"Until this whole tub is washed, nobody gets to eat tonight!"
The biting wind swept flurries of snow through the run-down courtyard in Li Family Village, lashing it like a whip.
In a corner of the courtyard, a tiny child in a ragged, unlined shirt crouched before an icy washbasin.
Her name was Nuannuan, and she was only five. Her little hands were frozen carrot-red, their backs covered in bluish-purple chilblains. Some had split open, dripping blood mixed with dirty water.
A thin layer of ice had long since formed over the water in the basin. Every time she pressed the clothes beneath it, it felt as though knives were slicing her flesh.
The curtain over the main room's doorway lifted a crack, releasing the rich aroma of white-flour steamed buns.
Liu Guifang clutched half a steaming white-flour bun, grease still glistening around her mouth. Her upturned eyes glared viciously at the child in the corner.
"What are you looking at, you jinx? You think you deserve to eat this?"
Liu Guifang cursed as she swallowed her mouthful, then spat hard. "Taking you in was eight lifetimes' worth of rotten luck! You worthless girl, you've cursed away every bit of fine grain we had stored! If you weren't good for a little work, I'd have thrown you onto the back mountain to feed the wolves long ago!"
Nuannuan hunched her shoulders, not daring to look up.
Her stomach gave a loud, rumbling growl.
She had not eaten all day. Liu Guifang had even poured yesterday's remaining half bowl of pig swill into the latrine, saying it was better spent on pigs than on her.
"Hurry up! Dawdling like that-are you trying to freeze me to death?"
After cursing at her, Liu Guifang seemed to feel the cold and retreated into the warm room, slamming the door with a bang.
Only the wind and the splashing of laundry being scrubbed remained in the courtyard.
Nuannuan sniffled, tears brimming in her eyes, but she did not dare let them fall. Mommy had said crying was useless. Bad people would not soften just because you cried.
After finally finishing the mountainous basin of dirty laundry, Nuannuan dragged her nearly numb legs toward the woodshed.
This was her "bedroom."
The wind leaked in from all four sides, and there was only a pile of moldy rice straw.
Nuannuan burrowed into the straw, her teeth chattering with cold. Carefully, she slipped her frozen hands inside her clothes and pressed them over her heart, where something hard lay hidden.
"Squeak, squeak."
A dusty gray little head poked out from deep in the straw.
It was a mouse smaller than her palm, missing one ear, and it watched her as it trembled.
"Mousey, haven't you eaten either?"
Nuannuan held out her hand. The little mouse showed no fear of her at all, climbing along her arm into her palm and rubbing its little head against the chilblain-covered back of her hand.
"I'm so hungry too."
Nuannuan spoke softly, her voice as hoarse as though she had swallowed sand. "But the mean granny poured all the swill away."
With some effort, she pried something out of the lining of the tattered padded jacket against her body.
In the dim woodshed, it gave off a faint yet steadfast golden gleam.
It was a medal.
Shaped like a five-pointed star, it was stained with dark red blood that would not come off no matter how much she rubbed it.
"Look, Mousey. This is a star."
Nuannuan cradled the medal in her palms, and a glimmer finally appeared in her large, previously dull eyes.
"Mommy gave it to me when she left. Mommy said Daddy is a great hero, and this has Daddy's scent on it. As long as Nuannuan keeps the star hidden safely, Daddy will come take Nuannuan home when he sees it."
The little mouse squeaked as though it half understood, holding its front paws together as if bowing.
"You think it's pretty too, don't you?" Nuannuan pressed the medal against her cheek. The cold metal brought her a little more alertness. "Mommy said this star could be traded for lots and lots of white-flour buns, and even that sweet-tasting water. But Nuannuan won't trade it. Nuannuan wants to wait for Daddy."
The five-year-old child had no idea what this medal meant.
In this bitter winter of 1965, deep in these remote, isolated mountains, no one knew that this "First-Class Combat Hero" medal was enough to turn the entire capital's military compound upside down.
"Squeak, squeak! Squeak, squeak!"
The little mouse in her hand suddenly began squeaking anxiously. Its fur stood on end as it desperately burrowed into Nuannuan's sleeve.
Nuannuan froze, not yet able to react.
Bang!
Someone kicked open the woodshed's rickety wooden door.
Wind and snow rushed in at once, making Nuannuan shudder with cold.
Liu Guifang blocked the doorway like a mountain of flesh, a fire poker in her hand and a greedy, vicious gleam in her triangular eyes.
"You little brat! I saw you sneaking around in here just now!"
Liu Guifang charged over, seized Nuannuan by her sparse, yellowed hair, and hauled her out of the straw.
"Ah! It hurts!" Nuannuan let out a short, agonized cry.
"Hurts? So you know what pain is?" Liu Guifang roughly shoved her other hand inside Nuannuan's clothes. "I saw it through the window crack just now! Something all golden! You little thief, did you steal the family's money and hide it? Hand it over!"
That was the only thing Mommy had left her!
That was the token Daddy would use to come take her home!
Nuannuan did not know where she found the strength. She clutched her chest tightly and curled into a ball. "It's not money! I didn't steal it! It's Nuannuan's! Mommy gave it to me!"
"That dead mother of yours was a jinx! What good could she have left you? She must have stolen the production brigade's money!"
Liu Guifang refused to listen. Her large hands pried Nuannuan's thin little fingers apart like iron clamps.
"No! Don't take Nuannuan's star!"
Nuannuan opened her mouth and bit down on Liu Guifang's wrist.
"Ah! You little beast, how dare you bite me!"
Liu Guifang cried out in pain, raised her hand, and slapped Nuannuan hard across her palm-sized face.
Smack!
The sharp slap echoed through the woodshed.
Nuannuan's head rang from the blow. A trickle of blood seeped from the corner of her mouth, and she fell onto the icy ground.
A bloodstained gold star medal tumbled from her clothes and landed on the ground with a clink.
Liu Guifang's eyes instantly fixed on it.
She could not read and knew nothing about medals, but that was gold!
Even stained with blood, even looking a little old, its hefty weight meant it had to be gold!
"Well, well! You ungrateful little wretch!"
Liu Guifang snatched the medal from the ground and bit it. It was hard and hurt her teeth.
It really was gold!
How many jin of white flour could this buy? How many chi of patterned cloth?
"Where did you get this? Huh?" Liu Guifang's eyes shone green with greed. She stepped on the little hand Nuannuan reached out to snatch it back. "Talk! Did you steal it from one of the educated youths?"
"No... that's Daddy's..." Nuannuan sobbed so hard she could barely breathe, desperately trying to pull her hand free. But Liu Guifang pressed down harder, making her finger joints crack.
"Daddy? What daddy? You're a bastard that popped out of a crack in a rock!"
Liu Guifang stuffed the medal into her pocket, the fat on her face trembling. "Once it's in my hands, it's mine! Just in time, too. Tomorrow's market day. I'll take it to the supply and marketing cooperative and ask. If it's gold, I can trade it for a few jin of meat for Goudan!"
"Give it back... I need it to find Daddy..." Nuannuan cried out, her voice despairing.
"Find your daddy? In your dreams!"
Liu Guifang bent down, bringing her large, greasy face close to Nuannuan's and blasting her with foul breath.
"Here's some good news for you. The old widower in the next village has taken a fancy to you. He's offering fifty jin of dried sweet potatoes. I'll sell you tomorrow. Take that dream of finding your daddy and go look for him with King Yama!"
With that, Liu Guifang turned to leave, humming a tune in high spirits.
Nuannuan lay on the ground, watching the retreating figure that had taken all her hope away. Suddenly, her tears stopped.
At the very depths of despair, only numbness remained.
"Squeak, squeak..."
The little mouse poked its head out of her sleeve and tenderly licked the blood from the corner of Nuannuan's mouth.
Nuannuan did not move. She only stared fixedly at Liu Guifang's pocket.
She could not lose it.
It was what Mommy had risked her life to bring out.
It was her only reason to keep living.
"Give it back..."
The tiny child climbed off the ground and, like a little beast driven into a corner, charged recklessly at the figure several times her size.