A Girl Traveling Through Troubled Times

Gui'er didn't expect Zhou Huifang's attitude to change so quickly. She smiled awkwardly and said, "Hey, it's nothing. Although it's a bit embarrassing, at least he worked hard to earn money, and that's enough."

Zhou Huifang said: "That's right, and I heard that Teacher Shen was actually married before. After her father died, the man's family didn't want her. She is a poor person." After saying that, she stared at Gui'er inquiringly.

Gui'er didn't want to talk about Miss Shen and Sha Yanyao's marriage, so she giggled and said, "Yeah, as long as they're happy, that's all. Why are you so sentimental today? Are you having any thoughts about marriage?"

After hearing this, Zhou Huifang said mysteriously, "My parents have been discussing marriage for me recently. They said it's with a man named Han who has some connection to the Song family."

Gui'er's curiosity was immediately piqued, and she asked, "Which Han family is it? Which Song family? Why don't I understand what you're saying?"

Zhou Huifang glanced at her with disdain and said, "Which Song family is the same Song family in our country?"

Gui Er was shocked and said, "Could it be that Song, Song Zi..."

"Hush!" Zhou Huifang quickly stopped her, saying, "You haven't even started with the ten strokes yet. I'm only telling you this out of our friendship. Don't tell anyone else."

Gui'er nodded, but she was a little confused, so she said, "Isn't the surname Song? Why is the surname Han now?"

Zhu Huifang patiently said, "It's indeed the Han family name, because their ancestors were adopted by someone else. This means that their relatives all have the Han family name. My father and several uncles have found out everything."

Gui'er thought for a moment and said with a smile, "If that's the case, then they are indeed a very prominent family, but wouldn't they already be quite distant relatives? If they are already five generations away from their parents, then even if the family is more prominent, it doesn't seem to matter."

Zhou Huifang got anxious when she heard this and said, "Are you jealous of me? You're saying only the worst of me."

Gui'er quickly said, "How could that be? I wish you the best, and I don't plan to get married myself, so there's nothing for me to be jealous of you."

Zhou Huifang, perhaps feeling she had gone too far, said, "I was just kidding. What? You're not getting married? Really? Then how are you going to spend the rest of your life? Who's going to support you?"

Guier knew that if she brought up this topic, many people would be surprised even in modern times, not to mention during the Republican era. So she patiently said, "What's so good about getting married? Look, we're attending the best schools in Nanjing right now. Isn't it to gain knowledge and improve our abilities? We can go out to work and support ourselves. Besides, marriage isn't a perfect lifestyle. Look, many of our teachers are married, and they still have to work."

Zhou Huifang curled her lips and said, "That's because teachers' salaries are high. Otherwise, who would come out to work? Don't you know that teachers in our school earn 100 silver dollars a month?"

Gui'er was very surprised and said, "It's such a high salary? How come you know so much?"

Zhou Huifang smiled and said, "I have a relative who works in the Education Bureau. Do you want to be a teacher? Let me tell you, it's not that easy. Just look at Teacher Shen, who you have a good relationship with. She studied abroad, and her father is a family friend of the director of the Education Bureau. Otherwise, she wouldn't have been able to get into our school. So, I say, Boss Xu is so broke now, but he still found Teacher Shen. He's quite capable."

Guier smiled and said, "I see."

Zhou Huifang said, "Don't think I'm unambitious. We all have advanced ideas, but the reality is that society simply doesn't offer that many choices to women. If we want to live a good life, we can only choose the best option within the environment we have access to, right?"

Gui'er was stunned. What Zhou Huifang said was indeed a realistic problem. Those classmates who got married right after graduation, or got married after working for one or two years after graduation, had participated in advanced gatherings and advanced ideas. Many of them had even participated in gatherings on how to rescue Xu Wenjie like herself. But the reality was so cruel, and they could not foresee the future, so it was naturally impossible for them to give up everything and pursue the utopia in their hearts.

Guier smiled and said to Zhou Huifang, "I sincerely wish you a happy marriage."

Zhou Huifang smiled happily.

After school, Ah Cheng came to pick up Gui'er. As Gui'er got on the rickshaw, she asked him, "How is your sister-in-law today?"

Ah Cheng said: "I went to see the doctor this morning and at noon. The doctor gave her a nutritional injection and prescribed some tranquilizers for her. He said that she should be observed for a while. If there is nothing serious, she can be discharged within a few days."

"Did my eldest brother and mother go to the hospital to see her?"

"Madam and the eldest young master didn't go. Now in the mansion, the maids and servants brought by the eldest young mistress seem to be treated coldly. Miss, what are you going to do?"

Gui'er hadn't really figured out what to do yet. Originally, Song Tingting had been hospitalized for something that was supposed to be about her mother-in-law, the lady, and Sha Yanyao. Inexplicably, it had become her own problem.

Ah Cheng said, "Miss, I have the guts to tell you that taking on this task is a thankless task. The eldest young mistress herself is not kind to you. Even if you take care of her, she won't be grateful to you. On the contrary, the mistress and the eldest young master are quite nice to you. If you do this, won't it be the same as not standing on their side? Will they blame you later? You already have a hard time in the mansion, and then..."

Gui'er sighed and said, "We can't just watch her lying in the hospital with no one to take care of her, right? I'm going to go home tonight and discuss with my eldest brother what we should do."

After a pause, she asked Ah Cheng again: "Did you go to see if there is any progress with Shopkeeper Zhang today?"

Ah Cheng said, "When I went to the hospital to see the eldest young master's wife at noon, I stopped by their place. They are still looking for someone. I was looking for the action team leader before, and now he says he can help me, and all he needs is 20 gold bars."

Gui'er felt something was wrong when she heard this and said, "Impossible! I heard that after Director Zhou passed away, everyone around him was left alone. How capable is this operations team leader? How could he get this done for so much less than Director Zhou asked for?"

Ah Cheng smiled and said, "Miss, you're smart. Du Lao Er and Brother Qiang thought the same thing, but they couldn't refuse directly, fearing that he would interfere. So they told him that they didn't have that much money on hand and hoped to rescue the people first. They would sell everything they had to get the 20 gold bars. In the end, when they saw that we didn't take the bait, they left."