Chapter 11: Record of Moving to the City in the 90s. 11

Yuanyi Village now had one hundred and thirty-seven courtyards, but fewer than half of them were still occupied.

And all the people still living there were clustered near the entrance of the village. It faced the street, with a school and shops across from it, making it far livelier than the Su family’s place at the far end of the village.

The next day, Su Dakui took his wife and children out to the street.

The city’s tall buildings, the city’s shops, the city’s restaurants, and the people on the streets, some strolling leisurely and some hurrying along, all felt wonderfully new to Jiang Chunhua.

Before moving to the city, she had rarely even gone to the county seat back in her hometown.

The city was right next to the capital, so it was more prosperous than most cities, and more crowded too.

After wandering around for half the day and getting a look at what city life was like, they had lunch at a restaurant. Five dishes and one soup, all in generous portions. The whole family polished everything off, but when it came time to pay, Jiang Chunhua’s heart ached.

“For just one meal, and it didn’t even have that much meat, they actually charged ten yuan?” Jiang Chunhua regretted it immediately. It was far too expensive. With ten yuan, there were so many things they could have done at home.

Jiang Chunhua said that right outside the restaurant entrance. The passersby who heard her all looked at her with disdain, as if they were looking at some country bumpkin.

Jiang Chunhua did not care in the slightest. City people looking down on country folk was nothing new. If she got angry over that, then she might as well spend her whole life being angry and forget about everything else.

Su Dakui did not care either, as if the person being mocked was not his wife at all.

“Prices in the city are higher, especially at this restaurant. It’s an old establishment¹, so it’s pricier than the average place too. Isn’t it just money? If you spend it, you can earn more. What’s there to be afraid of? We just moved to the city, so taking the kids out for one good meal is no big deal.” As soon as Su Dakui finished speaking, he ran into an acquaintance coming from the opposite direction.

Su Dakui’s acquaintance was called Old Lu, a slightly plump old man.

Old Lu was all smiles and looked kind and benevolent, but the calculating gleam in his eyes always made people uncomfortable, as if he were just waiting for a chance to take advantage of you.

Sure enough, the moment he opened his mouth, Su Huandan knew this was not a good man.

He wanted to pull a fast one and swindle their house for free to use as a warehouse, going on and on about how talking about money hurt the feelings between brothers.

Su Dakui was having none of it.

Even if the house sat empty, he would not let someone use it for free. They were not even that close.

“Old brother, talking about money may hurt feelings, but talking about feelings hurts money too. You’re an old city hand, but I just brought my wife and kids in from the countryside. This is exactly when I need money. If I keep putting sentiment first and act like money doesn’t matter, then what am I supposed to use to support my wife and children?” Su Dakui had refused him politely before, but the man had stubbornly pretended not to understand.

A few sharp words from him sent Old Lu packing in humiliation.

“Was that man taking us for fools? What family has a spare house lying around that they’d just let him use for free?” Jiang Chunhua muttered, then turned to her third daughter and said, “Remember this. If you ever run into people like that, the kind who like to use friendship to pressure you, stay far away from them. Don’t get tricked. If there’s no real connection between you, how can friendship compare to money? Holding tight to your money is what matters. In the future, be more careful and don’t let anyone fool you.”

There was no way they were going to be fooled.

Not one of Su Huandan and her two sisters was stupid.

After taking a look around the city, the family got busy.

Su Huandan’s school enrollment and student registration had to be sorted out, Jiang Chunhua was eager to start a bedsheet and quilt cover business, and Su Dakui was also in a hurry to get back to reselling goods.

The school issue was settled nearby. There was a key high school close to Yuanyi Village. Once Su Dakui finished handling the student registration, he stopped worrying about the rest. He said he was going to follow Surname Song and make a trip to the province with a load of cloth.

This time, Su Dakui left some money at home for emergencies and used all the rest to buy merchandise.

That one trip took three months.

It was winter again. Looking at the heavy snow that had been falling for three days straight, Su Huandan kept wondering when her father would come back.

After evening self-study², the moment she walked out of the school gates, she could see her eldest sister and second sister there to pick her up.

It took less than ten minutes to walk from home to school, but their house was at the desolate far end of the village.

More than once, Jiang Chunhua had seen shadows moving around there. She did not know whether they were villagers or outsiders, much less what they were doing near the village tail.

There were only four women in the house, so how could they dare let anyone walk alone at night?

It was precisely because they were so cautious that Su Huandan never ran into danger on her way home after evening self-study. But the daughter of another family in the village was raped.

The attacker was caught in the act.

The victim was a seventeen-year-old senior in high school, and the perpetrator was the girl’s uncle.

Once that happened, every nearby household with daughters started keeping a very close watch on them.

By the time Su Dakui came back at the end of November, the matter was still causing an uproar, with no conclusion in sight.

“The girl from the Zhang family up by the village entrance, the one this happened to, her parents are determined to take it to court and get justice for their daughter. But her grandparents refuse to let it go to court no matter what. They drove that girl to try to kill herself three times. They saved her, but she’s lost her mind now. The old couple forced their eldest son and his whole family to move away with their deranged daughter. I heard they went off to the northwest. Let the old couple spend the rest of their lives with that beast of a younger son.” After saying all that, Jiang Chunhua curled her lip.

“That beast? If the old Zhang couple really think they can count on him to support them in old age, I’m not trying to curse them, but how many days do they think they’ll live? A beast who’d even ruin his own niece, and they expect him to care for them?” Jiang Chunhua felt the old Zhang couple had something seriously wrong with their brains.

After hearing the story, Su Dakui held his enamel mug³, crossed his legs, and began explaining, “That’s because you don’t know the Zhang family’s business. The family that got driven away, they aren’t the old couple’s biological children at all. Back in the early years, the couple couldn’t have kids, so they picked them up and raised them. The one who committed the crime is the biological son.”

Oh, so that was it. Then it was not surprising at all.

“I’m going to have to keep going out on trips in the future. Now that this kind of scum has shown up in the village, I won’t be able to leave with peace of mind. I’ll go find a dog and keep it in the courtyard. From now on, remember not to go anywhere alone.” After giving those instructions, Su Dakui set down his mug and went off to look for a dog.

The foreman he had once worked for on construction sites kept several wolfdogs at home. They were fierce, and were specially raised to guard building materials at the sites.

The foreman’s place was not far from Yuanyi Village. Su Dakui went there around dusk and came back in less than two hours. He brought back a half-grown wolfdog, then found a steel pipe and fixed it to the left side of the courtyard gate before tying the dog there.

Using the discarded bricks and wooden planks in the yard, they put together a doghouse overnight.

With this new family member guarding the house, even when Su Dakui was away, the mother and her four daughters could finally sleep soundly at night.

This time, Su Dakui made six thousand yuan, pure profit. He had taken cloth with him on the trip and sold it there, then brought back some local specialties to sell here.

With both ends turning a profit, the total came to six thousand yuan, and Su Dakui started thinking about building a new house again.

Su Huandan quickly stopped him.

“Dad, our family just bought four plots of Homestead Land. If we turn around and build a new house right away, won’t that attract too much attention? Instead of building, wouldn’t it be better to use the money to buy more houses?” In 1995, this was when the real home-building boom started here. Going with the crowd and building then would be much better.

Building a house on their own right now wasn’t a good idea. It would be more cost-effective to buy houses instead, and there was no harm in stocking up on more of them.

Translator’s Notes