Chapter 13: Comrade Gu, You Have to Be Strong

The waitress went to the next table.

Gu Yuelin pushed the menu toward Feng Mian. “What do you want to eat?”

“I’m treating you, so you decide. Whatever you want, just order it.”

“I don’t care, you order.”

Feng Mian thought he was just being shy about ordering, so she took the menu.

Everything was handwritten with no pictures to reference, so she had no idea what the dishes actually looked like.

She casually picked a few dishes: braised beef, green peppers stir-fried with meat, egg drop soup, and a braised eggplant, plus two bowls of rice. The total was three yuan and fifty cents.

Gu Yuelin took a look, then glanced up at Feng Mian.

Seeing her in a good mood, he didn’t say anything and handed the menu to the waitress.

While waiting for the food, Feng Mian got down to business.

“Actually, for you, no one wants a burden like you, right? The key is to get away from that family.”

Gu Yuelin didn’t answer but stared thoughtfully at Feng Mian sitting across from him.

“I can help you — as a favor.”

“A favor?” Gu Yuelin was taken aback and, after thinking for a moment, asked, “You mean marrying me to help me leave the Gu family, a sham marriage?”

Feng Mian nodded, thinking it was good talking to a smart person — she only had to hint and he understood.

“I’ll think about it,” Gu Yuelin said.

Feng Mian smiled softly, “Okay, you can think it over carefully. Our marriage would be a mutual salvation — good for both of us.”

Gu Yuelin looked at her in surprise. “Mutual salvation?”

“Yeah. I’m an orphan, and for a young woman like me, life’s hard without marriage — easy to be bullied. So I need this marriage too. That’s why I call it mutual salvation.”

Feng Mian felt that since he was so honest, she should be honest too.

Clearing things up was good for both of them.

Gu Yuelin found the term quite novel and accurate.

“So how do you want to cooperate in this marriage?”

He was interested in this mutual salvation and cooperative marriage idea.

Feng Mian said, “I can tell you don’t want to be stuck in the village your whole life, especially being controlled by your stepmother. She uses the banner of filial piety as a moral trap to hold you down and suck your blood forever.”

Her words probably hit a nerve — his expression darkened.

The hand he had resting on the table quietly clenched.

“To say it’s a moral trap disguised as filial piety… Feng Mian, what you say makes a lot of sense.”

Feng Mian was stunned and felt a wave of sympathy for him.

She boldly took his clenched fist on the table in her hand, took a deep breath, and looked at him sincerely.

“Comrade Gu, you have to be strong.”

Gu Yuelin looked up and met her encouraging eyes.

“We are the successors of socialism. What are those ghosts and demons? Don’t worry, society will change soon. One day, you’ll be able to leave here openly and honorably. Through your own effort, you’ll live the good life you want. No one can morally trap you.”

Gu Yuelin looked at her with some doubt.

That was some heartening talk.

Just then, the first dishes arrived, and the two stopped talking.

Feng Mian, as the host, picked up the chopsticks and handed them to Gu Yuelin, urging him to try the braised beef.

Young men usually had big appetites, and since he rarely got to eat this kind of food, he eagerly ate three pieces in one go.

But when he reached for the fourth piece, he suddenly realized something.

His face flushed with embarrassment, and he shyly put down his chopsticks, pushing the plate of braised beef toward Feng Mian—almost sliding it to where her rice bowl was.

“You eat.”

Feng Mian smiled warmly at him and pushed the braised beef back toward the center of the table. “You eat it, I’m not really craving it.”

“I…” Gu Yuelin started to say something.

“It’s okay. Our cooperative marriage is settled, and we’ll be spending a long time together. No need to restrain your appetite.”

He thought Feng Mian was special, very different from the other girls he knew in the village.

The way she talked and acted was somewhat like… well, like a capitalist’s daughter.

Gu Yuelin picked up another piece, chewing slowly and more deliberately, no longer eating as quickly as before.

Soon another dish arrived, and the egg drop soup came as well. Feng Mian asked the waitress to bring the rice.

The waitress rolled her eyes and, clearly displeased, dumped two bowls of rice onto the table.

Literally dumped — it was like she was just throwing them there, no exaggeration.

Feng Mian twitched at the corner of her mouth, suddenly recalling something elders had told her before: that some state-run restaurants in the 70s and 80s had signs saying, “No hitting or scolding customers allowed.”

Looking at the waitress’s face, as if she had just slapped Feng Mian’s face with a hundred yuan bill, Feng Mian honestly feared the woman might get violent.

Feng Mian didn’t say anything and just encouraged Gu Yuelin to enjoy the meal.

“How about this: our cooperative marriage lasts three years. Three years later, you’ll be sixteen — it won’t hold you back.”

Gu Yuelin, who was sipping the egg drop soup, was so startled by her words that he choked and started coughing violently.

Feng Mian hurriedly asked the waitress for some tissues.

The waitress brought the tissues but, with a sour face, scolded them harshly as she handed them over.

After she left, Feng Mian quietly asked, “Are you okay?”

“Cough cough, I’m fine. But why three years?”

Why three years? Because Feng Mian’s family had been in business since her grandfather’s generation — she was sort of a capitalist’s daughter and still remembered when the economy opened up.

The earliest time for getting business licenses was three years later. The first group of farmers allowed to work in the city came in the early 1980s.

Once rural people were allowed to work in the city, she and Gu Yuelin could each go their own way.

“Three years, then our mutual salvation ends.”

“How do you know that?”

How was she supposed to explain it to him?

She said, “We’ll sign a three-year cooperative marriage agreement first. If that’s not enough time, we can renew it later.”

She could only stall him for now.

Feng Mian took out the contract she had written last night and pushed it in front of him.

“Look it over. If there’s anything wrong, tell me and I’ll fix it. If not, just sign.”

Gu Yuelin glanced at the cooperative marriage contract several times.

Feng Mian smiled without saying anything, guessing he was probably a little shocked — after all, she even had the contract ready. He needed some time to digest it.

“One bedroom each? No entering each other’s bedrooms?”

“Yes, since it’s a cooperative marriage, that’s basic.”

“But don’t you only have one bedroom?”

“That’s not a problem. My three thatched huts are pretty big — I’ll just build a wall between the middle one and the one on my side.”

“Without your permission, I can’t touch any of your personal belongings?”

Feng Mian nodded with a smile. “These rules are mutual, and I won’t touch your things either.”

“You thought of everything carefully. No problems.”

After reading it, Gu Yuelin took a pen and signed his name.

The contract was made in duplicate — one copy for each of them.

Gu Yuelin said it wasn’t convenient to keep the copies himself, so he gave both to Feng Mian.

She accepted both and was very satisfied with how straightforward he was.