"Engagement? No way." Li Qiulan said firmly, "Zhenzhen, I know it was wrong for me to let you go to the countryside so early, but you can't just bring someone back. You're only seventeen this year, why rush? Maybe you'll be back in two years. By then, even if you're in your early twenties, it won't be easy to find a partner."
If I had known this would happen, I would have sent the eldest son away and kept the second son at home. What's going on now? I actually brought back a country boy and wanted to get him engaged.
Bai Ruozhen looked at her mother with a smile and said stubbornly, "But we are already dating, and, Mom, who knows if there will be a chance to come back in this life? If he really can't come back, and I miss him again, what should I do then?"
Li Qiulan didn't know what to do, but she just didn't want her daughter to marry a country boy.
"No, I don't agree with this marriage." Li Qiulan said stubbornly.
Bai Ruozhen lowered his head slightly and said, "But I like him."
"Can liking someone be eaten? My silly girl, don't be fooled by him." Li Qiulan said.
Bai Ruozhen looked up at her and said, "Mom, she is really good to me. She really is. And her parents are also good to me, as are her brothers and sisters."
"That's because their family wants to marry a city girl, and they're doing it for you to see." Li Qiulan said angrily, "You're still young, you don't understand these things. Anyway, we can't agree to this marriage."
"But I'm not a city girl anymore." Bai Ruozhen said in a low voice.
Li Qiulan choked and was speechless for a moment.
Bai Ruozhen continued, "If I marry him, I can become a city dweller again."
Li Qiulan shuddered, "What did you say?"
Bai Ruozhen smiled and said, "You may think he's a country boy, but even though his family is from the countryside, he graduated from high school and will soon be working at the Yancheng Transportation Company, where he'll be making 37.5 yuan a month. When we get married, he said he'd ask his uncle to help get me into the city. Even if my household registration isn't settled for the time being, I can still get a temporary job or something. After all, I don't have to farm in the countryside. You don't know how tiring it is to work in the fields."
As she spoke, she recalled the hard work she had done in the fields over the past six months. "The wheat was so hard, it pricked my hands and hurt, but he would rather not go to work and come back to work for me, letting me cook at his house. But even for cooking, it was his sister who washed and cut the vegetables and lit the fire, so I just had to stir-fry."
Li Qiulan was moved by her words. Seeing her expression, Bai Ruozhen felt delighted and continued, "Before I came here, I was still farming corn. He wouldn't let me work in the fields, so he earned work points for me. Even before we were dating, he often helped me and gave me delicious food whenever he could. And his sister, on weekends when she didn't have classes, would help me with the work. She even made all my clothes for me."
"But..." Li Qiulan sighed, "Mom is thinking about going back to the city. No matter how good Yancheng is, it can't compare to the provincial capital."
Bai Ruozhen also sighed, "Mom, going back to the city isn't that reliable. You've retired now, and my dad's job definitely can't be lost. Our family is just an ordinary one, and we don't have those connections. It's harder than climbing to the sky to come back. If there was a way, my eldest sister wouldn't be making trouble with you at home. Although Yancheng isn't as good as the provincial capital, life there is no worse than in the provincial capital."
She stretched out her hand to show Li Qiulan, "Mom, look at my hand."
Li Qiulan glanced at it. It was white, tender, and pretty. "It's pretty good."
"Yes, this is what happens when I don't work and spend all day taking care of myself." Bai Ruozhen pointed at his face again, "Look, is my face still rough and yellow?"
Li Qiulan shook her head.
Bai Ruozhen smiled. "When I first went to Yancheng, my face was yellow and my hands weren't delicate. Why are they better now and why have I gained weight? Because Changqing and his family are so kind to me. He even bought me some vanishing cream to apply on my face and some gala oil to take care of my hands. His sister even helps me wash clothes and tidy up whenever she has time. Let's put it this way, without them, I wouldn't be who I am today. Maybe I'd still be working hard in the fields, not to mention gaining weight, and even my stomach wouldn't be able to eat properly."
Li Qiulan was stunned when she heard this. "What? You can't even have enough to eat?"
Bai Ruozhen nodded. "When we first went there, we borrowed grain from the village. We had to return it after the wheat harvest, but I'm not good at working. Even with Brother Changqing's work points, it was barely enough to pay back the village. In other words, without them, I wouldn't have any food for the second half of the year."
Li Qiulan was completely stunned upon hearing this, but then she thought about it and realized that the Gu family seemed to be really good to her daughter. Not to mention buying her this and that, just the fact that they were willing to earn work points for her and provide her with food meant they were a good family. After all, food was the most precious commodity, and even money and coupons didn't guarantee it.
Although she thought the Gu family was a good family and her daughter might be able to live in the city in the future, Li Qiulan felt uncomfortable when she thought about her daughter marrying so far away.
"Forget it, I don't care. Let's talk about it when your dad comes back."
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