Chapter 5: Bringing Home a Stepdaughter to Raise

“Alright.”

The mother and daughter headed back into the house.

Zhang Shi couldn’t understand and pulled Feng Mian aside. “Mianmian, why would you give up such a good engagement?”

Feng Mian whispered, “Grandma, I’ve seen that Gu kid—he’s really fat and honestly quite ugly. I don’t want to marry him.”

Zhang Shi said, “Fat means good fortune! And didn’t they say the Gu family has good conditions? That chubby look is adorable!”

Feng Mian: “…”
How do you bridge this kind of generational gap in taste?

“Well, I don’t like him anyway. It’s perfect for Cousin to have him instead.”

Feng Mian was dead set against the marriage, and Zhang Shi was helpless to do anything about it.

Now that things had blown up like this, since Feng Mian didn’t want it, she had no choice but to let the others have their way.

Inside the house, Zhao Hui was still distressed about the fifty yuan.

“That ungrateful brat—we raised her for all these years, and I haven’t even asked her for food expenses. Now she has the nerve to demand fifty from us? I’m not agreeing to that. I’m not giving a single cent!”

“If you don’t pay, she won’t agree. What if she just drags this out?”

“Then let her drag it out.”

“But Mom, she can afford to drag it out. I can’t!” She patted her belly.

Zhao Hui looked at her daughter’s stomach and was fuming. “You shameless thing! I told you to cozy up to him—I didn’t tell you to get yourself pregnant!”

“I didn’t mean to either! That day in the cornfield, it just… sort of happened…”

Zhao Hui was so angry she nearly slapped her.

Feng Xiaomei added, “Mom, the Gu family promised their daughter-in-law a job at the agricultural machinery station. That job pays at least thirty yuan a month! Fifty yuan is just less than two months’ wages. Once I start earning, I’ll be good to you—I swear. So what’s fifty yuan? Just agree to it, please?”

Zhao Hui thought it over. That did sound reasonable.

Given her daughter’s condition, she finally agreed.

She brought out the fifty yuan.

But instead of handing it over right away, she insisted on giving it in front of the entire family, saying everyone had to bear witness.

So she went to gather people—her eldest son Feng Zheng and second son Feng Chang were called in.

Feng Xiaojing also brought over the eldest uncle, Feng Xinliang.

The whole family was assembled. In the innermost bed lay the paralyzed old man, Grandpa Feng Guodong.

He and his wife had the same thoughts—but since their granddaughter didn’t want to marry that chubby Gu boy and was willing to give up the engagement for fifty yuan, there wasn’t much they could say.

Eldest cousin Feng Zheng wrote up a simple contract. Feng Mian signed it and stamped her fingerprint on it. After receiving the money, this unusual “transaction” was considered complete.

Aunt Zhao Hui still wasn’t at ease. Even after giving the money, she made sure to say, “Feng Mian, you better remember this—if you dare go back on your word, you’ll have to pay us ten times the amount!”

Feng Mian smiled. “Don’t worry, I remember. Auntie, you’d better remember too.”

“Of course we will.”
With such a great match, you couldn’t find another even if you searched with a lantern. They weren’t backing out, that was for sure.

Feng Mian happily went home with the money. She started watching food videos on Taobao and used them to cook a lavish dinner.

Just after she finished eating and washing up, she heard someone knocking on the door.

So late—who could it be?

“Who is it?”

“Mianmian, it’s me.”

It was Grandma.

She quickly stashed everything under a stone-built cabinet and moved the charcoal heater into the main room to keep warm.

As she walked out of the kitchen, she pulled the door shut behind her.

Grandma Zhang wasn’t afraid of her “bad luck” and would come in without hesitation.

Feng Mian lit the oil lamp in the outer room and opened the door to see Zhang Shi standing outside.

“Grandma, it’s cold out. Come in and talk.”

“Alright.”

As soon as Zhang Shi stepped inside, she noticed that the main room looked completely different.

Everything was clean and neatly arranged, and there was a clay-yellow coal stove in the room.

Feng Mian brought over a stool, placed it beside the stove, and invited her to sit and warm up.

Zhang Shi glanced down and asked, “This stove is nice—where did you get it?”

Feng Mian replied, “Picked it up in town a few days ago. Probably something some rich folks didn’t want anymore.”

“Goodness, tossing out a perfectly fine stove like this… Those city people, tsk tsk, really don’t know how to live.”

Feng Mian let out an awkward chuckle.

“I came to tell you not to worry. Our Mianmian is diligent—no shortage of families who’d want you. Now that you’ve withdrawn from the engagement with the Gu family, your grandma will help find you someone even better through a matchmaker.”

But…

Feng Mian didn’t think she was suitable for marriage. Being on her own was more convenient.

In a couple more years, she’d be twenty. That would be just in time for the economy in China to start opening up—she planned to head out into the world.

If she really wanted to start a family, she could wait until her career was stable and find someone like-minded. Why settle down in some rural village?

Too much gossip, and she’d always be looked down on.

Of course, she couldn’t say any of this to Zhang Shi.

Zhang Shi was pretty traditional, and ever since her daughter had been tricked by a city-born educated youth, she’d grown to dislike city folks.

Feng Mian thought for a moment, then said, “I don’t want to marry out. Once I marry into another family, I’ll just be bullied.”

Zhang Shi was taken aback. “Huh? You don’t want to get married?”

“Mhm. I don’t.”

“But living alone won’t work either. If you never marry, those old bachelors with no wives will come around acting like hooligans again. You’ve been left in peace for now only because people think you’re engaged to the Gu family.”

Feng Mian had already bought a self-defense kit. She wasn’t scared of those creeps.

“If they dare show up, I’ll report them to the police.”

“That’s easy to say, but you can’t stay single forever either.”

Feng Mian: “…” You really are my grandmother.

“I… I didn’t say I won’t ever get married. I want to be like Sister Fengzheng from the big compound—find a live-in husband to come into my household.”

“What?” Zhang Shi was shocked again. “Your Sister Fengzheng only did that because her brother died and her parents needed her to support them in their old age. That’s why she brought in a live-in son-in-law. You don’t even have parents to take care of—what do you need a live-in husband for?”

“I…” Feng Mian choked for a second before saying, “If I get a live-in husband, then on Qingming Festival, there’ll be someone else to help offer incense at my mom’s grave.”

Zhang Shi shot back, “They’ve got a big tile-roofed house. What do you have?”

“I’ve got a three-room thatched cottage and a bit of personal farmland.”

The more Zhang Shi listened, the more absurd it sounded. This little girl wasn’t hoping to marry into a good family—she wanted to take in a man and run the household herself. Zhang Shi didn’t even know what to say anymore.

“How can your thatched cottage compare to their big tile-roofed house?”

Feng Mian said, “Their tile-roofed house has more people living in it, too—his parents, his grandparents, the couple themselves. Besides the kitchen and the main room, it’s just three bedrooms. Not much better than mine. My three thatched rooms are just for me alone.”

Zhang Shi: “…”

“You’ve got some pretty ideas, huh? Don’t blame Grandma for being blunt. You’ve got no father, no mother, you’re all alone—harshly put, people would call that a cursed fate. What kind of family would willingly hand over their son to you?”

“There are families with too many sons who can’t afford to marry them off and don’t have houses. Some of them would be willing to send a son over as a live-in husband.”

“They’d only ever send their son to someone like your Sister Fengzheng—unless that son was raised by a stepmother.”

Feng Mian: “…”

She just wanted to find a way to dodge marriage, but instead, she ended up getting roasted by Zhang Shi.