Chapter 118: Chapter 120 Xiangcao
“You can’t tell your father either,” Tang Zhijun was seriously instructing Tang Yuxin.
Tang Yuxin nodded again, then pointed to the big hand that Tang Zhijun was using to cover her mouth.
Tang Zhijun hurriedly removed his fan-like large hand, while Tang Yuxin’s small face turned completely red from suffocation. She was coughing continuously, and Tang Zhijun was anxiously patting his little niece’s back. He seemed to have suffocated his little niece just now.
“Are you okay?” Tang Zhijun was sweating with worry. He hoped he hadn’t actually hurt her.
This was Zhang Xiangcao’s home. If not for the flood washing away their old house that leaked everywhere, they might still be living in a mud-brick house.
Zhang Xiangcao was not a local, but a daughter brought over by an outsider, a widow. Back then, Zhang Xiangcao was a beautiful flower, always clean, never dirtying her shoes, with two shiny, oily braids on her head. In that era, she was a colourful sight.
Many of the village’s young men took notice of her. She was amiable, literate, hardworking, not whimsy, and had a good reputation in the village.
But no one dared to marry her, for marrying her would mean marrying her widowed mother as well. Zhang Xiangcao had said that anyone who wanted to marry her had to agree to support her mother too. So although many young men considered her, none had the courage to take that step.
You can’t have your cake and eat it too. How could they support their mother-in-law? In those years, times were hard for everyone. Bearing another mouth to feed might result in their own starvation.
And if others were unwilling, Zhang Xiangcao didn’t insist either. Then came the time of the “educated youth” being sent to rural areas. At that time, a young educated youth fell in love with Zhang Xiangcao. He didn’t mind taking care of an extra mouth, as he was on his own here anyway. Their life was going well and they lived in harmony. The educated youth was a teacher at the local primary school and made a decent wage. Zhang Xiangcao was industrious. Xiangcao’s mother was no exception. Everything was going smoothly until college entrance exams resumed and the educated youth could go home. Zhang Xiangcao personally saw her husband out of the village. She understood his longing for a better life and respected his pursuit of higher education.