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

"Sister..." Xiaoqing's voice was choked with sobs as she gripped Wanyin's arm tightly. "What are we going to do? Are we going to be separated and married off? Married to strangers...maybe an old man, maybe a cripple or a blind man...like, like that girl we saw on the road before..." She remembered the girl who had been dragged away, and her body trembled even more violently.

Xiaoyin's heart sank, chilled to the bone. Did her parents risk their lives to keep them alive only to be treated like livestock in this unfamiliar Northwest, randomly given away to a strange man? And then repeat the cycle of childbirth, labor, and perhaps enduring beatings and endless days?

No.

no way!

She looked around. The earthen-yellow city walls, the dry air, and the deep green mountains in the distance. Though desolate, the land was solid, free from floods. The government's conditions, though harsh, at least offered a possibility of "staying," a piece of arable land, and a "registration" that might allow for a fresh start.

They needed land, they needed identity, they needed a "home" to shelter them from the wind and rain and allow them to survive. Their embroidery skills, in this chaotic and desolate world, in a place where no one knew them, could not immediately guarantee their survival. Marriage... was the price they had to pay as "women," the price of settling down.

In a flash, a thought, an almost insane yet the only one that could simultaneously satisfy the two conditions of "survival" and "not being separated," took shape in Xiaoyin's mind.

She turned her head sharply, staring at Xiaoqing. Her eyes, though dirty, shone with an astonishing light. Lowering her voice, she said, word by word, "Qingqing, listen to me. We'll stay."

Xiao Qing opened her eyes wide.

"But we will never be separated." Xiaoyin's voice was resolute, carrying a resolute determination. "They want women to marry, right? Fine, we'll marry! But we sisters, if we're going to marry, we'll marry into the same family! Or, neither of us will marry!"

Xiaoqing was stunned: "Marry...the family? Sister, you mean...?"

"Yes!" Xiaoyin took a deep breath; the dry air stung her throat, but it made her mind exceptionally clear. "We'll go to the matchmaker and tell them that we sisters are inseparable, bound by life and death. If we're to marry and settle down, we must both be married into the same family! Whether we're sisters-in-law or something else, we have to be together! That's our condition!"

This condition was undoubtedly outrageous, and might even be considered unreasonable. But what else did they have to lose? The worst outcome would be rejection, followed by three days' rations and a journey into the unknown, almost certain-death wasteland. By making this condition, however, there was at least a glimmer of hope, a tiny glimmer of hope that they could take their fate back into their own hands.

Looking at the blazing, unyielding flame in her sister's eyes, Xiaoqing's fear and despair were strangely dispelled little by little. Yes, they had weathered the flood together, trekked thousands of miles together, and even smeared themselves with dirt and disfigurement together. What could be more terrifying than separation?

"Okay!" Xiaoqing nodded emphatically, a stubborn look appearing on her dirty little face. "Sister, I'll listen to you! We'll stay together if we want to stay, and we'll marry together if we want to marry! We'll never separate!"

Having made up their minds, the two sisters calmed down. They went to the registration desk again, this time with a clear goal.

When Li, the clerk, saw them return, he raised an eyebrow: "Have you thought it through?"

"I've made up my mind, sir." Xiaoyin straightened her thin back, trying to make her voice steady and strong, "We brothers and sisters wish to settle down in Qinghe County."

Li, the clerk, was not surprised by their self-designation as "sisters," clearly having already seen through their pretense but simply too lazy to point it out. He nodded and picked up another booklet: "Since you are women, go over there and register with Wang, the matchmaker. She will arrange it."

Following the direction pointed out by Li, the two sisters saw on the other side of the shed a woman in her forties, dressed in a dark red cotton dress and wearing a silver hairpin, with a shrewd and serious face, sitting behind a small table, asking questions of several women in front of her. That was Wang, the matchmaker.

When it was their turn, Wang, the official mediator, raised her eyelids, her gaze sharp as a knife, scrutinizing the two women from head to toe. She lingered for a moment, especially on their deliberately smeared and filthy faces, her brow furrowing almost imperceptibly. Clearly, even official mediators found it difficult to muster any enthusiasm for such "goods."

"Name, age." Wang Guanmei's voice was flat, carrying a businesslike indifference.

"Su Xiaoyin, sixteen. This is my younger sister, Su Xiaoqing, also sixteen." Wanyin frankly stated her real name and gender this time.

"Twins?" Wang Guanmei paused for a moment.

"Yes."

"Do you still have family?"

"Both my parents died in the flood, leaving only my sister and me."

Wang, the official matchmaker, took notes and asked a few more questions about their places of origin. Then he said, "In that case, according to the law, you need to get married and register your household. Each village in the county has a list of eligible unmarried men, and I will arrange for you to meet them according to the rules. You should go and stay temporarily in the shack area over there. The women have a separate area, and there is porridge served twice a day. We will notify you when a suitable family is found."

"My lord." Before the matchmaker closed the book, Xiao Yin stepped forward. Her voice was not loud, but it was unusually clear and firm. "I have a request."

Wang Guanmei said impatiently, "Speak."

Xiao Yin took a deep breath, her gaze meeting the scrutinizing look of the matchmaker without flinching: "My sister and I have relied on each other since childhood, enduring countless hardships, and vowing never to be separated. We implore you, sir, if you arrange marriages for us, they must be with the same family! We are willing to marry the same man, or become sisters-in-law, as long as we live under the same roof, taking care of each other for the rest of our lives, and never be separated! This is our only request. If it cannot be granted, we... would rather receive rations and continue our wandering!"

She spoke quickly and urgently, yet each word was clear and unwavering, carrying an undeniable determination. Xiao Qing, standing beside her, immediately knelt down heavily, kowtowed, and said in a choked but equally firm voice, "Please, Your Excellency, grant my request!"

Wang, the matchmaker, was clearly stunned. Her pen hovered in mid-air, and for the first time, a look of obvious astonishment appeared on her face. She had been a matchmaker for many years and had experienced many arranged marriages during the chaotic times. Some couples cried and refused, some resigned themselves to their fate, and some wanted to choose but were not qualified. But this was the first time she had ever heard of someone so bluntly making such an absurd demand that "one must marry into the same family."

The shed fell silent instantly, and all eyes were fixed on the twin sisters kneeling on the ground, filthy yet with straight backs. A mix of emotions swirled in their gazes: surprise, curiosity, mockery, pity…

Wang Guanmei snapped out of her daze, her brows furrowing as she sized them up as if assessing a troublesome commodity. "Nonsense! Marriage is a serious matter, not something you can decide as you please! Historically, only men marry, how can two women both want to marry into the same family? To both marry the same husband is even more absurd! You..." She seemed to want to rebuke them, but looking into the sisters' eyes, which, though filthy, were unusually bright and resolute, the determination in their gaze made her unable to utter the rest of her words.

This is not sophistry; it is a desperate struggle in a hopeless situation.

Wang Guanmei remained silent for a moment, her expression shifting. Finally, she sighed, her tone still cold but less impatient: "Alright, you may rise now. I've noted this matter down. But let me make this clear: such a request is unheard of. Whether you can find such a family depends entirely on fate and your own destiny. Perhaps you'll wait three to five months without anyone showing interest. By then, food will be limited, and the government can't support idle people indefinitely. You should weigh the options carefully."

This is why there was no outright rejection; a slight opening was left!

Xiao Yin felt a sense of relief, knowing that this was the best possible outcome. She pulled Wan Qing and kowtowed again, saying, "Thank you, Your Excellency! My sister and I are willing to wait! We only ask that Your Excellency truthfully inform the potential suitors of our sister's wish."

"Understood, go ahead. Seventh shed in District C, find Granny Liu to settle them in." Wang Guanmei waved her hand, as if shooing away flies, but as the two sisters turned to leave, she glanced at their backs again and muttered to herself, "They're two spirited and foolish people... In these chaotic times of war, it's already remarkable that they've survived together."

The two sisters, supporting each other, followed the directions and headed towards the densely packed shack area. The setting sun cast long shadows of them onto the dry, hard earth.

In the distance, the mountains of Longnan stand silently, appearing vast and imposing in the twilight, as if silently witnessing how this pair of twin lotus flowers, which struggled to emerge from the floods in southern China, will fight for a future of weathering storms together on this unfamiliar land.

Unbeknownst to them, at almost the same moment they left the official matchmaker's office, in Nanshan Village, twenty miles outside the county town, a pair of brothers who had been unable to marry for various reasons had just been added to the end of the "List of Unmarried Men of Marriageable Age" by the frowning village head.