Chapter 18: Record of Moving to the City in the 90s 18

When Su Huandan came home for winter break, the number of single rooms the family had rented out still wasn’t that high. Most of the tenants were small subcontractors working on the massive Film and Television City construction project, renting a place here to live on their own.

The women living in those single rooms were all dressed in a flashy, seductive way. They did no honest work all day. They slept through the morning, then after getting up, went to her eldest sister’s restaurant to eat. Once they filled their stomachs, they’d spend the afternoon wandering the streets shopping for clothes, shoes, and jewelry. At night, when the men keeping them came back, they’d carry on for half the night.

“They’re all shameless, every last one of them. So young, and not even all that pretty, yet they make money by selling their bodies. And none of them has any sense either. They don’t know to save their money. Whatever the men give them, they spend it all. You don’t stay at home much, but if you run into women like that, don’t pay them any mind. Just the other day, your second sister and I drove two of them out. They actually dared to flirt with your dad and your eldest brother-in-law. The only reason I didn’t tear them apart on the spot was because I’ve got some self-restraint.” The moment Jiang Chunhua brought up certain tenants in the house, she got angry.

Women who were properly married and living ordinary lives had always looked down on women who sold themselves. It was a very common social attitude.

Especially since two of those women had even dared turn their schemes toward their own father and brother-in-law, it would have been stranger if Jiang Chunhua had been fine with it.

Her eldest sister, Su Huanxia, hurriedly tugged at their mother’s arm. “Third Sister doesn’t even have a boyfriend yet, much less a husband. Why are you telling her all this? If Dad hears, he’ll start nagging you again. Don’t go telling Third Sister all this filthy stuff.”

Third Sister was still young.

Young? She was already twenty. If she weren’t in school, back in the countryside she’d already be at the age where people started arranging matches.

These days, people promoted late marriage, late childbirth, fewer births, and better births¹, but with Jiang Chunhua’s old-fashioned mindset, she still thought it was better for women to marry early.

As long as you were an adult and had reached the legal marriage age, then if there was a suitable match, you should just get married.

If you had children earlier, then by the time your own children got married, you’d still be young enough to help take care of the grandchildren. But if you gave birth late, then when your grandsons and granddaughters were born, how old would you be? Would you even still have the strength to look after children?

If you could take care of yourself and not become a burden to your children, that was already a good thing.

But just raising your children wasn’t enough. You also had to help your son and daughter-in-law, or your daughter and son-in-law, by looking after their children. When you grew old, your own children would take care of you, and your daughter-in-law and son-in-law would have less to complain about.

If a person wanted to live a whole life with people to rely on, that wasn’t something you could just shout about. You had to live in a way that made it true.

The topic had drifted far afield, so Jiang Chunhua abruptly steered it back and stared at her eldest daughter’s stomach. “You’ve been married half a year now, so get moving on the child business. You and your husband may not be in a hurry because you’re still young, but your Old Grandma is already eighty. She’s waiting for good news.”

After urging them once again to have a child, Jiang Chunhua ducked into the kitchen and didn’t come back out.

“Huanzhu, when you go back later, tell your husband to come home for dinner after he’s done with work tonight. Don’t worry about things here at noon. Third Sister’s back, so I’m making some of her favorite dishes. On the way, call your second sister back too. She’s already a grown woman, but instead of finding a match, all she does is wander around the alleyways all day. She used to at least hem pants and sew quilt covers, but now that she’s really become a landlord, she’s gotten lazy too. Tell her to come back and help me cook.” Honestly, her eldest daughter had barely had a sip of water. She hadn’t even sat for three minutes before being sent off again.

As for Su Dakui, he was over at the construction site across the river at the moment, doing odd jobs. Work a little, earn a little. He just couldn’t sit still.

Every winter, he would haul a batch of goods over to Russia to sell. He only made one trip a year like that. If the goods sold smoothly, he’d be back before the New Year. If they didn’t, he’d return after the New Year.

Each time, he made eighty or ninety thousand from moving goods around, saying that was the retirement money he and his wife were saving up for themselves.

After all, rent was only thirty yuan a month now. Even if they rented out all the rooms, the yearly income only came to so much. It was stable, and you could see the limit of it at a glance, but for someone like Su Dakui, who was used to dealing in goods, that kind of income just didn’t sit right with him.

He wasn’t old yet. There was really no need for him to rest now. If he weren’t worried that his wife, who had only just started being a landlord and collecting rent, might not know how to handle certain things, Su Dakui would have wanted to make several trips a year to Russia to move goods. Being a trader could make quite a lot of money too.

But he couldn’t just leave things at home unattended.

Most of the rooms in Second Sister’s courtyard had basically all been rented out. It wasn’t just people from the construction site renting there. There were also plenty of young people who had come to the city to work.

Once you bought a gas canister², and with each single room having its own bathroom, all your basic needs of eating, drinking, and using the toilet were covered. Aside from being a bit cramped, there was heating in winter too. It was far better than renting a place where you had to burn coal for warmth yourself.

The rent now worked like this: thirty yuan a month in summer, forty-five a month in winter with heating, and water and electricity were charged separately.

Yuanyi Village had the highest rents around, but the houses were well built and sensibly designed. The single rooms even came with private bathrooms, so there were plenty of people willing to rent them.

In just one year, out of the family’s four buildings, two were now completely full.

Second Sister Su Huanxia’s building was full, and the building on their parents’ side was full too.

Su Huandan’s building was still locked up and hadn’t started being rented out yet.

The building belonging to eldest sister Su Huanzhu’s family had only rented out a little over thirty units.

The moment Second Sister came through the door, she set the oranges she was carrying onto the coffee table.

Then she called out to Su Huandan, “Hurry up and eat. I spotted you coming back from a distance and went to buy these. Too bad there weren’t any grapes for sale. I know you like those. Just make do with oranges for now. Once grapes show up on the market, I’ll buy some and take them to your school.”

Her voice was loud as she spoke. With three or four thousand yuan in rent coming in every month, she really did have the confidence for it, and even her voice had gotten louder.

After calling to Su Huandan, she carried a bag of pig intestines, two fish, and a chicken into the kitchen.

“See that? So don’t go saying your sister has no conscience in the future. Knowing Third Sister was back, look at what I bought, all her favorite things. Let’s have Brother-in-law come back and cook tonight.” She had barely finished praising herself before she got scolded.

“Isn’t it only right for you to dote on your little sister? Ever since Third Sister was tiny, whenever she had anything tasty in her hands, did she ever forget her two older sisters? You bought a few things, and listen to the way you’re shouting about it. I really ought to smack you twice. Your husband has taken work over at the construction site now. He cooks three meals a day for them. He’s tired all day long, and at night he still has to wait on you? Why don’t you say you’ll cook it yourself and let your husband come eat a ready-made meal? Whenever anything goes wrong in your building, even something like a shorted wire, isn’t it your husband who fixes it for you? Why don’t you remember anyone’s kindness? Is this how your father and I taught you?” Once Jiang Chunhua started nagging, she could really go on and on.

Her second sister couldn’t handle it anymore and ran off on the spot.

Only then did Su Huandan slip into the kitchen, wanting to lend a hand, but her mother wouldn’t let her.

“You finally made it home. Studying at school is hard enough as it is, so go get some rest. I don’t need your help here.” It wasn’t actually because Jiang Chunhua valued Su Huandan so highly just because she was a college student and refused to let her work.

She was simply acting on that all-too-common tendency to miss the one who’s far away and get irritated by the ones close at hand³.

The eldest and second daughter were always right in front of her, while the third was only around during winter and summer break. Since she didn’t see her often, she felt the child had it hard and had been wronged. After all, no matter how good things were outside, home was still better.

If she couldn’t help with chores, chatting a little was fine, right?

For example, I got myself a boyfriend!

Translator’s Notes