The 1960s: The Story of a Country Girl's Journey to the City

The women under the banyan tree were used to it; after watching the play, they didn't stop what they were doing.

"Baoya, a young lady shouldn't be so strong-willed. What will your future in-laws think of you?"

"Just look with your eyes. If someone is blind, they won't be able to see anything no matter how hard they look."

The woman pursed her lips and said nothing more. She couldn't argue with Bao Ya, but she knew better than to offend the girl and get punished by the brigade leader. She felt like her good intentions had been wasted.

Having been kindly fed, Bao Ya had no intention of leaving. Since she was already there, she decided to chat with these old women for a while before leaving. She walked over and sat down on the rock where Li Chuncao had been sitting.

"Aunt Zhu, who told you that my parents were supported by my uncle's family? I didn't know anything about that."

Bao Ya picked one of the women who seemed relatively well-behaved and asked her.

"Is that even a question? Everyone's watching."

Before Aunt Zhu could speak, a young woman beside her interjected. She couldn't stand Bao Ya's seductive manner. She had seen how her husband talked about Lin Bao Ya, and her brother-in-law wouldn't tolerate a single bad word about her. She was indignant; what kind of good girl could that lazy bunch of Lin Lao San's family raise?

"Oh? I didn't see it. Tell me about it."

Seeing this unfamiliar young woman looking so resentful was amusing. She had come to see her a few days ago, and she wondered what she was up to.

"Your parents do all sorts of easy jobs and earn only a few work points. Aren't they still supported by your uncle's family? Do they think everyone else is blind?"

That look of disdain—if that look could hurt someone, it would probably leave Bao Ya completely battered and bruised.

"Oh, are you an idiot? You can't even count. You just hear people say you're an idiot, and I think they're right."

Bao Ya rolled her eyes at the young woman, then turned to the group of women and said:

"Whether or not we rely on someone for support is not up to anyone to decide. Our brigade has its own accounts, so we're not afraid of being accounted for. Since you say that our family is supported by your uncle's family, let's do the math."

My parents did dangerous work, earning very little in terms of work points. My dad earned about 7 centimeters a day, and my mom about 6 centimeters, so that's about 13 centimeters a day, right?

The women working nodded in agreement. Indeed, this was all the work that Lin Laosan and his wife did, and everyone was watching.

The young woman rolled her eyes at her again, as if to say: How dare you say that?

Bao Ya didn't argue with her and continued, "My uncle is usually only 8 centimeters tall, and my aunt is usually only 7 centimeters tall. On average, they grow 15 centimeters a day."

I have two children. My younger brother is only 8 years old and hasn't started school yet. I've lived with my maternal grandmother since I was little. My grandmother never gave me a single grain of food, as everyone knows.

But my uncle's family has five children, all of whom grew up in the Lin family and all of them went to school.

My parents are only two centimeters shorter than my uncle and aunt. Do you think those two centimeters are enough to raise five children and send them to school?

The women found some truth in what he said. They might not understand other things, but everyone knew how to calculate work points. They relied on these work points to make a living each year and were very familiar with them. Besides, few families could afford to spend money to send all their children to school.

"My second uncle and aunt are earning full work points every day. They have four children, the youngest of whom is only seven years old. The three girls have never been to school and are now also working in the fields to earn work points. We all know who among the three families is supporting whom."

Furthermore, among our younger generation, Lin Daya didn't accept any betrothal gifts when she got married; in fact, she received a dowry of 20 yuan. Erya's husband's family was found by my eldest aunt; they accepted 80 yuan in betrothal gifts but didn't even provide her with new clothes. My eldest aunt and Siya, who are not married, have new clothes every year, while my second aunt and Wuya and Liuya wear tattered clothes that they don't want anymore.

Everyone listened and calculated in their minds. There were no secrets about marriages in the village; everyone knew how much the bride price was and what the dowry was like.

After hearing what Bao Ya said, it really was true. No one thought there was a problem with Su Ruyi and Bao Ya dressing better, since they received subsidies from the brigade leader's family, and even the brigade leader's wife didn't care. Moreover, they had an uncle who was a cadre in the commune, so they didn't care at all.

Li Jinxiang's family was notoriously poor; it was already a favor that they didn't ask her for subsidies.

"Aunt Zhu, your four sons are all strong laborers. How many work points do you earn a day? How many new clothes have you ever worn? Can your life compare to that of my aunt?"

Aunt Zhu was taken aback by the question, and everyone around her looked at her. She had four sons; her eldest daughter had married young, and all four sons needed to get married. The couple always took the jobs with the highest work points in the production brigade and dared not take leave easily. Even so, they had only managed to get wives for their eldest and second sons; the third and fourth were still unmarried. She herself looked like a sixty-year-old woman, not even forty. Unlike Li Jinxiang, who was plump and still had time to chat and eat sunflower seeds.

"Tch, Lin Xiaoquan is a worker from the city, and he married a city woman. What's wrong with his own mother and sister wearing new clothes?"

The young wife remained unconvinced, saying that she didn't care about anything else, as long as she could belittle Bao Ya, nothing else mattered.

But Bao Ya wanted to give her a thumbs up. When the question got to the point, she wouldn't hold back in revealing the Lin family's secrets.

"Lin Xiaoquan is indeed a worker. Don't you think it costs money to pull strings and use connections? Jobs aren't like cabbages; anyone can just pick one. The accountant's family spent a whopping 28 yuan to get their youngest son a temporary job. Lin Xiaoquan is a permanent employee; how much did that cost? He earns 5 yuan a month, and after a year, he's earned about 340 yuan. He just married a city girl before the New Year; the dowry alone was 100 yuan. We haven't even seen him have a piece of candy in all this time he's been working. His mother and her younger sister had new clothes every year before he started working. You can calculate where their money came from; it couldn't have just fallen from the sky, could it?"

For years, the eldest son's family has been leeching off the second and third sons. Now Lin Xiaohong is also demanding a job, and hasn't given me a single grain of rice in over ten years. My grandparents and uncle insist on taking me back home—what are they trying to do? My aunt keeps saying she'll find me a good husband. Siya is the same age as me, and instead of telling Siya about good families, she tells me about them. Is she really that kind? Does she know more good families than my uncles do?"

This group of aunties and older women gossiped all day long, their minds extremely active. After Bao Ya's calculations, everyone had a pretty good idea of ​​what had recently happened to the Lin family.

Bao Ya, having fed everyone the melons, knew from their expressions that the time was almost up. She got up, dusted herself off, and prepared to make her exit. She muttered to herself:

"If I really did what they wanted, I'd be living a life of misery. Alas! If the old man can't treat everyone equally, there's bound to be unrest in the family. It's the children who suffer!"

"How could you talk about your grandparents like that? You're unfilial!"

The young wife continued to argue relentlessly, and everyone looked at her strangely. She had only been married for a few days, so why was she so hostile towards Bao Ya?

Bao Ya wasn't angry. She leaned closer to her and said with a smile:

"Do you know why Da Chun doesn't like you? You're stupid, clueless, and ugly. There aren't many people who have all these flaws. Did you marry into Beishan's family? And you dragged someone into the cornfield again? Tsk tsk tsk!"

Bao Ya looked at her with disapproval, as if she were looking at something dirty.

"you!"

"Don't talk to me, I don't like to talk to idiots."

After saying that, he put his hands behind his back, turned around, and left.