klisemfg Chapter 30 contains the contents of the two replies received.
Chapter 30 contains the contents of the two replies received.
East Wing
As soon as Yuqiu entered the east wing of her grandparents' room, she saw Yuhan sitting on the edge of the kang (heated brick bed), her two bright almond-shaped eyes reading intently the middle section of her eldest sister's letter.
Yuqiu sat beside her and looked at the letter. The handwriting was very neat, without a single typo. It was obviously written by her eldest niece who had continued to write letters.
The contents of (the eldest sister's letter) are:
Grandpa and Grandma, Mom and Dad, how are you all? I hope the whole family is doing well!
We received a letter from our family and learned that our third sister, Yuqiu, is getting married soon.
I was hospitalized for a few days recently, but I'm better now. Grandpa, Grandma, Dad, and Mom, please don't worry. It's just an old ailment I've had since I was a child. It can flare up at any time, and a few days in the hospital helps. I expect my condition to improve after the cold winter.
Therefore, we will not attend Yuqiu's wedding. Li Jian will stay with me every day to take care of the two children and keep an eye on my condition!
However, I am in good condition now and can also do some housework for them.
And I'm so sorry, Grandpa and Grandma, I can't send you cotton shoes before the New Year this year because I'm not feeling well and couldn't make them for you in advance. I'll make them for you again once I've recovered.
Okay, I hope that Grandpa, Grandma, and Mom take good care of yourselves! When the students are on summer vacation and the farming season is over, our family of four will come to visit you in the compound!
Sincerely, salute!
玉春
A certain day of a certain year and a certain month
After reading the letter from her eldest sister, Yu Han put it down and saw the old lady's tears falling onto the knees of her patched black cotton trousers as she sat cross-legged.
"Alright, if the child is sick and can't come, then so be it. Why are you crying? Yu Han, continue reading another one."
"You old fool, do you know anything? I'm crying because my eldest granddaughter isn't coming to Yuqiu's wedding. I'm crying because we won't have any new cotton shoes to wear for the New Year this year."
"Pfft!" Everyone burst into laughter!
"You're just looking for trouble. Didn't Yuchun just send you two new pairs of shoes that she made?"
"Didn't those arrive in the summer? I wore out all the fake shoes I had in the summer. I only had one pair of cotton shoes left."
"Aren't cotton shoes just what we should be wearing now?"
"That's perfect. Who could bear it if her newly made cotton-padded coat suddenly broke? Besides, I want to keep it as a souvenir."
"Commemorate my ass, Yuchun isn't going to give it back to you so I can make a new one."
"Who knows if she'll still do it? What if she suddenly changes her mind and stops? Who am I supposed to find to do it? All the women in this courtyard are incredibly stupid."
"Alright, stop nagging. Yuhan, continue reading your uncle's letter."
"Okay, Grandpa and Grandma, listen up, it's a letter from your eldest son."
The contents of (my uncle's letter) are:
Dear Dad, Mom, how are you? I hope the whole family is doing well!
Are you two in good health lately?
Our whole family is in good health, so don't worry! I received your letter and also learned that my niece Yuqiu is getting married soon.
First of all, as the eldest uncle, on behalf of the whole family, I wish the newlyweds a long and happy marriage!
That concludes the blessings. Now, I'd like to tell you about my family's recent situation.
The eldest daughter has a secure job as a sales clerk at a state-owned enterprise supply and marketing cooperative in the county town, and has her own small family.
My son, Yang Jun, was in high school in the county town for the first half of his third year when he joined the educated youth program to reclaim the Great Northern Wilderness. He went to the countryside with all the teachers and students. He was gone for more than three months.
He wrote to me saying that the village he went to work in was more than 50 miles away from the village where his grandparents lived.
He also said that he was reviewing his high school textbooks while doing farm work, and that he would return to the city to apply to university once the college entrance examination was reinstated. He also said he would visit his grandparents when the weather got warmer, along with other people from the compound.
……
Before her uncle had finished reading the letter, Yu Han let out a loud "Wow!" and jumped off the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed), waving her arms and legs wildly around the room!
"Haha! I'm going to have a college student as my older brother! I admire college students the most; they're knowledgeable and cultured people. Haha!"
The old couple were pleased to hear this, after all, the Yang family had only had one highly educated person in all their generations. However, before they finished reading the letter, they held back their deep emotions.
Yuqiu was overjoyed too. She simply kept her happiness to herself.
"Keep reading," Yang Hong said, deliberately keeping a serious expression on his wrinkled old face.
"Hurry up and read it, your parents are eager to see it."
"Okay, listen carefully." Yu Han stood on the floor and began to read the letter carefully.
What was she thinking of? Suddenly, her gaze shifted to the three of them, and she said, "Grandpa and Grandma, in a few years, my third sister and I... no, by then my third sister will be married, have a husband's family, children, and a man. Forget it, I'll go find Brother Yang Jun. By the way, what's his address? Let me check the letter..."
“Emma, the address of the college student wasn’t written on it. It just said that it was more than 50 miles away from our village.”
"Give me the letter, I'll read it to you," Yuqiu said, taking the letter and reading it to her grandparents.
The two elders sighed after hearing this!
Then the old woman grumbled, "Who cares if they come or not? I only care when my new cotton shoes will arrive. I want to see the last pair of shoes my eldest daughter gave me, to see if they've been damaged by mice." She then took the new shoes from the cabinet, looked at them, and exclaimed...
When Yu Qiu and Yu Han saw the cotton shoes made by their eldest sister Yu Chun, they realized that the big rat had chipped several holes in the surface of each shoe.
As Yu Han and Yu Qiu left the east wing, they saw large snowflakes drifting in the sky above the courtyard!
Wow! It's so beautiful!
Yang Yuhan stretched out her arms, looked up at the sky, and enjoyed the first heavy snowfall of winter after her rebirth!
"Don't go crazy, hurry up and go inside to read the letter to them."
"You can't read, you're ruining people's dreams!"
“I’m in a hurry to knit a sweater. If you don’t knit a sweater, I’ll just read the letter.”
"Okay."
South Wing
The two then went to the east room of the south wing and read the letters to their parents. Yang Zhannan, however, showed no reaction after listening to the two letters.
Liu Shulan, however, was heartbroken. She missed her eldest daughter. "Now it's all good that neither of the two families are coming to Yuqiu's wedding. Only the dozen or so relatives from her mother's side in this compound are left."
After she finished talking, she went to the west kitchen of the courtyard to help Yang Chong's wife, Xu Fengying, cook this week. The two of them were preparing to make pork dumplings. Yang Zhanbei had come to the house and slaughtered two fat pigs. They would make dumplings every three to five days.
Liu Shulan was busy cooking in the kitchen and forgot about the letter from her eldest daughter.
That's why people tend to overthink when they have free time.
After the family finished eating pork dumplings, they all went about their own business and returned to their respective rooms.
The snow in the courtyard was falling heavier and heavier, and Yang Chong's two children were playing on the iceberg in front of the window of the east wing, sliding down from the top.
After playing for a while, he fell and hurt himself, then yelled "Waaah!" which startled Yang Hong inside the room. When he came out and saw what was happening, he was so angry he almost fainted. "These two pigs can't even rest in peace after they've died; they're being ridden on and shitted on."
In the evening, Yu Han took the new shoes that her older sister had made for her grandmother, which had holes in them, to the south wing.
This was only after she begged and pleaded, insisting that she could definitely mend these two shoes to their original condition!
At first, the old lady didn't believe she could have any skills, and all the women in the courtyard were not as good at needlework as her eldest granddaughter, Yulu.
In the end, there was no other way but to throw away the only and last pair of new cotton shoes.
When Yang Yuhan placed the shoes in front of the old lady, the old lady was astonished! The insteps of the two cotton shoes, which had been dented by mice in the cabinet, had several large holes. How could those hands, which usually seemed to do nothing, suddenly become such skillful hands! And they even looked better than the original ones!
But the old lady asked Yuhan how she managed to make it exactly the same as when her eldest sister first sent it.
Yu Han just smiled at her grandmother, keeping her mouth tightly shut and refusing to say anything.
"If you don't want to say it, then don't. Just pretend that my eldest granddaughter made me another pair of shoes and sent them over."
The old lady stood intently in front of the yellow box, looking at the photo frame hanging on the wall, which contained a family photo from more than ten years ago, with Yang Yulu standing next to the last row of long wooden benches.
Yang Yuhan looked up following her grandmother's gaze and saw that the original owner's eldest sister was wearing a red and white floral shirt and gray coarse cloth pants with patches.
Two long braids hung down in front of her chest. She had a gentle face with an oval shape, two slightly smiling phoenix eyes that were neither too big nor too small, and a small tiger tooth showing on her slightly open upper lip!
Her smile was so innocent, so lovely, yet she is forever frozen in that moment!