Daily Life in the 70s-Chapter 5 - : Cousin Sister Visits Again

Yang Peijun's fiancée, Li Hong, was from the neighboring Upper River Village. Li Hong had an aunt who married into Xiahe Village, and through visits to relatives, she had met Yang Peijun a few times. Li Hong was known for her delicate and fair features, her quiet demeanor, and this left Yang Peijun with a feeling of astonishment. Before long, with or without intention, the two of them started seeing each other.

When Zhang Minghua found out about her third son's partner, she thought about how he was almost 21, an age ripe for marriage. She had been trying to set him up with potential matches, but now that he'd found a girl himself, she felt it was more convenient. All that remained was to assess the girl's family background and character.

Li Hong was known in Upper River Village for being capable, not very talkative, good-tempered, and healthy. After discussing with Yang Dahai, Zhang Minghua was quite pleased. Considering the Chinese New Year was not far off and there's an old saying that getting married is a good way to celebrate, they decided to send a matchmaker to the girl's family to propose marriage.

The girl's family later demanded a betrothal gift of 200 yuan, and a high-end bicycle, as well as 50 kilograms of grain. The rest of the dowry could be arranged according to convention, but those first two items were to be strictly adhered to without compromise.

Such a dowry was considered quite generous at the time. The girl's family was really opening their mouth wide like a lion – at that time an ordinary worker's monthly wage was only twenty to thirty yuan, and the cash gift alone was almost half a year's salary for them. A bicycle cost 150 yuan, which aside from not being cheap was also difficult to procure. The Yang Family could grit their teeth and meet the demands, but they had more than one son to marry off. The marriage conditions for the other two older sons were less than a third of what was being asked for now, and the family had not split their assets. This raised objections from the two sons.

That's when Yang Dahai spoke up, knowing full well what his family could afford. They weren't able to marry such a bride.

Yet Yang Peijun stubbornly disagreed. Even under his father's pressure, he did not resort to extreme actions, but silently protested, becoming gloomier by the day and ignoring everyone. When Zhang Minghua saw him like this, she started to worry. Yang Dahai ignored it and ordered the two older sons to keep a close eye on him, preventing any further contact with Li Hong. He instructed Zhang Minghua to have the matchmaker arrange for other potential matches.

Perhaps sensing the matchmaker's frequent visits to the Yang Family, the girl's family started to panic. They had set such a high bride price because they knew their daughter was earnestly favored by the Yang's son. Li Hong was the eldest in her family, with three younger brothers and two younger sisters following her. The oldest brother was also 19 and nearing marriage age but, being from a poor family, they were feeling the pressure of the upcoming marriages for their sons. How would they afford bride prices for them? Therefore, they exploited Li Hong's prospects.

The Yang Family had better conditions, and more importantly, Yang Peijun's father was the production team leader. With him, they wouldn't have to worry about going hungry. Where else would they find such favorable circumstances? So, when they saw that the Yangs seemed indifferent towards Li Hong, they became anxious.

Later, Li Hong sought out Yang Peijun and shed a few tears. Her family agreed to lower their demands: the cash gift was reduced to 80 yuan, but the other conditions remained unchanged, including the dowry of a wardrobe, bed, and bedding.

Yang Peijun returned home and adamantly insisted on marrying Li Hong, eventually leading to a quarrel where Yang Dahai beat him and then relented. They had just celebrated their engagement and were simply waiting for the chosen date to get married.

As a result, Zhang Minghua's feelings toward her future daughter-in-law had soured. Given the current multitude of complications, it was not surprising that Yang Peijun's insistence would provoke her ire.

Yang PeiMin, seeing her mother busy being angry with Yang Peijun, and knowing she hadn't finished her meal, pulled her aside, "Mom, calm down. You haven't finished your meal yet. How can you have the energy to be angry?"

Zhang Minghua's mood brightened at the transition from clouds to sunshine as she was led to sit down. Jiang Erni quickly brought over the warmed dishes. Zhang Minghua then instructed her to pack up whatever food and clothes were usable to take with them, and then had Yang Peiying pack up bedding and cotton-padded clothes. Finally, she praised Yang PeiMin, "It's really my Minmin that understands me, not like your brother who only makes me angry."

Yang PeiMin felt a sweet warmth in her heart. To be viewed so favorably no matter what you do by those who love you reminded her of her maternal grandparents, and suddenly her eyes grew teary. She moved closer to Zhang Minghua as if seeking a pillar of support.

Zhang Minghua hurried through her meal, and with Yang Dahai having returned after borrowing money, he urged her to leave with Chen Shugen for the town immediately.

Yang PeiMin felt reluctant to see her leave and took Zhang Minghua's hand, "Mom, how long will you be gone?"

"We'll have to see, Mom has taken a quilt over, she's likely to stay the night to keep watch. If everything is stable, she'll come back tomorrow," said Yang PeiMin, giving her a hug. "Mom, it's cold at night, you should also take care of yourself. Take some brown sugar and ginger with you. When you're tired, just make yourself a cup to drink, refill your energy..."

"Oh, my dear daughter! Listen, everyone, our Minmin has grown up! She's become sensible! And she's smart, thinking of everything, isn't she? Alright, Mom will do as you say. Even without eating sugar, my heart feels sweet." Zhang Minghua hugged Yang PeiMin tightly, even wiping a tear from her eye.

Everyone else looked shocked. Although Yang PeiMin had always been sweet-talking in the past, she had never been as well-behaved and considerate as now.

After Zhang Minghua left, Yang Peiying began to clean up the dishes, and everyone else busied themselves with their own things. Yang PeiMin was still not fully recovered, and Yang Dahai told her to go back to her room and lie down.

Perhaps because she had slept plenty in the morning, she didn't feel like sleeping now. She went back to her room and started to sort her things.

A girl's possessions are really not that many, a few clothes without patches, a few hairbands, a set of comb and mirror, and also a bottle of Friendship Balm for her face, and a bottle of clam-oil. Among her peers, she was considered quite well-off. Underneath her chest she found a wax paper-wrapped savings of 3 yuan and 64 fen, which was her years of saving from the pocket money given by her parents. She also found six love letters tucked in some books, all from Xu Min, which she treasured and kept carefully between the pages. She picked up one and began to read. It was actually a love poem, full of flowery language, so cheesy that she didn't finish and put it down, feeling goosebumps all over her arms.

She crumpled them all up into a ball, thinking she would take them to the kitchen to burn later.

"Minmin, are you asleep?"

Yang PeiMin sat up immediately when she heard the voice; Yang Peiqiong had already lifted the curtain and walked in.

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"Were you tidying things up?"

Yang PeiMin stuffed the ball of paper she was holding into the chest haphazardly. It turned out that what Yang Peiqiong said in the morning about 'coming to see her when she was done being busy' was not just a polite remark. "Sister Qiongzi, why have you come over?"

"Can't I come visit you if there's nothing wrong?" Yang Peiqiong joked as she sat down on the kang beside her. "Were you just tidying up some books?"

"Just flipping through them."

"If I didn't see it wrong just now, you were looking at Chumin's letter, right?" Yang Peiqiong teased, winking at her.

Could it be that she had stood at the doorway for a while before coming in?

Yang PeiMin simply nodded, "I was thinking of throwing away some useless things."

"Minmin, at noon today in the grain field, I ran into Xu Min. He saw me and asked about your condition. He's really worried about you and wanted to come see you. You didn't see his face; he looked like he hadn't slept for days, his eyes full of red blood vessels and his face pale as death. It was only when he learned you had woken up that there was some light in his eyes." As Yang Peiqiong spoke, she watched her cousin's face. "Do you have some misunderstanding with him? He seems to still care about you as he always did."