Qiao Qiusheng was very grateful that Grandma Qiao had bought him back then. Given the circumstances at the time, being bought was actually a way out for him. Otherwise, he probably would have starved to death.
So he had never had any complaints about becoming a child husband. He had loved his “younger sister,” Qiao Zhufang, ever since they were children. Later, after learning how to cook from the old lady, he took over all the cooking at home and never let his little sister lift a finger.
Although in those days, no matter what kind of family a girl came from, she was expected to learn how to cook. Otherwise, after marrying into another family, if she did not even know how to cook, her parents-in-law and husband would inevitably dislike her.
But in Qiao Qiusheng’s eyes, he had known since childhood that his little sister would eventually become his wife. She would not marry out of the family, so it naturally did not matter if she did not know how to cook after they got married.
After all these years, Qiao Qiusheng could confidently say that he was the best cook in the family.
As the only son, Qiao Heping had naturally learned to cook from his father as well. His cooking was quite good—much better than his wife He Yingying’s.
He Yingying only knew how to make a few simple dishes. When she was young, her grandmother was still alive, and the family never allowed her to help with cooking. They did not even let her mother help, because they were afraid the two of them would sneak food while cooking. So before getting married, He Yingying had hardly ever cooked more than a few times.
After getting married, they ate at the factory canteen most of the time. Whenever they cooked at home, her father-in-law usually handled everything. She simply did not have many opportunities to cook.
Qiao Qiusheng and Qiao Heping did not think there was anything wrong with two grown men doing the cooking. Qiao Qiusheng had never even cared about what people said about him marrying into his wife’s family, so why would he care about something like this?
And Qiao Heping had been raised well by his grandmother, Grandma Qiao. He had been considerate toward his mother since childhood, and after getting married, he was equally considerate toward his wife. He did not think there was anything wrong with him and his father taking care of all the cooking.
While the father and son went out to buy groceries, Qiao Zhufang and her daughter-in-law, He Yingying, were busy dressing little Qiao Jia Jia in new clothes.
There were two new sets of clothes, both little pinafore dresses—one green plaid and the other red plaid. They had gone to the department store a week earlier to buy new cotton fabric, and Qiao Zhufang and He Yingying had sewn the dresses together at home. They had finished them three days ago, washed them two days ago, and as soon as the dresses dried yesterday, they had put one on Jia Jia and taken her outside.
A plaid pinafore dress paired with a white shirt never went out of style, no matter what era it was. And with Qiao Jia Jia’s pretty looks, she looked adorable in either dress. Whenever she went outside wearing one, people could not help praising her.
Qiao Zhufang and He Yingying were extremely enthusiastic about making clothes for their precious Jia Jia. Almost all of the family’s cloth coupons this year had been used to make clothes for her.
Starting last year, cloth coupons had been required. Each person was given only sixteen chi of cloth coupons a year. At that time, most fabric was about two chi and one cun wide. Just making a pair of trousers required about seven chi of cloth. Sixteen chi of cloth a year was barely enough to make one complete outfit, which was nothing like the days before cloth coupons were required.
The four adults in the family all treated Qiao Jia Jia like a precious treasure. Ever since she was born, they had constantly made new clothes for her, all from cotton fabric.
Naturally, the family’s cloth coupons were not enough. Fortunately, they could buy cloth coupons with cash on the black market or exchange money for them privately with neighbors and coworkers. There were still several unused cloth coupons sitting in the family’s drawer.
On top of that, the workers at their steel factory enjoyed fairly good benefits. Their labor-protection supplies were plentiful. Every month, they received a pair of cotton-thread gloves, and in winter they also received padded gloves. Socks were provided as well. In addition, every year and a half, they received a set of work clothes. They were dark blue and extremely durable.
Qiao Qiusheng and Qiao Heping practically wore their work clothes all year round in the factory workshop. As a result, they hardly needed their cloth coupons, so all of them were left for the three women in the family.
Qiao Zhufang controlled the family’s finances, but she was not stingy at all. She spent money quite generously. After all, she had experienced good times before and was not particularly obsessed with money. As long as they had enough to spend, that was enough for her.
When He Yingying had first married into the family, she often could not bear to spend money. Back when she was still living in the countryside and unmarried, even one yuan was a huge amount of money to her. After getting married and finding a job, she saved most of her monthly salary and still could not bring herself to spend it.
After living with her mother-in-law for a long time, however, she had gradually learned to be more willing to spend money. The mother and daughter-in-law often went shopping together.
The two of them had even discussed going to the department store in the city center in about half a month. A saleswoman they knew had told them that a new shipment of fabric would arrive soon. They had been saving their cloth coupons specifically so they could go and see what nice fabrics were available.
They had even been thinking that if they found a beautiful fabric, they would buy enough to make three matching outfits—one for each of them and one for Jia Jia.
That way, whenever they went out together, anyone who saw them would immediately know they were a family. They would definitely look adorable.
If Qiao Jia Jia knew that her grandmother and mother had such plans, she would certainly have praised them for being so ahead of their time. They were already thinking about matching family outfits.
But at the moment, she was still being fussed over by her grandmother and mother as they changed her clothes.
The two women could not decide which little dress she should wear—the red one or the green one. After going back and forth for a while, they decided to let Jia Jia try on both.
Everyone around them agreed that Qiao Jia Jia was beautiful. No matter which dress she wore, she looked lovely, as delicate and polished as a character in a magazine illustration.
In the end, Qiao Zhufang and He Yingying decided on the red plaid dress.
Jia Jia had already worn the green one outside yesterday, while she had never worn the red one. Besides, red was festive and cheerful, making it especially suitable for her birthday.
Qiao Jia Jia could already walk quite steadily. However, everyone in the family spoiled her, so most of the time they still carried her around.
Qiao Heping was especially fond of her. Every day when he came home, he would pick up his daughter and even let her ride on his back like a little horse. He spoiled her terribly.
So after Qiao Zhufang and He Yingying put the new dress on Jia Jia, they still insisted on holding her hand wherever she went, afraid she might lose her balance and fall.
By noon, Qiao Qiusheng and Qiao Heping had finished preparing an entire table of food.
There were three meat dishes and three vegetable dishes. For those times, this was an exceptionally lavish feast. Many families did not even eat this well during the New Year.
He Yingying’s parents arrived relatively early. When they arrived, they were surprised to discover that the two men cooking in the kitchen were actually Qiao Qiusheng and Qiao Heping.
Her father frowned and quietly said to his daughter, “Now that you’re married, you should be more diligent. How can you let your father-in-law and husband do the cooking? What kind of household has men going into the kitchen?”
He Yingying wanted to tell him that there was no rule saying men could not cook and that men and women were equal. But she knew her father was old-fashioned and unlikely to change his thinking. No matter what she said, it would be useless.
So she simply explained, “My cooking isn’t very good. Their cooking is much better than mine. Today, Mom and I are responsible for taking care of the guests and looking after Jia Jia. Besides, I already went into the kitchen earlier and helped them for a while.”
“All right. As long as you know what you’re doing, I won’t say anything more. I’ll go see Jia Jia. Where is she?” her father asked.
“Oh, my mother-in-law took her to the department store to buy some candy. We forgot to buy it yesterday. There will be children in every family who comes today, so when the guests leave, we can let them take some candy home,” He Yingying replied.
Just as father and daughter were talking, Qiao Zhufang returned with Qiao Jia Jia, carrying a bag of candy in her hand.
Seeing her in-laws, she said to her precious granddaughter, “Jia Jia, look! Your maternal grandparents are here. Come on, let’s go say hello. You still remember how to say ‘Grandma’ and ‘Grandpa,’ right? Call them once later. They’ll be so happy.”
Qiao Jia Jia did not have a particularly strong impression of her maternal grandparents. She had only seen them twice since she was born.
The first time was at her one-month celebration, when her maternal grandparents had come.
The second time was when she was six months old. Her parents had taken her to He Family Village, but she had probably caught a chill along the way and developed a fever after they returned. After that, she had never gone again.
She had overheard her parents discussing it. They planned to wait until she was about two years old before taking her again. Once she was a little older, they figured she would be less likely to get sick whenever they went out.
Today should be her third time seeing them.
If she had really been an ordinary little child, she would have forgotten what her maternal grandparents looked like by now. But she was not, so she recognized them at once.
Because she had seen them so few times, she naturally did not have much of an emotional bond with them.
But they were her mother’s parents, and Qiao Jia Jia loved her mother, He Yingying. So she would not treat her maternal grandparents coldly.
Hearing her grandmother’s words, she happily called out, “Grandma! Grandpa!”
Her maternal grandfather smiled when he heard her call him.
“That’s right!” he replied cheerfully. “Jia Jia, you’ve grown so much since I last saw you. You’re also much plumper and fairer. Come, this is Grandpa’s red envelope for you. Keep it and use it to buy candy later.”
There were two yuan inside the red envelope.
For He Yingying’s father, this was an extremely generous gift. It was treatment that his five grandsons and one granddaughter had never received before.
The six able-bodied workers in the He family earned only a little over one hundred yuan altogether in an entire year at most. After paying for food and clothing, there was even less left to save.
He had gritted his teeth to put those two yuan in the red envelope.
After all, the Qiao family was well-off. If he gave too little, it would look embarrassing.
When Qiao Zhufang saw her in-law taking out a red envelope, she immediately said, “Oh, please put that away! I already said this is just a meal with relatives and friends. How could we take a red envelope from you? Besides, you brought so many vegetables with you. You even brought a whole sack of sweet potatoes and radishes. That’s enough for our family to eat for more than half a month. How could we possibly let you spend even more money?”
He Yingying’s father waved his hand.
“Those vegetables are for your family to eat. This red envelope is for my granddaughter Jia Jia. They’re two different things. It’s just a little gift from her maternal grandfather. Come, Jia Jia, take it.”
Her maternal grandmother also spoke softly from the side.
“Your grandfather is right. This red envelope is just a little something from us as her maternal grandparents. Let Jia Jia have it. Besides, we didn’t give her any New Year’s lucky money earlier, so you can just consider this a belated New Year’s gift.”
Seeing that both her in-laws insisted, Qiao Zhufang felt it would be impolite to refuse again.
She lowered her head and said to her precious granddaughter, “Come on, take the red envelope. Jia Jia, say thank you to Grandma and Grandpa.”
Qiao Jia Jia looked at her grandmother before taking the red envelope.
Then she raised her little face and said sweetly and clearly, “Thank you, Grandma and Grandpa!”
Qiao Zhufang then noticed the little girl standing beside He Yingying’s mother.
“This is your second son’s daughter, right? Yingying mentioned her to me before. She should be four years old this year, right? She’s three years older than our Jia Jia, so Jia Jia should call her cousin. Come here and have some candy.”
Qiao Zhufang immediately remembered who the girl was and warmly grabbed a handful of candy for her.
At that time, there was hardly a child in the world who did not love candy.
Four-year-old He Rou Rou was already quite sensible. She hesitated and looked toward her grandparents.
Before coming, her parents had told her to behave herself.
He Yingying’s mother smiled and said, “Grandma Qiao is giving you candy. Take it and put it in your pocket so you don’t drop it.”
Only after hearing her grandmother say this did He Rou Rou take the candy.
Candy was not unfamiliar to her. Almost every time her aunt came back to the village, she would get some.
Her brothers even said she was lucky. When they had been her age, the family had been too poor, and they did not even know what candy tasted like.
He Rou Rou also felt that she was lucky. Compared with her brothers, her aunt loved her even more. Whenever her aunt handed out candy, Rou Rou always received the largest share—more than all her brothers.
The guests had not arrived yet, so Qiao Zhufang sat down with her two in-laws and began chatting.
Meanwhile, He Yingying took her niece and daughter and sat off to the side.
Not long afterward, most of the invited guests arrived.
The living room was small, so there was only enough room for one table and not many people.
Apart from He Yingying’s parents, they had invited only five other people: Qiao Qiusheng’s old friend, Qiao Heping’s three closest friends, and the female coworker at the factory who was closest to He Yingying.
As for Qiao Zhufang, the close friend she had planned to invite had fractured a bone in an accident a few days earlier and was still recovering at home, so naturally she could not come.