Under the cover of night, Li Xiu hurried toward Daqing Mountain. Though he had come into a windfall, he was in urgent need of cash. He was reluctant to liquidate those items just yet, but fortunately, with Daqing Mountain at his disposal, he knew that as long as he worked hard, providing for his wife wouldn't be a problem. 'The house is built. I need to dig a cellar under the east wing, but no one can know about it, so I'll have to dig it myself. I have to get the courtyard cleaned up for the betrothal announcement. All the women from my wife's family will be coming to see the house then. Time is tight. I won't even have time to take my wife shopping in the county town. We'll have to go after the announcement is done.'
Li Xiu walked deep into the mountains. He wanted to make this trip a big one. He wouldn't have any free time for the next month or so, and the next time he could come back to the mountains would be in October. By midnight, he had taken down three wild boars, six badgers, five pheasants, and thirteen rabbits. He killed them on the spot without cleaning them, then carried the eight or nine hundred pounds of game directly to the county town on a shoulder pole. Wang Yuan would take the three wild boars off his hands. A gift of two pheasants and four rabbits would be more than enough for the driver. As for the rest, he'd see what Wang Yuan wanted.
He knocked on Wang Yuan's door in the middle of the night and told him what he had. Wang Yuan didn't hesitate. Aside from the game set aside for the driver, he took everything else. He had connections to get rid of the six badgers. He gave Li Xiu a stack of ration tickets and 1,300 yuan. Once Li Xiu delivered the game to the driver, he would come back and help him take the wild boars to the factory.
Li Xiu walked slowly along the road. The sky was not yet light, so there was no rush. He would wait for the commune office to open to buy white lime. He was too happy now to hide it, and on the empty road, he didn't have to. 'Ever since I was reborn, I've been suppressed, frustrated, and worried. Now, I can finally let go of half of those worries.' He figured his heart would never be truly at ease until his wife was through the door, but that day was coming soon. Once he finished the house and earned a little more money, he could marry her without her feeling she was settling for less.
The days flew by. The house was finished: six tall rooms with bluestone walls and red-tiled roofs, a two-room east wing of the same height, and a three-meter-high bluestone courtyard wall. Along the south side was a three-room bungalow as tall as the wall. A grand, two-meter-tall and two-and-a-half-meter-wide vermilion gate stood stately and imposing. Inside the large courtyard, a parasol tree with a half-meter-thick trunk, which Li Xiu had transplanted from the mountains, was planted against the west wall. South of the tree, he planted a grapevine he had gotten from his uncle, and a trellis for it was already built. In the Southwest corner, he built a meter-high chicken coop and pigsty.
Two pigs were already living in the pigsty. He'd have to wait until next spring to get chicks that would survive. The coops were far enough from the main hall and the east wing that there was no smell. Near the bungalow, he had a hand-press well installed, with a pair of plastic buckets and a plastic basin next to it, along with a concrete sink. There was no running water back then; the villagers usually had to go to the large well on the west side of the village to fetch water, which was time-consuming, strenuous, and inconvenient.
Beneath the east wing, he had dug a cellar two meters high and slightly smaller than the room itself. It was fully lined with stone and plastered with cement. The items he had acquired from the scrap station were now stored there. It had taken a great deal of time and effort, as Li Xiu had dug it all by himself. The entrance was in the two-meter-wide passageway between the main hall and the east wing, concealed by a transplanted rose bush and a gardenia.
Glass windows were installed in all the rooms, making them very bright. The furniture had all been built and arranged. The three rooms on the east side of the main building opened into a single area. The entrance led into a room similar to a modern living room. A portrait of the Chairman hung on the north wall, with a large square table beneath it. Against the west wall stood a three-tiered cabinet with drawers, which held a pair of thermoses, a pair of ceramic mugs with lids, a teapot, twelve teacups, and two packages of tea. There was also a long table and six chairs.
A door in the east wall led to a two-room bedroom. A large bed was placed in the Northeast corner, with a dressing table and a small round stool at its foot. Against the north wall stood two large wardrobes filled with cotton, quilt linings, quilt covers, and bedsheets, all waiting for his great-aunt to pick an auspicious day and find some of the village's women from auspicious and complete families to make them into wedding quilts. The bolts of fabric were for his wife to make clothes with after the betrothal announcement.
The three rooms on the west side were accessed through a single door. This led to a central room with doors on both its east and west walls, leading into two other rooms. Both of the side rooms contained a bed that was two meters wide and two-and-a-half meters long, along with a large wardrobe against the north wall. In the middle room, a massive wooden shelving unit, nearly as large as the north wall itself, was set up, intended to be a bookshelf for their future children.
Flanking the bookshelf, against the east and west walls, were a small desk and a chair. This room was designed to be a study for the children.
Entering the east wing brought you straight into the kitchen. A door in the north wall led to a room with a large kang. This north-south oriented heated brick bed was three meters long and two and a half meters wide. At the end of the kang was a set of six stackable cabinets containing Li Xiu's current bedding and clothes. Under the west window stood a long table and six round stools.
In the Northeast corner of the kitchen was a large, cement-plastered wood-fired stove. Next to it, against the east wall, were two smaller stoves: one for boiling water and one for stir-frying. There was a long, double-tiered cabinet, and against the south wall, neatly stacked, chopped firewood. The cabinet was filled with pots, pans, bowls, and plates, while two cutting boards and a set of knives sat on top.
Against the west wall stood a large, double-tiered cupboard. It held the grain he had received when the family property was divided, the chestnuts and dried mushrooms and wild vegetables he had gathered from the mountains, and some cured meats. It also contained rice, flour, and peanut oil he had traded for on the black market.
Beside the cupboard was a wide, double-tiered wooden rack. On the top shelf sat four 50-jin ceramic pickling jars, side-by-side. Below were three 100-jin jars. They were filled with things Li Xiu had brought back from the mountains—pickled wild chicken eggs, wild garlic, wild mountain peppers, and wild ginger. One entire jar, holding several hundred eggs, was filled with just eggs.
To the left was a large, covered water vat. As for the three-room bungalow by the south gate, a door was added to the west wall of the westernmost room, converting it into a large latrine that could also be used as a bathhouse. Inside was a meter-high wooden tub for his wife to bathe in, along with a large brazier for warmth.
Of the two eastern rooms, the southern one was the main gate, while the northern one had an open doorway without a door installed. The easternmost room was made into a storage shed for farming tools and some old items from the scrap station that he hadn't had a chance to inspect closely yet. The room with openings at the front and back had a large wood-fired stove built in the Northwest corner for cooking pig feed, and a pile of chopped firewood was stacked in the Southwest corner.
Li Xiu tidied up the house bit by bit, slowly filling it with all the necessities of daily life. By the time he was nearly finished, it was already October. The eighth was the day set for the betrothal announcement.
On the night of the fifth, he went into the mountains again, returning with one wild boar, five pheasants, and six rabbits.
On the sixth, Li Xiu took a trip to the county town. He bought a pair of wristwatches and traded some meat for a pair of gold bracelets. He also purchased two new outfits, including shoes, for his wife, as well as pastries, liquor, and fish for the betrothal gifts he would bring to his father-in-law's house, along with supplies for the celebratory banquet.
That evening, he made a simple meal for himself. Ever since the house had been built, Li Xiu had stopped going back to the old family home. He cooked for himself and slept on the kang in the side room. 'The main house's rooms are for me and my wife to live in together after she moves in.'
After eating, he organized the gifts for his father-in-law's house: a rear pork leg, two pheasants, two carp, two bottles of liquor, and six boxes of pastries. 'I've prepared a lot, partly to thank my father-in-law for entrusting his wife to me in two lifetimes.' The watches, bracelets, and clothes would be given to his wife along with the bride price on the day of the betrothal announcement. 'I'll get to see her tomorrow.' Li Xiu was so excited that he tossed and turned until midnight before finally falling asleep. In his dreams, he was thrilled by the sight of his wife's beautiful, smiling face.