Xu Changqing was so embarrassed she didn’t dare look back.
She just gave a quick wave behind her and walked away even faster.
‘By the way, maybe I should make a suggestion to my great-uncle and third uncle?’
‘The road out of the village really needs a new route.
See, a new path could easily be cleared from the eastern side of the mostly semi-sandy land—right from the southeast corner.’
After they had walked a ways, just before taking a shortcut, Xu Qiguang glanced back toward the village entrance and asked with a chuckle, “Was that the youngest son of your fifth grand-uncle’s second son?”
It was much more relaxed once they left the village.
Xu Changqing was looking all around as she walked.
Hearing his question, she pulled her gaze from the long stretch of wheat fields west of the village and turned back with a smile.
“Yes, that’s him.
Xu Sanhu, or Brother Hu Zi.”
“Little Tiger, huh?” ‘A fitting nickname,’ he thought.
‘Just what you’d expect from Second Brother’s kid, always blurting out the blunt truth.’ “So he’s the boy who was always hanging around with you and Wu when you were kids.”
“He’s actually a really good person, very honest.
Like a real brother to me.” Xu Changqing felt she had to defend her childhood friend.
“He never forgets to include me whenever there’s something good.”
‘It’s not surprising.
Not many people still call you Qingzi these days.’ Recalling how that silly boy used to insist she was a “little brother,” not a “little sister,” Xu Qiguang chuckled.
“Is he still in school?”
“No, he quit after elementary school.
No one could change his mind.
Now he’s doing odd jobs for my third grand-uncle.
He just came back for the wheat harvest, and afterward, he’s going to learn how to drive.”
‘Learn to drive?’ Xu Qiguang suddenly realized that the “third grand-uncle” his daughter was talking about was the eldest son of her fifth grand-uncle—his own third cousin, who was the commune’s tractor driver.
The Xu family was numerous, and that was without even counting the Xus who had left Baizigou in the last ten-plus years.
Their numbers were already close to rivaling the Bai family, the village’s original settlers.
That was why the family titles were so confusing; for a moment, he hadn’t connected the dots.
‘Time flies,’ he thought.
‘To think that even Second Brother’s youngest son is all grown up now.’
Xu Changqing glanced around and, seeing no one else nearby, quickened her pace to keep up.
She stole a look at her father’s face.
“Dad, I don’t think a transfer to the county station is better than staying where you are.”
“You don’t want your dad to transfer back?”
‘It would be a lie to say I don’t, but the problem is the transfer is to the bus station.
No matter how worry-free a job in the dispatch office is, with Dad’s personality, he’d personally step in the moment they were short a driver or an escort.’
‘One year, right before winter, the coal mine was facing a heavy quota.
Her father, a junior administrator, was the first one to put down his pen, leave the office, and go down into the mines himself.
He stayed busy there for a whole month.’
‘In the end, near the completion of the task, there was nearly a safety accident.
She only heard about that incident by chance from her father’s mentor much later.
Who knew how many other times he’d done similar things without her knowledge.’
‘Otherwise, in a mining district that large, where every post was already filled, how could her father, a man with no connections, have ever stood out?
How could he have had a chance to be promoted to section chief?’
‘No pain, no gain.
In places she couldn’t see, who knew how her father had painstakingly endured, step by step, in a town so far from home?
He even had to pull strings to get her third maternal uncle a job at the coal mine.’
‘It was because he owed a debt, a favor to her third uncle from their childhood.
When her third aunt tearfully complained that their family was so poor they couldn’t keep their pot boiling, her father had to cave to the pressure and agree to their request.’
‘And one favor led to another.
If you found a job for the Yue Family, shouldn’t you treat your own family just as fairly?
After that, her father spent a whole three hundred yuan for her second cousin to take over a retiring worker’s position.’
‘Yes, taking over a post from an elderly worker.
To make it happen, her dad had to give the colleague who pulled the strings quite a few benefits.
And that just happened to be a year with another bad harvest.’
‘She remembered it clearly.
Her auntie did try to press three hundred yuan and a basket of eggs on her dad.
But it was her grandma—her sweet, good-natured grandma—who insisted that he couldn’t accept money for helping his own nephew find work.’
‘Not only did Grandma refuse it repeatedly, but she also bluntly pointed out that her auntie had borrowed and scraped that money together from all over.
She even slammed the table, forbidding her son from taking it, asking if he thought their own money just grew on trees.’
‘Her dad never uttered a single word about all the bitterness and injustice he faced.
In front of the family, it was always the same line: “It’s all office work.
Not tiring in the least.
I’ve even put on weight.”‘
‘But her heart ached for him.
He was nearly five-foot-eleven, yet at his heaviest, he weighed less than 145 pounds.
How was that ‘putting on weight’?
Her dad was just used to suffering in silence.
When he was utterly exhausted, he would hide out at his work unit, putting in overtime to save up vacation days.
He would only come home after his complexion improved enough to not worry the family.’
It was so hard.
‘But could she say any of this directly?
Her dad was a proud man.’ “It’s not that I don’t want you to transfer back to work here,” she said.
“But if you’re only doing it for me, then there’s no need at all.”
There was one thing Xu Changqing hadn’t brought up, waiting until it was confirmed—or at least, until she’d made a final decision.
Now, she had to mention it.
“Before the break, my teacher told me I can test into a technical secondary school.
Whether I study to be a telegraph operator or an accountant, if you’re working in Linxian, I can apply for a job assignment there after graduation.”
‘A technical secondary school?’ Getting into a proper university required a recommendation, and the commune only had a few slots each year, so Xu Qiguang wasn’t opposed.
‘But would the pressure be too much for her?’
He hadn’t visited her teacher in a while this year.
So, even though Xu Qiguang knew his daughter’s academic performance was excellent, he hesitated to offer any immediate advice.
He quickened his pace for a few steps, musing for a moment before he couldn’t help but ask, “Compared to your chances of getting into the county high school, did your teacher say how confident she was?”
“Seventy percent.” Xu Changqing answered, then suddenly realized this was no time for modesty.
“The exam isn’t for another six months.
I’m ninety percent sure I can pass.”
‘So, she’s already met all the registration requirements, and now it’s just a matter of the test results.’ Xu Qiguang nodded slowly, but still added a reminder, “You should have a backup plan.”
‘He means I should prepare for the technical school exam, but not fall behind on my high school prep in case I fail?’ Xu Changqing understood.
She hadn’t even told him about her third option.
‘Originally, before yesterday, her plan had been to find a job after graduating junior high next year if she didn’t get into the technical school.
Finding a position in another work unit would be difficult, but it shouldn’t be too hard to get a job as her great-uncle’s assistant.’
‘If that failed, she still had another way.
Ever since the Lunar New Year, she’d been using every chance she got to go into the county seat and learn to drive from her great-uncle’s old comrade-in-arms.
She had a solid grasp of it now and could start as an apprentice.’
‘And if even *that* didn’t work, she could learn masonry from her first grand-uncle and carpentry from her second.
There were so many paths in life.
If she just kept practicing, kept training, and grew a thicker skin, she’d always be able to find a way to make a living.’
The moment she thought about making money, Xu Changqing forgot that her family actually had some savings now.
Hurrying to keep up with her dad, she couldn’t resist patting her hidden pocket.
The forty-nine yuan—her secret stash, saved up over many years—made her feel a surge of confidence.
She strode forward with what she felt was her most masculine swagger.
From a distance, with her slender, boyish frame and a short haircut that made her look like Bai Chenggang’s twin, she was indistinguishable from a young lad as she walked.
“First, come with your dad to the department store.”