Luo Xiu worked quickly and efficiently; in just one morning, he had cleared all the weeds from the courtyard, and the accumulated snow had mostly melted under the sun.

Once tidied up, the little courtyard looked quite nice. With the river right behind the house, it was convenient for fetching water and doing laundry—though the location was a bit remote, with only four or five households.

The closest household was an elderly couple, both quite advanced in age. He’d heard that their children, who were in business, had all moved to town, but they couldn’t bear to part with their land in the village, so they hadn’t followed them.

Diagonally across the street lived an elderly widower in his forties. He wasn’t very tall and had a mouthful of yellow teeth; the way he looked at Luo Xiu was like a starving dog, making him feel thoroughly uncomfortable. Luo Xiu merely exchanged a brief greeting before hurrying on his way.

In the front yard lived a wealthy family surnamed Zhang. Their six-room house was home to more than ten people, with four generations living under one roof.

The matriarch of the household, however, was rather difficult to deal with. When Luo Xiu went over to borrow a sickle to cut grass, the woman kept staring at his stomach and asked how he could be living alone while pregnant.

Unable to hide the truth, Luo Xiu explained that his husband had passed away and he’d been driven out of the house.

The woman pursed her lips and ignored him. As Luo Xiu was leaving, he heard the woman gossiping behind her back: “He can’t be a decent ger. Otherwise, why would his in-laws kick out a young ger with a big belly? Who knows whose child he’s carrying?”

Luo Xiu was so furious he nearly fell over, and in a fit of rage, he spat in the direction of the woman’s house.

The elderly couple next door, however, were quite reasonable. The old woman’s surname was also Liu, making him a close relative of the Liu family—within the five degrees of kinship. According to the family hierarchy, Luo Xiu would even have to address him as “Auntie.”

At noon, they specially invited Luo Xiu over for a meal. “It must be so inconvenient for a ger like you to live here all by yourself. Why don’t you go back to your parents’ home?”

At the mention of this, Luo Xiu burst into tears. “I’d love to go back, but my parents are both dead, and my older brother and his wife don’t treat me well. If I went back, they’d sell me to a blind man as a wife. I had no choice but to come live here alone.”

Hearing this, the old lady felt even more sorry for her. “Oh, you poor child. Well then, stay here. If you ever need anything, just call on us—we’ll be there to look out for you.”

“Thank you, Auntie.”

“Don’t mention it. After all, our two families are related.”

After eating a piece of bean cake and drinking half a bowl of millet porridge, Luo Xiu hurried back to continue cleaning up. He had to seal the doors and windows before dark, or else he was afraid something might sneak in during the night.

The windows were simply nailed shut with wooden planks; he planned to make hinged ones later when he could afford it, so he could open them during the day to let in some sunlight.

The door panel was already in good condition, but the door bolt was missing. Luo Xiu found a stick as thick as a child’s arm to use as a substitute; once he wedged it in from the inside, no one from outside could get in.

The only real problem was that the roof was leaking badly. With his big belly, he didn’t dare climb up to fix it. Fortunately, it didn’t rain much this time of year. He planned to sell the hairpins in town to get some money, then hire someone to help repair the roof.

As he made these plans, the sun set behind the mountains. Luo Xiu stood at the doorway watching the smoke rise from the surrounding houses and couldn’t help but swallow hard—he was hungry again.

Before he was pregnant, his appetite hadn’t been this big. Maybe the little one inside him was just a glutton. Luo Xiu pretended to be annoyed and patted his belly, “Daddy doesn’t have anything to feed you right now. We’ll go to town tomorrow and buy some grain.”

As if the baby inside had understood, it gave him a gentle kick, making Luo Xiu giggle.

Suddenly, a man’s cough rang out from the front gate. Luo Xiu startled, his smile fading as he asked, “Who’s there?”

“It’s me, Brother Dashun. I’ve come to bring you some food.”

This was the widower who lived diagonally across the street, whose full name was Yang Dashun. Earlier that morning, when Luo Xiu had first arrived, he’d passed by his house and asked him for directions to the old house. As he spoke, his eyes crawled over him like insects, making Luo Xiu so uncomfortable that he left before he could even get a clear answer.

“No thanks, I’ve already eaten. You should go home.”

Upon hearing this, Yang Dashun not only didn’t leave but actually took a few steps forward. “Brother, I’m not up to anything—I just want to bring you some food. You’ve just moved in and don’t have any pots or bowls yet; don’t let yourself go hungry.”

The old house had no fence or gate to stop him, so Luo Xiu, frightened, immediately raised his voice: “What are you trying to do? Get out!” The commotion alerted the two elderly neighbors next door, and before long, the old man came out, coughing.

Yang Dashun hurriedly left, carrying the bowl.

Luo Xiu was terrified. Combined with the exhaustion from a day’s hard labor, his stomach was now cramping so badly that he broke out in a cold sweat; it took him a long while to recover. He quickly grabbed a few handfuls of dry grass, stuffed them into the stove, lit them, and heated up the kang.

Once the kang was warm enough, Luo Xiu retreated into the room and bolted the door. He spent the entire night clutching his bundle on the kang, not daring to close his eyes for a moment, terrified that the man might return in the middle of the night.

The heated bed kept him warm, so he didn’t feel cold as she lay there, and Luo Xiu began to recall the little moments of these past days.

His husband’s passing had been so sudden; just the day before, the two of them had argued over some trivial matter—though Luo Xiu couldn’t even remember what it was.

Then, the next morning, as he was sewing shoe soles in the room, his third younger brother suddenly ran in shouting, “Big Brother’s in trouble! Big Brother rolled down the mountain…”

It felt as if a needle had pierced his flesh—Luo Xiu didn’t even feel the pain as he scrambled to his feet and ran out barefoot.

He saw four or five people carrying Changfu into the courtyard. Blood had already congealed all over his head, and his body was stiff and cold. An indescribable wave of nausea welled up in his throat; leaning against the wall, he vomited violently, bringing up the bowl of foxtail millet porridge he’d eaten that morning along with the sour bile from his stomach.

No one paid him any attention at that moment; everyone was stunned by this sudden, devastating news. Her mother-in-law sat on the ground, slapping her thighs and wailing uncontrollably, while her father-in-law wept incessantly—in just a few short hours, he and his husband had been torn apart by death.

Luo Xiu wiped away his tears, his heart aching terribly. A cold wind blew in through the window, dispersing much of the warmth in the room, and he hugged his arms tightly, shivering from the cold.

He managed to endure until the first glimmers of dawn appeared, then dozed off for a moment—though he didn’t dare sleep too long, as he still had to go to town today to buy a pot and some grain.

━━ 🐈‍⬛ ━━

According to the elders, Changsheng Town was once a military encampment on the battlefield. Back in the day, the Great Zhou Dynasty had won several victories against the barbarians in the vicinity, which is how it earned the name “Changsheng” (Ever-Victorious).

The town wasn’t large, but it was quite bustling, especially during market days, when people from villages within a ten-li radius came to buy and sell goods, crowding the streets so thickly that it was hard to move.

Today wasn’t a market day, so the town wasn’t particularly crowded, but there were still quite a few vendors selling mountain produce along the streets.

Now that the autumn harvest is over, villagers are taking advantage of these few days of clear weather to bring wild vegetables they’ve gathered from the mountains, along with wild rabbits and pheasants they’ve hunted, to sell and supplement their household income.

Luo Xiu had only been to town twice. The first time was when he was eleven and went with his father to sell grain. Back then, he, his mother, and his younger sister sat in the cart humming songs. After selling the grain, his father bought each of them a sugar figurine—a sweet taste he would never forget for the rest of his life.

Later, after her parents passed away one after the other, he never had the chance to go to town again.

The second time was after he got married, when he came to town with Liu Changfu to buy some things. However, on that trip, they rode on a mule cart from their village and had to rush back without even having time to look around.

This was Luo Xiu’s third time in town. As he entered, two minor officials were stationed at the gate, collecting a tax of three to five wen from anyone bringing goods to sell. Since Luo Xiu was carrying only a small bundle, they didn’t charge him and let him through right away.

The town was really big—there were even two-story buildings! Luo Xiu walked around, looking around curiously. After asking a peddler by the roadside for directions, he found a money exchange.

The money exchange had a rather high counter; Luo Xiu had to stand on tiptoe to see inside. He asked quietly, “Excuse me, can I exchange copper coins here?”

“Yes, we do. What would you like to exchange, sir?”

Luo Xiu pulled a silver hairpin wrapped in several layers of cloth from his bosom. “How much is this worth?” 

“We’ll have to unwrap it to see if it’s pure silver inside.”

“Yes, when my mother gave it to me, she said it was silver. It weighs a little over two taels.”

“We’ll still have to cut it open. Otherwise, if it’s wrapped around copper or iron, wouldn’t we be taking a huge loss?”

Luo Xiu looked utterly reluctant—this was the only memento his mother had left him. “Well… then go ahead and cut it open…”

The shop assistant took a large pair of scissors and cut the silver hairpin in half. “It’s silver. It weighs a total of two taels and three qian. Would you like to exchange it all for copper coins, or keep half?” 

“Keep… keep half.” If he exchanged it all for copper coins, he’d end up with several jin—carrying that much would surely attract unwanted attention.

The clerk deftly counted out one guan and two taels of silver and handed them to him. Luo Xiu carefully wrapped the remaining half of the hairpin and tucked it back into his bosom.

This was the first time he’d ever held so much money; it felt heavy in his bundle and gave him an indescribable sense of security. After leaving the money exchange, he headed to the grain shop to buy provisions for the winter.

Once spring comes and I’ve cleared out the front and back yards, he’ll plant some beans—enough to feed himself.

After leaving the money exchange, Luo Xiu strolled down the street. When he passed a wonton stall, he couldn’t bring herself to walk any further.

He’d only had one meal yesterday, and his stomach was rumbling now; the baby must be hungry too, kicking away inside him. Plucking up her courage, Luo Xiu stepped forward and asked, “How much is a bowl of wonton soup?”

“Three wen for the vegetarian ones, five wen for the meat ones. Would you like to sit down and have a bowl, sir?”

“I’ll have a bowl of the vegetarian kind…” Three wen wasn’t too expensive, and it was fine to try it once in a while. Luo Xiu found a table in the corner and sat down; before long, a steaming bowl of wontons was brought to him.

The vegetarian wontons were filled with chives and egg, each about the size of a thumb. There were only eight or nine in a bowl. They were typically eaten with flatbread, which cost another two taels, but Luo Xiu couldn’t bring himself to spend any more money on that, so he just had a bowl of wontons to tide him over.

Just as he was eating, a few more customers arrived at the stall—all burly, strapping men.

“Owner, three bowls of meat wontons and ten sesame flatbreads.” 

“Coming right up!”

The three men took seats next to Luo Xiu, forcing him—who had originally planned to savor his meal slowly—to gulp down the wonton soup in his bowl without pause, pay the bill, and leave in a hurry.

One of them craned his neck to look around, only taking his eyes off the horizon once Luo Xiu was out of sight.

“Brother Qiu, do you know that young guy?” The speaker was named Zhang Linzi, a man with a fierce, scowling face who was a notorious troublemaker in town and worked as an enforcer at the gambling den.

“He looked familiar.” The man being asked was burly, with bronze-colored skin and a full beard that gave him a rather fierce appearance—not to mention the scar on his cheek that split his left eyebrow in two.

Another, a heavyset man, joked, “Hey, don’t tell me he’s Brother Qiu’s old flame.”

Zhang Linzi punched him in the face. “Don’t talk such fucking nonsense.”

The wonton soup was served, and the men slurped it down noisily. After finishing half a bowl, Zhang Linzi asked, “Is Brother Qiu leaving again after he comes back this time?”

“No, he’s not.”

“You don’t have to go back to the barracks?”

“I got hurt a bit last year. It hurts like hell on cloudy or rainy days, so the general took pity on me and let me come back.”

In reality, there was a lot more to the story than that—it couldn’t be explained in just a few words—but Zheng Beiqiu couldn’t be bothered to explain it to them, so he brushed it off with a casual reply.

“It’s good you’re back. From now on, come work at the gambling house with me and Zhuzi. I’ll put in a good word with the boss—they’ll pay two taels a month.” 

“We’ll see. First, I need to go back to the village to check on my mother, tidy up the house, and find a suitable wife.”

Zheng Beiqiu wasn’t short on money. After all these years of hard work in the barracks, he’d saved up several hundred taels of silver from various rewards, big and small. Unlike others who liked to drink and gamble, he had more than enough to start a small business and support his family.

Er Zhuzi, standing nearby, chimed in, “Right, right, right. Carrying on the family line is the most important thing—otherwise, it’ll be hard to have a son once you get older.” Zhang Linzi punched him in the ribs again. “Shut the hell up, will you?”

The fat man clutched his shoulder, looking aggrieved.

Zheng Beiqiu, however, wasn’t upset. He finished the wontons in his bowl, pulled a handful of copper coins from his bosom, and placed them on the table. “I’m heading out first. You two keep eating; I’ll come find you in a few days.” With that, he hurriedly left.

“Hey, Brother Qiu, if you need anything, just say so!”

Only after he’d walked far away did Er Zhuzi say, “Brother Linzi, why were you hammering away at me just now?” 

“You’re such a fucking idiot—did you really think he was still Big Brother Qiu from back in the day?”

“What’s wrong?”

“Just look at that menacing aura—who knows how many people he’s killed on the battlefield? It scares even me. People like that are the most ruthless. From now on, watch what you say and don’t provoke him.”

“Oh.” Er Zhuzi scratched his head, thinking to himself, Big Brother Qiu is still Big Brother Qiu, isn’t he? He’s the same big brother who used to take them up the mountain to look for bird eggs and down to the river to catch fish when they were kids. How could he have changed at all?