Zhong Jianguo raised his hand and smacked the back of his son’s head. “Do we have to vote on everything? This is a matter between adults; your vote doesn’t count.”
“You’re just making excuses.” Zhong Dawa wrinkled his nose. “Fine, I won’t ask you. Mom, should we vote?”
Song Zhaodi smiled. “Your dad is hardly ever home. Even if I got into a fight with Chen dasao, he wouldn’t know. There’s no need to make a big deal out of it.”
“Oh, right!” Zhong Dawa suddenly understood and looked up to his mother with admiration. “Mom, you’re the smartest!”
Song Zhaodi chuckled. “Your dad isn’t stupid either.”
“I haven’t noticed,” Dawa said as he gave his father a once-over.
Zhong Jianguo tapped his son’s forehead. “If I were an idiot, how could I have such a clever son like you?” Then he turned to Song Zhaodi and said, “If you don’t want to tolerate her, I won’t force you. Just try to avoid her.”
“Alright,” Song Zhaodi said. “I’ll give you that much face.”
To set a good example for the children, keeping her word, Song Zhaodi spent most of the days after the third day of the new year upstairs with the kids. She would tell them stories, read books while they did their homework and generally avoid going downstairs unless necessary.
On the twelfth day of the first month, in the afternoon, Song Zhaodi was taking a nap when she suddenly sat up in shock. The sound of someone banging on the door echoed loudly. She quickly put on her cotton-padded jacket and opened the door, only to find Sanwa standing there.
Song Zhaodi was puzzled. “Why are you alone? Where did your brothers go?”
“They went downstairs,” Sanwa grabbed her hand. “Mom, Auntie Lin is moving out! Let’s go see!”
Song Zhaodi didn’t budge. “There’s nothing exciting about someone moving. Go call your brothers back. It’s raining outside.”
“Auntie Lin is leaving. Aren’t you happy?” Sanwa asked curiously.
Song Zhaodi laughed. “Of course, I’m happy. But we should just celebrate privately. If we make a big fuss about seeing her off, she might think we’re happy about it and curse us behind our backs. Now, go bring your brothers back upstairs.”
“Okay!” Sanwa turned and ran down the stairs.
Song Zhaodi quickly called out, “Slow down! Watch your step!”
“Mom, I’m all grown up!” Sanwa stumbled a little, almost tumbling down.
Song Zhaodi’s heart nearly stopped. She raised her voice sharply. “Zhong Xiangnan!”
“Mom’s voice?” Dawa shuddered. “Forget it, forget it. Let’s go check on Sanwa!” He grabbed Erwa and Gengsheng and ran toward the house.
At the staircase landing, the four older brothers saw Sanwa standing in the middle of the stairs, looking dejected. Song Zhaodi stood at the top with her hands on her hips, clearly furious.
Gengsheng nudged Erwa. “Ask her what’s going on.”
“Mom, what’s wrong?” Erwa asked cautiously.
Song Zhaodi pointed at Sanwa. “Ask him.”
“Sanwa, what did you do?” Zili walked over. “What happened?”
Sanwa pouted and wiped his eyes.
Zili’s heart skipped a beat, Sanwa was crying? He immediately looked to his brothers for help. This was serious.
Gengsheng thought for a moment, then went to Sanwa’s other side. “Tell gege, did you get into trouble?”
Sanwa nodded.
Gengsheng reassured him, “Mom always says that knowing your mistake and correcting it makes you a good kid.” He paused before asking, “Let gege guess, did you disobey Mom?”
Sanwa looked up quickly but, noticing that his mother was still angry, lowered his head again and mumbled, “Mom told me to slow down, but I didn’t listen and almost fell.”
“Did you hurt yourself?” Zili immediately pulled his little brother into his arms to check.
Sanwa shook his head. “I grabbed the handrail.”
“Don’t run so fast next time,” Dawa sighed in relief and wiped away Sanwa’s tears. “Tell Mom you were wrong and that you won’t run downstairs again. She’ll stop being mad.”
Sanwa glanced at Song Zhaodi, unsure if that would really work.
Dawa patted his head. “Just say it.”
“Mom, I was wrong,” Sanwa hesitated and then added, “I won’t run downstairs anymore.”
Song Zhaodi finally dropped her hands. “Come up here.”
Sanwa instinctively wanted to run up but stopped himself after stepping on one stair. He climbed the rest carefully and stood in front of Song Zhaodi, not daring to look up.
Song Zhaodi bent down and picked him up. “Mom wasn’t trying to be mean. You’re still small. If you fall down the stairs, you could crack your head open. Blood would pour out and you’d be buried in the ground just like Grandpa. Then you’d never see Mom again.”
“Mom, I won’t do it again.” Feeling the emptiness under his feet earlier had already scared him. But he was even more afraid of Song Zhaodi staying mad. He mustered up his courage, looked up at her and asked cautiously, “Mom, don’t be mad at me, okay?”
Song Zhaodi thought for a moment. “I won’t be mad this time. But if you run down the stairs again, I’ll tell your dad.”
“Don’t tell Dad!” Sanwa panicked. “Dad uses his belt to spank people! It hurts a lot! I don’t want to be spanked!”
Song Zhaodi was surprised. “Your dad has never spanked you. How do you know it hurts?”
“Lin Zhong and Ma Zhenxing said so,” Dawa chimed in. “Getting spanked with a belt can make your butt split open.”
Song Zhaodi turned to Zili, Gengsheng and Erwa. “Is that true?”
The four brothers nodded in unison.
Song Zhaodi laughed. “You all talk back to your dad so much, I thought you weren’t afraid of him.” Then she waved them off. “Go read in your room, no more running around outside. Sanwa, want to nap with Mom?”
“Yes!” Seeing that she had truly forgiven him, Sanwa wiped away the last of his tears, happily wrapped his arms around her neck and yawned. “Mom, I’m sleepy.”
Dawa smacked his little brother’s backside. “Yawning without tears? Trying to fool Mom?”
“I never cry when I yawn,” Sanwa retorted. He patted Song Zhaodi’s shoulder. “Mom, ignore him. Let’s go.”
Song Zhaodi warned, “It’s still raining outside. If your shoes get wet, I won’t dry them for you.”
“We can dry our own shoes,” Dawa blurted out.
Gengsheng quickly covered his mouth and dragged him toward their room. “Mom, you go rest. I’ll watch Dawa.”
Song Zhaodi shot Dawa a glare before carrying Sanwa back inside.
Meanwhile, Chen shi, who thought she knew Song Zhaodi well, was convinced that Song Zhaodi would come out to see her off, maybe even mock her one last time. But even as the truck drove away, Song Zhaodi never appeared, not at the doorstep, not by a window, not even peeking from a hidden corner.
Chen shi sat in the truck, turning back to look again and again.
Commander Lin thought she was reluctant to leave, so he tried to comfort her. However, when his wife ignored him, he gave up. Having been transferred from the front lines to logistics, he wasn’t feeling great himself and didn’t have the energy to persuade her further.
The couple remained silent throughout their journey, carrying complex emotions as they arrived at their new home, accompanied by wind and rain. A rainbow appeared over the mountain behind the Zhong family’s house.
Song Zhaodi was startled awake again, furious enough to want to grab the four mischievous kids and give them a beating. However, when she went downstairs and saw the rainbow in the sky, her anger dissipated completely. Feeling uplifted, she decided to make scallion pancakes for the children.
That evening, when Zhong Jianguo returned home and heard about the rainbow, he saw how happy the children were and didn’t have the heart to dampen their excitement. However, he was also afraid that if he didn’t say anything, Song Zhaodi might blame him later and make him sleep on the couch. So, after hesitating until dinner was over, he finally said, with a meaningful look, “Rainbows are beautiful, but they don’t have much to do with reality.”
“What do you mean?” Song Zhaodi was confused by his cryptic remark.
Zhong Jianguo asked, “Have you seen a rainbow before?”
“Of course,” the eldest child replied. “We see rainbows all the time.”
“Have you ever seen a rainbow in winter?” Zhong Jianguo continued.
Song Zhaodi thought carefully for a moment. “I remember hearing someone say that there are no rainbows in winter. Right, there aren’t any in winter. But I think it’s a good sign that a rainbow appeared right after Chen dasao moved away–” Suddenly, she turned to Zhong Jianguo. “You’re not trying to scare me, are you?”
“Did something happen?” Erwa looked back and forth between his parents. “Why are you saying things I don’t understand again?”
Sanwa rested his chin on his hand and sighed. “My head is going to spin again.” After a pause, he added, “When will I finally grow up?”
“I’m not trying to scare you,” Zhong Jianguo said.
Song Zhaodi pinched his arm. “Stop being so mysterious! What exactly do you know? Just say it already.”
“Dad, just tell us,” Dawa chimed in. “We all know you’re the smartest in the family, okay?”
Zhong Jianguo raised a hand and playfully smacked the eldest on the head. “Are you teasing your father now?”
“Don’t hit my head.” The eldest rubbed the back of his head. “If you make me dumb, I won’t be able to do anything and you’ll have to take care of me for the rest of my life.”
Zhong Jianguo nodded. “Being a little dumber wouldn’t be so bad, it would stop you from running against me every day.” He cleared his throat and spoke seriously. “I heard that Commander Shen and his wife don’t get along very well. I don’t know the details, but when their family moves in a few days, don’t rush to greet them. Find out more first.”
“If their relationship is bad enough for rumours to reach you, that already says a lot,” Song Zhaodi commented.
Zhong Jianguo shook his head. “It didn’t just come to me, I deliberately asked around. I don’t want another Chen dasao, someone with nothing better to do than watch our family all day. So, I asked someone about it. A comrade of Commander Shen told me.”
“At least you have some sense.” Song Zhaodi sighed. “Let’s just stay home for the next few days.”
Zhong Dawa groaned. “If another Aunt Lin moves in next door, I’ll just burn down their house.”
“If you do, I won’t just break your legs, I’ll take your arms off too,” Zhong Jianguo said sternly. “Zhong Jianqiang, you can try if you want.”
Dawa shivered. “Forget I said anything.” He suddenly stood up. “Gengsheng, Zili, let’s go upstairs to sleep. I’m already tired.”
“Wash your face, brush your teeth and wash your feet before going up,” Song Zhaodi instructed, glaring. “Don’t think you can get away with it.”
Zhong Dawa looked sheepish. “With you here, how could I not keep clean?” He turned and went to the kitchen to get water.
Song Zhaodi shook her head helplessly. Then she asked, “Erwa, Sanwa, are you done eating? If so, go wash up with your brothers.”
“Do you still want to ask about the Shen family?” Zhong Jianguo asked after the two younger kids had walked away.
Song Zhaodi nodded. “Who knows how many years we’ll be neighbours? We’ll see each other all the time. You might even fight alongside Commander Shen in the future… As long as she’s not as difficult as Chen dasao, I’ll tolerate her, even if she’s like Goudan’s mother.”
“You’re overthinking it,” Zhong Jianguo said. “Commander Shen’s comrade told me his wife is from an educated family.”
Song Zhaodi raised an eyebrow. “You mean she’s from a bourgeois family?”
“No,” Zhong Jianguo replied. “An intellectual family.”
Song Zhaodi was surprised. “An intellectual family?!”
“Yes,” Zhong Jianguo said. “At first, I assumed Commander Shen’s wife was an unreasonable, quarrelsome woman.”
Song Zhaodi frowned. “Then how did she end up marrying Commander Shen? As far as I know, people from prestigious families in this era care a lot about marrying someone of equal status.” She paused. “If Commander Shen were from a noble family, he would’ve been purged early on. The fact that he’s a commander now means he has solid revolutionary credentials.”
“Exactly. He’s just like you,” Zhong Jianguo said. “Three generations of poor farmers.”
Song Zhaodi wasn’t surprised about Commander Shen’s background. What surprised her was how two people from such different worlds had gotten married. “Can I ask when they got married?”
Zhong Jianguo raised an eyebrow. “Teacher Xiao Song, don’t you think it’s a waste not to pass on your sharp mind to the next generation?”
Song Zhaodi kicked his leg. “What do you think?”
“I, I don’t mind,” Zhong Jianguo wanted to say, It’s a real shame.
Song Zhaodi glared at him. “Keep talking.”
“They got married in ‘67,” Zhong Jianguo said with a smile. “Surprised? They were ahead of us. When we got married, Commander Shen’s eldest daughter was almost born.”
Song Zhaodi shook her head. “I’m surprised because I thought they got married in ‘66. I didn’t expect it to be ‘67.”
“Huh, I didn’t even notice that,” Zhong Jianguo mused. Just then, their five sons walked out of the kitchen, so he quickly changed the subject. “Alright, time to clean up and go to bed. It’s getting late.”
Zhong Dawa grumbled, “The moment we show up, you stop talking. Mom, what secret were you discussing with Dad?”
“Your father said he hasn’t had meat in days and told me to buy some pork for Lantern Festival to make twice-cooked pork,” Song Zhaodi said seriously. “But since we only have two pounds of meat tickets and it’s not enough for everyone, we were discussing which one of you to cut a piece from and cook with the pork.”
Zhong Dawa sighed. “I really can’t deal with you two. You’re grown-ups, yet you joke about things even Sanwa wouldn’t believe.”
“I’m not joking,” Song Zhaodi said with a straight face.
Dawa pointed behind her. “Mom, look back, Dad’s laughing at you.”
Song Zhaodi turned around.
Zhong Jianguo pursed his lips and coughed lightly. “Is there still hot water on the stove?”
“There’s a little left, just enough for you and Mom to wash your feet,” Zili replied.
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