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

After dinner, the family didn't rush to leave. The dishes and chopsticks had just been cleared away, the embers in the stove were still crackling, and the oil lamp in the main room was dimmed. Chen Dashan, holding a bowl of tea, leaned back in his chair and asked about Shi Tou and Aji's school. The house was settled, the money paid; all that remained was to tidy up, make necessary repairs, and add what needed to be added.

Shi Tou put down his teacup, sorted out the situation, and explained everything. First, the house needed to be cleaned thoroughly: the walls needed to be whitewashed, the windows papered, the weeds in the yard cleared, and the broken bricks and tiles removed. There was a shortage of desks and chairs; the three main rooms would be used as classrooms, each needing at least ten sets. The kitchen in the backyard also needed tidying up. Initially, meals wouldn't be provided; students would bring their own dry rations, and they would help heat them up. The stove, pots and pans, and water tank all needed to be prepared. Then there was the plaque and bookshelves; he and Aji had collected quite a few books over the years, plus those copied from the county school—enough for the students to read.

After listening, Chen Dashan put down his teacup, nodded, and said that he and Chen Xiaohe would handle the tables and chairs, and they would be made in the next few days. The signboard would also be made at the same time. Chen Xiaohe chimed in, asking what the school should be named. Shi Tou thought for a moment and said, "Let's call it 'Chen Family School,' simple and easy to remember." Chen's father, smoking his pipe, tapped the ash on the corner of the table and said, "That's a good name."

Su Xiaoyin and Su Xiaoqing also said they wanted to help tidy up the house. Afu also said he wanted to come, but Shitou stopped him, saying that his priority now was to take care of Qinghuan, and that they would handle everything else. He added that if things got too busy, he would definitely call on Afu. After hearing this, Afu rubbed his fingers together and didn't insist any further.

Before dawn the next day, Su Xiaoyin and Su Xiaoqing took Shitou and Aji out the door. The mule cart moved through the morning mist, with several new brooms, a bundle of hemp rope, and a clay pot of paste piled on the cart. The cart tracks left two wet marks as it rolled over the frost-covered, withered grass. A thin layer of white had just appeared on the eastern horizon, and dew still clung to the rice stubble in the fields.

Zhao Qinghuan, Zhang Qiuming, and Zhang Yuming left a little later, each carrying a basket filled with dry food and a water bottle. When they arrived at the gate of the house, people were already busy in the yard. Shitou was squatting at the base of the wall pulling weeds, Aji was standing on a ladder dismantling a broken window frame, and Su Xiaoyin and Su Xiaoqing were sweeping the corner of the wall in the main room.

The house was filled with many old and broken things. Several rotten cabinets, tables with broken legs, and stacks of moldy straw mats were piled in the corner of the west wing, covered with a thick layer of dust. Stone and Aji chopped up the things that could be burned and stacked them at the entrance of the kitchen; the unusable things were moved outside the courtyard gate, waiting for someone to come and collect them. In several places, the walls of the main house were peeling, revealing the yellowish-brown adobe bricks underneath. Aji stood on a ladder and used a shovel to scrape off the old plaster, and the scraped debris fell all over the ground, which Stone gathered into a pile with a broom below.

At noon, Shi Tou went out to buy lunch. Carrying several bowls of noodles back home, he ran into someone at the street corner. It was a classmate from several years ago, surnamed Zhou, who now taught at a private school in the county town. Shi Tou stopped and told him about his plan to open a school. Zhou was taken aback at first, then laughed. He said, "You're a scholar now, and you've been teaching at the county school for several years. Opening a school was only a matter of time. Let me know when you open it, and I'll help you promote it, giving students and parents more options." Shi Tou thanked him, took his bowls of noodles back to his house, shared them with his mother and sisters-in-law, and only mentioned it to Aji when he sat down to rest.

Su Xiaoyin and her three companions spent two whole days cleaning. On the first day, they cleared out the major items, keeping what was usable and getting rid of what wasn't. On the second day, they wiped the windowsills, scraped off the old plaster from the walls, swept the yard, and re-papered the windows, while also tidying up the kitchen. The main house was now presentable. Although it was still missing a table, chairs, and a bookshelf, the room was much brighter. Sunlight streamed through the newly papered windows, falling on the floor, making it bright and cheerful, unlike the drab atmosphere of the previous two days.

As evening fell and they finished work, Su Xiaoyin stood for a while, holding the broom, looking around the yard. She said many places needed repainting, and the window frames needed repainting, otherwise they'd let in drafts in winter. Shi Tou gathered the last few broken bricks in the corner, straightened up, dusted his hands, and said he and Aji would take their time with the rest of the work, and that his mother and aunt should go home first. There was still a lot of work waiting at home, and Qing Huan was too far along in her pregnancy to leave. Su Xiaoyin gave him a few more instructions before getting on the mule cart with Su Xiaoqing.

Stone stood at the courtyard gate, watching the mule cart drive away and disappear around the corner of the alley. He stood there for a while, then turned back into the courtyard, squatted down at the entrance to the main house, and touched the newly replaced window frame in his hand. The wood wasn't painted yet, and it had the unique roughness of freshly planed wood. Aji stood at the kitchen doorway, water boiling in a pot, steam rising and making his face slightly red. Stone stood up, walked over, and stood at the kitchen doorway, saying, "Soon." Aji turned and glanced at him, saying, "Yes, soon."

The next morning, Shi Tou and A Ji went to the lumberyard to order a batch of timber. Chen Dashan and Chen Xiaohe started working at home, sawdust flying everywhere in the yard. Soon, the tables and chairs would be delivered to the school. Su Xiaoyin and Su Xiaoqing started working on their embroidery, hoping to finish their work before Qinghuan gave birth.

Qingqing learned that Shi Tou and his family had already settled on a house and were opening their own school. She asked Yang Wenhu to help promote it, since one of them was a scholar and the other a licentiate, their school would be more established. Yang Wenhu said, "I remember some of my regular customers' grandchildren are of school age. When they come over, I'll help introduce them to the school. Also, you'll be out of confinement tomorrow. Do you want me to take you to the county town? I'll take you to buy whatever you want to eat." Qingqing's eyes lit up at this, and she asked, "Really? It's time! For these hundred days, we haven't left the house. Finally, we can go out and get some fresh air! But Mother said we have to go to the doctor's office tomorrow to have him check our pulses first. And if we leave, will Mother be able to manage taking care of two children by herself?" Yang Wenhu said, "We'll only be there for a morning. Go quickly and come back quickly. If you want to go, I'll take you. I'll arrange the rest. But during your confinement, I have to go back to the cloth shop to help out. Father is getting old and can't manage alone."

Qingqing understood. "You should go help out at the fabric shop. You've taken care of me and the baby for so long at home. Now that I'm in postpartum confinement, I can take care of the baby with my mother." "Then don't rush to do embroidery. Take good care of yourself. Your health is the most important thing. I want to watch the baby grow up with you."

Qingqing nodded and leaned gently on Yang Wenhu's shoulder.

The next day, Yang Wenhu took Qingqing to the county town to buy some food. They also visited Zhao Qinghuan, Zhang Qiuming, and Zhang Yuming at the grocery store and dessert shop. Zhao Qinghuan was about to give birth, and Afu was constantly by her side, afraid something might happen. Zhang Qiuming and Zhang Yuming's dessert shop was doing increasingly well. Zhang Yuming quietly asked Qingqing for two baby diapers, saying she wanted to share in the good fortune and have a child soon. Qingqing promised to bring her two next time, and that she would have a child soon.