“Come on, Jiajia, walk a few more steps toward Grandma. Come on, walk over slowly! Once you walk these few steps, we’ll stop for today, and Grandma will carry you home. Your grandpa will be back in a bit, and then we’ll eat.”
Qiao Zhufang stood in the open space in front of the Tongzilou, helping her granddaughter practice walking. At that moment, she was holding her arms open and beckoning, speaking softly to her granddaughter, coaxing her to take a few more steps.
Qiao Jiajia’s pretty little face was expressionless. To her, wasn’t walking something one could do in an instant? It was a natural thing; why did she need to learn it? Before she transmigrated, she had lived for over twenty years. she wasn’t actually a child who had just turned one. Walking wasn’t something she needed to learn from scratch.
However, seeing the look of expectation on her grandmother’s face, hearing the soft coaxing, and seeing those open arms waiting to hold her, she couldn’t bring herself to ignore her.
Although she didn’t want to slowly and clumsily learn to walk like a real one-year-old—wishing only to sit quietly and be lazy—after hesitating for a few seconds, Qiao Jiajia eventually obeyed and walked a short distance. On the final step, she really didn’t want to walk anymore, so she lunged into her grandmother’s embrace, hugging her tightly and refusing to move, openly and blatantly loafing around.
This short distance was only a few steps for an adult, but for Qiao Jiajia, who was only a year old and had a pair of short little legs, walking this distance was still a bit tiring.
With her fair, tender, chubby face resting on her grandmother’s shoulder, anyone who saw her would find her adorable.
At this moment, Qiao Jiajia made up her mind that no matter what her grandmother said later, she wouldn’t walk anymore. It was too exhausting.
Seeing her precious granddaughter’s lazy demeanor, Qiao Zhufang couldn’t help but chuckle and resignedly picked up her little lazybones.
Her granddaughter was already a year old. Since everyone else had to go to the factory during the day, she, as the grandmother, spent the most time with her. Jiajia was easy to look after; she almost never cried or made a fuss, and she was much more well-behaved than other children her age, requiring very little effort.
However, after spending a lot of time together, Qiao Zhufang quickly realized that this was a bit abnormal. It was too quiet. Her precious granddaughter was worlds apart from other children of the same age who made a fuss all day long. She was almost too easy to look after. Fortunately, they had taken her to a doctor at the provincial hospital, who found no issues, allowing the family to finally set their hearts at ease.
But even though the doctor said there was nothing wrong, seeing that the child showed no signs of learning to walk even at a year old and remained so quiet, the adults couldn’t help but feel a bit anxious, fearing there might be a problem.
In this era, there were no child-rearing experts to provide guidance or parenting books to refer to; all they could rely on was the experience passed down by the older generation.
According to experience, a child should start learning to walk at one year old. Yet theirs showed no sign of standing up to walk, which worried the adults to death.
It was unclear whether Jiajia had sensed the adults’ worry or what, but a few days later, she suddenly stood up in front of them and walked unsteadily for a bit. After that, within just a few tries, she was already walking quite respectably and steadily. The hearts of the four adults in the family finally settled down a bit.
However, even though Jiajia could now walk, she was rarely willing to move. While she didn’t clamor to be held all day, she wasn’t keen on walking herself either.
Compared to standing up and being active, this child preferred to simply lie or sit quietly.
This tiny person couldn’t even speak properly yet, but she seemed to have a plan in her heart. The amount of walking she did every day seemed pre-calculated; she refused to take a single extra step. Qiao Zhufang thought it was quite remarkable.
Calculating it, the amount of walking for today was about enough—she had even walked a bit longer than yesterday. Qiao Zhufang was satisfied and stopped coaxing her granddaughter to take more steps.
As long as she knew how to walk, it was fine. To be honest, how much strength could those tiny little legs have? If walking too much exhausted the child, Qiao Zhufang would feel heartbroken.
The Qiao family lived on the first floor of the Tongzilou. They were currently practicing walking right in front of their own door; they only had to turn around and walk a few steps to be home.
The house the Qiao family currently lived in was assigned by the factory. It was a four-story Tongzilou. Though it was called a Tongzilou, this building was vastly different from the dozen or so narrow Tongzilou buildings a few hundred meters away, which housed twenty or thirty families per floor in very cramped spaces.
The Tongzilou they lived in was nicknamed the “Zhuanjialou.” It used to be where Soviet experts lived. Each floor had only six households, and every home was very spacious. A two-bedroom, one-living-room layout was the standard, and the larger ones even had three bedrooms and one living room.
The facilities were even more complete. The indoor toilets had water tanks—one pull of the string and the water flushed. The kitchen was also separate and had its own faucet, so they never had to go outside to fight with others for water.
Later, after the experts completed their missions and returned to their country, the Zhuanjialou became vacant. Such good housing couldn’t be left empty, so within two months, the higher-up leadership made the decision to distribute the units as employee housing.
Among the twenty-four households in this building, none of the occupants were simple characters. However, they could roughly be divided into three categories.
The first category, naturally, was the factory leadership, who held a higher status.
The second category was the veteran employees who had been there since the factory was built; they had performed great deeds and possessed seniority.
The final category was technical workers represented by Grandpa Qiao, who established themselves through their superb skills. If one didn’t belong to any of these three categories, how could they possibly be assigned such a good house?
The housing conditions of the Zhuanjialou were so good that other employees were naturally green with envy. However, because the distribution from the higher-ups was relatively fair—the twenty-plus families who moved in weren’t all leaders, but also included ordinary veteran employees and technical backbones—people mostly just sighed and expressed their envy before moving on.
Otherwise, what else could they do? Even if someone wasn’t assigned a good house here and wanted to cause a fuss about it being unfair, they had no ground to stand on. If they weren’t a leader, didn’t have reliable technical skills, and weren’t a long-term employee, making a scene would just be asking for a scolding.
The house the Qiao family was assigned was a three-bedroom, one-living-room unit. Out of the six households on each of the four floors, only one had this layout; the others were all two-bedroom units.
Being assigned a three-bedroom house was all thanks to Grandpa Qiao. At that time, the factory had encountered a massive technical hurdle, and it was Grandpa Qiao who led the workers to overcome it. In fact, most of the credit belonged to him.
Coincidentally, this happened right when the housing was being distributed. To reward Grandpa Qiao, the factory director gave him one of only four three-bedroom slots and let him choose any floor. None of the Qiao family liked climbing stairs, so they simply chose the first floor.
Living on the first floor meant the area in front of their door was extremely spacious, perfect for practicing walking. There were no other Tongzilou buildings in front to block the sunlight. Before summer arrived, Qiao Zhufang would often take her granddaughter out to bask in the sun.
Now that it was summer, Qiao Zhufang took her granddaughter out less often because it was too hot. Even when they did go out, they stayed under the shade of the trees. At this moment, having finished the walking practice, she was about to take her granddaughter back home.
As she carried her granddaughter inside, she praised her with a smile, “Our Jiajia is so amazing, walking so much again today and so steadily too. No other child can compare to our Jiajia! Ahhh! Let Grandma give you a kiss; Grandma loves our Jiajia the most. Our Jiajia is so good-looking, so handsome.”
Even though her granddaughter Jiajia was only a year old and might not understand much of what adults said, Qiao Zhufang habitually praised her every day. Who told her granddaughter to be so lovable? She wished she could pile all the praise in the world onto Jiajia.
Looking at her granddaughter’s fair, tender, and cute appearance in her arms, Qiao Zhufang’s heart felt like it was melting. Whose granddaughter was more beautiful than hers?
Qiao Zhufang felt that if the immortals in heaven had little divine attendants, they would probably look just like her granddaughter. How pretty!
At times like this, Qiao Zhufang felt even more that her son, Qiao Heping, was lucky to have married such a beautiful wife; otherwise, where would such a beautiful little granddaughter come from?
Regardless, Qiao Zhufang was firm in her belief that her granddaughter’s beauty was entirely her daughter-in-law’s credit. After all, her son hadn’t inherited his father’s good looks since he was a child; he could only be described as decent-looking, which didn’t really border on “handsome.”
But since he was her own son, and she wasn’t particularly beautiful herself, she didn’t disparage him.
Fortunately, both she and her son were successful in their own ways. She had found a handsome husband, and her son had found a beautiful wife. Their partners made up for their own appearance flaws. If one wasn’t good-looking, having a good-looking partner was a fine alternative.
In fact, before her granddaughter was born, Qiao Zhufang had worried that the child would take after her father and fail to inherit her mother’s beautiful face—after all, Qiao Zhufang herself was a living example.
Her husband was so handsome that while her son was still in her womb, she had kept chanting that he must take after his father and be handsome. In the end, when Qiao Heping was born, he looked exactly like her. He couldn’t be called ugly, but he was certainly plain, not even remotely close to being handsome!
Although she would love her grandchild no matter what they looked like, Qiao Zhufang had secretly hoped with all her heart for a beautiful child.
Then her granddaughter was born, and from the moment of birth, she was different from other newborns. Her face was rosy, and she grew more beautiful by the day. Her skin was white with a hint of pink, so tender that one wanted to take a bite. Her features were exquisite, with large eyes, a high bridge of the nose, and a tiny mole at the corner of her eye.
Although she was only a year old and still had baby fat that hid her facial structure, Qiao Zhufang was certain that her granddaughter’s face would take after her mother’s and be heart-shaped. There was no doubt she would be a stunning beauty when she grew up.
Qiao Zhufang already liked her daughter-in-law very much because of her beauty; now that her granddaughter was born, she doted on her daughter-in-law even more, treating her like her own biological daughter.
With her husband, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter all being so easy on the eyes, Qiao Zhufang felt that life was becoming more and more delightful. She thoroughly enjoyed helping look after her granddaughter at home every day.
Meanwhile, Qiao Jiajia, held in her grandmother’s arms and hearing these words, felt her face flush slightly. She was a bit embarrassed.
It was just simple walking, yet in her grandmother’s words, it sounded like she had done something extraordinary, as if she were unparalleled under the heavens.
From the time she was born until now, she had been praised countless times. Even drinking milk or sleeping peacefully would earn her a round of praise from her grandmother and the whole family. Qiao Jiajia fully understood what it felt like to be the apple of everyone’s eye; this feeling of being loved by everyone was truly wonderful.
For Qiao Jiajia, this was the greatest gain of her new life.
Based on the knowledge she had from her previous life, she could foresee that this era would be very bitter, but Qiao Jiajia wasn’t afraid! What she feared more was being all alone without a single relative. She had already lived that kind of life for over twenty years in her previous life, and she never wanted to live it again!
Having the warm family she had always dreamed of—or rather, a family that seemed to exist only in her imagination—she could give up the advanced and comfortable life of the 21st century without any lingering regrets. Even if she were given a chance to go back now, she would choose to refuse.
For an orphan, nothing was more enticing than the love of family.
She had already enjoyed a good life in her previous existence. Although she was an orphan, she had relied on her own hard work to skip grades all the way through, eventually getting into China’s top university to study finance. Later, she completed her Master’s and PhD at top-tier international universities. After graduation, she seized opportunities and was earning a million-dollar salary within a few years.
As an orphan, Qiao Jiajia only had herself to worry about. The work was tiring, but she didn’t hesitate to splurge on herself. Since she had already enjoyed life, she didn’t feel any regret about losing those privileged and comfortable living conditions due to her transmigration.
She was now learning to be a real child, to fully experience the family affection she had never felt before.
She had already forgotten what her childhood was like in her previous life. In this life, she would surely experience and spend her childhood well, together with her grandparents and parents.
Thinking of this, she couldn’t help but feel happy again. She was truly glad to have such a family now. They were exactly like the family she had hoped for in her previous life!
Author’s Note:
The story has begun!
Reading Tips:
1.
This is a warm, daily-life story about family matters. There is no Golden Finger. It mainly focuses on the daily life of the female lead’s family, starting from the year 1956.
2.
The early stage focuses on family affection. The main characters are the female lead’s family—it’s an ensemble cast! The male lead will appear very late, seriously!!
3.
The female lead is an only child, and there will definitely not be a second child! The female lead will receive lots and lots of love from her family! The only love! There won’t be a second child to dilute it. In reality, there are too many cases of preferring boys over girls, so I want my female lead to be pampered as an only child! That is the significance of me writing about an only child!
4
To avoid sensitive issues, the background is semi-fictional! The story takes place in the 1950s in China on Blue Star, in T-Province City! The location is also fictional! Do not research it against reality; all characters have no real-life prototypes!