Since being Xuhua’s boyfriend,Chungen was like a different man. At home, in the production team, he always rushed to do everything. Even it was still early from the dawn, he couldn’t sleep any more. Fearing he would wake up Chunyu, he didn’t light the lamp. After groping blindly in bed, he finally got dressed. It was good that he knew where he put the gowns and trousers before going to bed every evening. Chungen put his in a place, Chunyu in another. They didn’t mix them. It’s easier to find their shoes because they put them in front of their own bed. On the east was Chungen’s cloth shoes, on the west was Chunyu’s. After he put on his gown and trousers, Chungen stretched both his legs towards down the bed, his toes touched the shoes. The big toes of both feet arched, the whole feet went into the shoes, then the heels ground, the shoes were ready to go. Chunyu was still sleeping, but vaguely felt that his elder brother was doing something, so mumbled, “What are you doing without sleeping?”, then went on snoring.

    Chungen had a quick and simple wash of himself before going to the Tofu mill in the rear yard. He lit the lamp in the kitchen, looked at the soybeans dipped last night. Taking a few of them to grind in his hand, he wanted to see how did the dipping go.

    These were soy beans, raw materials for tofu and pigments. The villagers picked them up from the ridges and unoccupied places, put them in baskets, went to sell them, peddling along the street, “We sell soy beans, ——”. People who wanted to buy some opened their door, sticking out their head, wringing their neck, asked, “How much for one jin?” The seller would sure offer a price, but the buyer always wanted to force price down, after the bargaining, some would buy some, others would not.

    The green soybeans just went on the market, they were popular. Peeled soybean seeds could be fried or boiled with tofu, they were seasonal pickles, fresh and good to eat. Peeled seeds with afterbirth from shells were the best. When cooked, they were fresh and delicious. When old, they were not fresh any more. However there was a special cooking method in the village, very tempting. To eat soy beans, just went to the ridges in the fields, picked them up, did a little bit trimming, not peel them into seeds, washed them with shells, then poured them into the pan, added proper salt, clear cooking. No additives. When done, ready to eat. With a sip of lips, seeds came out of the shells, carefully chewed, they were tender and fresh. This way of eating was pure natural. The soy beans were still green, but the soup was clear: fresh.

    When soy beans became old, peeled, you would see their round and yellow seeds. These were used to make Tofu and pigments by the villagers. Tofu mills were popular in the countryside. On ordinary days, when they had guests, they would go to the store to pick up some pieces of tofu, buy some pigments. It was good enough to entertain the guests. Every year in the last month of lunar calendar, the tofu store became very busy. Mostly the villagers brought their own soy beans from their home, asked the store owner to process them into tofu and pigments. They paid some processing fees. They would eat them during the Spring Festival for about one month. It was a good deal.

    Right now, Chungen looked at the soy beans in the tank, they were dipped enough, ready to put in the stone mill. He picked up some of them, put close to the hole on the mill. Then held the grinding shelf, turning left and right. When the stone mill moved, it gave out rubbing sounds of “Whoa, hey……”. He was grinding soy bean milk. This was a necessary production procedure to make tofu and pigments. Chungen added more beans to the hole as he pushed the mill round. In a while, between the two millstones, milky white soy bean milk flew down. Usually, it needed two people, one pushed and ground, the other added dipped soy beans from the tank into the hole of the stone mill, not too many at a time, not only because the mill hole was small, but also because the quality would become worse if not well- distributed with too many. With poor quality of the soy bean milk, everything would be worse. The Tofu and pigments would not be good to eat. This time,Chungen was doing it alone by himself, so he didn’t do it quickly, neither could he. It was still early, no hurries.

    When Chungen ground enough soy bean milk, his father bowed in, “Why did you get up to work so early?” The old gentleman’s words were always elegant, but the children in the family understood him. He took over the long handled wooden scoop, adding soy beans to the mill hole. “I couldn’t fall asleep.” Chungen muffled as if he was having a cold. “Sleepless? That’s because you think too much, which  is not good. It was only a secret look. We won’t know it’s successful or not until a  formal blind date was done.” Anran gave him a preventive inoculation. He heard  some rumour in the village. How could his father not hope it wouldn’t be successful?  He was worried more than Chungen. But as his father, he couldn’t show his worry on  the face. Chungen was anxious to marry Xuehua. It was understandable to get a wife  at the age of 26 years old. But nothing could be exaggerated. Have you ever heard  of the saying”More hope, more disappointment.”? Thinking like this, Anran decided  to discourage him/pour cold water on him. “When will be our formal blind date?” He asked, worrying about his own marriage. But he didn’t stop grinding although  he was worried. “A few days ago, I sent Duck Li to ask, but no replies yet.” “Duck  Li was fond of eating. She wouldn’t give you a reply if you didn’t host her a meal.” Chungen understood what his father said.

    After talking more in irrelevant matters, the father and son had ground enough soy bean milk. It’s getting light. Chungen began to braise milk pot. Anran started to prepare for adding bittern in a moment. Adding bittern was a skilful job in making tofu and pigments. Too much would make them become tough, too little would be impossible to make them. It would be a joke if they were all made into bean curd. Anran never failed for the past years. He could even stir up a piece of bean film on the milk before adding bittern. That was the best of the products, made from the pure bean oil on the milk. He could only stir up two pieces of that in one pot of milk. The bean films were very precious. When sold in the shop, they were charged by pieces. Normally, if they were so precious, why didn’t they get more pieces for sale? Anran was never a man with an eye to money. He didn’t do such things. He knew that stirring up bean films took out the best ingredients out of tofu and pigments, too much would lower their quality. Just because they were specialized in making tofu and pigments, they were very serious. They were well-known and sold well. Not only the local villagers, but also people from the neighbouring villages would come to buy and eat. They were not only sold in the shop, but also in the neighbouring villages by boat.

    Mostly Cuiyun rowed the boat, sold tofu and pigments. Chungen and Chunyu got them onto the boat. Tofu was kept in water and pigments were wrapped by the white cloth when they were pressed. When everything was ready, Cuiyun would paddle a wooden oar, going alone. Her voice was heard on the River, “I am selling Tofu——pigments——” “Tofu——pigments……”

    Rowing along the river, she sold tofu and pigments. In a moment she came to  the neighbouring waters. When villagers who wanted to buy saw her, they would  shout, “Hello, stop your boat for a moment, get me two square pieces of tofu.” “Ok.  Here you are.”, she replied as she put the boat at the pier. Taking over the porcelain  bowl from the villagers, she picked up a few square pieces of tofu from the wooden  barrel, put them into the bowl. Picking up tofu was a delicate thing to do because  tofu was different from other things, they were very tender, kept in water. You had  to be light-handed when you picked them up, taking advantage of the buoyant force.  Otherwise it would break. Also better put them in the container with water for the  buyers, otherwise they would break easily. Next time when the buyer met you, they  would say, “The two square pieces of Tofu I bought from you had become bean curd  when I took them home.” Generally speaking, there would be no problem if you kept  them in water. Buying tofu by “Square pieces” was their habit. Most of the time,  they would buy more than two, or four, or more sometimes. “Two square pieces” was only an approximate number for them. Cuiyun did this regularly, she understood  what they meant, so whenever she docked her boat before them, she would confirm  with them, “How many pieces?” The buyers would sure tell her the exact number. If she decided by herself to give them two, she would mostly be wrong.

    Cuiyun sold outside. Anran was certainly responsible to sell at home. Tofu was sold by piece,pigments by weight. It was common for the villagers to pick up a few pieces of tofu, one jin of pigments when they had guests and some events at home. The quality of tofu and pigments in Anran’s mill was very good, especially the pigments were made very thin, around 12 pieces in one jin. The old gentleman knew very well in mind, he would get the right number of pigments according to the weight the buyer wanted to buy, put them in the scale, exactly accurate. The buyer would be happy to take them home to entertain guests. At the end of the day, Anran’s tofu shop would sell about one hundred jin of soy beans, sometimes more than that. He had to tell them, “Come early tomorrow. We are sold out.”

    Duck Li traveled back and forth between the two villages of Xianghe and Yang’s for the matchmaking of Chungen and Xuehua. In her own words, the feet were getting old with callosity / callus by running too much. It didn’t seem easy to be a matchmaker by being lazy and fond of eating good food.

    “Oh, my dear. The time for the blind date was finally decided.” Duck Li sat at the big table in the big hall-room of the Liu’s, with her legs crossing each other, telling the good news to the master Anran and the elder son Chungen. “That’s great, that’s great.” Anran said, but was thinking of how many people would be invited for the event, how to entertain the guests in order to leave a good impression. Chungen really became excited, hearing that Yang’s family would formally come and and “have a look”. You could see that his hands didn’t obey him when serving tea to Duck Li. “Your tea, please.” He kept silent after this short sentence. At this moment, Cuiyun came in from the rear room, took off grass chips from her, said to Duck Li with a smile, “Drink this hot tea. You have worked so hard for my elder brother. I am good at making this egg tea. Help yourself with it.” In the Xianghe area, egg tea was only offered to VIP. The life in the rural was poor. The family didn’t bear to eat the eggs laid by the hens even raised by themselves. The daily expenses mostly depended on these eggs. They would sell these two jin of eggs for half a month in the store, buy things such as foreign oil, matches, salt, soy sauce, and other such things.

    Right now, Duck Li was enjoying the egg tea, thinking highly of Cuiyun, “Hum, the tea is wonderful. Cuiyun is a talented girl. I heard someone had introduced you a PLA man. Otherwise I will find you a boy friend.” Then she turned to Anran, complaining, “It’s very difficult to deal with Xuehua Yang’s family. I have been there a thousand times, tried my best to talk them into agreement.” “I know, I know.” Mr. Liu nodded with a smile, not bothered by what she said. Then asked, “On what exact date will they come to our house?” “July 2, just before the beginning of autumn as they will be busy harvesting.” It seemed to her no opinions solicited from Liu’s family as this was an arrangement of “a girl has a look at a man”, naturally decided by the girl’s family.

    As the sayings went, a girl deserved a nice man as husband. Although there was a serious preference for boys in the countryside, it was not always the case. In order to find a husband for their own daughter, the girl’s family was usually very picky about the man, including his appearances, job, financial situation, etc. In this area, it was a necessary step for a formal visit by the girl’s family to the man’s after negotiations by the matchmaker between the two parties about a possible marriage. In the earlier years, except proposing a marriage by pointing to the tummy and child bride, according to the local customs, both the girl and the man couldn’t meet each other before the wedding, no matter whether they were adults. All the communications between the two families were done by their senior families’ mutual visits. There was a common joke about a shepherd boy, whose cattle ate the pig weeds on the sly from a girl’s basket, then they had a quarrel and fight, but when they were stopped by some known seniors, they found out they were originally engaged.

    At a formal visit to either party, it was very particular who were selected to go, not everyone was qualified. Generally speaking, people, selected and represented to make the formal visit, must be respectable, a good talker and well authorized. No matter by either party, they were usually mother, sister, sister-in-law, aunt, so called “Three or six aunts”. They were very experienced, careful, serious and knew what were the most important things to check out for the girl. It must be serious and careful because this had something to do with the happiness of the girl’s or the boy’s whole life.

    Things to be checked out at the formal visit included the following:

    Three things about the girl or the boy:

    No.1, Appearance——good-looking, beautiful or ugly?

    No.2, Morality——any bad reputation or evil doings? Such as theft, adultery, etc. Especially, if there was adultery, that was regarded as “harmful to social morals” and the marriage proposal would be rejected.

    No.3, Ability——for a boy, to see if he could write and count, with some schooling, was good at farming, hard-working, not lazy, especially he couldn’t be addicted to gambling and spending all his money without saving and become a black sheep; for a girl, to see if she was good at doing needlework and sewing, cooking, skilful, a good housekeeper, be never fond of fighting and scolding, otherwise, she would become an evil woman in the future.

    About the parents and the girl or the boy: One thing was very important, i.e. to check out if their “details”were clear. More exactly, body odor. Although the villagers were not well educated, straight and direct, they were very respectable at important occasions, not to say body odor, but “details” in order to show their culture. Body odor was regarded as the worst enemy in the marriage. Once with body odor, she or he was supposed to have unclean “Details”, commonly called “Big sleeves”. Who would marry her even if she was as beautiful as a fairy? Neither would she marry him even if he was very rich? Because body odor was genetic.

    About both families: First, if they were wealthy. The older generation was particular about a marriage between families of equal social rank/ marrying into a proper family. It wouldn’t work out with big difference. However, there were sure some exceptions. Since “A girl deserves a high match”, the boy would not care too much about her family conditions if he really liked her. No one was perfect. Secondly, if the family was decent. Among local families, there were few men who married into, lived in his bride’s house, so the man didn’t care too much about the girl’s family customs. But if the girl married, lived into the bridegroom’s house, she did hope to live a peaceful and harmonious life. What worried her most was to see the mother-in-law always kept an eye on her as if she was a thief, the husband’s sisters fomented trouble, took advantage of her, which was called “Three sisters make trouble for the sister-in-law, it would become terrible even if it was a good family.”

    No matter how many things and requirements, if you wanted to “Look”, you  could always find out what you were interested in. The most difficult thing to “l(fā)ook” was about the girl or the boy. If it was for the man to “l(fā)ook” at the girl, the girl had  to hide in order to avoid being regarded as “Cheeky”. If the other way round, for the  girl to “l(fā)ook” at the man, the man didn’t have to hide, except the man had obvious  defects. The Liu’s family was looking forward to the “l(fā)ook”. Duck Li told them  about the exact date, the Liu’s family had to agree, to make good preparations for it.

    It would have been better as it was in the past when the girl and the boy couldn’t meet each other until they got married, as neither of them could go back on their words, what was done couldn’t be undone. Well, over ten girls and women came from Yang’s Village for the formal visit, they ate, drank, noisy and polite, then left. Chungen had hoped that a pressure removed from his heart. Next, he would prepare for the presents to give on the Middle-Autumn Festival, to hold the wedding at Spring Festival at the beginning of the new year. It would be perfect to do it in one smooth breath, to strike while theiron is hot①.

    “Chasing the festival” here was different from “l(fā)ooking”. It meant to get married. The presents were different from that at ordinary times, called “Com- municating presents”, which actually meant that the boy’s family wanted to get

    A Chinese idiom, meaning act at good opportunity or while circumstances are favorable.married, asked the girl’s family if they agreed to the proposal. Locally there were two sorts of communications: One of them was that the boy’s family used presents as a hint, another was explanations through the matchmaker after giving presents. Thus this “Communicating presents” were necessary. They were usually given at Mid-Autumn Festival. Besides the regular presents for the festival, you had to add special presents of a pair of geese if you wanted to get married in the new year. According to the local customs, geese showed the son-in-law would be loyal, the crowing of “Gawo, gawo,” of geese sounded like “marry me, marry me.” in Chinese pronunciation. The girl’s family would understand the intention of the boy’s family.

    It was often said that the culture was different in a village even next to each other. It was true. Belonged to the same River of Lixiahe in North Jiangsu Province, in some places the communicating presents were not geese, but a pair of ducks, meaning obviously “Held in pledge by your son.”. You wouldn’t be able to leave the family with your son. It was said that giving ducks were popular in the areas of Gaoyou and Chu County. They wanted to beheld in pledge with a son even before getting married, it seemed to be a little bit too earlier, the local people had too much emphasis on family succession.

    Since the time when they saw the presents of geese from the future son-in-law  at Mid-Autumn Festival, they knew their girl would soon become a family member  of her husband. If they agreed, they would accept one of the two geese or ducks,  otherwise, return both of them. If they would not accept the presents, never give up.  Sometimes, it might be a strategy. It depended on what the girl’s families said, such  as “The girl is still too young.” “The girl can earn lots of work points for the family.” and other such things. It’s just an excuse to ask for betrothal gifts, deliberately  raising the girl’s value. As long as they told the boy’s family about it through the  matchmaker, give face to the girl’s family, it would be no problem to get married  soon. You could start to choose the best date for the wedding, “Giving the date of wedding”.

    Chungen was feeling happy by counting his chickens before they hatched. But then words came, which was so funny: Xuehua fell in love with Chunyu. Anran was so worried that he wandered around the hall-room. “A great joke. It’s so embarrassing!” Chungen became drooped like a frosted eggplant. Chunyu looked ignorant, didn’t know what to do. Duck Li stood in the hall-room stamping her feet, cried out, “Look what I’ve done! Look what I’ve done!” Now, she wasn’t able to cross her legs any more. Instead, Cuiyun tried to ease the situation. “Well, this is not your fault. What did Xuehua want? My elder brother Chungen had gone to her for a “l(fā)ook”, and she agreed for a formal visit. Now she said she fell in love with my second brother Chunyu. What if I had a third brother?” “You didn’t understand. The brothershe “l(fā)ooked” that time was your second brother, but it was your first brother at the formal visit. She had been admitting your second brother, otherwise she would not agree.” Duck Li ostensibly passed the buckby what she said, meaning it was not because of her fault in match-making, but because of the problem of the two brothers. “What had happened?”

    Cuiyun was made in the dark①, turned around to ask Chunyu and Chungen about this. Chunyu had never thought that he was chosen by Xuehua when he went to help Chungen with the “l(fā)ook”. He would not take a fancy on her because he had always had Qin Yatou in his heart.

    People from Yang’s Village came for the formal visit, she “l(fā)ooked” at Chunyu instead of Chungen. This news soon got around very fast in Xianghe Village like having wings. It was a big blow for Chungen, all in vain. It didn’t help no matter how worried Anran became. Cuiyun wasn’t able to help much. Chunyu couldn’t say anything. It was a mess at home, He was afraid that he might make things worse.

    More than that, two more people were made nervous. That’s strange, why did other people get nervous about Liu’s trouble? Anyway, there was a reason for it. Qin Yatou had a date with Chunyu the next evening. The villagers talked a lot about her, which made her very nervous. She felt uneasy, was anxious to meet and talk with Chunyu.

    It was getting dark. Chunyu and Qin Yatou met each other as expected in the empty classroom in the elementary school. With the experience in the cotton field last time, he became more skilful. With her response, he hugged her into his arms. He smelled a special fragrance from her which made him become horny. Chunyu quickly put his tongue into her mouth. The two tongues, like two small fish in a river, one closely clung to the other, sometimes turned round, sometimes sucked, enjoying a kind of unspeakable beauty. After a while, they both became hot and excited.

    Chunyu unbuttoned her upper gown, put his hands on her chest, taking care of the two curly nipples. Chunyu could hardly imagine why Qin Yatou had such round, soft and smooth nipples, touching and rubbing. Qin Yatou murmured, “Chunyu, I am yours.” “Yes, yes. You are mine. I want you.”. Chunyu hugged her deadly tight into hers. “I don’t allow you to love others, only me.” “No, I won’t. No others, only you, my Qin.” “Do you mean what you say? Don’t coax me!” “Yes, I do.” The two young people went on kissing, which made them becoming hot like a fire. Chunyun obviously felt his dick getting hard, eager for action. Qin Yatou’s nipples were getting more and more swelled by rubbing. Her body felt a desire that she had never had before. Both of them were ready to take action, tacitly taking off their trousers together. Qin Yatou stood straight against the wall, feeling that strength of pressure from him. Qin Yatou felt nervous but excited knowing what’s going to happen. Chunyu was searching in the darkness, his rocking-hard dick raised up high looking anxiously, finally, Qin Yatou felt her legs hot, couldn’t help touching it, sticky. “Is it yours, Chunyu?” She was totally inexperienced, couldn’t make sure whether it was hers or Chunyu’s. She asked, thinking naively. “I don’t know, either.” Chunyun was feeling so horny at this moment. He felt that he had found the right place, but didn’t enter yet, like a reallayman. He seemed to be in a flurry, couldn’t get it right. “Try again.” Qin Yatou held his dick tight in her hands, offered her body forward closer to him. She knew Chunyu failed in the first try. She wanted to encourage her lover, help him succeed. She knew how anxious he longed for success, in the same way she hoped to succeed from her heart. With joint efforts, Chunyu’s dick was finally sleeping in her happy harbour. She forgot the initial pain, holding his loving man tightly. Their bodies got stuck against each other. She felt a kind of happiness which  she had never had before. A strange feeling was going through all over her body, fancying she was holding her own child. She didn’t feel nervous as before. Wet, hot and sticky liquid was flowing out from between her two legs. But she didn’t do anything, only hoping Chunyu would stay peacefully in her arms. She didn’t even notice when her nipples were sucked in his mouth again. Chunyu was not crazy any more, he got perfectly succeeded and satisfied, gently sucking his loving girl’s nipples, feeling peaceful all over like a drunk man. Tears came into his eyes, dropping onto her face. “Are you crying, Chunyu?” “I will love you and stay with you for all my life, Qin.” He cried because he was so grateful, but he didn’t explain. “Now, I feel relieved. Some rumour said that Xuehua liked you, would marry you. I was very worried just now before I came.” Qin Yatou finally thought of the purpose of meeting him today. She didn’t have time to ask what she wanted to know about. Now it was not necessary. In this empty and dark classroom, two young hearts became rich and bright, bursting out splendor, leaped up.

    Another person who became nervous when Xuehua Yang took a fancy to Chunyu was the secretary Xianghuan. At that time, when Chunyu graduated, Xiangyuan immediately arranged him to be a substitute teacher. That was not a random decision. In his opinion, Chunyu was a man of striking appearance, with good schooling. It would be ideal if he could become his son-in-law. He did make a few discreet inquiries with his daughter Shuimei. She was very fond of him. Thus Xiangyuan thought that would be easy since Shuimei had no objections, how could Chunyu refuse? It would be a blessing for Chunyu if he married Shuimei. What a beautiful thing it would be to become his son-in-law! Shuimei was white, with a beautiful face and nice feature. A good match with Chunyu. Moreover, how could Chunyu become a substitute teacher without his help?

    Originally this was a sure thing like taking the dish in the bowl, but he didn’t expect it would turn yellow, meaning it became impossible. Xiangyuan didn’t think of Chunyu not to appreciate his favor, not worth bringing forward. He didn’t want to be his son-in-law, not because of Xuehua from Yang’s Village. No, Chunyu told him before Xiangyuan courageously with sufficient reason. He loved Qin Yatou in Grandma Three’s family. How could he talk about loving someone before him shamelessly? Now he felt Chunyu had a dirty brain, neither did he learn from good examples. Love was nonsense. It couldn’t betaken as food and money. Since you were not thankful, don’t blame me for being unkind. As the old saying went, you could go to heaven by the road in front of you, but you wanted to go to the hell even without a door.Wait and see, Chunyu. You would pay for what you did. He didn’t believe whoever in Xianghe Village could escape from the palm of his hand. After talking with Chunyu in the school, Xiangyuan sat in the hall-room, smoking drearily. He didn’t take it when his wife Qiao Guanzi offered him tea. He didn’t say anything when Shuimei talked to him. This made the mother and daughter dare not make a sound. Xiangyuan got really angry. He was too shy to tell the two women,he could not say it. He failed in front of an inexperienced boy, entirely. He felt very uncomfortable with this anger in mind. Although he was smoking drearily, his brain was working continuously hard. At last, he hummed to himself, “Chunyu, since you didn’t obey me, I would make you feel hard. See you will suffer a lot soon.”

    No one ever thought that Chungen had gone to the Northeast China. Talking about the Northeast, Er Kuazi would feel sad. He had dreamed of going back there, but didn’t tell anybody. Grandma Three didn’t know about it. Neither did his wife Duck Li. Let alone Qin Yatou and Agen Huo. Things were hard to predict. Er Kuazi thought, longer for it, but didn’t manage it, while Chungen went there alone without a sound. This gave a surprise to the villagers.

    Xuehua felt ashamed when she knew that Chungen had gone to the Northeast. Without telling her families, Xuehua bought some tea and snacks from the commission store in Yang’s Village, came to Chunyu’s house. The Liu’s family didn’t knowhow to face this embarrassing situation. Being at the same age, Cuiyun came out to host her. Xuehua sat at the big table in the hall-room, drinking her tea. Anran got a cold after being angry with this. He had recovered from the sickness, but as Xuehua came, he didn’t want to meet her, so he slept in bed. Chunyu even felt guilty and sorry for his brother, so he didn’t want to meet her, either. What’s more, Xuehua had spread the word that she was fond of Chunyu, which made him feel more embarrassed. He refused Xiangyuan’s daughter only for Qin Yatou. How could he like Xuehua? So he made up his mind not to meet her so that both of them wouldn’t feel embarrassed. So as soon as he heard that Xuehua was coming, he hid himself in Er Kuazi’s store, playing games with Qin Yatou.

    Xuehua was drinking tea, turning round once in a while, looking out to the door. Cuiyun knew that she was expecting Chunyu to come back home, to talk with her, even one sentence would do. She was not ready to go back without any results. She was bold enough to expose herself in public as a girl. How could Chunyu be so impolite not meeting his guest at home? What did he want? It wouldn’t be so hard to meet and talk. If you had known it would come to this today, why should you have done that in the beginning? Why should she offer herself to be “l(fā)ooked at” in Yang’s Village while Chunyu hid himself, avoid meeting her? Xuehua thought for a while. It seemed to her she would not see Chunyu today. What’s the meaning of staying here? Better go home. She didn’t believe she would see him again unless he would disappear in this world. If so, she would give up. So she rose up and said goodbye to Cuiyun. She looked here and there while she was leaving. What if Chunyu came home at this moment? She was a infatuated girl, turning round a few times as she left. Cuiyun felt really sorry for her when she saw it.

    Cuiyun became sentimental after seeing Xuehua off in the Dragon Lane, came home. Why weren’t the affairs of men and women in the world peaceful and beautiful? Thinking of herself not too young, someone introduced her a PLA man, but just a casual communication, not a formal matchmaking, not even had a formal meeting. She wasn’t sure of what kind of fate she would have, neither did she know what kind of man she would marry.