The Daily Life of a Stepmother in the 1980s
Zhou Haizhi pursed his lips, his gaze flickering for a long moment before he finally accepted the two hundred yuan. He carefully pinched it, crumpling it into a small ball, and held it tightly in his hand. Then, he bowed deeply to Li Yunsheng and thanked him “Thank you, Uncle.”
At just five years old, the child already understood the value of money and knew that two hundred yuan could buy a lot of things.
“It’s Uncle who should be thanking you” Li Yunsheng said as he patted Zhou Haizhi on the head. He felt both grateful to and sorry for the little boy.
The five thousand yuan he had come to collect today belonged to the factory. If he had lost it, he would have been in serious trouble. Thankfully, Zhou Haizhi had found it. Without him, Li Yunsheng’s situation could have turned disastrous.
Zhou Haizhi didn’t fully understand Li Yunsheng’s gratitude. The little boy simply did what he thought was the right thing and was genuinely thankful for the two hundred yuan he had received in return.
“Miss, this is the factory’s phone number and address. Please keep it. If he ever encounters any difficulties or needs help, feel free to bring him to me. I’ll do my best to assist” Li Yunsheng said as he stood up. He retrieved a pen and paper from his briefcase, wrote down the address and phone number, and handed it to Xu Tao.
Xu Tao, knowing that Li Yunsheng had other matters to attend to, accepted the note on Zhou Haizhi’s behalf. “I’ll keep this for him. If there’s ever a day he needs your help, I’ll make sure he contacts you” she replied.
Zhou Haizhi was a child unloved by his stepfather and neglected by his biological mother. At just five years old, he had a long road ahead of him.
Xu Tao pitied Haizhi but could only offer him the help she was capable of providing.
Although Li Yunsheng had given two hundred yuan as a token of gratitude, Xu Tao still felt that the connection established today should not be wasted.
Guangming Electronics Factory was a major company. Even in later years, Xu Tao had vaguely heard of its name. Li Yunsheng, currently the deputy director, might climb to even higher positions in the future. Someone like him could make a significant difference in Zhou Haizhi’s life with just a little assistance when needed.
Thus, the phone number and address not only needed to be kept but preserved carefully. Xu Tao hoped that Haizhi’s good deed today would yield rewards in the future.
“Let’s go home” Xu Tao said as she put away the note and called for Zhao Linan and Zhou Haizhi to leave.
“Auntie, I still need to collect more garbage to sell” Zhou Haizhi said, glancing at the large burlap sack nearby. Despite holding two hundred yuan in his hand, a fortune in his eyes he was reluctant to abandon his plan to collect trash for money.
He could sell an entire afternoon’s worth of trash for one or two jiao!
“…” Xu Tao looked at the child, her heart aching a little. “Haizhi, Auntie knows how clever you are. You’ll take good care of the note and the two hundred yuan, won’t you?” she asked, bending down to look the child in the eye.
“Mm” Zhou Haizhi nodded resolutely.
He would take good care of the money and the note! He knew that the note held the address and phone number of the kind uncle.
“Alright, Auntie will let you keep the note, too” Xu Tao said after a moment of consideration.
She pulled out her own pen and paper from her small bag and made a copy of the phone number and address, just in case. Then, she handed Li Yunsheng’s original note to Haizhi.
“Keep it safe, alright?” Xu Tao reminded the boy repeatedly.
“Yes, I will, Auntie” Zhou Haizhi replied with determination. Although he was only five years old, his harsh environment had made him mature for his age.
He understood Xu Tao’s concern and deeply remembered her words. He knew she was looking out for him.
“Then go home soon. If you’re hungry, come to Auntie’s house for some snacks” Xu Tao said, patting the boy’s head. She didn’t stop him from continuing his trash-collecting efforts.
The child’s life was indeed pitiful. His circumstances would force him to grow up quickly. If it were Zhao Linan in his place, Xu Tao would never allow him to endure such hardships.
If Haizhi were an orphan, Xu Tao might have considered adopting him. But he wasn’t—he wasn’t an orphan, yet he was still alone and unsupported. So he had to grow strong on his own. Xu Tao couldn’t meddle too much; life was cruel. Children without umbrellas were destined to run through the rain.
“Thank you, Auntie” Zhou Haizhi said as he nodded and ran toward the large burlap sack, grabbing it and running off into the distance.
Xu Tao held Zhao Linan’s hand and didn’t leave until Zhou Haizhi had disappeared from view.
“Mom!” Zhao Linan tugged at Xu Tao’s hand. “Brother Haizhi ran away. Isn’t he going home?”
“He’s going to grow up on his own” Xu Tao said with a smile as she bent down to pick Zhao Linan up.
The child didn’t fully understand. He blinked his clear eyes and then grinned, showing off as he gestured, “I beat a big rooster earlier!”
“Mm, Linan is amazing. But if Mom isn’t around, you can’t do that, understand?” Xu Tao pinched his cheek to remind him.
Lin Fang, that unstable woman, was clearly dangerous. If she weren’t present, Linan might have been kicked away like a toy by her. Xu Tao wouldn’t dare let him take such risks.
“Mm-hmm, I’m scared when Mom isn’t here” Linan said with a cheerful nod.
Seeing that Linan knew how to gauge situations and felt secure when she was around, Xu Tao felt a little relieved. Smiling, she carried him home, stopping by the market to buy a chicken to make soup.
“Cluck cluck! Little chicks!” Zhao Linan exclaimed when he saw a cage of fluffy chicks at the market. He immediately squatted down in front of it and carefully reached out his short finger to touch one.
“Be careful, or it’ll bite your finger” Xu Tao teased.
Zhao Linan didn’t feel scared. Just then, the vendor handed him a small piece of leafy vegetable. “Feed it to the chicks” the vendor suggested.
At first, Zhao Linan didn’t understand, but as soon as the vendor explained, he eagerly took the small leaf and held it out to the chicks. Watching the chicks peck at the leaf, the boy burst into delighted laughter.
“Mom, buy some chicks!”
“If we buy chicks, we can’t buy the hen. Can Xiao Nan go without eating chicken meat?” Xu Tao asked with a smile.
She knew very well that both Zhao Weiguo and his son were typical meat lovers. While Xu Tao could go ten days or even half a month without missing meat, Zhao Weiguo and Zhao Linan couldn’t go without it.
“Mom, buy the chicks. Eat the big chicken meat” Zhao Linan stood up, clutching the leafy vegetable as he rushed over to hug Xu Tao’s leg, pleading adorably.
The boy now spent every day with Xu Tao, so he was no longer the quiet child who hardly spoke. Moreover, he had realized that as long as he acted cute, Xu Tao would almost always grant his requests. Naturally, his antics became more instinctive and charming.
“Alright! Just because you’re so cute, Mommy will buy it for you.” Xu Tao squatted down to pinch the boy’s cheeks. After all, the chicks weren’t too expensive; at fifty cents each, they were affordable.
Buying a few for the boy to raise and play with seemed like a good idea. “But remember, Mommy’s buying you the chicks, so you’ll have to feed them yourself.”
“Mm-hmm, Xiao Nan will feed them himself” Zhao Linan nodded enthusiastically.
And so, after a trip to the market, Xu Tao returned carrying a large hen and some vegetables, while Zhao Linan carefully cradled a small cage containing three little chicks.
When they got home, Zhao Linan immediately released the three chicks from the cage, letting them roam freely around the courtyard.
The chicks were still very small, and since the vegetables in the yard had already matured, Xu Tao wasn’t worried about the chicks ruining them. She let Zhao Linan raise them as free-range.
When Zhao Weiguo came home from work, he saw Zhao Linan chasing the chicks around the courtyard with a piece of leafy vegetable in hand. The chicks chirped loudly as they scurried about, and Xu Tao, watching the scene, couldn’t stop laughing.
Thinking about how, in the original story, Zhao Linan was a crazed male lead who had endured hardships in a remote and desolate place under the abuse of his adoptive parents, Xu Tao felt a surge of joy seeing the boy now, happily chasing chicks around without a care in the world.
“Why did you buy chicks?” Zhao Weiguo asked as he entered the living room, not bothering to check on their son.
“Xiao Nan liked them, so I bought them. He said he’d take care of feeding them” Xu Tao replied with a smile, gesturing toward Zhao Weiguo.
Zhao Weiguo looked at her smiling face. Then, noticing something, he reached out and grabbed Xu Tao’s hand. “What happened to your neck and face?”
The man’s gaze locked on the red scratch marks on Xu Tao’s neck and cheek, the sight of which greatly displeased him.
Xu Tao had fair, flawless skin, her entire complexion radiant and delicate. At twenty years old, she exuded a mix of youthful allure and a budding maturity that made Zhao Weiguo’s heart warm whenever he returned home to see her and their son.
Seeing the red marks marring her smooth skin dampened his mood significantly.
“I got scratched by a mad dog” Xu Tao sighed.
She had looked in the mirror after coming home and noticed the marks on her neck and cheek were quite obvious. Although not severe and unlikely to leave scars, they wouldn’t disappear for a few days. She couldn’t help but regret not pulling Lin Fang’s hair out during their altercation.
“Hmm?” Zhao Weiguo frowned, looking at her in confusion.
Xu Tao didn’t initially want to explain, but since Zhao Weiguo had noticed the marks, she decided not to hide the truth. She recounted the events at the post office, where she had run into Zhou Haizhi and Lin Fang.
“Did you win or lose the fight?” Zhao Weiguo asked after hearing her story, eyeing Xu Tao with curiosity.
He was genuinely surprised that Xu Tao had gotten into a fight. Xu Tao had always appeared gentle and quiet. The most “aggressive” she ever got was when they were in bed—when she would claw and scratch at him if he got too rough. He simply couldn’t picture her throwing punches at someone.
“I won!” Xu Tao replied with a grin. She wasn’t going to joke around about this—she might look delicate, but she wasn’t actually weak.
“Did you apply medicine?” Zhao Weiguo asked, tilting her chin to carefully examine the red scratches on her neck.
“Yes, I did.”
"Okay." Zhao Weiguo didn’t say anything more.
Xu Tao shifted the topic and pulled Zhao Weiguo to deal with the chicken. The chicken she bought was still tied up and left in the kitchen. Since she had no experience killing chickens, she had to wait for Zhao Weiguo to come home and handle it.
Zhao Weiguo was always reliable in such matters. He went to the kitchen, grabbed the hen, and, without hesitation, used a kitchen knife to slit its throat. He even fetched a bowl to collect the chicken blood.
Xu Tao watched Zhao Weiguo skillfully kill and pluck the chicken feathers. Curious about his thoughts, she continued the earlier topic, moving closer to him. “Zhao Weiguo, let me ask you, if I had lost the fight with Lin today and ended up bruised and swollen, what would you have done?”
Honestly, Zhao Weiguo’s calm attitude after she told him about her victory made Xu Tao curious about his thoughts.
“What would I do?” The man raised an eyebrow and chuckled softly, seriously considering her question. “I’d sneak into her house in the middle of the night and beat up her two brothers. Would that work?”
As a former soldier, Zhao Weiguo couldn’t possibly hit a woman, even one as shameless as Lin Fang.
“What’s the point of beating up her brothers?” Xu Tao was amazed at his logic and pressed further with a hint of pride, “But what if I insisted you hit her? Would you do it?”
Xu Tao knew Zhao Weiguo’s hesitation stemmed from the fact that Lin Fang was a woman.
“If you really insist, then I’d have no choice but to do it” Zhao Weiguo replied candidly.
“Then you’d be guilty of hitting a woman.”
“So be it. If my wife gets bullied, and I can’t fight back, that doesn’t make sense.” Zhao Weiguo chuckled lightly. Holding a large pair of scissors, he quickly opened the chicken’s abdomen, efficiently removing its internal organs.
Xu Tao thought about helping but ended up watching as Zhao Weiguo neatly handled the chicken.
“This hen is quite hefty. Let’s cook half as stir-fried chicken with potatoes and make soup with the other half” Xu Tao suggested, having decided on the cooking method.
“Okay.” Zhao Weiguo agreed without objection and swiftly cut the chicken into pieces.
As Xu Tao and Zhao Weiguo prepared dinner in the kitchen, Zhao Linan was still running around the yard chasing the chicks. Xu Tao glanced at her sweaty son, feeling a bit sorry for the little chicks.
“Zhao Weiguo, call your son to take a break. If he keeps chasing them, those little chicks might not make it through the night” Xu Tao said while chopping potatoes, speaking on behalf of the chicks.
“Mom!” Before Zhao Weiguo could respond, Zhao Linan ran into the kitchen, his face brimming with excitement. “Mom, the chicks pooped!”
“...” Xu Tao, who had a slight obsession with cleanliness, opened her mouth but didn’t know what to say.
When she bought the chicks, she hadn’t considered their need for food, water, or bathroom breaks. She’d agreed to buy them because of Zhao Linan’s pleas, but mostly because she hadn’t thought about the realities of raising chicks. Hearing her son’s report about the poop now made her feel a headache coming on.
She regretted it—regretted buying the chicks.
Thinking this, Xu Tao looked at Zhao Weiguo for help. In moments like these, he was the one to rely on. “Xiao Nan, your dad is much smarter than me. He’ll know what to do!”
She successfully passed the responsibility while sneakily complimenting Zhao Weiguo.
Zhao Weiguo glanced at Xu Tao with a smile, clearly pleased. Then he turned to his son, Zhao Linan. “You wanted to raise the chicks. So from now on, you’ll feed them and clean up their poop.”
“Okay, I understand!” Zhao Linan didn’t see any problem with this. He was just curious and asked, “Dad, do I need to wipe the chicks’ butts? They run around, and I can’t catch them.”
Wiping chick butts! Indeed, only a three-year-old child could come up with such innocent yet surprising logic.
“Haha!” Xu Tao couldn’t hold back her laughter and turned her head away.
“No, you don’t need to.” Zhao Weiguo’s temple twitched as he suppressed his own laughter. “Wherever the chicks poop, just cover it with some dirt.”
“Okay!” Zhao Linan nodded and ran back to the yard with some vegetable leaves.
Xu Tao swiftly stir-fried the chicken pieces, added the potatoes, and covered the pot to let it simmer.
“Spending all his time with you has made that boy’s intelligence drop” Zhao Weiguo commented, leaning against the kitchen window. He watched their son in the yard, chasing the chicks and carefully covering their droppings with dirt, and shook his head in disbelief.
When he was a child, he wasn’t like this. The boy must have been influenced by Xu Tao.
“Hey, don’t blame me! He’s your son. His intelligence and looks all come from you” Xu Tao quickly retorted, waving her hands to reject the accusation.
“When I was a kid, I probably... wasn’t this dumb!” Zhao Weiguo carefully chose his words.
Xu Tao continued to laugh. After laughing all day, her cheeks were sore. She waved her hand and glared at Zhao Weiguo, saying, “Stop making me laugh. My face hurts from laughing”
Seeing this, Zhao Weiguo didn’t say anything further. Soon, the chicken soup was ready, and the potato chicken stew was simmering to perfection. The aroma of the dishes filled the air, wafting far down the alley, carrying the fragrance of delicious potato chicken stew and chicken soup.
Shitou, who was home alone, could only make do with some haphazard cooking. But the tantalizing aroma proved too much to resist, so he thickened his skin and came over to play with Zhao Linan.
“Auntie, can I eat at your house today? My dad took my mom to the hospital to have a baby, so no one’s taking care of me” Shitou asked Xu Tao sheepishly, his expression a mix of dejection and hope.
The aroma of chicken soup and potato chicken stew was simply irresistible. Before his father left, he had told him to make do with whatever food he could find. If not for the enticing smell coming from Xu Tao’s cooking, he might have settled for something simple. But now, it was impossible to ignore.
“Of course!” Xu Tao agreed readily. “Is your mom giving birth today?”
As she asked, Xu Tao mentally calculated the dates and realized it was indeed about time. A few months ago, Fan Qiumei’s belly had already been seven or eight months along.
“Yeah, but I don’t know if it’ll be a little brother or sister”
“Which one do you want, a brother or a sister?” Xu Tao asked while scooping a bowl of chicken soup for Shitou.
Shitou, at almost eight years old, was quite mature for his age and thoughtful. Though Xu Tao’s question was casual, he took it seriously, thinking carefully before answering, “I’d prefer a sister. If it’s a brother, my parents probably won’t love me anymore”
Ever since his mom mentioned that there was a baby in her belly, their attention on him had noticeably decreased.
Hearing Shitou’s words, Xu Tao couldn’t help but feel a little emotional. In this era, raising children wasn’t as thoughtful or meticulous as in later times. Most of the children in the alley spent their days entertaining themselves. Parents typically left them to their own devices.
Fan Qiumei, pregnant with a large belly, had limited energy and usually left Shitou to fend for himself. Her husband, Sun Tonghai, was a factory worker who spent most of his time at work, often neglecting Shitou as well.
“Brothers or sisters are the same” Xu Tao replied, careful not to lecture the child too much.
Her mindset, influenced by modern perspectives, was quite different from the other mothers in the alley. Xu Tao was aware of this and didn’t want to overstep. “Drink your soup. See if Auntie’s chicken soup is tasty”
“Auntie, your chicken soup must be delicious. Your cooking is the best in the whole alley!” Shitou quickly flattered her.
“Mom’s cooking is the best” Zhao Linan echoed.
The little boy sipped his chicken soup, his small mouth shiny with oil, looking particularly adorable.
“Mom isn’t delicious; the chicken is,” Xu Tao teased with a laugh, playfully tapping her son’s nose before placing some greens on his plate.
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