Maternal Grandparents' Home

She had just turned to pick up the carrying basket when she heard a sound coming from the grass beneath the persimmon tree.

Listening closely, she heard an inconspicuous little blade of grass muttering, "There are two silly roe deer over there. Hurry and catch them! They come past me every day, and I'm so scared they'll trample me to death! Boo-hoo-hoo..."

Zhou Wanwan stopped in her tracks. Silly roe deer!

Roe deer were actually the easiest animals to catch. Zhou Wanwan rushed straight over and saw the two deer standing there stupidly, too scared to move a muscle.

Zhou Wanwan and the others carried the two silly deer back. When they reached the cellar, they found that Liu Su'e and Zhou Fusheng had nearly finished digging it.

They first tidied up the cellar and scattered lime powder to keep the damp out. Once it was more or less ready,

Zhou Wanwan carefully carried more than a dozen sacks of grain down and arranged them inside. She found a piece of oilcloth and covered the grain securely, then sealed the cellar entrance before heading home.

Liu Su'e had been staring at the red-necked pheasants and two silly roe deer in the courtyard for quite a while. "Did you catch all of these? You're amazing!"

Zhou Qingyan smiled. "We can't take the credit. It was all thanks to Wanwan!"

Liu Su'e looked at Zhou Wanwan. "Are we still going to your maternal grandparents' home, then?"

Zhou Wanwan took out two red-necked pheasants and half a sack of grain. "I'll go with you! Let's see what our maternal grandparents and their family are really like.

"Mother, if they're no good, don't blame me."

Liu Su'e nodded solemnly. "If your maternal grandparents and their family aren't good people, then we'll come back."

Only then did Zhou Wanwan go to find Lin Shouyi. There was no helping it; his was the only ox cart in the village. If they walked to Niu Family Village, it would probably take until daybreak.

Even by ox cart, it would take an hour.

Zhou Wanwan lay down on the ox cart. Liu Su'e draped a piece of clothing over her, and she soon fell asleep. She was only five, after all, and going up the mountain to catch this and that every day was actually quite tiring.

On top of that, communicating with plants always left her exhausted.

Zhou Fusheng said to Lin Shouyi, "Shouyi, I'm really sorry for troubling you again."

Lin Shouyi quickly waved a hand. "We're all family here, so don't stand on ceremony. We're neighbors, and besides, that girl of yours is no ordinary child."

Zhou Fusheng sighed. "She really is clever, but unfortunately, she isn't welcome at the old house."

Lin Shouyi looked at him. "Uncle Fusheng, are you still holding out hope for the people at the old house?"

Zhou Fusheng sighed.

"I think we're family, after all. Sigh! Even though I'm not their own flesh and blood, they did raise me.

"If they ask us to go back someday, I'll take the children back."

Zhou Qinghe gave a cold snort. "Father, if you want to go back, go by yourself! We're doing just fine here."

Zhou Qingchen couldn't help saying, "Our family already agreed to listen to Wanwan. If she says we're not going back, then we're not going back."

Only then did Zhou Fusheng fall silent. Liu Su'e couldn't help sighing.

"What would we go back for? To be their servants for the rest of our lives?

"Anyway, if you want to go back, go yourself. The children and I will live elsewhere."

Zhou Fusheng looked at them. "I mean, we'd only go back if they asked us to."

Liu Su'e shook her head. "Don't indulge in wishful thinking. How could those people ever ask you? Unless they saw you had money."

The group talked in low voices, and after a little over an hour, they finally caught sight of Liu Family Village.

Liu Su'e felt a surge of excitement. "I really haven't been back for so many years. I wonder how the family is doing."

Zhou Wanwan rubbed her eyes and looked at Liu Family Village ahead. "Goodness, why is Liu Family Village so poor? It's all thatched huts like these. They're not even as good as our house!"

Lin Shouyi looked at her with a smile.

"There's something you don't know. Liu Family Village is famous around here for being poor. It's so poor that several brothers sharing one wife is nothing unusual.

"The eldest gets married, and the second and third live together with them. They make do as a household, as long as they can carry on the family line.

"Some families have it even worse. The wind blows through all four walls of their houses, and they don't even have a whole bed board. In winter, they spread out some dry grass to keep out the cold.

"The men either stay bachelors into their forties, or they have no choice but to trade their daughters away early for some grain.

"Even the grain they get in exchange isn't enough to see the whole family through the bitter winter. People starve or die of illness every year."

Zhou Wanwan was truly astonished. So Zhou Family Village and Wild Field Village were relatively well-off.

Their ox cart stopped outside the Liu family's home. Liu Su'e went up and knocked on the door. After quite a while, an aged voice called out, "Who is it? Knocking this late at night?"

Liu Su'e called softly, "Mother..."

Inside, Old Madam Liu hurried to open the door. "Oh! Su'e... Su'e is home..."

Old Madam Liu threw her arms around her and burst into loud sobs.

"Oh, you wretched girl! You finally decided to come home.

"Do you know how worried sick your father and I have been? Back then, we thought the Zhou family had food and clothes, so at least you wouldn't starve after you married into their family.

"Who knew they wouldn't let you come back even once in all these years? Your father and I have been heartbroken."

Liu Su'e couldn't hold back her tears. "Mother, your daughter has been unfilial..."

Old Madam Liu choked out,

"How have you been unfilial? Your father and I were blind. We thought we'd found you a good family.

"You don't know how many times your father, your brothers, and I went looking for you. We just wanted to see you.

"But every time, that mother-in-law of yours sneered at us. She said people like us were so poor and shabby we were practically growing mold, and asked whether we thought we were worthy of seeing you."

Liu Su'e sobbed. "You, Father, and my brothers all came to see me?"

"Of course we did. Once, we even brought two wild pheasants, and that old hag took them.

"But after we waited for ages, she still wouldn't let us see you. We stopped going after that.

"I was furious at the time, but later Mother said you had no choice in the matter," Liu Su'e's eldest younger brother said.

Liu Su'e looked at her younger brothers and sisters.

"Is the family doing well now? I really didn't know about any of this. I was trapped in the Zhou family all these years and had no idea what was happening outside.

"Every day at home, all I did was work. Some time ago, we separated from the family. They didn't give us a thing, and now our family has been separated out."

Old Liu cursed furiously.

"The Zhous are nothing but beasts! You worked like an ox and a horse for them all those years, and they just drove you out like that.

"You two are far too honest. You should have at least raised a fuss!"

Old Madam Liu wiped away her tears.

"That's enough. What would raising a fuss have done? We all know what that old hag is like. She'd die before parting with her money. It's a good thing they managed to separate.

"These two have hands and feet. They won't necessarily have a hard life."

Old Liu smoked his pipe. The family couldn't even bear to light an oil lamp. After thinking for a moment, he said, "Things haven't been easy for you two either. I still have fifty wen on hand. Take it for now."