Chapter 79: The Pretty Military Wife of the Seventies 2

Once the room warmed up, Su Huandan finally fell asleep.

In the morning, she was woken by a knocking at the door.

“Dandan, are you up? Breakfast is ready, hurry and get up to eat.” The person calling at the door was Grandma Wang, who lived in the main house of the back courtyard. All three large rooms belonged to Grandma Wang. Her husband and four sons had sacrificed their lives one after another. In the early years, the whole family had lived in a crowded house, but now it felt empty.

Su Huandan gave a quick response and scrambled out of bed. After brushing her teeth and washing her face, she headed over to Grandma Wang’s house for breakfast.

Eating breakfast with them was Chubby Grandma, who lived across from Su Huandan.

Chubby Grandma’s surname was Zhang. She was called Chubby Grandma because every summer, her whole body would swell with edema, making her look as if she had gained a whole circle of weight.

Chubby Grandma had bad kidneys. She had been widowed young, and her only son and daughter had also sacrificed their lives.

All three women lived in the back courtyard and often shared meals together.

After breakfast, Chubby Grandma reached out to touch Su Huandan’s forehead and smiled. “The fever is finally gone. I was saying that if it didn’t break today, I’d take you to the hospital. You child, you’re just too stubborn. You should have gone to the hospital at the start. To survive a high fever for seven or eight days, you really have a strong fate.”

Su Huandan nodded. The original owner had indeed been stubborn in all the wrong ways.

If she was sick and didn’t go to the hospital, fine, but she should have at least taken some medicine. Instead, she had just endured the fever for over a week until she literally burned herself to death.

It wasn’t that she had a death wish, exactly; she just wanted to save money on medicine.

But the original owner’s salary wasn’t low. As a formal employee, she earned forty-two yuan a month, and her job was a light office role processing invoices.

Twelve yuan a month was more than enough for expenses, and the other thirty yuan was all saved.

The original owner had been a bit too stingy with herself.

Grandma Wang immediately chimed in. “That’s easy to say, but seeing a doctor costs money. Look at Dandan’s marriage-is there any difference between being married and being single? She has no one to rely on. If she doesn’t save some money, what will she do in the future? When you or I get sick, don’t we just tough it out too? Unless it reaches a certain point, would you go to the hospital, or would I? A cold or fever isn’t a major illness; you can usually just push through it. Dandan is young, and didn’t she pull through? That’s another two yuan saved.”

It wasn’t that Grandma Wang wanted the original owner to die, but in this era, everyone was afraid of going to the hospital because it was simply too expensive.

This was a universal phenomenon.

Today was already the fifth day of the Lunar New Year¹. On the eighth, the Meat Processing Plant would resume work.

“Are you going to your in-laws’ place tomorrow? Now that your sister-in-law and the others are leaving, is it your turn to go over and clean up again?” The more Grandma Wang spoke, the more frustrated she became. If she had known back then that these high-ranking officials were this kind of people, she would have stopped the girl from entering that marriage.

Just look at the life she was leading; it was pure degradation!

Su Huandan gathered the dishes and washed them as she went.

“I’m not going. I’m never going back there again. I want a divorce. This time, no amount of persuasion will work. I’m going to the Women’s Federation² to report my marital situation and then get a divorce.” Su Huandan wasn’t about to be anyone’s nanny. As for who the divorce would affect, she didn’t give a damn.

Grandma Wang immediately smiled, her expression brightening. “Good, I support you. You should have divorced long ago. It’s good that you’ve made up your mind. Child, this isn’t the old society anymore. You can remarry after a divorce. You don’t have children either, so you’ll be able to find a good man.”

Chubby Grandma nodded hurriedly. That was the truth. Even a widow with children could find a match if she was decent-looking, let alone Su Huandan, who was truly beautiful.

She rested at home for two days, eating all three meals with the two grandmas.

Dreaming of eating meat every meal was unrealistic, but there was enough Chinese cabbage, potatoes, and radishes to keep her full.

When the eighth arrived, Su Huandan went to her workplace and headed straight for the labor union³. The union had staff specifically dedicated to mediating family disputes.

Su Huandan explained her situation, and the staff member, Big Sister Zhao, immediately slammed her hand on the table. “You child, really! Why didn’t you speak up about this sooner? If you had, we could have solved this long ago. Xiao Su, are you sure you want a divorce?”

Big Sister Zhao thought to herself that since there were no children, a divorce was fine. If there were children, she would have definitely tried to persuade her otherwise.

“I’m divorcing. I have to. I don’t want to be a free long-term laborer anymore.” Hearing this, Big Sister Zhao pursed her lips. Xiao Su’s in-laws were indeed excessive.

“Come on, we’re going to the city’s Women’s Federation right now. This matter of yours needs to be made into a big deal to be handled properly. We’ll go to the city’s Women’s Federation, and then through them, we’ll contact the military to report the situation. I’m not afraid we won’t be able to get this divorce.” What kind of people were they?

If you looked down on the girl, why did you get married in the first place?

Back then, fearing their son would be shot for being a hooligan, they coaxed the girl into marriage. And then, once she was in the family, they stopped treating her like a human being?

Where in the world was there such a convenient deal?

Once they reached the Women’s Federation, the case was immediately made into a textbook example.

The next day, Su Huandan didn’t worry about a thing and went to work. Over at the Military Compound, the military had already sent people to investigate.

They were asking around: what exactly was the situation with the Liu family’s daughter-in-law, Su Huandan?

The people in the compound lived together; how could they not know the details?

As soon as they saw the questioner wearing a military uniform, they knew the Liu family’s daughter-in-law had likely reported them.

And rightly so. Who in the compound didn’t know how that daughter-in-law had been brought into the family? Calling it a fraudulent marriage wouldn’t be an exaggeration. But after bringing her home, they hadn’t treated the girl well at all. Hmph, that was just poor conduct.

To be fair, no one added unnecessary fluff; they simply stated the facts of the original owner’s situation in the Liu household.

Immediately after, Liu Zhanyuan was called in for a talk.

Liu Zhanyuan was the original owner’s husband. He was bewildered. Why was he being called in for a private talk out of the blue?

When he found out what the talk was about, Liu Zhanyuan was fuming. An “official’s son” like him had been willing to marry an orphan girl like Su Huandan; she should have been thanking her lucky stars. How did she have the nerve to ask for a divorce? And to make such a huge scene out of it?

“I’ll definitely go back and talk some sense into her. Look at this mess. Women always make a fuss over the slightest grievance. I’ll definitely have a good communication with her when I get back.” Even now, Liu Zhanyuan was still thinking of smoothing things over.

The leadership could see through him. Liu Zhanyuan was currently at a critical moment for promotion and didn’t want a divorce. If they did divorce, how would that old “hooliganism” incident be explained?

But Su Huandan’s attitude was resolute. She made it clear that if he didn’t agree, she would go to the military authorities and ask how they handled charges of hooliganism.

With such a stance, it was difficult for the leadership to help Liu Zhanyuan even if they wanted to.

The divorce went through. By the time Su Huandan received the legally binding divorce papers, Liu Zhanyuan’s promotion was completely ruined. It wasn’t just this one time, either; he wouldn’t even have a chance for the next ten years, as a major demerit had been recorded in his file.

Until the heat from this incident died down, any hope of promotion would be incredibly difficult for him.

Now that she was divorced, Su Huandan was overjoyed. she bought two pounds of fatty pork at the factory and headed home to make dumplings.

She planned to treat the neighbors of the entire courtyard to a meal to celebrate her divorce.

Two pounds of fatty pork meant rendering the lard to mix with Chinese cabbage and tofu. It was just enough to give everyone a taste of something savory, as she couldn’t buy any more than that; she simply didn’t have enough meat coupons⁴.

As for buying from the Black Market?

The people living in this courtyard, including the original owner of her body, were all very frugal. They couldn’t bear to spend such high prices just to eat meat.

Translator’s Notes