Instructing
Qin Lu had divorced Teacher Zhou, and her daughter stayed with her. Qin Lu had been looking for a new partner all along. She had come into contact with two military officers, but both had terrible tempers and would start shouting at the slightest thing. She could not stand it and looked down on such crude men, so nothing came of it.
The ones with good conditions and no personality problems were all highly sought-after and had long since been taken. As for the remaining ones with good conditions, each had their own issues. Even if she picked a divorced man, they all came with children.
Qin Lu had spent more than half a year searching without finding anyone suitable. She became anxious and began regretting divorcing Teacher Zhou. Coincidentally, during the New Year, she brought her daughter back to her hometown to visit relatives, and there happened to be a connection. Someone introduced her to a good match. He was not a military officer, but he worked in politics, and his “official rank” was high.
The moment Qin Lu heard his identity, her heartbeat nearly slowed. When she remembered that he was Gu Sheng’s elder brother, her delicate face twisted somewhat. But then she thought of Gu Yao’s position and family background, and her whole heart became restless.
People said he was older now and wanted to find a divorced woman. She did not need to be too beautiful, just practical and good at living life. He also did not mind if she had a child. Wasn’t that exactly her?
If she became Gu Sheng and his wife’s eldest sister-in-law, what right would those two still have to say anything to her?
Qin Lu believed she had to firmly seize this opportunity. She began interacting with Gu Yao. Gu Yao was not as good-looking as his younger brother, but he had an excellent aura, a high position, and spoke slowly and calmly. Moving in political circles, he was also a learned man.
Only… whenever those eyes of his, smiling yet not smiling, swept over her, Qin Lu always felt as though she had been seen through.
Getting along with Gu Yao felt like being roasted beneath the blazing sun every day. Gu Yao was never an easy man to get along with. He had many faults and was picky. Whenever he saw something he disliked, he had to say it out loud.
“Qin Lu, today you—”
Every sentence Gu Yao said to her was a warning or instruction. There was always something he disapproved of: how her skirt should not be worn a certain way, how she should not speak a certain way. Even the speed at which she stepped out of a restaurant would be corrected by him.
When Qin Lu was doing things, he would also give endless guidance.
“Why don’t you know how to do this?”
“Straighten the photo in your hand.”
…
Every time she did something, it would be followed by a “piece of guidance.” No matter what Qin Lu did, whether it was right or wrong, this official always had to instruct her…
At first, Qin Lu was at a loss. She was terrified, wondering whether she really had done something wrong. Gu Yao constantly made her nervous and frightened, as if she were being called in for a talk by a superior… Later, she realised that no matter what she did, she would be met with some instruction, and Gu Yao would always pick out several faults.
The more she did, the more mistakes there were. The less she did, the fewer mistakes there were. If she did nothing, there were no mistakes at all.
Even if she did something well and met Gu Yao’s requirements, she would only receive one or two bland compliments. Then this man would start again, picking at new faults and pointing out new shortcomings.
…
Madness.
When Zhan Aiping learned that Eldest Brother Gu was dating Qin Lu, she choked on a mouthful of water and coughed several times.
“Heavens, Qin Lu is dating Eldest Brother?”
While Zhan Aiping was still in a state of shock and uncertainty, she heard another piece of news from Xie Wan:
“Qin Lu and Teacher Zhou have remarried.”
Zhan Aiping: “?!!!”
What on earth was happening in this world? Why was everything developing so quickly?! Hadn’t Qin Lu only just started dating Eldest Brother Gu? How had she remarried her ex-husband already?
For this, Qin Lu even specially made a phone call to Zhan Aiping.
“Zhan Aiping, about what happened before, all of it this past year was just me and my Teacher Zhou having a quarrel. I wanted to make him jealous. Don’t take it to heart.”
“Now the awkwardness between us has been resolved. I also caused your family quite a bit of trouble. In the future, our family of three will come visit yours.” Qin Lu said all of this in an extremely relaxed tone.
After going through this experience with Eldest Brother Gu, Qin Lu finally discovered Teacher Zhou’s good points. Although he was not especially ambitious, he respected her very much and made her daily life comfortable. She felt cherished.
If she did not compare positions and power with her female cousins’ husbands and only looked at who was better as a husband, then Teacher Zhou still came out ahead.
They all earned salaries and ate state grain. Those cousins’ husbands might have higher positions, but their wages were not that much higher. It was not as if every one of them lived in luxury. Their living standards were not hugely different.
The more Qin Lu thought about it, the more she accepted it.
On the other end of the phone, Zhan Aiping said, “Is that so? Then congratulations.”
She could be considered to have given Qin Lu a way out. Qin Lu really knew how to make trouble. After all that tossing and turning, she had actually remarried.
Thankfully, she had not become her sister-in-law.
Zhan Aiping sincerely said, “I wish you and Teacher Zhou happiness.”
“Thank you.” Qin Lu restrained the smile at the corner of her lips, thinking that she would restore her old life.
In the past, she had also been a woman others envied. In the future, she would be one too.
However, even when a broken mirror was pieced back together, the cracks that had once existed still remained. Teacher Zhou had become much more motivated than before. He began wholeheartedly wanting to climb upward. He wanted to leave the education system, study at the Party school, and enter politics.
Teacher Zhou worked hard to rise up, and the time he left for the family decreased.
Qin Lu once again fell into a fractured kind of regret.
She discovered that life after remarrying was not what she wanted either. Qin Lu felt extremely conflicted. Teacher Zhou was no longer as considerate and caring toward her as before. The arguments they had once had had worn away a great deal of their feelings for each other.
Teacher Zhou becoming ambitious and striving upward had originally been what Qin Lu wanted. But now that he had truly begun climbing, he had already become very unfamiliar.
Faced with such an unfamiliar husband, why should she not find someone else instead?
…
“That scared me to death. I thought Qin Lu was going to become your eldest sister-in-law.” When Zhan Aiping brought this up with Gu Sheng, she was still shaken.
Gu Sheng laughed. “Wouldn’t my eldest sister-in-law also be your eldest sister-in-law?”
Zhan Aiping said, “You’re still laughing. If that had really happened, let’s see whether you could still laugh.”
“It definitely wouldn’t have worked.” Gu Sheng said, “For someone like my brother, there are probably only two kinds of people who could tolerate him.”
Zhan Aiping asked curiously, “Which two?”
“Either a fiery-tempered hot pepper who refuses to indulge him and forces my brother to take a step back; or someone so weak-tempered they’re like soft mud, willing to be kneaded and shaped by others for the rest of their life.”
“Didn’t Xie Wan say Qin Lu’s previous husband was caring and considerate toward her? After experiencing that kind of husband, how could she tolerate my brother?”
Zhan Aiping sighed. “No wonder she hurried back to remarry her ex-husband. She probably couldn’t take it anymore.”
“I feel like your eldest brother doesn’t have that many terrible faults though. Why couldn’t Qin Lu stand him?”
From an outsider’s perspective, Zhan Aiping felt that Eldest Brother Gu could still be considered a reliable, good partner. He did not have other rotten habits, did not hit women, and did not have a violent temper… So why could Qin Lu not endure it and run back to remarry?
Gu Sheng said, “Only when the knife cuts your own flesh do you know the pain.”
“If you were controlled by my brother, you’d understand. This person is especially good at nagging. He disapproves of everything. The only thing he approves of is himself.”
Zhan Aiping nodded and laughed. “You sound very experienced.”
After Qin Lu remarried her ex-husband, Gu Yao did not continue looking for a partner, because he felt it was meaningless.
A woman like Qin Lu was no different from the women who had taken the initiative to climb toward him before. They were always finding ways to please him.
But Gu Yao simply found it boring. Although he had always believed in his heart that a man should find a woman who obeyed him in everything, there were already plenty of people around him who obeyed him completely. And Gu Yao knew very clearly what those people were after.
Perhaps it came from the malicious side deep in human nature: the more these people wanted something, the less he wanted to let them have it.
In truth, he could not tolerate the slightest bit of impurity. He hated people who tried to use him to seek benefits.
Could there not be one woman in this world who did not seek benefits, who wanted nothing at all, who simply liked him wholeheartedly, obeyed him completely, and thought of him in everything?
If Zhan Aiping and Gu Sheng had heard these thoughts in his heart, they would definitely have said in unison: Keep dreaming!
“I’m perfectly willing to be played in the palm of her hand.”
Eldest Brother Gu thought over these words for a while. Rather than finding a partner and getting married, he might as well honestly accept the truth. He was not willing to be controlled by anyone, nor would he be restrained by a woman. Therefore, it was better not to fall in love with anyone.
Marry a divorced woman and gain a stepchild or stepdaughter?
In that case, he might as well treat his youngest brother as his son. After all, he had watched him grow up. That way, he would have a son, a grandson, and a granddaughter. There would be plenty for him to worry about.
When he found an opportunity, he would go visit his youngest brother and find a way to make him discipline his wife properly.
Gu Xiangyi and Zhan Mingzhao returned. The two of them planned to date for another year, then discuss marriage afterward. Zhan Mingzhao was also planning to leave the army.
Every year, there were many soldiers who retired or transferred to civilian work. They were assigned to different posts. Some voluntarily signed up to support the border regions and go to farms on the frontier.
Although population movement was not strong during this period, there were still many large-scale migrations of ordinary people. For example, state-run farms recruited specific groups of workers, and state-run factories relocated to other regions. Zhan Mingzhao tried to get work in a tea factory.
Of course, Zhan Aiping rather hoped her younger brother would become a public security officer. How handsome he would look in a uniform in the future. But Zhan Mingzhao had no interest in becoming a police officer.
“Who would go become a public security officer? It’d be better to go to a food station.” Zhan Mingzhao thought that going to a food station would better benefit the local people. He could be responsible for purchasing agricultural products and give more honest prices.
Purchases of agricultural products such as live pigs, rice, and grain all had to be graded. For pork, if a pig could be rated one grade higher, it could sell for several yuan, or even more than ten yuan, extra.
Some food stations suppressed prices fiercely, so farmers would take their pigs to more distant purchasing stations in exchange for more money and coupons.
Zhan Aiping said, “You should just honestly go to the tea factory.”
Her younger brother Zhan Mingzhao decided to leave the army, and Zhan Aiping also left the military hospital and returned to Yanxin Health Clinic. This time, she came back as the hospital director.
Vice Director Zhan had become Director Zhan.
Qin Yanfang and Doctor Zhao had a child, and Jiang Meihui had also become a mother. The hospital residential area was lively and bustling, with children moving around in groups.
After more than a year away, the hospital had changed greatly again. There were more than a dozen additional staff members… Once summer vacation came and another batch of graduating students arrived, there would probably be two more people added.
Aside from graduating students, there were also junior middle school graduates who had gone down to the countryside as educated youth. Many people who had gone down to the countryside had already been there for ten years. The movement to go up to the mountains and down to the countryside had started gradually in the 1950s and would not end until 1978. There were still the final three batches of educated youth.
Zhan Bo had said he wanted to send Zhan Mingkang here as an educated youth. Who knew whether he had only been joking or whether he truly intended to send him here?
In another two years, the national college entrance examination would be restored, and many people’s fates would change.
“Wife, congratulations. You’ve finally become director. You’re only one or two years later than me.”
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