Chapter 2: 02 The Song Family

By the time Song Niannian finished making lunch, Song's mother, Ma Xiumei, had already returned home from the textile factory.

Next came the eldest of their twin sons, Song Bai.

The second son, Song Tong, was a truck driver currently on a long-haul trip and not at home.

The last to return was naturally the head of the Song family, Song Suisui's father, Song Jianjun.

Song Jianjun had served in the army early on, earned merit, and after being wounded and transferring out of the military, he joined the security section of the textile factory. He was now the section chief of the security section.

If you asked who in the family compound was envied the most, the Song family would definitely be on the list.

Aside from the two daughters who had just graduated from high school, the family had four workers.

In this era, a family with four workers—how could they not be envied?

Song Jianjun and Ma Xiumei were both veteran employees of the Municipal Textile Factory.

The eldest son worked at a waste collection station. Although some thought the job wasn't very respectable, he was still a formal worker with a permanent position, and his monthly salary wasn't bad.

The youngest son was even more impressive—he was a truck driver.

In this era, truck drivers were the object of everyone's envy.

Therefore, the two Song brothers were quite popular in the family compound's marriage market.

Although Song Suisui and Song Niannian had just graduated from high school, the sisters were beautiful, so there were quite a few families interested in them.

But due to the capabilities of Song Jianjun and his wife, and Song Suisui's fierceness, no one had yet approached the couple about marriage proposals for Song Suisui and Song Niannian.

At the dinner table, Song Jianjun looked at Song Suisui sitting to his left and asked, "Suisui, I heard you got into another fight today."

"Yes, Yang La'er said my sister and I have the looks of fox spirits, that in the old days we'd be the top courtesans at a brothel, blah blah blah..." Song Suisui tattled slowly.

After hearing her words, the whole Song family couldn't help but frown. It was bad enough that Yang La'er spent his days stealing chickens and groping dogs, but he also had a filthy mouth harassing girls.

"Good hit, little sister!"

Song Bai had just praised her when Ma Xiumei beside him slapped him on the arm.

Song Niannian, who had been silent, also wanted to chime in with "serves him right," but seeing her mother's reaction, she decisively chose to remain silent.

"What's good about it? Haven't you heard what people outside are saying about Suisui?"

"Ouch, Mom, you hit too hard!" Song Bai yelped, rubbing his sore arm, and said with a couldn't-care-less attitude: "What's the big deal? In my opinion, it's good that Suisui is tough. You can't expect Big Sister and Little Sister to be like steamed buns, letting people knead them into whatever shape they want, right?"

Song Jianjun nodded inwardly, agreeing with Song Bai's words.

How could Ma Xiumei not know what this father and son were thinking? But she was the mother, and she had to consider her daughters' future marriages.

With Suisui's current reputation, if it wasn't cleared up a bit, who would dare come to propose marriage in the future?

Thinking this, she voiced it: "With that kind of reputation, who would dare marry her?"

"What's there to worry about? Someone who truly likes our Suisui won't care about that little bit of reputation. If they do care, yet still try to get close to Suisui and our family, that just proves they're not a good match."

Song Jianjun doted on Song Suisui and Song Niannian unconditionally.

Knowing he was a daughter slave, his words immediately earned him a big white eye from Madam Ma.

Song Suisui shoveled rice into her bowl, listening to their voices, and inexplicably relaxed.

Although Ma Xiumei verbally worried that Song Suisui's personality was too fierce and she'd be hard to marry off, in practice she strongly supported Song Suisui's decisions.

Typical "mouth says no, body says yes"!

Glancing at the Song family at the table, Song Suisui thought: this family is indeed as united and loving as in "Song Suisui's" memories.

After eating, Song Suisui voluntarily washed the dishes. Household chores were currently contracted to the two idle people—her and Song Niannian. Song Niannian cooked, she washed dishes.

Mainly because her cooking skills weren't as good as Song Niannian's. Although she could make home-cooked dishes, they couldn't be called delicious—just ordinary food.

Song Niannian, on the other hand, was a plane-favored daughter who could cook ordinary dishes to a five-star restaurant standard.

After washing dishes, Song Suisui returned to her room for a nap. She stood at the doorway, examining this ten-plus square meter room.

The Song family had no preference for sons over daughters. Whether sons or daughters, once grown up, they all had their own rooms.

Song Suisui was quite satisfied with this. Although she wanted to hug her sister's thigh, it didn't mean she had to stick to Song Niannian inseparably every day.

Although Song Suisui's room wasn't particularly spacious, it was already very good for this era.

You have to know, in the family compound, there were families of over a dozen people crammed into a house of less than fifty square meters.

Lying on the single bed, Song Suisui closed her eyes for a nap. After all, she had been hit with a stick this morning, and it actually hurt quite a bit.

Before long, she drifted off into a daze.

In her sleep, she seemed to hear a cold, mechanical voice speaking in her ear.

**[Beep beep... Detected cross-time-space soul. Salted Fish Blind Box System has automatically bound. Loading now: 10%... 20%... 100%...]**

Song Suisui in her sleep clicked her tongue. She thought she was dreaming, then turned over and continued sleeping.

...

Meanwhile, in the Song couple's room, Ma Xiumei was worrying at Song Jianjun with a face full of gloom: "Suisui and Niannian have graduated from high school, but they're both actually still under sixteen. Sending them to the countryside—never mind that you can't bear it, I certainly can't."

Song Jianjun sighed: "How could I bear it? But recently policies are tightening, and it's really hard to find work. I've asked friends at several factories, and none of them are hiring—not even internal recruitment."

"Then why not ask your other comrades? Even if it's in the neighboring city, that's better than going to the countryside."

Ma Xiumei knew the current Up to the Mountains and Down to the Countryside policy, but she was a mother. Two daughters as lovely as flowers going to the countryside—she'd probably worry herself sick every day.

In another room of the Song family, Song Bai had already made a plan. If the older and younger sisters really had to go to the countryside, he would give his job to one of them and accompany the other down there.

At this time, Song Suisui didn't know that the Song family had already planned so much for her and Song Niannian.

After the nap, the Song family members went to work or went out.

When Song Suisui woke up, she was the only one left at home.

Walking into the hall, she saw a piece of paper pressed under an enamel mug.

Song Niannian had left her a note, saying she was going out and would be back later, and asking Song Suisui to help prepare the vegetables for dinner so she could just stir-fry them when she returned.

After reading it, Song Suisui put the note away, then looked at the water in the enamel mug. Feeling it was fine, she picked it up and drank a few mouthfuls.

Halfway through drinking, she suddenly remembered—in the novel, Song Niannian's rebirth seemed to be today!

(End of Chapter)