Siheyuan: Sizhu starts blindly and takes a new path

Banggeng tossed and turned on the kang, his forehead burning like a piece of charcoal. He vaguely heard Maya get up quietly, and then the creaking sound of the door hinge turning. It was still dark outside the window, and the rooster had not yet crowed.

"Dad, the firewood is burning badly. Can we..." Maya's voice came faintly from the yard, with a cautious tentative tone.

"Pretending to be sick! You were still full of energy yesterday!" Tie Niu's loud voice made the window paper rustle.

"Brother, you are not pretending..." Maya was so anxious that she almost cried, "His body was so hot that it could make pancakes, and he was talking nonsense in the middle of the night..."

Banggeng struggled to open his heavy eyelids and saw Maya's thin figure standing in the yard in the dim morning light, twisting the corners of her clothes with her hands. The three brothers Tieniu surrounded her like three iron towers, their faces gloomy.

"Let him rest for a day." Captain Li came out of the house smoking a pipe, tapping the pipe on the sole of his shoe. "If he really dies of illness, it will be embarrassing for our Li family."

Bang Geng felt relieved and fell into a deep sleep again. After an unknown amount of time, he felt someone gently wiping his face and neck. The cool towel brushed against his hot skin, and he sighed in comfort.

"Boss, drink some hot water..." Maya lifted his head and placed the rough edge of the ceramic bowl against his cracked lips.

Banggeng sipped the warm water and finally saw Maya's face. There were dark circles under her eyes, obviously she hadn't slept all night. Liuxu was sleeping quietly in the swaddling clothes behind her, her little mouth moving up and down, as if she had dreamed of something delicious.

"You...why didn't you go to the fields with them?" Banggeng's voice was hoarse as if it had been rubbed by sandpaper.

Maya put the bowl on the edge of the kang and said, "Dad asked me to stay at home to look after you." She paused and added, "And there are willow catkins."

Banggeng stared at a thin crack on the beam and suddenly felt his eyes burning. He recalled all the bad things he had done to Maya in the past six months - he scolded her when he was in a bad mood, beat her when he was drunk once, and forced her to work in the fields while he was lazy during the busy farming season...

"Ma Ya..." Bang Geng's throat tightened, "I was... sorry to you before."

Maya paused for a moment and continued twisting the towel: "Don't talk about this, let's get rid of the fever first."

After swallowing a bowl of bitter medicine that made him sick, Maya fed Banggeng a few spoonfuls of sugar water, which was originally reserved for Liuxu. Banggeng fell asleep again. When he woke up again, it was already afternoon. The house was quiet, with only Liuxu's occasional babbling coming from the outer room. He propped himself up and sat up, and found that his forehead was no longer hot.

Through the gap in the door curtain, Banggeng saw Maya sitting on a small stool beside the stove, looking at the medicine pot on the stove while gently shaking the catkins on her back. Her face was red from the stove fire, and beads of sweat oozed from her forehead.

Banggeng's heart suddenly felt like it was being tugged at by something. He thought of his mother, Qin Huairu, who worked the hardest job at the steel mill to support the three siblings and had to wash clothes all the time when she got home. He once swore that he would never let his woman suffer, but in the past and now...

"Ma Ya." Bang Geng lifted the door curtain, his voice still a little weak, "I'll take care of the medicine jar, you take a rest."

Maya was startled and almost fell off the small stool: "Why did you get up? Go back and lie down!"

"I'm much better now." Banggeng walked over and clumsily untied the willow catkins from her back. The little girl was sleeping soundly, and she groaned twice in dissatisfaction when she was moved.

Maya stood up at a loss: "Are you...are you really okay?"

Bang Geng held his daughter in front of the stove, looking at the steam coming out of the medicine pot: "Well. Tomorrow...tomorrow I will go to the fields with my eldest brother and the others."

Maya's eyes widened, as if she had heard something incredible.

"Really." Bang Geng looked down at his daughter's face, not daring to look up at Maya's expression. "I...I will work hard in the future and be nice to you and your mother. Let's live a good life."

Maya suddenly turned around, her shoulders trembling slightly. Banggeng knew she was crying, but he didn't know what to say, so he could only pat the catkins in his arms stiffly.

That night, Banggeng took the initiative to help Maya fetch water, and he also tried to clumsily coax the crying Liuxu to sleep. Maya looked at him as if she were a stranger, with surprise and cautious expectation.

The next morning, before Tieniu came to knock on the door, Banggeng got up on his own. He put on his clothes, heated up the corn cakes left over from yesterday, and ate two with cold water.

"Are you really going to go to the fields today?" Maya asked uncertainly while hugging Liu Xu.

Banggeng nodded: "Yes. You stay at home and take good care of Liuxu. Don't get too tired."

When the three Tieniu brothers saw Banggeng waiting at the door, they looked as if they had seen a ghost. Tieshuan even reached out and touched Banggeng's forehead: "Is the fever gone?"

"Okay." Bang Geng lowered his head and said, "What do we do today?"

The three brothers exchanged glances, and Tie Niu snorted, "Go to the south slope to weed. If you can't hold on, just tell me, don't pretend to be sick again."

The corn on the south slope had grown to waist height, a patch of lush green. He divided the stalks into a row of fields, and bent down like an iron pillar, weeding the weeds around the corn seedlings. The sun gradually rose higher, and sweat flowed down his spine, but he gritted his teeth and didn't stop.

"Oh, has Jia Geng changed his personality today?" Wang Laowu, a villager passing by, was leaning on his hoe and looking at Bang Geng in surprise.

Tieshuan raised his chin proudly: "We brothers are well trained!"

Banggeng said nothing and continued to dig forward with his hoe. The blisters on his palms burst and it hurt like hell, but he endured it without complaining. During the lunch break, he wolfed down the steamed bread that Maya asked Tiezhu to bring him, and even took the initiative to fetch water from the stream for everyone to drink.

"Not bad." Tie Niu gave a rare evaluation, "Continue in the afternoon."

The afternoon's work was to carry manure to the fields. Banggeng imitated Tieshuan and filled the manure basket to the brim. Then, holding his breath and gritted his teeth, he carried the manure to the fields one trip at a time. The rope left blood marks on his shoulders, but he did not dare to miss a trip.

On the way home after work, Banggeng's legs felt heavy as if they were filled with lead, but he felt a strange sense of satisfaction. When he passed the entrance of the village, several elderly people who were enjoying the cool air pointed at him, but their eyes were no longer contemptuous as before, but were filled with surprise and approval.

"The Jia family kid did a great job today!"

"It seems that the Li family's method is effective..."

Bang Geng walked quickly with his head down, but a long-lost sense of pride rose in his heart.

This went on for three days. Banggeng followed the three brothers to the fields every day. Although he worked slowly, he at least completed the assigned tasks. Maya looked at him with a softer look, and even boiled hot water for him to soak his feet at night. Liuxu seemed to have sensed the change in his father, and stopped crying in his arms.