Chapter 95: The Pretty Military Wife of the Seventies 18

Su Huandan went home and cooked herself a small basin of egg noodles, eating with great relish.

Xu Chunxia also cooked a small basin of noodles when she got home. Having gone without meat or oil for so long, she was craving it desperately, and her stomach felt empty and weak. She ate a lot but got hungry quickly. She had never experienced such a poor diet even as a child; back then, her father worked in logistics for the military, and the family never lacked for food or drink.

So this was what it felt like to be starved for good food.

It was both humiliating and agonizing.

If eating poorly was like this, what about not having enough to eat at all?

Xu Chunxia suddenly felt that her decision not to get a divorce might have been a mistake.

She felt a twinge of regret!

“Sometimes when I think about it, I really regret marrying your Brother Niu. He was a soldier from the countryside, one of six brothers, and he was the second oldest. Back then, everyone said he had a government job in the military and that his conditions were so good. But once I married in, I found out. We’ve been married for seventeen years. For the first ten years, we had to support his younger brothers who weren’t of age yet. We had to scrape together money to help them marry wives. Ten years! Don’t laugh, but in those first ten years of marriage, let alone eating meat for the New Year, the only time I saw any was when I gave birth. My parents and brothers would come to see me, and seeing how poor we were, they’d bring a few eggs or some dried fish they’d caught and dried themselves. That was my life for those ten years.” In this era, whose life wasn’t bitter?

Sister-in-law Niu only started talking about these old grievances as she became closer to Su Huandan recently.

“I figured everyone’s life was lived this way. He had to take care of his parents and brothers, and since I married him, how could I not agree? In these times, doesn’t every family have the older ones looking after the younger ones? But those people in my in-laws’ family… for ten years, if they wanted money, we gave money; if they wanted coupons, we gave coupons. They got it all too easily and had no idea how much our family had to scrimp and save for those things. Later, they actually had the nerve to ask for a thousand yuan, saying they wanted to build a house for each of the brothers, and then we were supposed to take the old couple in to support them, and only then would the family stop needing our help.” Was that even human speech?

Sister-in-law Niu continued, “I didn’t have a job. The vegetables we ate all year round were wild greens I gathered in the mountains with the children. If I grew some fresh vegetables in the yard, I’d hope to sell them for a few cents to buy soy sauce, vinegar, or salt. Any spare money we had was mailed back, but even that wasn’t enough for them; they opened their mouths like lions. We almost got divorced before your Brother Niu finally changed his mindset.”

While her own children were as skinny as bean sprouts from hunger, he was tearing out his heart and lungs to supplement his parents and brothers. Sister-in-law Niu had truly suffered a great deal.

“It’s only been these last seven years that life has felt normal and hopeful.” Sister-in-law Niu’s situation was typical for most families in this era.

In Sister-in-law Niu’s words: You just endure. Who doesn’t start out living life in a muddle? If the current her could go back to the past, it would be fine for the man to give his parents a normal amount of retirement money, but as for the brothers? Just try taking a single cent.

You brothers didn’t do anything great for my family, so why should I wrong my own children to raise you?

Soon, Su Huandan went into labor. It turned out exactly as Zhan Hongjun had predicted; not only could he not make it back, but he couldn’t even be contacted.

This was the helplessness and bitterness of being a military wife.

She gave birth at the Military Health Clinic. Su Huandan had always had smooth deliveries. From the onset of pain to birth, it never took more than two hours. That efficiency was much better than Chen Li’s previous experience.

When Chen Li was brought to the clinic, she couldn’t deliver naturally and was rushed to the provincial hospital overnight for a C-section. She stayed in the hospital for half a month before returning. She had a daughter, but because the baby had been stuck in the womb for too long, her respiratory system wasn’t very good.

There were more details Auntie Gu didn’t mention, such as how critical the situation was when Chen Li was sent for the C-section; her uterus had been removed, otherwise she wouldn’t have survived.

Chen Li’s husband’s face had been dark ever since.

Could it be anything else?

In this era, if you asked around, which man wasn’t aiming for a son?

Auntie Gu was a doctor at the Military Health Clinic and also Regimental Commander¹ Wang’s wife.

Su Huandan went home the day after giving birth. Sister-in-law Niu found a flatbed cart and pulled Su Huandan back.

It actually wasn’t far, less than a twenty-minute walk, but Sister-in-law Niu didn’t dare let Su Huandan walk.

Once home, she was pressed into bed by Sister-in-law Niu to wait for food and drink.

Throughout the entire postpartum month, it was either chicken soup or fish soup. If the canteen had beef or mutton for sale, Sister-in-law Niu would buy it for Su Huandan to make stew.

Zhan Hongjun had given instructions before he left; he wasn’t afraid of spending money, and Sister-in-law Niu didn’t skimp on it either. Having gone through so many postpartum periods herself, she knew all too well how much the quality of food during that month affected one’s health.

People often said she never got fat no matter how much she ate, but Sister-in-law Niu wanted to say that her own thin, dark frame wasn’t actually her natural constitution; it was purely because her body’s reserves had been depleted and never properly replenished.

After the month was up, Xu Chunxia across the way also gave birth. It was premature; they said she had been bumped by someone’s child and went into early labor, struggling to give birth to a daughter.

Was she really bumped by a child? Or…

“It’s hard to say. That child is only three years old and can’t even speak clearly. Liu Zhanyuan isn’t here, and the child’s father isn’t here either. Xu Chunxia demanded a hundred yuan in compensation, and the child’s mother didn’t argue; she paid it on the spot. But that woman is from the town police station. After paying the money, she called people from her workplace to investigate the truth of the matter.” It would be a miracle if they found anything.

If someone had seen what happened, wouldn’t they have spoken up long ago?

In this family compound, who didn’t know about Xu Chunxia’s past? No one was willing to associate with her.

If someone had truly seen Xu Chunxia get bumped, they would have spoken up for justice.

But absolutely no one saw that moment.

Therefore, the child’s mother’s action was essentially useless, seemingly intended only to intimidate Xu Chunxia.

Could Xu Chunxia be afraid of such a threat?

She really had been bumped by the running child; she wasn’t lying. She just concealed the fact that she already had signs of labor before being bumped.

She took the opportunity to claim the sum and didn’t expect to keep arguing; she wasn’t a fool.

But even so, no one believed the child actually bumped her.

The child’s mother told everyone she met, “Our family is just unlucky. The child is small and can’t explain things. You all better watch your children well, lest you end up as unlucky as my family. When Xu Chunxia had her first miscarriage, she made a hundred yuan off Chen Li’s family, and now Chen Li’s family is still eating husks and wild greens². This time she gave birth and made a hundred yuan off my family. Who knows whose money she’ll make next.”

When these words reached Xu Chunxia’s ears, she remained completely unfazed. If given another chance, she would do the exact same thing again.

Consequently, the other military wives were extremely guarded around her.

Su Huandan felt that living such a life must be incredibly exhausting.

Everyone avoided her as if she were the plague. How could Xu Chunxia possibly endure all those judgmental looks?

“How do I endure it? Oh, my daughter, when I look at you and think of your brother, I feel like there’s nothing in this world I can’t handle. As long as you children are doing well, what does it matter how I live my life?” Xu Chunxia had given birth to a daughter and was looking after herself during her postpartum recovery. To ensure she had enough milk for the baby, she made sure she didn’t skimp on her own meals during this period.

Translator’s Notes