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Chapter 410: Chapter 400: Whatever the problem is, just tell me, your father and I have arrived.
A week ago.
An old man, with a sack on his shoulder, was looking around with a piece of paper in his hand, as if searching for something. Behind him followed an old woman, also carrying a large bag, trailing the old man.
"Hey, where are you folks from, and what brings you here? Who are you looking for?" A man wearing a red armband had been watching them for a while.
"Oh, comrade, comrade, good day to you. We’ve come from Gaijiatun in R County, searching for our daughter," the old man replied, seeing the red armband on the man’s arm as if seeing a family member, hurriedly putting down the sack and handing over the letter, "Comrade, could you take a look? My daughter wrote down her address in this letter. I’ve been wandering around for quite a while and can’t seem to find the exact place. Could you please help us out?"
The man with the red armband looked at the old man, who was sweating profusely even in the biting cold of winter—a situation clearly not easy—and reluctantly took the letter.
He would see rural folks like these coming to the Capital every month, and really didn’t care to bother with them. If it weren’t for the old man’s polite manner and his advanced age, he might have simply chased them away.
He glanced at the address—it was indeed the right place—but it said No. 32, and the old couple had been wandering around the numbers one to thirty. No. 32 was further down the road. They could wander until dark and still not find the place.
"You could wander here for a lifetime and still not find it. No. 32 is in that block back there, do you see it? Take that alley over there and walk to the third intersection, then turn left, and No. 32 will be in that row."
"Hey, comrade, comrade, slow down, let me write it down," the old man hastily took out a pencil stub from his pocket and began writing on the letter the man handed back to him.
Once he had everything noted down, he bowed and thanked the man with the red armband profusely. Then he shouldered the sack again and, calling to his wife behind him, started down the alley as directed by the armband-wearing man.
Searching and pausing, the two finally found No. 32 after half an hour. But it was a quadrangle courtyard, and although the gate was open, the elderly couple didn’t dare to just walk in.
The old man asked his wife to call out and see if they had found the right place, but with it being her first time in the city, the old woman was too timid to step forward. Without a choice, the old man put the sack down again, instructed his wife to keep an eye on it, and brushed off his clothes before entering the courtyard.
"Shen Yunxiu, Shen Yunxiu? Does Shen Yunxiu live here?" Mr. Shen stood in the courtyard, frowning as he looked at several stoves scattered around, thinking to himself how the city folks lacked manners, cooking outdoors instead of inside the house. Such messiness was even worse than their rural home.
Yes, this old couple was none other than Mr. and Mrs. Shen from Gaijiatun. Just over a week ago, they had suddenly received a letter from their daughter, urging them to come quickly without explaining why, which scared them terribly. Mr. Shen disregarded even the village’s New Year pig slaughter and took his wife to the city by train to find their daughter.
Inside the house, Shen Yunxiu heard someone calling her and quickly came out to look. Indeed, it was her father, "Dad, you and Mom finally made it." As she spoke, tears began to flow down her cheeks.
Mr. Shen looked on, his heart aching. This was his little girl who he had doted on since she was small. She used to have a firecracker personality, always ready to explode at a moment’s notice, resolutely putting others in their place. But now, look at her. After just two or three years in the city, she had suffered so much she had become a delicate little cabbage.
"Hey, don’t cry, don’t cry, my girl, Dad’s here," Mr. Shen said, feeling somewhat out of his depth. Ever since she had grown up, she had never been this close to her father anymore.
"Is that Yunxiu? Yunxiu, my Yunxiu, your mother is here." At the door, Shen Dagniang, who was watching for things, also heard the voice of Shen Yunxiu. She was even more dramatic than Yunxiu, her face already streaming with tears even though she hadn’t seen her yet.
Oh, they say a traveling child is a mother’s worry, and the letters Yunxiu sent back never had a single word about her living well, which made them worry endlessly. Now that the child finally let them come to see her, how could her mother not be anxious?
"Mother, you’ve finally come. If you hadn’t, I’m afraid you might never have seen me again." Shen Yunxiu burst out from the yard and into the arms of Shen Dagniang, sobbing uncontrollably.
"Father, we should talk inside," Fang Chengjian, who followed Shen Yunxiu out, said when he saw Yunxiu crying at the sight of her family. He found it quite awkward, but seeing neighbors stirring at the noise and peering out of windows, he feared that if they didn’t go inside soon, everyone would come out to gawk. So, he quickly led everyone inside.
Once the door was closed, they could cry however they pleased.
Shen Dagang’s gaze towards Fang Chengjian turned fierce. He had been against this son-in-law from the start; seducing his daughter into such shameful acts was proof enough of his questionable character. And now it seemed his gut feeling had been right. If the son-in-law were any good, would his daughter always write about her hardships? Would she start crying the moment she saw her parents?
"Yunxiu, you take mother inside to talk, don’t stay out here. The neighbors are watching," Fang Chengjian, sensing his father-in-law’s hostile look, hurriedly called out to his wife, no longer daring to meet the old man’s eyes.
Shen Yunxiu quickly wiped away her tears and tugged Shen Dagniang toward the house, "Mother, let’s go inside to talk, come on, let’s go inside."
"Wait a moment, your father brought you some things. Let him carry them inside first."
Of course, Shen Yunxiu had already noticed the big hemp sack and bag next to her old mother, smiling and clinging to her mother’s arm, playfully acting spoiled and saying how much mother dotes on her.
After entering the house, Shen Dagang surreptitiously surveyed his daughter’s home, his frown deepening.
Seeing several stoves in the yard upon entering had given him a bad feeling. It seemed more than just his daughter’s family lived in this courtyard. Now that he was in this cramped room, it wasn’t even as large as his daughter’s room before she had married.
In such a small space, living with a family of three was indeed cramped, no wonder they had moved the stoves outside.
There wasn’t even a couch in the house, so Shen Yunxiu had her mother sit on the only bed in the room.
"My girl, you’re doing well, right? And the child, is he doing well, too?" Shen Dagniang’s first worry was for her daughter, and her second for her eldest grandson. She had raised him from infancy.
"Oh, he’s always up to mischief, hardly ever seen, but we don’t have to worry about him. He’ll come back when it’s time to eat," said Yunxiu, unconcerned. "Mother, father, I’m so glad you’ve come. If you hadn’t come to see me, I don’t think I could have gone on." She started to cry again as she spoke.
"Oh, stop crying, stop that. You just tell us what’s the matter, your father and I are here to decide for you. Why are you crying?" Shen Dagniang was affected by her daughter’s tears, and felt a prickling in her own eyes, barely holding back her own tears.
