Su Tiantian said, "Cousin, do you know about my aunt's family situation?"
Ma Yiqiang said: "When I was little, I always heard my mother talk about how rich my aunt's family was. She said my great uncle worked outside and made a lot of money, and that our living conditions were among the best in the village, only slightly worse than Uncle Liu's. But later I heard that after my great uncle passed away, my great uncle didn't know how to make a living, and his life became worse and worse."
Su Tiantian's aunt was envied by most women in the village back then. Her husband's family was very well-off and they owned a food processing factory. Her aunt gave birth to a boy as her first child, and then two daughters, one the same age as Su Tiantian, only two months younger, and the other the same age as Su Zhihao, three months younger. Because of her good living conditions and her fashion sense, her aunt was really fair and beautiful, full of happiness, with both a son and a daughter. In Sang Yimei's words, "I carried the child on my back to do farm work while my sister-in-law counted money at home."
But this life only lasted a little over a decade. After my great uncle's father passed away, he became incompetent, focusing on eating, drinking, and having fun, his only real lip service to his work. He neglected the factory, and it soon closed. Even a rotten boat had three pounds of nails. If he had simply worked hard, he could still make ends meet. But he couldn't accept the disparity, refused to do farm work, and drank constantly, making his life increasingly difficult. The eldest son graduated from high school and started working, and the second and third daughters graduated from junior high and also started working. Their living conditions should have improved, but they worsened. At the eldest son's wedding, he set up ten tables and invited relatives from the clan. However, no one in the clan knew about the weddings of the second and third daughters. They had met boyfriends from other provinces while working at the appliance factory. Unable to afford a house, they rented near their mother's family. Far from supporting their mother's family, they returned home daily to eat and drink for free. Not only did they dine with their son-in-law, but also his family. The daughter-in-law was so angry that she filed for divorce several times.
Tiantian later heard from Ah Huan, a girl from the same village. Ah Huan, Su Tiantian, and her second cousin were classmates in elementary school, and her family lived a few doors down from hers. She said that her second cousin had, one day, changed into a new red dress, held a red umbrella, and walked to her rented apartment accompanied by a woman, as if she were getting married. It was heartbreaking to hear that weddings don't necessarily require a banquet, but does that mean the man can skip the process of picking up the bride? The same thing happened with her third cousin, one daughter, then two. She wondered what her uncle's family was thinking.
We're poor, so we just work hard together to make money. Unfortunately, Su Tiantian's two cousins married men who weren't too willing to work hard. The day Su Tiantian met the second son-in-law's cousin her aunt had mentioned, she felt like she didn't want to get married anymore. If a woman's life becomes harder after marriage than before, is it still worth getting married?
Su Tiantian leaned back in her chair and told Ma Yiqiang and the others about what happened that day: "It happened about half a year ago. It was a Saturday afternoon. Because I had worked overtime for two consecutive Saturdays, the company's vice president asked the driver to take me home to make up for it. When we passed the bridge, I saw someone walking on the bridge. It was my aunt. So I asked the driver to stop, rolled down the window, and asked her where she was going."
My aunt said, "My second daughter is going to give birth and is in the hospital now."
Su Tiantian was surprised: "It's so hot, you're going on foot? It takes at least 20 minutes to walk to the hospital from here."
Auntie: "My son-in-law is here, so I can arrive later. I can save some money by not taking the bus."
Su Tiantian got out of the car, opened the back door, and said to her aunt, "Let us take you there."
After arriving at the hospital, the second cousin had just entered the delivery room. Her husband and cousin were there. Su Tiantian gave 800 yuan to her aunt before leaving.
After returning home, Su Tiantian asked her second cousin’s good friend Ah Huan, and she learned that her second cousin was not doing well and had borrowed money from Ah Huan. Ah Huan said that because the husbands of her second and third cousins were not working, her aunt found a cleaning job instead. For this job, she did not help Tiantian’s eldest cousin take care of the children, and all the money she earned was used to subsidize her daughter. Now she said she wanted to quit her job to help her second cousin take care of the children. It is estimated that the family will be even more restless in the future. So Su Tiantian asked, doesn’t the man’s family have elderly people to take care of the children? Ah Huan said that the man’s family has many children, and his parents help other sons take care of the children, not her. Not only does he not take care of the children, but he also always asks them for money.
After Su Tiantian finished her story, Su Jinyuan said, "Don't lend them money from you in the future. Your cousin and his wife have been arguing with them recently."
Su Tiantian said, "I know. Last time, my third cousin asked me to borrow 20,000 yuan to help her husband's brother pay off his credit card. I didn't lend it to you, and I didn't tell you either."
Ma Yiqiang said, "She also wants to introduce you, cousin, to her second son-in-law's cousin?"
Su Tiantian said: "After that meeting, her second son-in-law's cousin got my contact information, saying that my second cousin gave it to him. He contacted me and said that we worked in the same city and should contact each other more often. I replied out of courtesy at first, but then he said he wanted to pursue me. In fact, he looked good and had a stable job, but I didn't want to marry far away, and I didn't want the old house. The land was over 100 square meters and it was for my younger brother, so I refused and told him that my relationship was based on marriage, and I would not marry far away."
Su Jinyuan said: "If you really like someone who treats you well, you can marry her even if she is not from this province. You can also build a house here, but at least she has to pay half of the money, and the old house can be left to you."
Su Zhihao said: "Yes, the most important thing is to be good to your sister. Being like that with your second and third cousins is really not okay. Recently, they went back to my parents' house and had a fight, and they wanted my eldest cousin to divide the land so that they could build houses."
Su Tiantian said, "The house belongs to my great uncle. He won't agree. This is the only house left in the family. He will definitely give it to my cousin."
Su Jinyuan said, "Your uncle said the house was for his son, and your aunt said the two daughters were pitiful, and that it was fair for men and women, and that the daughters should also have a share. The money was divided, but as for the house, your uncle of course refused, and they argued several times. In short, don't have much contact with their family. If she introduces a boyfriend to you, we dare not accept it. I heard that her second and third sons-in-law have several unmarried brothers. Their families are poor, and they always want to find wives here."
Ma Yiqiang said: "My mother told me that when my uncle and aunt were rich, they looked down on others. I never thought they would be so poor now."
Su Tiantian said, "Let's not talk about them. I'm a little curious, cousin. You said that you've been on three blind dates recently and none of them were successful. I want to know why."
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