The reeds on the side of the road swayed, clump by clump.
Walking along the small path through the reed marsh, the stone steps slowly came into view.
Green moss grew on the stone steps, with pine trees on both sides. Inside the pine forest was an open space.
In the open space was a tilting, half-collapsed tombstone.
It was an ancient graveyard that no one knew who it belonged to. Every Qingming Festival, no one came to clean it, but it was always there.
This was on the way to Shangxie Village Elementary School.
When Xiao Qi was little, she really liked coming to her grandmother's house, and would come almost every winter and summer vacation.
What she liked best was going to the elementary school in Grandmother's village to play.
Shangxie Village's elementary school was bigger than Gumula Village's. It had two sports fields while Gumula Village’s only had a small dirt field and a two-story building, with the teachers living in small houses next door.
But Shangxie Village's elementary school not only had ping pong tables on its two sports fields, it also had basketball hoops and running tracks. In little Xiao Qi's eyes, Shangxie Village's elementary school was like an amusement park, extremely fun to play in.
These were basically elementary school memories. After that, when Xiao Qi went to middle school and high school in the county town, she seemed to have changed rapidly.
She didn't really like running over to Grandmother's house anymore, or rather, she still liked going, still longing for Grandma and Grandpa's exceptionally preferential treatment, secretly feeding her delicious food, but she suddenly felt grown up, caring about some of the things her aunts and uncles said that didn't seem very nice to hear before.
She also realized that elders would treat people differently.
When she and her cousins on her father's side came to Grandma's house together, her aunts and uncles were a little more enthusiastic towards her cousins. Maybe it was just a little bit, but she sensed the difference very sensitively.
Her cousins weren't here this time.
Her big cousin got married and went to be a young auntie with her same-aged cousin from her second uncle's family.
Her second uncle's son said he was on vacation with his classmates and hadn't come back yet.
She wasn't very familiar with her two younger cousins from her third uncle's family.
Her young uncle had only been married for two years and didn't have children yet.
Xiao Qi remembered that when she was little, she did have some playmates at Grandma's house, children of Grandma's neighbors, but most were like her, only coming during the winter and summer vacations, and they lost touch after growing up.
After eating, the adults cleaned up. As a student still in school, Xiao Qi went out alone to wander around.
Unknowingly, she arrived at Shangxie Village's elementary school.
The walls were still the yellow she remembered, very beautiful in the sunlight.
But up close she discovered many worn patches. The two towering buildings she remembered as magnificent now looked like just ordinary five-story buildings.
Xiao Qi knew Shangxie Village's school left a door open during vacations. It wasn't the front gate, but a small back door. It looked latched from the outside, but was actually just pulled to. With a push, you could enter.
She remembered that during summer vacations there was an old man who watched the school, entering and exiting through the back door. He didn't stay at school all day but went out to work during the day as well.
At this hour, after lunch and before dinner, there was no one at school and the old man wasn't there either.
Xiao Qi went in and saw that the ping pong tables she remembered as brand new were now very old, with one table even half-collapsed, unrepaired.
The wooden basketball hoops were still there, with what looked like a new net above them.
Looking up at the basketball hoop, Xiao Qi had a little secret: she liked playing basketball.
But she wasn't very open about it.
In high school, every time she passed through the basketball court on the way from her dorm to the classroom, she enviously eyed those carefree boys running around and playing ball on the sports field.
She liked playing too.
Maybe it was because she had played with a ball once when she was little. She seemed to remember standing here watching people play, and someone bounced the ball over to her at her feet and she bounced it back.
Later she always came whenever there weren't many people around, sometimes even playing with the ball by herself.
That ball would just be lying there, like it was waiting for her.
This stirred hidden memories in Xiao Qi. There must have been a boy back then, maybe in middle school or not even in school yet, quite a bit older than her. Apparently even then she liked a certain boy, and she herself had forgotten about it over the years.
It was only upon gazing up at the basketball hoop that she suddenly remembered.
Xiao Qi sat under the basketball hoop. The sunlight shone on her; the country village sunlight did not feel hot at all but rather very comfortable, with a nice cool mountain breeze, not making her hot but perfectly refreshing.
She leaned against the basketball pole, unusually savoring this rare moment of tranquility.
No studying, no reading, no thinking, no cell phone.
Nor reminiscing about the past.
Just gazing at the scene before her, everything seemed peaceful and harmonious.
After a good while just sitting there by herself like she was simply spacing out, watching the shadow cast by the basketball backboard move a long way, Xiao Qi felt she should head back.
Night fell swiftly in the countryside; if she returned late her parents would be looking for her.
Xiao Qi got up and dusted off her bottom; there was hardly any dirt.
She slipped out through the small back gate, circled around to the front, and peered through the iron gate at the school grounds inside, looking as if no one had come by at all.
Xiao Qi walked along the stone steps on her way back. The setting sun cast warmth over the old graveyard to the side; everything was bathed gently in sunset hues.
As a child each time she passed this graveyard she felt it was creepy; it posed a considerable test of courage. Yet now it had also become a fond memory.
The nameless graveyard, seen daily by students passing to and from school, likely never felt lonely.
When Xiao Qi got back to Grandma's house, no one was home. Father must have gotten up too and they probably all went to big uncle's place.
Wisps of cooking smoke were already rising from each household's chimney, with chickens cackling and dogs barking. The big village was very lively as evening descended and lights came on all over; the very picture of daily life and vitality.
There weren't as many people as this morning gathered outside big uncle's house, and the scattered firecracker papers on the ground had been swept up. But there were still quite a few people, all family by this time.
Several uncles were chatting in the doorway while Xiao Qi discovered Father among them.
She greeted them and went into the kitchen, seemingly the battlefield for women.
Xiao Qi saw attractive young Auntie cooking over the stove. Young Auntie had an oval face with big bright eyes. She was still wearing a flowered skirt that exposed her knees, surely having applied mosquito repellant since otherwise the village mosquitos would feast all over her legs.
"Xiao Qi, come over here," young Auntie called.
Unlike Xiao Qi's slight shyness, young Auntie was very warm and enthusiastic, beckoning her to come sit by the burning stove and even giving her a hug around the waist.
Laughing, she exclaimed, "You get prettier and prettier!"
Xiao Qi had heard such praise many times today already.
She felt that in the past she must have made quite an ugly impression for everyone to emphasize it so much, or else hadn't left much of an impression at all.
Dinner was very plain, a big pot of rice porridge with several greens freshly picked from the vegetable plot, sliced cucumbers, and some leftover dishes reheated, though probably no one would eat those.
Come lunchtime, everyone already ate their fill.
For the evening meal it was basically just Grandma's family.
Sheng Juanhua left the family's chickens and ducks for neighbor Aunt Liu to keep an eye on for a day. Though she seldom returned home, this time with daughter and husband here, she felt more self-justified to impose than before, and wanted to stay the night.
With her own family members here, no one strongly pressured her to keep drinking. If she wanted a bit she could have some, otherwise she could just eat.
The aunties, especially bossy Big Auntie, still tried currying favor as was her usual wont, but being busy flying about with her daughter's wedding today, Xiao Qi hadn't yet suffered her maneuvering. Now with the family dinner though, sitting there watching Big Auntie arrange dishes, she sensed something subtly amusing.
After a hectic day, Xiao Qi pulled mother and father to sit on either side of her. But Big Auntie kept pushing the leftover dishes from the afternoon right in front of their space...
These kinds of little details in interacting with relatives could be quite awkward and frustrating.
Su Youfu as a man felt nothing much.
Sheng Juanhua knew what kind of character her sister-in-law was. Since it was her sister-in-law's family's big celebration today, Sheng Juanhua couldn't be bothered to say anything.
But when they were eating, she stood up and heaped a large pile of dishes onto a plate and set it right in front of her daughter.
There were no taboos about the family eating dinner together in the living room. Everyone ate there, with the big TV on for background noise to liven up the occasion.
The men drank up a storm in the afternoon while the women were just as lively drinking a bit in the evening too. Some of the unfinished wine bottles from this afternoon gathered together from tables here and there totaled two or three bottles worth that could be finished off.
Preparing for a girl's wedding required starting preparations a week ahead: figuring out how many people would come, buying ingredients, borrowing tables and chairs, and so on. A young daughter-in-law basically entered into this family and village by participating in one celebratory event after another like this.
The daughters-in-law tittered and drank happily while the men conversed unrestrainedly about everything under the sun.
Leisure after a busy time.
Sheng Juanhua had grown from a young girl into someone else's daughter-in-law. Whenever she came over, she would actively help with the chores. There was no choice, her husband's family was not well-off and could not afford helpers, so she could only do more work and talk less.
However, she was quite happy today. After getting married, this was the first time she had stood up to her talkative younger sister, although it had made her a laughing stock. Still, she felt thrilled inside.
Others poured wine for her, and she did not refuse.
Xiao Qi saw her mother pick up a glass tumbler with half a glass of liquor and down it in one go... Then someone filled up her glass again and she finished it off in one go too...
She glanced at her father. His glass had a beer which he slowly sipped bit by bit. After a long time, the level of beer did not seem to go down at all.
Her own glass had coconut milk. There was an unspoken rule not to let minors who were still schooling to drink alcohol.
They drank until past 8 pm, nearing 9 pm. Women really went wild when drinking, especially the daughter-in-laws in the village.
After days of hard work, it was time to relax and drink a little at the end of the day. No one said anything.
The men drank much less at night. They bantered and joked around. Mainly because women behaved differently drunk. They would not give anyone face and would still scold people fiercely outside, just like their normal selves.
Of course the men would gently chide them to drink less, just for appearance sake.
All the women were at one table. Su Youfu was a little worried for his wife and refused to leave the table, sitting there accompanying her thoughtfully and helping to add food to her plate.
Xiao Qi went to see what her grandmother was doing and helped out.
Just then, the TV announced the next program was "All The Way". The attractive opening sequence showed the female host Jiang Yiru.
"City folks are better. Dressing up nicely everyday, such beautiful clothes and slim figure."
Everyone chatter animatedly.
The men couldn't help looking at the TV too. Jiang Yiru was very famous in Lvshan City, the pride of Lvshan City even. She was a rare outstanding female host.
After the opening sequence were some advertisements, then the show started.
This program was quite interesting. It helped to liven up the dull village life. At this hour, many families would be home watching TV already. They often watched this show too.
But when the opening sequence was shown again, Jiang Yiru emerged confidently on screen. They realized with a shock that the young girl sitting next to Jiang Yiru looked extremely familiar...
The slightly tipsy Sheng Juanhua pointed at the TV and said, "Xiao Qi, why are you there? Come over here and sit next to mum."
The reeds on the side of the road swayed, clump by clump.
Walking along the small path through the reed marsh, the stone steps slowly came into view.
Green moss grew on the stone steps, with pine trees on both sides. Inside the pine forest was an open space.
In the open space was a tilting, half-collapsed tombstone.
It was an ancient graveyard that no one knew who it belonged to. Every Qingming Festival, no one came to clean it, but it was always there.
This was on the way to Shangxie Village Elementary School.
When Xiao Qi was little, she really liked coming to her grandmother's house, and would come almost every winter and summer vacation.
What she liked best was going to the elementary school in Grandmother's village to play.
Shangxie Village's elementary school was bigger than Gumula Village's. It had two sports fields while Gumula Village’s only had a small dirt field and a two-story building, with the teachers living in small houses next door.
But Shangxie Village's elementary school not only had ping pong tables on its two sports fields, it also had basketball hoops and running tracks. In little Xiao Qi's eyes, Shangxie Village's elementary school was like an amusement park, extremely fun to play in.
These were basically elementary school memories. After that, when Xiao Qi went to middle school and high school in the county town, she seemed to have changed rapidly.
She didn't really like running over to Grandmother's house anymore, or rather, she still liked going, still longing for Grandma and Grandpa's exceptionally preferential treatment, secretly feeding her delicious food, but she suddenly felt grown up, caring about some of the things her aunts and uncles said that didn't seem very nice to hear before.
She also realized that elders would treat people differently.
When she and her cousins on her father's side came to Grandma's house together, her aunts and uncles were a little more enthusiastic towards her cousins. Maybe it was just a little bit, but she sensed the difference very sensitively.
Her cousins weren't here this time.
Her big cousin got married and went to be a young auntie with her same-aged cousin from her second uncle's family.
Her second uncle's son said he was on vacation with his classmates and hadn't come back yet.
She wasn't very familiar with her two younger cousins from her third uncle's family.
Her young uncle had only been married for two years and didn't have children yet.
Xiao Qi remembered that when she was little, she did have some playmates at Grandma's house, children of Grandma's neighbors, but most were like her, only coming during the winter and summer vacations, and they lost touch after growing up.
After eating, the adults cleaned up. As a student still in school, Xiao Qi went out alone to wander around.
Unknowingly, she arrived at Shangxie Village's elementary school.
The walls were still the yellow she remembered, very beautiful in the sunlight.
But up close she discovered many worn patches. The two towering buildings she remembered as magnificent now looked like just ordinary five-story buildings.
Xiao Qi knew Shangxie Village's school left a door open during vacations. It wasn't the front gate, but a small back door. It looked latched from the outside, but was actually just pulled to. With a push, you could enter.
She remembered that during summer vacations there was an old man who watched the school, entering and exiting through the back door. He didn't stay at school all day but went out to work during the day as well.
At this hour, after lunch and before dinner, there was no one at school and the old man wasn't there either.
Xiao Qi went in and saw that the ping pong tables she remembered as brand new were now very old, with one table even half-collapsed, unrepaired.
The wooden basketball hoops were still there, with what looked like a new net above them.
Looking up at the basketball hoop, Xiao Qi had a little secret: she liked playing basketball.
But she wasn't very open about it.
In high school, every time she passed through the basketball court on the way from her dorm to the classroom, she enviously eyed those carefree boys running around and playing ball on the sports field.
She liked playing too.
Maybe it was because she had played with a ball once when she was little. She seemed to remember standing here watching people play, and someone bounced the ball over to her at her feet and she bounced it back.
Later she always came whenever there weren't many people around, sometimes even playing with the ball by herself.
That ball would just be lying there, like it was waiting for her.
This stirred hidden memories in Xiao Qi. There must have been a boy back then, maybe in middle school or not even in school yet, quite a bit older than her. Apparently even then she liked a certain boy, and she herself had forgotten about it over the years.
It was only upon gazing up at the basketball hoop that she suddenly remembered.
Xiao Qi sat under the basketball hoop. The sunlight shone on her; the country village sunlight did not feel hot at all but rather very comfortable, with a nice cool mountain breeze, not making her hot but perfectly refreshing.
She leaned against the basketball pole, unusually savoring this rare moment of tranquility.
No studying, no reading, no thinking, no cell phone.
Nor reminiscing about the past.
Just gazing at the scene before her, everything seemed peaceful and harmonious.
After a good while just sitting there by herself like she was simply spacing out, watching the shadow cast by the basketball backboard move a long way, Xiao Qi felt she should head back.
Night fell swiftly in the countryside; if she returned late her parents would be looking for her.
Xiao Qi got up and dusted off her bottom; there was hardly any dirt.
She slipped out through the small back gate, circled around to the front, and peered through the iron gate at the school grounds inside, looking as if no one had come by at all.
Xiao Qi walked along the stone steps on her way back. The setting sun cast warmth over the old graveyard to the side; everything was bathed gently in sunset hues.
As a child each time she passed this graveyard she felt it was creepy; it posed a considerable test of courage. Yet now it had also become a fond memory.
The nameless graveyard, seen daily by students passing to and from school, likely never felt lonely.
When Xiao Qi got back to Grandma's house, no one was home. Father must have gotten up too and they probably all went to big uncle's place.
Wisps of cooking smoke were already rising from each household's chimney, with chickens cackling and dogs barking. The big village was very lively as evening descended and lights came on all over; the very picture of daily life and vitality.
There weren't as many people as this morning gathered outside big uncle's house, and the scattered firecracker papers on the ground had been swept up. But there were still quite a few people, all family by this time.
Several uncles were chatting in the doorway while Xiao Qi discovered Father among them.
She greeted them and went into the kitchen, seemingly the battlefield for women.
Xiao Qi saw attractive young Auntie cooking over the stove. Young Auntie had an oval face with big bright eyes. She was still wearing a flowered skirt that exposed her knees, surely having applied mosquito repellant since otherwise the village mosquitos would feast all over her legs.
"Xiao Qi, come over here," young Auntie called.
Unlike Xiao Qi's slight shyness, young Auntie was very warm and enthusiastic, beckoning her to come sit by the burning stove and even giving her a hug around the waist.
Laughing, she exclaimed, "You get prettier and prettier!"
Xiao Qi had heard such praise many times today already.
She felt that in the past she must have made quite an ugly impression for everyone to emphasize it so much, or else hadn't left much of an impression at all.
Dinner was very plain, a big pot of rice porridge with several greens freshly picked from the vegetable plot, sliced cucumbers, and some leftover dishes reheated, though probably no one would eat those.
Come lunchtime, everyone already ate their fill.
For the evening meal it was basically just Grandma's family.
Sheng Juanhua left the family's chickens and ducks for neighbor Aunt Liu to keep an eye on for a day. Though she seldom returned home, this time with daughter and husband here, she felt more self-justified to impose than before, and wanted to stay the night.
With her own family members here, no one strongly pressured her to keep drinking. If she wanted a bit she could have some, otherwise she could just eat.
The aunties, especially bossy Big Auntie, still tried currying favor as was her usual wont, but being busy flying about with her daughter's wedding today, Xiao Qi hadn't yet suffered her maneuvering. Now with the family dinner though, sitting there watching Big Auntie arrange dishes, she sensed something subtly amusing.
After a hectic day, Xiao Qi pulled mother and father to sit on either side of her. But Big Auntie kept pushing the leftover dishes from the afternoon right in front of their space...
These kinds of little details in interacting with relatives could be quite awkward and frustrating.
Su Youfu as a man felt nothing much.
Sheng Juanhua knew what kind of character her sister-in-law was. Since it was her sister-in-law's family's big celebration today, Sheng Juanhua couldn't be bothered to say anything.
But when they were eating, she stood up and heaped a large pile of dishes onto a plate and set it right in front of her daughter.
There were no taboos about the family eating dinner together in the living room. Everyone ate there, with the big TV on for background noise to liven up the occasion.
The men drank up a storm in the afternoon while the women were just as lively drinking a bit in the evening too. Some of the unfinished wine bottles from this afternoon gathered together from tables here and there totaled two or three bottles worth that could be finished off.
Preparing for a girl's wedding required starting preparations a week ahead: figuring out how many people would come, buying ingredients, borrowing tables and chairs, and so on. A young daughter-in-law basically entered into this family and village by participating in one celebratory event after another like this.
The daughters-in-law tittered and drank happily while the men conversed unrestrainedly about everything under the sun.
Leisure after a busy time.
Sheng Juanhua had grown from a young girl into someone else's daughter-in-law. Whenever she came over, she would actively help with the chores. There was no choice, her husband's family was not well-off and could not afford helpers, so she could only do more work and talk less.
However, she was quite happy today. After getting married, this was the first time she had stood up to her talkative younger sister, although it had made her a laughing stock. Still, she felt thrilled inside.
Others poured wine for her, and she did not refuse.
Xiao Qi saw her mother pick up a glass tumbler with half a glass of liquor and down it in one go... Then someone filled up her glass again and she finished it off in one go too...
She glanced at her father. His glass had a beer which he slowly sipped bit by bit. After a long time, the level of beer did not seem to go down at all.
Her own glass had coconut milk. There was an unspoken rule not to let minors who were still schooling to drink alcohol.
They drank until past 8 pm, nearing 9 pm. Women really went wild when drinking, especially the daughter-in-laws in the village.
After days of hard work, it was time to relax and drink a little at the end of the day. No one said anything.
The men drank much less at night. They bantered and joked around. Mainly because women behaved differently drunk. They would not give anyone face and would still scold people fiercely outside, just like their normal selves.
Of course the men would gently chide them to drink less, just for appearance sake.
All the women were at one table. Su Youfu was a little worried for his wife and refused to leave the table, sitting there accompanying her thoughtfully and helping to add food to her plate.
Xiao Qi went to see what her grandmother was doing and helped out.
Just then, the TV announced the next program was "All The Way". The attractive opening sequence showed the female host Jiang Yiru.
"City folks are better. Dressing up nicely everyday, such beautiful clothes and slim figure."
Everyone chatter animatedly.
The men couldn't help looking at the TV too. Jiang Yiru was very famous in Lvshan City, the pride of Lvshan City even. She was a rare outstanding female host.
After the opening sequence were some advertisements, then the show started.
This program was quite interesting. It helped to liven up the dull village life. At this hour, many families would be home watching TV already. They often watched this show too.
But when the opening sequence was shown again, Jiang Yiru emerged confidently on screen. They realized with a shock that the young girl sitting next to Jiang Yiru looked extremely familiar...
The slightly tipsy Sheng Juanhua pointed at the TV and said, "Xiao Qi, why are you there? Come over here and sit next to mum."
