Chapter 738: Fleeing Famine 43

Chapter 738: Chapter 738: Fleeing Famine 43

After Geng Xiaoyu graduated from high school at nineteen, she married a classmate of hers, who was the son of the head chef at the county’s State-owned Restaurant. After her classmate graduated, he also joined the State-owned Restaurant and became the second chef.

Thanks to the convenience provided by her father-in-law, Geng Xiaoyu also got a job at the State-owned Restaurant as a waitress.

In those days, working as a waitress in a State-owned Restaurant, much like being a salesperson in a supply and marketing cooperative, was a sought-after and desirable job.

After graduating, Geng Xiaozen also followed in Geng Xiaowu’s footsteps and went to join the army.

It was her own decision to go, and Yuan Chun didn’t stop her. However, both Geng Dalin and Sun Chunfeng cried about it. After all, she was their eldest daughter, and it had been hard for her to graduate from high school, only to go off to join the army. Geng Dalin and Sun Chunfeng were very reluctant to let her go.

Geng Xiaoling graduated the same year as Geng Xiaozen. Initially, Geng Xiaoling wanted to join her sister in the army, but Sun Chunfeng cried and insisted that she couldn’t let both her daughters join the army. If something happened, she would have no daughters left.

Soooo, with Geng Xiaoyu’s help, Geng Xiaoling found a temporary job in the county. When there was a vacancy at the State-owned Restaurant, Geng Xiaoling quit her temporary job and applied to become a waitress at the State-owned Restaurant, working alongside Geng Xiaoyu. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ

Two years later, Geng Xiaowen graduated from high school and applied for a job at the county’s machinery factory.

All five children of the Old Geng Family graduated from high school, which was the first in Fengling Village. Moreover, all five children secured formal employment, which was also unprecedented in Fengling Village.

As a result, Yuan Chun, who was already in her sixties and in good health, became the most envied and admired person among the elderly in the village.

Yuan Chun didn’t care what those elderly people thought. She was no longer working in the fields to earn work points, but stayed at home to help with cooking, tending to the vegetable garden, going up the mountains to hunt, picking mushrooms, and digging for wild vegetables.

Every month, the five grandchildren gave her money as a gesture of filial piety, and she had new clothes to wear all year round. Huo Guochang, who had been rehabilitated and returned to the Imperial City, would also occasionally send things to her.

Yuan Chun lived more comfortably than the old ladies in the county town.

Geng Dalin and Sun Chunfeng worked every day and came home to ready-made meals; as a couple, they lived better than the villagers.

The two of them weren’t as hardworking as they were in their youth. Geng Dalin now earned eight work points a day, and Sun Chunfeng earned six work points. They did their farm work with ease and had time to tend to the vegetable garden.

The Old Geng Family’s vegetable garden was better tended than anyone else’s. When there were too many vegetables to consume at home, Yuan Chun would pick them and send them to her grandchildren in the city to eat.

In 1977, Geng Xiaoyu and the others, who had been warned early by Yuan Chun, all took the college entrance exams and were admitted to first-rate universities in big cities.

Huo Guochang was rehabilitated and returned to the city in 1971, resuming his previous position.

Shortly after he resumed his position, those who had abandoned him, including his wife and children, came looking for him. His ex-wife wanted to remarry, and his children shamelessly wanted to reconnect with their father, but Huo Guochang instructed the garrison soldiers to chase them out of the military compound.

Afterwards, his ex-wife came to see him several times, trying to remarry and continue living with him, but she was always rejected by Huo Guochang.

His ex-wife even sought out the organization for help, hoping to persuade Huo Guochang, but Huo Guochang remained cold and firm in his stance, and the organization could do nothing. Until his death, his ex-wife was unable to remarry him.

His children also repeatedly tried to reconcile with their father, but they were chased away by Huo Guochang. After several attempts, his children stopped coming.

After retiring, Huo Guochang, a lonely man, was arranged by the state to stay at a retirement home for cadres. Every year during the Mid-Autumn Festival, he would come to the Old Geng Family to celebrate the reunion festival with Yuan Chun.

After Huo Guochang passed away, his property was not inherited by his children but by his sister Yuan Chun.

Yuan Chun, an old woman who was nearing the end of her life, suddenly came into a large inheritance. She did not keep the inheritance but donated it all to the army in Huo Guochang’s name.

In this life, Yuan Chun lived to be eighty-nine years old and passed away accompanied by her five grandchildren.