Chapter 20: Record of Moving to the City in the 90s 20

Found someone?

Second Sister wasn’t that young anymore. This was exactly the right age to be looking for someone.

Hearing that made Su Dakui happy.

It wasn’t as if no one on his side had tried to become in-laws with him, but after seeing the children from those families, he had felt none of them were quite suitable. In his eyes, every one of them had some kind of flaw, and his daughters definitely wouldn’t think much of them either.

So it was better if his daughters found someone on their own.

“Tell me, what’s the situation?” Su Dakui had drunk a little liquor and was pleasantly tipsy, and his interest was instantly piqued.

With things like this, Eldest Sister couldn’t very well leave either. She might as well stay and listen.

Second Sister didn’t try to hide anything.

“There’s a police station across the river, remember? Since it’s temporarily moved into our village and rented a courtyard here for office space? The one I’m seeing is the police officer in there called Xiao Xiao. The courtyard the police station rented also happens to belong to his family. His dad’s dead, his birth mother ran off, and he was raised by his grandpa. The two of them have always lived across the river in those old apartment blocks, and those blocks got requisitioned too. Grandfather and grandson both have salaries, and they’ve got some savings too. They’re just waiting for the police station across the river to be finished so they can move back, then they’ll rebuild their family courtyard into a multistory house.” As Second Sister said this, she even glanced at her eldest sister.

Su Huandan thought to herself, so because Eldest Sister found someone with an Old Grandma at home, you’re trying to one-up her by finding someone with an old grandpa, huh?

Still, those conditions really did sound quite good.

Just a grandfather and grandson, not many people in the family, not much trouble. If they got married and lived together in the future, there probably wouldn’t be too many conflicts with her own family either.

Jiang Chunhua immediately felt a weight lift from her heart. These conditions were more than acceptable.

But Second Sister’s expression was still a little serious.

That made Su Huandan feel that while the surface conditions looked good, who knew what the real situation was underneath.

And she had some impression of this Xiao Xiao Second Sister was talking about. He was a police officer at the station, and his family’s multistory house had been built too. He had no parents, no brothers or sisters, and on the surface his circumstances were top-notch, yet even by the time she died, he had never married. It had always just been grandfather and grandson living together.

In her previous life, she had thought his standards were simply too high, that he had never found anyone suitable and so never married. Looking at it now, it seemed more likely there had been something else behind it.

Sure enough…

“He used to be in the army, and because of an injury he retired and was assigned a job at the police station. The injury happened to be… in a bad place. There’s some problem with his ability to have children. He didn’t hide it from me. He told me the truth outright. He said if our family agreed, then he’d treat me well for the rest of his life. If we didn’t agree, he wouldn’t resent it either. We’d just have to accept that we were fated to meet but not to be together¹.” Second Sister sounded extremely tense, as if she was afraid she’d hear words of opposition.

Su Huandan felt that her Second Sister truly liked Xiao Xiao. That was why she was so uneasy.

The smile on Su Dakui’s face instantly froze.

If they got married and had no children in the future, how were they supposed to get through life?

After people got married, wasn’t raising children what life was all about?

It was true. In this era, if people knew in advance that a marriage would leave them childless, very few would still choose to marry.

But seeing the look on his second daughter’s face, Su Dakui swallowed the words of refusal that had reached his lips and never said them.

He even reached out and held back his wife, who was eager to speak.

“Don’t be in a rush about this. Let me and your mother think it over first, alright?” Su Dakui hadn’t refused right away, and Su Huandan saw her second sister’s face immediately break into a smile.

It gave off the feeling of someone who had just survived a disaster.

After everyone broke up for the night, Eldest Sister didn’t go back either.

The three sisters slept together that night, squeezed onto one bed, and it was truly cramped.

From the bedroom across the way, they couldn’t make out exactly what their parents were saying, but the tone was definitely sharp. They were surely arguing.

After Eldest Sister shut the door, she climbed into bed and wedged Second Sister between herself and Su Huandan.

“Tell me, do you really like him that much?” Eldest Sister had married for love too, and she truly liked Sun Jianbin, but she also understood that it wasn’t the fluttering excitement of romance. It was that Sun Jianbin suited her in every way. He had only one Old Grandma, and if she served that old lady well and saw her through like an honored ancestor, then Sun Jianbin would have to show the same attitude toward her parents.

What she valued was that quality in Sun Jianbin.

There were no brothers in her family, but even if there had been, her parents had raised her all those years. Could she really only think of herself?

So when it came to marriage, of course she had to take her parents into consideration too.

So what about Second Sister?

As the eldest sister, she felt it was probably much the same as her own thinking.

How many young men in Yuanyi Village were chasing after Second Sister now?

Second Sister didn’t like a single one of them. She always said that those families had too many people. If she married into one of them, she’d really become a daughter spilled out with the water². If she showed a little more care toward her own family, the whole household would erupt. Knowing full well she’d have to live that kind of life in the future, she’d have to be crazy to choose that for herself.

With Xiao Xiao’s circumstances, there were ten thousand reasons for Second Sister to approve of him. On top of that, Xiao Xiao was very handsome. His skin was a little dark, but his features were sharp and striking. One look and you could tell he was a real man.

When asked, Second Sister wasn’t shy. “I like him. Of course I do. Why wouldn’t I? In some ways he’s a lot like Dad. He’s especially quick-tongued, and he can chat with anybody. Even if he didn’t have a government job, he’d still be the kind of man who could support a business just fine. He’s steady. I’ve got a hot temper, so being matched with someone as steady as him, do you really think that’s bad?”

It really wasn’t bad. Second Sister truly was hot-tempered, explosive as a firecracker, exactly like Jiang Chunhua.

She really did need someone calm and solid to support her from behind. That way she wouldn’t get the short end of the stick in life.

In her previous life, the man Second Sister had found had also been hot-tempered, and on top of that, he had been abusive.

Compared like that, Xiao Xiao was simply too good.

“Second Sister, if you really can’t have children for the rest of your life, would you be okay with that? You have to think that through. If you really feel it’s not a problem and the two of you can keep going, then getting married is fine. But if you’re thinking of adopting a child, then you absolutely have to be cautious about that.” Su Huandan’s words instantly plunged both of her sisters into silence.

After a long while, Second Sister finally said softly, “I was thinking… we’re still young, aren’t we? We can go to hospitals and try treatment. If it really doesn’t work, then we’ll adopt a child, maybe one of your children. We wouldn’t need to change their given name or surname, and they wouldn’t need to call us Mom and Dad either. We’d just raise one up, and when we’re old, as long as they come look after us a little, that’d be enough.”

There was something heartbreaking about hearing that. Just because you don’t have children, does that mean your sisters would stop caring about you?

Second Sister’s marriage to Xiao Jianguo immediately took over their parents’ thoughts.

In just three days, the family came to a decision on the matter: they would get married!

He was a good man. He just had a bit of a physical problem, and with medicine so advanced now, maybe it could be treated.

And even if it really couldn’t be cured, it wouldn’t affect much. As long as the young couple didn’t mind it, and outsiders, even their parents, kept their mouths shut, life could still be a good one.

By the end of August, they really did get married.

The wedding was lively too, and the banquet was prepared by the eldest sister’s husband, Sun Jianbin.

Behind the scenes, the people of Yuanyi Village started gossiping again.

“The Su family has only three daughters and no sons. Just look at the sort of sons-in-law they’ve found, one after another. Aren’t Sun Jianbin and Xiao Jianguo practically the same kind of people? The Su family is just waiting to take over households with no heirs³!”

“There’s no need to even think about the Su family’s third daughter. Going by the kind of conditions the Su family sets for taking in a live-in son-in-law, they definitely won’t find some young man from a normal family.”

Translator’s Notes