Chapter 43: Unable to Bear Chunfeng’s Bow

Chapter 43: Unable to Bear Chunfeng’s Bow

Firecrackers popped, bidding farewell to the old year; spring couplets adorned every household, welcoming the new one.

On the first morning of the new year, at 4:30 AM, Su Chunfeng woke early from sleep. He got up, roused his little brother Xiao Yu, and then went out to turn on the lights in the living room, the courtyard, and the kitchen.

According to the customs in the villages of Jinzhou County, people rise before dawn on New Year’s Day, and every room must be brightly lit.

After finishing the pre-dawn New Year’s dumplings, one steps out to pay New Year respects to the elders in the village. It didn’t matter what your surname was; anyone you had good relations with, or who wasn’t too distantly related in familial hierarchy, must be visited to formally kneel before the elders of their household — a serious, proper kneel, but no need to knock your head! However, if your family was low in the village’s pecking order, you practically had to kneel and bow at every single door.

As Su Chunfeng stood washing up in the courtyard, undaunted by the cold, his mother Chen Xiulan was already up and bustling in the kitchen, boiling the New Year’s pre-dawn dumplings.

His father, Su Cheng, was leading Xiao Yu — who was jumping around excitedly — to light a bonfire near the western edge of the platform below the main house door.

In the pitch-black night, the occasional sounds of firecrackers and bangers were already drifting in.

After washing, Su Chunfeng stood on the platform outside the house, watching the bonfire. Its flames lit his face red. He stared into the fiercely burning blaze, seeing bright light dancing with dark shadows. Damp firewood snapped and crackled, throwing out countless sparkling embers that vanished in an instant. A feeling washed over him, as though he were dreaming… reborn… This was the first Spring Festival he was about to celebrate since returning to this life.

Looking back on his past felt like waking from a dream.

At this same age in his previous life, he’d barely stayed home during New Year holidays, always dashing out to play wildly. Even on New Year’s Eve, he’d stayed out playing at others’ homes until dawn, only returning to eat the dumplings.

Last night, he hadn’t gone out.

Instead, he’d been at home with his parents and younger brother, making filling, kneading dough, wrapping dumplings, and watching the Spring Festival Gala.

He drifted in thought for what seemed like a long time, yet also felt like he’d thought of nothing at all. He saw his father carry a string of firecrackers and drape it over the clothesline wire in the yard, then loosely wind it around a few times. Xiao Yu stood excitedly by the doorway, staring at the firecrackers, hands clapped over his ears. He yelled loudly, “Bro! Bro! Dad’s about to set them off! Come inside!”

“Alright!” Su Chunfeng answered with a smile and turned towards the house.

Chen Xiulan stood smiling in the kitchen doorway, holding the strainer she’d use to scoop the dumplings — once these firecrackers went off, it would be time to serve and eat them.

Su Cheng pinched a cigarette between his fingers, lit the firecracker fuse, then jogged back to the doorway and looked over his shoulder.

The rapid, crackling burst of firecrackers suddenly filled their small courtyard. Under the combined glow of the electric lights and the bonfire, acrid-smelling smoke billowed out — a ten-thousand-cracker string! In the villages around then, few families could afford to set off such big strings at dawn on New Year’s Day.

The four family members listened and watched until the firecrackers finished, all wearing happy smiles.

Chen Xiulan turned back to the kitchen to scoop the dumplings.

Su Cheng, meanwhile, got a few two-shot bangers, and he and his two sons each found a spot in the yard to light them. Su Cheng used his cigarette to light his. Su Chunfeng and Xiao Yu each pulled a burning stick of firewood from the bonfire.

(Bang-er bangers: 两响炮 – firecrackers that produce two loud bangs, sometimes called “double-bang”)

Bang!

Pop!

The explosion was deafening.

Amidst the blasts, Su Chunfeng inhaled the drifting smell of gunpowder. He felt intoxicated, happy, and deeply attached to this moment. Unnoticed by him, a few sparkling teardrops slid from the corners of his eyes.

“Bro, why are you crying?”

“I’m not,” Su Chunfeng laughed. “The gunpowder smoke just got in my eyes a moment ago…”

“Oh…”

By now, firecrackers and bangers were popping ever more densely throughout the village, shattering the dark night with overlapping, thunderous roars, as if countless stars were blinking, watching curiously down on this human world spread across the vast earth below.

…

Winter days were naturally short and nights long.

The hour when villagers rose early to wander about paying New Year visits coincided with the deepest darkness of the night. Fortunately, for the New Year, the village streetlights stayed lit for several rare nights. In the hazy glow under these lamps, the village streets and alleys bustled with people going back and forth in an endless stream — all were people out paying their New Year respects.

Su Chunfeng naturally followed custom. After paying respects throughout the village with their family clan group, he went individually to the homes of his childhood playmates to pay respects to their household elders.

By the time this round was finished, the sky was just beginning to grey with dawn.

The moment he got home, his father, Su Cheng, asked, “All done?”

“Hmm, all done,” Su Chunfeng nodded.

“Come with me to Liu Jinming’s place. We’ll go kneel and wish his mother a happy New Year…” Su Cheng sighed lightly. “Old Madam might have had a bad temper in the past, but she never had any major conflict with our family. And I get along well enough with Liu Jinming. Now she’s been paralyzed and bedridden for so long… and we are neighbors. Not going to pay respects wouldn’t be right.”

Su Chunfeng agreed without hesitation. “Alright.”

The saying “Under a man’s knees there is gold” was known to all under heaven. But the people of Jinzhou County understood it differently. They often joked: “In the first days of the New Year, a man’s knees aren’t worth much. They’re just worth a little goodwill.” But then again, sometimes, goodwill truly couldn’t be measured by money.

Su Cheng brought both his sons, and the three of them entered Liu Jinming’s house.

Liu Jinming happened to be smoking in the yard. Seeing Su Cheng come in with his boys, he quickly put on a polite smile. “Chengzi! You came.”

“Yeah, just here to kneel and wish Auntie a happy New Year. Once a year…” Su Cheng said courteously.

“She’s in the inner room, come this way.” Liu Jinming warmly gestured them inside.

Su Chunfeng followed his father, still feeling Liu Jinming seemed like a changed man now – something almost unbelievable. Ever since Old Madam became paralyzed, every time they met on the street, Liu Jinming always spoke to Su Chunfeng first. And just now, while speaking politely to his father, Liu Jinming’s eyes, when they glanced at him, flashed with a flicker of something… almost like residual fear.

Old Madam Liu lived in the west room of the main house.

Under the dim light, the unpainted walls were bare red brick and mortar joints, only covered with old newspapers pasted by the bedside.

Paralyzed and bedridden, Old Madam lay half-sitting, half-lying against piled quilts supporting her back. She was forcing herself to stay alert on New Year’s morning (“waiting for you” – older elders stay at home, waiting for the young to come kneel and pay respects.) For her now, this “waiting” was itself an immense struggle.

At that moment, she looked listless, weary, drifting towards sleep.

“Mother, Chengzi brought his two boys to kneel for you,” Liu Jinming lifted the padded door curtain and called in, not entering himself — he was a junior relative. He couldn’t be there while they knelt.

Su Cheng and the two boys stepped inside.

“Who?” The old woman drowsily opened her eyes. As soon as she saw Su Cheng and his sons, especially Su Chunfeng standing slightly behind and to the side of his father, her weary eyes suddenly widened.

“Old Aunt, a happy New Year to you, we’ve come to kneel…” Su Cheng said, leading the way as he knelt down.

Su Chunfeng and Xiao Yu, following behind, also started to kneel onto the dirt floor.

“No! Don’t!” The old woman cried out in sudden terror, her head trembling slightly with her feeble body—it seemed she wanted to throw back the covers and reach out to stop them, but her paralyzed limbs were powerless.

In that moment, Su Cheng and the two boys had already stood back up.

The so-called kneeling for New Year greetings was largely symbolic. Kneel down, then stand back up. It was nothing like the elders’ descriptions of the past, when kneeling meant actually going down and knocking your head on the floor. As times changed, old customs—good and bad alike—seemed to fade away bit by bit, disappearing like tiny ripples unnoticed into the river of history.

Now, the kneel had been made. Formally, respectfully, New Year respects paid.

Who could have expected the old woman would react with such fierce resistance?

For a moment, both Su Cheng and the boys felt awkward. Their expressions couldn’t completely hide a surge of anger — neighbors who saw each other daily! How could she act so offensive?

Seeing this, Liu Jinming hurriedly stepped in. “Mother! What nonsense are you spouting? Chengzi brought his boys to kneel for you and wish you well! Have you completely forgotten manners in your old age?” It was no mystery Liu Jinming dared scold his mother like this. As the saying goes, “A long illness in bed makes even a filial son bitter.” His mother’s paralysis was the result of her own stubbornness. Not only did it torment her, it dragged the whole family down financially, exhausting his brothers’ savings, plus requiring someone to always be by her bedside. With Liu Jinming’s naturally hot temper, how could he feel any respect or fear for her now?

Old Madam Liu, a look of stark fear on her face, drool leaking from the corner of her trembling mouth, stammered, “I-I didn’t mean that… It’s… it’s that I can’t bear Xiao Feng kneeling… It… it could kill me.”

Liu Jinming froze. Only then did he understand his mother’s sudden panic.

Hearing this, Su Cheng’s flicker of irritation vanished. He knew the old woman was deeply superstitious. Back when Xiao Feng advised her to take down the earthen jar from the rooftop and she refused… she later got sick and paralyzed, seemingly out of the blue, or perhaps coincidentally. Her behavior now was probably just extreme superstition – fearing Su Chunfeng was some celestial being descended to earth… in short, that old superstitious nonsense. Hence why she’d say she couldn’t bear Xiao Feng kneeling, that it would kill her.

Su Chunfeng, however, frowned and cursed silently in his heart: “Gong Hu, you damn idiot!!”

He reasoned that scaring Old Madam Liu so badly wasn’t just simple superstition.

Likely, Gong Hu had fed her something more menacing about esoteric techniques. He might even have told her straight: “You can’t mess with that family!” The old lady, already superstitious, saw her sudden, mysterious paralysis—which happened after disregarding young Su Chunfeng’s seemingly prophetic warning that felt more like a threat—as proof of real folk sorcery. Maybe it would cause some backlash… what if she didn’t follow the warning?

After Gong Hu’s scare tactics, if she wasn’t afraid, she really would be an amazingly stubborn old vixen!

The reality, of course, was closer to Su Chunfeng’s guess. Though Gong Hu hadn’t mentioned the mysterious title “Esoteric Practitioner” to outsiders that day, he had spun a convincing tale full of mystical nonsense. He was, after all, a charlatan operating in Xishan County and a genuine Qimen mystic. Hoodwinking an ordinary, superstitious village granny like Liu was child’s play to him.

After such a talk, forget the old woman, even her naturally suspicious sons and daughters-in-law, like Liu Jinming and his wife, were left shivering in fear.

Because Gong Hu had added later, “The person behind the technique clearly held back. If they hadn’t… Old Madame, you wouldn’t just be paralyzed. The backlash wouldn’t only be yours to bear.”

It was damn terrifying!

Liu Jinming, out of pride, couldn’t easily repeat these things.

So all he could do was offer an awkward explanation: “Chengzi, sorry to you and the boys… My mother hasn’t been herself since she got sick. Don’t take it to heart.”

“Ah, it’s fine, no trouble at all…” Su Cheng smiled, shaking his head without any sign of concern. Then he led his two sons out.