TGDS Chapter 80.2

The Good Dad System (Arc 11) Chapter 80.2: A Patriarchal Family (11)

“…Okay.” Tang Zhao Di didn’t dare refuse and had to agree. The money felt incredibly heavy in her hand. After much thought, she decided to buy something for her mother-in-law as well. She planned to go out with Li Laidi tomorrow.

…

“Zhao Di, aren’t you taking your Xiaoping out?” Li Laidi had gotten up quite early and called to Tang Zhao Di as they were about to leave. She was holding a little girl, about the same age as Pei Xiaoping, her daughter Xiaoyu.

“Hmm, no, my mom’s taking her out to town,” Tang Zhaodi replied. She had originally planned to take Zihao out, but her mother-in-law said the streets were chaotic and it was better to send the money to the old lady. This morning, her husband had given her another hundred yuan, saying not to worry about not having enough. Now, carrying so much money made her quite nervous.

“That’s so nice,” Li Laidi said, walking side-by-side with Tang Zhaodi. Her face was full of envy. Looking down, she could see the whorl of hair on her daughter’s head as she walked, and her heart ached with both tenderness and sorrow. “If I could be like you, why would I need to come out to work?”

“Huh?” Tang Zhaodi was a little confused.

“Do you think everyone who comes out to work is doing it to make money?” Li Laidi scoffed. In this day and age, coming out to work isn’t easy. Who wouldn’t want to stay in their hometown? Even if they earn less, they can still survive. Why do they have to come out into the world? “Xiao Li from our workshop, she ran away because her brother didn’t have money for his wedding and wanted to use her to pay the dowry. She was terrified, so she ran away. And Xiao Zhu, you know her, the tall and thin one? She’s been married three times. The first time she got married, the man died while building a dam. Not long after she returned home, her family arranged for her to marry a divorced man, but he fell for a widow and left her. Where could she go? She went home again, and her family arranged for her to marry again. This time, the man beat his wife. Could she stay? She had nowhere else to go, so she took the money and ran away by train…”

This wasn’t Li Laidi exaggerating. The garment factory was almost entirely made up of female workers. Although it wasn’t the closed-off era where you needed a letter of introduction to leave home, these days, not many people could really grit their teeth and leave. Most of these women, apart from those who dreamed of getting rich, were simply unable to make a living at home.

“Women, life has never been easy.” Li Laidi looked at her daughter. “I can’t give birth to a son. As soon as I go back home, my mother-in-law wants to take my daughter away to be given away. She says that she’s been told my fate is to have only one child. If I don’t give birth, I’m afraid that one day I’ll open my eyes and my daughter will be gone.”

Tang Zhaodi trembled as she listened. In fact, such things were not uncommon in their hometown. After all, the surrounding area was vast and the population was large, so it was bound to happen once or twice. Not to mention distant places, even in their own family, her and her sisters’ marriages became a means of making money, ultimately subsidizing their younger brother.

But at the time, she didn’t think there was anything wrong with it. Just like her mother and father often said, having daughters was a money-losing proposition. They worked hard to raise them to marriageable age, only to have them marry off and become someone else’s wife. If they couldn’t subsidize the family when they got married, then the family would be at a loss. They had spent the property that belonged to their younger brother in advance, so naturally they had to return it. If they didn’t, they would be heartless.

As for sending their daughters away, there was a different logic in the village. Having four or five daughters and still wanting a son meant money was scarce. Keeping the daughters wouldn’t guarantee a good life, so sending them to a good family was considered for their own good.

Of course, her in-laws and husband never mentioned this; her father-in-law only sighed, hoping she would give birth to a son.

Li Laidi loved to confide in others. At the factory, she naturally had to focus on her work, but when she returned home, she couldn’t speak ill of her mother-in-law or their hometown to her husband: “Look, I’ve only been away for a month, and look what my daughter has become!”

Tang Zhaodi glanced over and noticed that Xiaoyu was quite thin, head bowed, silent, just like… her former daughter.

“Just one or two more, is that all the difference? Our daughter is ours, how could she be so heartless!” Li Laidi had already decided to send her daughter to be cared for by the old lady. “If we’re relying on my mother-in-law or my husband to take care of Xiaoyu, we might as well expect Xiaoyu to take care of herself.”

Tang Zhaodi replied dryly, “Maybe things would be better if we had a son.” She had always felt that every turning point in her life was related to the appearance of a male heir. After her younger brother appeared, they could hold their heads high; after her son appeared, she could also hold her head high in Peijia Village.

“That’s all nonsense,” Li Laidi said crudely. “Why do you insist on having a son? What’s wrong with a daughter compared to a son? I was born missing one or two things, but I haven’t wronged my parents. Now, it’s me sending money home every month. My brother is making them work every day! Even if we had a son, would they treat my daughter better?”

… Tang Zhaodi stared blankly at her, feeling that every word Li Laidi said was stabbing her in the heart. She suddenly realized that her desire to have a son, from beginning to end, was for her own pride. She had never thought about whether Xiaoping was doing well when she was struggling. And after she was doing well… was Xiaoping doing well?

From her angle, she could clearly see Xiaoyu’s lowered face. In an instant, it was as if she saw the Xiaoping of the past, so thin and timid, not daring to say a word, only knowing how to please her. She had only been in S City for a little over a month, and Xiaoping had become a beautiful girl who loved to smile. But had she, as her mother, paid any attention to that?

“Zhao Di, I didn’t mean to get angry with you.” Li Laidi realized she had lost her temper and quickly composed herself. “I just haven’t been able to figure out what.”

“What don’t you understand?”

“When I was little, I fought with my family, I tried my best to prove I was better than my brother… It’s still like that now. Even though every time I go home, I give my brother more money and do all the housework, my parents only talk about how good my brother is.” Li Laidi felt that Tang Zhaodi would understand her because they had similar names. You could find several people with similar names in the village, all with similar meanings: praying for a son. “I’m not afraid of losing face. Let me tell you, my brother doesn’t do any work at home. My parents are so old, yet they still go to the fields every day. All the money from selling the goods goes to my brother. At New Year’s, I brought home a few hundred yuan, and my mother smiled so hard her eyes narrowed. She secretly told me, ‘Laidi, your brother has become sensible. He gave me ten yuan,’ and then she immediately gave the rest to my brother with a heavy heart. She said she was afraid my brother would suffer.”

Tang Zhaodi couldn’t speak, her head lowered. How much did she empathize with what Li Laidi was saying? She had experienced this before. When her younger brother was little, she and her sisters took care of him. Whenever he was naughty and fell or got hurt, their parents would fly into a rage, saying they couldn’t even take care of their little brother properly.

She had felt wronged at times, but her sisters said it was their fate, what could they do, being girls? She quickly forgot about that feeling of injustice. Having endured it so much, she took it for granted and began to hypnotize herself into believing that this was just how the world was, that older sisters should give way to their younger brothers, that the whole family depended on them. Then she started revolving around her brother, no longer feeling the pain.

“Do you know what Xiaoyu’s original name was?” Li Laidi suddenly asked.

Tang Zhaodi shook her head.

“Pandi,” Li Laidi said sarcastically. “Is that funny?”

Tang Zhaodi couldn’t laugh. She noticed that when Pandi was mentioned, Xiaoyu subconsciously raised her head, her eyes slightly dazed.

“When I brought Xiaoyu to S City, I forced my husband to change her name.” Li Laidi’s voice was a little deep. “Neither my husband nor I have been to school, and I didn’t know what to use. I heard that jade is expensive, so I named her this. She doesn’t have to wait for her younger brother; she’s my precious daughter.”

Where did Xiaoping’s name come from? Tang Zhaodi couldn’t remember for a moment. She only remembered that her father-in-law went to ask the brigade leader to choose the characters after Xiaoping was born, and that’s how they got her name. Zihao’s name was a little different. Her parents-in-law took a lot of money and went to a fortune teller in Heping Township. The fortune teller wrote on red paper, looking at the birth chart and destiny, and circled several names. Finally, after going through them at home, they chose the two characters Zihao.

“But it’s all better now.” Li Laidi rubbed her daughter’s head, indicating that everything was alright. Because the name was changed relatively late, her daughter still reacted strongly to the name Pandi. “I earn more money than my man at the garment factory, and he doesn’t dare to say a word. If he wants a son, let him have one himself. I’ll just stay with Xiaoyu.” A mother’s love makes her strong. In the first half of her life, she thought that if she worked hard enough, she could please others. In the second half of her life, she only wanted to please herself.

“Yes, Sister Li will get better and better.” Tang Zhaodi muttered to herself, but she had many thoughts on her mind.

It was as if she had completely forgotten the wronged little girl she used to be, and then let her daughter become another version of herself. Ironically, it was her husband, who hadn’t experienced anything like that, who was protecting her daughter.

Her once exceptionally firm beliefs were now severely shaken and on the verge of collapse.

They chatted as they walked, and soon arrived at their destination. Li Laidi led the way to a wholesale street near the compound. Though small, it was well-equipped, with few shops but everything one could need. However, new customers were often overcharged; only experienced shoppers could find clothes they liked at reasonable prices.

Tang Zhaodi, of course, had no such experience. She followed closely behind Li Laidi, who, knowing she was buying clothes for her mother-in-law and husband, led them to the clothing stores directly opposite each other on the second floor. One store sold clothes for middle-aged and elderly women, while the other sold men’s clothes. Both were crowded with people, seemingly competing to see who could shout the loudest.

The clothes here aren’t like those in a shopping mall, with lots of mannequins and elaborate displays. Instead, they simply have a batch of slightly more eye-catching styles hanging on horizontal wardrobes, while the rest are piled on the floor for people to browse. Every now and then, people carrying large bags of good stock emerge, sweating profusely, seemingly unfazed by the sheer number of customers.

“Boss, I’ll take these two. This isn’t my first time here, give me a discount!” Li Laidi has a sharp eye. Having worked in the factory for a long time, she’s developed some skills in selecting clothes. She can recognize things like stitching and fabric; she won’t be fooled by appearances alone. She recommended the clothes to Tang Zhaodi, then helped her negotiate the price. After paying, they went downstairs together.