“Educated Youth Lin’s height is truly high.”
“What’s the use of height? I think Educated Youth Jiang is better, his body is strong and doesn’t delay the work at all.”
A group of young village girls, while doing*24doing*from 干 [gàn] that can mean as to do or to f*ck (vulgar) manual labor, inconspicuously sized the educated youths up who worked in the field, gathered together twittering in a discussion.
“I think Educated Youth Yan is still the best. I read a book when I’ve not studied. It’s called a feast for the eyes. In front of his face, I feel full without eating.” A little girl with a round face covered her mouth, not embarrassed at all.
“Lin Dingding, someone’s got a crush on your beloved, go rip her mouth off.” The age-appropriate little girls had fun better during the day. There were no scruples about making jokes.
“Who, who is his beloved?”
Lin Dingding looked at the little sisters who were laughing at her. All of a sudden, she flushed from the base of her neck to the cheeks. She protested coquettishly and slapped that girl who cracked jokes on the shoulder. She put the half-weaved sweater in her hand and pounded it in the basket in front of her. She got up from the small bench and walked away.
“Hey, hey, hey, I’m joking with you.” That person who gossiped quickly took hold of the girl to stay, certainly did not dare to hold the embarrassed Lin Dingding to run away.
Lin Dingding just made a look. She indeed did not get angry and pulled back to sit again.
“You can’t talk nonsense. Big Brother Yan doesn’t necessarily like me.” Her tone is somewhat uncertain. Since the last time, the two had almost no chance to be alone. Her mood had also changed from getting restless to the current uneasiness.
“We all call him Educated Youth Yan, yet you call him Big Brother Yan.”
The round-faced girl could not help poking her shoulder, and her expression became a little solemn after smiling: “My mother said when seeking a marriage partner, you can’t only look at each other’s skin. I just said that purely means for jokes. The good-looking, can it truly be eaten?”
A girl of 16-17 years old was old enough to be married in the village. As a daughter, the majority of them were used to undertaking more household duties at home and were even ready to marry their fraternal family in exchange for the bride price.
Not everyone could be as lucky as Lin Dingding, who was loved dearly by her whole family. Even more, village girls would sooner or later become outsiders toward their own families. They wanted to get married, but the elders were more emphasis on the bridegroom’s family condition, and something like appearance and moral standing was virtual.
The little girl with a round face looked at Lin Dingding’s eyes with some envy: “Educated Youth Yan is good-looking, but his work indeed hasn’t truly been good, neither have you been working in the fields since childhood. If you two people truly become together, what should be eaten in the future, especially after having a child? Educated Youth Yan earns that little work points91work pointsa measure of work completed in a rural commune in the PRC during the planned economy era, can he afford to support you and your child?”
Lin Dingding wanted to refute that she could also work in the fields. Furthermore, thinking about these every passing day Big Brother Yan smiled softly and tenderly at her, Lin Dingding bit her lip, and the love inside her eyes was palpable.
“Your parents are pampering you, your brothers are good to you, and you will have a small family in the future. You can’t always count on your family’s help. Besides, some of your brothers have settled down and got married, in the future they will value their own small family. This one you, little sister, placed at the bottom of their hearts. I don’t know who is going to leave behind.”
The round-faced girl’s words were not very pleasant, but it was indeed for the good of Lin Dingding.
“My mom also said that I’m not allowed to contact the educated youths. Although they are from the city, they expected to stay in our village’s life in the future. Here, they don’t have their parents and brothers’ financial backing like those independent families, and when the educated youths who got married got bullied, they didn’t even support them at all.”
The young girls were somewhat melancholy. The girls of this age were at the time when the stirrings of love began sprouting. Compared with the boorish and vulgar village youths, they naturally preferred men who dressed up every day, spoke elegantly, good-looking, also upright and refined.
But for the smart and pragmatic girls who like being able to eat, they were looking for a powerful labor family, the in-laws that were easy to get along with, the man himself was honest and willing to work. It was the best ending, as appearance and knowledge were the most worthless things in the village.
“Big Brother Yan is pretty good, he studies well, and now he works in the field on time every day. My father praised him for all his progress.”
Lin Dingding lowered her head and found that the sweater that she weaved on her hand was crooked. She could only tear it apart and re-weave it.
“You can’t scare Dingding. Things have not even begun to take shape, right?”
The girl sitting on Lin Dingding’s right side patted her shoulder and stared at the little girl who sang to wane Lin Dingding’s passionate yet ignorant feelings.
“Specific analysis of specific matters. Actually, if Educated Youth Yan indeed likes our Dingding, this thing isn’t impossible. Isn’t our commune primary school recruiting people? Educated Youth Yan’s educational background indeed high school graduate, which’s more than enough to teach in a primary school. Although the salary isn’t high, as long as you can save some by spending little money, you can still live your life. After that, it’s only proper for the controlling mother-in-law to see how the little housewife Dingding’s ability in housekeeping.”
She said, then she hurriedly moved to the side, blocking her face as if she was afraid of Dingding’s displeasure. Her original repressed anger was reconciled and immediately eased, Lin Dingding could not help but burst into laughter.
What controlling mother-in-law? People did not necessarily have that idea.
However, what the little sister just said gave her a little courage. She thought that regardless of success and failure, it seemed she must ask Big Brother Yan to understand thoroughly.
“After work, I’ve to go home and help my mother cook.”
The village’s end work broadcast rang. Several little sisters, who were sitting under the big tree before, picked up their little colt, held bamboo baskets with needlework, and got ready to go back home.
“Dingding.”
Lin Dingding was about to leave, only to be called by the familiar voice.
“Your beloved is calling you, still not quickly going over there.” Several little sisters had long forgotten about the talk just now. They pushed Lin Dingding in the back, ran away at lightning speed, and nowhere to be found.
Disturbing a couple to talk, of course, they would be struck by lightning.
“Big-, Big Brother Yan.” Lin Dingding looked down at the tip of her shoes. Thinking about the matter hidden in her heart just a moment ago, she summoned her courage to look up. At this time, Yan Chu also happened to arrive in front of her. She, who suddenly looked up and saw an enlarged handsome face, leaned back bashfully.
Yan Chu’s immediate reaction was to hold her in his arms. This way, Lin Dingding’s head was fit snugly above Yan Chu’s chest, and she could hear the ‘thump thump’ sound of his beating heart through his cotton-padded jacket.
“Why are you so careless?”
Yan Chu felt that this action seemed a little intimate. After the other party stood firm, he quickly let her go.
“Yesterday, when I went to the county town, I bought a box of cold cream. I heard that girls like you like this, now the weather is cold, it’s not easy to wipe the rogue paste.”
He took out the cold cream with a fashionable curly woman painting on the small box and handed it over to Lin Dingding’s hand. He looked at the little girl’s adorable expression with her eyes suddenly shining and felt that his mood seemed to be good too.
“Big Brother Yan.”
Lin Dingding looked at the small box that Yan Chu’s hand took out of his pocket. The cold cream still had his body temperature. The impulse in her heart was high for a while.
“Hm?” Yan Chu heard Lin Dingding called him, immediately responded.
When he completely lacked guard against Lin Dingding, she suddenly tiptoed and kissed Yan Chu on the cheek. The kiss was like the water, maybe because the little girl was too nervous. Yan Chu had such a feeling that his cheek was bitten by a kitten, perhaps touching the teeth.
The little girl ran away after the kiss, and Yan Chu, on the contrary, had not recovered yet. Lin Dingding, who had just run out a few steps away, ran back again.
“I like you. What about you?”
In short, desperately, Lin Dingding thought about Yan Chu’s attitude towards her in recent days. Perhaps the difference between them was the courage to clarify.
In a short time, Lin Dingding thought a lot, and what the sisters said made sense. To live one’s life was not quite simple. Her family was in good condition, but her brothers and sisters-in-law often quarreled with each other, and she might have all kinds of difficulties with Yan Chu. But he was the first boy she liked, and she wanted to work hard for her feelings, even if she found that it was wrong in the end, at least not in the future when she remembered her retreat during that time, and then regretted it.
Lin Dingding felt she dared to accept any result.
“You… want to be with me?”
Yan Chu watched Lin Dingding’s happiness value swing up and down between 30 and 60 crazily. He had seen the original self’s memory, knew how tough the other side was, and how the girl was daring to love and regret when she looked shy and pure. When the original self left her and disappeared, the girl depended on herself and brought up the child in her stomach. She tried her best in everything she could, never instilled in her any resentment against the irresponsible father. She showed beauty and hope in front of the child. Under such education, the child became an excellent talented person later on.
Concerning Lin Dingding, Yan Chu was indeed appreciative. This girl was open-minded and staunch to fall for the original self. It estimated she did blindly only in this matter in her life.
It was just about beauty. Yan Chu thought about his body appearance, and could not help but sigh.
Looking at Lin Dingding’s heavy nod, Yan Chu licked his lips. The long silence made Lin Dingding’s hands and feet cold, and her head lowered. She was preparing to put the box of the cold cream in her hand back into Yan Chu’s when he finally opened his mouth.
“My name is Yan Chu, going to be 18 years old this year. My parents are divorced. My biological father is reforming in Gansu Province farm, and my biological mother is remarrying, so there are a couple of step-brothers and a step-sister. My educational background is a high school graduate, and I’m neither smoking nor drinking. My current personal deposit is 178 Yuan, 7 Mao, 3 Fen. I have an Omega watch, a certain number of cloth tickets93cloth ticketsa kind of ticket for China’s urban and rural population to buy cloth or cloth products. China implements unified management of cloth purchase and sales and guarantees that the cloth is supplied according to plan. Implemented in 1953, and industrial vouchers94industrial voucherstickets of the provision of goods that is a product of China’s planned economy and is a manifestation of a shortage of economy. Comrade Lin Dingding, are you willing to take the marriage as a premise, and me as your life partner?”
Yan Chu thought, since he decided to date the girl, his personal conditions still needed to be talked about carefully. The Yan family’s doctrines about men collecting a secret stash of money were rubbish.
It was fantastic to think about it, he used to be single for more than 20 years in his past life, and he found a little wife when he came to the world for a few months.
Watching the little girl staring round like the kitten’s eyes, Yan Chu smiled. It was true that there was a reason to fulfill the cherished desire of the wishing person, but he, himself, did not hate Lin Dingding, even had a bit of appreciation. He thought, after marriage, he would slowly love this girl and let her get the happiness she wanted.
