Chapter 79 Lost Soul
After the Chinese New Year, Zhang Xiaonan will be 23 years old.

In the village and outside the village, it is extremely rare for a girl of this age to not be married.

As a father, Zhang Guorui was very worried.

Over the years, he has been worrying about his daughter's marriage. He asked his second brother Guoxiang to find one promising young man after another in government agencies, but Xiaonan didn't like this one and said that the other one was not suitable. He thought that his daughter focused on her career. After all, she was a government employee, unlike the girls who worked as farmers in the village, so he decided to let her get married later.

It was not until today, when he saw his daughter Xiaonan and Zhang Yunfeng sitting on the valley floor and talking about love at Jiangjunling, that he suddenly woke up. Xiaonan had been making excuses for not looking for a boyfriend, and it turned out that she had fallen in love with Zhang Liushun's eldest son Zhang Yunfeng!
Zhang Guorui had never expected this, and it could be said that he was not mentally prepared at all, but he suppressed his anger well and did not show any emotion in front of his daughter. He was just busy and thinking in his heart.

Now thinking back carefully, he found that many small details in life had already exposed their secret love. For example, since Xiaonan came back from the New Year, she would run to Zhang Liushun's house whenever she had time, saying that Zhang Liushun's daughter Chunlan was a good seedling and would soon take the high school entrance examination, and asked him to help with tutoring. Humph! Now it seems that it was all a cover-up!
Ah! I can only blame myself for being old and slow to react. I didn't find out about this scandal and put an end to it sooner. I don't know how far Xiaonan and Zhang Yunfeng have developed. But no matter what, he, Zhang Yunfeng, is a peasant. He wants to marry his precious daughter. Humph! Unless I suppress it!

Yes, he admitted that Zhang Yunfeng was a good young man. He was very good at dealing with people, and when he was doing farm work, everyone in the village had to step back.

The most eye-catching thing is that his family's shabby business has shown signs of prosperity. Last year, he made a lot of money from selling cigarettes. He even has a tractor that costs eight or nine thousand yuan. The truckload of New Year goods he bought from the city before the New Year made the villagers envious. The Changhong TV and Xinfei refrigerator that cost thousands of yuan were rare items. Few people in the village could afford them. But a peasant is a peasant! No matter how hard Zhang Yunfeng tried, he could not escape the miserable life of digging in the soil. How could he be worthy of his daughter who was fed by the government?
It's not his fault that he is snobbish. At his age, he has already seen through love and romance, and they cannot stand the test of time and life. Although the country has been advocating free love and breaking down feudal ideas, the old tradition of marrying someone of equal social status, which has been passed down for thousands of years, has its rationality as long as it can still exist.

Zhang Guorui has lived for most of his life, and half of his body is already buried in the ground. There is really nothing to look forward to. His only wish now is that his children can have a good home, and not live in poverty like his generation. However, he does not want to hurt his daughter Xiaonan, so he pretends to be ignorant of the matter between his daughter and Zhang Yunfeng, even when his daughter secretly goes out to see Zhang Yunfeng, he pretends to be ignorant.

It was not until the tenth day of the Lunar New Year, when his daughter returned to the city to work, that Zhang Guorui took action.

He had severe knee arthritis and rarely went out unless there was something important to do. But during those few days, he had been wandering around the village, keeping an eye on Zhang Yunfeng's movements. It was not until the afternoon of the twelfth day of the first lunar month that he found a good opportunity and met the two brothers Zhang Yunfeng and Zhang Yunqi who were returning from New Year's greetings at the entrance of the village.

There was no one else at the entrance of the village at that time, so Zhang Guorui called out to Zhang Yunfeng.

Zhang Yunqi next to him was very knowledgeable about the ways of the world. He just said hello and left.

Zhang Yunfeng walked up to Zhang Guorui very stiffly.

In fact, ever since he and Xiaonan were caught by Zhang Guorui on Jiangjunling on the first day of the first lunar month, he had been feeling uneasy and had been wondering how Zhang Guorui would handle the matter. He knew that with Zhang Guorui's personality, he would definitely ask him to give an explanation for the matter, but Zhang Guorui had not taken any action during this period, and he even suspected that Zhang Guorui had not seen it at the time.

Zhang Guorui sat on a big rock in an open space by the roadside and chatted with him for a while before asking, "Yunfeng, how old are you this year?" Zhang Yunfeng replied in a daze, "I turned twenty-four in March."

"You're not young at this age." Zhang Guorui reached into his pocket to take out a cigarette. Zhang Yunfeng quickly handed the Furong King cigarette his younger brother Zhang Yunqi gave him to Zhang Guorui, took out a match and lit it for him. He took two puffs before saying, "The family was in a difficult situation before, and it was not easy for you to support your brothers and sisters. You delayed yourself. Now that the family conditions have improved, it's time to think about your own affairs."

Hearing this, Zhang Yunfeng became nervous again and was unable to say a word.

Zhang Guorui finished smoking a cigarette, extinguished the cigarette butt on the muddy ground, and then said with emotion: "Yunfeng, I watched you grow up. I think you are the most useful young man in the whole village. You are still single now. I think my wife has a distant niece from Heping Town. She is beautiful, with black eyebrows and big eyes. She has a good personality and works hard. If you are willing, go to Heping Town to meet this girl. It won't take more than two days."

Zhang Yunfeng said nothing.

Because the feeling of loss occupied his entire mind.

He did not believe that Zhang Guorui was kind enough to introduce the girl to him. Zhang Guorui clearly saw him and Zhang Xiaonan sitting in the valley, but he did not mention the matter at all. Instead, he made his attitude clear through this obscure and roundabout means: I do not agree with you being with my daughter!

In fact, he had already anticipated that Zhang Guorui would look down on him as a peasant, so how could he let himself get involved with his beautiful and promising daughter?

But this kind of understanding proved his incompetence, which made him even more painful and desperate! Yes, he liked Xiaonan, and Xiaonan also liked him, but this feeling was like the moon in the water, unrealistic and impossible to catch. Now Zhang Guorui's actions further proved this point.

After Zhang Guorui left, the distraught Zhang Yunfeng squatted on the ground for a long time, smoking one pipe after another until his eyes were red.

It was not until the sky gradually darkened that he brushed the dust off his butt and prepared to cheer up and go back. He did not want his family to see his miserable side. He wanted to set a good example for his younger brothers and sisters. No matter what time it was, he had to cheer up and face the difficulties of life.

But at this moment, Zhang Yunfeng heard footsteps behind him. He turned around and saw that it was his younger brother Yunqi. He asked in a daze, "Why are you here?"

Zhang Yunqi smiled and said, "I haven't left yet. I'm in the bamboo forest behind."

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(End of this chapter)