"Yunfang, are you going to pickle any cabbage by yourself this year?" In the evening, Dashuan's wife, sitting in the yard, saw Yunfang's girl heading home, figured she had just finished work, and asked.
"With just you, it's fine if you don't pickle any. I'll pickle a few extra heads and bring out yours as well," Dashuan's wife said with a smile.
"Thanks, sister-in-law. I was actually planning to ask for your help with pickling a jar in a couple of days. I have dried the cabbage, but I'm not very good at pickling," Shen Yunfang said as she leaned on the fence, watching Dashuan's wife skillfully strip the cabbage leaves.
"Oh, you alone won't eat that much. Maybe you shouldn't pickle any, and just come over to my house and take a head whenever you want," Dashuan's wife continued speaking without pausing her work.
"No need, I grew quite a lot of cabbage this year as well. I can't eat it all if I don't pickle it. It feels more secure to have my own food at home," Shen Yunfang responded, valuing the comfort and assurance of home-grown and prepared food.
"Alright then, once I'm done pickling at home, I'll come and help you pickling tomorrow," Dashuan's wife agreed without further persuasion.
"That would be wonderful." Shen Yunfang was happy, "Oh, why haven't I seen Brother Dashuan?"
"Him? He's gone to the child's grandmother's house to pick up the kid," Dashuan's wife's face lit up with a smile she couldn't contain at the thought of her daughter coming back that evening.
"Oh, Xiaojuan is going to be back. Tomorrow, you must bring her over to my house to play," Shen Yunfang didn't have much of a memory of Dashuan's little girl, just a recollection of a frail and quiet small girl.
"Why bring her over? She'll only be in the way while we work," she grumbled, though her smiling face betrayed her true feelings.
"Xiaojuan's not the kind that gets in the way. That settles it then, tomorrow evening, you come over with Xiaojuan, and I'll stir-fry some pumpkin seeds for you," Shen Yunfang said and then headed home.
When she got home, Shen Yunfang flipped the pumpkin seeds drying in the courtyard with her hand; they were almost dry and ready to be fried tomorrow morning, saved for entertaining the little guests in the evening.
Then she busied herself, first preparing her own dinner, steaming a pot of rice, then stir-frying some shredded potatoes, sautéing cabbage leaves, stewing a gourd, and so on.
In the summer, she had grown a ring of gourds in the yard, and Shen Yunfang had harvested a total of sixteen large gourds, all of which she stored in the cellar.
To avoid becoming too accustomed to her own space and potentially revealing herself in front of others, she now stored anything that could be seen in the normal way at home, using her 'special space' only for things that couldn't yet be shown.
Gourds are easy to store, so Shen Yunfang put them all in the cellar, along with most of the harvested sweet potatoes and potatoes as well as leftover grain from home.
The following evening, just after finishing her dinner, Dashuan's wife came over with her little girl Xiaojuan.
"Oh, Xiaojuan's here. See what your aunt has kept for you to eat." Shen Yunfang lifted the child onto the kang, a heated brick bed, then pulled over a basket next to her, filled with the pumpkin seeds she had fried that morning.
"Thank you, Auntie Yunfang." The little girl was a bit shy, but still offered Shen Yunfang a smile before speaking in a soft voice.
"Oh, what a good girl Xiaojuan is." Shen Yunfang touched the girl's little braids, saying with a smile.
The little girl's smile grew wider, revealing two small front teeth. Even children need praise.
"Such a lack of ambition," Dashuan's wife laughed and scolded her own daughter before complaining to Shen Yunfang, "Why are you spoiling her with these things? It's neither New Year's nor any holiday." Pumpkin seeds and the like were usually saved for New Year's or other holidays, to be fried and eaten then. Few were as wasteful as Shen Yunfang.
"Our Xiaojuan is so well-behaved. If I don't give them to her, who should I give them to, right, Xiaojuan?" Shen Yunfang teased the child.
She couldn't tell if it was because she felt older at heart, but she found herself liking this quiet little girl from the bottom of her heart.
"Children shouldn't be spoiled like this," Dashuan's wife said with a smile, watching her little one handle a pumpkin seed, sitting down and cracking it seriously with her small front teeth, looking incredibly cute.
"What's the big deal? A few pumpkin seeds don't count as spoiling. Xiaojuan, you just wait. In a couple of days, Auntie Fang will go to the county and buy you some candy."
"Enough of this, let her play inside by herself. Let's hurry up and get your pickled cabbage started," Dashuan's wife wasn't one to take advantage of others, especially someone like Shen Yunfang, who was all alone. She quickly reminded her that there was serious work to be done.
So the two women went to the yard. Since Shen Yunfang was not very familiar with pickling cabbage, she followed Dashuan's wife's instructions, boiling a large pot of water in a big iron pot. They flipped over a small vat from underneath the back courtyard's window, standing about half a person tall, and washed it inside and out near the backyard well. They carried it into the main house and scalded it with boiling water to disinfect it.
Then she started to strip the cabbage leaves alongside Dashuan's wife.
"You're planning to go to the county in a few days?" Dashuan's wife had gathered as much from Yunfang's earlier words.
"Yeah, my house is lacking in everything, I must buy necessary things. Besides, it's about to snow, and I don't have any cotton-padded clothes for winter. I need to hurry to see if there's any cotton for sale, to buy some and make a cotton-padded jacket," explained Shen Yunfang.
"That's true, you won't make it through the winter in what you're wearing now," said Dashuan's wife, glancing at Shen Yunfang's clothes and nodding. "Although our brigade has a supply and marketing cooperative, you still have to go to the county's if you want to buy cloth and cotton. They've got a better selection. However, market day is just a couple of days away; you could go take a look there. You might just find what you're looking for."
A market? Shen Yunfang really didn't know about this. Wasn't private trading forbidden at this time? How could there be a market?
"You look like you don't remember, which makes sense, your mother never took you there before," said Dashuan's wife, amused by Shen Yunfang's surprised face, but then she remembered the temper of Yunfang's mother and understood.
"Sister-in-law, when is the market? Are you going? If not, how about we go together?" Shen Yunfang's eyes shone expectantly at Dashuan's wife.
"Haha, why should I go? I don't really have anything to buy," Dashuan's wife really wanted to go, but she only had a little money in her pocket, which she was saving for her daughter's medical bills. She couldn't afford to spend it frivolously.
"You can still take a look even if you don't buy anything. I've grown up this big and have never been to a market. I wouldn't even know my way around if I went," Shen Yunfang said with a sigh.
Dashuan's wife couldn't help but laugh out loud at her, "Don't worry, the commune is only so big. When the time comes, just look for where the most people are, and that's where the market will be."
"Hehe, sister-in-law, my family lacks everything, I have so much to buy. When the time comes, if you come with me, you can help carry things and give me some advice," Shen Yunfang, sensing some hesitation from Dashuan's wife, really wanted to improve their relationship and was very encouraging.
Eventually, Shen Yunfang's persistence paid off, and Dashuan's wife agreed to accompany her to the market when it was time, so they could have each other's company.