Chapter 59

This was the first time Xu Wei had met Ye Qingshui.

When most of the people had already dispersed, he finally stepped forward and said in a gruff voice, “Hello, little sister-in-law.”

Xu Wei had never had the experience of talking to such a fresh, delicate young girl, so he could only greet her awkwardly in that rough tone.

Ye Qingshui smiled, carrying out from the kitchen a plate of sweet persimmon shortbread to serve the guests.

Xie Tingyu couldn’t help but lift the corners of his lips. He introduced to the young girl, “This is my eldest brother, Xu Wei.”

“And this… is Wei Min, who wants to apologize to Shui’er.”

Xie Tingyu said this mildly.

Ever since Ye Qingshui had caught Shen Weimin speaking ill of her behind her back, Shen Weimin had rarely gone to the Ye family’s house. Even before the New Year, the fragrant New Year’s pig-slaughter feast in the countryside couldn’t lure him there. In private, Shen Weimin also tried his best to avoid seeing her.

Xie Tingyu recalled Shen Weimin’s dumbfounded look. In his memory, the two of them had almost never met again after that incident — it seemed a knot had formed in both their hearts.

So, Xie Tingyu deliberately called Shen Weimin by name.

Shen Weimin seemed to wake from a dream. A blush spread from the base of his neck to his face, as if someone had struck him over the head, bringing him back to his senses.

Xu Maofang, who was sitting in the living room ready to watch TV, let out an “Ah?” at her stepson’s words, looking in puzzlement at the group of young people.

Xie Dongmei asked, “Why does Brother Weimin have to… apologize to Sister-in-law?”

Among the younger generation in this compound, if you wanted to name the most dependable young man, everyone would first think of Xie Tingyu. As for the most unruly troublemaker, that was certainly Shen Weimin.

Xie Tingyu had volunteered to “go up to the mountains and down to the countryside” to temper his spirit and respond to the nation’s call. Shen Weimin, on the other hand, had absolutely been chased to the countryside by his father wielding a feather duster.

To make Shen Weimin apologize?

To Xie Dongmei, it sounded incredible.

But Shen Weimin himself seemed strangely willing. Blushing, he braced himself, bowed to Ye Qingshui, clasped his fists, and said in a rough voice:

“Sister-in-law, it was my fault. Forget all those unpleasant things from before!”

In her past life, Ye Qingshui had often been troubled by Shen Weimin’s dismissive attitude toward her, but in this life, she didn’t care anymore.

Yet once she stopped caring about what others thought of her, one after another, they started to change.

With Shen Weimin bending down before her, Ye Qingshui was stunned for a moment before finally saying:

“I didn’t take those things to heart either.”

After apologizing, Shen Weimin’s blush deepened. But with his skin tanned so dark, the redness hardly showed.

Xu Wei picked up one of the sweet persimmon shortbreads from the tray. Even though he’d already eaten, holding this shortbread still made him want to take a bite. The outer layer was coated with fragrant white sesame crumbs, and a bite into it revealed a soft, glutinous, yet crisp texture. The thin layers carried the warm aroma of persimmon, and the filling of sweet persimmon paste was pleasantly sweet but not cloying, warm and mellow in taste.

It was delicious. With the New Year approaching, Xu Wei casually asked:

“Where did you buy these New Year goods? They’re really good — I’ll buy ten jin to take home.”

Xie Tingyu’s normally mild voice carried a rare hint of pride. “Your sister-in-law made them herself.”

Xu Wei ate another one and praised, “Sister-in-law, you have great skills.”

Now he understood — the delicious dinner they had tonight was also made by this little sister-in-law. Thinking of the rumors in the compound, Xu Wei found them rather ridiculous.

After Ye Qingshui took the empty bowl to the kitchen to wash, Shen Weimin nudged Xie Tingyu with his elbow and asked in a hoarse voice:

“Yu-ge, you’re something else. When did you find out?”

“You’ve been hiding it well!”

His complexion looked rather bad — the whole evening had passed in a daze, and he had felt miserable.

“Find out what?” Xie Tingyu asked, puzzled.

Shen Weimin glared at him.

Xie Tingyu understood and asked, “When I found out — does that really matter?”

Meeting Shen Weimin’s mocking gaze, he thought for a moment, then said seriously, “People will all grow old sooner or later. Compared to a whole lifetime, looks aren’t worth much.”

He paused for a moment, then added, “Whether she’s pretty or not doesn’t matter. Even if she were ugly, if I like her, she’s the most beautiful girl in my eyes. Besides…” Xie Tingyu’s tone turned teasing:

“Shui’er is very cute. The longer you spend with her, the more you’ll treasure her — if you know how to treasure people.”

Shen Weimin’s expression turned complicated. In his mind, he seemed to hear what Liu Yiliang had said that night — spoken with heartfelt sincerity:

“A kind heart is the real priceless treasure.”

Liu Yiliang’s expression when saying that, and Xie Tingyu’s face now, overlapped in a strangely harmonious way.

For a moment, Shen Weimin was at a loss for words, his cheeks burning hot.

When Ye Qingshui finished her tasks and came out, all the guests had left. Only Xu Maofang and her daughter were sitting on the sofa, engrossed in watching TV.

Xu Maofang said, “Shui’ya, come watch TV with us.”

Ye Qingshui glanced at the black-and-white television in the hall, thinking that Xie Tingyu’s family really was quite well-off.

In the 1970s, very few households owned a TV. In their county, young people were still proud just to be able to listen to the radio, but the Xie family could watch television every day.

Let alone a TV — when Xie Tingyu had brought just a radio to the countryside, it had been a rare source of entertainment for the entire educated youth station.

Still, Ye Qingshui only sighed inwardly.

Xu Maofang went on, “You folks in the countryside probably don’t have TVs yet, right? Sit down and watch with us for a bit, have a chat. You don’t often come to the capital — you should broaden your horizons.”

Xie Dongmei curled her lips and said, “Of course they don’t have one. This TV cost nearly a thousand yuan. I heard my brother say he worked in the Hongqi Commune for a whole year and only earned a little over a hundred.”

If Ye Qingshui couldn’t hear the show-off tone in the mother and daughter’s words, she would have been living in vain.

If it were a genuine rural girl, seeing a TV for the first time in her life, she would probably be fascinated. But for Ye Qingshui, let alone a black-and-white TV, even a high-definition LCD internet TV couldn’t catch her interest.

These two were just like the young people in the county who had gotten a radio.

Ye Qingshui silently endured her speechless inner ridicule.

Xu Maofang said, “Operas aren’t interesting — let’s watch the news instead.”

As soon as her voice fell, she saw this rural daughter-in-law in front of her deftly press a few buttons on the television, switching to the news channel with practiced, precise movements.

The action was smooth in one go, as if she had done it countless times before. There wasn’t the slightest hint of the timid, cautious air one would expect from someone touching a high-tech industrial product for the first time, afraid of breaking it.

Ye Qingshui bent down and patiently adjusted it for quite a while before accurately landing on the news channel — even more precisely than Xu Maofang herself could have done. Once she finished changing the channel, she said nothing, turned, and walked upstairs.

Televisions from the 1970s were old antiques — switching channels required a coordinated movement of several buttons to get to the right station.

Xu Maofang and Xie Dongmei were both stunned for a few seconds before they could recover.

This rural girl seemed… not quite what they had imagined?

Xie Dongmei stared at the slender back of her new sister-in-law, falling into deep thought for the first time.

Ye Qingshui took some clean clothes and enjoyed a comfortable hot bath.

In northern houses, there was heating, so after a bath, her whole body stayed warm, even her hands and feet, when she returned to bed.

Wearing cotton slippers, she got out of bed and stood before Xie Tingyu’s fully stocked bookshelf, her gaze slowly scanning the rows. She spotted some precious high school textbooks and, after a moment of hesitation, took one down and opened it in her hands.

She hadn’t had time to read at all during several days on the train. Now that she had picked up a book, she couldn’t bear to put it down.

The thick, yellowed pages drew her in. She read with deep absorption, enjoying it thoroughly, so much so that she didn’t even notice her hands and feet growing cold.

When Xie Tingyu finished washing up and came back into the room, this was the sight he saw —

A young girl in a clean, white cotton undershirt, eyes focused, brows relaxed, holding a book in both hands and leaning against the bookshelf. Her thick, dark hair hung loosely, and her snow-pale skin glowed like mutton-fat jade under the lamp. Her features were clear and delicate, utterly pleasing to the eye.

Her back was straight, and at the neckline of her undershirt a sliver of her slender neck was visible.

Xie Tingyu picked up a sweater and draped it around her.

Only when the weight of the sweater settled on her shoulders did Ye Qingshui lift her head.

“So diligent?” Xie Tingyu glanced at the book in her hands and discovered, to his surprise, that it was Chinese literature — the subject she supposedly hated most.

Even he couldn’t help raising his eyebrows in astonishment.

Ye Qingshui gave him a quick sidelong look, then buried her head back into her reading.

With less than ten months until the resumption of the college entrance exam in 1977, if she wanted to get into a good university, she had to review seriously. In her past life, she had never paid attention to the content of that year’s exam — there were no shortcuts for her, only hard study.

After a while, she realized Xie Tingyu was still watching her. She put the book back on the shelf and, with a hint of embarrassment, said, “I didn’t ask your permission before reading your book — is that bad?”

Xie Tingyu looked at her for a moment, slightly dazed, then smiled faintly. “My things are yours too.”

The ample heating in the room made her cheeks flush with warmth.

Ye Qingshui said nothing. She picked the book back up, ready to continue reading, when another book was placed in her hands — Xie Tingyu had handed it to her.

“It’s too late for heavy reading — try something lighter.”

Ye Qingshui flipped through it casually — it was a poetry collection. It might not be of much use for the college entrance exam, but there was no harm in browsing. She idly turned the pages until suddenly her hands froze.

She had come across a poem she had once recited before. Her eyes lingered on the yellowed page, and suddenly her face turned hot. She quickly put the book back on the shelf, lifted the thin quilt, and slipped into bed, closing her eyes to sleep.

Xie Tingyu rubbed his dry hands with a dab of Pechoin cream, glanced at the poetry collection now left abandoned and alone, and chuckled softly before turning out the light.

He, too, got into bed.

The man’s undeniable physical presence was like a source of heat, enveloping her. The cold bedding gradually warmed, and it felt as if he was drawing closer.

He leaned toward her ear and whispered, “Why’d you stop reading?”

The girl in the bed turned her back to him, as if she hadn’t heard.

But the moonlight streamed in from outside the window, spilling onto the curve of her neck and the shell of her ear, highlighting their delicate blush.

After a moment’s thought, Xie Tingyu suddenly seemed to realize something. He laughed softly and probed, “Sister… is that poem about you?”

Before his guess could be confirmed, he had already taken several deep breaths, his voice slightly uneven.

Ye Qingshui actually hadn’t finished reading. The last time he’d asked her to recite a poem, she had already known it wasn’t anything proper. She thought for a moment, then pulled a jade pendant from her bosom and placed it into his hand.

He reached out and drew her into his arms. “Grandma gave it to you — you should keep it.”

“This is a jade only the Xie family’s daughter-in-law has — there’s only one piece. Even Aunt Fang doesn’t have one.”

A mist of confusion clouded Ye Qingshui’s eyes. She seemed to murmur, or perhaps was asking him, “Why… Grandma…?”

Xie Tingyu fastened the jade around her neck. “No reason.”

Because… liking her was reason enough.

Sansukini: The reason for the past events will unfold soon.

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