The Abandoned Daughter's Second Chance

Liu Fengying muttered a few words to her family outside the door, then yelled, "Xiao Man, open up! I need to talk to your grandpa!"

’Just as I thought. They’ve really come to make trouble for Grandpa!’

Xiao Man moved closer to the door and said, "You’d better leave now. Keep banging on the door, and you’ll just get tossed out again when the militia arrives! Liu Fengying, you reap what you sow! Deal with the mess you’ve made yourself and stop coming after my grandpa. He doesn’t have any money, and even if he did, he wouldn’t give it to ungrateful wretches like you!"

The moment she finished speaking, a volley of vicious curses erupted from outside the door.

Grandpa came over and bellowed at the door, "I’m the one who taught my Xiao Man to say that. Anyone have a problem with it? If you don’t leave, if you keep standing there screaming in my doorway, I’ll take a club and beat you senseless!"

A moment of silence fell outside, then Liu Fengying cried out anxiously, "Dad, Mo Laoer..."

"Settle the score between yourselves! My wife and I aren’t your parents, we can’t control you! We’re old and just want to live our last few days in peace! Don’t come back here. Now, get out!"

"Dad, Mo Laoer stole Xiao Feng’s medical money! Without it, Xiao Feng is going to die!" Liu Fengying cried, breaking into sobs.

"..." Grandpa’s lips moved, but in the end, he said nothing and pulled Xiao Man back into the house.

Sometimes, cold indifference was the best way to handle a situation.

Outside, the Liu family continued to shout, curse, and yell. One of the Liu men gave the door a few hard kicks, but stopped quickly—the door was too thick and sturdy, and he’d hurt his foot.

When kicking the door didn’t work, a shower of stones rained down into the courtyard. ’That must be Mo Xiaoqiang,’ Mo Xiaoman thought. ’When I get the chance, I’m going to catch him and beat him senseless!’

’I have the power to do it now!’

After the commotion had gone on for a while, the militia platoon leader arrived. He stood outside and gave them a stern, loud reprimand, and Liu Fengying finally left with her family, grumbling and cursing as she went.

In the courtyard, Xiao Man, Grandpa, and Grandma quietly went about their chores, as if the events outside had nothing to do with them.

The next day, Xiao Man and Grandpa continued to process the herbs. They sorted them and packed them into hemp or white cloth bags, tied them shut, and stacked them on the empty wooden shelves. Xiao Man counted sixteen bags in total, all stuffed to the brim. Grandpa said it had taken nearly half a year to gather this much.

In addition to the sixteen bags, there was also a medium-sized, tightly sealed jar wrapped in a hemp sack. Grandpa had just carried it back from the reservoir guardhouse the previous night. He didn’t tell Xiao Man what was inside, only that it also contained herbs, and very valuable ones at that.

That afternoon, Mo Laoer was discharged from the commune health center and returned with his wife and daughter. Sure enough, birds of a feather flock together. Mo Laoer and his wife were cut from the same cloth as Liu Fengying and her husband—instead of going home upon returning to the village, their entire family made a beeline for Grandpa and Grandma’s house. Just like Liu Fengying and her family, they shouted, wailed, threatened, cursed, kicked the door, and threw stones. Xiao Man, Grandpa, and Grandma remained unmoved, ignoring them completely. In the end, it was once again the militia platoon leader who came and drove them away.

’Militia platoon leaders in this era have more authority than the police in the future,’ Xiao Man thought. ’All he has to do is show up and yell a few times to get everything under control.’

That evening, Grandpa didn’t go to watch over the reservoir, saying Uncle Mo was covering his shift. After dinner, Grandpa and Grandma urged Xiao Man to wash up and go to sleep. Grandma also reminded her to take out her new clothes and shake them out, explaining that even though they were covered with newspaper, they might still have gathered a bit of dust.

Xiao Man did as she was told. ’We have to get up in the middle of the night to go to Wancheng, so they want me to get enough sleep. Besides, when you go to the city, you have to look presentable. Time to wear my new clothes!’

After her bath, Xiao Man washed her clothes and hung them to dry under the eaves before returning to her room, closing the door, and bolting it shut. She usually didn’t bolt her door—sometimes she didn’t even close it—so she could hear Grandma if she called. But tonight, Grandpa was home, and she had "homework" to do. ’I can’t let Grandpa find out about this yet!’

The three main rooms of the house were all the same size. The east room, where Xiao Man lived, had once held four bed frames and was over twenty square meters large. Now, it contained only her bed, two wooden tables, and a chair. They didn’t have the money for a wardrobe yet. The spacious, empty room was perfect for Xiao Man to get up to some "mischief."

’Still, the room isn’t like the threshing ground outside, where I can do as I please. I have to be more careful in here.’ She could enter her space now, but her power was still too weak. Once inside, she was completely cut off from the outside world. What would happen if Grandpa or Grandma knocked on her door? ’I still have to be cautious. I can only enter the space late at night, after everyone else is asleep.’

In the middle of the night—she didn’t know what time it was—Xiao Man was startled awake by a knock on her door. It was Grandpa. "Xiao Man, are you coming with me? If you can’t get up, we can go next time."

Xiao Man scrambled out of bed. "I’m up, Grandpa! I’m up!"

Dressed in her new clothes, Xiao Man felt pretty good. She stepped out of her room for Grandpa to see. He nodded. "You look nice. Really nice!"

Grandma came over too, looking Xiao Man up and down with a smile. "The fit is perfect, not too long or too short. Our Xiao Man looks so good in new clothes! Next time we have money, we’ll buy you a few more outfits!"

"Good, good, we definitely will!" Grandpa said. "Now let’s eat. We need to get on the road."

When Xiao Man returned from washing her face, Grandpa had already ladled the rice porridge onto the table. Seeing the bowl of fresh chili-salt paste and a plate of vibrant, stir-fried water spinach, Xiao Man felt a pang of guilt. ’I was just sleeping in, I didn’t even know when they woke up. They even went out to pick fresh vegetables in the pitch dark.’

The vegetables were for her. Grandma always said that girls shouldn’t eat food with flavors that were too strong. A little taste of chili, onion, or garlic was fine, but it was best to avoid them if possible, lest you develop a strange body odor and have others find you unpleasant!

But Xiao Man had grown up with Mo Guoqiang and Liu Fengying, so the good dishes never went to her. The farmhouse’s standard chili-salt paste, however, she could have as much as she wanted. Xiao Feng, at ten years old, would still cry and run to Liu Fengying for comfort if she accidentally bit into a chili. Xiao Man, on the other hand, could calmly finish an entire meal with just half a spoonful of the stuff.

She had gotten used to eating spicy food when she was only six or seven.

Still, she appreciated her grandma’s good intentions and didn’t say anything.

After they finished eating, Grandpa stepped out. When he returned, he threw the courtyard gates wide open. Parked outside was Secretary Mo’s large oxcart, but pulling it wasn’t the usual old ox, but a strong young bull.

Grandpa had Xiao Man hold a lantern by the gate for light while he hoisted the bags of herbs onto the cart, one by one. After watching him load three or four bags, Xiao Man hung the lantern on the cart’s shaft and ran over to help. She picked up one of the slightly smaller white cloth bags. ’I could carry the big hemp sacks too, but that would be too obvious. I’m only eleven, I can’t look as strong as Grandpa.’

Grandpa quickly tried to stop her. "Leave it! Don’t touch it, that one’s heavy too. You’re still little, and your bones are still developing. Don’t carry things that are too heavy, you’ll strain your back!"

"It’s fine, Grandpa!" Xiao Man said. "I can carry this, it’s not a strain at all. Watch if you don’t believe me!"

To prove her point, she quickly made two trips right in front of him. Grandpa was both amused and exasperated. "You still shouldn’t run! Go slowly! Just carry two or three bags and that’s it, no more!"

Xiao Man pretended not to hear and proceeded to carry all seven or eight of the white cloth bags to the cart.

The sixteen bags of various sizes were stacked in three layers on the oxcart, turning it into a behemoth. It was quite an impressive sight.