Chapter 2: Orphaned

  That afternoon, the snow grew heavier and heavier, with leaden grey clouds that never left the sky above Maple Tree Village. The entire mountain village was surrounded by swirling snowflakes dancing in the air. Everywhere was a vast expanse of snowy mist.

  After learning about the death of Li Youcai's eldest daughter and Chen Guangfu coming to collect debts, beating up Li Youcai, the neighbors all came to visit. Some families brought a bowl of rice to Li Youcai's home, while others brought a ladle of noodles. In this small mountain village, most households rented land from Chen Guangfu and lived a tight life, with only a few having a good life.

  Seeing fellow villagers coming to visit and comfort them, Li Youcai and Zhang Cuiying were moved to tears, constantly bowing to thank their fellow villagers.

  He Mancang, a big man living in the east of the village, looked at the stiff body of Li Yumei, the daughter of Li Youcai, who had died on the kang (a platform for sleeping or sitting) in the corner of the wall. He lowered his head and wiped away tears, saying to Li Youcai: "Brother Li, the child is dead, but we can't just leave her on this kang. We should bury her as soon as possible, so that she can rest in peace."

  Li Youcai heard He Man Cang say, couldn't help but let tears flow from the corners of his eyes again: "Ai, our family didn't even prepare a mat for the child, we can't just bury the child like this." After saying that, he covered his face and burst into loud sobs.

  He Man Cang took another look at the empty house and thought for a moment before saying to Li You Cai: "My family has an old reed mat that we bought this summer but haven't used yet. I'll go get it for you, and tomorrow morning, all the villagers can come help us bury the child. Alas, in times like these, poor people really have no way out."

  Li Youcai's neighbor, Er Hua, who had bound feet and wore a faded blue cloth headscarf, also said to Zhang Cui Ping: "Yes, Tie Dan's mother, don't be too sad, you'll cry yourself sick. The child has no fate with our poor family. It's good that he left early, so he won't suffer this poverty. Ah..." She gazed at Zhang Cui Ping, who was crying, and sighed sympathetically.

  Luo Quan's legs, He Yimin, had a big tumor on his neck, and when he spoke, he stuttered. He also came forward to persuade: "Yes, there is talent, it's just what Erhua Shu said, let the child handle the aftermath."

  Mentioning his daughter, Li Youcai burst into tears again.

  Without much effort, He Manchu walked in with a brand new mat tucked under his arm.

  "Brother, I'm also unable to come up with a way to help you. It's just this one thing. Since everyone is here, let's work together to take care of Meimei's body. Tomorrow morning, let's all come and bury Meime."

  After listening to Man Cang, everyone started to take action. First, Er Hua helped Zhang Cuiping dress Yanmei in a floral blouse that had been prepared for her dowry and was stored in the red wooden box at home. Then she put on a pair of blue coarse linen pants and a pair of red embroidered shoes.

  He Yimian fetched a basin of lukewarm water, and Erhua took an old, worn-out towel to wipe away the dirt on Yanmei's face and the blood foam from her mouth.

  Zhang Cui Ping cried while holding up her daughter Yanmei's head, took out two red threads from her pocket and braided Yanmei's hair into small pigtails just like she did when Yanmei was alive. While braiding, she said: "My daughter, your father and I owe you an apology. You came to our family but didn't get to enjoy a single day of happiness. It ended up like this. We owe you an apology..."

  Her crying made the villagers who came to help also shed tears.

  Yanmei's body was dressed, and the villagers helped put Yanmei's body into the mat brought by He Man Cang, rolled it up, and tied a white cloth strip at the head, feet, and waist. Then they put it back on the kang.

  Everyone left Li Youcai's home one after another. The old thatched hut suddenly became quiet.

  Outside, the heavy snowfall grew larger and larger. Large flakes of snow, like scattered paper money, floated down from the lead-gray sky to the ground. Soon, the accumulated snow on the ground reached people's ankles.

  The sky was getting darker and darker. The whole small mountain village, in the snowy day, seemed to be buried in a vast expanse of white snow, with no movement visible around.

  Li Youcai's family. No one in the family had eaten a mouthful of dinner, although they hadn't eaten a grain of rice all day. But no one could eat.

  On the old wooden table with a broken leg in the main room, there was also a large bowl of half-thick corn porridge sent by the neighbors. The bowl of corn porridge had long been chilled. There were ice crystals on the edge of the bowl, and no one touched the bowl.

  They stood silently beside Yanmei's body. Not a word was spoken.

  As night fell, the thatched hut suddenly turned dark. Only the window outside reflected a cold light from the white snow, casting a faint glow on this room.

  Xiao Tiedan was a bit tired, leaned against his sister's kang edge, wrapped in thin cotton jacket and gradually fell asleep.

  "Egg girl, egg girl." Zhang Cui Ping hadn't quite heard her son's movements. She felt around in the dark and called out softly twice.

  The iron egg has no echo.

  Li Youcai brought a clear oil lamp from the bedroom, and under the light, he saw his tired son leaning against his sister's kang and fell asleep. Without disturbing his son, he whispered to his wife Zhang Cuiying: "Don't call Eggwa anymore. The child is also tired. Let him sleep for a while."

  Li Youcai and his wife Zhang Cuiying gently picked up Tie Dan, put him on the kang in their bedroom, and covered him with a quilt.

  "The child hasn't eaten all day. Alas." Zhang Cuiping gazed at Tie Dan's sleeping face, saying with a pained heart.

  Li Youcai went out again, carrying a bundle of firewood, stuffed it into the kang hole, lit the fire, wanting his son to sleep warmer.

  Smoke rose again from behind the thatched cottage. The thatched hut, which seemed to have been quiet for half a night, came back to life.

  Sitting beside his daughter Yanmei's body again, Li Youcai starts discussing tomorrow's affairs with his wife Zhang Cuiying.

  "Mei Mei can't be buried too far away, let's bury her in the mountain bay ahead, and we can visit often." Li Youcai said.

  "Shall we bury it there?" Zhang Cuiping asked.

  "That's not Chen Guangfu's land. He has nothing to do with it." said Li Youcai.

  "Ke Chen Guangfu had said before, that is the government's land, no one can move it." Zhang Cui Ping said.

  A moment of silence.

  Li Youcai said: "Then bury it behind the mountain at Niu Cui Liang. No one will bother you there."

  "Niú cáo liáng? So far away. Besides, the road is not easy to walk. There are many wild wolves too. I don't think it's possible." Zhang Cui Ping disagreed.

  Li Youcai thought for a moment, sighed, raised his right hand, and slapped his forehead with his rough palm. He said painfully: "Who made us poor people so miserable? We've been working in the fields for half our lives, but we don't even have a piece of land that belongs to us. When we die, we can't even find a place to rest. Why is heaven so unfair?"

  "It's all because we're poor." Zhang Cuiping also sighed. The two of them talked and cried softly again. After crying for a while, Zhang Cuiping raised her head and said to Li Youcai in the cold black night, with a weak light reflected from the snowy ground outside through the broken window: "Tomorrow, the landlord will come to collect rent. Where do we have the money to pay the rent? If we can't pay the rent, this land and house will be taken away by him, and we'll take our egg girl to where? In this heavy snow, won't we freeze to death outdoors? Youcai, think of a solution quickly."

  "Think of a way, I've thought of all that can be thought of. What else can we do now?" Li Youcai said.

  "Let's go out and find someone to borrow from. We'll get through this winter, and by next summer when we harvest the wheat, we can repay them."

  "Borrow, from whom to borrow? These years have been plagued by natural disasters, which family in our village has had a good life? They are all poor fellow villagers. Where can we borrow from? Moreover, Meimei is ill, I am ill. You're ill, and you've borrowed from every household in the village that could lend, but now there's no way to repay them, alas..."

  "So we'll just wait here until the landlord drives us out of the village."

  "What can we do? We might as well die." Li Youcai slapped his own useless head again.

  When Zhang Cui Ping heard Li Youcai say such words, she couldn't help but cry sadly. As she cried, it also triggered Li Youcai's heartache, and he followed suit in tears.

  "We can't live like this anymore. Wherever we go, it's all death. We might as well die together, maybe it'll be better on the other side and we won't have to suffer from poverty anymore." Li Youcai said.

  "Yes, this day can't be spent like this, there's nowhere to go, and staying is also impossible. It's better to just die. Close your eyes and it's all over. But our Iron Egg is still young, how can we leave him behind? What will happen to the child?" As soon as she mentioned death, Zhang Cui Ping's eyes lit up, as if in that unfamiliar world, she saw another kind of hope. But she couldn't put her mind at ease about her son Iron Egg. If they all left, leaving their son alone in this world, how could a mother like her be at peace?

  Li Youcai sighed again and said, "Children have their own blessings. Maybe in the future when our son grows up, he will be better off. He won't resent us for it. He'll understand that his parents leaving him like this is also something we didn't want to do."

  It seemed that both of them had come to a realization. This world had no way out for poor people like them who had nothing. It was better to make up their minds to leave this world behind than to stay and suffer.

  The two made an appointment to commit suicide together. But they still couldn't put their minds at ease, thinking of their sleeping son, Tiedan. In order not to wake up their son, the two held oil lamps and tiptoed to the kang in the inner room, standing by their son's head, carefully gazing at his sweet sleeping face. Tears flowed from the corners of their eyes again.

  Liu Youcai and his wife Zhang Cuiying bowed their heads and kissed their son's forehead one by one. Zhang Cuiying tucked the quilt under her son again, took off the patched cotton-padded jacket she was wearing, and covered it over her son. Liu Youcai also took off his own cotton-padded jacket and covered it over his son.

  "Son, your father and mother are leaving. We're sorry to you. Without us taking care of you, from now on, you have to take good care of yourself. We'll protect you from the underworld. My son." Liu Youcai said softly, stretched out his hand and grasped his son Tie Dan's hand in his palm, held it for a while, looked at his son's face with tears, then turned around and walked out.

  Zhang Cuiping also held her son Tie Dan's hand in both hands. With tears streaming down, she whispered: "Egg child, it's not that your parents are heartless and abandoned you, we really have no choice... Child, may God bless you. We're leaving. Leaving..." As she spoke, Zhang Cuiping's tears flowed like a broken thread.

  The couple took a last look at their sleeping son with reluctance and turned around to leave without hesitation.

  The cold wind in the second half of the night was bone-chilling. The fluttering snowflakes, like mourning paper strips, floated down from the thick, dark gray cloud layer, covering the maple tree courtyard. The howling mountain wind carried a terrifying, ear-piercing sound, passing through the thatched cottages buried in the snowdrifts one after another. Once again, it lifted the snow on the roofs of the thatched cottages and sent it flying into the distance.

  Li Youcai and his wife Zhang Cuiying were wearing thin undergarments. Each of them held a straw rope in their hands, braving the biting wind and snow, walking out of their home.

  They supported each other, just as they had when they were in love, and walked to the half slope behind their thatched cottage. There was a grove of elms there.

  Next to a sturdy Chinese cedar tree facing their thatched cottage, the couple finally turned back and reluctantly looked at the thatched cottage where they had lived for over a decade. In the thatched cottage which was already shrouded in darkness, there were still the unburied body of their daughter Yanmei who had died earlier, and their son Guoting who was fast asleep on the heated kang.

  "Baby, Daddy and Mommy are sorry. We can't take care of you anymore. After we're gone, you have to live a good life. Live on."

  Li Youcai and his wife Zhang Cuiying, with tears in their eyes, looked at the room where their son was sleeping soundly. After saying their final words, they hanged themselves together.