Chapter 19 Record of Moving to the City in the 90s. 19

Jiang Chunhua stopped cooking altogether, tossed down the cleaver, and pulled her youngest daughter over to sit on the sofa in the living room.

“Tell me properly, what’s going on here?” Don’t tell me you’ve been fooled. You’ve been in school this whole time, and that kind of environment is nothing like the real world. School is an ivory tower. You only see the good side, not the bad. Can a male student really be relied on?

Male students couldn’t make money yet, only spend their family’s money. As for the future, who could even see where it was?

Jiang Chunhua had been practical all her life. The only time she’d ever been muddleheaded was when it came to her own family back home. Now, the moment she heard that her youngest daughter had found herself a male student, she immediately grew anxious. She truly did not think much of that sort.

The only reason she wasn’t panicking and blowing up on the spot was because her youngest daughter at least had a whole building to fall back on.

With that building there, even if that male student turned out to be completely useless, they could still get by. But as her mother, she definitely wouldn’t be able to sleep at night.

Her eldest son-in-law was a chef, and now he ran a restaurant. He made more in a month than they did from collecting rent.

There was still no sign of a second son-in-law, but judging from her second daughter’s attitude, if the man wasn’t at least on the same level as the eldest son-in-law, she’d rather stay single than get married.

Yet her youngest daughter had skipped ahead of her second sister and found someone first. But any parent in the world would have to stop and think, what did a male student even have?

Even if his family was well-off, that still wasn’t enough. What mattered was whether the student himself had the means and ability to make a living.

What Jiang Chunhua was proudest of was marrying Su Dakui. So what if he came from the countryside?

She was living comfortably now. Eighty percent of city people didn’t live as well as she did.

These days, the only thing she worried about was her daughters’ marriages. She had no other troubles. She wasn’t short on money, and she wasn’t short on ways to make it. The second half of her life was secure.

Her eldest daughter had also married a rural man, but her son-in-law had mastered cooking and had a way to support himself.

What way did the student her third daughter found have to make a living?

Even after graduating from college, even if he got assigned a job¹, how much salary could he make in a month?

Jiang Chunhua truly didn’t think much of him.

Su Huandan raised an eyebrow. Seeing how patient her mother was being, she felt warm inside.

“Mom, we’re just dating for now. It won’t affect my studies. His name is Yu Zexiu, but I like calling him Pangpang. He’s one of the top students in our university’s business school. I don’t know what his family situation is, but from the way he talks and carries himself, the way he dresses, and how he usually spends money, he doesn’t seem like a kid from an ordinary family. You can rest completely easy. If I wasn’t sure, there’s no way I’d let anyone fool me into marriage. What, do you think I’m stupid? With our family’s circumstances now, even if I never get married in this life, I still won’t lack food or clothes. I’m not going to pick someone casually.” Could those words comfort her mother?

No. On the contrary, her mother only grew more agitated, but it wasn’t easy to keep pressing the issue with her third daughter.

When someone’s in the heat of a new relationship, nothing you say will do any good. And she wasn’t exactly silver-tongued herself. Better to wait until her husband got back and discuss it with him first.

“Oh, I see. Fine then, handle it yourself. I’ll go make lunch. Is your boyfriend from the capital?” Jiang Chunhua had no good ideas and didn’t keep nagging. She got up and went back to the kitchen to cook.

“He is. He’s got a full Beijing accent and carries himself with this noble air. Aside from being a little chubby and having buck teeth, he’s excellent in every way.” His aura really was unique, the kind you never forgot after one look.

At least, across both her lifetimes, the person with the best presence Su Huandan had ever met was Yu Zexiu. Whether she’d meet someone even better in the future, she didn’t know. But she couldn’t go looking for a partner based on presence alone, could she? It just so happened that Yu Zexiu had delivered himself right to her door.

Once lunch was ready, her second sister came back again. They packed up half of every dish and took it over to their eldest sister’s place. Their eldest brother-in-law’s Old Grandma had also been brought over. Whenever the family made anything tasty, they always sent some over there.

After the second sister came back, they started eating.

After lunch, her second sister didn’t run back out again. Instead, she stayed to help prepare dinner.

The pork intestines were washed and boiled, then braised with spices. Once they were done, they tasted good either eaten as-is or stir-fried again with green peppers. Everyone in the family loved them.

An old hen was stewed into soup. The two fish weren’t very big, only about two jin² together, and were braised in soy sauce.

There was also the pork belly Sun Jianbin had brought over that morning. Jiang Chunhua made it directly into steamed pork belly. Not only was the flavor excellent, it was also tender to the point of falling apart.

There was still some leftover cured meat and sausage in the house. Along with eggs and seasonal vegetables, by dinnertime Sun Jianbin brought over the ox head meat and beef shank he’d specially set aside, cooked and dressed cold.

A table like this, back when they lived in their hometown, hadn’t been this lavish even during the New Year.

The city really did have more abundant supplies than the countryside.

Sun Jianbin’s Old Grandma was still fairly sturdy. This year, she had turned exactly eighty.

She could still do housework and wash clothes, and during the day she liked going to the back kitchen of the eldest sister’s restaurant to help pick and wash vegetables.

She didn’t really go to the back kitchen to work. The restaurant had hired several people, but the eldest sister and her husband couldn’t keep an eye on the back the whole time. With Old Grandma sitting there, anyone thinking of slacking off or cutting corners wouldn’t dare.

The moment Old Grandma came in, she grabbed Su Huandan’s hand and slipped ten yuan into it.

This was the spending money her grandson and granddaughter-in-law gave her. But she was an old woman who didn’t like going out, so even if she had money, she had nowhere to spend it.

Whenever she saw Su family’s second daughter, Su Huanxia, she’d give her some. And now that Su family’s third daughter, Su Huandan, who she didn’t see often, had come back, she should naturally give her even more.

It wasn’t like her own grandson had no house. But no matter how nice the courtyard house in their hometown was, even if they rebuilt the whole place with blue brick walls and big tiled roofs, they still couldn’t have brought home a golden phoenix like her granddaughter-in-law.

Her grandson hadn’t become a live-in son-in-law either, yet he had still been brought to the city to enjoy a good life. Their in-laws were a famously sensible and decent family, and her granddaughter-in-law was also a gentle, capable woman who knew how to run a household.

Before she died, being able to see her grandson living such a good life was more than enough to satisfy her. When she met her son and daughter-in-law after death, she would be able to hold her head high and say: I raised your son well, and he married a wonderful wife. Her parents’ family are good people too. You can rest easy.

How could Su Huandan possibly accept money from an eighty-year-old woman? She tried to refuse, but her eldest brother-in-law spoke first: “Just take it. If you take it, Old Grandma will be happy. We’re family, so don’t be so polite. Besides, this money was earned back by your sister anyway. It’s just moving from one hand to the other. Let’s just call it a little family fun.”

That really struck a chord with Su Dakui.

With only three daughters, wasn’t it only natural for them to hope that even after the girls got married, they’d still live in harmony?

Sooner or later, the two of them would pass on before their daughters. They couldn’t shield them from life’s storms forever. If the girls didn’t stick together, then if something unexpected happened in the future, what would they do?

Su Huandan accepted it, then quickly picked up a piece of freshly cooked braised pork for Old Grandma. “This one’s delicious. Have this. My mom’s braised pork is famous for how good it is.”

Old Grandma ate it with a cheerful smile.

She was eighty, and her teeth were still in great shape. She hadn’t lost a single one.

She could still eat very well.

When people got old, being able to eat and sleep well, often going out for walks to keep their joints moving, and still having quick, steady legs, that was a sign of a healthy body.

After the meal, just as the eldest sister was about to help Old Grandma back, the second sister spoke up. “Um, I’ve found someone. I wanted to tell you all!”

Translator’s Notes