Daily Life in the Countryside After Being Reborn
Chapter 45 - 44: Family

Chapter 45: Chapter 44: Family

It is said that the social security department is usually a very leisurely place, especially in the late 1990s, when aside from state-owned enterprises, private businesses usually had no concept of social security. Therefore, the social security office in Beijing was small, staffed by only five or six people. Opening the office in the morning was a young man who had graduated not long ago from the University of Political Science and Law, named Feng Xing. It was indeed a rare sight to see someone blocking the door first thing in the morning, hammering on the office desk insistently.

A woman in her twenties, tall, slim and with a ponytail, her features clear and elegant like a girl from the water towns of the South, seemed well-bred. Unfortunately, her water town grace was ruined the moment she opened her mouth and spoke.

Feng Xing of the social security office tried to persuade her with kind words. The case of the troubled veteran cadre Zhu Shijun had been giving the social security office a headache for several days. When the hospital from Guiyang submitted an application for hospitalization expenses that day, the deputy director of the social security office didn’t take it seriously. In the world of officialdom, it is common knowledge that when a person is gone, they are quickly forgotten, and without any response, the issue was suppressed. The social security office assumed that Zhu Shijun was critically ill and beyond help. Considering that Zhu Shijun still had a young granddaughter, they notified Zhuo Feng, the sister of Xiao Xian’s biological father.

At that time, Zhuo Feng was a junior at Tianjin Agricultural University. The Zhuo family was well-off and had both a daughter and a son, Zhuo Ran and Zhuo Feng, who were eight years apart, and both had been admitted to universities in the North. Elder brother Zhuo Ran had met Zhu Shijun’s only daughter, Zhu Xiaomin, during his time at university in Beijing, and upon graduating, he defied his family’s opposition and married into the Zhu Family. This angered his parents to no end, and relations were severed.

Zhuo Feng had always been close to her brother. When they were little and got into trouble and faced punishment, the other would cry so dramatically that the adults couldn’t bear to continue. After Zhuo Ran cut off contact with the family, Zhuo Ye secretly stayed in touch with her big brother behind their parents’ backs.

After Zhuo Feng went to university in Tianjin, Zhuo Ran and his wife visited Tianjin several times, and tension between the two families seemed to ease. However, during the second semester of Zhuo Feng’s sophomore year, the university urgently notified her one evening that Zhuo Ran and Zhu Xiaomin had committed suicide. Zhuo Feng wept day and night in her dorm before reluctantly relaying the news to her parents in Zhejiang. Upon hearing the news, her father’s hair turned white overnight, and her mother fainted from shock, her health deteriorating significantly.

What the Zhuo family could not let go of was that Zhu Shijun, the instigator behind Zhuo Ran and his wife’s deaths, didn’t even invite the Zhuo Family to the funeral. After settling his daughter and son-in-law’s funeral affairs in Guangdong, Zhu Shijun was demoted and, outrageously, selfishly took his grandson Zhu Xiaoxian with him. Over the last half a year, Zhuo Feng, disregarding her studies, pursued Zhu Shijun’s whereabouts relentlessly, but so far there had been no clear indication of where he had been assigned.

"If you don’t give me a straight answer, I’m not leaving," fed up with arguing, Zhuo Feng crossed her arms and leaned back in a chair in Feng Xing’s office, determined to stay until she got answers.

"Comrade, it’s not that I won’t tell you, it’s that the higher-ups have ordered silence," just two days ago, the social security office received an instruction that any future expenses for Zhu Shijun, especially for medical treatment, should be disbursed immediately. It is said that the instructions came from someone at the State Council who had been promoted by Zhu Shijun and who remembered an old favor. With this in mind, the social security office needed to handle the situation cautiously.

"Then just tell me where he is right now? I just want to go see my little niece, my big brother’s only flesh and blood," Zhuo Feng’s previously wide eyes softened, her Zhejiang nurture having inculcated in her a certain astuteness. She had also noticed that Feng Xing, though seemingly an easy pushover, would be less forthcoming if pushed too hard.

Feng Xing was momentarily stunned by her changing tactics. When Zhuo Feng spoke softly and gently, she was quite persuasive, "The news came from Guizhou."

"Guizhou?" Zhuo Feng slumped back down where she sat. She was still a student, without the financial means to afford travel expenses to Guizhou in the Southwest. Her parents had not yet recovered from the shock of her brother’s passing, and bringing this matter up again would only deepen their grief.

"Comrade, I think you should go back first. How about this? I’ll leave my contact information, and if there’s any news about Mr. Zhu, I’ll inform you," Feng Xing hesitated before writing down a phone number, feeling it inappropriate to ask for her contact.

"Thank you, you’re really a good person," Zhuo Feng also had a plan. She would wait a while longer until her parents were in a better emotional state, and after she had successfully graduated, then she would hire someone to look into Xiao Xian’s whereabouts. For now, she could only grind her teeth in hope that that old scoundrel Zhu Shijun would stay healthy and take good care of Xiao Xian.

**

When Zhu Shijun was discharged from Guiyang First People’s Hospital, it was already the twelfth lunar month, on the 26th. During the stay, Zhu Shijun had also called San Gouzi. They had originally planned to return to Bai Family Ancient Town on the 24th and bring back goods for the village with San Gouzi’s vehicle. However, the hospital insisted on performing a thorough check-up on Zhu Shijun regardless, and the medical staff’s attitude had markedly improved. Only upon inquiring did they learn that the medical expenses from the Beijing social security office had been approved, and Zhu Shijun was even being invited to visit Guiyang annually for check-ups.

After several days in the hospital, the grandfather and granddaughter were both in good spirits upon discharge, and before leaving, they went shopping for the new year goods in the city.

Zhu Shijun, seeing Xiao Xian had shot up in height this year, bought her a few new outfits to wear for the new year and the coming spring. Influenced by her granddaughter’s cajoling, he, too, uncharacteristically bought himself a few sweaters, as Xiao Xian was tired of seeing him in the same old gray, pseudo-Mao suits every day. Peanuts, date cakes, candies, melon seeds and similar festive goods Mr. Zhu didn’t purchase much of, as rural areas may lack many things, but not local specialities.

Thinking of the hardship Xiao Xian had endured accompanying him in the mountains, Mr. Zhu let her choose some snacks and toys for the New Year’s celebration. Unexpectedly, Xiao Xian insisted on visiting the flower and bird market.

It turned out that Xiao Xian had seen Yezi keeping "Little Pig", and she herself had become envious, wanting to buy a bird to raise. After a trip to the flower and bird market, she couldn’t decide whether to buy goldfish or birds, and then realized that live animals were not allowed on trains anyhow, so she gave up on the idea. In the end, she chose several daffodil bulbs, wanting to grow them at home. Zhu Shijun also bought two potted golden tangerine trees to place at the front door for good luck and prosperity in the coming spring.

Having finished their purchases, the grandfather and granddaughter loaded up a car full of new year goods and boarded the train, which this time was much more spacious. After a brief snooze, they arrived at Bai Family Ancient Town.