. Unbeknownst to her, those seeds had already sprouted and were growing at an extremely fast speed.

  As expected, soon after leaving the space, Aunt Li arrived at her home. Before she even arrived, a voice was heard: "Nini, let's go, go to Grandma Li's house to play."

  "Ah!" Song Jie hastily responded, pushing open the door and rushing out with her short legs.

  Aunt Li hugged her tightly: "Good girl, I can't wait any longer. Come on, let's go find your sister Yan, let's go."

  The two of them locked the house door and went to Aunt Li's home.

  As expected, Zhao Juan didn't return until after lunchtime and was still late.

  Arrived at Aunt Li's home, picked up daughter, and the two returned home.

  She put her daughter on the kang, sat down on a stool and opened the envelope, took out the letter and read it carefully. As she read, tears somehow welled up in her eyes.

  As soon as Song Jie saw him, he felt a sense of unease in his heart. Had something happened? What could it be?

  She asked tentatively: "Mom, why are you crying? Who bullied you? Nini will help you vent." She also raised her small fist in a gesture of indignation.

  Zhao Juan saw that and smiled with a bit of annoyance: "Nonsense, Mom is happy. Your aunt and them sent a letter saying they'll come visit us after the New Year along with your uncle, are you excited or not?"

  "Great." The little adult nodded slightly.

  "Poof!" Zhao Juan was overjoyed, her daughter was indeed a considerate little cotton-padded jacket: "You've never even seen your aunts, what's there to be excited about?"

  "It's just happiness." Xiaobao's tone was very affirmative and also dispelled Zhao Juan's years of longing for her family.

  "Ah." She got up and gently tapped her daughter's forehead, then hugged her soft and sweet little body, telling her stories from the past.

  Zhao Juan was born into a family of scholars. Her parents were both well-known academics. Her mother, Zhang Wenxi, had been a teacher before, and her father, Zhao Liangyi, was a university professor.

  In a special period of time, many insightful scholars were buried. When the situation was most severe, someone accused Zhao Liangyi of being a counter-revolutionary and hiding counter-revolutionary books at home, almost leading to his public denunciation and struggle.

  Fortunately, Zhao Liangyi's students were all over the world, and one of his students kept him safe. However, after this incident, Zhao Liangyi was somewhat disheartened and never regained his former vigor and spirit.

  The drastic changes in the family also affected Zhao Liangyi's children, and Zhao Juan's older brother, Zhao Wu, faced the fate of going to the countryside. Who didn't know that once you went to the countryside, it was basically impossible to return? Zhao Wu resisted fiercely.

  At this time, 16-year-old Zhao Juan stood up and asked to replace her brother in going to the countryside. She was met with unanimous opposition from her whole family. Even in those difficult times, the only daughter of the family was also spoiled, how could they bear to let her go?

  Zhao Juan packed her luggage, took the money and secretly left by train. When she left, she only left a letter behind. Zhao Liangyi was extremely angry about this, smashing his favorite inkstone, and he had never written a letter to his daughter either.

  Today I received a letter from my mother saying that she and my brother are coming to see her, she is so excited. She must have forgiven my father! No longer need to secretly contact my mother.

  The letter also mentioned an exciting piece of news, that the educated youth in Yunnan are petitioning and going on strike to demand permission to return home, and it's very likely they will get a positive response. At this time, something even more exciting than Mother's visit is happening, doesn't it mean that maybe she... can come home?

  Listening to Zhao Juan's distant memories, Song Jie was fully attentive and felt even more the difficulties of her mother. A small unconfirmed thing had ignited hope in her, perhaps she possessed the kindness, simplicity and never-give-up quality unique to people of this era.

  After finishing the story, Zhao Juann looked down at her daughter and saw that she was listening intently, as if she could understand. She couldn't help but smile slightly, and used her hand to gently scratch her nose, saying: "Can you really understand? You're so serious! You're a little imp, mommy's good baby, muah."

  The little bun raised his head and said loudly: "I understand!" With a look of I'm very smart, hurry up and praise me.

  When she said that, Zhao Juan laughed so hard she almost fell over. This little girl was really a little rascal, and her pretending to understand when she didn't was just too adorable.

  Got it! To be honest, no one believes it anyway.