Chapter 14: Too Afraid to Face the Father-in-Law!

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Li Xiangdong had already made up his mind: as long as his wife was happy, he was willing to give up the land. But faced with his father and mother’s relentless questioning about why he hesitated, he needed to come up with an excuse to get through it. Just as he was racking his brain for something to say, his second brother’s comment sparked an idea. Suddenly recalling a foolish mistake from his past life, he gritted his teeth and blurted it out.

“My second brother’s right. The reason I hesitated just now is because a few days before I returned to the city, while cutting pig fodder, I wasn’t paying attention and almost fed the village’s pigs to death.”

The courtyard fell completely silent...

Everyone’s gaze turned strange, even his grandparents shook their heads repeatedly. His mother stomped over and started pounding him, “You useless thing! You can’t even cut pig fodder properly! What else are you good for?”

His father was so angry he took off his shoe, about to hit him. “You good-for-nothing bastard, you fail at everything, but when it comes to causing trouble, you’re number one!”

If he had thought of a better excuse, Li Xiangdong wouldn’t have said that. Dodging the blows, he shouted, “I didn’t do it on purpose! Besides, the pigs didn’t die, they just had diarrhea for a few days!”

He wasn’t lying. When he got the news that he would soon return to the city, he was so happy that when working, he paid no attention to the pig fodder and didn’t know what the village pigs had eaten. As a result, they had diarrhea for four or five days, nearly dying of dehydration.

Later, the village accountant came to him and said that the pigs that had diarrhea had been weighed. Knowing Li Xiangdong wasn’t deliberate, they rounded down the compensation to six yuan for him to pay the village.

He didn’t have any money at the time.

It was too late to ask his family to send money by mail, and he was leaving for the city in two days. In the end, he had to muster his courage and go to the neighboring Zhou family village to find his father-in-law. But he felt embarrassed to be direct, so he made up a story, telling his father-in-law that their whole family was moving back to the city and suggested he visit his grandchildren before they left.

Zhou, an old rural man, never imagined his son-in-law had so many tricks up his sleeve.

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In the end, not only did he pay the six yuan, but also lost face in the process.

Feeding pigs and nearly killing them by causing diarrhea was the biggest joke in the countryside!

Li Xiangdong still remembered how furious his father-in-law looked when he went home that day—his lips trembling with anger.

“Dad, Mom, please don’t hit him anymore.”

Zhou Yuqin knew her husband was too embarrassed to go back to Zhou village and even more ashamed to see her father. She stepped forward and stopped Li Xiangdong’s parents. “It’s all settled. He doesn’t want to go back. I’ll go in a couple of days. Please don’t get angry anymore.”

Old Li said, “So your father ended up cleaning up your mess?”

Zhou Yuqin nodded. “My father paid the six yuan to the village. It’s really fine now. He’s just too embarrassed to face him.”

Old Li sighed, looking at Li Xiangdong. “In the end, as long as the pigs didn’t die and there’s money to compensate, it’s not a big deal. But here’s the thing—you’re planning to never see your father-in-law again?”

Before Li Xiangdong could answer, his father seized the opportunity and kicked him hard in the backside.

“You little bastard! Did you roll my cigarettes into a package? At home you cause trouble for me; in the countryside you mess with your father-in-law. Buy something in a few days and go apologize to him in person!”

Li’s grandmother spoke, “Dongzi, do as your father says. When you and your wife go back to register your household, apologize to your father-in-law in person.”

Li Xiangdong patted the footprint on his butt and nodded, “Understood, Grandma.”

“Let’s never mention this again. Pretend it never happened. Bring the kids inside and remind them not to let the neighbors in the alley hear about it.”

Old Li’s decisive words settled the matter. Everyone nodded in agreement and followed the instructions.

West wing.

Li Xiangdong returned to his room and rummaged through his clothes. He had to report to work at his new job the day after tomorrow and needed to dress decently.

He pulled out the few clothes he had from the wardrobe. There weren’t many suitable to wear outside.

The clothes he had before going to the countryside no longer fit. His mother had altered them and given them to his younger brothers. This was common everywhere—older siblings passed clothes down to younger ones, patching patches upon patches, with needle marks all over the pant legs.

Later, during the time he was sent to the countryside as an educated youth to receive re-education from the poor and lower-middle peasants, not having at least two patches on his clothes would make him look like he hadn’t fully assimilated with the peasants.

Even during his time back in the city, he never managed to get a set of clothes without patches. The family’s cloth coupons were limited and saved for making new clothes for the New Year. Flawed cloth from the supply and marketing cooperative was not always available. The white vest and big shorts he was wearing were still his father’s.

Finally, he managed to scrape together a set of clothes without patches—luckily, it was from when he got married, and since it was summer then, it was just right to wear now.

A short-sleeved dacron shirt and a pair of army green pants. The pants were made of pure cotton, which was good, but he didn’t like the dacron shirt much—it didn’t absorb sweat, and wearing it while working made him unbearably uncomfortable.

But he had no choice. He put on the clothes and took out a pair of new work shoes—his household was never short of those; they were all handouts from his father and brothers.

Standing in front of the mirror, Li Xiangdong fiddled with his hair.

After seven or eight years in the countryside, his handsome face still looked young. Time always leaves a sly crack in the lives of people like him.

He turned and looked at Zhou Yuqin, who was supporting their daughter, helping her learn to walk on the kang bed-stove. Proudly, he said, “How about it? Your husband is handsome, right? We’ve been married four years, and your husband still looks just as good as when we first met.”

“Stop being so vain. How come you men care about these things more than us women?”

Zhou Yuqin was a little helpless. At first, she had been bewitched, thinking he was handsome and eloquent during their blind date, foolishly marrying him. She never imagined life would be so miserable.

Luckily, since this morning, she noticed her husband was changing. Plus, with his job settled, she believed life would gradually improve.

Li Xiangdong shook his head. “You don’t understand. This is what I call ‘young-looking.’ Twenty years from now, if I still look like this, we’ll look like mother and son. And if another forty years pass, when we go out together, people will say, ‘Wow, that grandson is so filial, walking with his grandmother.’”

As soon as he said it, he suddenly realized what he’d just implied and quickly spat a few times, embarrassed that he had included himself in the joke.