Chapter 100: Engagement?
Far away in the northern military district, Sheng Wanze suddenly sneezed several times in a row. Pan Yue, seeing this, grew concerned that he might be coming down with something.
“Achoo!”
“Wanze, do you have a cold?” Pan Yue walked over and pressed her hand to his forehead. He didn’t have a fever, so why was he sneezing non-stop?
“I’m fine,” he muttered, rubbing his nose, unaware that back in Chengdu, he was currently the primary target of his father’s silent fury.
“Aargh!”
Back at the tube-shaped building, Father Sheng was practically vibrating with rage the moment he realized Gu Tingxiao had officially “tricked” his daughter away. When he realized it was his own son, Wanze, who had brought the thief into their home in the first place, he instantly felt like severing their father-son relationship.
Other people raised sons to look after them in their old age, to carry on the family name, and to be a source of support. As for his son? Not only did the boy join the army and stay away from home all year, but now he had even colluded to lose them their daughter! How could he have raised such a traitor?
Father Sheng looked around at the rest of his family. From their calm expressions, it was painfully obvious that he was the only one who had been kept in the dark.
“I don’t agree to this! Not one bit!” he barked.
Grandpa Sheng shot him a dry look and shut him down with a single sentence: “It’s not your relationship. It’s useless whether you agree or not.”
Hearing this, Father Sheng felt a wave of bitterness wash over him. He looked at his family with deep reproach. “You… you all conspired to hide this from me. You don’t even take me seriously as the head of this house!”
He slumped onto a wooden stool, looking utterly dejected. Grandpa Sheng sighed, staring at his son with an expression that said he was reconsidering the laws of biology. He had to repeat to himself several times: This is my biological child. He’s mine. I can’t throw him out.
“You were just too slow to see what was right in front of you,” Grandpa Sheng said mercilessly. “Stop acting like a fool.”
The despised Father Sheng: “…”
He was genuinely confused. How was he supposed to have known? He watched his daughter go to and from work every day, and nothing seemed unusual! Wanyan was the picture of a well-behaved daughter; she spent her time between the apartment and the cotton mill, occasionally stopping at the supply and marketing cooperative, or gathering firewood at the foot of the hills to keep the elders warm. He had never seen a more sensible girl.
Every move she made was under the eyes of the neighbors. He couldn’t imagine how she’d managed to hide something this massive.
Ever since Wanyan secured her job, he hadn’t wanted her to marry so soon. Even though their family wasn’t high-ranking, they were comfortable! A family of workers living in harmony—what household had better conditions than theirs? If they really wanted to compare status, their son was a battalion commander; that made them an “official” family, didn’t it?
What Father Sheng dreaded most was his daughter becoming a military wife. His own son was a soldier and couldn’t make it home once a year. He didn’t want his daughter to spend her life waiting, worrying, and keeping a lonely house. He admired and respected soldiers from the bottom of his heart, but he knew the pain of being a military dependent all too well.
He wanted to keep her in Chengdu. There were plenty of good families in the city; why did she have to marry someone from the Capital? If she suffered any injustice at her husband’s house so far away, how could her family support her? A woman’s greatest strength after marriage was her parents’ family, and he didn’t want her facing the unknown alone.
“No! I still don’t agree!”
Mother Sheng glanced at him, sensing his deeper concerns. She had weighed these questions herself. As a mother, she understood the hardships a woman faced when moving into a husband’s household.
“I heard from Wanyan that Xiao Gu’s older brothers have already started their own families,” Mother Sheng said gently. “They are just waiting for him to marry so the brothers can officially separate the household.”
Father Sheng raised his eyelids at this, but kept his face sullen and remained silent.
“Besides,” Mother Sheng continued, “with Xiao Gu’s rank, Wanyan can apply to live with him on the base. If she’s living in the military compound, she won’t have to deal with the typical friction between a mother-in-law and a daughter-in-law.”
Mother Sheng was laying out the facts, trying to get him to budge. It wasn’t that Father Sheng truly disliked Gu Tingxiao; he just felt the typical ache of a father losing his girl. Sure enough, Father Sheng stole a glance at her, still silent but with his ears visibly perked up, waiting for her to continue.
“Xiao Gu and Wanze are in the same military district. If Wanyan goes there, she’ll have her brother and sister-in-law right next door. And when we eventually retire and move up there to be with the boys, our daughter will be right with us. It’s just a few years of separation for a lifetime of being together.”
Mother Sheng had it all planned out. She wasn’t about to be separated from her children for the rest of her life. She wanted to be near both of them, or at least close enough to help if they had problems. Initially, she had been conflicted, but the fact that Xiao Gu was in the same district as Wanze had completely won her over.
“Our daughter-in-law is right,” Grandma Sheng chimed in. The four elders had already decided they would follow the children wherever they ended up.
She had actually been worried that if Wanyan married a local Chengdu boy, the girl would be left all alone when the rest of the family eventually moved north to be near Wanze. A few years of being apart now was a small price to pay for a lifetime of being together later.
Father Sheng said nothing, keeping his head down and his brow furrowed. But everyone in the family knew that his silence was a sign of acquiescence.
The protagonist of the drama, Sheng Wanyan, listened to the conversation with a mix of amusement and bewilderment. Why was everyone talking as if the wedding was tomorrow? She hadn’t even agreed to marry the man yet, and they were already analyzing the misery of her future life!
“Wanyan,” Grandpa Sheng said, looking at his granddaughter. He could see that she wasn’t quite in a hurry to wed. “You are twenty-one this year, and Xiao Gu is twenty-seven. What are your plans?”
Gu Tingxiao was twenty-seven—an “old” man by the standards of the era, and a soldier to boot. There was no reason to keep him dangling forever. And at twenty-one, most girls in the village were already mothers.
“Grandfather, we are dating with the intention of marriage,” Wanyan said seriously. “It’s just that… we haven’t spent much actual time together.”
She wasn’t a heartbreaker, but she was a modern soul who needed to know Gu Tingxiao better before committing to a military marriage—a contract that was notoriously difficult to break.
Grandpa Sheng nodded. Her caution was wise; rushing into a marriage without a solid foundation led only to regret. “You two have been dating for half a year and have been writing constantly. You know his character. Xiao Gu only has so much leave a year; it would be unfair to both of you to delay indefinitely. I think it’s time the two families had a meal together. We should at least arrange the engagement first. What do you think?”
The whole family looked at Wanyan. She thought about it for a moment, considered Gu Tingxiao’s tired face and his earnest eyes, and finally nodded. She understood the reality of his profession; an engagement was a reasonable next step.
