MAC’60s Chapter 58.1

Tian Dazhu had finally managed to land someone, and now that he was about to have a wife and a child, he was practically itching to tell the entire commune. At the very least, he wanted those men who used to mock him for being childless and abandoned by his wife to see that he did have a son on the way and no shortage of women.

He was holding in a surge of pride, just waiting to make a grand show of it. If it weren’t for Widow Yu repeatedly urging him to keep it low-key, he would’ve already spread the news far and wide.

Fortunately, Widow Yu hadn’t kept him in suspense for long. Now, she had given him a clear answer.

She said they should spread the news before the double harvest began and get the wedding done early.

Although weddings were usually held during the less busy autumn season, Widow Yu had explained that by then her belly would already be showing—and it wouldn’t look good to get married with a big pregnant belly.

Tian Dazhu was now counting on having a son to carry on the family line, so he was completely compliant.

Even when Widow Yu asked him to win over his two daughters, he did as told. He was never someone with strong opinions of his own; whatever Widow Yu said, he obeyed. For the sake of the son in Widow Yu’s belly, he’d even be willing to carry land or step on a landmine if asked.

Seeing his face full of joy, Wang Ying couldn’t help herself. Though she tried to hold it back, in the end, she still asked, “Did your mother agree to this match?”

That didn’t seem right. Tian Dazhu’s mother should have caused a scene long ago.

How could this be nearly finalized without the old lady voicing any objections?

Tian Dazhu’s face darkened. He did have some resentment about his mother’s favoritism, but since she had agreed to let him marry Widow Yu and hadn’t tried to stop it—in fact, she even said she’d help organize the wedding—he felt that, after all, she was still his mother.

She still cared about him.

So, when Wang Ying asked that question, Tian Dazhu felt a bit uncomfortable. He thought, Isn’t she a doctor? Shouldn’t she be wishing me well?

Then he recalled that Wang Ying was close to Qian Juhua…

Could it be that Qian Juhua was still hoping to patch things up with him?

Yes, that must be it. A woman, with three daughters and no man to rely on—she must be finding life difficult.

Tian Dazhu felt a mix of emotions. Of course he resented Qian Juhua for divorcing him and making him lose face, but it was also because she couldn’t have children anymore.

Even if she hadn’t brought up divorce, they would have ended things sooner or later.

Now that he had a new wife and a son on the way, it only made Qian Juhua seem overly stubborn and too tough—holding onto the divorce and now maybe regretting it…

Sigh, after all, they’d lived together for over ten years. Tian Dazhu still had some feelings for Qian Juhua. With this vague sense of guilt, he was much more tolerant of Wang Ying’s blunt question.

“No,” he replied. “My mother said Widow Yu is a good woman and told me to treat her well. Once the son is born, I should strive to be even better.”

Wang Ying: ???

Tian Dazhu left, leaving Wang Ying full of question marks.

Wang Ying just couldn’t wrap her head around it—what was Tian Dazhu’s mother thinking?

Old Lady Xu was sitting in her room doing embroidery. She really was something else—despite all the hardships she had endured when she was younger and all the minor ailments she had now, her eyes were still sharp. At her age, she had no trouble seeing clearly—no blurred vision or double images—so her embroidery was precise and steady.

Cheng Shufen’s embroidery techniques were complex, but Old Lady Xu had followed along from the basics, learning bit by bit. At first, her work was pretty mediocre, and she’d constantly pull Wang Ying over to check whether the goldfish eyes she stitched looked lively or not.

Wang Ying didn’t have the heart to discourage her at first and kept praising her non-stop.

Motivated by the praise, the old lady started practicing every day. Now, while the fish eyes she embroidered still looked a little stiff, they were already much improved from before.

However, this type of goldfish embroidery was not suitable for wearing outside anymore—it was too intricate. People might think it represented the “Four Olds” or accuse her of being indulgent. The only acceptable patterns for public wear were simple floral or wavy designs. If things got slightly fancier, it would just be a small floral trim on a shirt collar.

So Old Lady Xu set her sights on the household rags, pouring her energy into embroidering them. She’d embroider on the rags, and once they got dirty, no one would be able to see anything anyway.

When Wang Ying went to find Old Lady Xu, she found her in the middle of embroidering a rag, halfway through stitching a red goldfish.

As soon as Wang Ying sat down, she started telling Old Lady Xu about Tian Dazhu coming to her to trade for pork, all while scratching her head in confusion.

“What do you think is going on here? I just don’t get it. Would Tian Dazhu’s mother really be that kind-hearted?”

Old Lady Xu had been part of the commune for a long time. She was of the same generation as both Widow Yu’s mother-in-law and Tian Dazhu’s mother. Back in the day, when they were all young wives, they used to interact a lot.

Now that she heard what Wang Ying said, she let out a cold snort.

“Widow Yu’s been carrying on with men in all kinds of ways, and you think the baby in her belly must be Tian Dazhu’s?”

Old Lady Xu had seen how Widow Yu’s mother-in-law once sold her own daughter for money—so selling off a daughter-in-law for a better life wasn’t anything surprising. The rumors around the commune weren’t groundless either—there really had been men coming and going from her house.

Wang Ying took a deep breath. “But wouldn’t that make them less willing?”

If the child wasn’t Tian Dazhu’s, why would his mother be so eager to arrange the match? What, was she hoping for a greener hat*?

(*T/N: “Wearing a green hat” is a Chinese idiom meaning someone’s being cheated on.)

Old Lady Xu bit off the thread she was working with. “What if the baby in Widow Yu’s belly is also surnamed Tian?”

Wang Ying: !!!!

“You mean… it’s Tian Erzhu’s?”

Old Lady Xu didn’t know the exact details, but she did understand human nature. Based on how Tian Dazhu’s mother constantly scraped things together for her younger son, if something didn’t benefit the second son, would she really agree to it?

“Hard to say, but if the decision came from Tian Dazhu’s mother, then that’s a real possibility.”

Otherwise, why would she agree to let Widow Yu into the family?

Think about it—there were plenty of bachelors in the commune, and none of them had managed to marry Widow Yu. Some of them didn’t have the means, so she wasn’t interested. Others had decent households, but their families wouldn’t accept Widow Yu.

For Tian Dazhu’s mother to seal the deal, there must have been some circumstance that left her no choice.

Wang Ying was deeply shocked, stumbling over her words. “I guess I’ve led a sheltered life… This kind of thing really happens!”

Even though entertainment had become more diverse in later years, witnessing something this melodramatic firsthand was still shocking.

Old Lady Xu remained unimpressed. “Don’t give Tian Dazhu’s mother too much credit. She’s an idiot. Always has been. She thinks she’s clever—jumps high and thinks it’s why she gets what she wants. But really, she’s dumb as a rock. Just you wait—once she starts clashing with Widow Yu’s mother-in-law, we’ll see who’s out-scheming whom.”

Wang Ying nodded vigorously. That Widow Yu’s mother-in-law had no bottom line when she was younger—just hearing about her made it clear she was extremely calculating.

As for Tian Dazhu’s mother, Wang Ying really did think she was foolish. She had two sons—one hardworking, one lazy—and she managed to drive the capable one to break away from the family while obsessively clinging to the useless one.

That’s life for you. The child parents place all their hopes on is often the one who disappoints the most. The one they ignore turns out to be the most filial.

Judging by that calculating look on Tian Erzhu’s wife’s face, would she really take care of her mother-in-law in old age?

Unlikely.

Draining the capable elder son to prop up the younger one—chances were she wouldn’t get to enjoy any blessings from the younger son’s descendants.

At that very moment, things weren’t peaceful in Tian Erzhu’s household either.

Tian Erzhu’s wife yanked clothes from the trunk and threw them onto the kang (heated brick bed). Midway through, she sat down hard on the edge, seething, and started cursing out loud toward the outside.

“Can’t keep his pants zipped, that bastard! Messing around with that tramp—what a bunch of filthy scum! A cuckolded turtle with a green shell!”

She was shouting so fiercely that Tian Erzhu shrank back against the wall, not daring to move.

Tian Dazhu’s mother shut the main door and let her daughter-in-law rant and rave. She didn’t respond, nor did she shout back.

She just let her go on screeching, from inside to out.

Tian Erzhu’s wife was furious and had nowhere to vent her anger. She wanted to smash things, but then she’d feel bad about the money. So she just paced around the room in a rage.

Tian Dazhu’s mother walked over to where her younger son was cowering, twisted his ear hard, and made him yelp.

Although she had “handled the problem,” she still wasn’t happy with him. She’d twisted his ear more than a few times recently.

“Look at what you’ve done! You just had to lose control of yourself, huh? Gave them all the leverage to throw the house into chaos?”

She lowered her voice to scold him, “You see the mess you made? If your wife’s family had any real status, she’d have run back to them by now. You better smarten up. Don’t pull this kind of crap again…”

Tian Erzhu grumbled dismissively, “Let her leave then. If she does, I’ll just marry Widow Yu. Our life will go on either way. She’s only ever given me one son all these years—hasn’t laid another damn egg since. Ow!”

Tian Dazhu’s mother was furious. She yanked his ear again and started nagging him. “What the hell is wrong with you?! If that Widow Yu marries in, what’ll happen to our family’s reputation? You really want a tramp with a colored past in your house? Cut the crap. As long as I’m alive, you can forget about bringing her in. Your wife may be useless, but her family’s got no pull. You see? No matter how much she kicks up a fuss, she can’t leave. She’ll still have to stay and raise your son. But if you drive her out and bring in Widow Yu, and then the two sons start fighting—just wait until no one takes care of you in your old age!”

Hearing his mother say that, Tian Erzhu stopped grumbling about changing wives and actually started to worry.

“But just look at her lately!”

His wife had stopped cooking, stopped doing laundry, let housework pile up—it was a mess.

Tian Dazhu’s mother muttered a curse about her daughter-in-law, then tried to console him. “Then go coax her a bit. You went and made a whole extra son, and even if he’s not taking anything from our Da Bao (the eldest grandson), your wife still feels cheated—after all, that child’s going to take something from your older brother.”

If it weren’t for the child in Widow Yu’s belly, everything in the house would’ve belonged to Dabao. The family’s estate and house from Tian Dazhu would eventually fall into Tian Erbao’s hands. But now, such a big piece of meat just fell off the plate — of course Tian Erbao’s wife was furious.

Tian Dazhu’s mother said, “Who told you to be so careless! Sneaking around with a widow and getting caught by her mother-in-law!”

Tian Erbao hung his head in misery. He didn’t know how he’d been so unlucky — he had just gotten together with the young widow, and her mother-in-law had kicked the door open. He was so scared he almost couldn’t stand up.

“You go coax your wife. Things are already like this. If we don’t settle Widow Yu, her mother-in-law will take your clothes and go report you. You know what happened before — the commune said a man who messed with a widow got reported by her and ended up at a labor farm in the northwest. If it weren’t for that, I wouldn’t have made your brother marry Widow Yu…”

Even though Tian Dazhu’s mother was biased, she knew that she had done her eldest son a bit dirty this time.

But what else could she do? Widow Yu’s mother-in-law had leverage. Within two months, she came over saying her daughter-in-law was pregnant and demanded an answer. If she didn’t get one, she’d go report it — to the commune, to the county, wherever necessary. With witnesses, evidence, and the pregnancy, even if it didn’t destroy them, it’d peel off a layer of skin.

Tian Dazhu’s mother gritted her teeth. At this point, all she could do was sacrifice the older son to protect the younger.

Well, it worked out. Her eldest had always wanted a son — now he’d get one! It was Tian Erbao’s child, yes, but also his nephew. What was the difference? Still the same Tian family blood!

Tian Dazhu’s mother pulled on Tian Erbao’s ear and reminded him again and again: “Coax your wife. If your big brother passes early, we’ll bring things back together again anyway. You’ve got two sons — does it really matter who belongs to whom? Tell your wife that as long as she behaves, everything in my room will be hers in the end.”

Tian Erbao grumbled a soft “mm.” He felt wronged — after all, the young widow was so beautiful, much prettier than his wife.

Sigh, it is what it is. He couldn’t give the widow a title, but if she followed his brother, that was fine. At least his child wouldn’t have to call someone else “Dad.” If it was just his brother, he could live with that.