Chapter 35: The '60s Farm System (1)

"... They all say a stepmother is hard to be. I didn't believe it before, naively thinking that as long as I was good enough to her, one day she would truly call me 'Mom' from the heart. But you've seen it yourself, Sister-in-law, if they aren't born of your own flesh, they just can't be warmed up or raised to be close..."

"So that's how it is? Is what they're saying outside true? That Xie Yang is forcing you to give up your job, otherwise she'll go to the Women's Federation and report you for mistreating her all these years?"

"Sister-in-law, believe me, I really haven't mistreated her! The family situation is just like this... It's not easy for Lao Xie and me to support such a big family on the wages we earn. If I give my job to her, she won't have to go to the countryside, but our income will drop by 20 immediately. You tell me, what is this family supposed to do..."

Yu Huizhu covered her face with both hands and began to sob.

Wu Weihong sighed and patted her shoulder: "I understand your difficulties. Don't worry, if the Women's Federation Cadres come to ask me questions later, I will definitely stand on your side. This child Xie Yang is really... going to the countryside is policy, every household has to carry it out. It's not like you're the one harming her. She's the eldest in the family, if she doesn't go, who will? Does she really want to take your job position and let her younger brothers and sisters go instead? So unreasonable!"

"Thank you, Sister-in-law. Besides you, I really don't know who else to pour my heart out to." Yu Huizhu wiped away her tears, picked up the bamboo basket she had placed by her feet, and took a package of Brown Sugar from under the blue cloth. "Please accept this Brown Sugar. Listen to me, I'm not asking you to speak well of me; telling the truth is the greatest help you can give me. Yang Yang... she is at odds with me now. Those nasty things she says to outsiders, those who don't know the truth might actually think they're real..."

Wu Weihong glanced at the Brown Sugar. Her daughter-in-law was about to give birth, and this Brown Sugar truly hit the mark. She immediately said: "Alright, alright, don't worry, I will definitely help you explain it clearly. How could Yang Yang say such things about you? Where did she learn to splash such dirty water..."

Seeing that her goal for the trip was achieved, Yu Huizhu, wearing a pair of eyes reddened from crying and carrying the empty basket, returned to the second floor.

This was the family quarters of the Pingcheng Cotton Textile Factory No. 1, consisting of two four-story Tube Buildings, one in front and one behind, with a Courtyard in the middle. In the very center was a deep water well, and next to it were rows of Cement slabs built for the staff and their families to wash clothes and vegetables. A row of persimmon trees was planted around the Courtyard, with clotheslines strung between the trunks. When the weather was nice, residents on the first and second floors would come here to dry clothes and quilts, while residents on the third and fourth floors preferred to run to the rooftop to dry things.

Xie Yang lived in 205 of the North Building. It was called a one-bedroom apartment, but in reality, it was just two single dorm rooms knocked together, with the same layout inside and out.

This was because there were two official employees of the Cotton Textile Factory in the family, and the organization provided two dorm rooms as a courtesy to dual-employee households. If there were only one, no matter how many children there were, they would only be allotted one room.

Housing was not abundant in these times, and a single room was often partitioned into two or even three. The Xie Family was the same. As the number of children in the family increased, the inner room was divided into two by wardrobes and door curtains—

The southern half with a window occupied two-thirds of the entire room; this was the bedroom of the father, Xie Zhaohua, and the stepmother, Yu Huizhu. The remaining third, the windowless and perpetually dim northern half, was the bedroom for Xie Yang and her half-sisters, Xie Qi and Xie Lin. Two bunk beds were placed side by side; Xie Qi and Xie Lin slept on one, and Xie Yang slept on the lower bunk of the other, with the upper bunk used for miscellaneous items. Aside from that, there was no other furniture. Even so, it was so cramped that it was difficult to even turn around.

The outer room was also divided in two. The ventilated and sunny southern half was the bedroom for Xie Yang's half-brother, Xie Lang, and the small room by the entrance was where the family ate.

Cooking was done in the hallway at the entrance. On one side of the front door, a simple stove was set up, with Coal Balls and firewood stacked underneath. On the other side was a water vat half a person's height, covered with a wooden board, with miscellaneous items piled on half of the board.

There were four children in the Xie Family, with Xie Yang being the eldest; she had just turned seventeen last month.

Xie Qi was fifteen this year, only two years younger than Xie Yang; she was conceived right when Yu Huizhu married into the family. Xie Lang and Xie Lin were fraternal twins, twelve years old this year.

Ever since she gave birth to the twins, Yu Huizhu felt her status in the Xie Family was secure, and she was no longer as good to her stepdaughter, Xie Yang, as she had been when she first married.

But she was good at pretending. No matter how much she loathed this child born to the first wife, wishing she could drive her out of the house to make space for her own three children, she would never show even a fraction of it in front of outsiders. On the contrary, she would only be good to her stepdaughter in every way in front of the father and others, a perfect image of a good stepmother.

But behind their backs, she would withhold Xie Yang's rations and secretly distribute them to her own three children. She would hide rare food items issued by the factory or sent by others to the father, taking them out to eat with herself and her three children when Xie Yang was not home.

Or when making new clothes for the children during the holidays, she would whisper in the father's ear and keep the fabric that should have been used for Xie Yang's new clothes to make clothes for her own children instead.

She called it: Xie Yang's appearance was more striking, like her biological mother's, and if she dressed too beautifully, it would easily attract the covetous eyes of street loafers, and it wouldn't be good if something happened.

But it was limited to this. Other things like beating, scolding, starving, locking her up, or driving her out of the house—she was afraid of affecting the good stepmother image she had built for so long, so even if she thought about it, she dared not do it.

Until the policy came down—

Educated youth in cities who had not secured a job position, were sixteen or older, and were unmarried, must go up to the mountains and down to the countryside to support rural construction.

Yu Huizhu felt her opportunity had come: she could finally sweep the eyesore of a stepdaughter out of the house!

She didn't expect that the girl, who seemed quiet and honest, would be crazier than anyone when she went on the offensive, actually forcing her to give up her job position!

Saying that the job was originally her biological mother's, and it only fell to her stepmother after her mother passed away from illness. Now that she was sixteen, she met the age requirement for a replacement, and she hoped the stepmother would voluntarily give it up, otherwise she would go to the Women's Federation and report her... blah blah...

Before she even went to report her to the Women's Federation, she was already shouting that her stepmother was abusing and mistreating her, making the neighbors look at her with strange eyes. She even heard a few gossiping women discussing her behind her back:

"I just said there's no such thing as a good stepmother in this world. The fox tail she's been hiding for so many years has finally been exposed, right?"

"If this is true, then Lao Xie's wife is really good at acting!"

"Oh my! You really can't judge a book by its cover! I even thought she spoke so gently and was so good to the child from Lao Xie's previous marriage, and I even praised her in front of the leaders! I didn't expect her to be so wicked! Ptooey!"

Yu Huizhu was so angry she almost bit through her Silver teeth. That was why she took a package of Brown Sugar and hurried to Wu Weihong's house at 306 to cry about her grievances. Wu Weihong's husband was a Union Cadre at the factory, and she hoped to use her mouth to keep the Women's Federation Cadres from being biased.

Thinking of the commotion her stepdaughter had caused, which not only cost her a package of Brown Sugar but also caused the image of a virtuous wife and mother she had built for so many years to plummet, she couldn't wait to rush home and beat that little wench.