Rebirth on the Doors to the Civil Affairs Bureau - Chapter 42
Chapter 42 Dr. Xia Feeds the Pigs
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In the living room.
After Mother Yu was awakened by a well-placed pinch, she sat on a chair with an expressionless face.
Yu Song soundlessly gestured at Yu Dong and swiped his hand across his neck.
Father Yu was smoking a cigarette as he looked at his daughter. With a sigh, he finally reined in his murderous aura and said to the overwhelmed Xia Feng: “You, go and feed the pigs.”
“Ah…yes…feed the pigs.” Xia Feng was dumbfounded.
“Oy, hurry up and go, the pig food is in the black barrel in the kitchen. Go carry that to the pigsty at the back.” Yu Song knew that Father Yu wanted to hold a family meeting, so he hurriedly urged Xia Feng.
Xia Feng wasn’t comfortable leaving Yu Dong alone in this situation, but Yu Dong smiled and motioned him out too.
In the end, Xia Feng uneasily left for the kitchen.
Yu Dong scrutinized her mother’s face and felt that her old woman body has had enough time to digest the previous series of events. So she began to speak: “Mom, don’t be angry.”
“How can I not be?” Mother Yu straightened and said, “You…you…with him…when all is said and done…”
“Didn’t you already see exactly what’s been done?”
“You…” Mother Yu began to feel faint again.
“Mom, calm, calm down.” Yu Song hurriedly passed her a cup of tea.
Mother Yu waved away Yu Song and pointed a trembling finger towards Yu Dong: “You…you…just how did I end up raising such a girl…don’t you know the meaning of restraint?”
“Mom, don’t worry so much, they’re in love and couples nowadays…” Yu Song wanted to help defuse the situation but ended up being scared off by Mother Yu’s fierce eyes.
“You’re a girl, how can you lack so much self-respect? In my time, you think you’d still be able to marry out?” Mother Yu scolded
“Then I won’t get married.”
During your time it was also common to be forced into an arranged marriage. In your era, a girl who couldn’t marry out would be considered an embarrassment by her family. When Yu Dong thought of this, she couldn’t help but be angry. She couldn’t resist arguing these things back to her mother.
“You…” Mother Yu was speechless.
“How can you talk to your mother like that?” Father Yu who had never spoken until now, was angry.
“Oh.” Yu Dong lowered her head.
“Forget it, let that Xia Feng come in and ask him when he’s marrying you.” Mother Yu breathed out while she placed a hand over her chest.
“You’re not grilling them anymore?” Yu Song was surprised and couldn’t help but ask, “Does this mean you approve?”
“Your sister has already been taken…” Mother Yu couldn’t help but shed a few tears. “What would be the point of investigating further? We can now only hope that he’s a responsible man. Just be good to your sister when you pay the dowry.”
“Mom…” Yu Song was speechless; did his mother just push the cost of the dowry to him?
Yu Dong had never doubted her mother’s love for her, but the generation gap, educational gap, and their different personalities doomed them to never see eye to eye. Every time her mother cries, Yu Dong would feel extremely sad and guilty. Even when she clearly did nothing wrong, her mother would always attack her heart by shedding tears.
“Mom…” Yu Dong wanted to tell her mother the truth. In fact, Xia Feng already gave her the marriage certificate. But Yu Dong’s heart was depressed, why is your heart undervaluing your daughter just because of this?
In my previous life, you thought that I was a disgrace who wouldn’t be able to marry in her lifetime. You felt like I’ve lost face, like I’ve shamed my entire family. Now after my rebirth, I’m living with a man before marriage and still, you feel as if I’ve humiliated you. Last night you were thoroughly interrogating me about your son-in-law, but now you’re scared that he won’t marry your daughter?
Yu Dong understood that this was coming from a different generation’s point of view, with different priorities, but she couldn’t help herself. She felt extremely sad, her eyes turning red.
“Why are you crying? Does he not want to marry you?” When Mother Yu saw her daughter cry, she was immediately pessimistic.
“He dares, let me throttle him!” Yu Song stood up to confront a certain someone. Seeing the women in his family crying, who can stand this?
“No, come back!” Yu Dong knew that her previous life was affecting her judgment. Yu Dong siped away her tears and said, “He came here to ask for permission to marry me.”
Father Yu and Mother Yu looked at each other, relieved.
“Doesn’t matter.” Yu Song was still uncomfortable by this morning’s events. “If he bullies you, tell big brother, I’ll support you.”
Father Yu was a more traditional man. Although he cares for his children’s feelings, he wasn’t the type to say much about them.
“Is he good to you?” Father Yu only asked this one question. When Yu Dong nodded, he pinched his cigarette and said. “Call him back for breakfast.”
When Yu Dong left, she couldn’t hold back her tears.
“Dong Dong, dad doesn’t want you to find any random man, but you should get married.” Yu Dong had always respected her father. In her previous life, whenever she was being pestered to marry she could argue with her mother, but she couldn’t refuse her father.
Since she was a child, Yu Dong had always seen her father as a man that sits in the corner smoking, his eyes full of love for his children.
At this moment Yu Dong felt that she was being a little unfair. God gave her a second chance in life and helped her get rid of her marriage troubles. Now her home had been reverted to the warm place she had always hoped for. She didn’t know why she was being difficult.
Meanwhile, Dr. Xia was feeding the piglets in the backyard.
Xia Feng poured the food into the trough and stood nearby to watch the three piglets eat.
He reflected on this morning’s events. Yu Dong’s family will definitely have opinion to voice, but while this morning was a bit hectic, in the end, it wasn’t really a big deal. After all, he was already married to Yu Dong, ah.
So Xia Feng watched the piglets with a calm mind, simply waiting for Yu Dong to call him.
Suddenly, a 50-year-old auntie approached their home, staring at Xia Feng from afar. It was difficult for Xia Feng to brush off her intense gaze, so when the auntie neared, he smiled politely.
“Hey, young man, I haven’t seen you before, why are you here?” When she saw the handsome youngster smile at her, she immediately cozied up to him.
“That…I’m Yu Dong’s boyfriend.” Xia Feng wasn’t someone who could refuse this aunt’s bold personality.
“Oh, Fish’s boyfriend ah, this old family is finally getting a son-in-law?” Her eye’s sharpened at the thought of potential gossip, “What’s your name youngster? What do you do? What village?”
“Er…hello Auntie, my name is Xia Feng. I’m a doctor from Shanghai.” Xia Feng politely introduced himself.
“A city child, and a doctor!” This old lady couldn’t control her excitement and turned to run and share this piece of juicy gossip to others. Xia Feng laughed as he watched her retreating figure before turning back to the piglets.
Xia Feng and the three little pigs ended up silently looking at each other for a while.
Suddenly, a ring ended the brief silence.
Xia Feng took out his phone. Seeing the caller, he smiled and answered the phone: “Mom.”
“Son, any progress? Has it been going well?” Mother Xia had been impatiently waiting for news since last night, but Xia Feng hadn’t even sent a text message, forcing her to call early in the morning.
“Progress?” Xia Feng recalled the disastrous events of this morning. All of a sudden he didn’t know what to say and could only vaguely reply: “A bit turbulent.”
“What’s wrong? Yu Dong’s parents don’t like you?” Mother Xia asked.
“A little…”
“That’s to be expected. Yu Dong is their precious daughter, and you’re trying to take her away, how can they be happy. Your father experienced the same thing, I’ll pass the phone to him.” Father Xia had been eavesdropping nearby.
Having been caught unprepared, Xia Father could only spout the first thing that came to mind: “Well, if you don’t have the skill, just put in more effort.”
“What nonsense are you telling your son?” Mother Xia took back the phone, feeling like she made a mistake in letting Father Xia talk. “Xia Feng ah, let me tell you, putting more effort is good, but that isn’t the most important thing. What’s important is to show her parents that their daughter made the absolute best decision in choosing you. Properly talk about your plans for the future.”
“Even if you end up taking 10,000 steps back, you just need to take out your marriage certificate, and that’s already half the war won.” Mother Xia continued, “Of course, the fact that you married Dong Dong without their knowledge will have a negative effect so you should only do this as a last resort.”
“Alright!” Xia Feng responded with a smile.
“You can be rest assured my son, I know that you’re a very good man. I’m not worried because Dong Dong likes you a lot so her parents will certainly like you too. Do well, we’ll be waiting for the good news.” After this, she turned to her husband and asked, “Do you have anything else to add?”
“Let me say something.” Father Xia took the phone and said, “Xia Feng, persistence is the key to victory.”
Xia Feng hung up the phone in a much better mood. Because of this he opened the fence and crouched near the trough to pat a little piggy’s head.
“You like pigs?” When Yu Dong arrived to pick him up, she came upon this scene.
“Have you finished talking?” Xia Feng saw Yu Dong and immediately stood up and approached her.
“Finished.”
“What did Uncle and Aunt say?” Xia Feng asked.
“They were angry.” Yu Dong shrugged.
“We can just tell them the truth?” Xia Feng said.
“How would we say it? You daughter stole her residence book and ran off to marry someone, only to get dumped at the doors to the Civil Affairs Bureau?” Yu Dong raised an eyebrow. “And in the end, she was so sad she ended up casually marrying a random person?”
After listening to her, Xia Feng thought for a while. He eventually raised his head and laughed, “Although you married a random stranger, I feel lucky that I got to be that person.”
“I…that’s not what I meant…it wasn’t a casual thing…” Yu Dong realized that she said something insensitive so she tried to explain, but couldn’t. How can she tell him she married him because he would be famous in the future?
But her feelings then was something that no longer mattered. Yu Dong only had eyes for the Xia Feng in front of her right here, right now.
“It doesn’t matter, I know that you like me now.” Xia Feng said with a smile.
“Xia Feng…” Yu Dong placed a hand against the pigsty fence and leaned towards Xia Feng saying: “I like you!”
Xia Feng smiled, and he bent towards her too, slowly meeting each other to kiss.
Of course, Yu Song immediately killed the moment. When he came out and saw this affectionate scene, he covered his eyes and cried out: “I say! Can’t you pay a little attention to your surroundings? Aren’t you afraid the whole village will know exactly what you’ve done by this time tomorrow? Do you want everyone to think that you two get it on in a pigsty? Mom hasn’t even calmed down yet, and you’re already planning on setting another fire!”
“Cough!” Xia Feng straightened awkwardly.
Yu Dong looked at her brother resentfully: “Why are you here? Can’t you take a hint?”
“Hey…can’t you just have a tiny little bit of shame?” Yu Song was completely defeated by his sister’s shamelessness. What happened to her these past six months? How can his simple sister turn into this, “We asked you to bring Xia Feng back for breakfast and you never came back, so I came to see what was going on.”
Yu Song said this then left first.
Xia Feng also left the pigsty at this time. Taking Yu Dong’s hand he said: “Let’s go back”
“Un.”
“Is it really like that in your village?” Xia Feng thought of what brother-in-law had just said.
“Not necessarily.” Yu Dong quipped, “Why, are you scared?”
“No…it just looks like we won’t be able to act lover-dovey while we’re here.” Xia Feng laughed as he said this.
The author has something to say: It looks like everyone doesn’t want me to write sadistic stories…I’ll think about it again…
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Can 喜欢 (xǐhuan) be translated to ‘I love you’? I have a feeling that they already said I love you way back when but MTL keeps giving me ‘I like you’ and my dictionary says that its ‘to be fond of”
Yu Dong’s complicated feelings are complicated. Xia Feng’s parents are MVP.
