Chapter 36
Since the child Lin Xixi didn’t stand on ceremony with him, Yan Lei didn’t either.
Who could blame him? He had a good relationship with Old Zhao, a friendship forged in life-and-death battles on the battlefield. Sister-in-law Zhao had always taken good care of him, too. It was only in the few years since he got married that they had grown a bit distant.
Now that Qiao Wei and Sister-in-law Zhao were visiting each other, the two families were clearly growing close again, and Yan Lei was very happy about it.
Uncle Yan didn’t treat himself as an outsider. He pointed a finger at his niece-in-law and began his “dad-style” lecture: “Let me tell you, the way you are right now won’t do. You’re too boisterous. To me, it’s obvious at a glance that you aren’t a city girl.”
“What are city girls like? They are exceptionally poised.”
“If you don’t know how to behave, you should observe your Aunt Qiao more. Your Aunt Qiao is a genuine city person; she went to high school.”
“This dress… this dress is your Aunt Qiao’s, right? When your Aunt Qiao wears this dress and stands there, she doesn’t even need to speak; she’s calm and composed. Anyone can tell at a glance that she’s a real city girl.”
“Look at you, you just don’t measure up. Even when you dress up, it’s obvious you come from the countryside. It’s very noticeable.”
The man waved his large hand: “Learn a bit more. If you don’t understand something, ask your Aunt Qiao.”
He was being very sincere with his younger relative, hoping that his comrade’s child would do better. Since she had come to the city to rely on her uncle, she needed to shed some of her rustic traces.
Lin Xixi was completely dumbfounded by his words. When she finally reacted, she nearly jumped up and started cursing.
Thankfully, she managed to restrain herself just in time; after all, he was a future high-ranking official, a man of great wealth and status. She had a natural sense of awe for “officials” and “wealth,” so she didn’t dare to actually jump up and down, pointing her fingers at his nose to curse him.
But she was truly so angry that her head hurt.
Because the thing Lin Xixi hated most in her life was people calling her a country girl. Being from the countryside, she had been despised and bullied by her city mother-in-law her entire life.
Was this Yan Lei blind?
Lin Xixi gritted her teeth, held back her anger, and forced a smile, saying: “Everyone says I’m fair-skinned, so I don’t look like a country girl.”
“That has nothing to do with looks,” Yan Lei said, still sounding righteous. “It’s mainly about a person’s spirit and temperament—do you know what temperament is? Really, you should watch your Aunt Qiao more. I’m not bragging, but among all the family members in this area, I don’t see anyone who can compare to your Aunt Qiao.”
“You, what is your education level?” Yan Lei suddenly asked. “Have you been to school?”
Lin Xixi said: “I finished primary school.”
At this time in the countryside, it was quite good for a girl to have finished primary school; she could read, wasn’t illiterate, and could do basic math.
However, Yan Lei said seriously: “Discuss it with your uncle. If you can go to school, you should go back to school. You are still young, at an age where you can learn knowledge. There’s really no need to be so early, to be that… you know, right? It’s not necessary; a few years later is fine too.”
Lin Xixi felt that this wasn’t a conversation between a man and a woman at all. She felt more like a subordinate being lectured by a leader.
She said: “I’m a woman, why would I need that much education?”
She held back from saying that in a few years, the schools would be in chaos, and no one would really be studying. Moreover, if she went to school in the city, the “Old Three Classes” would all be sent down to the countryside.
What was the point of going to school in this era? Even the restoration of the college entrance exam was something that would happen more than a decade later.
“Why can’t a woman be educated?” Yan Lei strongly disagreed. “Have your uncle find a way to transfer your household registration here. Continue your schooling for a few more years, and let your uncle arrange a job for you.”
“Become a worker! Let me tell you, there is nothing more glorious than being a worker.”
“If you aren’t educated, it’s very hard to become a worker.”
Lin Xixi was so lectured that she wanted to roll her eyes. Finally, she couldn’t hold it in and retorted: “What’s the point of being a worker for your whole life? Working well isn’t as good as marrying well.”
Until the Me Too movement swept through China in 2017 and 2018, the saying “Working well isn’t as good as marrying well” was a social consensus regarding girls.
Lin Xixi was a person from the 1990s, and this mindset was deeply ingrained in her.
Yan Lei was actually considering class issues, not marriage issues. He wanted to continue, but Qiao Wei came out: “What are you arguing about? Oh, Lin Xixi, that dress looks good on you.”
Lin Xixi reluctantly called out “Aunt Qiao” and said: “I came to return the stool. I’m leaving now.”
After saying that, she ran off quickly.
She couldn’t stand it; she couldn’t stand how this man had endless lectures for people.
After she left, Yan Lei bolted the courtyard gate again. When he turned around, he saw Qiao Wei holding back laughter.
Why was she laughing all the time? Yan Lei was puzzled. Ever since Qiao Wei returned from the provincial capital, she had become especially prone to laughter.
“What are you laughing at?” He asked, baffled.
“Ahem,” Qiao Wei said. “You really have a big ego as an official.”
Yan Lei was a husband, a father, and a man at home. To be honest, this was the first time Qiao Wei had seen this side of him.
He was a regimental commander; that wasn’t a low rank. He had battalion commanders, company commanders, platoon leaders, squad leaders, and many soldiers under him. Qiao Wei had transmigrated for nearly a week, and this was the first time she had seen him display the demeanor of a leader.
He was quite fluent in lecturing people, having completely dumbfounded Lin Xixi, a transmigrator.
“Don’t meddle in other people’s business,” Qiao Wei said. “You aren’t her father.”
“I won’t. But she calls me Uncle, so when I see her, I say a few words,” Yan Lei said. “She is young and ignorant; she doesn’t know that studying is the best thing in this world.”
Qiao Wei’s original intention was not to let Yan Lei meddle too much with Lin Xixi. Because Lin Xixi was actually from her grandmother’s generation, and that generation had such stubborn thoughts that were too hard to change.
Her mother’s marriage was a mistake.
If not for her grandmother’s desperate obstruction, she could have divorced before having children and corrected that mistake. If she had been single without children, her path forward would have been much smoother.
But her grandmother was too stubborn and adamantly refused to let her mother divorce, feeling that they couldn’t afford to lose face. Later, after her grandmother passed away, her mother was finally able to divorce and be free.
“There’s no point in talking to them,” her mother had said. “You can’t get through to them.”
But Qiao Wei remembered that Yan Lei really liked educated people. He had held the original owner in high regard because she had finished high school, and when he married her, he had agreed to many requests that seemed excessive at the time.
“You didn’t go to school back home,” she asked. “Why do you like reading so much?”
“Of all pursuits, only education is supreme,” Yan Lei said without hesitation.
Qiao Wei coughed: “That line of thinking isn’t right.”
That was old thinking; now, the proletariat was above everything.
Yan Lei glanced at the courtyard gate and then at Yan Xiang inside the house, saying: “I’m only saying this to you.”
Qiao Wei said: “Be careful in the future; don’t get used to saying it and let it slip out.”
Seeing her political awareness was so high, Yan Lei was very gratified. He said: “Don’t worry.”
He paused and said: “When I first joined the army, I was actually only fourteen; I lied about my age to enlist. I met a good leader who told me to read, to study, and to be educated.”
No wonder Yan Lei insisted on marrying a high school graduate. It turned out there was such a person in Yan Lei’s life. It didn’t seem to be in the original text, or maybe she had missed it or forgotten it?
Just as Qiao Wei wanted to ask another question, Yan Lei said it himself: “He sacrificed his life.”
Qiao Wei: “Oh…”
When she first arrived, Qiao Wei’s impression of Yan Lei was limited to the original text’s description: cold and stern.
But now Qiao Wei knew that Yan Lei, this man of steel, also had delicate emotions that couldn’t be summarized by a few simple adjectives.
She raised her hand to touch the back of his neck and rubbed it gently.
At this moment, Yan Lei could feel that her emotions could connect with his.
Her gentle rubbing was an expression of understanding and comfort for his nostalgia.
The evening breeze brushing against their faces was indescribably comfortable.
The vegetable patch in the yard, the mud by the river, and his wife’s palm all made one feel comfortable.
It made one want to close their eyes and savor it carefully.
Qiao Wei withdrew her hand: “Anyway, don’t nag Old Zhao’s niece too much; it’s annoying.”
Yan Lei made a “tsk” sound.
Qiao Wei actually understood Lin Xixi’s thoughts very well because, like her, she knew the future situation, and making Lin Xixi go to school was unrealistic.
“She isn’t uneducated,” Qiao Wei said, covering for Lin Xixi. “She learned some culture from the educated youth when she was at home.”
Yan Lei raised his eyelids: “Educated youth? Where would there be educated youth?”
Qiao Wei was stunned: “Just… just the educated youth sent to the countryside? In her hometown?”
“Nonsense,” Yan Lei said. “Don’t I know where Old Zhao’s home is? How could there be educated youth there? Educated youth are all in the Great Northern Wilderness, Xinjiang, and Hainan.”
Qiao Wei had a slight sweat on her forehead: “Are there none? Then Lin Xixi… Lin Xixi must have been bragging to me.”
She vaguely knew that the “Up to the Mountains and Down to the Countryside” movement was divided into several different stages, but which specific year corresponded to which stage was beyond her knowledge.
It turned out that at this time in the novel, the large-scale scene of educated youth going to the countryside that she had imagined hadn’t appeared yet.
Thinking about it carefully, it was true; the original text said that in her previous life, Lin Xixi wasn’t this age when she got married.
Qiao Wei hadn’t expected such a slip-up. She didn’t know if Lin Xixi realized it or not.
On second thought, she wasn’t afraid. At worst, she would just pretend she didn’t know where Old Zhao’s family was from.
As long as she was confident enough, Lin Xixi, being a transmigrator, wouldn’t dare to question her.
Qiao Wei was right. At the time, Lin Xixi had made up an excuse for how she knew about “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” casually saying she learned it from educated youth. She hadn’t thought much about it afterward, until just now, after being lectured by the great leader Yan, she suddenly realized it on her way home.
Oh no, what had she told Qiao Wei, this urban intellectual youth? At this moment, educated youth hadn’t gone to the countryside on a large scale yet.
Lin Xixi was also sweating profusely.
She was a transmigrator, and because she was superstitious by nature, she was actually afraid that others would see her as a monster, so she felt particularly guilty.
Lin Xixi stood on the road thinking for a long time. Finally, she felt relieved; luckily, there were no televisions at this time, unlike in the 1990s when every household had a TV and watched the news, and information didn’t spread so quickly.
Qiao Wei clearly wasn’t very clear about the distribution of educated youth at this time.
She probably hadn’t given herself away. Thank goodness, thank goodness.
Returning to the Zhao family’s home, Sister Yang was in the courtyard. Seeing her, she asked: “Where did you go?”
Facing this kind of small talk, especially from middle-aged women like Sister Yang, Lin Xixi returned to her comfort zone. She calmed down instantly and answered without changing her expression: “I went to return the stool.”
Sister Yang’s eyes were gloomy: “Didn’t I tell Gangzi and Yingzi to go?”
“As an older sister, what work shouldn’t I do? I couldn’t just watch my younger brother and sister do it,” Lin Xixi said righteously.
As long as one was confident enough, even if one was in the right, the other side would lose a bit of their momentum.
Sure enough, seeing her so calm, Sister Yang felt a bit unnatural instead. After thinking about it, she still said: “You are a big girl now, almost ready to get married. Don’t go to Yan’s place, that young couple’s courtyard, too often.”
Lin Xixi agreed and tugged at her dress: “Aunt, is this dress Qiao Wei’s?”
“Yes. She gave me several at once,” Sister Yang sighed. “Qiao, although she has many faults, she isn’t short-sighted, which is good. She is a city person, after all, and she is generous.”
This poked at Lin Xixi’s sore spot again.
She had eagerly put on the pretty dress to show off in front of Yan Lei, not knowing she was wearing the wife’s old dress.
She had been lectured for nothing, which was frustrating.
The next day was Sunday. This was the first Sunday since Qiao Wei transmigrated.
Her period was almost over, with just a little bit left, but it didn’t affect her anymore. Qiao Wei was fully revived. She got up early, cooked porridge, and put on her new Liberation shoes.
It was the first time she had worn them since buying them.
Yan Lei had also gotten up and saw her wearing the new shoes: “Where are you going?”
“Running,” Qiao Wei said, squatting down to tie her shoelaces. “Health is the capital of revolution.”
Yan Lei laughed: “Wait for me, let’s run together.”
When Yan Xiang woke up, he heard people talking in the courtyard.
The child rubbed his eyes, put on his clothes by himself, slipped off the kang, walked to the outer room, and peeked through the window—Mom was stretching her leg on the windowsill, and Dad was stirring the porridge pot with a spoon while nagging: “…Your revolutionary capital is too weak; you need to practice hard.”
Mom endured and endured, but the man with the spoon was too annoying, constantly mocking her. Angry, Mom put down her leg, put one hand on her hip, and pointed the other at Dad’s nose: “Don’t be smug. Give me time; I’ll get my physical fitness up, and I won’t be worse than you.”
Dad laughed out loud.
Yan Xiang was still young and didn’t really understand, but he could feel the atmosphere.
The child poked his head out and grinned in the morning light.
Mom and Dad turned around, saw him, and called out: “Come out, wash your face, brush your teeth, and eat breakfast. There’s a big market today.”
The child cheered: “Going to the market!”
