Notes on Living Abroad

Chapter 2 Call me Laidi

Being ignored by that couple wasn’t a bad thing for Zhang Wei. Only the old woman bossed her around—whenever she didn’t feel like doing something, she’d play dumb and run off. Besides, she could barely understand a word the old woman said anyway.

To her surprise, that beautiful wife actually spoke Mandarin! It made her stand out even more as an outsider here. The man communicated with her in broken Mandarin, and it was hard to imagine she’d married into such a family.

From the way the man addressed her, it seemed her name was "Qin Yuan"—a name that didn’t sound like someone from around here.

Zhang Wei ran around the village like that for a few days, and finally figured out where she was.This was a village built on the peak of a mountain, nestled amid towering mountains. One side of the village was all cliffs, and Zhang Wei’s family lived on the side closest to the cliff. The other houses were built up along the slope of the mountain behind, with only a few dozen households in total. Surrounded by mountains on all sides, there was only one narrow path along the cliff leading out.

The path was only wide enough for one person to pass—on one side was the mountain wall, on the other, the cliff. Every time Zhang Wei walked there, she doubted she’d ever get out of the village. What’s more, whenever she got close, someone would shout at her to leave.

The village children wouldn’t play with her either. As soon as she drew near, they’d scatter like they were avoiding a plague, which perplexed her. She’d never even interacted with these kids, not even in her meager remaining memories.

Within a few days, Zhang Wei had figured out the daily routines of the family. After breakfast each morning, the man of the house would go out, leaving the village via that narrow path. The old woman and Qin Yuan stayed home to do housework and tend to the fields.

That’s when she noticed Qin Yuan was rather interesting. As soon as the man left, the docility in her eyes vanished. She paid little heed to the old woman, only going out to wash clothes in the morning; the rest of the time, she’d lock herself in her room, and no one knew what she did in there.Zhang Wei could only understand what the couple said, but she couldn’t get any other useful information. There wasn’t even an electric light here, let alone a TV. She’d only figured out it was 1998 from the door god calendar pasted on the door. So she could only fix her attention on the only source of information—Qin Yuan.

That day, as usual, Zhang Wei followed Qin Yuan to wash clothes. Of course, she just squatted by the stream playing with stones, and Qin Yuan paid her no mind. But this time they were late; several women were already there washing clothes. As soon as they approached, their chatter abruptly fell silent.

Zhang Wei wondered if Qin Yuan could understand them. It was probably about their family, but she herself couldn’t make heads or tails of it. The local dialect was vastly different from Mandarin, sounding almost like a foreign language.

Strangely enough, Zhang Wei had never seen Qin Yuan interact with anyone in the village. She had a vague feeling that today would bring something useful...

Sure enough, as Zhang Wei watched the reflection in the stream, the women exchanged glances. Then a thin woman wearing a dark blue headscarf spoke in broken Mandarin:

"Jiumei’s wife, hasn’t your Lai Di gotten better even after drinking the incense ash from the ancestral hall?"After saying that, she jutted her chin toward Zhang Wei, and at the same time, all those women turned to look at her.

Zhang Wei stared down at the water, suddenly feeling overwhelmed by the***. She wasn’t sure what shocked her more—learning that her name was Laidi and that she’d drunk incense ash, or that the fierce-looking burly man was called Jiumei.

Qin Yuan only gave them a cold, dismissive smile before going back to pounding the clothes.

But another woman couldn’t contain herself and immediately spoke up: “It’s fine even if a girl turns mute. It won’t stop her from having kids later. You should hurry up and have a son for Jiumei. A woman who can’t bear a son is useless—our Chen family won’t stand for that!”

Being mistaken for a mute wasn’t Zhang Wei’s intention. At first, she’d been afraid to speak, worried she’d give herself away. This family was already so cold to the original owner of this body; if they found out her soul had been replaced, they’d probably kill her.

Unexpectedly, Qin Yuan spoke up this time, her tone calm and casual: “It’s all right. My husband said it’s fine if I don’t have any.”

This left the group of women speechless. They didn’t say another word until they’d finished washing their clothes one after another.

Zhang Wei found herself starting to admire Qin Yuan—she had a modern woman’s spirit. But how she’d ended up marrying into this place remained something Zhang Wei couldn’t fathom.Zhang Wei had no desire to stay in such a closed-off, backward village. There were guards at the village entrance, so she couldn’t even run away, not to mention she was afraid of heights.

Later, she also learned that some children in the village did go to school—in a town dozens of miles away. At first, Zhang Wei held a glimmer of hope, but then she remembered how she’d gotten beaten just for eating one extra sweet potato, and realized this path was also blocked.

She hadn’t been idle these days. Running up and down the village every day, she’d not only exercised her body but also memorized every corner of the village like the back of her hand.

She also hid sweet potatoes secretly every day, always feeling they might come in handy. She felt utterly insecure here, but no matter what, she couldn’t get her hands on any money.

One day, out of curiosity, Zhang Wei peeked through Qin Yuan’s window, wanting to find out what she did in her room every day. To her surprise, Qin Yuan was picking a lock in her own room!

She watched as Qin Yuan took sticks of varying lengths, testing each one in the lock cylinder. Zhang Wei’s feet went numb from standing, but Qin Yuan still hadn’t opened the lock on that box. Yet her expression remained calm, clearly accustomed to this.For several days in a row, Zhang Wei kept watch. Unexpectedly, one day she witnessed Qin Yuan finally open the box. She watched as Qin Yuan took out a stack of money—all old 10-yuan notes. Zhang Wei estimated there were at least several hundred, maybe even over a thousand yuan. So this family wasn’t actually that poor after all...

Zhang Wei watched Qin Yuan count the money, put it back, relock the box, and tuck the little lock-picking stick under her pillow. It was clear she planned to come back for it later.

Watching Qin Yuan’s calm, unflappable manner, Zhang Wei couldn’t shake the feeling that there was more to her than met the eye...

At the thought of that stack of money, Zhang Wei’s eyes lit up, and she began to scheme.

The next day, taking advantage of Qin Yuan being out washing clothes, she sneaked into their room without Granny Chen noticing, felt under the pillow, and found that little stick.

The box was wooden, with a heavy lid. After unlocking it, Zhang Wei had to use both hands to lift the lid. The money was still there—she’d figured Qin Yuan wouldn’t touch it for a while, and she couldn’t afford to hesitate.

Afraid of being caught, she didn’t dare take too much. Given that the yuan still had decent purchasing power back then, she pulled five 10-yuan notes from the middle and two 5-yuan notes from the top, then tidied the stack, ready to close the lid.

“Yo!” Suddenly, Granny Chen’s voice rang out from the yard, shooing chickens!

With a loud “bang!”, Zhang Wei, startled, let go of the box lid.When Zhang Wei heard Granny Chen’s voice fall silent, she knew the sound outside had been heard. Though flustered, she kept an eye on the door while fumbling with the lock to secure it again. The moment a figure appeared in the doorway, she slipped and rolled under the bed in a flash.

She prayed Granny Chen hadn’t seen her. Clapping a hand over her mouth, she inched back to the farthest corner under the bed, until her back hit the wall. Then came a sound:

Thud! It was the noise of a laundry basin being slammed down hard on the ground.

“What are you doing!” Qin Yuan’s voice came from the doorway, her tone edged with irritation.

Zhang Wei’s heart was taut with tension. She had a feeling Qin Yuan was more dangerous than Granny Chen.