Chapter 8: The Triumphant Aunt Lin

  After returning home, Fu Pei Lan roughly estimated the amount of brocade in her hands and thought that it could be made into two long dresses or four to five short dresses.

  Fu Peilan took out paper and pen, thought for a moment, and began to draw. Each era has its own characteristics, and copying the style of twenty years later may not conform to the aesthetic vision of people in this era. However, some fixed styles are classic and unchanging, and Fu Peilan wanted to make them after improvement. It won't let conservative people in this era can't accept it, but also more novel and fashionable than what people usually wear on the street now.

  Fu Pei Lan recalled the two small evening dresses she had just seen at Zhou Yan's clothing store, her pen moved slightly, outlining the contours of a long dress, and then carefully depicting it in detail. By the time Fu Pei Yao came home from work that evening, Fu Pei Lan's design was already complete. Rubbing her somewhat sore eyes with her hand, Fu Pei Lan let out a soft sigh - as a newcomer to the fashion industry, she had to strike while the iron was hot, before Zhou Yan forgot about her and was still willing to give her an opportunity, she had to produce the finished product.

  The next day, Fu Pei-yao rested. Early in the morning, Mrs. Fu directed her two daughters to thoroughly clean the four rooms, and then busied herself preparing to visit her maternal home.

  Fu Peilan couldn't understand why her mother had to go to her uncle's house to curry favor with her aunt, just to save a little bit of food and firewood, when their own family wasn't so poor that they couldn't afford to eat. Besides, the food at her uncle's house wasn't much better than their own!

  If it weren't for Lin's uncle and aunt, Fu Pei Lan would be more than happy to visit Grandma Lin with her mother from time to time. After all, this old lady treats the sisters equally, unlike their own mother and greedy aunt who loves to stir up trouble.

  However, the old lady is now dependent on her son and daughter-in-law for a living. If it weren't for the fact that Lin's eldest brother-in-law didn't have a house, he would be living with his wife and children in Lin's grandmother's house right now. Afraid of being influenced by Lin's sister-in-law's temperament, she might have already locked the door and refused to let Fu's mother bring her family to freeload.

  Fu's mother relied on this very point. She went to her own maternal home, ate the rice bought by her own mother, and didn't care what anyone said, instead refuting them with eloquence. Although Lin's aunt was good at speaking, compared to Fu's mother, she was slightly weaker in combat power, after all, if Lin's grandmother didn't speak up, her stance would be somewhat weak.

  The Lin family lived in a tube-shaped building, originally two large rooms were divided into three small rooms after the birth of Lin's uncle's two children. Lin's uncle and aunt lived in one room with their son Lin Xue'an, while Lin's grandmother and granddaughter lived in another room. Later, when Lin Xuemin was admitted to a nursing school in the provincial city, her grandmother's room finally became spacious, and Fu Mama had a place to sit with the children when they visited relatives.

  "Did you hear that Pei Shan got into college?" Lin Auntie poured a cup of sugar water and handed it to Fu Pei Shan, then smiled and said to Fu's mother, "If I had to say, daughters are more promising, they know how to strive for better. Those half-grown kids only know how to play around, it's not easy to expect them to make something of themselves. Look at our own Xue An, compared to his sister he's far behind. He didn't do well in school and can't find a good job either. And look at Xue Min, as soon as she graduated she was assigned to work at the hospital."

  Fu's mother looked a bit displeased, "That's not entirely true, our Peiqi is actually a sensible and studious child."

  Fu Peilan's concern was different from Aunt Fu's, "Aunt, has Cousin graduated?"

  "Really?!" Lin's aunt saw that the mother and daughter of the Fu family finally understood the meaning of her words, and she hurriedly explained with a smile, "Yesterday, I just received news that I was assigned to the Second Hospital in the provincial city. My heart can finally be at ease! From now on, our Xue Min will be an official nurse in the provincial city. In the future, if there's an opportunity to find a partner locally, she'll really become a proper provincial city person!"

  No wonder Aunt Lin didn't put on a long face when she saw them coming over today, it turns out there's good news. Fu Peilan and Fu Peyao hurriedly congratulated Aunt Lin together.

  "Good, good. Auntie Lin heard that your university admission letter has arrived, and she asked me to tell you that from now on, among the younger generation of our family, only you and Xue Min have a promising future." Auntie Lin seemed to be intentionally disagreeing with Fu's mother, smiling and holding onto Pei Lan's hand as she spoke nonstop. "You know how hard it is to get into vocational school, especially when your cousin insisted on applying for nursing school back then - the scores required were even higher than those of regular vocational schools. Your uncle and I were worried and proud at the same time, but we didn't expect her to actually get in. Afterwards, we worried about job assignments - how could Xue Min, a girl from outside, compare with the locals? But she was lucky and managed to stay."

  Lin's aunt said that it was not wrong, many junior colleges in the 1980s were even more difficult to enter than high schools. At that time, Lin Xuemin's admission to a junior college made Lin Dabo and Lin's aunt proud for a while.

  "At first, I wanted Pei Shan to attend vocational school, but her father spoiled her and let her attend high school instead!" Fu Mama said with a bad taste. If their little daughter had also attended vocational school back then, she would probably have been assigned a job by now. "But speaking of vocational schools, our Pei Ning is also a graduate of vocational school," Fu Mama said proudly again, her eldest daughter having been assigned to work as an accountant in a state-owned large factory after graduating from vocational school.

  Lin's aunt snorted and said, how can a small cashier compare with a nurse from the provincial city?

  "Alright, alright, you kids are all fine. You two hurry up and cook dinner, my wife is starving! Lin Grandma interrupted the argument between her daughter-in-law and granddaughter, and after sending them into the kitchen with a sigh, she pulled over her two granddaughters to sit on the bed and asked about their recent lives."

  "I've heard about your situation, getting into college is a good thing, I'll advise your mom." Lin Grandma patted Fu Peiran's hand, "Don't hold it against her for being biased, she's also afraid of poverty."

  Fu Peilan nodded slightly, she didn't think her own mother would listen to Lin's gentle and warm personality advice.

  "Pei Yao hasn't come over for a long time, has she been busy with work lately?" Lin Grandma asked about another granddaughter. She knew that Fu Pei Lan had a stubborn temper and didn't like to come visit her aunt's face, plus the third year of high school was busy, so she rarely came over. However, this third granddaughter used to often accompany her mother to visit, but in the past two months, she had been coming less frequently.

  "Recently I've been working day shifts a lot and haven't had the chance to come visit you with my mom." Fu Pei-yao's face suddenly flushed slightly, and she looked down to explain.

  "Working daytime is better, young girls' families all think working night shifts is unsafe."

  Fu Peilan blinked, it had been too long since she last saw her third sister's shift schedule and she couldn't quite recall the order. But what was strange was that her third sister looked like she was hiding something, as if she felt a little guilty.

  After dinner, Fu's mother led the children back home. On the way, her face was not very good, constantly thinking about what her sister-in-law said while cooking. It sounded like she was praising Fu Peixian for studying well and having a promising future, saying that in three to five years, their family conditions would also improve. But every now and then, she mentioned that their son Xue Min had a monthly salary of 80 yuan, which made her feel like they were showing off and mocking the low income level of the children in the old Fu family.

  Fu Mama's face fell as soon as she stepped into the house. "Pei Shan, come to my room for a moment."

  Fu Peilin yawned and said, "Mom, what are you doing again in the middle of the night?" Last time his mother called his little sister into the house like this, she ended up knocking her out with a stick, forcing him to go to the small clinic at the head of the alley in the dead of night to call a doctor, and then accompany her to take Peiqi to the hospital. What was she going to stir up this time?

  "Stop talking nonsense and go back to bed!" Fu's mother scolded, "Pei Qi, you should also go back to your room. The light bulb in your room is a bit dim, I haven't had time to replace it with a new one yet, so don't read books tonight, it's not good for your eyes."

  Fu Pei Qi nodded and returned to the room without looking up. Fu Pei Lin pouted, gave his little sister a "good luck" look, and also turned around and left.

  Seeing Fu Pei Yao also looking at herself with worry, Fu Pei Lan shook her head to reassure her and turned around to go to the main house with Madam Fu.

  "Sit down." Fu's mother sat on the edge of the kang and pointed to a folding chair in front of her.

  Fu Peilan sat silently for a moment before speaking up, "What can I do for you?"

  "Tell me, when can you finally go to work?" Fu's mother took a sip of water with a pretentious calmness and continued, "Yesterday, Director Zhao from the personnel department of the foundry came over personally to ask me about this. He said that the unit is currently short-handed, and if you continue to drag your feet, this good position as a statistician will be gone. Who knows, you might even end up being assigned to some workshop as a worker? Your high school diploma would have been wasted! I promised them that I'd give an answer within these two days. You've rested for long enough, why not go to work tomorrow?"

  Fu Peilan looked up at her mother and saw that she was a bit guilty, so she got up and said, "Nothing else, I'm going back to my room to sleep!"

  "What's your attitude!" Fu Mama got angry again, "I'm telling you, whether you like it or not, tomorrow you have to go to work at the foundry for me!"

  Fu Peilan turned around and walked away without even lifting her head.

  A night without words.

  The next morning, Fu's mother rushed to her two daughters' room, opened the closet and picked out the most decent outfit for her younger daughter and threw it on the bed. "Peishan, get up quickly, wash your face and change your clothes."

  "Mom, what are you doing?" Fu Peiyao looked at the wall clock under the desk lamp that her mother had just turned on, "It's only 4 o'clock!"

  "You sleep yours, I'm talking to your sister now. Today is her first day of work, she needs to get ready early."

  Fu Pei Yao was taken aback, turned her head to look at her sister who was sitting on the kang putting on clothes. Last night when Fu Pei Han came back, she only casually mentioned that someone from the foundry asked her when she could start work, and didn't expect that this morning Fu's mother would come over and drop such a bombshell.

  "Mom, why are you going to work today? What did you and the people from the foundry say?" Fu Peiyao asked hastily.

  "There's nothing to say, they only kept the position for your dad's sake, Pei Shan should have started work long ago!" Fu Mama snorted, "Your older brother dreams of going, but they don't want him because he doesn't have a degree. And yet this girl Pei Shan is still not satisfied."

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