TGDS Chapter 79.3

The Good Dad System (Arc 11) Chapter 79.3: A Patriarchal Family (9)

“My daughter?” Tang Zhaodi instinctively thought about buying clothes for her daughter, but then swallowed the words back. Yes, before, when the family was poor, she could only choose one of two things, and of course she would choose her son. Now that they had money, even buying two sets of clothes shouldn’t be a problem. “Buy her some too!”

“That’s right.” Li Laidi nodded firmly. “Zhaodi, don’t be like some people who favor sons over daughters. Look at S City, everyone treats their daughters like treasures. Look at my husband, he earns at most three hundred a month, while I earn five or six hundred!”

“…Hmm.” Tang Zhaodi didn’t dampen her spirits. Since arriving in S City, many of her ideas had indeed been repeatedly challenged. She had never dared to imagine before that women could earn more money than men. Even the old lady they rented—the workshop foreman’s mother—was living with the foreman in her old age! Could a daughter really be cared for in old age?

Li Laidi was a chatterbox, talking non-stop the whole way, pointing out the nearby facilities to Tang Zhaodi. She even pointed out the location of the S City Experimental Kindergarten with envy: “See? They have a kindergarten here, for little kids. We don’t have any of these in our village. If my daughter weren’t a bit too old and they wouldn’t accept her, I would definitely send her there.”

From a distance, the kindergarten facilities could be seen. Since it was a rest day, there was no one inside, only colorful decorations and toys like slides. Tang Zhaodi thought to herself that she would have to talk to her husband when she got back. If it wasn’t too expensive, she would let Zihao go to kindergarten. As for Xiaoping, it wasn’t that important.

“Oh my, whose little girl is this? She looks so pretty!” The courtyard gate was wide open, and Li Laidi’s eyes widened as she looked from afar. In the middle of the courtyard sat a little girl wearing a bright pink princess dress that went past her knees, with white lace socks and black leather shoes with bows. Behind the stool was a middle-aged woman who was using a light pink plastic comb to style something in the girl’s hair.

Tang Zhaodi looked up at this and her mouth gaped open. She subconsciously rubbed her eyes. The little girl looked increasingly familiar. She felt that she looked a lot like her Xiaoping. However, she quickly dismissed the idea. Her Xiaoping was very slender and always wore baggy boys’ clothes left over from her cousins. Her hair was messy. She was never this delicate. This was probably a city girl.

“Grandma, it’s Mom!” The little girl sitting there saw something and suddenly became excited, waving vigorously. “Mom, you’re back!”

“Xiaoping?” Tang Zhaodi blurted out in a daze.

“Yes!” The little girl was indeed Pei Xiaoping. Her hair was medium-length, which Wu Guizhi had simply tied up and pinned with a large ribbon bow, matching her clothes perfectly and making her look exceptionally pretty.

“Zhaodi, you’re back!” Upon seeing her daughter-in-law return, Wu Guizhi smiled. She was wearing a “floral dress.”

Tang Zhaodi almost stammered. She had only been gone for a month, how could Xiaoping have appeared out of nowhere? She could only reply, “Mom, I’m back.”

“Zhao Di, Xiaoping’s dress is so pretty! Where did you buy it? Is it expensive? And where did you get this hair accessory?” Li Laidi suddenly became very enthusiastic. Most women, after having children, consider dressing up their kids a top priority. Looking at Pei Xiaoping, she couldn’t help but compare her to her own daughter, imagining how beautiful her daughter would look in the dress.

Wu Guizhi immediately became warmer and leaned closer: “It’s not expensive. This dress is only fifteen yuan, and the quality is very good. Look at the stitching, and this hair accessory is only one yuan. There are many styles available.”

“That price is acceptable.” Having money in her pocket, Li Laidi was quite willing to spend; she had her own ideas.

Upon hearing this, Pei Xiaoping glanced at her grandmother and immediately skipped inside. She returned shortly with a shoulder-width cardboard box. Inside, it was overflowing with various hair ties, knots, and ribbons—Li Laidi had never seen so many styles.

She couldn’t resist leaning in, looking at one after another, some suitable for her daughter, others for herself. Finally, she picked out five, paying extravagantly: “Auntie, please order one of these dresses for me. My daughter is a head taller and a bit heavier than Xiaoping.”

“Sure!” The hair accessories were priced differently depending on the material. Wu Guizhi picked up her notebook and handed it to her granddaughter, “Xiaoping, write this down for Grandma.”

“Okay.” Pei Xiaoping nodded immediately, expertly flipping to the designated page and adding another mark to the pile of tally marks.

After shopping, Li Laidi was in a great mood. She couldn’t help but praise Wu Guizhi: “Auntie, you have a very high level of awareness. Unlike others who favor sons over daughters and don’t take their daughters seriously! Look at what your Xiaoping is dressed. I bet no one along the river can compare!” Every time she saw someone treat their daughter like a treasure, she would admire and envy them. If she could meet a mother like that and a mother-in-law like that, she would never have lived such a hard life.

“Yes, Aunt Wu is very enlightened.” The old woman who had been inside the house came out and joined Li Zhaodi to praise her. “To be honest, when they first arrived, I thought she would treat her son like a treasure and her daughter like dirt, and I couldn’t stand it. But as time went by, I realized that Aunt Wu dotes on her granddaughter so much!” The old woman had also been a patriarchal person in her younger years, but unfortunately, she hadn’t been able to give birth to a son. However, in her old age, her daughter’s filial piety made her change her mind. What she regretted most was the inappropriate things she used to say to her daughter, which hurt her feelings.

“No…nothing like that,” Wu Guizhi said with an awkward smile.

“Look, Aunt Wu is being modest. Look around here, who dotes on their granddaughter like her? Xiaoping will be starting kindergarten next month!” The old woman patted her. “Some people are so stingy, they even haggle over their granddaughter’s schooling!”

… Wu Guizhi was stunned by the praise and could only agree. She had been practically forced into this role.

After her daughter-in-law went to the factory, Wu Guizhi began taking care of her granddaughter and grandson. Of course, the treatment wasn’t harsh; whatever she ate, her granddaughter ate too. Only two days later, her son returned with bags full of things: hair accessories, hair ties, clothes, shoes, toys. She heard from her son that he was starting a business, partnering with someone to sell children’s items on the commercial street in S City. Wu Guizhi, with her limited knowledge, thought the items were quite attractive, and her son said they were selling very well.

Then Pei Naochun began to efficiently dress up her daughter, piling all sorts of nice things on her. Wu Guizhi couldn’t possibly agree to this. She wanted to refuse, but her son persuaded her with his words—

“Mom, you don’t know how competitive the commercial street is. My partner and I discussed hiring a child model there, basically just a kid to sit there and show people what our hair accessories look like, how our clothes look on us, and whether our dolls are cute. Hiring a child would cost a hundred yuan a month! I was thinking, it’s better to take our Xiaoping.”

“A hundred yuan! That’s too much!” Wu Guizhi was furious. She couldn’t bear to let others make money. She hesitated, “But is Xiaoping suitable?” In her eyes, her granddaughter was just an ordinary girl. Was she really worth a hundred yuan a month?

“Of course it’s worth it!” Pei Naochun deliberately frowned, feigning distress. “It’s just that I don’t know how to do any hairstyles. They gave me a design, but I can’t get it right no matter how I try.”

“Let me see.” Wu Guizhi’s hands were itching to try. In her younger days, she was the most beautiful girl in the surrounding area. What was so difficult about doing a hairstyle? She smiled as soon as she saw the design. It was simple.

“However, they have a request: to nourish Xiaoping a bit more, to make her plump and fair-skinned, so she looks festive. I bought a can of milk powder from outside. A can of milk powder only costs a few dozen yuan!”

Wu Guizhi did a quick calculation in her mind and thought it was worth it. She immediately made the decision and started dressing up her granddaughter. And you know what? Her granddaughter looked quite cute dressed up, just a bit thin.

Pei Naochun didn’t forget to persuade his mother with reality. He took his mother and daughter to the market, letting them truly experience the bustling business. He even hired several people to buy something worth ten or so yuan from his mother, then say with admiration, “If it weren’t for how cute your child looks in it, I wouldn’t have been able to decide to buy it!” and “Seeing your granddaughter’s cleverness, I started imagining how these things would look on my daughter!”

In fact, Pei Naochun had the advantage of being an early adopter in the market. From a stall to a shop in the commodity street, he followed the route of a boutique store in later times, with cute dolls, pretty hair ties, and all sorts of small items as the main products. Even without mannequins, he had a steady stream of customers. Of course, Wu Guizhi didn’t understand this.

She just stared blankly as money rained down from the sky—before, she could only earn this much from a year of farming, but now, with just these few items on display and her granddaughter in her arms, people were waving banknotes at her. Her ears were filled with customers praising their granddaughters’ beauty and cuteness, and her son saying their granddaughters were lucky stars, making so much money so quickly. After hearing this so many times, she genuinely began to believe—maybe my granddaughter really is a little lucky star.

Then there was her son’s promotion in the yard. She happily took her share of the profits from her son, carried her granddaughter home, and was halfway through cooking when she heard her son bragging to someone outside—

“Grandma, let me tell you, my mom, you might not show it on the surface, but she really loves my daughter to the core. To her, our Xiaoping is a treasure. Look how beautiful Xiaoping is, it’s all thanks to my mom and my wife’s careful nurturing.”

“Da Li, I don’t like hearing that! What do you mean sons are more important? Let me tell you, Xiaoping in our family is no less important than a son! If my mother heard you say that, she’d be furious!”

Then, she inexplicably became the vanguard of the anti-son preference movement in the neighborhood. Whenever someone treated a daughter badly, people would use her as an example, saying, “Look at Aunt Wu, she’s from the village, she knows how to cherish her granddaughter. And look at you…” Some even dragged her into the conflict, crying and pleading, “Auntie, look at my husband! He’s forcing me to have a daughter. We already have three daughters, and he still wants more! Are daughters inferior to sons?”

What could she do? Her answer was, of course, firm and resolute: “Please don’t say that! Boys and girls are the same! Look at our Xiaoping, she’s our family’s lucky baby!”

For the past month, because she frequently had to go to the market to help with the shop, she had to send her young grandson, Pei Zihao, to the old lady’s care. The old lady doted on the child, charging only twenty yuan a month for childcare. Wu Guizhi had more and more opportunities to spend time with her granddaughter, and seeing Pei Xiaoping growing more and more beautiful and sweeter, her heart unconsciously began to waver.

A grandson is important, but a granddaughter is good too!

That day, her son casually mentioned wanting their granddaughter to go to kindergarten. Looking at her granddaughter’s pleading eyes, she agreed without thinking. Afterwards, Wu Guizhi lay in bed, half-asleep, feeling like she’d been tricked. But she hadn’t been lying there long when her granddaughter ran over, leaning against the bedside, her voice soft and sweet: “Grandma, are you feeling unwell? I got you some water.” Her small hands held a large-eared water cup, her eyes full of worry.

Wu Guizhi couldn’t express her thoughts. She simply stroked her granddaughter’s head and got out of bed. “It’s alright, Grandma’s healthy. Why didn’t you comb your hair?”

Pei Xiaoping lowered her head, embarrassed. “I can’t comb it well, it’s so hard…”

She immediately reached out, took her granddaughter’s hand, and led her outside. “It’s alright, Grandma will take you to the yard to do your hair, the shine is better there.”

“Grandma, you’re so good!” the little girl said sweetly, completely irresistible to Wu Guizhi.