A Returned Educated Youth's Everyday Life Raising Kids

Little Pei Jinhuan thinks she is the happiest child in the world.

Although she was born in the countryside, she soon moved to the city with her mother, got an urban household registration, and started eating rationed grain.

While the other children could only eat rice cereal, her mother was already giving her milk.

While the other children were celebrating and showing off their new clothes, her mother had already opened a clothing store named after her.

Still, she has one little worry of her own. Other children's parents live together, so when will her own parents live together?

At sixteen, Zhao Mulan was full of enthusiasm and volunteered to go to the countryside, joining the great cause of rural development.

At twenty-six, all Zhao Mulan wanted was to take her daughter back to the city, get an urban household registration, and eat rationed grain.

To return to the city, Zhao Mulan and her husband filed for divorce, and she left their daughter with him. She planned to get settled in the city first, then bring her daughter there.

But the night before she was due to return, Zhao Mulan suddenly had a dream. In it, after going back to the city, her family ostracized her, and she couldn't find a job or register her residence.

By the time she finally managed to get a household registration by marrying an older divorced man, she returned to the countryside to fetch her daughter, only to discover that the girl had already died.

Waking with a start, Zhao Mulan looked at her daughter nestled in her arms and resolved to take her back to the city with her.

As for her divorced husband, he wasn't part of her plans. They had never been a couple in love to begin with.

But after the man showered her with money, gold, and a house, Zhao Mulan said, "Feelings can grow over time, can't they?"

A little scene:

One day, while Pei Shuchen was teaching his daughter calligraphy, he pointed to the ink spreading across the rice paper and said, "True friendship comes from knowing one another. What need is there for gold or money? It means that relationships between people are based on affection and understanding, not money and self-interest."

The little girl rolled her bright eyes and looked up. "But Mom said that if you hadn't had that little Western-style house back then, she wouldn't have gotten together with you."

Pei Shuchen gave a dry cough and awkwardly explained, "Uh... well... things were different in ancient times. You can't compare some things directly. We have to look at this issue dialectically..."

Theme: Strive hard