Liu Qiaozhen had brushed her teeth. This might seem like a mundane event, but as soon as she was seen doing it, news spread through the village like wildfire. To the villagers, teeth-brushing was something only cadres and scholars did—why would ordinary folk and country bumpkins bother with it? Gao Jialin brushed his teeth; Gao Sanxing brushed his teeth; Liu Qiaozhen’s little sister, Qiaoling, brushed her teeth and no one seemed to notice, but when illiterate female commune member Liu Qiaozhen brushed her teeth, everyone commented on how strange it was.
