Raising Children in a Reconstituted Family [1960s] - CHAPTER 3

Chapter 3

　　”You stinky bitch, today I…” Before the man finished speaking, and before he could make a move, Gu Yan’s rolling pin had already hit him. He screamed in pain and jumped back several steps as if he were on fire.

　　The old lady stretched out her hand to stop her, but Gu Yan dodged it. Ignoring the old lady with bound feet who stumbled and almost fell, she hit the man with the rolling pin in her hand like the tiger-subduing stick of the Eighteen Arhat.

(T/N :- The Tiger-taming Arhat originated from a Buddhist story. It is said that the eighteenth Arhat is exactly Maitreya. A fierce tiger usually roared for hunger outside the temple that he lived in. Maitreya thus shared his food with this tiger. As time went by, this tiger was subdued by him and often played with him. Therefore, he is known as the “Tiger-taming Arhat.” The tiger in the story painting crouches on the ground obediently and carries a volume on its head. The Arhat stands beside the tiger and reads the book with a smile on his face. It is said by Laozi that “keeping a low profile can be seen as wisdom; keeping soft and gentle can be deemed as strong.” The Tiger-taming Arhat established morality through gentleness and adhered to Buddhism through benevolence. Maitreya and his tiger jointly narrate this old story about virtue and morality as well as harmonious coexistence.
( T/N:- So maybe from this reference the author said that phrase.)

　　”I let you beat me, I let you be too lazy to earn work points, I let you make trouble for no reason whenever you wanted, and I let you stay at home and eat for free…”

　　The anger in her heart became real, and the stick hitting him made a whistling sound, and he was unable to fight back. He wanted to reach out and grab it, but it was as hot as if it were on fire, and a big blister appeared on his hand, and his clothes smelt a bit burnt from the hits.

　　”You shrew; you dare to hit your own man. This is against heaven. I will go to the brigade to sue you and ask the brigade secretary to judge the case…”

　　The old lady jumped up and down and cursed, but seeing her daughter-in-law waving the stick like a rope, she didn’t dare to grab it. The door curtain was lifted up, and all the women in the yard came to watch the fun.

　　This courtyard is a pit courtyard, with a cliff on the east and west, but one is lower and the other is higher. Twenty or thirty steps on the west lead to the main street of the brigade. The houses on the north and south sides are all made of blue bricks and tiles, and now they all belong to the old Han family. It was dark and raining, so even if the neighbours heard it, they would not have the heart to come and see.

( T/N :- Pit courtyard is something similar to this ). For more info, you can visit this site :- https://www.re-thinkingthefuture.com/city-and-architecture/a4585-pit-houses-of-china-yaodong/#f7b05085ff0d1a4085be8559504e42529098e86d#253643 }

　　”Oh, eldest sister-in-law, this tigress is showing her might.” The youngst daughter-in-law just came into the family two years ago, holding a baby in her arms.

　　The eldest sister-in-law rolled her eyes at the sister-in-law who was just looking for trouble, then turned to Gu Yan and said indifferently, “Second sister-in-law, don’t be angry; watch your stomach; you are pregnant.”

　　”Gu Yan, you shrew, you dare to hit my brother, I…” The fierce Han Xiaomei turned around and walked out. After a while, she came back with a rolling pin and said, “I will beat you to death…ah…”

　　The one in front was the little girl’s shouting, and the one behind was Han Lao Er’s shouting. Originally, his wife’s rolling pin was enough to hit him hard, and no matter how he tried to dodge, he couldn’t avoid it. Now this damn girl hit him with a stick.

　　”Where were you going?? To hit me? Get out of here…”

　　”I’m sorry, I’m sorry, second brother, I didn’t mean it.” Han Xiaomei apologised and raised her hand to hit him with a stick. I don’t believe it; I can’t hit you.

　　”Ah…ah…”

　　The brother and sister shouted in unison; one of them was hit extra, right where he had been hit before. The other was attacked with a rolling pin, and the huge force shook her wrist loose, and the stick fell to the ground, and the base of her palm seemed to be wet.

　　Han Xiaomei didn’t dare to act wild anymore and retreated to the doorway, covering her hands and hiding behind her two sisters-in-law. Old Mrs. Han was also intimidated by this weak and useless daughter-in-law and sat on the edge of the kang, dumbfounded, not knowing what to say.

　　In the darkness, no one dared to say anything. The women at the door had already retreated outside. The only sound in the room was her son’s howling like a pig being slaughtered.

　　”Stop, stop hitting me. My wife, please stop hitting me.”

　　The other two brothers, who had not intended to intervene, were also startled by the pig-killing howl and came to the main hall and the side room in their clothes. As for the head of the family, old man Han, he would not easily interfere in the affairs of the younger generation.

　　”What’s going on?”

　　The eldest and the third brother came over clattering. Their brother could no longer bear the excruciating pain and began to beg his wife for mercy.

　　”The couple is fighting.” The eldest daughter-in-law only said this, her voice sounding helpless. The third daughter-in-law’s next words were full of gloating: “The second sister-in-law was so powerful today, the tigress showed her power. She beat second brother and made him scream.”

　　Brothers are born of the same mother, so they will definitely side with their own family. The third brother was not happy to hear this: “Why are you everywhere? Hurry up and take the child back to the room to sleep. Don’t let it catch a cold on such a cold day.”

　　The fight in the room stopped as the second son begged for mercy. The third son’s wife muttered something and took the child back to the south room. The sky was gloomy without a moon or stars, like a black silk curtain that wrapped people up, making it hard to breathe.

　　”What are you looking at? Get out of here.” Before the apocalypse, Gu Yan worked as a stuntman on the set, often playing assassins and female demons. Her strong aura allowed her to go out without any obstacles, and everyone automatically made way for her.

　　Behind the north room is the toilet. A small area built with mud bricks is used as a toilet and pigpen to prevent exposure and accidents.

　　Nowadays, toilets are cleaner than one another. After all, farmyard manure is a rare and good fertilizer. She unzipped her pants and urinated; her stomach finally felt free.

　　”I was already dying of suffocation, and you had to come here at this critical moment to ask for a beating. Why didn’t you wait until I finish using the toilet?”

　　After tying up her trouser pockets and returning to the front yard, the lights in the main hall were already on. Han Lao Er’s high and low shouts could be heard from inside. It seemed that these people had changed their positions.

　　”It hurts, it hurts, it hurts.”

　　”My son, look at how he got beaten. This woman is a shrew. Divorce her tomorrow, and I will find you a better one.”

　　”Mom, please be gentle. It hurts.”

　　Han Lao Er had a bad temper and was furious when he said this. When he was a child, he was in poor health, so the old lady spoilt him and was afraid that she couldn’t support him. As a result, she raised such a lazy and greedy boy.

　　”You are really good at dealing with your wife. Why didn’t you dare to hit that woman just now? It would be embarrassing for a grown man like you to tell others about her beating you like this.”

　　”I…” Does that mean I didn’t want to fight back? If I’m being hit one after another, will I have any room to fight back?

　　Gu Yan ignored what they said. She would deal with whatever came her way. The most important thing right now was to rest. She was really uncomfortable with her big belly.

　　She went back to her room, locked the door, and went to sleep in one go. The two daughters who were hiding in the corner saw her coming back and lay down beside her again. The elder girl seemed to want to say something but didn’t dare to speak. She looked at her mother with fiery eyes full of admiration.

　　After tossing and turning on the kang all night, she had to get up to go to the toilet at dawn. The little girl next to her asked, “Mom, do you want to pee?”

　　Seeing her nod, the little girl quickly climbed out of the bed and said, “Wait a minute, I’ll go get you a urinal. It’s raining outside again, and the team hasn’t rung the bell yet, so it should still be a holiday. You sleep a little longer in bed, and I’ll go to the cafeteria and get you some food later.”

　　As the little girl was talking, she had already opened the door and left the house. In less than a minute, she brought in a small earthenware jar. She should have brought this thing in before going to bed at night, but she forgot to do it because of the chaos last night.

　　Gu Yan had already put on her clothes, and she was too embarrassed to ask the child to empty her bladder. She bent down, picked up the earthenware jar, and went to the toilet.

　　Han Dahua, who was standing behind her, was so upset by her mother’s attitude that she stood there in a daze, looking down at her toes. After a while, she looked up and asked her sister in a low voice, “Is mom angry?”

　　Xiaohua in the bed hesitated for a moment, her tone full of uncertainty. “It shouldn’t be!”

　　The two sisters were about to say more when they heard the sound of Gu Yan’s footsteps. She came in, closed the door, and returned to the kang.

　　It was a very cold day. Although it wasn’t below zero, it was probably pretty cold.

　　”Why are you standing there? Come up and get some sleep. There’s still two or three hours before the canteen opens for lunch.”

　　Dahua’s anxious heart was soothed; she nodded vigorously and climbed back onto the kang. The kangs here were not like those in the northeast, which had flues to burn wood. Most of the kangs here were solid, relying entirely on the stoves at the edges for heating. Now that there was no fire, the kang was icy cold.

　　There is a folk saying that a fool can only sleep on a cold kang because he has a strong fire. They are located at the border of the north and the south. It is not cold here, but there are heavy snows in winter. It is cold, but it is nothing compared to the north, where the temperature is often minus 20 or 30 degrees Celsius.

　　Basically, once the sun comes out, the snow will melt in a few days. If you sleep on a heated kang, you will get sore that you cannot stand it. Therefore, different customs and habits have been formed in the north and south.

　　Gu Yan pressed half of the quilt under her body so that she could be warmer. Her biological clock kept her awake, so she simply opened her eyes and looked around at this new place.

　　The bricks were covered with stains, smoke, fire, and graffiti, and the black colour had long lost its original olor. The patch holes in the children’s winter jackets in the box were a small matter, but the key was that they were too small to wear, and that was the only way to deal with it last year. She was so pitiful that she didn’t even ask her mother-in-law for a piece of cloth and cotton.

　　A box, mostly empty. There were only two thin quilts for the four of them. The baby was about to be born, but a new quilt was nowhere to be found. The two girls were wrapped in a large quilt.

　　This house is bare—not even a table for eating. Just thinking about it makes people sigh. When the original body got married, she was kicked out of the house naked. The clothes she wore on the wedding day were borrowed by her mother. When she returned to her parents’ home the next day, she took them off and wore her old clothes to return to her husband’s house.

　　This kind of thing is quite common these days. If you can have a piece of clothing without patches when you go out, you are considered a well-off family. For someone like her, her father doesn’t love her mother, and the two tattered quilts she has are only given by her mother-in-law because she is afraid that they will freeze to death.

　　After thinking it over in her mind, she decided that she had to improve her life first. As for bringing out something shocking, she could only try to keep a low profile and try to cover it up.

　　She sat up from the bed and put on her dirty old clothes. The two children also sat up and dressed quickly.

　　”Mom, what are you doing? Let me help you run errands.”

　　Seeing such a sensible child, she couldn’t help but feel comforted. She reached out and touched her daughter’s head: “It’s okay; I’ll sit for a while. If you want to sleep, continue to sleep.”

　　The two children never slept late on weekdays. They shook their heads, got dressed, and stood up. The eldest got out of bed to fetch water to wash her face, while the second one knelt on the kang to fold the quilt. Her arms were too short to reach, so she folded one end and jumped to the other, as cute and serious as a little rabbit.

　　In her memory, it was usually these two children who made the quilts, so Gu Yan didn’t make a fuss about it. The two children were just so thin that it made people feel distressed. It was nothing for them to do some work after they were full. In fact, they were more capable than her with a big belly.

　　She took out a candy from the space, tore open the plastic wrapper, and put it into Xiaohua’s mouth. The child was stunned for a moment before reacting. Then her eyes widened in surprise. She actually ate the legendary candy.

　　The candy was delicious! She had never eaten anything so delicious. Oh, no, the cookies her mother gave her last night were also delicious.

　　Seeing her sister coming in to get water, she quickly spit out the candy in her mouth. Just as she was about to give it to her sister, she saw that her mother had already stuffed one for her sister, so she happily put the candy back into her mouth.

Han Lao Er:- Lao Er is a pronoun used in Chinese for the second child.
Just like that
Lao da :- eldest child
Lao San :- third child