Chapter One Leaving Home (For a While)

  Zheng Yue'er had a big temper, but her heart wasn't very hard. Seeing her husband's face always gloomy and unhappy, she picked up the needlework basket, walked over to him, and softly comforted him: "Don't worry for now, worrying won't do any good! With our family's old man's skills, can't we just catch that third child?! Not to mention it's a nearby place like Liu City, even if San'er ran all the way to Qingdao, I could still pick him up from the steamboat. I had Wu Niang heat some wine for you, drink a few cups while it's hot and have a good sleep. When San'er comes back home tomorrow, you'll be in high spirits to deal with him!"

  "Alas, San'er has grown up! How can I still treat him like a child? What if he really wants to fly on his own, can I still find a rope to tie him to the door frame?" Zhang Youcai sighed and responded in a low tone.

  "That's not necessarily true!" Zheng Yue'er threaded the big needle with thread, sewing the sole of a shoe while steering the conversation in an exciting direction. "You can't tie him down, but that doesn't mean others can't. Marry him off, have him have a child, and he'll settle down for sure. The other day, the housekeeper from the White family on Han Zheng Street came over to chat, asking me about our third son's birthday. I reckon it's because their master thinks our third son is promising and is planning to marry his daughter off to him!"

  "Those two girls from the Lao Bai family! No, no, absolutely not!" Zhang Lao Cai's eyebrows immediately furrowed together as soon as he heard this, and his head shook like a rattle drum.

  The Bai family is a direct descendant of the Yellow Flag, and during the Xinhai Revolution, they changed their surname to Han to avoid disaster. Although the surname has changed, the traditional family values have not. They are all like their ancestor Empress Dowager Cixi, with women riding on men's heads. If their own third child hadn't attended high school, Zhang Youcai would still consider this marriage for the sake of his opponent's business and connections. But now that their third son has graduated from Provincial No. 1 High School and is likely to attend university, how can parents bear to let him suffer this humiliation again?!

  "I can speak bluntly, don't make promises behind my back. Otherwise, even if the White family comes to our doorstep with a marriage proposal, I won't acknowledge this account! Zhang Youcai hastily added, fearing that Zheng Yue'er would not treat his late wife's child as human."

  "This isn't even a matter of eight characters, is it?!" Zheng Yue'er grabbed an awl and stabbed it heavily into the sole of the shoe, responding loudly. "Besides, in this household, when has it ever been my turn to take charge?! If I hadn't gone through you, I wouldn't have dared to agree with someone else on my own initiative. Not to mention that afterwards you would make things difficult for me, even your family's young master would drive me out of the house directly!"

  "Besides, Big Sister is not that kind of person!" Zhang Youcai's face turned stern as he retorted in a low voice. "Although the three of them are not your biological children, which one dares not to call you 'mother'? Especially Big Brother, whenever he goes on a long trip, doesn't he think about buying things for you and his two sisters?"

  "That was because I didn't provoke his younger brother!" Zheng Yue'er pouted, threading the needle through the newly pierced hole.

  Zhang Lao Cai was unwilling to continue entangling in this topic, lowered his head and continued drinking tea. Zheng Yue Er however came closer again, said in a low voice: "You say Lao San read one high school, someone can't wait to paste their daughter over. Our family Si Ya, Wu Ya are not small either, send them two to school to recognize some words? No need to go to the provincial city, just the church primary school at home is fine!"

  "Both of them...?" Zhang Youcai thought for a moment, and his face clearly showed hesitation. It wasn't that he was reluctant to spend money to send two daughters to school, but looking at the whole city of Lu, only a dozen or so families were willing to send their girls to school. If the little girl was willing to focus on her studies and learn some characters, it wouldn't be a bad thing. What if she read books, had her own ideas, grew up and ran away with someone like his third brother? Where would her parents go to cry?!

  "I knew you were biased!" Zheng Yue'er elbowed her husband and started pouting, "Two years ago, I wanted to send Si Yatou to school. At that time, I thought Sanzi's expenses in the provincial city were high, so I didn't dare tell you. Now that Sanzi has graduated and can earn a lot of money at the foreign firm soon, are you still reluctant to part with these three pennies?! Although they are just servant girls, they are also servant girls from your Zhang family! In the future, if they marry some poor laborer and suffer for the rest of their lives, will your conscience be clear?!"

  "That's not it!" Zhang Lao San, although he had the frugal style characteristic of people from Lu City, would not be stingy with his own children. "I'm thinking of sending them to school somewhere. That church school at our doorstep is no good - all boys, and they teach kids to recite foreign scriptures every day. Once they're bewitched by those scriptures, who knows, when they grow up they might become foreign nuns and not even recognize their own parents!"

  "What's the church like, Zheng Yue'er had heard her sisters talk about it before. Her heart skipped a beat, and her tone immediately softened, 'I'm not illiterate, am I?! You say don't let them attend the church elementary school, then we won't! You can find any school you want, as long as they can recognize two characters, and not be like me, blind to the world!'"

  "Last time I went to the provincial city, Lao Er told me that a girls' school was opened there!" Zhang Youcai thought about his affairs while responding casually. "From teachers to janitors, they are all women. It's just unknown how high the threshold is and whether accommodation is available or not."

  "Why don't you hurry up and ask around?!" Zheng Yue'er's face lit up with joy as soon as she heard that her daughter could be sent to the provincial city. "Hurry up and write a letter to Er Ge, let him make some inquiries!"

  "Just wait for Lao San to come back and ask him! He's read a lot of books, his vision is definitely better than that car repairman Lao Er!" Zhang Youcai shook his head and said in a drawling tone.

  "When is Lao San coming back?!" Zheng Yue'er's heart was anxious, and she couldn't help but ask. After asking, she secretly glanced at her husband's expression, then quickly lowered her head.

  The couple stood facing the window, eagerly waiting for news of their third son, Songling. From dawn till dusk, and from dusk till dawn again, they waited until the afternoon of the second day when they saw their eldest son, Shouling, leading a worn-out horse with its head hung low, entering the courtyard.

  "Where's your third brother? Has he arrived?" Zhang Youcai, who hadn't eaten well all day, rushed out of the house and asked his eldest son.

  "No!" Zhang Shouling shook his head, his face full of exhaustion.

  "Didn't catch up, what are you doing back here alone?! Hurry and go chase after him!" Zhang Youcai was so anxious that he lost his composure, not caring about his eldest son's dusty face, and sternly questioned.

  "I couldn't catch up, you won't go after him again!" Zhang Shouling looked at his old father and replied weakly. "I did block him at the Liu Cheng train station, but he refused to come back with me. Not only did he refuse to come back, but he even turned around and advised me not to focus solely on doing business, lest I become a slave of a fallen nation without knowing what hatred and shame are..."

  "Then you won't catch him back?!" Zhang Youcai roared in interrogation before the eldest son could finish explaining the details.

  Zhang Shouling shrugged and replied weakly, "I'd like to catch him, but there were too many of them on the bus. Almost half the carriage stood up and scolded me together. They said I was blinded by money and obstructing others from making contributions to the country. I'm a fool, a traitor!"

  To reassure his father, he deliberately made the story very vague. In fact, the train had stopped at Liucheng for several hours, and San and the group of students who had taken him away had all gotten off the platform. They sang songs to people entering and exiting the station, telling stories about the fall of Northeast China, the Great Wall's resistance against Japan, and how the 29th Army's Big Sword Team killed Japanese devils. He himself became excited and shouted many slogans along with them. Afterwards, he rushed forward again to pull San back home, but was at a disadvantage and lost face. Almost half of the people in the station stood on San's side, scolding him and taking him as a negative example of someone willing to be a slave to invaders.

  The label "Han traitor" is too big, and Zhang Youcai doesn't want to wear it on his head no matter what. But he won't let his son go to Beiping to mess around with a group of unreliable people, what does that have to do with being a "Han traitor"? He has no way of knowing the answer. Just as he was about to pack up and personally ride a horse to chase after the train, his eldest son Zhang Shouling stretched out his arm to block him, bitterly smiling and advising: "You don't need to go, you won't be able to catch up even if you do. I've figured it out, this world is probably going to become chaotic again soon. Our family are all honest businessmen, we'll definitely lose out in a chaotic world! Old three (his son) went to Beiping to join the army, relying on his cultural background, he won't start from being a low-ranking soldier. As long as he has a badge on his chest, even if it's just a blue-edged one, when he returns to our Lu County, he'll be able to walk around with his head held high!"

  These days, military officers are very intimidating in front of businessmen, and Zhang Youcai knows it all too well. But that intimidation is bought with lives, his three sons from young to old have never even killed a chicken, how can they fight on the battlefield?

  "Don't worry, as long as you're an officer, it's definitely safer than being a soldier! Besides, in these times, educated people are precious, who would dare to use them as cannon fodder?! I'm not sure about other places, but take our Shandong province for example, even during the most critical moments in recent years, President Han didn't send his student soldiers to the front lines!"

  "Ah, ah..." Zhang Youcai was moved by his eldest son and slowly retracted his steps back from the gate. Chairman Han was a scholar himself and placed great importance on educated people. It's said that during battles, he would never let scholars take the front line. When marching, he would also place the pack mules and students in the middle of the troops.

  Whether this rumor is true or not, Zhang Youcai doesn't know. But the benefits that his eldest son said about Lao San becoming an official and bringing to the family can be seen in many vivid examples in Shandong. Thinking of his own son being welcomed everywhere in the future, and thinking of the hardships he had endured while doing business all these years, his heart slowly began to heat up again. After much hesitation, he finally sighed and said in a low voice: "A big child is not controlled by his grandfather! Forget it, I'll send him to finish high school, and I've done my duty. Whether he's lucky or unlucky in the future depends on his own fate!"

  He let out a sigh, turned around and walked slowly towards the house. In an instant, he seemed to have aged ten years!

  Note 1: Pick up. Dialect, gather, teach a lesson.

  Foreign nun

  Note 3: Blue border, rank insignia of the National Revolutionary Army's army officers, usually a square chest badge, blue border for junior officers. General officer badges have red borders, field officer badges have yellow borders.