One of the bolder aunties asked directly: “You wouldn’t be Hu Chunhua’s man, would you?”
The burly man nodded. Then he continued pushing the cart down the road.
All in all, he seemed like a man of few words. But knowing that he was the one Hu Chunhua was going to marry, everyone was very interested.
His arrival soon stirred up quite a commotion in the village.
—
By the time Yun Su went home for lunch, she had already heard that the Hu siblings were getting married tomorrow.
“Wait, isn’t that way too fast?”
Yun Su’s mother took a couple of bites of food and said, “Too fast? If they weren’t moving in today, I bet they’d be consummating the marriage tonight.”
When strangers came to the village, especially ones connected to Hu Chunhua, everyone went to gawk. Yun Su’s mother had gone with Auntie Lin next door to have a look. What she saw gave her quite a shock.
The Hu siblings were marrying another pair of siblings. After the wedding, both couples would be crammed into the Hu family’s house.
“What did the brigade captain say?”
The brigade captain was the village chief, in charge of everything. If a pair of siblings suddenly showed up, their background had to be verified.
“He just looked at their letters of introduction. They’re from Guangzhou, their parents are long gone. They got into some trouble before—speculative trading. They met Hu Chunhua in detention and said they wanted to settle down, so they came to our village.”
It all sounded reasonable, but Yun Su felt something was off.
Just then, someone pushed open the courtyard gate from outside.
Yun Su turned to look. It was Grandpa Yun and Grandma Yun from across the way.
“Mom, Dad, have you eaten?”
Seeing his parents come over at midday, Yun Su’s father knew something must be wrong.
Grandma Yun waved her hand: “We’ve eaten, we’ve eaten. Go ahead with your meal. Ah, that girl Yun Feng is such a headache…”
Yun Su knew right away they had come to vent. She was also curious about what Yun Feng had done today. Had she gone to the military compound alone, and if so, what had come of it?
Sure enough, Grandma Yun said that Yun Feng had waited at the military compound gate for ages, but Gu Zhengrong’s mother wouldn’t even let her in. In the end, she had slunk back with her tail between her legs. Fortunately, the rumors about her being possessed hadn’t spread to the compound.
“If you ask me, she should call off the engagement before it’s too late. Just marry into a decent family nearby.”
Neither Grandpa Yun nor Grandma Yun approved of Yun Feng marrying into the Gu family. Then they turned to Yun Su and asked about Ji Xiangtian.
Yun Su’s mother quickly assured them that Xiao Ji was a good young man. Yun Su was going to visit his home this weekend. Once that was settled, the two families would arrange an engagement, and they could get married at the end of the year once things calmed down.
Hearing that plans were already in motion, Grandpa and Grandma Yun felt relieved.
Yun Su thought they would leave after that. But just before they left, Grandpa Yun suddenly said, “Your eldest brother’s family is coming back this weekend. We’ll all have a reunion dinner at your second brother’s house.”
—
“What are the eldest brother and his family coming back for?”
After seeing the old folks off, Yun Su’s mother couldn’t help muttering.
Yun Su’s father shook his head. He had no idea either.
Ever since his eldest brother had graduated from middle school and gone to work at the commune, marrying a commune girl, he had stayed there ever since. He only came back occasionally for the New Year.
His wife was an only child. After marrying her, he might as well have been a live-in son-in-law. The whole family lived at his in-laws’ house and spent all the holidays with them.
This sister-in-law wasn’t exactly bad. But she was terrified that her fisherman relatives might latch onto her for favors. Over the years, she had grown quite distant from the rest of the family.
Coming back now, in the middle of nowhere, not near any holiday—something must have happened.
But that had little to do with their family. As the third son, Yun Su’s father wasn’t particularly close to either of his older brothers.
“Never mind them. We’ll just go eat. We don’t have to do much. The only thing is that Su Su is going to Xiao Ji’s house this weekend. You need to prepare some gifts in the next couple of days.”
Bringing a gift for the first visit was only proper.
—
Yun Su had expected the Hu siblings’ wedding to be quite an affair. But it turned out to be very low-key.
Early the next morning, many villagers went to the Hu house. They found that there was no bridal pickup ceremony, no wedding candies to share. They had simply cleaned out two rooms—one for each new couple—and moved the old Hu couple into the main room. And that was the wedding.
It was so low-key, it was as if nothing had happened.
“So, are they going to get marriage certificates?”
Yun Ximei, Auntie Lin’s daughter, came to the distribution outlet to gossip after finding out what had happened.
Yun Ximei shook her head: “My mom said they didn’t even ask the brigade captain for a letter of introduction. I guess they’re not going to get a certificate. But lots of people in the village don’t have one anyway.”
Yun Su understood her nonchalant attitude. That was just how things were back then—many people got married by setting out a couple of tables and moving in together.
The reason she had asked was mainly because she was concerned about the Li siblings. They seemed honest enough on the surface, but Yun Su had a nagging feeling that something wasn’t right about them.
It was just an intuition.
But she wasn’t a professional, so she couldn’t put her finger on what exactly was off.
—
“Yun Su, when are you getting married?”
Yun Ximei suddenly asked. The topic shifted so quickly that Yun Su looked at her in surprise.
The other girl seemed a bit embarrassed, but she pressed on: “It’s just… when you get married, you’ll definitely be living in the military family compound. So this job of yours…”
Yun Ximei had graduated from middle school this year and still hadn’t found a proper job. Yun Su understood what she meant, but she shook her head: “Don’t get your hopes up about this job. You’d be better off asking at the seafood processing plant.”
The seafood processing plant was the only large factory on the island. It was also the foundation upon which Yun Feng—the original female lead—had built her fortune.
Ever since she had transmigrated, Yun Su had been gathering information about the plant from various sources.
The plant was some distance from their village. The processing area was on another stretch of coastline, closer to the military compound. Several large seafood collection points had been set up around the island, all subordinate to this plant.
Typically, when the fishermen came back from sea, most of their catch would be sent to these collection points. After sorting, part of it would go to the processing plant, and part would be frozen and shipped to collection units in nearby cities, which would then distribute the goods according to supply and demand.
In short, the state-run seafood processing plant on the island was enormous.
A few people from the village had jobs there—only three of them. And all of them worked in processing.
Basically, they were fish cleaners.
Still, the plant also had some clerical and office positions. Every August, they held open recruitment.
Hearing that she should try the processing plant, Yun Ximei quickly shook her head: “I’m not going. There’s an exam. I’m scared. Besides, I have a rural household registration—they probably wouldn’t even want me.”
Yun Su shook her head. She had asked around. The good office jobs were indeed off-limits to rural registrants. But some positions, like workshop record-keepers and quality inspectors, had no such requirement.
Ximei might be a bit gossipy, but she wasn’t a bad person. If she could find a job, she’d have more options when it came to finding a partner.
—
The situation in the village, to be honest, wouldn’t improve until after the reform and opening-up.
When that time came, things like kelp farming, pearl cultivation, or even opening a dried seafood shop would all be decent livelihoods.
But these options were virtually impossible for now.
At present, seaweed and kelp were so abundant you could haul them out by the boatload. There were plenty of fish too. But none of these stored well. Given the current transportation situation, not much could be sold. As for pearl cultivation—that required technology. There was no mature marine pearl cultivation technology in the country at the moment. Any attempt would be a waste of effort.
A dried seafood shop? Forget it—that would be considered speculative trading. Even if the collective ran one, they couldn’t fetch good prices. The seafood processing plant dominated the market.
Yun Su wanted to help her hometown develop some new livelihoods. But with all the current constraints, for now, this was just how things were.
Yun Ximei had no idea about the specifics of the processing plant’s recruitment. When Yun Su told her that rural registrants could apply too, she jumped to her feet in excitement: “Really? I can really apply?”
Yun Su nodded. She had gotten this information from Ji Xiangtian. He had a classmate working as a salesperson at the plant. He’d passed on the news to Yun Su thinking that her older brother might want to apply. If he could land a job, he wouldn’t have to work so hard—getting up in the middle of the night every day to go fishing.
“Okay! I’ll go home and tell my mom. I… thank you…”
The young girl didn’t quite know how to express her gratitude. She just kept saying thank you, then ran off happily toward home. She was clearly eager to share the good news with her family.
In her excitement, Yun Ximei didn’t notice the person crouched by the door who had overheard her entire conversation with Yun Su.
—
The weekend arrived quickly. Early that morning, Yun Su had just gotten up and washed up but hadn’t yet eaten breakfast when Ji Xiangtian pulled up to the courtyard gate in his Jeep.
He was fast, alright…
Yun Su ran straight to the gate and looked at the man getting out of the Jeep. “How… how come you came to pick me up yourself?”
They had agreed that he would come to her house this weekend. Yun Su had been planning to have her older brother take her to town to catch the bus. She hadn’t expected the man to drive all the way here early in the morning. When she had looked at the clock, it was only six. Even if he drove himself, it would take nearly an hour to get from the family compound to here.
“You’re coming to my house as a guest. How could I not come to pick you up in person?”
After they had made plans last weekend, Ji Xiangtian hadn’t mentioned that he would come by car. He was afraid he might not be able to borrow one. If that turned out to be the case, he would have come over a day early instead.
But luck was on his side—he’d managed to borrow a car yesterday. So he’d gotten up at four in the morning, hurried over as fast as he could, and arrived at Yun Su’s house just before six.
“What are you standing there for, silly? Come on, come inside with me and have some breakfast first.”
With that, Yun Su walked over, took the man’s hand, and led him inside.
The neighbors had already looked over when they heard the car. Seeing this scene, they smiled and shook their heads, thinking that Yun Su was quite lucky to have found such a good partner.
As for Yun Feng, who had been getting ready to wash up in the courtyard, the sour feeling in her heart was known to no one.
—
After breakfast and a short rest, Yun Su had Ji Xiangtian carry the gifts her mother had prepared, and they got in the car to head to the Ji family.
Just as the car reached the village entrance and was about to turn onto the main road, they ran into a man named Li Biao carrying a fishing net, with Hu Chunhua following beside him. It looked like they were heading to the seaside.
When they saw the car, they stopped in their tracks and stood there for a long while without moving. Yun Su watched them in the rearview mirror, standing there frozen, and felt a shiver run down her spine.
“What’s wrong?”
Ji Xiangtian, who was driving, keenly sensed her change in mood.
Yun Su didn’t hide anything and told him everything about the Li siblings and the Hu siblings getting married.
“I just get this weird feeling about them.”
After listening, Ji Xiangtian said directly: “They came from Guangzhou. If they want to settle on the island long-term, they’ll need to transfer their household registration here. Letters of introduction won’t allow them to stay indefinitely. I’ll have someone look into their background in Guangzhou.”
The Ji family had lived in Guangzhou for years—they even owned a house there. They were practically half-locals. Ji Xiangtian had gone from elementary school to university in Guangzhou and knew many native Guangzhou residents.
Yun Su immediately felt relieved at this.
Ji Xiangtian was very reliable. With him looking into it, she didn’t have to worry.
After setting that issue aside, Yun Su spent the rest of the trip looking out the window at the passing scenery. It was like a different kind of island tour.
—
Meanwhile, over at the military family compound, things were quite lively.
It was a rare weekend. Many families were busy cleaning house and cooking nice meals.
The Ji family had been cleaning for days, so everyone already knew that someone was coming to visit today—and that the guest was Ji Xiangtian’s future wife.
Most of the residents of this compound were logistics personnel. Their families came from all over the country, and their levels of education varied widely.
The Ji family was somewhat unique in the compound.
Both husband and wife were highly educated professionals—both were prominent doctors.
Their only son was the same.
The family was often away working overtime, so the other residents didn’t know them well. Now that they had this rare opportunity, many people enthusiastically offered to come over and help prepare the meal for the day. In truth, they just wanted to join in the excitement.
Ji Xiangtian’s mother wasn’t difficult to get along with. When neighbors offered to help cook, she didn’t turn them down.
But when someone asked her about her future daughter-in-law, she just smiled and didn’t answer.
She didn’t want to say anything about her future daughter-in-law in front of the neighbors, lest the words get twisted as they were passed around. What kind of person her future daughter-in-law was—she would find out once they spent time together.
“At least she’s not like that Gu family, finding someone from a fishing village.”
Yun Su heard this the moment she walked through the door and immediately looked at Ji Xiangtian, who was carrying bags and boxes beside her.
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