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

As they descended the earthen slope and joined the flow of people, Su Xiaoyin tightly grasped her younger sister Su Xiaoqing's hand and moved towards the shack area.

The closer you get, the more the mingled smells hit you—the stench of sweat, animal dung, the bitterness of herbs, and the faint aroma of rice porridge simmering in a large pot. The noise of people also grew louder, with the gruff shouts of officials, the weak cries of children, and, more often, the numb waiting of displaced people, or their hushed discussions about the future with blank expressions.

At the foot of the city wall, several makeshift sheds had been erected. In front of the largest shed, a long, winding queue had formed. Under the eaves hung a crooked wooden sign with the words "Record of Refugee Resettlement in Qinghe County" scrawled in charcoal ink.

"Line up! Don't push! Come one by one, state your name, place of origin, original address, and how many people are left in your family!" A minor official in a dark brown uniform, his face tanned by the sun, stood behind a rickety wooden table, shouting in a hoarse voice, impatiently tapping the table with a worn-out pen in his hand.

The two sisters joined the queue. Ahead and behind them were emaciated refugees, almost everyone's face bearing the same question: What to do next?

Xiao Yin observed silently. She saw that at the front of the line, some people received a small bag of grains, some received a wooden sign with a number on it, and were directed to a certain shack area. Others, seemingly having answered something, showed expressions of despair or fear, and were impatiently shooed aside by the guards.

"Sister," Xiaoqing leaned closer and asked in a barely audible whisper, "Will they... kick us out?"

Xiao Yin shook her head, then nodded, and whispered, "It depends. Let's hear what they have to say."

Finally, it was their turn. The clerk, with droopy eyelids and without raising his head, asked, "Name, place of origin, number of people in your family, and how many are left?"

Wanyin cleared her hoarse throat and answered in a deliberately low, rough voice, "Su Dayin, this is my younger brother, Su Daqing. Originally from Xixia Village, Huanhua Prefecture, Jiangnan Province. Our family... originally consisted of four people, but our parents... perished in the flood. Only my brother and I remain." Her palms were sweaty, but she tried her best to keep her tone steady.

The clerk then looked up and glanced at them. Both "young men" were so dirty they were unrecognizable, their clothes tattered, but their build was fairly decent for southern refugees, and they had all their limbs. His expression softened slightly as he made notes in the register, then asked, "Do you have any skills? Carpentry, masonry, blacksmithing? Or are you literate?"

Skill? Xiao Yin's heart skipped a beat. Embroidery? In this remote northwestern county, to say this to a clerk? She lowered her eyes, avoiding his scrutinizing gaze, and said in an even lower voice, "...My family used to be farmers, we know how to tend the fields, and...we know a few characters." She didn't dare say she knew embroidery, that was a woman's skill, and she certainly didn't dare reveal her sister's gender.

The clerk grunted in agreement, neither confirming nor denying, and circled the "skills" section with his pen. He hesitated briefly, then pointed to another middle-aged clerk beside him, who seemed to be in charge and was holding a roster, and said, "Go over there, to Clerk Li's office, and hear the next instructions. Next!"

The two sisters nervously moved towards Clerk Li. Clerk Li was around forty years old, with a fair complexion, looking more like a scholar, but his brows were furrowed, carrying an inescapable weariness and irritability. There was also a queue in front of him, but fewer people, mostly young and middle-aged men or families with male members.

When it was their turn, Clerk Li glanced at the brief record handed over by the clerk, then looked them over and said directly, "Since you are two brothers and neither of you is disabled, according to the magistrate's decree, you may choose two paths."

He held up one finger: "First, receive three days' worth of rations, then continue north or west to find your own way to survive. This county will not provide resettlement."

Xiaoqing's hand tightened suddenly. Xiaoyin felt her sister trembling.

Clerk Li raised a second finger, his voice flat and even, yet it struck the sisters' hearts like a heavy hammer: "Secondly, those who wish to settle in this county can be guaranteed by the county government, allocated wasteland, and provided with a small amount of seeds and farming tools, with tax exemption for the first three years. But—" He paused, his gaze sweeping over the two women's faces, lingering especially on Xiao Qing's face, which, though stained, still retained its delicate features, before his tone became more serious, "...must comply with the local policies for maintaining peace and stability. Men aged sixteen and above who are unmarried must register for military service or pay a poll tax, while women…"

He paused for a moment, and suddenly it became much quieter inside and outside the tent. Many of the displaced people in line pricked up their ears, especially some of the women, whether alone or in groups, whose faces had turned pale.

"Women must be registered by official matchmakers, married within a specified period, and settled in their husbands' homes. This is a decree issued by the higher authorities to maintain local stability and population control, and it must not be disobeyed." After saying this, Li, the clerk, lowered his eyes and waited for them to make their choice, as if he were just stating a routine official matter.

With a "buzz," Xiaoyin felt her mind go blank, the sound of blood rushing to her ears. A marriage within a limited time... settling down in her husband's family home...

Low sobs and suppressed gasps could be heard all around. A girl who looked no more than sixteen or seventeen, with a childlike face, was being held tightly by a middle-aged woman (who seemed to be her mother), and the two of them were crying together. There were also older women, their faces ashen and their eyes vacant.

Xiao Qing suddenly raised her head, her dark face revealing wide eyes filled with shock and instinctive resistance. Before her sister could speak, Xiao Yin squeezed her hand tightly, her nails almost digging into her flesh.

Don't panic, don't lose your composure.

"My lord," Xiaoyin tried her best to make her voice sound like the bewilderment of a young boy, "what if... what if I don't want to get married?"

Li, the clerk, seemed to have anticipated this question, and without even looking up, said, "Then choose the first route. The county government has done its utmost, providing three days' rations; please make your choice. However…" He finally raised his eyes, a barely perceptible chill in them, "Three hundred li to the north lies the Gobi Desert; to the west, the mountains are high and the roads treacherous, teeming with bandits. You two 'brothers,' how far do you think you can go?"

This is a stark reminder, a warning. Leaving here means a bleak future, an uncertain fate. Staying means accepting the destiny of being assigned marriages like objects.

"I...we need to think about it." Xiaoyin heard her own dry voice.

"Okay. Go wait over there, and register when you've thought it through. Next!" Li, the clerk, stopped looking at them and turned to the people behind him.

The two sisters stumbled and were pushed aside by the people behind them, standing in the shadows of a corner of the shed, staring blankly at the scene before them. Those who received wooden plaques, seemingly allowed to settle down, showed a brief moment of relief, which was quickly replaced by uncertainty about the future. As for the lonely women, some were distraught, some wept with their faces covered, and others gradually became numb with resignation in their eyes.