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

Chen Xiaohe agreed and turned to go to the storeroom to find the tools for grinding tofu. The stone mill was in the corner, covered in dust. He wiped it clean with a rag, then checked the wooden handle on the millstone. It was loose, so he tightened it.

Su Xiaoyin soaked the beans and then took a stroll in the garden. The ground was still frozen, hard to the touch, but most of the snow in the shady corners had melted, revealing the dark brown soil beneath. She squatted down, dug into the soil with her fingers, and smelled it; it had a damp, moist scent. In a little over a month, it would be time to plant vegetables here. Chives, spinach, bok choy—one crop after another would be planted, watered, fertilized, and grow lush and green. They would be taken to the shop, and city dwellers would scramble to buy them. Last year, her regular customers would rave about how fresh and healthy Chen's vegetables were, as soon as winter arrived.

By evening, Mr. Chen still hadn't returned. Buying seeds would take two days round trip, so they'd have to spend the night away from home. Mrs. Chen settled the children to sleep and sat in the main room sewing shoe soles, glancing occasionally towards the courtyard gate. Chen Dashan worked in the carpentry workshop for a while longer, only stopping when it was completely dark. Su Xiaoyin kept the food warm in a pot, leaving a portion for Mr. Chen.

After the family finished eating, Chen Dashan said to Su Xiaoyin, "The wardrobe frame for Brother De's house will be finished in three days. I'll have Xiaohe do the carving later, and I'll continue making the dining table and chairs. There's still time."

Su Xiaoyin poured him a bowl of hot water and sat down next to him: "You can arrange it. Dad's gone out, so you'll have to take care of things."

Chen Dashan took a sip of water and remained silent. The wind outside the window had stopped, and the fire in the stove had gone out; only the occasional bark of a dog could be heard in the distance. The night was quiet, like all spring nights, a quietude concealing life. The seeds in the ground hadn't been sown yet, but they were already on their way.

----

At dinner time, the family sat around the table in the main room. Several home-style dishes were laid out: a pot of stewed cabbage with vermicelli, a plate of scrambled eggs, a bowl of pickled vegetables, and multigrain steamed buns that Chen's mother had just steamed that afternoon. After the children finished eating, they played in the yard. Through the window, they could see Shitou leading Aji and Afu chasing a dog, while Qingqing stood on the porch calling for them to wait for her.

Chen's mother picked up a piece of pickled vegetable with her chopsticks, chewed it, then suddenly put down her chopsticks and looked at Chen Dashan: "Dashan, isn't the girl from the Zhou family in town the one De-ge's family is engaged to?"

Chen Dashan, who was breaking apart a steamed bun and eating pickled vegetables, nodded upon hearing this, still chewing, and mumbled, "I heard from Brother De that it's that family, surnamed Zhou, they run a general store in town. What's wrong, Mom? Why are you suddenly asking?"

Chen's mother hesitated for a moment, glancing at Chen's father. Chen's father, holding his bowl of porridge, didn't look up, but his chopsticks hovered in mid-air. Chen's mother lowered her voice, as if she were talking about something shameful: "I set up a stall in the county town today, and Er Mu's family was selling things there too. She pulled me aside and said that she ran into that girl from the Zhou family in town a couple of days ago."

Su Xiaoyin ladled another spoonful of soup for Chen Dashan and casually asked, "Isn't it normal to run into each other? The town isn't that big."

Mother Chen waved her hand, lowering her voice even further: "It's not as simple as just running into her. Er Mu's family said that the girl was accompanied by someone else, not De Ge's eldest son, but a strange man. The two seemed quite intimate, shoulder to shoulder, chatting and laughing. Er Mu's family used to sell needles and thread in the streets and alleys, and they've seen that girl before. They said they recognized her; she's from the Zhou family."

A moment of silence fell over the main room. Chen Xiaohe, holding a bowl, forgot to swallow the steamed bun in his mouth, his eyes wide open. Su Xiaoqing was serving food to Qingqing when her hand paused, her chopsticks hovering in mid-air.

Mother Chen sighed and continued, "After Er Mu's family finished speaking, I felt very uneasy. We've known De Ge's family for so many years, and their son is getting married. If there's really something going on, we can't keep quiet, or our conscience won't allow it; but if we do tell them, we're afraid De Ge's family won't believe us and will think we're meddling. We might even offend someone."

Su Xiaoqing couldn't hold back any longer. She put down her chopsticks, her brows furrowed. "Mom, could it be that Aunt Ermu made a mistake? What if that man is her cousin or something? It's not unreasonable for relatives to buy something together or go for a walk."

Mother Chen shook her head, her tone certain: "Er Mu's family kept saying they weren't wrong. Although she's a gossip, she has good eyesight. She said the two were walking side by side, and the man's hand was on the girl's shoulder—that's not something my cousin would do."

Mr. Chen had remained silent until now. He put down his bowl of porridge, wiped his mouth, and said in a low but deep voice, "We shouldn't make any rash statements before we've clarified the situation. If we go to Brother De and tell him, based solely on Er Mu's side of the story, that your daughter-in-law is having an affair with another man, do you think he'll be happy?"

Chen Xiaohe grew anxious and slammed his bowl on the table: "So you're not going to tell us? Are you just going to watch Brother De's eldest son jump into a fire pit? What if it's true?"

Chen Dashan remained silent for a while, broke the steamed bun into small pieces, soaked them in the vegetable soup, and slowly swallowed them before speaking. His voice was not loud, but every word seemed to have been carefully considered: "Mother, this matter... we won't tell Dege's family yet."

Chen's mother looked at him, waiting for him to continue.

"The main problem is we don't have any evidence." Chen Dashan tapped the table with his chopsticks. "All Aunt Ermu saw was that the two were walking together and were a little intimate. What if they're relatives? What if they're cousins? If we take this and go to tell Brother De, and he believes us and makes a scene when he gets home, and it turns out it was a misunderstanding, who will take responsibility? If he doesn't believe us, he'll think we're deliberately sabotaging things, that we're jealous that his son got engaged in town. We'll be caught in the middle."

Su Xiaoqing opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but then swallowed it back.

Chen Xiaohe was unconvinced and muttered, "That doesn't mean we can just let it go like this."

Chen Dashan glanced at him: "It's not that we've given up, it's that we'll wait and see. If something really is going on, she won't just show her face once. Since Aunt Ermu has run into us once, she might run into us a second time. We'll see then, and if something really is going on, we'll figure something out. But it's too rash to make a scene based on just one sentence now."

Father Chen lit his pipe, took a puff, and nodded through the swirling smoke: "Dashan is right. It's better to believe something is false than to believe it is true. Brother De's family is celebrating a happy occasion right now. If we pour cold water on their celebration, they won't be grateful; they'll just hold a grudge. Let's put it aside for now."

Chen's mother sighed, finished her bowl of porridge, and muttered as she cleared the dishes, "Sigh, I'm just afraid that if that girl really is indecent, then De's eldest son will suffer. We know it, but we don't say anything, and our conscience won't allow it."

Su Xiaoyin stood up to help tidy up, and gently advised, "Mom, Dashan is right, let's wait and see. If something really happens, we can't escape it."

Night had fallen. The children were asleep. Chen Dashan and Su Xiaoyin lay on the kang (a heated brick bed), the moonlight filtering through the paper window, casting a dim glow in the room. The old locust tree in the yard was still bare, its branches casting shadows on the window like a paper-cut. The distant barking of dogs echoed from the east of the village to the west, and back again.