Call Me Daddy

The father and son’s disheveled return home naturally caused Jiang Lianmei to be anxious. Upon learning that her husband had accidentally ridden the bicycle into a ditch, she didn’t say much, only reminding Su Aobai to be more careful in the future.

Su Mingcheng, obediently following behind him, secretly gave his father a grateful look.

The main reason for the bicycle tipping over was actually the excessive movement he made on the back seat. If his mom knew, she would undoubtedly nag, and there was even a possibility of receiving a bamboo shoot stir-fry punishment.

(T/N: bamboo shoot stir-fry = metaphor for elders hitting the palms or buttocks of younger people with bamboo sticks; also refers to corporal punishment.)

But his father was loyal and didn’t expose him. If it was the wartime years, he and his father would surely have been the closest revolutionary comrades.

“There are items I bought in the bike basket. The two bottles of Liangshan Daqu and the two boxes of mung bean cakes are meant as gifts. Set them aside separately. The rest of the things are for the household. You should sort them out.”

Su Aobai simply wiped his body with well water and then hurried back to his room.

He couldn’t wait to take out the several elementary school workbooks from his space and began to peruse them.

As he had guessed earlier, each workbook’s content was different. Among the hundred workbooks, each targeted different subjects and grade levels, slightly expanding on the content and increasing the difficulty while fitting into the current educational atmosphere.

In many of his previous lives, Su Aobai had experienced modern times and received strict elite education in each life. From his perspective, these workbooks were somewhat lacking. However, considering the current educational atmosphere, these hundred workbooks were all top-notch.

He retained the original owner’s memories, and this teacher, who was already excellent in Wu Zhiyong’s mind, hadn’t received professional training. In fact, his teaching level wasn’t very outstanding. But with these teaching materials, combined with Su Aobai’s own abilities, he was confident he could teach those students well.

Su Aobai took out several tutoring books aimed at the third-grade level. Su Mingcheng started school at six, and this September he would become a third-grade student.

In addition, he also took out several first and second-grade textbooks. Firstly, he could help his son consolidate old knowledge, and secondly, he wanted to introduce a new teaching style to the first and second-grade students he was now teaching.

The system was indeed meticulous. All one hundred books were handwritten, with the handwriting slightly neater than the original owner’s, as if he had personally compiled these teaching notes word by word.

Even if he took out all one hundred tutoring books, it wouldn’t draw any attention. People would simply think that these were the painstakingly compiled teaching materials he had created over the years as a teacher.

However, even so, Su Aobai didn’t blindly trust the system.

He flipped through the tutoring books he had taken out, combined with several years of teaching experience, and made notes and revisions in the notebook, striving to compile the content to a more perfect level.

***

Outside the bedroom, Jiang Lianmei used the hot water from the stove to mix a basin of warm water for her son, telling him to go to the bathroom to clean himself. Then she began to inspect the items her husband had brought home.

“Mom, that army bag is the one Dad bought for me!”

As if afraid that his mother might put away the beautiful army green shoulder bag, Su Mingcheng shouted loudly several times from behind the bathroom curtain.

“It’s mine! Mine!”

Jiang Lianmei, annoyed by his shouting, responded to him, making him quiet down and obediently take his bath.

In contrast, the daughter was much more well-behaved. She sat in her little chair, nibbling on a piece of late-season watermelon and watching her mother sort through the items.

Su Aobai had indeed bought quite a lot of things. Besides some gifts for the leaders, everyone in the family received something.

There were two small pots of face cream, which smelled better than the one Jiang Lianmei usually used. Both Jiang Lianmei and the 3-year-old girl liked it. Su Mingmei even stopped eating her watermelon when she smelled it, wiped her mouth, and leaned her little face toward her mother.

“You little rascal.”

Jiang Lianmei tightly closed the lid of the face cream, then tapped her daughter’s forehead with her finger.

“I’ll put some on you after you wash your face tonight.”

Hearing that, the little girl grinned, picked up her watermelon, and resumed nibbling on it. She sat in the chair, happily swinging her chubby little legs.

There were also a few boxes of cigarettes. Su Aobai didn’t smoke, so these cigarettes were clearly bought to show respect to Jiang Dajun.

Jiang Dajun was an old smoker. He grew some tobacco leaves in their own plot and usually smoked his own hand-rolled cigarettes, which were quite harsh. He only carried a box of cigarettes in the pocket of his shirt when he went to meetings at the commune, mainly to maintain his image.

Jiang Lianmei continued to sort through the items and found two pieces of fabric at the bottom. One piece was dark gray. She unfolded it and saw that it was long enough to make two sets of clothes. The other piece was indigo. Most workers’ uniforms were this color, so it was considered as fashionable as army green by many people. This piece of fabric wasn’t very large, just enough to make a shirt.

Not to mention the fabric tickets; These items must have cost quite a bit, right?

Jiang Lianmei folded the fabric and walked into the bedroom. She saw only the back of her husband, writing furiously, and didn’t know how to start the conversation.

***

“What’s the matter?”

It was Su Aobai who heard her footsteps and placed down his pen, turning around.

“It’s nothing… It’s just that you bought so many things. It must have cost a lot. Do you have enough money? Should I get you some more?”

Jiang Lianmei was subtly trying to find out how much money her husband had left. However, after saying that, she felt a bit embarrassed.

Jiang Lianmei felt uneasy. Ever since her husband returned, everyone said she must have accumulated a lot of good fortune in her previous life to meet a man who gave up a formal worker position for her. Even her mother secretly pulled her aside and told her to treat her husband better. Her husband was obviously a responsible and family-oriented man. If he was good to her, she couldn’t be any less so to him.

With their hearts in sync, their lives would surely flourish.

Jiang Lianmei believed it too. When she saw Su Aobai return, her excitement and sweetness were evident on her face, even a child could see it.

However, within 2 days, that sweetness started turning into anxiety.

Her husband seemed to avoid intimate gestures with her. After 3 months apart, something should have happened between them upon their reunion. But for two consecutive nights, he hadn’t touched her.

Jiang Lianmei could explain it as him being too exhausted from traveling back and forth. But why was it when I tried to snuggle close to him at night, did I feel his body stiffen?

Jiang Lianmei couldn’t figure out what was wrong.

“There’s enough money.”

Her little thoughts were almost transparent to Su Aobai.

He paused, then got up and walked to the wardrobe. He opened it and pulled out a small cloth bag from between the folded clothes.

“I forgot to tell you, on this trip back, my parents gave me some money. It’s meant as the cost of separating from the family. It includes extra dowry money for you and gifts for the children’s full month and first birthday.”

Even with the original memories and emotions, Su Aobai needed time to adapt. He could only do other things to divert her attention and reassure her.

“That much?!”

The small cloth bag was full of banknotes, mostly 10-yuan bills. There must have been several hundred yuan. Jiang Lianmei had never seen so much money in her life.

Her father had been the brigade leader for decades. After the expenses of his children’s marriages, this was probably all he had saved up.

“You keep all the money.” Su Aobai handed the money to his wife. “You’ve always managed our family’s finances.”

As for the money he earned from selling smoked fish, Su Aobai kept that to himself. He needed to have some money on hand. Although he had decided to take a different path, it didn’t stop him from using some capital to gain wealth at the right opportunity.

“All for me to manage?” Jiang Lianmei felt as if she had been given a significant responsibility.

“If not you, then who? You’re my wife.”

That simple statement made Jiang Lianmei blush. After all, people of this era expressed their feelings in very reserved ways.

“By the way, for those two pieces of fabric, use the gray one to make two sets of clothes for Mom and Dad, and keep the blue one for yourself. You see, I spend money recklessly. This trip to the city, I saw so many good things I wanted to buy for you all. If I keep the money, it’ll be gone soon. It’s better to do what we did before; after each payday, you leave me 2 yuan for buying paper and pens, and you handle the rest of the household expenses, Comrade Mei Zi!”

Being called Comrade Mei Zi gave Jiang Lianmei a sense of pride and recognition.

“That blue fabric is really good. It’s sturdy and can make you a uniform.” Jiang Lianmei instinctively wanted to save the best things for her husband.

“I have enough clothes. Didn’t I bring back a few almost-new work uniforms when I came back?”

Those work uniforms were all from Father Su, issued by the factory every few years. Father Su rarely wore them, preferring to patch up the old ones. This time, he sent several nearly new uniforms back with Su Aobai, possibly because he thought he would see his son less often in the future, and this was a way to make up for it.

To Su Aobai, the clothes of this era were quite simple. The styles were nothing special, with work uniforms and military uniforms being the most fashionable. As long as they were comfortable, he was fine.

“I want to see you looking pretty.”

This simple sentence stopped Jiang Lianmei from saying anything else.

Blushing, she softly agreed.

She was indeed very pretty. Although she was a mother of two, it was only because she married young. She was actually just 25 years old, the prime of a woman’s beauty.

Her pure simplicity, the charm of being a mother, and her intense yet pure feelings made her shine brightly in Su Aobai’s eyes.

“Because I took such a long leave, I have to achieve something at school. Also, it’s been years, and I’m still a temporary worker, always at risk of being dismissed. I have to think about you and the kids. I need to secure a permanent position within the next year or two.”

Su Aobai felt a sudden rush of emotion, unsure if it was lingering feelings of affection at play.

He restrained his smile, his expression becoming much more serious.

“I’m compiling some textbooks. First, to introduce a new teaching method to improve the students’ grades, and second, to send them to a publisher to see if there’s a chance for publication. If I can publish a few textbooks, my chances of getting a permanent position will definitely increase.”

As he spoke, Su Aobai handed over the thick handwritten notebooks on the table to his wife.

Jiang Lianmei wasn’t very well-educated. In fact, none of the Jiang family’s children excelled in school. Otherwise, Jiang Dajun wouldn’t have used a rare favor on his son-in-law. However, she had attended school for a few years and could read quite a bit. Just by looking at these thick stacks of notes, she knew how much effort her husband had secretly put into writing these textbooks.

“I had this idea before. This time, after refusing to take over my Mother’s job, I don’t regret it at all. But I realized that I’ve been too complacent. How much can city workers, permanent teachers, and cadres earn in a month? How much do I earn in a month? Mei Zi, I want to give you and the children a better life.”

At this point, Jiang Lianmei was moved to tears. She felt she finally understood the changes in her husband over the past few days.

Such thick notes must have taken an enormous amount of effort to revise. He probably did it secretly to avoid worrying her. He was truly exhausted, wholeheartedly working hard for the family, while she had been worried that he might have fallen out of love with her.

Jiang Lianmei felt she had been unreasonable. How could I have deserved to marry such a good man?

Su Aobai looked at his wife with sincere and guilty eyes. “For the next while, I might be focusing a lot on my students and writing these textbooks. I’ll need you to take care of things at home. Managing the household is a significant task as well. Comrade Mei Zi, are you willing to fight alongside me?”

He held Jiang Lianmei’s hand. Her hand was soft, with a bit of roughness in the palm, plump and pleasant to the touch.

“I’m willing!”

Although she still felt that housework was naturally a woman’s duty and didn’t think much of it, Su Aobai’s exceptional appreciation made Jiang Lianmei feel recognized, as if her household chores were equally important.

In this surge of emotion, her previous doubts were completely forgotten.