He Will Come Back Before Dawn

2

Children have a pretty good ability to recover. Therefore Bei Yao became much better till the time of breakfast.

Zhao Zhilan took a leave from the factory to take care of Bei Yao. Her daily work was to sew clothes in a clothing factory with 430 yuan as a monthly salary. At that time, this much salary was considered a pretty good treatment.

Breakfast consisted of a bowl of porridge with a bowl of kimchi and the only white egg in the house was put in Bei Yao’s bowl.

A sudden sound of footsteps came from the corridor, followed by a shrill voice of a woman from outside the door.

“Zhao Zhilan!”

Zhao Zhilan loudly replied, “I’m not going to work today. I’ve asked for a leave, you go.”

“Why didn’t you say that earlier?” The woman muttered, dissatisfied she sashayed away from their door.

Bei Yao looked at her mother’s sullen face.

***

That woman was Zhao Xiu. Zhao Xiu and Zhao Zhilan were from the same village and by coincidence, both of them later married to City C as neighbours and also worked together in a garment factory. After two years of marriage, they both got pregnant in the same year and gave birth to their daughters in August. Therefore, people around them couldn’t help but compare both mothers.

However, Zhao Zhilan couldn’t compare to Zhao Xiu.

Zhao Zhilan’s husband, who was also father of Bei Yao, worked in a brick and tile factory. His work was arduous and his salary was not high. While Zhao Xiu’s husband was a primary school math teacher who was respected and had a decent earning.

However, they were not as mean towards Zhao Zhilan as towards her daughter.

Fang Minjun was Zhao Xiu’s daughter. She was half a month older than Bei Yao and had fair and tender skin. Unlike the cheerfulness of her peers, she was quite graceful and looked like a little jade maiden. Everyone said the child would grow up beautiful.

In contrast, Bei Yao was the one being crushed by this comparison.

Four year old Bei Yao had round cheeks and big eyes. As she used to eat a lot at that time, two little dimples appeared on her cheeks. The whole person looked quite round and dumb. Every time Zhao Xiu met Xiao Bei Yao, she would cover her grin before saying, “What did Yaoyao eat? The flesh of the little hand is a little more than that of my family’s Minmin.”

Obviously it was a taunt disguised as praise. As Zhao Zhilan was also a little fat, Zhao Xiu was covertly referring to it as a genetic problem.

Bei Yao sighed softly while looking at her mother’s increasingly gloomy face.

Her family background was very ordinary and had an incomparable bad luck. In her memory, Fang Minjun’s family moved to a new house during her Junior High School. Then the newly bought house was demolished after two years and they got two new suites as compensation. Fang Minjun’s family turned for the better. On the contrary, Bei Yao’s family lent money to her uncle thus was still poor.

However there was a point when the Bei family counterattacked them. It was during the first year of high school, when Fang Minjun’s image got a blow and “the little jade maiden” turned into a mean girl.

While Bei Yao, as if the tender leaves stretch out in spring after shedding its old leaves, rose to prominence and became the school flower of the Second Middle School in City C.

But, Bei Yao couldn’t comfort her mother now by saying that she would be very beautiful in the future. Even if she said this, Zhao Zhilan would think that the child was just spouting nonsense. Last night, Bei Yao remained dazed for the whole night, thinking that the rebirth was too mysterious. She was grateful for everything she could have again so she intended to be a good four-year-old baby girl and stay with her parents to support them. She wouldn’t marry this time so her parents wouldn’t hurt and feel despair in their middle age.