Chapter 20: The Rising Tide

Feng Chunhua hurried back without giving any response.

But when she reached her own doorstep, she didn’t go inside. Instead, she ran straight to Hua Daling’s house next door.

She shouted furiously, “Hua Daling, get out here!”

Hua Daling was in the kitchen preparing dinner. Hearing Feng Chunhua’s voice, she walked out to the yard unhurriedly. “Feng Chunhua, you’ve been let out? What are you yelling for? Don’t you know to knock when you come to my house?”

Feng Chunhua’s eyes were blazing with anger as she demanded, “Did you say something to that brat Chu Xuan? Did you forget what you promised me?”

Hua Daling immediately raised her hand as if swearing an oath. “Heaven and earth as my witness, I swear I never told Chu Xuan your secret!”

This was overheard by Chu Zhi, who was standing outside the door.

He blurted out, “Ma, what secret do you have?”

How come he didn’t know about this?

Could it be that what Chu Xuan said was true?

His eldest brother wasn’t actually his biological brother?

If that was the case, would his brother’s death compensation be taken back?

Feng Chunhua glanced at Chu Zhi and pointed to the doorway. “You stand guard there. I need to talk to your Sister Hua about something important inside.”

Chu Zhi quickly promised, “I’ll keep watch, don’t worry!”

He was burning with curiosity.

Once Hua Daling and Feng Chunhua went into the main room and closed the door, Chu Zhi didn’t obediently stay by the gate. Instead, he quietly crept up to the window of the main room.

“What’s going on? Judging by the way you’re coming at me, did your granddaughter find out your secret? I never told her that her dad isn’t your biological son.”

“Hua Daling, keep your voice down! Back then, your mother-in-law blackmailed me for twenty jin of white flour with this. Now that she’s dead, you’re the only one who knows. If it wasn’t you who told, who else could it be?”

“Chu Xuan did ask me once if I knew your secret. But I told her I didn’t. Maybe she overheard you talking in your sleep…”

“That’s possible. If she only heard me talking in my sleep, I’ll never admit it! Hua Daling, you’d better keep your mouth shut! Otherwise, I’ll come to your house for twenty jin of white flour!”

“Don’t worry! Even if you put a knife to my throat, I won’t say a word.”

Hearing this, Chu Zhi hurried back to stand by the gate.

When Feng Chunhua came out, they went home together.

There was no food left at home. For dinner, they could go to the village office for a free meal one more time, but after today, every meal would require an IOU of twenty cents per person.

Feng Chunhua was reluctant to spend money; all she had left was the ten yuan her brother Feng Ti had given her.

“Xiao Zhi, tomorrow morning, you and I are going to the old house to block the door. I refuse to believe we can’t get food out of Chu Xuan!”

Chu Zhi couldn’t help saying, “Ma, if Chu Xuan finds out that Big Brother isn’t your biological son, not only will she refuse to give us food, she might even take back Big Brother’s death compensation.”

“You little brat, eavesdropping…” Feng Chunhua secretly braced herself and went on, “That brat Chu Xuan was just trying to trick me today! She has no proof your big brother isn’t my biological son! Let’s go eat at the village office first, then get a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow morning, we’ll go block the door for food!”

Meanwhile, Chu Xuan had already arrived at Gao Meijuan’s house.

Gao Meijuan was hanging up laundry. Seeing Chu Xuan come in, she greeted her kindly, “I was just about to go to your house after I finished with the laundry. Now that you’re here, I don’t have to make the trip. You guessed right about Feng Chunhua and her son being released. The Feng family pulled some strings, and Chu Dashan took all the blame, saying he threatened Chu Zhi and Feng Chunhua to rob your house. Feng Chunhua and Chu Zhi also changed their statements…”

Chu Xuan wasn’t surprised at all. “Grandma Gao, today I discovered a secret about Feng Chunhua. My dad probably isn’t her biological son. Hua Daling definitely knows, but she won’t say. Could you help me look into the circumstances of Feng Chunhua giving birth back then?”

Gao Meijuan agreed without hesitation. “My mother-in-law should know. I’ll go to town right away.”

Wang Depin’s eldest brother had a steady job in town, and his mother lived with him, enjoying her retirement. She rarely came back, so Gao Meijuan and the others usually went to visit her.

Chu Xuan said gratefully, “Thank you, Grandma Gao!”

“What’s there to thank? I haven’t visited my mother-in-law in half a month anyway. I’m off. Help me lock up the house, will you? Shasha should be at your place, right? She has a key, so tell her to come home and cook dinner.”

“Okay!”

After watching Gao Meijuan ride off, Chu Xuan locked the courtyard gate.

Back home, she packed a big bowl of fried greenling fish and ten mixed-grain steamed buns for Wang Shasha before sending her off.

At six in the evening, the construction crew finished work.

The yard was neatly stacked with unused red bricks, cement, and the like. Now that there was a tall courtyard wall and a big iron gate, there was no worry about thieves.

After seeing the workers off, Chu Xuan and Chu Feng tidied up the yard, reviewed their first-grade textbooks, and then went to the kitchen for dinner.

There was leftover seaweed egg drop soup, fried greenling fish, and mixed-grain buns from lunch. They ate a quick dinner, Chu Feng cleaned up the dishes, and Chu Xuan grabbed a flashlight and her tools for collecting seafood, then headed to the beach…

By the time she got there, the tide was going out.

There were plenty of clams on the beach, but not many people picking them.

Chu Xuan was puzzled. Usually, there were lots of people gathering clams—what was going on tonight?

She shone her flashlight into the distance and saw that most people had gone over to the rocky area.

That was the spot Chu Xuan had been frequenting these past few days. With so many people there now, even if there was good stuff, she might not get any.

She decided to gather half a bucket of clams first—she could stir-fry them for lunch tomorrow.

Half an hour later, she finally filled half a bucket and straightened up, rubbing her back.

Carrying the bucket, she walked toward the water. Shining her flashlight, she spotted a dead mackerel weighing about two jin (a kilo). She picked it up and checked the gills—it was still fresh, so she tossed it into her bucket.

Just then, a transparent, umbrella-shaped creature washed ashore. Chu Xuan saw that it was a jellyfish.

She didn’t touch it. She didn’t like eating jellyfish, and it was a hassle to prepare—if you weren’t careful, you could get poisoned.

She skirted around the jellyfish and kept going.

She found two ugly fish, each as big as an adult’s palm.

They were filefish.

In those days, this kind of fish wasn’t worth much—sometimes just a few cents per jin.

But nutritionally, they were as good as any other fish: sweet and tender meat, delicious flavor, and a big liver that could be used for fish oil.

The skin was tough and contained a bit of toxin, so you had to skin them before eating.

Chu Xuan saw that both fish were still fresh—she could steam them tomorrow.

Actually, filefish made great grilled fish jerky, but with only two, it wasn’t worth the trouble.

She searched for another half hour but didn’t find anything good. The tide was coming in, so she prepared to leave.

Suddenly, she spotted a sea bass over forty centimeters long, weighing about twenty jin.

At 1.5 yuan per jin, catching it would net her about thirty yuan.

Chu Xuan was tempted.

She put down her bucket, grabbed her hand net, and waded into the water after the fish. The water was just over her calves.

Compared to the fish, her net was a bit small.

She tried once and missed.

Spotting it again, she made another attempt, but it got away.

The tide was rising, and the water was over Chu Xuan’s knees.

It felt like a shame to give up now.

The higher the tide, the livelier the fish became."