Married to a Disabled Man in the 70’s

P/N: Kora’s translating skill is superb! <3 ~(=^‥^)ノ☆

“Hey, I don’t want-” Sun Fang quickly refused.

But Su Jiaojiao had already made up her mind, so she didn’t want it. After giving the money, she supported  Song Qinghan to leave. 

Song Qinghan, who watched the sixty yuan disappear, also helped to speak: “Mom, just keep what Jiaojiao gave you. When my legs get better, I can also earn wages.”

The couple left supporting each other with smiles on their cheeks. They spoke in low voices, not feeling distressed over the sixty yuan.

Zhang Qian was about to go back to the house, but when she saw this scene, she was dumbfounded for a moment, and suddenly felt her face flush hotly.

Just now, she had said in her heart that it was a farce, and she would not really give the money back, yet she did.

However, when she thought about it, she felt depressed.  If Su Jiaojiao had married a different man, would she still be so generous?

It was a pity that Su Jiaojiao really thought this way 1. After all, she wasn’t really a member of their household.

On the way back, Su Jiaojiao walked briskly: “In fact, it’s good to separate the family, why is everyone unwilling to separate?”

No matter if it was in the real world, the families she knew in Taohua Village, the history books, or the ancient farming novels she read before, splitting up a family seemed like a very difficult thing to do.

The protagonist’s parents always get taken advantage of, and since they don’t separate the family, they end up quarreling with their aunts and sisters-in-law all day long, calculating just to get a bite to eat 2. It was just too troublesome.

As Song Qinghan lowered his head, he saw her small mouth pouting. Her delicate little face was white and translucent under the moonlight, and her expression was pure. At first glance, she looked like a spoiled child. He laughed lightly, and used the hand that had been on her shoulder to smoothly pinch her cheek. He asked in a low voice: “Do you know the Da Niu family?”

Su Jiaojiao nodded: “I know.”

Da Niu was a part of one of the noisier families in their village. According to her superficial knowledge, Da Niu was a man of good ability, and he had two older brothers and one younger brother. As the middle child, with an inelegant mouth and no ability to please people, he could only do more hard labor.

The family’s sons were all married. However, in the case of Da Niu’s wife, she was the most ordinary 3. Her bride price was only two bags of flour. But this daughter-in-law was rather extraordinary, because after her arrival, she often created trouble in the family. She felt that her husband put in more effort, did more work, and earned more grain, but her family ate the least.

There was little entertainment within the village, so people just gossiped. When the original owner was idle and bored, she would also go to listen. Thus Su Jiaojiao, who inherited her memories, knew.

Seeing Su Jiaojiao nod, Song Qinghan softly explained: “Even now, their family is still not separated, because if they separate, the eldest son and the youngest son would have to starve. The eldest son works well, but with the three children at home, the oldest being ten years old and the youngest two years old, they require a lot of food. They can’t afford to raise them alone. The second son’s family is the same. The fourth son doesn’t work well and is lazy all day long. His wife is also lazy. Although they have good in-laws, if they really wanted to live alone, they might have to go to their maiden family’s house every day to fight the autumn wind.”4

“Then why doesn’t Da Niu separate his family?” Su Jiaojiao tilted her head up and asked.

When Song Qinghan looked at the big shiny eyes, he became soft-hearted and pinched her ears.

Su Jiaojiao trembled unnaturally when her ears were touched, and subconsciously shook in his arms. She patted him on the shoulder: “Don’t move!”

Song Qinghan reluctantly let go and continued: “Da Niu wants to separate the family, but he would be unfilial because his parents are unwilling. If the third son goes out alone, his parents would not be able to bear seeing the hardship of their other sons.”

“Then they exploited the third son?” Su Jiaojiao frowned.

Song Qinghan said: “Although this is the case, to ensure that everyone can barely have enough to eat, is also considered good. Otherwise, the house would be noisy all day long, and they would be restless. It would be more troublesome than now. It is the parents who are preventing the separation of the family.”

Such a situation was not uncommon in the village. There were quite a few people who were lazy and scoundrelly, so they were unwilling to split up the family. Not everyone was like Su Jiaojiao, where even if they became infamous, they would still insist on the separation of the family.

Most people were afraid that they would really become the one who is accused by a thousand people 5.

As for the Su family, if Su Jiaojiao was afraid that her parents couldn’t subsidize her in the future, she should be unwilling to split the family. She could exploit her eldest brother and second brother by not splitting the family. In fact, if she just said she didn’t want the family to split, it would happen as she wished.

It was all the same reasoning. Who made Su Jiaojiao her parent’s most doted child?

Thinking of this, Song Qinghan couldn’t help but be glad that he had money, or else he would really have become such a person.

Su Jiaojiao sighed, “Sometimes, people really deserve to suffer.”

Pitiful people must be able to be mean 6. If they were a little tougher, the Da Niu family could also live very well, and their reputation couldn’t become fuel for rumors. They had wronged themselves while gorging the evil wolf.

But if it was a situation like big brother Da Niu’s, it was still understandable. After all, there were too many children. As brothers, it was reasonable to help raise the children. But if it was a situation like the youngest brother, then forget about it. Unfortunately, this child was unlucky and just so happened to have encountered both at once.

With this sigh of hers, Song Qinghan was taken aback for a moment. Then he thought of his former self. Did he not deserve it?

When he thought about it, he really didn’t suffer anymore. He had taken all his money and used it all on himself. He hadn’t known how good life could be.

Thinking of this, Song Qinghan tilted his head and rubbed it against the head of the person in his arms while smirking.

Su Jiaojiao was softened by him causing her to lean on his chest. She could feel the vibration of his chest as he laughed. This slight stimulation spread along her ears and to her whole body, and her cheeks immediately flushed.

After finally seeing their home in front of her, she swiped the cold sweat on her forehead and hurriedly pushed the person to the kitchen: “We’re home. Go boil water for a bath.”

“Okay.” Song Qinghan looked at her back which seemed to be evasive, and looked at his legs with regret.

Hurry up and get better~!

*****

The next morning, Su Jiaojiao rode a bicycle to town, and brought many bags.

Task 9 rewarded several tickets for ten city-feet of cloth. Looking at all the cloths that were available in the supply and marketing agency, Su Jiaojiao saw many with good patterns, so she simply used up all the tickets. She then went to the pharmacy to buy things for the recipe and got many miscellaneous items. When she was on her way back, she bought three pork soup bones, two pigs’ feet, and a catty of five-flower meat.

This time when she came out, she especially brought two bags, so when she was on her way back, she could take out the two hens rewarded by Quest 10 and bring them back in the bag.

So by the time Su Jiaojiao arrived home, she managed to stun the young man who came to visit their house – he happened to be the Da Niu from the conversation between the two last night.

Da Niu watched as the hen jumped out of the bag and saw it was quite vigorous. He clicked his tongue: “You don’t need to especially go out to buy this. Go directly ask others and wait for the chicks to hatch. You can simply take away a few. How expensive must they be to buy!”

Hens that can lay eggs are valuable in the countryside.

Jiaojiao pursed her lips and smiled: “It’s better to buy them directly, so that we can eat the eggs right away.”

Da Niu smiled: “The hens just came back. They have to be taken care of well for two days, so they can recognize the place.”

Just after saying that, the two off-white hens clucked, then cleverly found a corner by the wall and squatted down.

Soon, the two flocked together and each dropped a large, round egg.

Da Niu: “……”

He stopped talking.

Song Qinghan chuckled, “These hens were a good purchase.”

“It was!” Jiaojiao smiled, quite proud. This was the task reward she got for working extremely hard on the task.

The hen was taken out, but there were other things like the soup bones, meat, pig trotters…… Looking at this, Da Niu was stupefied.

What kind of family was this! Daring to buy these things!

After the big roll of cloth was taken out, Da Niu thought of the cost.

He murmured, “Brother, your previous decision was right.”

At first Song Qinghan was planning to withdraw from the marriage because he was crippled. Plus Su Jiaojiao had another person she liked, so if she came to reject him, Song Qinghan would have been ready to speak directly to Su Zhengyang about the withdrawal.

But he saw that Song Qinghan was more direct in this respect, and when he thought about it, he didn’t want to break the engagement.

After all, Song Qinghan was like this. Who would marry him in the future if the engagement was broken off?

Now that he thought about it…he was very wrong. Who could afford to feed a woman who spent so much money! Not to mention that Song Qinghan’s leg was still injured.

Song Qinghan glanced at him and shook his head, “No, my previous decision was wrong.”

Da Niu: “Huh?”

*****

Da Niu was stimulated by Su Jiaojiao’s lavish spending, and he felt it would be awkward to stay any longer, so he immediately took his leave.

When Da Niu left, Su Jiaojiao immediately shouted, “Come over and help sort this out.” She pointed to the pile of various ingredients she had bought which were for making braising sauces.

Song Qinghan immediately nodded, “Okay.”

The two of them were busy for a while. By the time they finished sorting out everything she had brought back, the sun was almost at its zenith, so they went straight to making lunch.

“I want a metal plate—about this big and flat. Can you get it?” Su Jiaojiao asked tentatively.

She thought that as a male protagonist, Song Qinghan should have a lot of connections. If she could get these items, she could make money, or she could make good food, and he would also enjoy the blessings.

Besides, with the current relationship between the two, there was no need to be so clear.

Sure enough Song Qinghan nodded, “Tomorrow I’ll write a letter, and ask the captain to help deliver it to see if anyone has it.”

“Mm.” Su Jiaojiao’s eyes were filled with anticipation, “When the time comes, I’ll make you something delicious. They’re called rice noodle rolls! Super yummy!”

“Jiaojiao is really awesome.” Song Qing Han genuinely praised her when he heard that.

Suo Jiaojiao pursed her lips and smiled. Her little face could not hide her contentment.

After eating, SuJiaojiao brought out a small spray bottle. “When I went to the pharmacy to buy things, I took the opportunity to ask someone for information. There happened to be a person who was also there to buy something, and he shared his family’s secret recipe with me. It’s super effective. Isn’t that cast of yours about to be removed? After it’s removed, you can spray it, and it’s said that all types of stress fractures and other non-displaced fractures will be healed.”

Song Qing Han was slightly startled. He took the small spray and held her small hand in his, while seriously saying, “Thank you.”

He thought that this girl was probably deceived. How could there be such powerful medicine?

But since she thought about him, Song Qinghan felt satisfied.

The bottle was a translucent glass bottle. There were no markings on it, and nothing could be identified, but the light brown liquid inside appeared very common.

Song Qinghan sprayed it on the table and sniffed it a bit. It smelled really similar to medicinal wine, but it seemed to have a lot of Chinese medicinal herbs added to it. He couldn’t specifically distinguish anything, but as long as it wasn’t harmful, it was fine. He relaxed and looked at the little girl who had been looking at him expectantly. His smile was soft and warm: “I’ll remove the cast in two days. It will definitely recover.”

Su Jiaojiao’s hand was held by his big warm hand. Along with being looked at by him like this, as if she had done something remarkable, she suddenly felt embarrassed. Her face felt warm, “Mmmm, but don’t forget.”

Then she pulled out her hand that was being held quietly and went over to hug the pile of cloth that she had bought, and ran fast on her short legs: “I’m going to find my mother, and ask her to make us some clothes. It’s going to be summer soon, and we need to have two sets of clothes to switch between.”

Song Qinghan, who hadn’t had time to say more than a couple of intimate words, was left behind. Seeing her pretty back, he could only dryly choke out, “Go ahead.”

He watched as this girl ran away without looking back at him at all.

“Little heartless one!” Song Qinhan’s heart felt sore. Looking down at the palm-sized glass bottle in his hand, his heart tightened. Since she wasn’t going to open up first, then he would!

……

When Su Jiaojiao arrived at the residence, they had just finished eating.

Because it was agreed that, when the time came, the rations would be paid by each of their two families separately, each person would be allocated meal portions accordingly. Of course the meals for the three children would also be treated the same way.

Sun Fang was not the calculating type, but she wanted to let them understand that they had not calculated these things before. In fact, the parents had subsidized a lot of it. Now they should experience it for themselves first, so they would not always say that the parents were partial toward their daughter.

This was the first day of the separation. When Zhang Qian took out their family’s share for food, she felt physically pained, so much so that even after lunch was finished, her expression was still unnatural.

Although Li Xiu didn’t think that far ahead, she was also very unhappy about the separation of the family. The several men in the family had gone to bed early, but the two women were busy for a while longer. They were only a few steps later, so when they saw Su Jiaojiao come in, they directly gave a cold snort to her, and didn’t give her any face.

Li Xiu scrunched her face and brought Er Bao into the room without even greeting her.

“Aunt!” The remaining two children shouted with joy.

Zhang Qian immediately held Dabao and Sanbao, “Go to bed or you won’t be allowed to eat tonight!”

Dabao was older and understood, so he immediately stopped his steps in aggrievement. He looked at her, whining, “Mom~”

It was useless to act spoiled. Zhang Qian only felt hate toward her sister-in-law now, so she threatened with a stern face, “I will count to three. If you don’t go to sleep, then don’t sleep again!”

Dabao jumped down with his shoulders slumped, and he could only go back aggrieved.

Zhang Qian followed behind and carried away her youngest son, who was holding out his hand toward Su Jiaojiao, “You go back to sleep too!”

Jiaojiao looked at her series of actions and chuckled.

Sun Fang’s face also darkened, but seeing that her daughter wasn’t angry, she felt more comfortable. She pulled her daughter’s hand and said, “Don’t feel uncomfortable. Just wait until they run into something in the future where they need to beg for my help. Let’s see if she still dares to be like this then!”

She was used to this attitude since before, making her take it for granted. Besides, how old was she to still need her parents to help support her family?

Su Jiaojiao smiled and shook her head, “I didn’t take it seriously.”

She handed the cloth that had been rolled into a lump in her hands to Sun Fang, “Mom, I went to town and bought some cloth back. Do you think these are enough to make a few clothes?”

Sun Fang looked at it in surprise. She had thought her daughter had wrapped something. How could she have known that this mass was all cloth!

“So much!” She unfolded it and was stunned. There were three patterns: blue, floral, and even a small piece of army green too. “You can make a shirt with at most two feet of cloth! How much do you think this can make? It’s all cotton too. That’s a lot of money, isn’t it? Where did the tickets come from?”

“Song Qinghan,” Su Jiaojiao said casually. Calculating it, ten city-feet meant that at least four shirts could be made. “Then mom, help me make two short-sleeved shirts for summer and then one for Song Qinghan. The rest should be used to make one each for both you and dad. Just make the tops first. Next time, I’ll buy some cloth back to make pants.”

“No need, no need. Your dad and I still have clothes to wear. We’ll use them all for you. You haven’t had new pants made for a long time. Mom will make them for you first.”

As soon as she heard those words, Su Jiaojiao knew her mother was reluctant, so she straightened her expression, feigning displeasure: “Mom, if you’re like this I’ll find someone else to make all the clothes, and then I’ll have to pay them for their manual labor. It won’t be worth it.”

“Mom doesn’t want that!” Sun Fang shook her head. Her hand touched the cloth, especially the bit of army green. She was already planning on how to make clothing for her daughter. Green was the trending color in this era.

“Never mind then, I’ll take it away.” Su Jiaojiao held the cloth and turned around to leave.

Sun Fang suddenly became anxious, “Mom was wrong. Put it down. Isn’t it a waste to give it to someone else?”

It was only then that Su Jiaojiao stopped. Her pretty face was stern, “You and Dad both must have one unless there’s not enough cloth. Otherwise, you must have them. Do you hear me?”

Could Sun Fang be upset that her daughter valued her so much? She was smiling so happily that even her eyes had disappeared: “I heard, I heard. But Jiaojiao, don’t use up what little money you have on hand. You should take your time and spend it slowly.”

Su Jiaojiao pursed her lips and smiled, saying softly: “Don’t worry, I’m not spending money indiscriminately.”

……

Zhang Qian was in the house putting her two children to bed. Rural children were obedient and when told to sleep, they would sleep, and would only come out to have a drink of water.

She pounded her back as she walked out, thinking maliciously, How does it feel to know what it’s like to have a maiden family that doesn’t welcome you?

Previously she did not dare to do this, but now that the family had separated, she no longer had to be afraid of her in-laws. Thus, she had deliberately used this attitude just now to let her sister-in-law understand that she caused them to separate. Acting like a good person, she forced them to suffer, so now they cannot like her at all.

The little sister-in-law was so delicate, she couldn’t possibly stand it. She definitely would have complained. At the thought of this, Zhang Qian felt relaxed. Yesterday she had been depressed. With this, she was able to vent a lot of her anger.

When she came out, Zhang Qian subconsciously looked towards the hall, hoping to see her sister-in-law’s face full of grievances, but she was stunned by the sight.

She stomped forward two steps, and her eyes fell on the pile of cloth on the bench. Her eyes were red, and she couldn’t move her feet, exclaiming, “Where did this so much cloth come from!!!”