Nuannuan kept Mom company in the hospital for one month and a half. The surgery was scary; it cut away one whole breast of Mom's. Some flesh around the breast was taken, too. But everything was okay. The doctor said that the chemo and radiotherapy had driven all of the cancer cells away. Yet Mom was too weak to even walk because of the blood loss, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. Nuannuan felt sad seeing Mom like that; she remembered how Mom would carry more than fifty kilograms of corns and potatoes home during harvests. Mom's stay in the hospital had cost all the money Nuannuan earned, and they paid for the rest with the only income Dad had from the fishing. Grandma used to say that there are only three things to do in the life of rural folk like them: to build a house, to get married, and to keep sickness away. It was not until then had Nuannuan understood the weight of those words. The price of keeping sickness away is truly high: it turns one into a penniless pity overnight. After Mom returned home from the hospital, it was natural that Nuannuan was responsible for everything around the house as Hehe had her school, Dad his fishing in the lake, and Grandma was too old to pick up anything at all. Nuannuan set aside the thoughts about Beijing, and condensed herself to both the housework and the contracted farmland of her family. During her break between farm work, Nuannuan always thought about the joyful time she had with the girls she worked with in Beijing. Every time she would sigh at the thoughts: "I am now trapped here in Chu Wang Village."
Nuannuan had lost all her fondness for Chu Wang Village, the village where she was born.
She loathed the village, primarily because she loathed farming. Farmlands in Chu Wang Village were fine. Though most fields were on small hills, the irrigation worked fine thanks to the lake nearby: in drought they had a full water supply; fast flow of water also tackled the flood. Nevertheless, what youth would favour a life of planting crops? Everyone knows the sufferings of a farmer: the unpredictable weather gives you the physical misery; then the very low price of crops gives you poverty. Nuannuan knew that Kaitian was no exception. When he was still in school, his father wanted to train him in the farmlands, but he despised the work with a smirk: "No."
His father glared at him: "You little prick, stop being so proud! You are so certain about going to college and working in the uppity air as a government official! What if the odds only give you a chance to work in the field?! You listen to me. Little people like us, as long as we know how to farm our fields, we know two things for sure: we won't starve to death; and we can afford getting married …"
Those words were an unfortunate prophecy of Kaitian's life. He reluctantly started his life as a farmer after his father's injury. At this moment he was already a proper farmer. Whenever Nuannuan could not keep up with all the work around the house, he always came over to help.
Nuannuan had found it difficult to reconcile with the fact that she could no longer go back to Beijing. Nuannuan, with her determination and pride, had always wanted her life in Beijing. Apart from the money, she had also hid this secret wish of getting to know more people, which of course included young men in the big city. What if she eventually met someone agreeable, someone that adores her … Every time she thought about this secret wish, she felt guilty in front of Kaitian. Though she never promised anything to him, she had to admit that Kaitian had always been in her heart. But life in the city was too exciting, and it attracted her so much. Nuannuan felt quite defeated now that her days to come would be spent here in Chu Wang Village with Kaitian. Maybe she could still go to Beijing after Mom's recovery …
Nuannuan's return not only cheered Kaitian up, and for various reasons other young men in the village were quite excited, too. One of them, Zhan Shiti, owned a distributing shop in the village. He was even more over the top than the others because his brother was the village committee leader. He would wait to chat with Nuannuan at the entrance to the village. At first Nuannuan paid no attention to him. Since they went to the same secondary school, it felt natural to talk to him as friendly classmates. The talks were nothing more than small household affairs. Those talks went on until one day, when Zhan Shiti suddenly tucked a plastic bag, containing a bright-coloured shirt into her hands. Nuannuan had some idea about his intentions, so she tucked the bag back into his hands in a haste and said: "Thank you, Shiti. But I already have a shirt."
Nuannuan became more cautious about Zhan Shiti's advances afterwards. Her impression of him was not quite a good one. She remembered him with bad grades and bad habits of copying other students' homework. His family had money, yet he was reluctant about school. After spending his first year in high school, he quit to open the shop in the village. Because of his brother's position, he always picked up quarrels and fights with other people. Nuannuan told Kaitian about the shirt. Kaitian laughed: "He wants my wife! No way in hell!"
Nuannuan gave Kaitian a soft punch and pretended to be angry: "Who promised you a wife? You wish!"
One morning, Dad was still not up after Nuannuan had made breakfast. She thought Dad had overslept, so she went to ask outside his room. Mom, still weak and skinny, went out and said: "Dad wanted to get up but he felt dizzy. My guess is he got too tired."
Nuannuan went out to get the doctor from Mei's Pharmacy, but Dad stopped her, yelling from the window: "Don't spend money on the doctor! I'm just tired. All I need is a couple of days. You take the boat to the lake today. The boat cannot be idled. One idle day will cost us more than 10 yuan!"
Nuannuan did not hesitate: "Got it!"
She took the boat out after breakfast. It was windy that day. Waves rushed towards her, one after another, rocking the boat from left to right, up and down. But Nuannuan felt at ease.
She rowed the boat into the fishing area and stopped to put down the net. She was quite efficient. The large net was set to position after a short while. She sat down in the boat, waiting for the moment to haul. Nuannuan had been to the lake with her father ever since she was 4. Dad took her so that she would not bother Mom at home. He also wanted to lift her game so that she could inherit his fishing skills in the future. After the age of 6, Nuannuan understood Dad's intentions: he had no son, so she must be trained into a fisher and thus pass the family skills down. More than once had Dad said to her: "Once you have learnt this job, you are not afraid of any disasters. As long as the Red Lake lies here, we Chu family will survive."
Yet Nuannuan had never been keen …
Though she had not been practicing for some time, the first haul was satisfying. She got three silver carps, two grass carps, and a mullet. She did an estimation in her mind: they would weigh at least 4 kilograms all together. "My hands are still good and so is my luck. Dad, I'll show you my work of today!"
She put the fish into the water tank and arranged a second net …
