Chapter 13

“Thank you, Third Uncle.”
Liu Fang held the milk candies in both hands and happily went into her room to count them.

Liu Fang’s maiden home was in town, and her family was fairly well-off. Her father was a well-known carpenter in the area, and her mother was a seamstress.

Today was the first time Liu Fang had ever met Gu Jinchuan, and she found that this Third Uncle was very tall and strikingly handsome—better-looking than either of his two older brothers.

Gu Gensheng had three sons and one daughter.

The eldest, Gu Jinshan, was twenty-eight, married to Wu Juan, and they had two sons nicknamed Gou Dan and Gou Sheng—aged seven and five.

The second son, Gu Jinjiang, was twenty-five, married to Liu Fang. For some unknown reason, even after two years of marriage, Liu Fang still had not conceived.

The youngest, the daughter Gu Yumei, was twenty years old, the baby of the family and two years younger than Gu Jinchuan. She worked as a sales clerk at the town’s supply and marketing cooperative and rarely came home.

When the eldest sister-in-law Wu Juan saw that Gu Jinchuan had given her two sons five candies each but gave Liu Fang ten, she immediately felt jealous and stretched out her hand to demand,
“Third Uncle Gou Dan, if you gave Second Sister-in-law ten milk candies, you should give me ten too…”

But before her hand could touch anything, smack! Liang Xiuying slapped it away.
“You’ve got no sense at all! The third one just got home—he hasn’t even sat down yet! Instead of serving tea or water, you’re begging for candy! Don’t you know too much candy causes cavities?”

Wu Juan: “…”

She hadn’t even tasted milk candy before—how could she get cavities?

After being slapped by her mother-in-law, she didn’t dare cry out in pain. She forced a smile and said,
“Mother, I was just joking.”

“Even joking is not allowed!”

Liang Xiuying glared at her and then took the satchel from Gu Jinchuan’s hand.

She looked him over from head to toe, her smile deepening until the wrinkles on her face bunched together like a blooming chrysanthemum.

“Third, you must be tired from the ride. Come sit at the table, I made your favorite—fried eggs.”

Then she pulled the candies from his satchel and locked them in her own room.

At mealtime, Liang Xiuying first served her husband and Gu Jinchuan bowls of plain white rice. On Gu Jinchuan’s bowl, she placed two fried eggs.

Then she served the eldest son, Gu Jinshan, and the second son, Gu Jinjiang, each a bowl of half-dry, half-wet sorghum mixed with rice.

The two grandsons also got sorghum mixed with rice, plus two fried eggs each.

After feeding the four adult men and the grandsons, Liang Xiuying gave herself and the two daughters-in-law bowls of sweet potato porridge.

It was April, and the crops in the fields had yet to mature—the hardest period of the year for food.

By the standards of Xingfu (Happiness) Village, the Gu family was already doing well.

Liang Xiuying’s favoritism toward her youngest son was something the eldest and second sons had long accepted without complaint.

The two brothers happily shoveled food into their mouths, savoring every bite.

Liu Fang also thought it was right for her mother-in-law to favor the youngest. After all, he was in the army and even served as a reconnaissance soldier—if he didn’t eat well, how could he have the strength to complete his missions?

The only one unhappy about it was Wu Juan. They were all sons of the Gu family, but Liang Xiuying loved her youngest above all. Anything good was always saved for him—it was favoritism down to the bone!

But no matter how resentful Wu Juan felt, she dared not show it.

Liang Xiuying was a formidable woman. If she found out her eldest daughter-in-law resented her, she’d likely throw Wu Juan out of the house.

Wu Juan was the eldest daughter of Matchmaker Ma. She had three older brothers and one younger sister.

Ma heavily favored sons, so Wu Juan was pulled out of school before finishing primary school to work in the fields, earning work points to help her brothers marry.

By chance, Wu Juan set her eyes on Gu Jinshan, the eldest son of the Gu family, but he wasn’t interested in her.

Refusing to give up, she came up with a scheme—while Gu Jinshan was working by the river, she pretended to accidentally fall in.

Gu Jinshan risked his life to save her, only for her to cling to him afterward!

And so, Wu Juan successfully married into the Gu family.

After dinner, Gu Jinchuan pulled out eighty yuan and thirty jin of grain coupons from his pocket and placed them in his mother’s hand.
“Mother, this is my allowance and grain coupons from the past few months. I’m giving them to you now.”

Seeing the crisp money and coupons, Liang Xiuying’s eyes filled with tears.
“You gave me all your allowance—didn’t you keep any for yourself?”

Her youngest son was truly thoughtful. That small monthly allowance—he never spent it on himself, saving it all to bring home.

When Gu Jinchuan saw his mother getting emotional again, he said,
“Mother, just take it. I still have a few ten-yuan bills with me—enough for this month.”

Only then did Liang Xiuying accept the money.
“I’ll save this for you and use it to find you a wife. The matchmaker from the next village has already come by several times…”

Before she could finish, Gu Jinchuan interrupted,
“Mother, I don’t want anyone to introduce me to a girl. I already have someone I like!”

Liang Xiuying’s face lit up.
“Third, you already have someone in mind? Who is she?”

Gu Jinchuan didn’t hide it.
“It’s Lin Xiaoxiao, the educated youth who just arrived at the settlement. We met on the train.”

Liang Xiuying eagerly asked,
“And does Comrade Lin like you back?”

Gu Jinchuan nodded confidently.
“Don’t worry, Mother. Any woman your son sets his eyes on, I’ll definitely win her over!”

No sooner had he said this than Gu Gensheng, who had been smoking his pipe on the side, poured cold water over his enthusiasm.
“Don’t boast too soon. City girls who’ve been to high school are all educated people—it’s not certain they’ll take a liking to a poor soldier like you!”

Liang Xiuying immediately bristled at her husband’s words.
“Old man, if you can’t say something nice, just keep quiet! Our youngest is a reconnaissance company commander and has won multiple commendations—why wouldn’t he be good enough for her?”

Wu Juan, who had been eavesdropping outside, panicked when she heard that Gu Jinchuan liked Lin Xiaoxiao.

She had been planning to match her own younger sister, Wu Yan, with him!

Rushing into the main room, she said,
“Third, I just came back from the educated youth settlement. That Lin Xiaoxiao is a sickly one!

Look at her yellowed, thin face—she must be ill. No one knows if she can even have children after marriage. You’d better not court her!”

“You, eldest sister-in-law—shut your mouth!”

Liang Xiuying jabbed a finger at Wu Juan’s nose.
“My third is a reconnaissance soldier with sharp eyes—how could the woman he chooses be bad? You’ve no right to gossip!”

“I know what you’re up to—trying to match your sister Wu Yan with him.”

“Let me tell you plainly—your sister’s not the kind of person my third would ever look at!”

Chastened, Wu Juan didn’t dare talk back. She shrank her neck and went back to her room, where she saw Gou Dan and Gou Sheng licking candy wrappers.

She reached out to them,
“Gou Dan, Gou Sheng, your third uncle gave you ten candies each. How many have you eaten? Give the rest to me to keep for you.”

“Mother, we only had time to eat one each. The rest was taken by Grandma. She said we can only have one a day.” the boys said almost in unison.

“Those candies were from your third uncle for you—what right does your grandma have to take them?”