Chapter 4
The matter was too tricky. After thinking it over the whole night, Li Changshun decided that the best way was to find Xia Shao a husband.
Once she had her own family and children, even if she stayed in Jiangcheng, she wouldn’t keep pestering their Baosheng anymore.
Of course, “family worker” positions were only temporary jobs. To become a permanent employee, one still had to wait for openings from the unit. But since the Xia siblings came from the countryside, they probably didn’t know that. Even if they did, it didn’t matter—offering such a condition was already more than generous. What more could they expect?
“I’ll be honest with you,” Li Changshun said, with new firmness. “Even with a local household registration, finding a job isn’t as easy as you think. The stores and department shops are already full. The factories that are still hiring only want men—otherwise, our Laidi wouldn’t have needed to pull strings to get in. If you’re still not satisfied, there’s nothing I can do.”
Then he looked at Xia Shao and smiled faintly.
“True, if this gets out, it’ll be hard to explain to the Cheng family. But Baosheng already has a wife and two kids—he can’t just abandon them, can he? It’s you who shouldn’t expect too much.”
The remark darkened Xia Wanhui’s expression, but Xia Shao kept her docile smile.
Negotiations were always about testing each other’s bottom line. If getting her a job was beyond the Li family’s ability—or if the cost to them outweighed the risk of the Cheng family finding out—they might just give up entirely, and then she’d get nothing.
So, getting married really was a viable path. Becoming a family worker first and then trying for a permanent job after household registration—perfectly workable.
Only, she couldn’t agree too quickly. She still needed to test whether they’d really hit their limit.
When Xia Shao stayed silent for a long moment, Li Changshun finally stood up.
“Then take the contract and show it to the Cheng family,” he said.
At that, Xia Shao spoke up reluctantly.
“It’s not impossible. But I have one condition.”
That got him to sit down again.
“All right. What condition?”
“The man’s family must be simple—and he must look good.”
A simple family—understandable. Too many sisters-in-law or in-laws could be a nightmare.
But good-looking…?
“Marry a man, dress and eat,” as the saying went. Only naïve girls chose by appearance.
Li Changshun thought Xia Shao had finally learned to be realistic, but apparently not.
Yet Xia Shao wasn’t being naïve. She simply believed that having a good-looking husband was beneficial to one’s mental health.
In her past life as an overworked office drone, she’d spent more than an hour commuting each way to a 9-to-9 job, sometimes even working overtime. She’d been so exhausted she’d long since lost all worldly desires—never even dated anyone.
Now that she’d ended up in the 1960s, she couldn’t not marry. So she might as well find someone handsome.
After all, a man’s looks had nothing to do with how good he was to his wife. If she had to take the same risk either way, she might as well choose someone nice to look at—so that when she got angry, she could at least console herself that the marriage wasn’t completely a loss.
Once the terms were settled, Li Changshun stayed for lunch, then left.
Xia Wanhui, who’d been silent the whole time, finally asked,
“Sis, you’re really letting him find you a match?”
“Didn’t I come to the Northeast to get married?”
“Oh… right.”
He’d almost forgotten their original purpose, since Xia Shao had been so composed—leading the Li family by the nose the whole time. He’d begun to think she’d come mainly to look for work.
“Well, fine. Maybe you’ll find someone better than Li Baosheng anyway.”
After what happened yesterday, Xia Wanhui also thought little of Li Baosheng. He felt the man wasn’t good enough for his sister—maybe even a bit unhinged.
So the siblings happily enjoyed their meal, while the Li family was clearly more anxious than they were. That very evening, Tian Cuifen came over with information about a potential match.
“So fast?” Xia Wanhui eyed her suspiciously. “You’re not just fobbing my sister off with some random guy, are you?”
With their father gone, useless mother, and selfish eldest brother, Xia Wanhui felt a strong sense of duty. Since he was the one accompanying his sister, he had to help her choose properly—and was even more serious about it than Xia Shao herself.
Tian Cuifen found him annoying the moment she saw him.
“Your sister said she wanted someone with a simple family and good looks. I asked around a lot before finding this one. His parents are still back home—only he and his younger brother live in Jiangcheng. Has a good job at the printing factory, makes over forty yuan a month. Looks decent, good figure, well-built. He only agreed to meet after hearing your sister’s good-looking too.”
Back then, with the eight-level wage system, most workers earned in the thirties; apprentices even less.
Over forty yuan meant at least a Level 2 or 3 worker—not bad at all.
But Xia Shao didn’t believe someone that ideal would be introduced to her if it were truly as good as Tian Cuifen claimed—especially when Li Laidi, their own daughter, was nearly marriage age herself. Still, “not good” could mean many things; some flaws were acceptable, others weren’t.
“What about his younger brother?” Xia Shao asked. “Does he work too?”
“Of course. Why else would he be in the Northeast? He’s already married, doesn’t live with his brother, so you won’t have to worry about that.”
“Already married…” Xia Shao quickly caught the key detail.
“Then his brother’s already married and he’s still single with such a high wage? He must be quite old.”
“Not that old,” Tian Cuifen said dismissively. “Just seven years older than you.”
So twenty-nine—by modern standards, not old at all. But still—
Tian Cuifen went on persuading,
“A bit older means he’ll cherish you more. If you find someone your own age, you’ll end up having to coax him all the time—”
She was interrupted gently but firmly.
“His younger brother’s married, and you want me to believe he’s almost thirty and never married?”
That shut Tian Cuifen up.
“You’re setting her up with a divorced man?” Xia Wanhui immediately snapped.
Annoyed by their constant pushback, Tian Cuifen huffed,
“With such good conditions, do you think an unmarried man would still be available for your sister? She’s a rural girl! And it’s not like he divorced—his first wife died. That’s not the same.”
“And he has a child, doesn’t he,” Xia Shao said coolly—right on target again.
If he did, she’d become a stepmother; if he didn’t, she’d have to wonder if he had health issues.
Tian Cuifen didn’t deny it.
“Yes, but the child’s with his mother back home. You don’t have to worry.”
“Not worry?” Xia Shao said softly. “And what if, after I marry him, his mother sends the child here? I can’t just throw them out, can I?”
Tian Cuifen rolled her eyes.
“How could that happen? Everything’s been discussed clearly.”
Sure it has. Xia Shao didn’t believe it for a second.
She’d heard too many similar stories in her past life—neighbors who’d been promised “you won’t have to raise the kids,” only for the in-laws to dump them on the new wife right after her own childbirth. The poor woman had spent her whole life suffering.
It was practically fraud. If the man had said upfront he’d bring his child, she might even have respected that more.
“Forget it,” Xia Shao said firmly. “Even if he doesn’t plan to bring the child now, abandoning his own young child to elderly parents shows a lack of responsibility.”
Refusing outright, she couldn’t be swayed. Tian Cuifen left in a huff.
When she got home, Li Changshun took one look at her face and knew.
“Didn’t work out?”
“She doesn’t want him—because he’s been married and has a kid,” Tian Cuifen grumbled, plopping onto the heated brick bed.
Li Laidi, sweeping the floor nearby, snorted.
“She’s really picky, isn’t she? Thinks she’s some prize.”
This time, no one scolded her. Both Li Changshun and Tian Cuifen agreed—Xia Shao was being ungrateful.
What was wrong with a widower with a child? At least he was an urban worker, better than a country bumpkin farmer!
“So what now?” Tian Cuifen asked. “We can’t just let her stay forever—lodging’s expensive.”
“Can’t you find someone who’s single in name?” Li Changshun suggested.
Her eyes lit up.
“Right! They’re outsiders anyway—won’t find out.”
Still, finding someone “single” enough to fool her would take effort.
Over a day later, Tian Cuifen showed up again.
“This one’s definitely never married. A proper young man—twenty-one, just a year younger than you.”
She emphasized that first, then added,
“Works at the food factory. Just got promoted from apprentice, earns just under forty yuan. You didn’t want older ones, so this is pretty good for his age. His family’s simple too—parents and brothers back in the interior, only a cousin here in town, an ex–Korean War veteran who’s now a factory director at the Machinery Plant.”
In those days, a factory director—even if below the party secretary—was still a big deal.
Actually, this match had originally been introduced for Li Laidi, but Tian Cuifen thought it unsuitable for her. Now, desperate to find someone for Xia Shao, she decided to recycle the lead—and thankfully, he wasn’t married yet.
“Baosheng also works at that Machinery Plant. I’ve met this man once—handsome, no question.”
Marital status, children, and wages couldn’t be faked. The rest—best confirmed in person.
“If you think he’s good,” Xia Shao said at last, “then I’ll meet him.”
In her previous life, her grandmother—who’d raised her after her parents’ divorce—had passed away when she was in college, before she ever had the chance to nag her about marriage. Her parents were too detached to care. So in both lives combined, this would be Xia Shao’s first blind date.
Leaving the house, she couldn’t help but feel a little unreal.
The meeting was arranged at the man’s cousin’s home—a pair of spacious brick-tile houses on a nearby street.
The entrance led through the kitchen, with a bright main room to the left—about twenty square meters, sunny and well-kept. The kitchen connected to a small side room of seven or eight square meters, apparently where the man usually lived. The meeting, however, would be in the main room.
Opening the door was the cousin’s wife, a woman in her forties with a long face and plain looks. She silently sized Xia Shao up from head to toe before calling into the house,
“Old Lu, they’re here.”
The cousin himself was a cheerful man, smiling as he ushered them inside. But Xia Shao froze at the doorway.
By the window sat a young man in work clothes, a carving knife in his hand. Long, strong fingers moved deftly as he worked, lashes lowered, profile sharp and handsome—and oddly familiar.
Wasn’t this the same man from the other day—the one from the “smoking duo,” the one she’d joked could serve the nation as a decorative vase?
He lifted his eyes briefly at the noise, cool and indifferent. Then, recognition flickered there.
Xia Shao’s mind went blank. Wait… what exactly had she said to him that day?
Before she could remember, the man’s dark eyes tilted upward—landing squarely on the top of her head—!
