Chapter 8 - 7: Those Years
Later, most people returned to the city, but Dad was an exception. According to Mom, Dad didn’t have many people left in his family, and he told Mom that it didn’t matter where he was, as he was always alone anyway.
Dad was alone in a strange environment and didn’t fit in with the other groups, spending most of his time by himself.
Once, Dad was working late and encountered a heavy rainstorm, getting soaked. The next day, he came down with a fever.
At that time, he happened to be working in the same group as Mom, and shortly after starting work, he fainted. The fellow educated youth with them took him to the clinic on a cart.
In the following days, Mom secretly brought Dad some food and helped him wash his clothes without Grandpa and Grandma knowing.
Mom spent all day hovering around Dad, and gradually, she entered his heart.
Grandpa and Grandma had only one daughter, no sons. Seeing Dad, an educated youth, with no family, spending years here without any news of being recalled, it seemed likely he’d settle in the countryside. If he married Mom, it was almost like having a son-in-law live with them.
The old couple was pleased about this marriage. That year, when Dad was twenty and Mom was eighteen, they held a simple wedding.
After Dad joined the family, Grandpa stood much more upright, and no one in the village dared to look down on them. Less than a year after Dad and Mom’s marriage, my brother was born. Mom said that was the happiest time for her and Dad.
When my brother was two, I was born. At that time, there was little chance to get rich, and Dad worked hard every day, earning as many work points as three people, just to let them and Mom eat better.