CHAPTER 50: CHAPTER 49 SENDING A LETTER

On this day, Xia Xiao didn’t eat a single piece of the snake meat. Even when Gao Jiaxing held out a bowl of snake meat soup to her, she refused by shaking her head, unwilling to eat it.

"I won’t eat it," declared Xia Xiao, who no longer lacked meat and was also too scared to eat it.

Gao Jiaxing stared intently at Xia Xiao and said only two words, "No ambition," before he walked away.

Xia Xiao remained silent until Yang Xuehua came over and asked, "What’s the matter, too scared to eat snake meat?"

Xia Xiao shook her head again, "Too scared." She was now afraid that she would dream about snakes at night. Unfortunately, everyone was in one dormitory, always in each other’s presence, so there were hardly any secrets; she couldn’t hide in her space to sleep.

"I used to be scared too, but now I dare to eat it," Yang Xuehua sat beside Xia Xiao and continued, "You haven’t experienced real hardship. Thankfully, things in the production team are better now. When we first arrived, there was some exclusion from the locals; it’s the same everywhere, locals always look down on outsiders. So there were quite a few conflicts back then. The people in the production team didn’t really like us educated youth. The women’s director, Li Shengmei, didn’t miss a chance to mock us. You’re only seeing the good side now. I heard the first batch of educated youth had it even tougher."

As she listened, Xia Xiao nodded. To the local villagers, city dwellers were just there to compete for food. That’s why the educated youth who worked hard were regarded more favorably, while those who were lazy and shirked work were not well-received.

The original host was slow and weak due to her young age, and was thus despised. Since Xia Xiao’s rebirth, things hadn’t improved much for her, facing targeted hostility from Li Shengmei and others every day. They would neither hit you nor scold you outright, yet their words were quite unpleasant.

And as an outsider, the feeling of being rejected by the locals was very uncomfortable, which was why the educated youth had to strive to integrate into the community to survive.

"Back then, I was so hungry I wanted to roast and eat bugs," Yang Xuehua shared.

Just the thought made Xia Xiao feel nauseous, but the look on Yang Xuehua’s face filled her with an inexplicable sadness.

"Sister Xuehua, didn’t your family send you any money?" Xia Xiao asked.

Yang Xuehua looked at her, "Do you think everyone’s family is as nice as yours? We came here to support the country’s development, to be re-educated by the poor and lower-middle peasants. We’re adults now. Our families don’t help us anymore, except for travel expenses. However, when I first came, my mom did give me some money, but at that time, I did not anticipate things would get so difficult, and I spent all of it."

Xia Xiao remembered the money in the original host’s envelope and suddenly felt moved. With so many mouths to feed at home, and with food coupons given to the original host, was the family struggling?

It was, after all, during the period of the three years of natural calamities, and thinking that she hadn’t received a letter from home yet, Xia Xiao grew worried.

"What’s wrong?" Yang Xuehua inquired.

"I still haven’t received a letter from my family," Xia Xiao replied. Yang Xuehua and others had already received letters from home, but Xia Xiao’s had not yet arrived.

"Maybe it’s delayed," Yang Xuehua suggested.

Xia Xiao nodded, thinking to herself that her family was so caring, they would probably only send good news and not burden her with their worries, if any.

Thinking of the money she earned from selling pheasants and the food and cloth coupons, Xia Xiao spoke to Yang Xuehua, "Sister Xuehua, I’m going back to the dorm. I want to write a letter home."

"Have you eaten enough? You didn’t eat much today," asked Yang Xuehua.

Xia Xiao nodded, "I’m full." She was not in the least bit hungry now.

After bidding farewell to Yang Xuehua, Xia Xiao returned to the dormitory to write her letter, then tucked all her money, food coupons, cloth tickets, and oil tickets into the envelope, assuring her family that she was doing well here and they need not worry or send her more money.

The next morning, everyone headed back into the mountains as usual, but Xia Xiao asked Wang Aihua for a leave of absence.

Once she entered her space, Xia Xiao first visited the bear cave. On seeing her, the male Black Bear presented her with two pheasants and a piece of meat.

As usual, Xia Xiao left a bit of spring water in the pottery jar. The female Black Bear nudged the jar and uttered indistinct sounds to Xia Xiao which she couldn’t comprehend.

Xia Xiao didn’t understand, but Shitou did; he immediately said, "She is asking if you have more jars like this."

Oh, Xia Xiao nodded, retrieved another earthenware jar from the space, and handed it to the mother bear. She watched as the mother bear took the jar into the cave and soon came out.

She handed the jar back to Xia Xiao, who looked puzzled at first but quickly caught the scent from inside the jar.

"It’s honey." Xia Xiao was delighted.

"Bears naturally love honey," Shitou said.

"Thank you so much." Xia Xiao decided to buy a few more jars in the county town later to store things for the bear family.

After saying goodbye to the Black Bear family, Xia Xiao headed to the county town where she still had three pheasants left in her space from the four she sold last time; now with two more, she had five.

Xia Xiao took two pheasants to the young wife’s house, exchanging them for food coupons, cloth tickets, and oil tickets. She planned to send them all to the Xia Family but recalled that bringing out too many items at once might arouse suspicion; so she took out some money, stuffed it with a portion of the food and oil tickets, and kept the cloth tickets for herself.

Her excuse in the letter was that she had saved an out-of-town woman and her child, and this was their way of thanking her.

She hoped nothing would go wrong at the Xia Family home and that her brother would also be safe and sound.

After successfully mailing the letter, she bought several metal and earthenware jars and delivered them to the Black Bear Cave before returning to the production team.

However, she found that some members of the team had already returned from the mountains, not staying the whole day as they had the day before. In the afternoon, while working with Zheng Xianghong, they heard someone calling out, "Zheng Xianghong."

"Auntie, they’re calling for you," Xia Xiao said to Zheng Xianghong.

"I’m here, what’s it about?" Zheng Xianghong asked.

"Your daughter has come looking for you."

Upon hearing this, a smile spread across Zheng Xianghong’s face, and after saying a couple of words to Xia Xiao, she walked away.

But before long, Zheng Xianghong returned, her face not looking very pleased.

Xia Xiao was puzzled, "Auntie, didn’t Sister Gao come back? Why did you return so soon?"

"She came back to show off; just thinking about it makes me angry," Zheng Xianghong expressed her discontent.

"Isn’t it good if Sister Gao can show off? If she’d come back crying, you’d be worrying," Xia Xiao replied.

As soon as Xia Xiao finished speaking, Zheng Xianghong sighed, "That’s true. After all, she’s my own flesh and blood; if she’s not doing well, it would hurt me too."

"That’s it," Xia Xiao knew that although Zheng Xianghong was disappointed in her youngest daughter, she couldn’t bring herself to be too harsh.

"Zheng Xianghong, what’s happened to Yongfang?" someone then asked out loud.

Zheng Xianghong said, "Zhiguang got promoted."

"Wow, that’s wonderful news," everyone immediately envied Zheng Xianghong, "You have a daughter who married well, living the good life."

The crowd chattered, praising Zheng Xianghong for her good eye in marrying off her daughter well; however, they didn’t know that it was Gao Yongfang who had chosen her own son-in-law.