Chapter 26: Record of Moving to the City in the 90s (26)

On the first day of the eighth lunar month¹, Eldest Sister gave birth to a son.

{T/N: The child’s gender appears inconsistent. In previous chapter, the baby was referred to as a girl, but in this chapter the child is referred to as a boy }

It made Eldest Brother-in-law and his grandmother ecstatic.

Su Dakui and Jiang Chunhua were also extremely happy, personally staying at the hospital to keep watch. They left the entire household and business to Su Huandan and her Second Sister.

Jiang Chunhua had opened a shop downstairs in their house, and her monthly earnings were double the salary of most workers.

She had heard from somewhere that a shop like this shouldn’t close its doors, even needing to stay open for two hours on New Year’s Day. Thus, Su Huandan stayed home to mind the shop.

Eldest Sister had been rushed to the hospital at four in the morning. It wasn’t until nine that the people at the hospital remembered to call the shop and inform Su Huandan that her sister had given birth to a son.

Second Sister was also at home.

At the moment, she was helping out by keeping an eye on Eldest Brother-in-law’s canteen.

Eldest Brother-in-law had taken on two apprentices. While they weren’t ready to graduate yet, they could fill in for him for a day, handling the cooking and chores.

Ever since the baby arrived, Eldest Brother-in-law’s ambition had become unstoppable.

Previously, he only provided three meals a day for the construction site. Now, with apprentices, he had started doing business with the villagers as well.

Porridge, soy milk, fried dough sticks, tofu pudding, vegetable buns, meat buns, and tea eggs. With just these few items, the residents of Yuanyi Village and the tenants of other houses were no longer willing to cook for themselves. They came here to buy breakfast so they could sleep in a little longer.

From the breakfast business alone, Eldest Sister’s family income had doubled every month.

It proved Su Dakui’s saying: “Once a man has a child, as long as he’s a father who loves his kid, he will definitely work hard for their sake.”

Eldest Sister had a natural birth. She stayed in the hospital for three days, and after finishing her anti-inflammatory injections, she came home cradling the baby.

Su Huandan looked at the baby and thought he looked like a little red-skinned monkey, all skin and bones. She felt her mother’s words were unreliable. How could such a red-skinned little monkey be considered good-looking?

And that his skin would become snow-white in the future?

How was that even possible?

In her past life, Su Huandan’s sisters had also given birth, but hadn’t she been sick by then? Her brothers-in-law wouldn’t let a sick aunt like her see the children.

She had even less chance to see other people’s children.

So, to Su Huandan, children were a very foreign concept.

By the time Su Huandan was about to report to school, her nephew’s one-month celebration arrived. The family went to great lengths to host a full-month banquet². Almost all the long-term residents of Yuanyi Village who could come did.

Even though many people privately mocked Su Dakui for “spending money just to make noise,” saying the grandson didn’t even share his surname yet he, the maternal grandfather, was showing off more than the paternal one…

When it came time to show up, no one hesitated.

Looking at the one-month-old little thing again, he no longer looked like a red-skinned monkey. He had puffed up like a balloon, his body round and chubby, and his skin really was snow-white, just as her mother had said.

At one month old, Su Huandan still couldn’t tell who he looked like. Privately, she thought it was better if he took after the Su family, as their looks were quite good.

Sun Weisheng was the name given to the boy, chosen by Su Dakui.

As a maternal grandfather, he truly doted on his grandson.

Su Huandan and her Second Sister went together to gift the “Three-Piece Gold Set³.”

A pair of small bracelets, a pair of anklets, and a longevity lock⁴.

After the full-month banquet for Sun Weisheng, Su Huandan hurriedly returned to school.

She had taken the entrance exams for her master’s degree, and it was time to report for the new semester.

The mentor Su Huandan followed happened to be the husband of her undergraduate counselor. His surname was Xu, and everyone called him Professor Xu. This was his first time taking on graduate students.

He took on four graduate students in total, and Su Huandan was the only girl.

After reporting, she stayed at the school for one day before following her mentor to Shanghai.

What for?

There was an international exhibition being held there. Professor Xu took his four graduate students to act as translators. The professor earned extra income, while Su Huandan and the other three were purely voluntary workers.

Since it was Professor Xu’s first time leading graduate students, he was afraid his students might feel resentful about having no income, so he spoke to them this way.

“This is a rare social practice project. The exhibition covers room and board, which is a hard-to-find opportunity these days. It’s only about half a month. When we get back, I’ll help you establish connections so you can collaborate with translation publishers and earn some living expenses. You’re graduate students now. The small subsidy the school gives isn’t enough for anything. I hope you all show some initiative. It would be best if you could earn your own tuition and living expenses to lighten the burden on your families.” These words were very tactful, and Professor Xu truly did care about his students.

At least the other three male students had red eyes after hearing Professor Xu’s words.

They all came from ordinary families. Even if their families could afford the schooling, they were already twenty-two or twenty-three years old. In the nineties, many people that age were already married. Once married, they would support their own small families and look after their parents, but these graduate students were different.

While their futures were said to be bright and their families were willing to grit their teeth to continue supporting their studies, their parents were getting older every day. How could these graduate students not feel a psychological burden?

They did.

“So just focus on your studies. Why are you translating for publishers to make money now? If you stay up late doing translations and ruin your eyesight, what will you do? Will the little money you earn be enough to fix your eyes?” Su Dakui was immediately anxious when he learned his youngest daughter was staying up late to earn money through translation. The family didn’t lack this bit of money.

This was a misunderstanding. Su Huandan wasn’t doing it just for the money; it was indeed a form of training. Especially since Professor Xu had specifically assigned it, Su Huandan wasn’t sure if there were professional connections involved. She couldn’t just refuse because she didn’t want to stay up late.

Fortunately, the master’s coursework was only two years. After Su Huandan finished, she aimed for a doctoral degree, planning to follow a different professor then.

In 1999, Su Huandan completed her master’s studies and took the doctoral exams.

This time, she changed to a professor named Liu.

By 1999, Yu Zexiu had also been in America for over two years. The two of them now corresponded by letter about once a month, though they called each other frequently.

At least once a week, they had an overseas phone call.

“My studies here are almost finished. By the end of the millennium, I will definitely come back,” Yu Zexiu said, and Su Huandan laughed happily.

“Don’t go doing a half-baked job of it. The industry you want to enter demands real skill.” At first, Su Huandan hadn’t understood what the “special effects” Yu Zexiu kept talking about actually were.

Later, she learned it was a type of high-tech application used in TV shows, movies, animation, advertisements, and a whole range of entertainment-related works.

Since it was a technical skill, and Yu Zexiu’s previous major wasn’t computer science, Su Huandan assumed it would be even more difficult for him to learn.

On the other end of the phone, Yu Zexiu just laughed and didn’t argue. What could he say?

Could he say he was only aiming to learn the basics of the industry so he could manage a company in the future?

Could he say he intended to be the boss who relied on the company, rather than someone who tinkered with the technology?

“Don’t you worry. I definitely won’t slack off. I’m still waiting to strike it rich so you can live the good life as a wealthy wife.”

After hanging up the phone, Su Huandan touched her face. A wealthy wife?

Translator’s Notes