Zhan Aiping ran five kilometers, practiced on the parallel bars, did some boxing, stretched her arms and legs, and worked up a sweat. She felt as light as a swallow and very comfortable. She couldn't help but sigh, "It's still good to be young!"
"Teacher Zhan, you're joking. You're still young." Ye Fangjing said from the side.
She spoke very politely, with a hint of respect in her eyes.
She followed Zhan Aiping out, originally wanting to see what tricks she was playing. Was she really going out to "practice boxing" on the eve of her wedding
Who knew she really knew how to box? She also healed the arm of a 1.89-meter-tall man. She ran five kilometers easily. She played the parallel bars to perfection... Ye Fangjing had never seen a woman like this before.
She knew that Zhan Aiping was a retired female soldier and had once been a female military doctor, but she was so bright and beautiful that Ye Fangjing thought she was some kind of "artistic soldier". She didn't expect that Zhan Aiping's skills were so good. She was so amazing!
The male teachers in their school did not have the physical strength and ability like Zhan Aiping, let alone her teaching skills... Ye Fangjing thought about it in her mind and found that there was no male teacher in her memory who could compare to her.
Young, healthy, good-looking, well-educated, and skilled in medicine...
Really, if Zhan Aiping was a man, Ye Fangjing would want to marry "her"!
Before, Ye Fangjing was jealous of Zhan Aiping for finding a good partner and being able to live in a big house. Now she thinks Zhan Aiping is very capable.
She has done something that ordinary people cannot do. For a person like her, why should she be afraid of her in-laws? The jealousy in Ye Fangjing's heart disappeared, and now only admiration remained.
"Teacher Zhan, please teach me a few tricks next time."
"If you want to learn, I'll teach you."
Ye Fangjing said, "Let's go running together on the court in the future. Teacher Zhan, please try the breakfast I made."
Zhan Aiping said: "You can also try the steamed buns I kneaded."
“My pickle jar…”
Zhan Aiping and Ye Fangjing chatted for a while, said goodbye to each other and parted. Zhan Aiping watched Ye Fangjing leave, and she walked along the school wall. As she walked, she thought of Ye Fangjing's admiring eyes just now, and felt happy and funny.
In her previous life, she did not have a good relationship with Ye Fangjing. Ye Fangjing always disliked her and was sarcastic, saying that she was a nose instead of eyes. Zhan Aiping had just deliberately broken her arms in front of her, just to scare the monkeys and tell her not to mess with her in the future... Unexpectedly, Ye Fangjing was frightened and began to admire her, thinking she was so awesome.
She couldn't help but show off twice on the parallel bars. Thanks to her young body and past muscle memory, otherwise her "old bones" really couldn't stand the toss.
Zhan Aiping's eyes were filled with smiles. She turned her head to look at the wall beside her. The wall was taller than her, a full three meters. There happened to be a tree inside the wall. All its leaves had fallen, and only dry branches stuck out of the wall.
The more she looked at the wall, the more itchy she felt.
Now, whenever she saw a wall, she wanted to climb over it; whenever she saw an obstacle, she wanted to get over it; she even wanted to touch a gun and shoot... While she was thinking this in her mind, Zhan Aiping followed her heart and did just that. She ran in three or two steps, climbed up along the wall, and she stood on the top of the wall smoothly.
Zhan Aiping stood on the high wall and walked straight forward. The top of the wall was like the eaves, with slanted sides, leaving only a foothold of less than seven centimeters in the middle. She stood on the top of the wall and walked. The north wind was whistling beside her. She was as tall as the trees, but she didn't feel afraid at all.
"Hey! Who is that?! You are really risking your life. Aren't you afraid of breaking your legs by climbing such a high wall?!" An old man ran out from the security room and shouted.
"Which class are you from? How dare you..."
Zhan Aiping made a prompt decision and jumped off the wall. She used her elbows to gain leverage on the wall and landed steadily on the ground with her legs. Then she ran forward with a hearty laugh. She ran onto the street. The Shanghai of the 1970s had not yet become the Magic City it later became. There were not so many skyscrapers, and the streets were narrow. There were not many vehicles, only a sea of black bicycles.
The sound of car bells was particularly piercing, the noise of men, women, old and young children playing was extremely noisy, and the propaganda posters with a sense of the times were mottled and brilliant in the gray light and shadow of winter. Zhan Aiping turned around and saw the high wall -
She really has a sense of returning to the unrestrained and uninhibited feeling of her youth.
*
Zhan Aiping bought some hot steamed buns and returned to the staff dormitory building. Their dormitory building had four floors and was outside the school, blocked by a wall. It took more effort to go back and forth for classes, so most of the buns were given to the new teachers.
There are more male teachers than female teachers in the school. The house assigned to Zhan Aiping is just a single room of 12 square meters for her to live in alone. Her situation is considered good. Some teachers who have married families live in such a small house. If a mother-in-law from the countryside comes to take care of the children, her husband has to squeeze into the student dormitory.
The up and down stairs are in the middle and are very narrow. There is a protruding public toilet at the corner of the stairs between the two floors. It has a red double door and is ten square meters inside. On the left are three stalls with doors and a shower room, and on the right is a "7"-shaped washbasin with six faucets.
Normally, residents on both floors gather in this place to go to the toilet, wash their clothes, and even take a bath. When brushing their teeth in the morning, it is so crowded that there is no room to stand. When washing clothes, one has to choose a good time to occupy a faucet position.
The bathroom is very cramped, so some people like to go there late at night or when there are few people around, carry a bucket of hot water, close the door of the public toilet, and take a hot bath around the spacious washbasin.
Of course, there are also unfortunate times, such as when you just take off your clothes and someone starts knocking on the door, asking to go to the bathroom.
Zhan Aiping's residence was in the corner of the second floor. She climbed up to the second floor in three or two steps and began the relatively difficult "journey home".
Because the living quarters were small, the kitchens of each family were placed in the corridor. Coal stoves, old broken desks, pots and pans, chopping boards and kitchen knives... these things filled the already narrow corridor so much that only one person could pass through.
"Wow!!" The child's crying became clearer and clearer.
"Be good, don't cry."
"Mom, come and comfort her."
There was the sound of striking a match and a choking smell of cigarettes. Zhan Aiping was walking past this family when a male teacher wrapped in a grey cotton-padded jacket came out with a cigarette in his mouth. After throwing the child to his mother and daughter-in-law, he took a breath in the aisle.
"Oh, Teacher Zhan is back." The male teacher's surname was Chen. When he saw Zhan Aiping, a hint of discomfort flashed in his eyes.
Every time he saw Zhan Aiping, Chen Jiabao felt uncomfortable because this woman made him feel a strong sense of crisis. He and Zhan Aiping were both new teachers who had only been here for two or three years. Zhan Aiping was too outstanding. Even though she had just graduated and transferred from the hospital to take a teaching job, she did her job with ease.
She always tries her best to do her best, teaches well and students like her. He listened to her class today and it made him sweat. Why did Zhan Aiping make such rapid progress
This woman is so scary.
"Teacher Zhan has been busy with her wedding recently. You should also pay attention to your teaching work and study hard. When you get married and have children in the future, you will be very busy... Of course, it is more important for a woman to take care of the family. If both husband and wife go to work, who will take care of the children? It is also for the good of the children for a woman to take care of the family--" Their two families lived close to each other, so Chen Jiabao naturally knew about the Zhan family. He knew that Zhan Aiping was going to get married, and the man's family had a big house, so they would not have to squeeze in this small "pavilion".
He envied women who could "change their fate by getting married", and at the same time Chen Jiabao secretly hoped that Zhan Aiping's in-laws would give her a lesson.
Zhan Aiping is not a good woman according to the rules. A good woman should have a low-paying and leisurely job, and take care of the family and raise children in the future. Why should she come out to compete with a man
Zhan Aiping raised her hand to snatch the cigarette from his hand, put it out without any hesitation, and said indifferently: "You have a young child at home, so it's better for Teacher Chen to quit smoking. The smell is pungent."
She raised her head and glanced at him sideways, warning him with her eyes: Stop meddling in other people's business.
Chen Jiabao couldn't help but take a step back. Zhan Aiping walked straight over, went to her door, took out the key to open the door, then went into the house and disappeared from his sight.
Chen Jiabao swallowed his saliva, then realized what he had done, his face flushed with shame and anger. He was actually afraid of a woman. He was speechless after she glared at him, and the cigarette in his hand was even snatched away.
This humiliated his pride as a man. Chen Jiabao went into the house and ordered his wife to pour water. He took the cup and was scalded. He immediately yelled, "You are going to scald me to death!"
After losing his temper, thinking back to Zhan Aiping just now, Chen Jiabao said angrily: "A woman like this, whoever marries her will be unlucky."
"I want to see her kneeling as she enters the He family's house!"
*
Zhan Aiping's house is very clean and tidy. Even after retiring from the army, she still maintains a military style. There are only a bed, a wardrobe, a table and a bench in the house. She has few things, and they are arranged neatly, making the house of more than ten square meters look spacious and bright.
It was fine when she lived alone, but now that her stepmother Zhu Jiaorong and stepsister Zhan Aijia have moved in, the house has become a lot messier and has a lot more stuff. A baffle was used to separate the two beds, and they made a simple hard bed out of wooden boxes and bedding. Zhan Aiping sleeps on this hard bed, leaving the mother and daughter to sleep in her original bed.
The mother and daughter didn't feel the place was messy at all, and even said, "It must be so lonely living alone. Let's clean it up for you and make it cozy and homey."
When she entered the room, Zhu Jiaorong and her daughter were also there. When she heard that Zhan Aiping was back, Zhu Jiaorong was busy cleaning and wiping. She instructed her daughter: "Your sister is back, why don't you pour her a glass of water."
This is obviously her house, but the mother and daughter acted like "hosts of the house".
Disgust was revealed in Zhan Aiping's eyes. She was already seventy-three years old when she was reborn. The mother and daughter in front of her had long since turned into earth, but when she thought of what they had done, she still felt a lump in her throat.
When she was in her twenties, she didn't realize the true colors of the mother and daughter.
Zhan Aiping's biological mother was an officer and a martyr. She died when she was twelve years old. Her younger brother Zhan Mingzhao was only six years old. Their father soon remarried and married Zhu Jiaorong, who was extremely virtuous and took care of the housework at home every day. Zhu Jiaorong was also married for the second time and brought her ex-husband's daughter, Xue Jiajia, now renamed Zhan Aijia. Not long after, she gave birth to a son, Zhan Mingkang.
Zhu Jiaorong is very virtuous. She is good at cooking, washing clothes and making meals. She regards their father as her God and ensures that their father can have hot meals and hot tea as soon as he comes home. In the eyes of outsiders, Zhu Jiaorong is a qualified good woman, a good wife and a good stepmother.
Zhan Aiping also thought that Zhu Jiaorong was a good woman because Zhu Jiaorong knew how to put on airs in front of her. Zhan Aiping was already old at that time. She had good grades and studied in the provincial capital. Later, she went to military school and only went home once or twice a year. Zhu Jiaorong was always warm and enthusiastic towards her, so she didn't notice anything.
However, her younger brother Zhan Mingzhao's personality became more and more strange. He was timid, cowardly, silent, and did not like to study. His grades were poor, and the relationship between the two siblings also became very bad.
Her brother was against her joining the army as he had a strong dislike for soldiers.
Zhan Aiping also couldn't stand his timid and cowardly appearance. She, Zhan Aiping, had always been the leader since she was young, and she was outstanding and had good grades. How could her own brother be like this
As a result, the conflicts between the two siblings became increasingly serious.
At that time, Zhan Aiping had no idea what kind of life her younger brother was living in the Zhan family. Her stepmother Zhu Jiaorong did not abuse him, but made sure he had good food and clothes, and was very polite to him, but she excluded him from the Zhan family.
Zhan Ba, Zhu Jiaorong, Zhan Aijia and Zhan Mingkang, the four of them are a happy family. But he, although it is his own family, is excluded everywhere in life and lives like a "dependent". His only sister is not around.
Zhu Jiaorong and her daughter tried to sow discord between Zhan Aiping and her brother. They accused Zhan Aiping of being cowardly and having a strange temper. They also deliberately let Zhan Mingzhao hear some things he shouldn't hear, such as: "Women should be more virtuous. Men go to the battlefield to kill the enemy, so why should women be soldiers? They should take good care of the family."
"If Mingzhao's mother wasn't so stubborn, they would still be a happy family of four, and I wouldn't have to worry about it."
"Isn't there a phrase for that? Yes, 'hens crow at dawn'. Why would a hen crow at dawn? It goes against nature and the law."
"It is more important than anything else for us women to take good care of the family and provide a hot meal for the men and children when they come back..."
These things planted the seeds in Zhan Mingzhao's heart.
When Zhan Aiping was on vacation due to a failed operation and a bad mood, she had a big quarrel with her brother and sister. Even her younger brother Zhan Mingzhao accused her of being too strong-willed, ignoring her family, and being neither male nor female. When they quarreled, they even talked about their mother. Their mother was a hero and a martyr, but not necessarily a good mother.
Many of the family members of male soldiers in the compound do not have jobs and just stay at home to do housework and take care of the children.
Children’s world is very small. They are very envious when they see other children being taken care of, loved and scolded by their mothers every day.
After the quarrel, Zhan Mingzhao quietly went to the countryside to become an educated youth last year, while Zhan Aiping switched to a teaching job.
Someone in the family must go to the countryside. Zhan Mingzhao and Zhan Aijia are both suitable. If Zhan Mingzhao goes, Zhan Aijia can stay in the city.
In the third year that Zhan Mingzhao went to Yunnan Province as an educated youth, Zhan Aiping heard the news of his death. Her younger brother died unexpectedly in a fight among educated youth.
She was haunted by her brother's death.
This became a knot in her heart and really made her waver in herself. She thought she shouldn't be so strong and try to be the good sister or even a good mother that Zhan Mingzhao expected her to be.
(End of this chapter)