Chapter 90: 1974
When Sheng Wanyan returned home, the family had just received a letter from Sheng Wanze. He wrote to let them know that their new home was fully set up, featuring a comfortable layout with two bedrooms and a central living area.
He also mentioned that he and Pan Yue wanted to bring Grandpa and Grandma Sheng up north to live with them, so the young couple could look after the elders in their twilight years.
The idea had actually been put forward by Pan Yue. She noted that since everyone back in Chengdu had to work full-time shifts, the two elderly grandparents were often left entirely to themselves during the day, which made managing emergencies difficult. The military compound, by contrast, was a secure community populated entirely by disciplined soldiers and supportive families, and it even featured its own dedicated military hospital.
Moving there would lift a massive emotional burden off the family’s shoulders. Grandpa and Grandma Sheng listened quietly as the letter was read aloud, not saying a word at first.
The long-term plan was for Father and Mother Sheng to relocate to the military district as well once they officially retired, allowing the entire clan to reunite under one roof. If everything went according to script, Wanze was on track for a promotion within the next two years, which would clear him to apply for a larger three-bedroom apartment.
Accommodating the whole family wouldn’t be an issue at all, so Grandpa and Grandma Sheng were undeniably quite tempted by the offer.
They weighed the logistics carefully. If Pan Yue were to fall pregnant in the near future, having the old couple on hand would mean they could easily lend a hand with the baby. While managing daily chores and cooking wouldn’t be an issue, the prospect of uprooting their lives for a completely unfamiliar environment still left the elders feeling a bit anxious.
“Mom, Dad, what do you two think?”
Father and Mother Sheng looked over at the elders, and Grandpa and Grandma Sheng exchanged a long, silent glance.
“If the two of us pack up and leave, we’ll miss you terribly,” Grandpa Sheng sighed. “Besides, moving in right now would only disrupt the young couple’s routine.”
“Still… I really would love to go up there just to see how Xiaoze and Xiaoyue are settling in.”
Grandpa and Grandma Sheng truly wanted to make the trip. No matter how wonderfully Sheng Wanze painted their new life in his letters, as elders, they would always harbor a lingering sense of unease until they witnessed his living conditions with their own eyes.
Yet they couldn’t simply pack their bags and vanish just yet. Deep down, they still wanted to stay close to their son and daughter-in-law in Chengdu; living too far from their core household made them feel unsettled.
Father Sheng nodded understandingly. Since the old couple was hesitant to make the move right now, there was no need to force the issue; they could always revisit the topic down the line.
“Grandfather, please don’t leave,” Wanyan chimed in, wrapping her arms affectionately around Grandma Sheng’s sleeve and acting coquettishly. “If you and Grandma pack up and go, what on earth am I supposed to do here without you?”
“If you’re truly worried about my brother, why don’t we wait until Sister-in-law falls pregnant? You can travel up north to help nurse the baby then. For now, you just stay right here with me!”
Wanyan’s playful intervention spoke directly to what the elders were privately feeling. Moving right now would indeed create unnecessary friction; Pan Yue had her own daily shifts to manage, and the grandparents would likely feel isolated and uncomfortable adjusting to a strange city all by themselves.
“Wanyan is entirely right,” Mother Sheng agreed. “Once Xiaoyue is expecting, you can head up there to assist her, and use the opportunity to check up on how that brat is managing his household.”
Mother Sheng was equally opposed to the elders traveling so soon. Grandpa Sheng had only recently been discharged from the surgical ward, and his body didn’t need the exhausting strain of long-distance transit. Furthermore, with Wanze and Pan Yue working full-time, there would be no one available to look after the grandparents during the day, meaning their arrival would inadvertently place a heavy logistical burden on the newlyweds. Uprooting them under these circumstances would be a mistake.
Since she and Father Sheng were perfectly capable of working and managing the Chengdu apartment, there was absolutely no reason to trouble the youngsters yet. It was infinitely better to wait for a grandchild to arrive before deploying the elders.
“We’ll follow our daughter-in-law’s counsel,” Grandpa Sheng declared, effectively settling the debate. “We’ll wait until Xiaoyue is expecting before we make the trip.” It wasn’t as though a year or two would take an eternity to pass anyway.
Father Sheng immediately drafted a reply to Sheng Wanze, updating him on the daily household affairs and explicitly detailing Grandpa Sheng’s recent hospital stay so the boy would be aware of his recovery.
The following morning, Sheng Wanyan gathered the letter on her way to work. Given the chaos surrounding her grandfather’s surgery, she hadn’t managed to mail her monthly letter to Gu Tingxiao yet, so she used the opportunity to dispatch both updates together at the post office.
While Wanyan continued to enjoy a beautifully secure, comfortable routine in Chengdu, Sheng Wanze was struck by a massive wave of anxiety the moment he opened the mail and discovered his grandfather had been under the surgeon’s knife.
After reading the updates, Pan Yue quietly rested her hand against her stomach. She had been married to Sheng Wanze for three months now, and she couldn’t help but wonder when she would finally conceive.
The moment she fell pregnant, the grandparents would have a concrete reason to relocate. The military compound’s medical infrastructure was exceptional, featuring top-tier military physicians who could provide far more rigorous care than the district clinics back in Chengdu. If an elder suffered a sudden fever or an internal flare-up, an elite medical team would be minutes away. Beyond the practical benefits, she genuinely missed the grandparents’ company.
Grandma Sheng had imparted an immense amount of household wisdom to her during their brief week together in Rongcheng. Now, she found herself marooned alone in the massive residential compound; with Wanze frequently deployed on extended field missions, her hours inside the quiet apartment were deeply lonely.
Worse, several of the neighboring dependents on their floor were notorious gossips who constantly pried into her business and tried to siphon her resources, and she lacked the aggressive experience to shut them down.
She realized she needed to fall pregnant as quickly as possible. The moment Grandma Sheng arrived to anchor the apartment, navigating the treacherous social waters of the staff quarters would become infinitely easier.
Time marched swiftly forward, bringing them to the final days of January 1974. With the turn of the calendar, Wanyan officially welcomed her very first Lunar New Year in this historic era.
In this strict political climate, displaying traditional red spring couplets or detonating festive firecrackers was strictly outlawed under the banner of eradicating feudal superstition. Consequently, every household in the district was forced to pay homage to their ancestors in absolute secrecy behind securely locked doors, and the Sheng family was no exception.
Grandpa Sheng quietly retrieved the family’s ancestral spirit tablet from its hidden alcove, placing it carefully in the center of the table before lighting three slender sticks of incense.
Wanyan fell into formation behind her elders, kneeling against the concrete floor to deliver three deep, respectful kowtows. Grandpa Sheng closed his eyes, murmuring a string of quiet prayers to invite the protection of their forebears over the apartment line.
“May our ancestors look down upon us with favor,” the old patriarch whispered, bowing a final time. “Grant our children and grandchildren radiant health, preserve the sacred harmony of our home, and shield our clan from disaster and misfortune.”
He led the family through a final triple bow, carefully poured three small cups of liquor directly onto the floor as a traditional libation, and then frantically dismantled the altar, securing the items back into hiding. These rituals could not be glimpsed by an outside eye under any circumstances; otherwise, the household would face severe political repercussions.
As the holiday commenced, Sheng Wanyan officially entered her state-mandated New Year break. Over the past two months, she had quietly finalized the translation of her second technical manual, mailing the completed manuscript back to the Capital newspaper headquarters before the offices closed for the festival.
She fully intended to dedicate her holidays to family. Grandpa and Grandma Sheng were preparing to escort the household back to their ancestral village to visit their remaining agrarian relatives; after all, Grandpa Sheng still maintained deep roots in the countryside.
Grandma Sheng’s side of the family had virtually dissolved over the decades, while Mother Sheng’s relationship with her own maternal clan had been profoundly strained since her youth.
Her maternal grandmother was a fiercely patriarchal woman who harbored an intense, undisguised disdain for Sheng Wanyan. The literal second Mother Sheng had given birth to her daughter, the old woman had bluntly declared that she had merely produced a useless, money-losing girl.
Grandma Sheng had been absolutely furious over the insult, and after Father Sheng stepped in—his face darkening into a terrifying scowl as he thoroughly rebuked his mother-in-law—the old woman hadn’t dared to utter another hostile word. After all, her son-in-law was the absolute crowning pride of their entire lineage; he held a lucrative urban post at the steel plant and had even secured a coveted factory position for her own daughter.
Yet, despite his immense leverage, the Sheng family remained fiercely independent, flatly refusing to allow Mother Sheng’s rural brothers and sisters to siphon their hard-earned city wages. While the old woman privately resented their boundaries, the Sheng family’s prosperity was undeniable, forcing her to maintain a tight, polite veneer of superficial harmony whenever they met.
Now, as she watched the Sheng clan’s wealth climb higher with each passing season, and learned that her grandson had ascended to the rank of battalion commander at such an exceptionally young age, the old grandmother was utterly ecstatic, bragging loudly about the match to anyone who walked through the village gates.
When word eventually reached the countryside that Sheng Wanyan had also successfully secured a prestigious administrative post within the city, a profound wave of regret gripped the old woman’s heart. Had she possessed the foresight to treat her daughter with genuine warmth during her early years, her household wouldn’t be completely alienated from the family’s immense success today.
Worse, all of her agrarian sons combined couldn’t match a fraction of her daughter’s current influence and financial capabilities. Her rural household was locked in perpetual internal warfare, with her daughters-in-law screaming at one another over a single extra bowl of grain or a drop of cooking oil.
Yet, no matter how cold the historic relationship between Mother Sheng and her maternal family remained, the sacred bond of blood could never be truly severed under traditional custom.
The old woman had already resolved that during this year’s New Year summit, she would have a serious, private conversation with her daughter. She intended to pressure Mother Sheng into siphoning resources to assist her struggling rural siblings, with the ultimate goal of forcing the Shengs to use their factory connections to secure urban jobs for her grandsons.
Aside from dispatching standard holiday gifts back to the village out of mandatory cultural obligation, Mother Sheng minimized her interactions with her maternal home as much as possible. However, now that the formal New Year had arrived, skipping the ancestral visit entirely was out of the question. No matter how biased or cruel a person’s parents had been, a child simply couldn’t afford to be branded as heartless or ungrateful by the community; giving the village gossips such lethal ammunition would ruin a family’s reputation.
Most importantly, Mother Sheng was fiercely protective of her children’s futures; she refused to let a single shred of malicious rural gossip jeopardize the hard-earned military standing of her son or the elite administrative career of her daughter. The superficial harmony had to be maintained flawlessly.
