"A letter for me?" Su Qing paused, stunned to hear Zhao Youcai’s words.

"That’s right." Zhao Youcai said quickly. "It arrived a few days ago. Since you weren’t home, I kept it at the brigade headquarters. Now that you’re back today, you can drop off your luggage at home and come pick it up in a bit."

"Thank you so much, Brigade Leader. I’m sorry to trouble you on the Little New Year." Su Qing thanked him with a smile. "I’ll go over right now. Otherwise, you’ll have to keep waiting for me at the headquarters."

"That works too." Seeing the large suitcase Su Qing was carrying, Zhao Youcai offered, "Here, let me carry that for you."

"No need, I can manage." Su Qing wouldn’t dare let Zhao Youcai carry her suitcase. ’After all, it’s mostly for show. The bulk of my things are in my storage space.’

"Alright, let’s go then." Zhao Youcai nodded. "I can give you back the key to your courtyard while we’re at it."

"Okay. Thank you for all your hard work during this time, Brigade Leader," Su Qing said with a grateful smile.

After picking up the letter from the brigade headquarters, Su Qing said goodbye to Zhao Youcai. When she got home, one look at the return address told her who it was from. It was from Li Huan, the girl from Beijing she had met at the start of her journey. Looking at the postmark, she saw it was sent ten days ago. Tucked in with the letter was a slip for picking up a package.

Su Qing couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow. ’Li Huan actually sent me something!’

Su Qing tidied up the house a bit. Thanks to Zhao Youcai arranging for her courtyard to be cleaned, the yard and roof were spotless, with no accumulated snow. The only issue was a layer of dust inside the house, which had been empty for over two months.

Once the house was tidy, Su Qing was about to see what Li Huan had written in her letter. But before she could even open the envelope, she heard a knock on the courtyard gate.

Su Qing opened the gate and saw Tang Suqin, who was carrying a thermal container.

"Aunt Zhao." Su Qing quickly smiled and welcomed Tang Suqin into the courtyard.

Tang Suqin smiled at Su Qing and said, "I heard from my Old Zhao that you were back. Today’s the Little New Year, and since you just got home with your stove cold and all, you definitely wouldn’t have had time to cook. I brought you some dumplings. They’re still hot, so you should eat them soon."

As she spoke, Tang Suqin handed the thermal container to Su Qing.

Su Qing knew Tang Suqin’s kindness was genuine, so she didn’t refuse. She took the container and ushered Tang Suqin into the house. "Then I won’t be polite! Thank you, Aunt Zhao. Please, come in and have a seat. I’ll just put the dumplings in a bowl. Also, I have the New Year’s gifts I bought for you and the Brigade Leader, you can take them back with you."

Tang Suqin followed Su Qing into the house with a smile. "You came all this way back, why did you bring us gifts? They must have been heavy."

Su Qing laughed. "It’s just some local specialties from Chuncheng. They’re not very heavy."

With that, Su Qing went to the kitchen, transferred the dumplings from the thermal container into a large bowl, and washed the container before bringing it back to Tang Suqin. Then, she went to get the New Year’s gifts for the Zhao family.

There were some specialty pastries and candies from Chuncheng. In addition, Su Qing had also bought Tang Suqin a local scarf in Laxian. It was beautiful, with a unique ethnic style. "Aunt Zhao, I picked this out especially for you. I hope you like it."

"Oh my, this scarf is so beautiful." Tang Suqin fell in love with it at first sight. She carefully, gently stroked the fabric, worried her rough hands might snag it. She couldn’t help but sigh. "At my age, it’s such a waste for me to wear this."

"How could you say that?" Su Qing smiled, draped the scarf around Tang Suqin’s neck, and said, "Your complexion is so lovely. This scarf suits you perfectly."

Saying this, she took out a mirror for Tang Suqin to see.

Su Qing was right. Although Tang Suqin was a village farmer’s wife, she was naturally good-looking with fair skin, and she always kept herself neat and tidy. The scarf looked truly wonderful on her.

Tang Suqin looked at her reflection in the mirror, her eyes crinkling into a smile. She loved it, but she felt the gift was too expensive. "This scarf must have cost a lot, didn’t it?"

"Not at all," Su Qing said with a laugh. "I went to Laxian and bought it locally. It was handmade by the local people." 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

"Oh, well... in that case, I’ll accept it. Thank you, Su Qing. I really love it," Tang Suqin said, a little shyly.

"I’d be upset if you didn’t accept it," Su Qing laughed. "You and the Brigade Leader have helped me so much. I was worried my gifts weren’t enough."

"Oh my, these are all precious things you’ve given us. How could they not be enough?" Tang Suqin said, looking at the pastries and candies Su Qing had brought out. "You can’t even buy such fine things around here."

’Chuncheng... So far away. She figured she’d never have a chance to go there in her lifetime. Who would have thought she’d get the opportunity to taste pastries and candies from Chuncheng.’

The two of them chatted and laughed for a few more moments before Tang Suqin seemed to remember something. She said to Su Qing, "Oh, right, I should tell you. The Village Party Secretary and his wife got a divorce. So next time you see him, don’t bring up Pang Xiaofang."

"They divorced?" Su Qing asked, blinking.

If Tang Suqin hadn’t mentioned it, Su Qing would have completely forgotten about the Pang Xiaofang incident. Still, the news of Wang Xuehong’s divorce was a bit of a surprise. After all, very few people divorced in this era. As long as a couple could get by, they wouldn’t split up. What’s more, Wang Xuehong and Pang Xiaojuan had been married for so many years their son was almost old enough to get married himself. They were nearly at the age to become grandparents.

"Yes, they’re divorced." Tang Suqin nodded. "Pang Xiaofang and her nephew were both arrested by the police. They said it was something about being accomplices. Anyway, they were sentenced. I think they got three years."

Su Qing nodded at the news. She had originally thought someone like Pang Xiaofang would at most be detained for a few days or forced to write a self-criticism. She never expected an actual prison sentence. Since it came to that, it made sense that the couple would divorce.

"In that case, I should probably avoid the Village Party Secretary for a while," Su Qing said with a slight shrug. The whole incident did start because of her, after all. Who knew if Wang Xuehong would blame her for it.

But then...

"I brought some New Year’s gifts for the Village Party Secretary, too." Su Qing frowned slightly. ’If I go to his house to deliver them, will I just get yelled at?’

"The Village Party Secretary is a good man; he’s not unreasonable. You don’t need to be afraid," Tang Suqin said, thinking Su Qing was scared. "But you don’t have to deliver the gifts anyway. He isn’t in the village right now."

"Oh! He’s not in the village?" Su Qing asked in surprise.

"That’s right," Tang Suqin said. "He took his child to Shanghai to visit relatives. Partly to clear his head, and partly to escape all the gossip. After all, it’s an awkward topic."

Su Qing nodded in understanding.

Tang Suqin chatted with Su Qing for a few more minutes, reminded her again to eat the dumplings while they were hot, and then took her leave.

Su Qing closed the courtyard gate and took out a portion of sour soup fish and a serving of steam pot chicken from her storage space—both purchased from the state-run restaurant in Chuncheng. She enjoyed a wonderful meal with the dumplings. In the house next door, however, the Old Su Family showed no signs of celebrating the Little New Year. Every one of them had a sour look on their face.