Zhou Chunping is 55 years old this year, and only 52 three years ago, so he's still under retirement age. But for the sake of his youngest daughter, Zhou Zhimei, he gritted his teeth and applied for early retirement, allowing her to take over and obtain a city hukou.
Zhou Zhimei is 23 years old this year. Two years ago, she was considered an old girl in the countryside.
Wu Jinfeng was extremely anxious. Having an old daughter at home is a pain in every parent's heart.
Zhou Zhimei gritted her teeth and refused to listen to Wu Jinfeng's advice and go see the other woman. In her heart, Zhou Zhimei also had her eyes on her father's job.
Without a city hukou, Zhou Zhimei would have had no choice but to marry into a rural household and live a life of hard work. She recalled how her third sister-in-law, a beautiful girl, had become much more haggard within two years of marrying into their family.
Zhou Zhimei shuddered at the thought of Zhao Yunxiang's daily life. Zhao Yunxiang was constantly busy like a top, and was often scolded by Wu Jinfeng.
Zhou Zhimei didn't want to marry in the countryside. Ten out of ten rural old ladies were like her mother, Wu Jinfeng: unreasonable and fond of harassing their daughters-in-law. She didn't want to be a farmer, scraping for food in the fields her whole life. She wanted to marry a city dweller, wear beautiful clothes, and work in a clean, bright office.
Zhou Zhimei knew that without a city hukou and a job, marrying a city dweller was a dream!
Logically, any of the three sons and one daughter of the Zhou family had the right to take over Zhou Chunping's business. In rural areas, elders often favor sons over daughters, and when faced with such a good opportunity, parents would generally consider giving the job to their sons rather than their daughters.
Zhou Zhimei persevered and tried to persuade Zhou Chunping to let her take over. She offered many reasons to convince Zhou Chunping.
Zhou Zhimei said that if she had a city hukou, she could marry a city man. If she went to the city, he would definitely not neglect her family.
It's a good thing that her daughter is married and takes care of her parents. Zhou Chunping's future life will definitely be more and more comfortable. Zhou Zhimei also promised that if her in-laws are capable, she will help her nephews and nieces find jobs, and she will take half of her monthly salary back to the Zhou family to support her parents.
Zhou Chunping thought about it and felt that what Zhou Zhimei said made sense. He had three sons but only one job. If he gave it to one son, that son might object. If he gave it to that son, that son might also be unhappy.
Even if his sons had no objections, his daughters-in-law would surely have grumbled. He and Wu Jinfeng were still young and didn't need their daughters-in-law's care. But when they got older, would their daughters-in-law be unhappy with them and treat them well?
For the sake of the long term, it would be better to give this job to his daughter. If Zhimei got a job, he would have to support the elderly couple in the future. His three sons and one daughter would become four sons.
All three sons have already started their own families, and their wives are all from rural areas.
A child's household registration follows their mother. Even if a son changes his household registration and starts eating commercial grain, he can't change his wife, right? Grandchildren will still live in the countryside, and there's no way to change that.
If he gave the job to his daughter, no matter whether she gave birth to a grandson or a granddaughter, they would be able to eat commercial grain.
After thinking through the benefits of this, Zhou Chunping helped his daughter complete the succession procedures without discussing it with his sons.
In Zhou Chunping's view, he is the head of the Zhou family and the job is his. His children just have to accept the decisions he makes and have no right to object.
This succession system once caused a joke. A middle school teacher offered his son the job. Following policy, the school leadership allowed the son to continue teaching the first grade. Unfortunately, the son, who hadn't even graduated from elementary school and had no knowledge at all, stood at the podium for a long time without being able to utter a single word, much to the chagrin of the principal.
The principal reported the matter and the succession system was revised. The successor child only took over the parents' household registration, and the job could be arranged elsewhere, which did not necessarily have to be the same as the parents' original job.
After Zhou Zhimei transferred her household registration, the cotton textile factory in Yuyuan County happened to come to Sanhe Town to recruit workers.
Zhou Zhimei is a smart person. She promised Zhou Chunping and Wu Jinfeng that she would give half of her salary to her family after work. If her workplace was not far from Zhoujia Village, given Wu Jinfeng's personality, she would definitely go to Zhou Zhimei's workplace to ask her for money on the day of salary payment every month.
If her monthly salary of just over ten yuan were cut in half, wouldn't that be like taking advantage of her? She said she wanted to pay the money and go home, just to get Zhou Chunping's qualification to succeed her. Now that all the paperwork was done, even if she changed her mind, what could her parents do to her?
With her own little thoughts in mind, Zhou Zhimei took the recruitment exam of Yuyuan County Cotton Mill and successfully became a textile worker.
The journey from Sanhe Town to Yuyuan County is long and arduous, with more than 100 kilometers and only one bus a day.
After Zhou Zhimei started working, she wouldn't return home for months. Wu Jinfeng, who got dizzy from riding in cars, couldn't possibly run to the county town to ask Zhou Zhimei for her salary. Thus, the half salary Zhou Zhimei had promised her went unpaid.
Six months later, Zhou Zhimei found a young man from the city and got married. After getting married, it was even more impossible for Zhou Zhimei to ask for money from her parents' home. Every time she went back to her parents' home, she would bring a lot of bags to her own home.
Seeing that Zhou Zhimei had finally married into the city, Wu Jinfeng felt that her daughter had brought her honor, and she held her head higher in Zhoujia Village. Plus, with the twenty yuan Zhou Zhixin sent her every month, Wu Jinfeng had plenty of money to spend. Her daughter was her flesh and blood, so she didn't complain about Zhou Zhimei's nagging.
The other members of the Zhou family felt a little suffocated.
After Zhou Zhimei took over, Li Chunjiao and Gu Dahua had a fight for several days, saying that Zhou Chunping was partial to his daughter and didn't care about the life and death of his son and grandson.
Li Chunjiao and Gu Dahahua are not as stubborn as Zhao Yunxiang. They are efficient in their work and even more so in their words.
In addition, Zhou Zhigang and Zhou Zhiqiang looked strange during that period, so Zhou Chunping realized that he had offended several of his sons and daughters-in-law by Zhou Zhimei's taking over.
For the sake of family harmony, Zhou Chunping told his sons and daughters-in-law that Zhou Zhimei's shift work was conditional. Zhou Zhimei had to find a job for at least each of his brothers' children and promised to pay half of his salary to the family.
As for finding a job, except for Zhou Jiaxing, the eldest son of Zhou Zhigang who is sixteen years old this year, the other children are still young and there is no rush.
As for the money Zhou Zhimei gives to the family every month, Zhou Chunping and Wu Jinfeng cannot use it. When the time comes, they will divide it among the brothers and their families, which can be regarded as the love of Zhimei as her sister.
As a result, Zhou Zhimei went to work in the city and married a city man. She never received the promised salary, and the promised job seemed unrealistic.
Several daughters-in-law thought so.
Only Zhao Yunxiang didn't take Zhou Chunping's words seriously. Zhou Zhixin's mother-in-law insisted on taking the twenty yuan he received each month, and her father-in-law didn't say a word. The few yuan his sister-in-law received each month definitely had nothing to do with their third wife's income.
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