The day passed quickly. At 5:30 in the afternoon, Ning An got off work, and Father Jiang was punctually waiting at the Gongxiaoshe entrance.
The people at the Gongxiaoshe all knew him by now, and as they closed up and put up the shutters, they greeted him: “Old Jiang. Wait a minute or two, Comrade Xiao Jiang will be right out.”
“Ah, no rush. I can wait.”
One of the male sales clerks teased him: “Old Jiang, why don’t you buy Xiao Jiang a bicycle? Then she could ride to and from work herself, and you’d be spared the trouble of picking her up and dropping her off every day. Look at you—you earn such a high salary, what are you saving it for? Spend it!”
Workers’ wages in those days were all open and transparent—whatever grade of worker you were, you drew the corresponding wage, with no privacy at all. How much Old Jiang earned, everyone knew.
Now that Jiang Ning’an had come of age, quite a few families were getting restless, hoping to arrange a marriage alliance with Old Jiang. After all, Old Jiang was so well-off, and she was his only daughter. Even if the house couldn’t be inherited by a married-out daughter, surely he’d give more money, right?
Even if Old Jiang wanted to take in a live-in son-in-law, plenty of young men would eagerly marry into the family!
Marrying into a wife’s family used to be looked down upon—when a man joined his wife’s household, he’d even receive a “verdict”: “The boy is truly worthless, taking his wife’s surname and forsaking his ancestors.” Though times had changed and discrimination against live-in sons-in-law was no longer so deep, it still existed.
But when it came to the Jiang family, none of that mattered. What could be more practical than living a good life and gaining real benefits?
However, since the Jiangs had never given any hint of their intentions—and whenever someone probed, the couple always said they wanted to keep their daughter home a couple more years—no matchmaker had ever formally come to propose.
Everyone was waiting and watching.
Mainly, the gap was just too large; no one dared open their mouth lightly.
Jiang Xuegong laughed. “I’d love to buy her one, but I don’t have the ticket, you see. No bicycle ticket, and I haven’t saved up enough industrial coupons. How about you lend me some, and I’ll pay you back once I’ve saved up?”
Without a dedicated bicycle ticket, you’d need thirty industrial coupons!
The joker laughed it off and changed the subject.
In fact, after working at the coal mine for a few years, Jiang Xuegong had considered moving the family to the county town. But at the time his old mother was still alive, and she didn’t want to travel far. Besides, she felt that if they stayed in the countryside, she and her daughter-in-law would have things to do and could support themselves. In town, the two of them would just be idle mouths to feed—even if they could pick up odd jobs for money, everything would have to be bought with cash, with no way to grow their own food. That burden would surely be heavy.
So, after much deliberation, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law decided not to move. Back when purchases didn’t yet require tickets, they had Jiang Xuegong spend a “small fortune” on a bicycle so she could ride to and from work herself. It was a bit tiring, but in the long run it was to lighten his burden.
Later, during the famine, in the countryside they could still dig for wild vegetables, and their private plot could still produce a little something—which only proved how right that decision had been.
After that, they got used to it and never thought about moving again.
When his daughter started school, she attended elementary school in the village. For junior high, he transferred her to the county town, riding his bicycle to take her to and from school every day, with lunch eaten at school. The child made him proud—she tested into a vocational secondary school, and after graduating, her assigned job brought her back to the Gongxiaoshe of her own commune as an accountant. The work was easy, the pay was good, and it was close to home.
It was a pity her grandmother hadn’t lived to see this day, never got to enjoy her granddaughter’s good fortune.
Now, being teased like this, the idea of moving to the county town popped into Jiang Xuegong’s head again. He didn’t have deep feelings for his hometown. His father had died early, and he had seen through the ways of the world at a young age. Back then, the uncles of his own clan and his aunts who had married out all looked down on his family, thinking that a widowed mother and orphaned son were sure to fare badly and weren’t worth associating with.
His third aunt in particular made her snobbishness perfectly plain, treating him and his mother with utter disdain. Later, when he got a job at the coal mine and life improved, she came fawning back. He had no fondness for her, and his attitude toward her remained lukewarm at best.
With a clan and relatives like that, what was there to be sentimental about?
Just as he was thinking this, Ning An came running out from the back yard, the “Serve the People” satchel slung over her shoulder, swinging back and forth with her movements.
“Dad.”
“No need to run, take it slow. We’re not in a hurry.”
“Okay.”
Ning An answered while continuing to run, hopping lightly onto the back seat.
“Holding on tight? Here we go.”
“Ready, let’s go.”
On the way, Jiang Xuegong asked her, “What do you think—if we moved to the county town, would your mother agree?”
“No way!”
Ning An shattered his daydream without a moment’s hesitation.
What was he thinking? If they moved to the county town, her mother would never adjust. Besides, her mother was well-liked in the village and got along with everyone, always chatting and laughing while working in the fields. Sure, there were a few gossips and busybodies, but that didn’t outweigh the good—the overall environment was nice. Could the county town offer anything like that?
Jiang Xuegong wouldn’t give up. “How about we ask her?”
“Then go ask.”
“If I ask, she’ll shoot me down on the spot. You ask.”
“I’m not asking. If I ask, my mom will think it’s me who wants to move to town. What if she sacrifices her own happiness for my sake? How could I live with that?”
Jiang Xuegong: “…Fine, forget it then.”
His wife would definitely say no.
“Why did you suddenly think of moving?”
“Well, you’ve grown up now. In town, there are more families with good circumstances—you’d have a better selection. It’s not that I look down on country folk—I’m a country man myself—but the fact is, people in the village generally aren’t well-off. Your mom and I raised you well, feeding you good food, and we’d hate to see you suffer in someone else’s house. If you married into a village family, you couldn’t even eat eggs every day. Not like now, when you complain you’re sick of them.”
“Well, I am sick of them! Eating them every single day, 365 days a year, not one day missed.”
“That’s what they call not knowing how lucky you are!”
Ning An leaned forward and said with a grin, “Dad, how about killing a chicken? I’m craving stewed chicken.”
“You’ll have to take that up with your mom—I can’t decide that. Who knows, she might just kill that rooster for you.”
“Not a chance. Mom’s keeping the rooster for the New Year offerings.”
“I think she’d definitely kill it for you. New Year’s is still a long way off—we can just buy another one for the offerings by then.”
Father and daughter had gone completely off track. Ning An pulled them back: “Dad, let me tell you—city folks aren’t necessarily really well-off. And even if they are well-off, their character isn’t necessarily good. Several of my vocational school classmates were from the city, and they told me all sorts of stories about city families. Tsk tsk tsk—the drama and scheming were worse than in the village.”
“Then let’s not rush. We’ll take our time looking and choose carefully. There’s plenty of time. We’ll aim to find someone who’s both well-off and good-natured.”
“Right, right, you’re right. We have to keep our eyes open and choose carefully. If we can’t find anyone, so be it. When I’m old, I’ll just go to a nursing home.”
She wasn’t opposed to marriage. Life was long, and marrying someone she found pleasant to look at would be fine too. The only condition was that it had to be someone she actually liked. She only said this to secure for herself the freedom of choice—she could choose to marry, or choose not to.
“Don’t talk nonsense. Careful your mom doesn’t hear you and pinch you.”
Ning An shivered reflexively. Her mom’s pinches really hurt.
By the time they got home, Zhao Fengxia hadn’t finished work yet.
Farm work was truly hard. You started especially early and finished very late—dawn to dusk, as if you were rooted in the fields.
Ning An put her bag back in her room and started cooking.
Dinner was simple: dumpling soup with tomatoes and eggs, plus stir-fried shredded radish and vinegar-glazed yam slices.
Jiang Xuegong changed into old clothes, put on rubber shoes, and even wore a hat—armed from head to toe. He started cleaning out the pigsty and the chicken coop, cooked the pig feed, then went to their private plot to pick some old outer cabbage leaves, chopped them up on a wooden stump, mixed them with wheat bran and a bit of cornmeal, and began feeding the chickens.
After finishing the meal, Ning An boiled two kettles of water and filled all the thermoses in the house. While Jiang Xuegong wasn’t paying attention, she added a drop of spiritual spring water to one of the thermoses.
It wasn’t that she was stingy—it was that ordinary people simply couldn’t handle it.
The spiritual spring in Ning An’s space had come from the Secret Realm she was bound to in the cultivation world. Its effects were comparable to a marrow-cleansing pill, only milder. Even a single drop—she didn’t know if the two of them could withstand it.
When Jiang Xuegong finished his chores, Ning An poured him a cup of water.
“Dad, have some water and rest a bit. We’ll eat when Mom gets back.”
Jiang Xuegong took the cup, blew on it, and took a tiny sip. The water was too hot to drink, so he set it aside.
Just then, Zhao Fengxia came home.
It was already basically dark by then.
Ning An urged her, “Mom, why don’t you come home earlier? It’s just one work point.”
Zhao Fengxia replied, “I figured that as soon as you two got home, you’d take care of the housework! Whether I’m back a little early or a little late, it’s all the same!”
She picked up an old towel and patted the dust off herself, then got some water to wash her hands and face, and turned on an old miner’s lamp for light.
Working at the coal mine came with pretty good benefits. Not only were work uniforms issued regularly, but you could shower every day after coming up from the pit. Old miner’s lamps like this one could be brought home, and each person was allotted a good amount of low-quality coal dust every year—the family never lacked coal for cooking and heating!
The family sat around the table eating.
Jiang Xuegong said, “A new substation is being built in the county. In a couple of years at most, we might have electricity here too. Then we’ll be eating with the electric lights on.”
Zhao Fengxia said, “Your news is outdated. I heard some production teams already have electricity. There’s a young married woman in our village who married in from another commune, and their production team has electricity. But only a few households in the village are hooked up—the electricity bill is so expensive. Even with it connected, they can’t bear to use it. It’s twenty-six cents per kilowatt-hour. Who could afford that?”
Jiang Xuegong: “We can afford it. As long as electricity gets connected here, we’re putting in electric lights. One in the main room, the kitchen, our bedroom, and one outside the main room door too.”
“Why put one outside the main room door?”
“To light things up, of course. It’ll light up the courtyard at night—makes everything easier to do.”
Zhao Fengxia curled her lip. “You’re being way too flashy. We’ll talk about it later. We don’t hang around in the courtyard at night anyway, and if we need to do something, we’ve got flashlights and miner’s lamps.”
Jiang Xuegong turned to Ning An, who was eating attentively. “An’an, what do you think—should we install them or not?”
“Install them.”
Anything that could improve their living conditions, not a single one could be left out.
“Even my daughter says to install them. What more do you want?”
“Fine, fine, fine. You two go on and show off.”
Jiang Xuegong chuckled, picked up a big mouthful of shredded radish, and only after swallowing said, “My daughter’s cooking just keeps getting better. Today’s dumpling soup and shredded radish are way tastier than before.”
Zhao Fengxia said, “Try the yam slices—they’re good too.”
Ning An said smugly, “Of course. People have to keep improving—did you think I’d just stay in place forever?”
Her cooking skills were maxed out. Today’s meal had actually been deliberately made worse on purpose!