«Family Matters»
This child just keeps on crying and crying—day and night—she really is a night-crying little monster!
The veins on Wang Dashan’s forehead were throbbing; he truly felt he couldn’t take it any longer.
Just a few days ago, the children had been clinging to Li Lanlan most of the time.
When children are small, they really do cling to their mothers; wherever Li Lanlan was, the children would gather round her.
But she couldn’t look after four children on her own. The two older ones sat in his lap, their eyes brimming with tears as they watched Li Lanlan holding their younger siblings.
Wang Dashan recalled how, in his own youth, he had been filled with such deep affection for his mother. When exactly had that bond begun to drift apart?
Probably after he’d grown up.
But his biggest problem right now was getting the second child to stop crying!
He’d have to ring Lanlan tomorrow to ask how things were going over there! If things really didn’t work out, she should just come back. Even if she did nothing at all, simply being there would be enough to act as a stabilising force.
Just like catnip!
Wang Dashan began soothing the child again. “Don’t cry, Jiajia. We’ll call your mother tomorrow.”
It took a long time of rocking and soothing before the child finally drifted off, half-asleep. Just as Wang Dashan was about to lay the child on the bed, the little one started wailing again.
There was nothing for it but to lie down himself, holding the second child close. As he patted the child’s back, the little one fell asleep, and Wang Dashan dozed off for a while too.
Suddenly, he felt a dampness on his lower back. He looked down to see that the child had wet the bed. Glancing at the other two, he realised they’d wet themselves too. It was just beginning to get light outside. He cast a glance towards his father-in-law, who was huddled right up against the edge of the bed, a safe distance away from the ‘map’ of urine left by the youngest.
The two younger ones were sleeping in the middle. The second child lay next to the third, clutching his little sister’s chubby arm tightly, snoring away! The youngest was tugging at the third child’s other arm; the three of them had their heads pressed together. If one ignored the two ‘maps’ on the bed, it really was an adorable sight—the children were at their most charming age.
Only his own wounded world had been realised; he had no idea when he might find relief!
The second son had originally been sleeping in the main room with his mother-in-law, the eldest son and his two cousins, but had been sent over here because he’d wet the bed. Yet here he was, wetting it again – but then, he was just a child; what could one do?
Wang Dashan saw that the children were all asleep, so he squeezed himself a bit further towards the head of the bed, moving away from that pile of maps, and then went back to sleep.
Just after six in the morning, Li Lanlan, far away in Beijing, was already woken by her alarm. She had always been a light sleeper. The elderly couple she worked for were away; they’d called late last night to say they wouldn’t be back for a few days, and might not return until Friday.
It was only Tuesday, and with several days of free time ahead, Li Lanlan really didn’t want to miss this opportunity to earn some money.
The freezer contained some meat and seafood, as the Wang family bought their vegetables and the like fresh every day. They didn’t usually buy in bulk, otherwise the produce would go off by the next day.
With Li Lanlan on her own for the next few days, and those frozen items being quite expensive, she decided it was best not to touch the family’s food whilst she was alone. After all, she was there to work, not to live the high life.
When the family were at home, they treated her with respect, so it was fine for her to help herself to some of the better dishes. But when they were away, it wouldn’t do to help herself to the expensive ingredients in their fridge.
As usual, she went to the service cooperative’s market to buy some vegetables and meat. It didn’t cost much at all; she couldn’t eat that much on her own, and the total came to less than two yuan.
Back home, she recorded the expenses and items in her ledger. Li Lanlan made herself some breakfast: a pot of millet porridge, which she ate with steamed buns and a cold vegetable salad.
After she’d finished, there was still more than half a bowl of salad left, and as she’d only bought two buns, those were all gone. She put the leftovers in the fridge to make noodles for lunch.
Just as she was about to head to Wang Caixia’s house, the phone rang.
Li Lanlan picked up the phone. “Hello, who is it?”
“Lanlan, it’s me, Dashan. How are you getting on in Beijing? Are you settling in?” Wang Dashan began by asking after Li Lanlan’s situation.
Li Lanlan glanced at her watch; it was already past eight o’clock. Why was Wang Dashan still at home? Hadn’t he gone out to find work?
“Everything’s fine. It’s past eight now – haven’t you gone out yet?” Hearing that familiar voice on the other end of the line – that familiar nagging tone – Wang Dashan wasn’t the least bit surprised!
“Not yet. It’s raining today, so Dad and I didn’t go out. We’re taking the day off to rest at home. Things have been going quite well lately; I’ve been making about ten or so yuan a day.” Wang Dashan quickly updated Li Lanlan on his work situation.
He wouldn’t normally behave like this; the couple usually bickered back and forth. But now that he needed Li Lanlan’s help, he certainly couldn’t act as he used to. Otherwise, Li Lanlan might run off to the big city, leaving the children behind. Where would he go to find these four little mountains to carry on his back?
This wasn’t Wang Dashan exaggerating; the reality was that rural women led a truly hard life. Not only did they have to handle all the housework and cooking, but they also had to work the fields. Even a girl like Li Lanlan, who might not have had to learn to cook as a child, still had to work the land.
Faced with such a hard life, there’s always a small handful of far-sighted women who, seeing their lazy husbands, disobedient children, in-laws causing trouble everywhere, and relatives on their mother’s side who can’t be relied upon, seize any opportunity to escape this hellhole.
And run they do.
Especially those going to Shenzhen to work – there are even more of them running away.
In recent years, Shenzhen has relaxed its restrictions on migrants somewhat, though only slightly. For instance, women arriving there are usually allowed in after a quick ID check upon the train’s arrival, whereas men are not always so fortunate; some are sent back.
This is because they are considered a source of social instability. Even if a young woman gets into trouble, it rarely leads to anything serious; unless driven to desperation, most are law-abiding citizens.
But these young men in their prime, with nothing to do, get into fights and brawls – it’s a real headache.
“Right, what’s the matter with the call?”
“The kids miss you. They just wanted to know how things are going where you’re working. If it’s not working out, why not come back home? We can all be together as a family back home!”
Hearing this, Li Lanlan was livid. That hypocrite—probably only calling because the children were driving him crazy. Hmph!
“Come back? Find me a job that actually pays, then! How much do you earn yourself? Is that enough to feed six mouths? Do you think I could manage if I didn’t go out to work? Could you support us all on your own?”
Just mentioning it made Li Lanlan’s blood boil.
Having no brothers, she’d endured her fair share of gossip since childhood, but she was a strong-willed woman by nature.
This made her a stubborn and headstrong woman who refused to accept her lot in life.
Wang Dashan, on the other hand, was her complete opposite—a man who simply took things as they came. She had taken the children all over the country, moving them from one rural primary school to another within the district, and then, once the transfer fees were abolished, transferring them to a primary school in the city.
There, her children saw computers for the first time, had music and art lessons, and took part in club activities; she did not want any of them to return to their rural hometown.
Is the old home a good place? Of course it is; she grew up there, her children were born there, and it is the family’s roots.
Is the old home a bad place? It is, too. It is poor and backward; building a ‘beautiful countryside’ is never just an empty phrase—it requires substantial financial investment.
For someone like Li Lanlan, going out to make a living was the best choice; you can’t dig gold out of the soil—at least, Li Lanlan didn’t think she had the knack for it.
But her hometown was gradually improving, too.
And now, Wang Dashan was demanding she go back to look after the children. He should count himself lucky they weren’t face to face right now; otherwise, she really would have slapped him.
“I earn far more here than I ever would back home. Why are you making such a fuss about me looking after the child for a few days?”
“In other families, it’s the wife who stays at home to look after the children…” Wang Dashan knew he was in the wrong, but he’d grown up in an environment steeped in such traditions and was accustomed to the traditional division of labour where the man works outside the home and the woman manages the household.
It wasn’t that he didn’t know better; he simply didn’t want to delve into it!
“Well, why don’t you go and live with them then!”
Li Lanlan’s retort shut him down, and Wang Dashan couldn’t think of anything else to say.
They exchanged a few hurried words before hanging up; long-distance calls were simply too expensive in those days.
He was a man well aware of his own limitations, largely because Li Lanlan was no pushover herself and would never give him an inch.
Another factor was that Wang Dashan’s circumstances were actually quite dire when he married. He was already twenty-six or twenty-seven at the time, a full five or six years older than Li Lanlan, and the family was still living in a dilapidated earthen house in their old neighbourhood.
With so many brothers in the family, he was neither the eldest nor the youngest. After his eldest sister’s dowry had been used to marry off the two older brothers, there was simply no money left for him to marry.
He had left school to work at the age of fifteen after finishing junior secondary school. He was the most educated in the family; whilst his brothers had all been sent to school, he was the only one who had managed to scrape through to the end of junior secondary.
The others would attend school for a couple of days and then drop out; in their youth, they didn’t realise the value of education, mistaking play for a treasure.
Sadly, by the time he understood this truth, it was already too late.
It was only after he joined the army that people began to propose marriage to him. His allowance wasn’t much back then, and he happened to be caught up in the second wave of the massive military downsizing—he was lucky to have made it!
Back in his hometown, he returned to toiling in the fields. The allowances he’d saved up in the army were hardly anything to speak of; after all, he was just a foot soldier.
The family still had debts to settle—not just any debts, but the dowry owed to Li Lanlan’s family. When they got married, they had little money, and his mother-in-law saw him as a promising young man worth investing in.
Back then, soldiers usually served for three years, but he served for five. There was a possibility he might become an officer; his superiors in the army genuinely wanted to keep him, but they couldn’t hold on to him, and in the end, he was discharged.
It was right at the height of the demobilisation wave; it was nothing like the situation for conscripts later on, who could be transferred to local units to scrape a living.
When they were demobilised, they simply slung their bedding over their shoulders, took a bit of resettlement money, and headed home.