Lin Xiuqing

Biodata

Background / History

Lin Xiuqing comes from a town neighboring Ye Yaodong’s village and is the same age as him. When he was twenty, his parents arranged an introduction outside the nearby villages, where his reputation for idleness was already well known. Attracted by his handsome appearance, she agreed to marry him after their first meeting 2.

Her initial happiness faded after she discovered that he avoided work and spent his days eating, socializing, and roaming outside. She remained married to him amid the strong stigma surrounding divorce. After joining the Ye household, she learned to make fishing nets so she could save money despite her husband’s lack of earnings 2 7.

In Ye Yaodong’s previous life, she supported him for decades, and he remembered her chiefly as an exhausted, overworked middle-aged woman. She lost their unborn daughter after falling while picking tea; he cannot remember the year of the accident. Her later death from bowel cancer became a major source of his remorse. After returning to the past, he wants to prevent another dangerous pregnancy and improve her diet, though his belief that her illness was connected to her diet is not established as a medical fact 2 16 49.

Appearance

• Short hair and a pretty face: Described when Ye Yaodong first sees her after returning to the past 2.
• Youthful appearance: Her fresh-faced younger self contrasts sharply with his memories of her later exhaustion 16.
• Visible blushing: Her face or ears redden when he waits for her before eating, stares at her, or teases her 12 16 31.

Personality

Lin Xiuqing is hardworking and careful with money. Childcare and household chores limit her paid work, but she continues weaving nets and gathering seafood. She prefers selling valuable catches rather than eating them, recognizing that even a few yuan can represent several days of her own labor 7 11 28 49.

Years of disappointment make her skeptical of Ye Yaodong’s promises. His willingness to carry their son, share food, apologize, and work surprises her, but she does not immediately accept that he has changed. She can soften when he genuinely helps or shows affection, yet his departure with friends after agreeing to watch their child reinforces her distrust 5 7 12 17 22.

She protects both her children and her husband’s dignity. She intervenes when the children bury Ye Chengyang in sand and redirects a conversation when Ye Father publicly criticizes Ye Yaodong. Within the extended household, she avoids unnecessary conflict and keeps substantial earnings private rather than invite jealousy 5 30 42 50.

Abilities & Skills

Fishing-Net Making

She learned net-making during the years after her marriage and uses it as home-based paid work 7.

• Produces approximately five or six gill nets per day, alongside childcare and chores 7.
• Earns a few tenths of a yuan daily—less than one yuan 7.
• Makes fewer nets than her sisters-in-law because her children and other responsibilities interrupt her work 7.

Shore Gathering and Catch Sorting

She regularly gathers shellfish at low tide and separates catches according to their sale value 8 11 49.

• Uses a spatula blade to scrape sand for clams 8.
• Learns from Ye Yaodong to locate clams by their airholes and successfully tries the method herself 8.
• Recognizes that rising water limits gathering time and sends their younger son ashore while she continues working 11.
• Selects large sea snails, pen shells, and wild abalone for sale, leaving less valuable shellfish for household meals 49.
• Accepts keeping oysters for the family when shucking the large sack would require everyone’s help 49.

Literacy and Arithmetic

Her primary-school education enables her to read and check transactions with an abacus 41.

• Independently verifies the Spanish mackerel sale: 7,628 jin for 1,601 yuan and 88 fen 42.
• Calculates slowly because she has little abacus practice and wants to avoid mistakes 41.
• Recounts both the fishing proceeds and her shellfish-sale money before putting them away 50.

Household Management and Childcare

She handles the family’s clothing and much of the children’s daily care 12 16 21.

• Prepares clean clothes for her husband and keeps track of their storage 12 31.
• Changes, washes, feeds, and settles the boys to sleep 16 21 31.
• Patches worn clothing and uses hand-me-downs from the boys’ older cousins 25.

Equipment / Items

• Netting shuttles and needles — Used in the household’s fishing-net work 7.
• Spatula blade — Her tool for digging sand clams 8.
• Basin and bucket — Hold gathered shellfish and transport catches for sale 11 28.
• Abacus — Used at the buying station to verify the mackerel transaction 41 42.

Relationships

• Ye Yaodong — Husband. His neglect leaves her guarded, but practical help and new earnings gradually restore some hope. He also disregards her objections during their intimate encounters, using her concern about waking the children to discourage resistance 2 12 17 22 50.
• Ye Chenghu — Elder son. She disciplines him for rough play, torn trousers, and repeatedly wearing through patched clothing 23 25.
• Ye Chengyang — Younger son. She is his principal caregiver and closely watches his safety around water and during the children’s games 11 16 30.
• Chen Lixiang / Ye Mother — Mother-in-law. Shows her extra consideration, secretly gives her money for gifts when visiting her parents, reserves seafood for those visits, and passes her proceeds from Ye Yaodong’s catches 23 33 49.
• Ye Father and Ye Grandma — Her husband’s father and grandmother. She supports Ye Yaodong’s offer to live with and care for them after the household division 13.
• Ye Eldest Sister-in-Law and Ye Second Sister-in-Law — Fellow members of the shared household. Lin Xiuqing wants a separate home and is especially cautious about the second sister-in-law’s interest in their earnings 7 42 50.
• A-Zheng and Xiao Xiao — Her husband’s friends. She resents their habit of calling him away from his family, but later accepts his celebration with friends after he earns money 17 50.
• Her parents — Live farther away than her sisters-in-law’s parents, making casual deliveries of fresh seafood impractical. She plans to visit with Mid-Autumn gifts 33.

Story Role / Major Arcs

By Chapter 50, more than 400 yuan has come in that day—more than Lin Xiuqing earns from an entire year of weaving nets. The shellfish she sold account for over eight yuan, while seafood gathered during the preceding two days had brought another six or seven yuan. Holding the money gives her a renewed sense that their future has promise 50.

Notable Quotes

“Practice makes perfect. Besides, there’s no real trick to it. You just scrape the sand.” 8

“Dad, Mom, come live with us!” 13

“So you don’t intend to live properly until then? Stop making excuses for being lazy.” 22