Struggle Life in the 1970s

"You! You!" Chu's father was extremely angry. Chu's mother on the side tried to calm him down. Chu Guangyao stood a few steps away from the two of them, with his head down, and his expression could not be seen clearly.

Father Chu waved his finger and rushed towards Chu Ye, "Is this how you watch others scold your father? You unfilial daughter!"

"Hey, don't talk nonsense. I never scolded you." Mingzhu immediately fought back. She wanted to get closer to the fence, but Chu Ye reached out and pulled her behind him.

Chu Ye looked calm, and said, "Mingzhu, I have a class in Class 2. Go talk to Teacher Wang and ask her to cover for me."

Mingzhu frowned, knowing that this was a euphemism to get her out of the way.

She glared at the door and put on a worried look, "Okay, if you get bullied, come and call me, I'll help you vent your anger."

A faint smile appeared on Chu Ye's lips. She should have a very pretty and attractive face, but her eyes were full of sadness, which made people feel panic for no reason.

Mingzhu pulled her palm nervously, and Chu Ye patted her shoulder gently to indicate that he was fine.

The director came over at this time, "Teacher Chu, what's going on?"

"She, Chu Ye, doesn't support her parents. Is this how your school manages teachers?" Chu's father saw from afar a man dressed like a leader approaching Chu Ye, and he quickly spoke up to attract attention.

This statement was earth-shattering. The people who were originally walking away from the school gate stopped and wanted to eavesdrop on something more valuable.

The school leaders' eyes became stern and their faces darkened. They quickly urged the teachers and students on campus to go back to the teaching building and stop joining in the fun here!
Meanwhile, the director frowned and walked towards the door, with Chu Ye following beside him. Considering that Chu's father was emotionally unstable, the director ushered him into the office and comforted him in a gentle voice.

"From what you said just now, you two are Teacher Chu's parents, right? I'm the school's dean of studies and her supervisor. I want to know what happened today?" The director spoke in a gentle tone. After pulling them to a chair, he poured them two glasses of water and calmed them down.

Chu Guangyao was following behind them all the time. He kept his head down and remained silent, like a ghost.

Father Chu took the tea and took a big sip. He first glared at Chu Ye who was standing next to the director, and then shouted loudly with a grievance, "Hello, leader. If you were her director, you would have to judge for us."

"We raised this girl with plenty of food and clothing. Now that she has graduated and got a proper job, she starts to look down on us. Ask her how many years it has been since she came home to visit us!"

After hearing this, the director silently looked away and met Chu Ye's gaze. He saw that Chu Ye stood tall, without any sense of guilt, nor any intention of defending himself.

"This..." The director was biased towards Chu Ye in his heart. Over the past two years, he had witnessed Chu Ye's growth step by step. He also knew that Chu Ye was not the kind of person who would quibble. Even many teachers in the school spoke highly of Chu Ye.

He didn't believe that Chu Ye would do such a thing, but after thinking about it carefully, he felt that there was something behind this matter.

"Okay, I get it. The old couple should calm down. Teacher Chu has devoted herself to her work in the past two years and has achieved good results for our school. However, this young woman may have neglected her family in her pursuit of career. This is also wrong on her part. But as parents, don't we also hope that our children can have a promising future?" The director tried to make his words sound as nice as possible.

Father Chu nodded and smiled without saying anything. He had been a farmer all his life, and what he was least good at was dealing with these scholars who were officials. Their great principles kept coming one after another, making it difficult for people to cope with them.

He gently touched Chu's mother beside him.

Chu's mother, who had been lowering her head, looked over, with a look of helplessness and pity in her eyes.

"Si Ya, Dad and Mom miss you so much."

She looked at the director beside her and continued speaking.

“We know that what we did was not a good thing, but you can’t really hold a grudge against your parents.” Mother Chu said, her eyes welling up and she almost cried.

The words that Si Ya said when she left home really hit her hard.

Is there any parent in this world who doesn’t want their children to live a good life?

After Chu Ye left home, she thought that perhaps the world really had changed and their method of forcing their daughter to go on blind dates was no longer practical.

Chu Ye didn't even come back for the Chinese New Year in these years, and she really felt distressed. Gradually, she figured it out, and if it really didn't work, she would just go along with Chu Ye's wishes and stop forcing her to see people.

So today, she came to find Chu Ye sincerely.

The sound of Chu's mother sobbing was heard in the quiet office, and the director hurriedly found a tissue and handed it to Chu Ye in embarrassment.

Chu Ye took it, looked at the director's eyes, and nodded silently.

She handed the tissue to Chu's mother and apologized to the director, saying that she had caused trouble for the school and she wanted to handle it herself.

At the door, the director sighed and patted Chu Ye on the shoulder, "Young people still have to balance family and work. You should handle this matter well. It was quite a big fuss this morning. I guess some leaders will come to question you."

Chu Ye nodded, and after seeing the director off, she returned to the office.

At this time, there were only four of them in this small room. Father Chu's face darkened, and he showed his authority at home, "Okay, you are so old and still get angry with your family."

Chu's mother wiped her tears with a tissue, but her eyes were still a little red. She stood up and wanted to hold Chu Ye's hand, but she dodged her.

"Are you still blaming your mother?" Mother Chu's eyes became moist again.

Chu Guangyao, who was sitting beside them, raised his head at some point and stared at the three people intently.

"If you didn't come home every day, would we have run so far to find you? You don't even know what the villagers say about you." Father Chu frowned and didn't mention the reason why Chu Ye left home.

"You haven't been back for these years, and you've become estranged from your parents and your brother. By the way, you're already this old, do you have a date?"

Chu Ye didn't say anything.

Chu's father acquiesced that there was no answer, and continued, "Look at you, you didn't even let us arrange a blind date, you didn't even have a date, and you didn't go home every day, how could you not make our parents worry?"

"Okay, stop crying." Chu's mother's soft sobbing annoyed him. As soon as he finished speaking, Chu's mother quickly covered her mouth with a tissue.

"Your brother has grown up and has a girlfriend now. We plan to arrange his lifelong event by the end of the year. But before that, we still have to worry about you."

There was a reason why Chu's father said that. According to the old customs of the village, the younger one in the family cannot get married before the older one, otherwise it will affect the younger one's marriage and damage his or her good luck.

Chu Ye had a blank expression on his face and said nothing.

Father Chu looked at her and felt a surge of anger in his heart. Thinking about what he was going to say next, he suppressed his anger and continued, "You are still at the right age and you don't have a boyfriend. If you don't find a husband now, it will be difficult to find one in the future. Ask for a few days off from school and come back with us. I'll ask the matchmaker to take a closer look at you."

"Yes, Si Ya, mother won't lock you up at home this time. Just be obedient and come back with us." As she said that, Chu's mother wanted to come up and pull Chu Ye, but she dodged her again.

She stood aside coldly, her gaze shifting from Chu's mother's face to Chu's father's face, and finally her eyes met with Chu Guangyao.

Chu Guangyao lowered his head in embarrassment.

Everything now is exactly the same as what Chu Guangyao wrote in the letter to him.

I still remember that when I finished reading the letter he sent me, I felt only sadness in my heart.

At that time, Chu's father sent letter after letter to the school, but received no response. He was already very angry. It was Chinese New Year, and Chu Ye did not return home as in previous years. So he decided to go to the school to look for Chu Ye in person.

The first was that she ran away from home and ignored her parents. The second was that she had already reached the age to get married, but they were still determined to arrange a blind date for her. The third was that they had planned for Chu Guangyao and wanted these sisters to contribute money and effort to his lifelong event.

Chu Guangyao wrote all of this in the letter. He was powerless to stop his parents from looking for him, so he had to write in advance to inform them, hoping that Chu Ye could stay out of the spotlight or make preparations in advance.

Chu Ye took out two pieces of white paper from his pocket and placed them on the table.

"I won't go back with you, and I won't follow your arrangements for a blind date. I hope you won't interfere in my affairs in the future." She said in a very cold tone.

It was precisely because of this indifferent attitude that Chu's father was completely enraged. He slammed the table and stood up, "Rebellious daughter! You are rebelling! How can you talk to your parents like that!"

"Today, you have to go back to this house whether you want to or not! Don't think that I can't do anything to you just because you become a teacher. You will be a daughter of our Chu family for the rest of your life! As long as you are in the Chu family, you must listen to your parents!"

Father Chu rarely gets so angry as he did today, which frightened Mother Chu so much that she didn't dare to step forward. Instead, Chu Guangyao stood up and blocked Father Chu's way.

"In that case, I will not be a member of the Chu family." Chu Ye was unmoved. Facing her father Chu's murderous gaze, she handed the two pieces of paper forward.

"This is a severance agreement. As long as you two sign it, you can't interfere in anything I do in the future. As compensation, I can pay for all of Chu Guangyao's betrothal money."

"Impossible!" After Chu Ye said this, Chu's father objected subconsciously. Chu's mother raised her head in shock and forgot to shed tears.

Chu Guangyao stopped Chu's father, lowered his head with an uncomfortable look on his face, and did not dare to look at Chu Ye.

"If you don't agree, not only will I not go back with you, I will also not help Chu Guangyao in the future, and I will not go back to see you." Chu Ye shrugged, not caring at all.

Father Chu wanted to get angry again, but was stopped by Chu Guangyao, "Dad! Dad, don't be anxious, just listen to me."

He winked at Chu Ye, asking Chu Ye to go out first. When the door closed, Chu Guangyao spoke again, "Dad, you are confused. Think about it carefully. This is all good for us."

"Think about it, my sister only cares about breaking up the relationship and can't think of anything else, but we can think of it. If you two sign it, our family will have a large sum of money, and we don't have to worry about the bride price anymore. Besides, can Fourth Sister really break up the relationship just because she says so? Look, she is in this school, and we can come whenever we want? Let's sign it first, let her feel at ease for now, and we can come to see her when we miss her."

(End of this chapter)