[100] Learning Is Useless

Though Rongruo was angry, she still rushed to tidy up and cook after returning home. In the end, Fang Chang'an went with Fang Changming to the little restaurant run by Fang Lu-cheng in the south of the village to collect the dishes, and on the way they called for Fang Lu-sheng, Fang Lu-peng, Fang Lu-yong, and Fang Changfeng.

The group came bustling over, exchanged greetings, and sat down in the main room, where they began chatting noisily and at random.

From Fang Chang'an's experience, there were very few households where a wife truly did all the cooking alone, but there was no doubt that women still bore most of the burden, while Fang Lu-guo mostly came only to hurry things along or carry dishes.

Children and women did not sit at the table, but Fang Lu-sheng, Fang Changfeng, and the others would usually call them to eat together. Fang Chang'an and the others naturally knew enough to refuse politely, and all stayed in the cramped kitchen to tend the fire and carry dishes.

The home-cooked dishes were all plain vegetables; the marinated dishes and cold appetizers were brought from the shop. Fang Lu-jun had never been stingy about food and drink, buying generous portions of everything, and even set out two plates here.

Fang Changming and Fang Yanran would sneak a piece of meat now and then. Fortunately, after Fang Chang'an's repeated lessons, they had at least remembered to use chopsticks, and even knew to feed their mother and older brother one bite or two.

They had brought four dishes from the shop, and at home had prepared cold cucumber salad, preserved eggs, shredded potatoes, stir-fried green peppers with egg, and celery. Fang Chang'an and Fang Changming carried them over, and by then the steamed buns on the coal stove were thoroughly heated through. Rongruo let the three children eat first, and she herself set a pot of spinach-and-egg soup on the stove, then began eating at the chopping board in the kitchen.

Night had already fallen. In the main room, they were drinking, chanting boxing calls, boasting, and making a great racket. The four members of the family sat huddled together in the cramped, shabby kitchen. In the dim glow of the tungsten bulb, there was still a kind of homely warmth that soothed the soul.

Fang Lu-jun came by once more, glanced at the four of them, and asked in a low voice, "Is the egg soup ready?"

Rongruo looked at him, set down her steamed bun, and stood up. Fang Lu-jun said, "Forget it, forget it. You eat yours. Don't let the children say again that I don't know how to feel for their mother..."

Rongruo said nothing. She went to ladle out the soup, and Fang Lu-jun waited until it was ready, then carried a basinful away.

Rongruo asked Fang Chang'an and the others, "Chang'an, do you want some?"

Before Fang Chang'an could answer, Fang Changming hurriedly said, "I don't want any."

"I don't want any either," Fang Yanran said.

They were both already full and wanted to go inside to watch television, but were afraid their mother would not allow it, so they lingered there.

Fang Chang'an filled a bowl of soup, broke off half a steamed bun and soaked it in the broth as he ate, when he suddenly heard a soft laugh from the courtyard: "Still not finished eating?"

Fang Chang'an looked over. A plump middle-aged woman was standing in the yard, slightly bent as she peered this way. It was Chen Qiaoqiao, Fang Lu-sheng's wife, and also Fang Ying's mother.

"Come in and sit."

Rongruo quickly stood to greet her. Chen Qiaoqiao smiled and said, "You go on eating, you go on eating. I finished and came over. I was afraid I'd end up drinking too much again."

Rongruo sat down and continued eating, sighing, "It's no use saying anything. I can't control him."

Fang Chang'an gave Fang Changming a look, and Fang Changming promptly gave up the little stool he had been sitting on and called, "Auntie, you sit."

"It's all right, all right, you sit properly."

Chen Qiaoqiao hurriedly declined politely, but Fang Changming had already run out, saying, "I'm full."

Chen Qiaoqiao came over and sat down. Seeing that their mother was too busy to watch them, Fang Changming secretly slipped into the inner room of the main house to watch TV. Fang Yanran saw this and, thinking herself equally unnoticed, also slipped out.

Fang Chang'an continued eating his soaked bun at an unhurried pace, listening to his mother chat idly with Chen Qiaoqiao.

Men gathered to drink and play cards; women gathered to talk about household matters. That was, in Fang Chang'an's memory, the usual state of things.

Chen Qiaoqiao complained a few words to Rongruo about how fond those men were of drink. In Fang Chang'an's recollection, Fang Lu-sheng was actually fairly restrained when it came to drinking, and rarely truly got drunk, unlike Fang Lu-jun and Fang Lu-yong, who did not need anyone to urge them at all and had the stubborn determination to keep drinking until they had first drowned themselves in it.

After a few remarks, Chen Qiaoqiao looked at Fang Chang'an and smiled. "I heard from Yingying that Chang'an came first in the whole school on this test?"

Fang Chang'an shyly and modestly replied, "It was just a placement exam. It doesn't really count."

"That's still impressive."

Chen Qiaoqiao praised him with a smile. "Unlike ours. Not one of them is cut out for school."

She and Fang Lu-sheng had four children. The eldest, Fang Ying, was a year older than Fang Chang'an. The second, Fang Changyi, was a few months younger. They had been classmates in primary school and were now attending junior middle school in the neighboring village. The third and fourth were in the same grades as Fang Changming and Fang Yanran respectively, both in primary school, and their grades were indeed a total mess.

Fang Chang'an smiled but did not answer.

Rongruo asked, "How is Changyi doing now?"

"Oh, still the same."

Chen Qiaoqiao sighed. "Just the other day, the day before yesterday I think, his teacher called to say he got into a fight with classmates at school..."

In the countryside at this time, there were not many parents who truly cared about schooling, and Fang Lu-sheng and Chen Qiaoqiao were not among them. The four children of the Fang family were all poor students, not because they were especially stupid, but because their parents seldom bothered to manage them.

When neither father nor mother disciplines them, grades are basically left to fate. In fact, Fang Changyi's performance had once been decent; in third grade he could still rank around the top ten in his class. Then he slowly started playing around, and with his parents not intervening, he became wilder and wilder, until he was practically flooring the accelerator on the way downhill.

Since ancient times, China has held the value that all callings are inferior to scholarship. Chen Qiaoqiao and Fang Lu-sheng shared that belief, so if their children did well in school, they were naturally happy, feeling that perhaps one of them might become a future scholar.

But if the grades were poor, there was nothing to be done. They had already sent them to school and given them the chance to study; that was enough. If the children themselves did not treasure it, then later no one could blame the parents.

Their energy and time were mainly spent on how to make money, saving up a little property for the children so they could marry and settle down. Their duty would then be done, and after that they would help where they could.

That was the parents' measure of one another.

Good grades were naturally a glorious thing, something to boast about. Otherwise, Fang Lu-sheng and Chen Qiaoqiao would not have let Fang Ying repeat a year and then sent her from the middle school in the neighboring village to the town school.

But the most important gate through which one must pass was the college entrance examination. Getting into university was a source of honor for the entire family; if one could not get in, then one would still have to go out and work.

At this time universities had not yet expanded enrollment on the later scale and were rare and precious. University entrance was difficult, and if one could not pass, then it was better to go out and work sooner rather than waste time.

This point in life was usually after junior middle school graduation. Of course, there were also many who drifted through high school, or who failed to get into high school; if the family's circumstances were good, they would also be sent to a technical school to muddle through for another three years before going out to work.

In short, if the children of other families at this age were all still in school, then you could not stay at home, or people would laugh at you.

The three Fang siblings all had good grades, and Fang Chang'an in particular stood out. He had been known in the village since primary school as a model student, and Chen Qiaoqiao was somewhat envious of that, feeling that Fang Lu-jun had accumulated merit and that his children were all sensible.

But that was as far as it went. In her heart she still looked down on this family. After complaining about her son for a few sentences, she changed the subject and said, "Well, if he just isn't suited to books, then let him finish junior middle school and find him something to do, learn a skill..."

Her tone still carried a touch of resentment toward his lack of promise, but then it turned light and casual: "Anyway, no matter what he turns out like, with your brother Sheng's big truck, Changyi here won't have to worry about finding a daughter-in-law."

Meaning that even if their son did poorly in school and had no real ability, with the two of them as his parents, earning a household fortune and arranging a path for him, they could still make sure he lived well.

Given the context before and after, there was another implication in those words: that Rongruo and Fang Lu-jun were no capable people either. But that disparagement was subtle and vague enough that one could also take it as simple boasting.

Rongruo was a delicate and sensitive woman, so naturally she could hear the undertone in Chen Qiaoqiao's words. Combined with Chen Qiaoqiao's usual manner and her somewhat domineering, sharp-tongued character, she could only interpret it in the way most in keeping with her nature.

But facts were facts: their family really did live better than hers. Not only did they have more land and a better harvest, Fang Lu-sheng had also bought a big truck, which he used to haul freight in his spare time or rented out to others, making even more than he did from the fields.

It was said that one year, when Fang Lu-sheng was out playing cards, Chen Qiaoqiao went looking for him late at night. Fang Lu-sheng had been winning at first, so she did not call for him, but stood beside him watching her husband play and even helping direct him. Later he lost. Unwilling to accept it, she went home herself to fetch money for Fang Lu-sheng so he could win it back, and the couple lost more than eight thousand in a single night.

This story had spread through several villages nearby. On the one hand, people liked to talk about it; on the other, they marveled at just how solid the family's foundation was. After all, in those days, being able to take out eight thousand yuan from a rural household was truly as rare as a phoenix feather or a unicorn horn.

Rongruo had been generous of nature since childhood, and after marriage had gradually developed a very patient temperament. Though unhappy inwardly, she showed none of it and continued chatting idly with Chen Qiaoqiao about household matters.

Chen Qiaoqiao had regained the face she had lost over her children's poor grades, and her mood was bright. After that, she did not really offer any more veiled mockery, though when she spoke, pride still inevitably showed through.

For instance, when asked about Fang Lu-jun preparing to go out and work, she sighed, "It's hard to make money outside too. Leaving home, unfamiliar with the place, and with no telephone installed at home, if anything happens it's not even convenient to tell people..."

Rongruo only sighed and said, "If you can't make money at home, what can you do?"

They chatted a while longer, and then Chen Qiaoqiao went to call Fang Lu-sheng to go home. Fang Lu-jun and the others dispersed as well, and Fang Chang'an followed his parents to see them out.

Fang Lu-jun, warmed by drink, after seeing the guests off, still wanted to go greet his parents. Rongruo tried to stop him but could not, and could only sigh helplessly. She simply turned a blind eye and went back to tidy up.

Fang Changming and Fang Yanran were still watching TV in the inner room. Fang Chang'an helped his mother clear away the bowls, chopsticks, and plates, studying her expression as he asked softly, "Mom, how much can someone earn in a year if they run freight like Uncle Sheng?"

Rongruo was no longer very surprised by the maturity her son had been showing lately. After a brief hesitation she said, "I don't know exactly. A few thousand yuan, I guess."

"That's quite a lot."

Fang Chang'an nodded, then smiled and said, "But it's not really that much, is it? Aunt Sheng makes it sound as if it's something amazing. Don't mind her. Maybe in a few years it'll be her coming to our house to curry favor and flatter us."