Every Family Has Its Own Difficult Sutra to Recite

Fang Bai had no idea what others thought of him riding a new bike, but he was feeling pretty pumped.

As he got closer to home, a familiar nervousness crept in—he kind of missed what home looked like.

"Hey, isn't that Fang Shi's son? A fellow villager who works with him at the valve factory said he lost three fingers to a machine. Tsk, so young, what a tragedy."

"Yeah, finding a job and a wife is gonna be tough now. Really unlucky."

"Whose bike is he borrowing? It's brand new."

Along the road, many villagers cast pitying glances at Fang Bai and started gossiping right away.

Fang Bai wasn't riding fast, so he caught quite a bit of chatter. He didn't say anything—he'd gotten used to it in his past life.

Besides, the villagers weren't wrong. Losing the middle three fingers meant his right hand had no strength, making it hard to earn a living.

When he was about a hundred meters from home, he ran into Second Aunt, a neighbor, who called out to him. Fang Bai had to brake and stop to talk.

"Fang Bai, you're out of the hospital?"

"Yeah, just got discharged."

"Oh, with all this trouble, what are your plans for the future?"

"I'll take it one step at a time, heh." Fang Bai smiled, brushing it off. If he said he'd repeat a grade, people would think he couldn't afford it.

If he said he'd start a business, they'd laugh at him. Before long, the whole village would know he didn't know his place—talking about business!

"That won't do. You can find some light work, save up more money, and get married early. Look, there are plenty of guys over thirty in the village who aren't married. Don't join that crowd."

Fang Bai kept up his smile. Back then, if you weren't married by thirty, villagers would say something was wrong with your head. But thirty years later, there'd be plenty of bachelors over thirty in the village.

They chatted a bit, then he continued biking home.

From the villagers' attitudes, they didn't see a future for him—basically wrote him off.

Any little news in the village spread fast. The old men and women gathered under the banyan tree at the village entrance were all propaganda pros, ready to dig up every detail of his family's business.

As he got closer to home, the road narrowed and twisted, rutted by oxcarts into layers of grooves. Biking was tough, so Fang Bai got off and pushed.

He ran into a few villagers coming back from the fields with farm tools, and some kids too. He knew most of them and exchanged greetings.

"Brother Bai, I heard from the villagers that your hand's broken, you can't work, and you can't get a wife. Is that true?" A kid about five or six spotted Fang Bai and chased after his bike, asking bluntly. Kids didn't hold back—they said whatever came to mind, which left Fang Bai a bit awkward.

"Uh, it's my fingers that are broken, and they've been reattached. It's not my hand. Who's the loudmouth spreading that?"

Seeing Fang Bai annoyed, the little brat took a good look at his hand before running off, shouting to his buddies: "Brother Bai's fingers are broken, not his hand! I saw it clearly!"

Hearing the kid yell that, Fang Bai gave a wry smile and kept walking toward home.

Fang Bai's village sat at the foot of a mountain. Most houses were brick-and-wood, with red walls and black tiles—simple but cozy.

In this era, building a two-story house in the countryside was still rare, but in Jiangnan Province's rural areas, people were generally well-off, so two-story houses were more common, often with prefabricated floor slabs.

In Fang Bai's village, about sixty to seventy percent of families had already built two-story houses, mostly in recent years.

But his family didn't have the money for that.

Fang Bai's home mainly consisted of three south-facing tiled rooms and two side rooms.

His parents had one bedroom. The central room served as the main hall and living room. The other bedroom was shared by Fang Bai and his younger sister, each with their own bed.

The side rooms were the kitchen and bathroom, very basic. The bathroom especially leaked when it rained, and it didn't even have a light—you had to bathe while it was still bright out.

In front of the house was a small vegetable plot, about a tenth of an acre, where they grew seasonal greens.

Just as Fang Bai parked his bike in front of the central hall, his younger sister Fang Tingting, who was reading in her bedroom, heard noise outside. She stepped out, saw it was her brother, and lit up with joy.

She was a second-year junior high boarder at Oubei No. 1 Middle School, had come home yesterday afternoon, and would head back to school tomorrow, Sunday.

"Older brother, you're back from the hospital! I wanted to visit you there, but Mom said you were already discharged, so I didn't go." As she spoke, her eyes reddened. "I only found out yesterday when I got home and heard the villagers talking. It scared me to death."

Fang Tingting checked her brother's hands as she talked. Seeing the obvious scars on his right middle three fingers, she couldn't hold back her tears. "Brother, does it still hurt?"

Fang Bai patted her head—she was a head shorter than him—and looked at her frail frame, so thin a typhoon could blow her over. His heart wasn't in a good place either.

His sister was carefree but did well in school. She'd later get into a second-tier normal university and become a teacher.

When he got married, she was as happy as a blooming flower, her laughter echoing through the whole village. To her, her brother marrying a pretty, educated sister-in-law was a huge source of pride.

Later, when she learned that her niece and sister-in-law had passed away one after another, she was devastated. Seeing her brother choke up, unable to cry, she hugged him and sobbed uncontrollably.

In her eyes, her brother was the family's pillar. He'd sacrificed his chance to repeat a grade, worked to earn money, and put her through school. She felt she owed him so much, but with her personality and lack of ability, she'd always carried that guilt.

During those years when Fang Bai was drifting aimlessly, his sister lost her usual cheerfulness and energy, doing her best to help him find his drive again.

Pushing aside the past, Fang Bai gave a gentle smile. "It doesn't hurt anymore. I'm all healed. Don't worry. Are Mom and Dad home?"

"Dad's here. Mom just left a little while ago—said she was going to Second Aunt-in-law's place. Hey, whose bike is this? It's so new. Brother, you didn't..." Fang Tingting wiped her tears, her expression shifting to surprise.

"Pfft, I bought it." Fang Bai shot his sister a glare and grumbled, "Can you not jump to the worst conclusion?"

He didn't plan to hide the bike—having it was convenient, for himself and the family.

He intended to tell his family he'd gotten a thousand yuan in compensation from the boss, plus his wages. He'd give them eight hundred for emergencies and keep some for himself.

As for the rest of the money, Fang Bai wouldn't mention it. Buying equipment cost three thousand, renting a place cost three hundred sixty, and there'd be other unexpected expenses. He needed to keep some funds for turnover. Once he earned more, he'd make it up to the family—a month or two wouldn't matter.

Right now, Fang Bai had to plan every cent, wishing he could split one yuan into two.

"Ah, where did you get the money?"

"Robbed a bank. Lucky for me, your brother's a fast runner."

"Tch, fine, don't tell me. When Mom asks you tonight, you'll still spill everything. Can you escape her needle?"

"Heh, I remember two years ago, someone got mischievous and did something bad. Her hand got pricked by a needle, and she cried buckets, hiding in the corner saying 'no, no'..."

"Ah, stop it, stop it!" Hearing her embarrassing story, Younger Sister shyly covered her brother's mouth to keep him from going on.

Fang Bai laughed heartily, pushed her little hand away, wiped his mouth, and said with disgust, "Your hands are filthy. Did you not wash them after using the bathroom?"

"Hehe, you caught me." Fang Tingting joked.

"Gross. Seriously, why did Mom go to Second Aunt-in-law's house?" Fang Bai was a bit curious about why his mother would visit Second Aunt-in-law at this hour, but he could roughly guess—it was probably to borrow money for his repeat year.

Even if Second Aunt-in-law had money, she wouldn't lend it to them. In his past life, when he had an accident, his father went to borrow and failed.

Fang Bai knew his second uncle and aunt's family all too well. There were plenty of conflicts between the two households, mostly caused by his grandparents' favoritism.

His grandfather had four children: the eldest uncle, the fourth uncle who died young, and Fang Bai's father was the third.

Second Uncle Fang Lei was five years older than Fang Bai's father, Fang Shi, and had better grades. His grandparents fully supported him, but treated the third son indifferently. Back then, to save trouble, they named Fang Bai by taking a character from Second Uncle's name.

Grandfather made Fang Bai's father give up his studies to earn work points and support Second Uncle's education. Later, Second Uncle got into a technical secondary school, which was impressive at the time, but after graduating and getting assigned a job, he looked down on the third brother, who was still farming.

After Fang Bai's mother married into the family, she kept bringing this up, arguing with his grandparents, saying the old folks were unfair. Not only had Second Uncle gone to technical school, but even when she got married and the family split property, she got nothing.

Over the years, Fang Bai's mother had held a grudge and didn't want to interact with Second Uncle's family, and they didn't want anything to do with them either.

In recent years, Fang Bai's mother worked as support staff at Yongjia Middle School and had to force herself to greet Second Aunt-in-law, who taught there.

Now that the kids were older, Fang Bai's mother was truly desperate. She had borrowed from every relative she could, so she braced herself and went to ask for help, hoping Second Aunt-in-law would let bygones be bygones and help out for the children's sake.

If Fang Bai's mother really went to borrow money, she'd most likely be turned away at the door.

Around 2010, when Fang Bai's hometown was developed and demolition brought in a lot of money, Second Uncle and Second Aunt-in-law popped up again, claiming they should get a share.

At that time, Fang Bai's mother cursed them: "Back in the '80s, when the production team divided the farmland, it had nothing to do with you city folks!"

They didn't get any of Fang Bai's family's share, but his still-living grandmother gave her and Grandpa's demolition money to Second Uncle's family.

Still, Fang Bai's mother couldn't be bothered to argue. Maybe after a few more curses, the old folks would be in the ground, and besides, her relationship with them had been neither good nor bad over the years.

Fang Bai remembered these things clearly. It wasn't unique to his family—many households had similar situations.

He didn't exactly hate his grandparents or Second Uncle's family, but he was cold toward them. Indifferent. Everyone just lived their own lives.

Ah, every family has its own troubles.

"I don't know. Ask Dad."

As the siblings talked, their father, busy in the kitchen, heard the voices and came out. Seeing his son pushing a new bike back, he was surprised, but he cared more about his son's hand. He looked it over carefully, and when his son said it didn't bother him, he felt relieved but also guilty. If the family weren't so poor, his son wouldn't have gone to work in a factory.

"Your mom went to your Second Aunt-in-law's house to talk about your repeat year. She hopes you can do it at Yongjia Middle School, since the teachers there are good, and it'd be easier to get into college."

"What's the point of asking her? I've already decided to study at Oubei No. 1 Middle School." Fang Bai frowned.

Yongjia Middle School was a key high school, much better than Oubei No. 1 Middle School. He hadn't gotten in back then.

"I told her that, but she wouldn't listen. She wanted to try anyway." Fang Shi sighed. He had also tried to borrow money from his brother, but failed, and his sister-in-law even mocked him, saying her own son's schooling left no spare cash, not even two or three hundred. But he didn't plan to tell his son that.

"I'll go over and tell Mom to stop messing around." After saying that, Fang Bai turned the bike around, quickly got on, and rode off, ignoring the bumpy road.

Fang Shi watched his son leave, too late to stop him.

Still, he hoped his son would catch up in time, to avoid being nagged by his sister-in-law.

Seeing his son go, Fang Shi decided to buy some pork and make a meat dish for the kids tonight.