Chapter 14: Sentiments

Chen Yunchao felt as if he were dying. The pain in his arm had dulled into numbness, and the sensation of his entire body freezing stiff as he lay on the ground was unbearable.

The driving snow blurred his vision, and the warmth of his body was slipping away bit by bit. The two bags containing their New Year’s supplies had vanished by the time he closed his eyes. He lay there like a snow-covered mound of earth by the roadside, motionless and devoid of any sign of life.

"Yunchao! Yunchao!"

Fan Lihua pulled her eldest son along as she ran to the entrance of the village. Gazing at the empty bus station, she was so terrified she nearly broke into tears. When she had left earlier, her second son and the two large bags of provisions had been right there by the roadside. Now, on the pitch-black county road, there was nothing. Losing the supplies was a minor matter, but if she lost her precious second son, her world would collapse.

Farming all year round barely earned the family enough work points; they relied entirely on the money her second son sent home each month to allow her to hold her head high before her relatives.

"Yunchao! Yunchao!" Chen Jiangchao mimicked his mother’s voice, shouting into the surroundings.

"Mom, my second brother is here!"

Chen Haichao ran to the roadside. Seeing his mother and eldest brother panicking and shouting his second brother's name in vain, he relied on his experience from hunting in the mountains. He swept his foot across a raised patch of ground at the roadside and made contact with Chen Yunchao’s curled-up body. He shouted in surprise.

"Ah! What happened to Yunchao? Is he dead?"

Fan Lihua checked her second son’s breath; it was faint, but still there. It seemed that if they had arrived even a moment later, he would have been gone. Tears immediately welled in her eyes. She told her youngest son to step aside and instructed her eldest to carry Chen Yunchao.

"Don't move him."

Li Tian’er arrived just then, placing the items she was carrying beside Chen Yunchao. "All of you, move aside."

She clicked on her flashlight to examine his injuries and secured the splints she had brought to his broken arm. She then unfolded a simple stretcher, laid a blanket over it, lifted Chen Yunchao carefully onto it, and covered him with the other half of the blanket.

"Carry him back. Mom, stop crying. Yunchao is fine. He’ll be better after a good sleep tomorrow."

"That’s wonderful! You are the living Bodhisattva of our Chen family. We will honor you for the rest of our lives!" Fan Lihua blurted out in her agitation.

Li Tian’er had absolute confidence in the bone-knitting salve she had taken from her apothecary. It was an ancient, legendary remedy for bone injuries, and its effects were naturally miraculous.

Chen Jiangchao obediently crouched down to grab the stretcher handles, but Fan Lihua hurriedly told him to wait for Chen Haichao. Worried about the injury on Chen Haichao’s own arm, she wanted to help, but was waved off by his elbow. His injury had completely healed; without a close inspection, one couldn't even see the scar.

"It’s completely healed after only three days?"

"Would I lie to you? Mom, go help your daughter-in-law. Her ankle injury has only just begun to recover. She must be exhausted from carrying all these things in such a heavy snowstorm."

Hearing her youngest son say this, Fan Lihua turned and took Li Tian’er’s arm. Overcome with gratitude, she choked back tears, unable to speak.

After the salve was applied, warmth slowly returned to Chen Yunchao’s body. He opened his eyes and looked at Li Tian’er, wanting to say something, but swallowed the words. Even though he had been frozen and unable to move in the snow, he had heard every word everyone said. He saw clearly in his heart everything this woman had done for him.

At that moment, he felt deeply moved and guilty. In terms of beauty, An Qi was no match for his own wife. In terms of capability, An Qi couldn't even compare to half of her. Aside from being better at acting coquettish, An Qi was inferior in every way. How had he been so possessed? For the sake of a bit of scholarly pride, he had discarded such a wonderful wife and wasted three years in vain.

"If you're tired, just sleep," Li Tian’er said sternly, seeing Chen Yunchao’s eyes brimming with moisture and his eyelids drooping.

"I’m not tired, you are. You should lie down and rest a while," Chen Yunchao said, glancing at the rice-husk pillow beside him.

There was a commotion outside the house. With the family’s pillar back and safe, Fan Lihua started fretting again about the two bags of New Year’s goods she had bought in the county. "I don’t know who could be so shameless. If they can’t afford New Year’s goods, they shouldn’t steal from others. Aren’t they afraid of divine retribution..."

The snow fell heavier throughout the night. By morning, it had stopped, but they couldn't open the door. Fan Lihua pushed twice, but the outer door wouldn't budge. She blamed herself for sleeping so soundly that she hadn't checked the stove or cleared the snow from the doorway during the night.

"Jiangchao, Jiangchao, come out here."

Her youngest son wasn't awake yet, and she didn't know how her second son’s arm was doing. The only one she could rely on was her eldest. After she called several times, Chen Jiangchao came out of the room, still holding up his pants.

"Why are you still holding your pants? Don't they have an elastic waistband?"

Hearing his mother, Chen Jiangchao let go, and his oversized cotton trousers slid straight to the floor. Fan Lihua hurriedly stepped forward to pull them up, dragged him into the room, and re-threaded the elastic for him.

After bustling about for a while, Fan Lihua led her eldest son back out, only to hear a noisy crowd in the courtyard. Before she could figure out what was happening, someone knocked on the door.

"The door is blocked by snow," Fan Lihua said from the inside.

"Auntie Chen, we’ve already cleared the snow. Try opening the door now!"

The people outside didn't realize the door wasn't bolted, and the people inside didn't know the snow had been cleared. After a brief exchange, those outside pulled and those inside pushed; they nearly bumped heads and couldn't help but burst into laughter.

The snow at the entrance had not only been cleared, but the entire courtyard had been swept clean, with the snow piled into a small mountain by the gate. Fan Lihua stood there, dumbfounded.

"You cleared the snow?"

The visitor was the eldest daughter-in-law of the Liu family, whose gynecological issues Li Tian’er had treated the day before.

"I couldn't have done it all by myself!" the Liu daughter-in-law laughed. "Everyone worked together. There were..."

Fan Lihua realized that those who had come to shovel were the husbands, fathers, uncles, and nephews of the women the daughter-in-law had treated. "My goodness, so many people! No wonder it was so lively in the courtyard! Why did they all leave?"

"If they didn't leave after finishing the work, would you have invited them all to breakfast, Auntie?"

The Liu daughter-in-law pulled two bags from behind the door. Fan Lihua’s first reaction was that these were the items stolen from the station the night before.

When she heard Fan Lihua mention the lost goods, the Liu daughter-in-law explained awkwardly that she had brought these as a token of gratitude for the "Peach Blossom Fairy" to show her appreciation for the New Year.

"Why go to such trouble!" Fan Lihua hurriedly took them inside. By the time she turned to invite the woman in for a visit, she had already left the courtyard and headed home.

Fan Lihua opened the bags. They contained candies, pastries, melon seeds, and peanuts. The supplies she had bought had included those, as well as many dried goods like mushrooms, wood ear fungus, and dried shrimp.

Just as she was worrying that the New Year would be flavorless, she heard a knock at the door. Fan Lihua opened it, but no one was there. Just as she was about to close it, she looked down and saw two large bags piled beside the door.