RIRW – Chapter 109

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Zuo Dan was jostled all the way during the trip, her heart full of conflicting emotions. Especially when she thought about parting from Shen Yiming at the end, she felt incredibly reluctant to leave. She almost wanted to jump off the vehicle and tell Shen Yiming she wasn’t going back after all.

But she couldn’t be that willful. Besides, she didn’t want to become someone who lived only for love. Both she and Shen Yiming had their own responsibilities and things to do.

Their separation was only temporary—it was so they could have a better future together.

When she finally arrived at the town, Zuo Dacheng came to pick her up.

After becoming team leader, Zuo Dacheng had taken care of many things for the team. Occasionally using the team vehicle for personal matters wasn’t something anyone would complain about.

As soon as Zuo Dan got in the car, Zuo Dacheng excitedly asked about the marriage certificate.

When he heard that they had already gotten the certificate and even moved into their new home, Zuo Dacheng felt a bittersweet pang in his heart. His little girl was married now. Sigh… But thinking about the good news at home, his mood brightened again.

“The commune announced the list of new teachers today. Your mom passed the exam! Dandan, your mom is going to be the Chinese teacher at our elementary school!”

“Really? That’s amazing!” Zuo Dan exclaimed with excitement. She had been worried about this and rushed back home to check on it. She had even been thinking, if her mom wasn’t selected, she’d find a way to create an extra position at the school to get her in. She didn’t want her mom working the fields anymore, no matter what.

Zuo Dacheng was moved, saying, “Dandan, your mom cried when she found out she’d be a teacher. She was so happy.” His voice started to choke up too. “Your mom has had it so tough all these years. She used to be like a fairy from the heavens… and I didn’t give her the good life she deserved. I still remember the first time I saw her. I was helping my master fix desks at the school, carrying my toolbox through the campus, when she walked past me carrying her books. I thought I’d seen a fairy.”

Zuo Dan could picture the silly expression on his face back then and teased, “Did you ever imagine that one day the fairy would marry you?”

“If I could choose, I wouldn’t have wanted your mom to marry me at all,” Zuo Dacheng suddenly got a bit worked up. There were things he didn’t dare to say at home, afraid of bringing up painful memories for Li Hui. But now, talking to his understanding daughter, he couldn’t hold back. “She shouldn’t have married someone like me. If she had been able to go abroad back then… how different things would have been. That man broke her heart…”

Zuo Dan shivered slightly at those words.

She was just about to ask more when Zuo Dacheng suddenly realized he’d said too much. He wiped his tears and fell silent.

Zuo Dan asked curiously, “Dad, what did you just say? Who broke Mom’s heart?”

Zuo Dacheng quickly said, “Nothing, I didn’t say anything, Dandan. Grown-up stuff—you shouldn’t ask. Your mom wouldn’t be happy if she heard.”

Seeing his reaction, Zuo Dan grew even more suspicious.

She had always wondered how her mom, someone educated, beautiful, and from a well-off family, could’ve ended up with a rural apprentice. Even though Dad probably wasn’t bad-looking when he was young, their backgrounds were worlds apart.

People said it was due to political status at the time, but it hadn’t seemed that strict back then.

She had assumed it was a classic “rich girl falls for poor boy” story. But now it seemed there was more to it.

Still, she knew she couldn’t pry any further.

That part of their history must be a painful memory for Li Hui. She didn’t want to cause the poor woman any more grief just because of her own curiosity.

So Zuo Dan dropped the subject and instead asked about how the other educated youths from their village had done on the exam.

Zuo Dacheng sighed, “In our village, only Su Dai and another female educated youth who came later passed. The others didn’t. I heard Comrade Su Dai was always a bookworm—clearly well-prepared, so it’s only right she passed. That other girl supposedly had good grades too. The rest were from other production teams. From our own village, your mom was the only local to pass. Dandan, we really need to start prioritizing education.”

“Dad, things are looking good for us now. It’ll only get better from here.”

When they got home, Li Hui had already finished cooking and was waiting for the father and daughter to return and eat.

Perhaps it was the joy of good news, but Zuo Dan noticed a light in Li Hui’s expression that hadn’t been there before.

Zuo Dan quickly praised her, “Mom, you’re amazing! From now on, my mom is going to be Teacher Li!”

“You little rascal, teasing your mom like that,” Li Hui said with a beaming smile.

“I’m not teasing—I really admire you, Mom,” Zuo Dan said, patting her chest.

Li Hui blushed and smiled. “You’re already married, yet still so childish.”

Hearing the word married, Zuo Dan felt her cheeks heat up and instantly thought of Shen Yiming… No! Don’t think about it—just eat!

Just after they finished eating and Zuo Dan was getting ready to help clean up, the phone at home rang.

It was rare for it to ring at night.

Zuo Dan’s heart skipped—she rushed to answer. Sure enough, a familiar voice came through.

“Shen Yiming, I’m back. Just finished dinner,” Zuo Dan said with a smile, her lips curled. “Did you eat yet?”

“I did. After dinner, I figured you must’ve gotten home, so I came out to call you. Are you tired? Does anything feel uncomfortable?” Shen Yiming asked gently.

Hearing him ask if she was feeling unwell, Zuo Dan quickly replied, “I feel great!”

Shen Yiming chuckled on the other end of the line.

“Go home and rest early,” Zuo Dan said. “Don’t wander around in the middle of the night.”

“I miss you,” Shen Yiming sighed.

“Mm… me too,” Zuo Dan quickly glanced around, worried someone might overhear.

After expressing their feelings, the two finally hung up the phone, satisfied.

Standing by the phone, Zuo Dan thought for a moment—she should start handing over her work.

In the coming months, she would definitely be running back and forth and wouldn’t have the time to focus on work. Plus, she planned to seriously review her textbooks and prepare for her exams.

The next morning during breakfast, Zuo Dan brought up the idea of handing over her responsibilities to Zuo Dacheng.

Zuo Dacheng said, “There isn’t really anyone suitable in our village right now.”

That’s when Zuo Dan thought of Li Suli. Since she knew her third uncle liked her, she gave it some serious thought and felt that Li Suli was actually a decent choice—educated and not the type to cause trouble.

“Dad, how about we pick someone from the educated youth?”

Zuo Dacheng thought for a moment and said, “Let’s first see if there’s someone suitable in the village. If not, then we’ll pick from the educated youth.”

Since they needed to choose a new accountant, Zuo Dacheng brought it up during a production team meeting and announced it to everyone. People could first nominate candidates, then a vote would be held.

Hearing that, quite a few families were tempted. Of course, being tempted was one thing—but if you didn’t have the education for it, there was no point.

Because of this, people became even more focused on their children’s education. Being uneducated was a scary thing—there could be a good job right in front of you, and you still couldn’t do it. That kind of frustration was unbearable.

Now that there was a primary school in the village, they were determined to make sure their children went to school.

“Hongjun, this second brother of yours is too much. A good position comes up and he doesn’t even think of you. You’ve been a team leader yourself—how could you not handle being an accountant? I’m going to talk to him,” Xu Fengxia grumbled over lunch at home.

Zuo Hongjun’s face darkened when he heard that. “Don’t go. I, Zuo Hongjun, don’t beg people. I won’t go begging him… if anything, he should be the one asking me!”

Hearing that, Xu Fengxia didn’t say anything more, but her mind was already turning. She secretly went to talk to Zuo Dacheng about it. She was determined to get her husband the accountant position—then he could become the team leader again… She didn’t believe for a second that whatever Zuo Dacheng could do, her husband couldn’t do too. So what if he had a good son-in-law? She had one too!

Thinking of her own son-in-law made Xu Fengxia feel bitter again.

Since a primary school was going to be built, she went to talk to Zuo Huan, hoping she’d persuade Yang Wenxin to come teach at the school so the whole family could be together. But Zuo Huan wouldn’t even talk to her and told her to go home, saying she was worried Yang Wenxin would get upset.

She even blamed the family for being unhelpful—unable to help get Yang Wenxin back to the city. Now Yang Wenxin was in a terrible mood and kept threatening divorce.

Thinking about it, it was all the second brother’s family’s fault. If it weren’t for their son-in-law, her daughter wouldn’t have ended up marrying an educated youth. Maybe Zuo Huan could’ve married someone from town and be living a good life now—able to help the family too.

Their family had ended up like this because of the second brother’s family. No way were they going to just let that go.

Meanwhile, the new accountant still hadn’t been chosen. But then Zuo Dacheng received a notice from the commune to attend a meeting and brought Zuo Dan along.

When they arrived at the commune, they realized only their village’s production team had been called in.

When they met with Secretary Zhang, his face was full of worry.

“Your production team has to take back the two educated youth who were transferred out before.”

Zuo Dacheng was momentarily stunned. “Who was transferred out?”

Zuo Dan reminded him, “Dad, back when Uncle Shuisheng was the team leader, weren’t there two female educated youth who got transferred out?”

Zuo Dacheng’s expression changed. They had just managed to get rid of Li Chenliang, and now another troublemaker was being sent back. Why couldn’t they enjoy a few peaceful days in Zuo Family Village?

So he said, “Secretary Zhang, our village’s well… the oil survey still isn’t done. The school is just about to start classes, there’s a mountain of things to do. If these two come back, it’ll be even harder to get anything done.”

Standing nearby, Zuo Dan secretly found it funny. Her dad had learned to talk like an official—definitely a case of “your seat decides your mindset.”

Secretary Zhang sighed and waved it off. “Comrade Dacheng, it’s not that I want to make things difficult for your team. I don’t want to deal with this either. But someone higher up already called. Since you’re family with Comrade Shen Yiming, I’ll be upfront. If I’d known Zhang Baoshu would cause this much trouble, I would’ve handed him over to the Revolutionary Committee in the first place. Now he’s got something on me. If I don’t transfer them back, not only will I lose my position, they’ll make trouble for me too.”

“You mean the Provincial Revolutionary Committee is getting involved in local matters?” Zuo Dan hadn’t expected that Zhang Baoshu would not only be used by Shen Yiming, but also be picked up by Li Jianghe’s people.

“Exactly. The call came days ago. I thought about it for two days and figured, whatever—just transfer them back. It’s not the end of the world,” Secretary Zhang said with a heavy sigh. His only wish now was to make it to retirement in peace.

Seeing him like that, Zuo Dacheng and Zuo Dan didn’t push back.

If the Provincial Revolutionary Committee really decided to take down Secretary Zhang, it would throw the entire commune into chaos.

Zuo Family Village was doing well now—they couldn’t afford problems. And since Secretary Zhang had made up his mind, it wasn’t something they could just refuse.

Zuo Dan also thought about the idea of fanning the flames around Li Hongbing. Having those two come back might actually be useful—after all, Li Hongbing was about to get kicked out soon anyway.