After fleeing the famine, my older sister and I married the brother next door.

"Father! Mother! Eldest brother! Eldest sister-in-law! Xiaoqing! I'm back—!"

Before Chen Xiaohe even entered the courtyard, his anxious and alarmed shouts echoed through the earthen wall, startling several sparrows that were foraging for food in the jujube tree. He practically ran into the courtyard, the piece of pork tied with straw rope and the bag of offal he was carrying swaying back and forth with his movements.

Chen's mother, who was picking vegetables at the entrance of the main room, was startled by the commotion. She looked up irritably and pointed at him with a scallion in her hand: "You child, what are you shouting for! How old are you? You're not a baby looking for its mother!"

"Mom! Something's happened! Otherwise, would I be shouting so urgently?" Chen Xiaohe gasped for breath, placing the meat and offal on the stone slab beside the well. He didn't even bother to wipe his sweat; his face was full of urgency and disbelief.

Su Xiaoqing, who was peeking out from the kitchen, was also startled upon hearing this: "Xiaohe, weren't you going to buy meat and deliver the dried herbs that Mom had been drying to Doctor Li? What happened? Did you trip and fall on the way?"

Chen Xiaohe waved his hands repeatedly: "No, it wasn't me! It was...it was me who saw Xiuya in the county town!"

"Xiu'er?" Chen's mother paused, her brows furrowing immediately. "Are you seeing things? Wasn't Xiu'er kidnapped by human traffickers at last year's Lantern Festival? Her family searched so hard for her, her mother almost cried herself blind, and they even reported it to the authorities. It's been so long, and they haven't seen her alive or dead. How could she possibly be in the county town? If she were really in the county town, wouldn't she have come home?"

"It wasn't just me who saw it!" Chen Xiaohe hurriedly defended himself, "Uncle Chen Laowu and Brother Shuanzhu from our village who went to the county market also saw it! There were quite a few people there, how could they all be mistaken? They're probably all back in the village by now, and have probably already gone to Xiuya's house to tell her!" He swallowed, lowered his voice, and wore a complex expression that was hard to describe. "And... judging from Xiuya's clothes and appearance, it seems... it seems like she's already married, she's dressed as a married woman!"

"What?!" Even the usually composed Mrs. Chen was stunned, and she forgot to pick up the scallions that fell from her hand.

Su Xiaoyin also came out of the house, holding an unfinished garment in her hand, her face full of surprise.

"A woman dressed as a woman? In the county town?" Chen's mother murmured, her face changing uncertainly. "This...this is impossible..." She suddenly turned around, patted the dirt off her clothes, "No, I have to go to your Aunt Ermu's house to ask! She often goes to the county town, and her ears are sharp. If this is true, she's sure to know something!" With that, she didn't bother to ask any more questions and hurriedly left the courtyard.

Su Xiaoyin and Su Xiaoqing were left looking at each other, unsure what to expect. They'd only heard half the gossip, leaving them feeling restless and unsettled. But there was a mountain of chores to do, and the four children had woken up and were rubbing their eyes and whimpering on the kang (heated brick bed). The sisters had no choice but to suppress their curiosity. Su Xiaoyin went to soothe the children, while Su Xiaoqing picked up the pork and offal Chen Xiaohe had bought, preparing to clean and prepare them.

Chen Xiaohe drank a large ladle of cold water to calm himself down, then remembered he had important business to attend to. He picked up the small hoe and basket leaning against the wall and said to Su Xiaoyin, "Sister-in-law, I'm going to go for a walk in the mountains to see if I can dig up some more bamboo shoots or find some tender wild vegetables to add to our dinner tonight."

"Okay, go ahead, be careful on the road," Su Xiaoyin replied.

The courtyard returned to silence for a moment, save for the children's babbling and the splashing water from the kitchen as Su Xiao washed and scrubbed the pig offal. But the shockwaves of the explosive news still seemed to linger in the air. Xiu Yatou… that girl with delicate features who always timidly followed her older sister in my memory, was she really alive? And in the county town, already a woman?

As Su Xiaoyin dressed Shitou and Afu, she couldn't help but whisper to her sister, "Xiaoqing, do you think... if Xiuya really settled down in the county town, why didn't she send a message home? How did her parents manage to get through all this time?"

Su Xiaoqing wiped her hands, walked out of the kitchen, and frowned. "I can't understand it either. Even if she was abducted by human traffickers and later managed to escape or be rescued, and settled down in the county town, she should have told her family. Unless..." She paused, her voice lower, "unless she wasn't abducted at all, or... there was some unspeakable reason?"

The two sisters were whispering when footsteps sounded outside the courtyard gate again. Chen's mother returned, her face bearing a complex expression of realization, regret, and disapproval. She walked quickly, sweat beading on her forehead. Upon entering the courtyard, she first scooped half a ladle of water from the water vat and gulped it down before letting out a long sigh.

"Mother, did you find out? It really is Xiuya?" Su Xiaoqing quickly handed over a towel.

Chen's mother took the towel and wiped her face and hands, nodded, then shook her head, and sat down on the threshold of the main room. Her tone was slow and deliberate: "It's true. I ran into your Aunt Ermu. She had just returned from her daughter's house and had heard about it too. She knows more details than Xiaohe and the others did."

She looked at her two daughters-in-law's curious yet worried eyes and slowly said, "Xiu'er... she wasn't kidnapped by human traffickers at all."

"Huh?" Su Xiaoyin exclaimed softly.

"She ran away on her own." Chen's mother's voice carried a sigh of incomprehension. "Do you remember last spring when her parents arranged a marriage for her? It was with a family in the neighboring village who were fairly well-off. The man was ten years older than Xiu'er, and he had lost a wife before, leaving behind a half-grown child. Xiu'er was unwilling from the bottom of her heart. She cried and made a scene, but her parents thought that the dowry offered by that family was generous and could help her brothers, so they forced her to agree. The wedding date was set for last autumn."

Su Xiaoqing recalled that there seemed to be such a thing. At that time, some people in the village were talking about Xiuya's parents being heartless.

"On the surface, Xiuya seemed resigned to her fate, but deep down she never gave up on the idea," Chen's mother continued. "I don't know how, but she hooked up with a peddler who ran a small business in the county town. That man had a sweet tongue and charmed her so much that she agreed to take her away. Last year at the Lantern Festival, with so many people around, she used the excuse of looking at the lanterns to run off with that man. The whole story about being abducted by human traffickers was just a lie her parents made up when they couldn't find her and were afraid of losing face."