Grandma Three died. Her funeral was indignity. But Er Kuazi knew that she was not satisfied with one important thing: she wasn’t able to see her grandson. Agen Huo was not reliable. But Er Kuazi married quite a few years ago, his wife hadn’t been pregnant, no kids. If he brought a hen home, it would lay eggs for the master. He brought a wife home, but she didn’t have a child. He didn’t knowhow to find out the reason.

    Normally, Er Kuazi was too busy with the store. He nodded to what his mother said, but never paid any attention afterwards. In his heart the woman in the Northeast was the one he loved. The one before him was just a woman to live with. But after this, his mother died so suddenly, as her son, he owed a debt of gratitude that he could never pay in his life. As the old saying went, there were three ways to be unfilial, having no male heirs was the gravest of the three cardinal offence against filial piety. Duck Li was a pestilent woman, who made me become a unfilial man. It seemed that he had to do something, I must have someone to succeed me in our Wang’s family.

    He was told that what he ate made up for his body organs. Er Kuazi thought that was reasonable. So he went to the butcher Wang Laowu’s  house by himself, quietly ordered the pig’s dick for a few days, saying they were for a secret recipe, as drug attractor, please reserve for him, exhorting him repeatedly, as if to complete a very important thing. It was done.

    Sure enough, the butcher kept his word, every evening after finishing his job, he  himself delivered pig’s dicks to Er Kuazi. “Brother, here are pig’s dicks you want.” “Have a cigarette. Drug attractor.” Er Kuazi quickly put a cigarette to his mouth to  stop him. Otherwise he would feel embarrassed if people knew he was taking this  kind of stuff. “Yes, haha, drug attractor for you.”

    After eating the pig’s dicks continually for a few days, Er Kuazi really felt  different from before. When evening came, there were no people in the store,  he would take his wife to bedearly, turned Duck Li over and again, having sex,  anxiously, in a moment, he was done. “Go to sleep. Let’s do it tomorrow evening.” Duck Li kindly persuaded him, as he was almost crazy, feeling unpleasant as she  was made uncomfortable in her lower part by Er Kuazi. “No. Let’s do it again after  smoking.” Er Kuazi took out a cigarette, lit it, sucked, spitting out a long puff of smoke.

    Duck Li felt strange, since he wanted to have a baby, every time they had sex, he would have the foreign oil lamp on the bedside desk, didn’t put it out. She tried to put it out, but he stopped her. “What’s wrong with him?” Duck Li scolded him in her heart, but could do nothing with her husband.

    This went on for several nights, Er Kuazi didn’t let off Duck Li, as if he was addicted to have sex, either asked her to open up her two legs to do a horse-riding, or asked her to bend down with her ass facing him for a back entry. Duck Li became tired of it, felt a little bit annoyed in the evening.

    Finally, one night she couldn’t bear it any more, taking him off her back, he fell down to the floor in front of the bed. “You have sex every day, I am tired of it. Go and find another woman, I don’t want it, anyway.”

    This made Er Kuazi so angry. He was disappointed, annoyed for no results after hardworking these nights. Now his wife refused him, took him off the bed. How could he forgive her? So he dragged out a cloth shoe nearby, beating her. Duck Li was naked, with nothing on. She couldn’t stand it.

    “I can’t live with you any more, you fucking man. How could you beat me so hard? I wish I was dead.” Duck Li looked wild and messy, with her hair hanging loose. “You bitch. You haven’t whelped these years. You thought you were in the right. If I don’t cure you of that, you would be at large.” Er Kuazi had a bellyful of repressed grievance, scolding his wife not whelping for many years. The villagers knew that was an insulting word, regarding her as an animal, only cow, pig, dog could be said as “whelping” .

    Not willing to suffer loss from her husband, Duck Li put on her clothes, went out. “Where are you going this late at night?” Er Kuazi said, but didn’t stop her. “I am going to commit suicide, then you won’t have any descendants until you die.” It was true that it was not a good fight, no good argument. Duck Li was fighting back against her husband.

    Now, Er Kuazi was sitting at his bed angrily, smoking for a break.

    “Someone has jumped into the river——”

    After drinking the alcohol “White Eggplant”, the watchers Laikou Huo, Sangouzi and Wanglaowu were about to go to bed when they heard some noise of water splashing in the river…… They thought something wrong happened. Wang Laowu was thinking fast, although a butcher, he was very quick-minded. He said to the other two, “Someone has jumped into the river. Let’s go and see. In this cold winter, she really wanted to kill herself by jumping into the river.”

    It was dark outside. The three of them ran to the edge of the Earth Field, but didn’t find anything moving in the river. If they couldn’t find her, things were in trouble. They had to look for her along the river, in this cold weather, she would be frozen to death even if not drowned. Only three of them were not enough, so they shouted out to the village.

    It was quiet in a winter night in Xianghe Village. The villagers had gone to their houses, the Dragon Lane was so empty. All of a sudden, someone was shouting, “Someone has jumped into the river!” All the windows were dark, but now the lights were lit bright. A human life was of greater value than everything. Those men in the families all got up.

    Er Kuazi realized something had happened to her. It must be his wife, who  really went to jump into the river. He quickly awakened Agen Huo and Qin Yatou. “Be  quick. Your sister-in-law has jumped into the river.” Three of them ran towards the  river, in a short while, tens of lamps were lightening up the quiet river. There were  big noises at the bank. “Who is it?” “It is Duck Li.” “What has made her to do so?” “It’ s common for a couple to quarrel and fight. Why did she take it so seriously to  commit suicide? Not worthy of it.”

    Er Kuazi didn’t have time to listen to what they were gossiping about because  he was so worried at this moment. He took Agen Huo and Qin Yatou together rowing  a small boat from the Earth Field straight to the river center, looking on both sides.  They couldn’t look far, clearly from the bank, but easier to find target from the center  of the river. Yes, Qin Yatou lifted up the lamp looking forward, the two brothers were  looking on both sides as they rowed the boat. “Look, there, under the willow tree.” Qin Yatou screamed, she found Duck Li holding that big willow tree squatting in the  water, not far from them. “Row fast, row fast,” Qin Yatou waved to the brothers. “She won’t die,” seeing her still alive there, Er Kuazi began to speak in a hard tone. When  the boat came to Duck Li, she was shivering, with her lips dark and purple. Seeing  the brothers and sister, Duck Li was trying to escape, but was caught on the wet  cotton jacket by Qin Yatou. “Brother, come to help me quickly, she would be frozen  to death.” She yelled to Er Kuazi. “He would rather I die, so that he would find the  woman from the Northeast.” Duck Li began to cry, looking sad. The people at the  bank all came this way. “She is found, she is found.” “It’s good that she isn’t dead.” The crowd was twittering, talking about it.

    Er Kuazi didn’t give up his efforts to make a baby just because Duck Li tried to commit suicide. Duck Li couldn’t do anything but to go to consult Shuimei as she was a bare-foot doctor, understanding something about getting pregnant. Shuimei told her that it depended on both the man and the woman. They had better go to hospital for a check-up, to see who had the problem. Reproduction was a subject of science, they couldn’t act rashly.

    In the evening, when Er Kuazi was smoking, Duck Li said to him, “Shuimei suggested that both of us go to have a medical checkup to see what was wrong with us. Otherwise we would have had some child.” Duck Li meant to get pregnant.

    Er Kuazi was not disappointed when he heard what his wife said, he thought that it was a good idea, no harm, so he agreed. Then he asked Qin Yato to look after the store, took the passenger boat to the county town with his wife. The diagnosis made by the doctor in the hospital surprised Er Kuazi, his semen didn’t work, so he couldn’t get Duck Li pregnant. The doctor also told him it would have been better if they came to get cured earlier, but now, a little bit too late. It would cost too much if they wanted to try. But what’s the meaning to do so? They were not easy to make that small amount of money by farming.

    This was no doubt a big blow to Er Kuazi, almost getting fainted, not knowing the directions. He became stupid, didn’t know what to do. He remained silent from the county town back to the store, didn’t talk much to the customers. He looked like a different man when evening came, not moving up and down, he didn’t even touch Duck Li.

    After a few nights like this, Er Kuazi said, “I can’t have no male heir of the Wang’s family. I don’t care what you do, go and get pregnant.” Duck Li was astonished. She did hear that some men in the rural areas were sterile, asked their wife to have sex with another man to get pregnant, it was called “the Surrogate Woman”. But Duck Li had never expected this would happen to her. Thinking of herself, except for the hobby of matchmaking, she had nothing to be criticized by others. She was a decent woman with moral integrity. Although some wives liked to have sex with other men, she didn’t, she looked down upon them. Now she had to become a woman to be looked down upon. Duck Li couldn’t tell what it was like in her heart. Taking over the money Er Kuazi prepared for her, holding a cloth bag with some clothes in hand, She went out.

    Someone made every effort to have a baby, but didn’t. Xiangyuan didn’t want a baby, her daughter Shuimei gave birth to a child.

    According to Shuimei, her imminent labor time would be in the beginning of Spring, but this little baby couldn’t wait to come to this world, she went into labor, prematurely gave birth. The baby weighed almost ten pounds, “whoa, whoa” kept on crying as soon as it was born.

    Shuimei thought it over, it might be because of anger with his father a few days ago, accidentally moved the nausea. It wasn’t a glorious thing for an unmarried girl without a husband to have a baby in her mother’s house. They couldn’t hide the baby. Xiangyuan was shamed of it, feeling embarrassed. Therefore, he could do nothing but drive her out of his house. That’s to say, they lived separately. Shuimei left home with her baby.

    Shuimei was busy making her wedding dresses for the winter, but now, no use. The other people who were going to get married in the first month of the New Year, were getting busy. Chunyu, Black Vegetable Melon and Genshui were busy “Giving the wedding date” while Xuehua, Qin Yatou and Agui were busy making wedding clothes.

    As the term suggested, “Giving the wedding date” meant the boys’ family selected the wedding date and wrote it on the red paper, delivering it to the girl’s house, to remind them of making preparations, to tell the relatives and friends to get “human relationship” ready(usually it’s money, sometimes clothes and other such things.), giving congratulations on the wedding. Wedding was regarded by the local people as big happiness, giving the wedding date as small happiness.

    The wedding date couldn’t be decided at random, it had to be carefully selected.

    In the early days, there were three ways to choose a white day: No. 1, Take incense, candles, paper money, go to the temple, praying for divination, better to get the best draw; No.2, Take a red envelope with money in, ask the fortune teller to calculate and select the best date for the new couple according to the five elements of heavenly stems and earthly branches; No.3, prepare a big meal with good food and wine, ask the locally well-known old-style private teacher to check out old yellow calendar/ almanac, finding out what should be avoided, then selected the best day. No matter what day was selected, one thing was for sure, it must be an even-numbered day, especially six was the lucky number. The villagers were very superstitious about having an auspicious day, or a daywhen everything was right. But now since people were revolutionary, few people were superstitious. Then again, with the local custom for tens of years, some people still believed it except the form of expression was different.

    Because it was small happiness, at giving wedding date, both the boy’s and the girl’s families were full of relatives and friends. The master must prepare good food and wine to host them, with a happy atmosphere before the wedding. Especially the boy’s grandparents were smiling. Sometimes a neighbor would meet them and say, “Congratulations! So you are going to have grandchildren,” The old people would answer humbly, “Thanks to you, thanks to you.” “Maybe a “Happiness at the door”, which meant that the bride got pregnant at the wedding night sleeping with her husband. The grandparents became very pleased at hearing those nice words with congratulations, “Thanks for your kind words.” The parents were really busy on that day. Although busy and tired, they got delighted with smiles on the face. But on the wedding day, all the attention would be paid to the bride and bridegroom, whether the bride was beautiful, how the dowries were, etc.

    One thing I almost forgot to tell, on the very day of giving the wedding date, people out of the family only saw the scenery on the surface. In fact, the night before, the “Thanks-giving dinner for the matchmaker” by the boy’s family was most important. It was not easy for the matchmaker to attend this dinner. Because this dinner not only expressed the master family’s satisfaction with rewards to the matchmaker for her hard work to go between, but also their hope that the matchmaker would coordinate if the girl’s family was still not satisfied with the betrothal gifts on the giving wedding date. That it would never fail to get married because of the insufficient betrothal gifts. Most of the matchmakers would be “Eat well, talk well”. “You can be rest assured, I have been gone through all kinds of situations, I have dealt with the most difficult families. Don’t worry. Let’s drink.” It was true that nine out often matchmakers were gluttonous. As long as the dinner  was sumptuous, they could solve the most difficult problems.

    About betrothal gifts, they were classified as the following three:

    No.1, cloth, mostly for the girl to be married, including cotton, lined, unlined. Rich families could prepare leather, but very few of them in the rural areas. Pieces of cloth could be more than thirty-six, less than twelve, generally twenty-four. There were varieties of texture, including local, foreign, woolen, satin, etc. The colors were mainly red and green, dark red and dark green were most popular.

    No.2, Jewelry. No matter rich or poor, it was necessary to have five gold or silver jewelries, including bracelets, ring, necklace, ear rings and chest chain, among which, the ring and earrings must be made of gold, the others could be gold-plated, or silver. Some fastidious family might have other things such as silver hair clasp, gold fork, etc. Get prepared to spend money! It would cost lots of money if the bride was all set up with gold and silver.

    No.3, Foods. Besides regular foods such as fish, meats, duck, chicken, tea snacks, cookies, cakes, a jar of quality alcohol must be prepared.

    At the very day of giving the wedding date, the above three variety of betrothal gifts must be delivered with red paper to the girl’s family. After that, the girl’s families began to get busy with the preparations for the wedding.

    As the last month of the Chinese lunar year came, the New Year was drawing near. The villagers in the Xianghe area began to get busy. But different families were busy with different things. For regular families, they didn’t have big events, such as getting married, celebrating seniors’ birthday, or the first birthday of a new-born baby, etc. Even so, they still had to make some preparations, more or less, for the relatives and friends to be guests. So they took some soybeans to Anran’s tofu mill, had them made into tofu and pigments. Or took some polished glutinous rice and white rice to be ground on a stone grinder, to make rice cakes or cookies for the New Year.

    At this moment, Anran’s tofu shop and Er Kuazi’s commission store became very busy. People were hurrying to and fro, for original material processing in the tofu mill, doing Spring Festival shopping, they were seldom generous to spend like this, it was the only time after busy working for a whole year. Most of the villagers had smile on their face, spending part of their work point money in the shop and the store.

    The families with happy events in the first month of the Chinese lunar New Year would be much busier. Beside the regular things to prepare, they had to kill a fat pig. Someone would ask how you could kill a pig as you wished. As a matter of fact, these special families had prepared for that since the beginning of the year when they bought the piglet. Kill one big pig, keep enough meat for the event, sell the rest of it to others to make some money to spend for the event. At this time, the two people were very busy. One of them was Wang Laowu, the butcher. It was natural that many families asked him to kill pigs; The other one was Agen Huo, the assistant to the butcher because they were members of the distant relatives with the same family name. He helped Wang Laowu to kill pigs. The master family wouldn’t treat them shabbily. Agen Huo helped boil hot water for the killing, put a bottle of barley alcohol beside the killing table. These days people saw the two of them with red face and alcoholic mouth. If someone asked, “Which family were you guys busy at killing pigs? Drink a lot, right?” “At Hunchback’s. Black Vegetable Melon is going to get married. Since Hunchback isn’t at home, Xiangyu is only a woman, we have got to help her.” What they said was reasonable, the others had to nod with agreement. Then,taking their tools, went to the next family to kill pigs.

    It was agreed a few days ago that Wang Laowu came to Anran’s to kill the pig. When the two came to the house, put down their tools in the backyard, the old gentleman had already boiled a big pot of hot water, ready for them to start. As it was in their own house, Chunyu and Cuiyun stayed at home. For one reason, they must help, for the other, this was a big event, how could they leave their father alone at home? Chunyu went into the pigsty with the two to catch the pig. “My gosh, your pig was fed with bean curd dregs, so it is fat.” Wang Laowu was an experienced butcher, after all. He made his comments about the pig as soon as he stood in front of the pigsty. “Chunyu, hold it, then catch one of its ears, Agenhuo will catch the other, I will take its tail. Then let’s work together when I ask you guys to act.” Wang Laowu made specific divisions of labor before catching the pig. It was after all raised at home, Chunyu pretended to scratch the pig where it itched, the pig soon calmed down. Wang Laowu saw it was ready, “Let’s do it.” He cried out. The three men took the pig out of the pigsty without difficulty. To take it away from its place, the pig was reluctant, so the fat pig was struggling to get away from their hands. Wang Laowu didn’t pay attention to it, asked the two guys to hold and press tight, took out two linen ropes, tied up the four legs of the pig. Cuiyun had a big bench ready, under which was a big wooden basin for the pig’s blood. He told the two guys to bring the pig to the bench,took out a sharp knife. He pressed tight the pig’s mouth so that it couldn’t scream. Within a few seconds, he put the knife in the pig’s throat. Blood came pouring down into the basin. The pig was dead.

    Just now, when they took out the pig out of the pigsty, Cuiyun looked at it, saw the hair beside the two big eyes became wet. Cuiyun couldn’t bear it, tears rolled in her eyes, she hated to look at it any more, running into her small room to get calm down. Normally she fed the pig, day by day, it grew so big, but now they would kill it, too cruel. She couldn’t stop them, but to leave and hid herself in the room crying.  

    During the day, Cuiyun felt sad at seeing the pig killed, but in the evening she became very happy when she made cookies and cakes, laughing with her mouth wide open. The whole family gathered around the big table, stirring and mixing flour, kneading the flour into balls, steaming them hot, she could even try some of them fresh from the pan. Seeing her so happy, Chunyu said, “Have you got something so funny?” “I won’t tell you about it.” “Our father will have a daughter- in-law in a few days.” She went up to Anran, said. “You silly girl, making fool of your father?” Looking at his own girl, running back and forth, busy, he felt pleased, smiled. Thinking of those days when she was trying to kill herself by hanging, he was almost heartbroken. Originally he thought Cuiyun was the most obedient, well educated and reasonable, but she didn’t save him from trouble. All the three children made him suffer a lot. Without the help of his dead wife, he took too much energy to raise them up. Now it’s time for them to get married with their own kids. He would take a break to enjoy himself. But what would it be? He suffered more than he could.

    At present, everything seemed to be okay. Chungen was out, let him be. Cuiyun had gone through her difficulties, in a happy mood now. She was not raped by someone, not a big thing. She was beautiful, no worries about getting married with a good husband. A while ago, someone introduced a soldier from Wang’s Village. He would come home to see his parents from the army in the first month of the Chinese lunar new year, arranging a meeting by both sides. Chunyu also had met with lots of trouble, but finally settled. To be honest, Qin Yatou was very likable, but Xuehua was also good, with white skin and nice figure, more beautiful than Qin Yatou. Sorry for Qin Yatou, what could be done about her? God made fun of her. The fate played a trick on her.

    When every household was preparing for the Spring Festival, the village became busy, too.

    The acting secretary Tan was thinking of becoming the full official name of it sooner by making Director Wang satisfied. He had hoped to catch the chance of Cheluhe Project, but the incident of Genshui with Qin Yatou made Director Wang very disappointed. Thanks to the compromise of the girl’s family, it didn’t cause bigger problem of being raped. Otherwise, on such a huge work site with more than 200, 000 people, not only the Xianghe Village, but also the commune would lose face. Secretary Tan got annoyed that he didn’t take advantage of the Cheluhe Project. Now the Spring Festival was approaching, why not organize the cultural propaganda team well, taking them to make a ceremonial call on the New Year to the commune on Chinese new year’s day, then to do Dragon and lion dance at Director Wang’s house to wish goodluck? He must be very pleased. As long as he was happy, it would be easier for Tan to get the full official name of the secretary. As he was thinking of this, Tan became happy, finally found the right way to make up for the bad impression upon Director Wang at the Cheluhe Project. It should be great to do this, Tan encouraged himself.

    In this area, most villages had their own cultural propaganda team. It was the right time as the Spring Festival was coming, all the people, old and young, wanted to see something happy and exciting. Cultural and amusing activities might help. The old people would say, in the old days, they set up platform in the open air, gave drama shows. It had been many years since the villagers started to watch traditional cultural performances. But what the acting secretary Tan wanted to do had a little bit different meaning from what it used to be.

    To organize a team, the most important thing was to find a leader. The leader could not only play music instruments and sing, but also lead the members well. He should be good at managing people and able to control people. Tan thought about this by counting his fingers, at last, decided that Chunyu was the right one to be the leader. The young man was good-looking, with a good character and the highest schooling in the village. He was good at playing and singing, but rarely showed off, was a teacher before, there should be no problem. With the leader ready, it would not be difficult to find some ten young girls and boys to be members.

    The acting secretary Tan went to Chunyu’s house for a talk. Chunyu had to agree for the sake of the secretary. The pupils were at winter vacation. The two classrooms were used by Chunyu as rehearsal room. Three girls or boys were selected from each of the seven production teams, twenty in all. Some could play ErHu some could play the flute, some could play drums, some could play Dragon and lion dance, some could sing and dance, …… Anyone selected must be good at doing something. Cuiyun and Qin Yatou were among them, they were key members.

    Most of the lyrics were written by the team leader. All of them for the team in Xianghe Village were written by Chunyu. He knew the most important thing of the lyrics was to keep abreast of the current situation. Tan especially told him to write about praises and benefits of Learning from Dazha in Agriculture and Birth Control/ One couple one child policy. Chunyu did as he was told. The acting secretary told Chunyu once again that they must come up with some decent programs when paying a New Year call at the commune.

    It was not many days since Duck Li went out. The Spring Festival was drawing near. Where could she go? Even if she wanted to go to her mother’s house, what should she say when they asked her about it? She thought and thought, then she had a good idea. She came home. Er Kuazi asked her as soon as he saw her, “So quick? How was it?” “Don’t you trust me? I won’t be back if it’s not done properly.” Duck Li replied in a tough tone. Er Kuazi got relieved.

    One evening, while Er Kuazi got drunk and was in a sound sleep after drinking some barley alcohol, Duck Li went into Agen Huo’s bed. Agen Huo felt dulled, stupid with sleep. He was surprised to find someone beside him when he turned over, “Who is it?” “Shh, don’t cry out. It’s me.” Duck Li quickly put her hand over his mouth. Agen Huo got shocked after he looked at her carefully. With the clear light of the cold moon out of the window, he saw the face of his sister-in-law. What’s more, she was naked with nothing on. “Don’t blame me to teach you bad things, nor am I a blade. It was all because of your animal brother.” “Did my brother force you to do this?” Agen Huo subconsciously moved his body away from her so that he would not run into her naked body accidentally. Although he was popular and brave among girls and women, he became timid in front of his sister-in-law. “Domestic shame should not be made public. Since you are his brother, I have to tell you that your brother’s dick didn’t function well, his semen was of no use. Over these years we hadn’t had any kids because he had this problem. He didn’t want the Wang’s family to have no male heirs, he became crazy about it. I have got no problem with me, could get pregnant, so he forced me to go out to have sex with another man for a baby/ to be a surrogate woman.” Duck Li started to cry, feeling wronged.

    “I thought it over and again. It’s better to go “Benefits should always be kept for one’s own people” than to go out as a surrogate woman. If you can make me pregnant, the baby will be the offspring of the Wang family. Besides, you have been single for so many years, I will make you become a real man.” Since she said so much about her secret, she became nasty, seduced Agen Huo. She didn’t believe Agen Huo wanted to try her, but she didn’t know that Agen Huo had already had tasted it longtime ago.

    Hearing what she said, Agen Huo became braver, even if his brother found out, he would say it’s because he wanted his wife to be surrogate woman, none of my business. A free lunch, why not take it? His lower part began to react, getting hard, grasping her in his arms, working together with the upper and the lower. His mouth was sucking her nipples, his dick went into her vagina quite easily. Agen Huo felt her cooperating very well, with her two legs opened wide, in order for him to twitch back and forth. In a short time, Agen Huo couldn’t stand it, “Sister-in-law, I am cumming, I am cumming.” Duck Li held him tightly, pushed her lower body forward, saying, “Shoot, you will feel comfortable when you shoot all of them. I am waiting for them.” Encouraged by her, Agen Huo twitched harder for a few times, then ejaculated, lots of them, all of them. “I am tired to death.” he murmured, falling on her softly, motionless.

    At this moment, Duck Li looked more like a mother, holding Agen Huo, full of thanks. She strongly felt she was going to be a mother after tonight.