On this night, everything in the Zhang family's home was the same as before. The oil lamp had been extinguished early, and the wind blew against the wicker gate, making it sway unsteadily. The withered grass on the yellow mud wall was also blown up and waved powerlessly. Only the moonlight in the sky shone down, streaming through the window and casting its glow on the worn-out table and bedding. Everyone had fallen into a deep sleep, and in the quiet night, the only sound was their intermittent snoring.
The only difference was Zhang Xiaohua's dream! His dream was no longer of pork belly, but a dazzling scene! Like a breath, the lights pulsed and flickered, shimmering and moving.
The next morning, when the first rays of the rising sun fell on Zhang Xiaohua's face, he opened his eyes. He looked around puzzledly, finding nothing glittering and then realized that the shimmering was just in his dream. With a self-mocking shake of his head, he prepared to continue sleeping. However, at this moment, he discovered that he couldn't fall back asleep with his two elder brothers' snoring in the background. He felt refreshed and had no choice but to get up and get dressed.
When Zhang Xiaohua walked into the courtyard, he saw his mother, Guo Sufei, cooking at the stove in the yard. So he went to the well in the corner to fetch water to wash his face. Guo Sufei was surprised to see Zhang Xiaohua and said, "Xiao Hua, why are you up so early? You were tired all day yesterday. Sleep a little longer today. We still have a lot of work to do later."
As Zhang Xiaohua fetched water, he replied, "I don't need to sleep anymore, Mother. I'm not sleepy, and besides, I'm fully rested now. I'm so strong that with just one stroke of the hoe, I could break that piece of stone." As he spoke, he put down the water basin and even mimicked the action of hoeing the ground.
Guo Sufei laughed and said, "Good boy, Xiao Hua. You've grown up and, just like your father, become the backbone of our family."
With a flushed face, Zhang Xiaohua said, "Mother, I'm already so grown-up, don't call me a good boy anymore. It sounds so awkward."
While they were talking, Zhang Cai returned from outside with a bunch of greens in his hand. He asked, "Who's grown up? Why did Xiao Hua get up so early? Don't you want to sleep in a bit more?" Then he handed the greens to Zhang Xiaohua's mother and said, "The grass in the vegetable garden is getting a bit long. When we have time, we'll need to weed it. We've been busy with the well these past few days, so we can't let our vegetables go to waste."
Guo Sufei took the greens and said, "We're talking about your son. He got up so early for the first time today. He'll be a great help with our work in the future."
Guo Sufei continued to cook for the whole family, and Zhang Cai went into the house. After Zhang Xiaohua washed his face and had nothing else to do, he left the courtyard.
Although it was still early and almost winter, the farmers in the village were always busy. Many people were already out and about. Some were herding their ducks and geese to the riverside, some were fetching grass from the riverside to feed their chickens and pigs, and some had already picked up their hoes and were getting ready to work in the fields. As Zhang Xiaohua walked along the village path, he felt that today was different from the past. He couldn't pinpoint the difference, but he felt full of energy, as if he had an endless amount of strength, or that every part of his body contained power. However, he didn't think too much about it and assumed that it was just because he had slept well the night before. By the time Zhang Xiaohua returned home, everyone was having their meal. He quickly finished eating and followed his father and elder brothers to continue digging the well.
For the next few days, everything was stable. The well became wider, and they dug up stones from its bottom while it grew deeper. When they excavated a flat and cool stone, Zhang Xiaohua asked his brothers to move it under the tree at the edge of the field, planning to use it as a bed during their work breaks in the summertime. As for the bracelet, Zhang Xiaohua had thrown it behind the head of his bed, burying it under the bedding of his pillow, and completely forgotten about it since then. The only difference was that his dreams were now filled with flickering lights instead of pork belly, though he didn't realize this change.
Several more days passed, and still, there was no water in the well. Zhang Cai began to worry. Winter was fast approaching, and the soil would soon freeze. Though the bottom of the well wouldn't freeze, working would become much more difficult. One evening, after their meal, the family gathered together to do farm work. With a furrowed brow, Zhang Cai talked with Guo Sufei about stopping the digging in a few days if no water appeared in the well. They'd have to wait until spring to continue. At this point, Guo Sufei said:
"My dear, do you know that Mr. Wu from the neighboring village also has a plot of land on the southern slope?"Zhang Cai said, "I don't know, but I heard that the southern slopes are also digging wells."
Guo Sufei said, "That's the well, being dug by Mr. Wu's family, just like us, for irrigation purposes. Today, I went to the riverside to pull grass to feed the chickens and met Guo Quan's family at the entrance of the village. Her younger sister is married to Mr. Wu's brother, right? You guess what she told me?"
"What? Is it that their well already has water?" Zhang Cai asked in surprise. "Didn't they start later than us? How could they have water already?"
"You just want water quickly, there's something weirder than having water!" Guo Sufei said unhappily.
"Eh? What is it?" Not only was Zhang Cai intrigued, but the curiosity of the three Zhang brothers was also piqued.
"When they were digging the well, they unearthed a small, broken box!" Guo Sufei continued, "When the box was dug out, the hoe broke it, revealing the contents inside. Although covered in mud, you could clearly see the pearl agates inside. You tell me, why don't we have such good luck? We started digging earlier, and only got a bed-sized broken stone."
As the family sighed over the fortune of Mr. Wu's family, Zhang Xiaohua suddenly remembered what he had dug up from the well himself. He excitedly said, "Dad, Mom, I dug up a treasure from the well too." Under the family's urging and eager gazes, he took out the long-forgotten bracelet from under the bedding.
Zhang Cai took it, held it under the oil lamp, and examined it carefully. It was a black, flat object made of an unknown material. Rather than calling it a bracelet, it was more appropriate to call it an iron ring. He couldn't figure out what it was and handed it to Guo Sufei. Guo Sufei took it and weighed it. After rubbing it with her fingers for a while, she said, "It's so light, it doesn't look like it's made of jade, and there are no patterns. It probably isn't jewelry. It looks like a toy from some child's home. Xiaohua, you can play with it." Zhang Xiaohua reluctantly took it back, handed it to her two brothers, and then as if he had made a mistake for not digging up pearl agates.
The bracelet was passed around among the two brothers, and Xiaohua finally put it back into his pocket with no one showing much interest in the ugly object.
Guo Sufei continued, "Sigh, if it were really a nice piece of jewelry, we could think about saving it and using it as a betrothal gift when we propose a marriage for your elder brother in the spring."
This time, the family's mood was ignited again. After the spring, Zhang Xiaolong would be twenty years old and should be looking for a girl to settle down with. The family started discussing potential brides based on their impressions, and each girl was linked to Zhang Xiaolong one after another. When the oil lamp was extinguished, the family still had more to say, but for the sake of tomorrow's well-digging and farm work, they had to go to bed on the heated brick bed (Kang).
Just before sleep, Zhang Xiaohua took the bracelet out of his pocket and was about to put it under the bedding again when he thought, "Mr. Wu dug up treasures from the ground, and I have a treasure here too. I need to keep it well. But where should I put it?" He thought about it and put the bracelet on his wrist. Surprisingly, it just fit snugly against his wrist without sliding up or down. Zhang Xiaohua was secretly delighted, feeling as if it was tailored to him.
Not until he fell sound asleep did he think that if it fit so well and seamlessly with his wrist, just how did it come off his hand in the first place? Moreover, the pork belly in his dreams had long since disappeared, replaced with infinite flashes of light in his mind.
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