Chapter 11: Sanchong Township

Page 1 of 3

Liu Fangfang stared blankly at Tang Jiancheng. “Jiancheng, you… weren’t you planning to sell our daughters?”

“Sell our daughters?” Tang Jiancheng was stunned. “When did I ever say I wanted to sell them?”

Liu Fangfang said, “Weren’t you discussing it with Mother yesterday?”

Tang Jiancheng laughed. “You misunderstood. Mother misunderstood me too. She thought I had suddenly started treating you all so well because I wanted to sell our daughters. In truth, after taking that fall, I suddenly came to my senses. They say daughters are their fathers’ little cotton-padded jackets. How could I bear to sell mine?”

“Fangfang, I was wrong before. My preference for sons over daughters was too deeply ingrained, and I made you all suffer. In fact, having more daughters is not necessarily a bad thing. As long as they are raised well, they will be no worse than sons!”

Tang Jiancheng’s sudden apology brought tears to Liu Fangfang’s eyes once more.

“How did I never realize before that you were such a crybaby?” Tang Jiancheng gently wiped away her tears.

Liu Fangfang lightly punched him in the chest and said coquettishly, “It’s all because of you!”

Seeing her coy expression, Tang Jiancheng was suddenly stirred.

In his previous life, he had spent more than forty years without touching a woman or having one by his side. During those lonely nights, he often remembered how good Liu Fangfang had been. The more he thought of her, the deeper his longing became.

At that moment, all those feelings erupted.

Unable to restrain himself, Tang Jiancheng pulled Liu Fangfang tightly into his arms and lowered his head to kiss her soft lips.

Liu Fangfang was completely stunned, her entire body rigid. She wanted to push him away, but she could also feel the fierce love burning in his heart and could not bring herself to reject him. Gradually, she even began responding to his advances. Deep down, she seemed rather captivated by the sensation herself.

“Wow, Daddy, shame on you! You’re actually eating Mommy’s saliva!”

Just as Tang Jiancheng was about to take things further, Little Seven appeared from nowhere and made a face at him, rubbing her nose with a finger.

Liu Fangfang hurriedly pushed Tang Jiancheng away, her pretty face as red as a ripe apple.

Tang Jiancheng was utterly frustrated!

He scooped Little Seven up, put on a fierce expression, and said, “Keep talking nonsense and I’ll spank you!”

“I’m not talking nonsense. Daddy really is…”

Page 1 of 3

Page 2 of 3

“Still talking? You’re still talking!”

As he spoke, he buried his face in Little Seven’s arms and rubbed it back and forth, tickling her until she burst into peals of laughter and could no longer get another word out.

The Eldest and Second Sisters had both seen Tang Jiancheng’s fierce expression and assumed Little Seven was about to be beaten. They had not expected him not only to spare her, but to tease her until she laughed nonstop. The two girls stared at him in bewilderment.

Over the past two days, Tang Jiancheng had not scolded or beaten them again. Instead, he had cooked for them and even simmered meat broth for them…

Could it be that Daddy had changed for the better?

But the shadow that had lingered in their hearts for so long could not disappear so quickly. They could not suddenly become close to their father. They continued to watch him from a distance.

“Eldest, Second, would you like to come with me to the township later and sell some wild boar meat?”

Tang Jiancheng set Little Seven down and asked the two older girls.

“Huh? Oh.”

Both girls froze for a moment, but they did not dare refuse and nodded.

Tang Jiancheng looked at them. One was thirteen, the other eleven. Both were already growing into young women, yet they were far too introverted. If they married in the future, they would certainly be bullied by their husbands’ families.

He had to take advantage of these next few years, while they were still young, to bring them out into the world and broaden their horizons.

The more they saw of the world, the more their personalities would gradually change.

It was the eleventh lunar month of 1982. The country had only recently begun opening up and reforming, and the household production responsibility system had been in place for little more than a year. Goods were scarce, ordinary people were generally poor, and even those who wanted to eat meat often could not afford it.

Therefore, fearing that the meat would be difficult to sell in the township, Tang Jiancheng selected only eighty pounds, most of it fatty cuts.

In those days, fatty meat was more popular than lean meat!

There was another problem as well. At that time, people still harbored resistance and contempt toward those who engaged in private commerce. The notions that business should be state-run and that workers and cadres held the highest status remained deeply rooted. In especially remote and backward areas, some departments were even cracking down harshly on private traders.

Tang Jiancheng did not know what attitude Three-Ridge Township currently took, so he first led the two girls to a sheltered spot outside the township and set down the carrying basket.

The entire basket was covered with a thick layer of straw, making it impossible to tell what was inside.

“Eldest, Second, stay here and watch our family’s pork. I’m going into the township to look around and see what the situation is, understand?” Tang Jiancheng instructed them. “Remember, no matter who comes, do not let them lift the straw covering the basket. Got it?”

“Yes.”

Page 2 of 3

Page 3 of 3

It was the first time either girl had ever left the village, and their first time coming to the township. Both looked extremely nervous, yet neither dared voice any objection.

Tang Jiancheng’s heart ached at the sight, but there was nothing he could do. They would have to take it slowly.

He nodded, then walked toward the township.

Tang Jiancheng had been to Three-Ridge Township many times. It lay deep in the mountains, cut off from the outside world, with extremely rudimentary facilities.

Apart from the township government, post office, supply cooperative, grain station, livestock station, and other state-run departments and schools, there was only one state-run restaurant and one state-run barbershop. There were no factories, so there were not many people in town.

And with snow falling and the northern wind howling, even fewer people had come to the township.

In the past, whenever Tang Jiancheng came here, he often went to the state-run restaurant to drink away his troubles. So this time, he headed there directly.

“Well, if it isn’t Tang Jiancheng? You just finished drinking yesterday, and you’re here again today? Have you taken one look at that crowd of daughters at home and become completely fed up?”

The moment he entered the restaurant, someone greeted him in a mocking, sarcastic tone.

“Come to think of it, I have to admire you. You’ve had eight or nine daughters in a row, and you still dared to keep trying!”

“What else could he do? They’re all daughters. When he dies, there won’t even be anyone to tend his grave! According to the old way of thinking, that means his family line ends with him and the ancestral incense goes out. For that reason alone, he has to keep trying until he has a son!”

“Nine daughters? Tsk, tsk. He’ll be rolling in betrothal gifts when they all get married!”

“What good is collecting betrothal gifts? Without a son, he cannot even hold his head up in the village. Money is not something you bring into this world or take with you when you die. Continuing the family line is what matters most!”

Ignoring the diners’ taunts, Tang Jiancheng went straight to the restaurant manager.

“Manager Huang, are you interested in buying some wild boar meat?” Tang Jiancheng asked directly.

Manager Huang was a young man of twenty-five or twenty-six, but he looked much older than his age. Combined with his careless appearance and unshaven face, he seemed even more weathered than the thirty-year-old Tang Jiancheng.

What no one else knew, however, was that this man came from a powerful official family.

Tang Jiancheng only learned later that Manager Huang had been sent down to the countryside after being framed by someone. He had eventually settled down there and never returned to the city, instead using his connections to take over the state-run restaurant.

To outsiders, he appeared to be a down-and-out idler with no prospects. But Tang Jiancheng knew that he was waiting for an opportunity—a chance to soar to greatness in a single bound. In his previous life, roughly two years later, this man would turn the state-run restaurant into the finest restaurant in the entire township.

Page 3 of 3