1983, Northeast China

Chapter 20 The Trading of Timber

As soon as Li Cheng stepped outside, the wind blew him so hard he almost turned back. The warmth inside hadn't even warmed him up properly, and half of his earlier bravado had been blown away by the wind.

He put his hands in his pockets, followed Chen Shi a few steps, and asked, "Chen Shi, is this really that big of a deal?"

What do you think?

"I only went to call for help because something sounded wrong." Li Cheng sniffed, feeling his nose hairs freeze together. "But I don't know whose child they were talking about."

"Nobody's saying for sure whose it is now."

Li Cheng turned his head and stared at him. "Stop trying to fool me. The way you all looked at me when I mentioned the girl from Northeast China."

Chen Shi didn't respond to that. He simply pulled up the collar of his cotton-padded jacket.

The snow on the village road hadn't completely melted. When Li Cheng occasionally encountered someone on the road, he couldn't help but hold his head high and take bigger steps, which puzzled the person quite a bit.

Chen Shi said, "Don't brag."

"I haven't said anything yet."

"You're already getting winded."

Li Cheng grinned, "I did something good, can't I even be happy about it?"

Chen Shi stopped in his tracks. "You yourself said that we haven't caught all the human traffickers yet. If you speak out now, what if they get desperate and start harassing someone's child? Who will be held responsible then?"

Li Cheng's smile faltered; he pulled his hand out of his sleeve, then shoved it back in. "I won't yell."

"I won't yell," he said.

"When you get to the brigade, just answer whatever Uncle Zhao asks. Don't add anything you didn't hear clearly, and don't omit anything you did hear clearly. Don't embellish anything."

"Okay." Li Cheng took a few steps with his head down, then suddenly realized something was wrong. "Wait a minute, Chen Shi, I'm older than you, you have to call me brother."

Chen Shi looked at him with a puzzled expression, wondering how this had come up.

"Why do you talk like my dad?"

Chen Shi swallowed back the words he was about to say. He had forgotten that this body was only seventeen years old, making it too easy for him to manage people.

Inside the brigade's quarters, Zhao Defa was already waiting.

There was an enamel mug on the table; the water had long since cooled.

Upon seeing Li Cheng, Zhao Defa didn't waste any words and went straight to the point, asking, "What did you hear at the commune? Tell me from the beginning."

Li Cheng was still confused. "Uncle Zhao, how did you know?"

"When I arrived at the commune, you had just left; otherwise, we might have bumped into each other," Dahai interjected from the side.

Li Cheng originally wanted to add a few more words about how clever he was and how he found people, but seeing Zhao Defa's dark face, he swallowed his words back.

"I didn't have money for the bus, so I took shelter from the wind behind a small restaurant near the commune. It was warm there, so I thought I'd squat there for a while."

Zhao De asked, "How many people?"

"Three, maybe four." After saying that, Li Cheng remembered Chen Shi's words and quickly corrected himself, "I saw three clearly."

Zhao Defa nodded. "Continue."

"They said they had arranged to pick someone up at the lumberyard, but the person didn't show up. They even cursed at someone, saying they took the money and didn't do their job."

Zhao Defa's eyelids twitched. "Who did you curse? What was their name?"

"I didn't hear clearly." Li Cheng frowned. "There was a wall between us, and the kitchen was making noise, so I really didn't hear it accurately."

"What else did you say?"

Li Cheng repeated what he had heard: pockmarked face, dog-skin hat, red cloth headband, little girl... As he finished speaking, his voice grew softer and softer, "I felt a chill run down my spine, so I quickly went to find the people from the commune."

Zhao Defa picked up half a piece of cardboard from the table and pushed it in front of him. "Take a look, do you recognize it?"

Li Cheng looked down for a long time, his ears turning red, "I... can't recognize them all."

Chen Shi took the paper and read it aloud for him, "Fifty yuan deposit, girl, timber road..."

Li Cheng's earlier elation at having accomplished something significant has completely vanished. He had always thought he had done something big, and it turns out it really was.

"And the child they were talking about..."

"Shut up," Zhao Defa said.

Li Cheng immediately shut his mouth.

Zhao Defa paced back and forth in the room a couple of times, picked up his pipe, and then put it down again.

At this point, the matter was beyond the control of the village itself.

Han Changgui sold his child, Tian Guizhi acted as matchmaker, and there were outsiders waiting to take over in the timber industry. Going deeper, it's possible that there was more than just Yaya as a child.

Zhao Defa's face was very grim. He put the cardboard back and placed it under the enamel mug. "This matter ends here. Don't utter a single word about human trafficking. Don't alarm people or thieves."

He then turned to Chen Shi, "You too, don't be impulsive, protect your home."

Chen Shi hummed in agreement.

"Dahai will go to the commune again later," Zhao Defa continued. "Tell them to send someone over as soon as possible. Before the police arrive, all we can do is keep an eye on the children and Tian Guizhi, and make sure they don't escape."

Chen Shi asked, "Where is Tian Guizhi now?"

"She's in her own room." Zhao Defa rubbed his temples. "I've asked Dahai's wife and Old Liu's family to keep an eye on her from a distance. If she goes out, we'll see where she goes first."

Li Cheng couldn't help but ask, "Why not just arrest her?"

Zhao Defa glared at him. "I'm the captain, not a policeman. Based on half a piece of paper and a few words I didn't hear completely, who am I supposed to arrest? If you really push her too far, and she kills herself at the brigade headquarters, are you going to take responsibility?"

Li Cheng shrank back; he couldn't bear the responsibility.

"There's one more thing," Zhao Defa said, picking up his pipe and then putting it down again. "Shizi, your family can't afford to wait any longer."

"I was thinking of going to Laopaozi to find something to eat. It's close by and quick to get there and back," Chen Shi said.

Zhao Defa nodded. "Just make sure you have your own ideas. If you really run out of food, take some from my house. We don't have any good food, but we still have some cornmeal."

"We don't have a net at home anymore, so we'll have to borrow some tools," Chen Shi said.

"I have one at home. You can pick it up when you go back. It's a bit worn out, and it hasn't been used in a long time. Let Li Cheng go with you. He's a chatterbox and has long legs. If something really happens, he can run back and call for help."

Upon hearing this, Li Cheng immediately perked up. "Shall I go with Chen Shi to break the ice?"

"What? Can't do it?" Zhao Defa looked at him.

"Capable!" Li Cheng immediately patted his chest. "I'm full of energy."

Chen Shi glanced at him.

His lips still hadn't regained their color; if he were to swing the pickaxe at the ice, he wouldn't last long.

When Chen Shi left the brigade, every household in the village had already started cooking. He took a broken fishing net and a pickaxe from Zhao Defa's house, and also picked up two old urea bags.

Li Cheng had been holding it in the whole way, but when they were almost home, he finally asked, "Chen Shi, the little girl they were talking about, is it Ya Ya?"

Chen Shi nodded.

Li Cheng tripped over a clod of frozen soil and almost fell over. "Well, this time... I wasn't just messing around."

He found out, but he just couldn't figure out what was going on.

"So, watch what you eat."

"We'll control it, we definitely will."

The gate was still bolted. Yellow Ears lay at the entrance, and when it heard footsteps, it wagged its tail and came over.

Ya Ya peeked through the crack in the door and saw that it was Chen Shi before opening the door.

"Uncle, you're back."

Chen Shi responded.

Aunt Wang kept asking her all sorts of questions, and Chen Shi only said a few words about what he could say.

Ya Ya squatted down next to the tattered net and asked, "Uncle, are we going to go fishing?"

"Hmm." Chen Shi leaned the pickaxe against the wall. "We won't go far, just to the old pond next door."

I want to go too.

"Not this time," Chen Shi said. "Next time, your uncle will go check if the ice is thick enough and if there's anything there. I'll take you next time, okay?"

Ya Ya patted Huang Er's head, "Okay, I'll guard the gate with it."

Yellow Ear flicked its tail, indicating agreement.

Li Cheng squatted down beside it, picked up the tattered net and examined it. "This net is so porous, it's like a sieve. How can it still catch fish?"

"It can be fixed by patching it up."

"Who will fix it?"

Chen Shi tossed him a wad of old hemp thread he had just found, saying, "You."

Li Cheng stood there dumbfounded, holding the hemp thread. "I just got back."

"Your second aunt's cooking is excellent. Let's see how much you've learned."

Aunt Wang, who had been praised, chimed in from the side, "Can't you get to work now that you've just gotten back? Even if you can't make a fortune, you can at least make a mess of things."

Ya Ya covered her mouth and laughed.

Chen Xiulan also came out, first touching Ya Ya's hand, and then together they buried themselves in sorting through the old threads, picking out the usable ones one by one.

Li Cheng held the old hemp thread and clumsily tried to thread it through the mesh, but he couldn't get it right no matter how many times he tried.

Aunt Wang was furious and slapped him on the back. "Are your eyes even there to breathe? You've patched up such a big hole crookedly."

Li Cheng coughed after being slapped, and muttered unconvinced, "My hands are frozen."

"You just breathe on your skin when you're frozen; you're always making excuses."

Ya Ya squatted down beside him, watched for a while, and then whispered a reminder, "That line goes this way."

Li Cheng took a closer look, and it really was true.

He looked a little embarrassed. "I was letting you win."

Ya Ya laughed so hard her shoulders were shaking.

Chen Shi leaned the pickaxe against the wall, touched the tip, and found it was slightly curled. It could still be used to break the ice, but it was difficult.

The urea bags hung deflated on the nails, fluttering lightly.

"Uncle, will it be full of fish tomorrow?" Ya Ya asked, looking at the bag.

Li Cheng eagerly replied, "Yes, of course! When your Uncle Li Cheng makes a move, the fish will line up to jump into the bag."

"Fix the mesh properly before you start blowing." Li Cheng received another eye roll from his mother.

Chen Shi glanced at the pale sky, then weighed the old iron pickaxe in his hand. "We'll know once we take a swing tomorrow."