Yang Ge sat outside the courtyard gate, his head resting against the frame as he squinted toward the sunset on the horizon. The scent of grass and soil lingered beneath his nose, and the clamor of insects and birds echoed in his ears...
He felt weary, but he also felt a peace he had not known in a long time.
The next day, the horizon had only just turned fish-belly white.
The Yang couple rose early to work the fields. When they pushed open their door, they saw that the hillside beside their courtyard had become a level foundation of freshly turned earth. Wearing a sleeveless jacket, Yang Ge stood on it, gripping their grain-grinding stone roller and lifting it up and down to tamp the ground.
The sight stunned them both. They had only accepted his money for that plot last night, and the deed had not even been drawn up yet. He had leveled the foundation in a single night?
"Erwa!"
Yang Dashan walked out of the house, rubbing his eyes hard. Staring in disbelief at the level foundation, which covered more than a mu, he blurted out, "You did all this yourself?"
"Morning, Brother Dashan."
Yang Ge waved with a smile. "Didn't I tell you yesterday? I've practiced a few rustic fighting moves. It's perfectly normal for me to have some strength."
Watching him hold the stone roller, which weighed hundreds of pounds, in one hand as easily as a rush stalk, Yang Dashan swallowed hard and mumbled, "Is this really normal?"
"Of course," Yang Ge said with a smile. "Look, I've got plenty of strength, haven't I?"
He, too, had grown up in the countryside. Even if he did not know all the petty thievery and dirty dealings that went on there, he had heard