Chapter 734

At that time, Uncle Jiang’s wife came from a neighboring county, and even going home to her own family was hard. Grandma Jiang was the boss; what could her young daughter-in-law do alone? Only endure.

But endurance had a knife over it—if one could avoid enduring, who would want to?

She really had a gentle personality and didn’t care about those things. Otherwise, anyone with a little temper and grudge would never get along with her.

Villagers thought Grandma Jiang’s strong, authoritative personality when young would mean she’d have a miserable old age.

But in reality, in her old age, she got along very well with her eldest daughter-in-law. She didn’t bother with anything, just sang Christian songs every day. Now that the village even had disco dancing, she went every night with tourists to dance, living a very comfortable and joyful life.

No one really thought about this problem. They just assumed that Grandma Jiang softened after becoming Christian.

Uncle Jiang’s wife hadn’t deeply considered it either but instinctively felt that if Jiang Ning’s temperament were a bit like Grandma Jiang’s, she wouldn’t suffer losses out there and would live well.

Naturally she’d want a daughter-in-law who was kind and capable. But when it came to her own family, she hoped Jiang Ning would have a stronger character.

Maybe all parents felt this way. Uncle Jiang’s wife was not Jiang Ning’s birth mother, but she sincerely hoped Jiang Ning’s temperament would be more like Grandma Jiang’s—not like herself, not like Father Jiang or Mother Jiang .

That night, many people talked about Jiang Ning, Jiang Bai, Jiang Guotai, Jiang Guoding, and the tea fields.

Father Jiang couldn’t sleep, and had to keep watch over the New Year’s Eve. At midnight, he’d be responsible for setting off firecrackers.

At night, the two of them didn’t watch the Spring Festival Gala. Mother Jiang lay silently in bed, unable to sleep.

Jiang Ning always felt that the ability to reflect and self-examine was a very precious quality, but not everyone had it. Those who reflected often drained themselves internally, while those who didn’t reflect tended to harm others externally.

Mother Jiang was such a person who never reflected. She wasn’t educated and didn’t know how to think—she had been imitating the “strong” people she recognized all her life.

So her personality was nothing like her gentle maternal grandmother. The person she imitated was her step-grandmother, who had no children of her own but managed to oppress Mother Jiang’s mother, who bore many children, to the point where she fetched water from the well even eight or nine months pregnant.

Mother Jiang just felt Jiang Ning was rebellious by nature, had grown wings and dared to talk to her like that, dared to treat her that way. If she were like other village girls who hadn’t gone to school and worked in factories, Jiang Ning surely wouldn’t dare speak to her like that or treat her so. Otherwise, the whole village would drown her in spit.

But now, just because Jiang Ning got into university and became a promising person, the villagers all spoke up for her.

Mother Jiang was both angry and aggrieved, thinking she had treated her daughter better than others. Other girls went to factories at twelve or thirteen, sitting so long their butts grew calluses. They worked in garment factories, their fingers poked through by needles, ten fingers connected by pain—how painful that must have been. But Jiang Ning hadn’t suffered any of that. She thought she had it the hardest.

In reality, compared to them, what were her hardships? She herself went to the mountains to cut firewood and grass, tended cattle, did chores feeding pigs and chickens since she was six or seven. When she was a teenager, she carried embankments.

—-

This year, as long as the elders in the village weren’t particularly stingy or had unfilial children, almost all of them were wearing new clothes and new shoes.

Locally, many people work in garment factories—mostly women, but some men too—so a lot of folks made their own clothes. In fact, in this area, what’s really popular wasn’t buying ready-made clothes from the street, but going to a tailor’s store to have clothes custom-made.

Because clothing prices in this era tend to be artificially high, locals believed that buying the fabric themselves, preparing the cotton, and then having a tailor make the clothes for them was a much better deal. For the same price, the quality was far superior to buying from a store. A custom-made piece could last more than ten years.

On the first day of the New Year, without visiting relatives and with fine weather, the elders would gather on the raised platform, loudly showing off their clothes—talking about which tailor made their garments, whose craftsmanship was the best—and then belittling ready-made clothes, insisting that clothing should be custom-made at a tailor’s.

Grandpa Jiang’s clothes were bought by Jiang Ning. When others saw the big fur collar on Grandpa Jiang’s jacket, they chuckled and said, “Old Fortune, your clothes were bought by your granddaughter, right? Ah, she’s just a little girl, and doesn’t know how to make clothes or understand the details. Clothes have to be made at a tailor’s store! The tailor takes your measurements, makes the clothes according to your size, only then will they be good! Look at what my grandson made for me—this fabric, these stitches…”

Not only did the old men like to brag, the old women also wore new clothes and joined in.

Grandpa Jiang just smiled without saying anything. Then he fished around in his pocket, pulled out a thick red envelope, rolled it up with his hand, and slipped it back into his pocket.”

Grandpa Jiang laughed and slowly said, patting the pocket where the envelope was, “It’s from my granddaughter. I told her not to, but she insisted, saying it was a New Year’s red envelope.”

His smile made the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes bunch up deeply—an authentic smile, childlike.

He came from a poor background, never receiving red envelopes as a child. After his father died, he had to raise his younger siblings and his crippled mother who couldn’t work. Not only did he never get any red envelopes, but neither did his siblings. All his strength went into keeping his mother and siblings alive in those hard times.

He never dreamed of red envelopes. In youth, he was the pillar of the family; in middle age, still the pillar; now old, his daughter would give him a bit of money as filial respect during the New Year.

Grandma Jiang managed the family finances, so he never had money, and besides, that wasn’t a red envelope.

Now, in old age, he was treated like a child by his granddaughter and even given red envelopes.

Grandpa Jiang’s face lit up like warm spring sunshine melting snow.

The old men and women watching him felt a bit bitter—this old guy always found unexpected ways to show off.

Then came rounds of praise for Jiang Ning’s filial piety. Afterward, when they looked at their own new clothes, they didn’t feel as good about them anymore. After all, they were all grandchildren, so why was his granddaughter the only one who got into university and gave him a red envelope?

Some elders who didn’t dare directly ask their children for red envelopes would slyly praise Jiang Ning, “Old Fortune is really lucky. His granddaughter not only bought him new clothes from head to toe but also gave him a big red envelope, saying it was a New Year’s red envelope for Old Fortune.”

Those who understood this naturally got a red envelope and gave their own parents a hundred yuan each; others who either didn’t get it or didn’t care acted as if they hadn’t heard.

Those who got a hundred yuan weren’t as much as Grandpa Jiang’s but were still pleased and compared notes.

Some even asked Grandma Jiang if Jiang Ning gave her a red envelope.”

“How much?”—a bit of bragging—“My useless youngest son barely earns anything all year and only gave me a hundred. I said no, but he insisted, wanting me to save it to buy food!”

Grandma Jiang laughed, “Yes!”

She pulled out her own red envelope, showing the money inside—not exactly revealing the amount, but from the thick bundle, it was clear there were at least a few hundred yuan.