Du Ruo: What does this aunt want to say?
"Xiao Du, are there many female students at your school?"
At this point, Du Ruo realized what this aunt wanted; was she trying to find a match for which Comrade Fang?
She thought of their school.
Comrade Fang indeed had no partner.
She had also heard about it from Sister Yun.
It seemed he only wanted to earn money; he hadn’t considered anything else.
"Many." Du Ruo nodded in response.
Mrs. Zhao’s ultimate goal was to probe Du Ruo’s opinion of Fang Chaoyang.
"How many of them are already married?"
After thinking for a bit, Du Ruo said, "In these past two years, they were generally recent graduates. In the first few years when college entrance exams were resumed, there were recent graduates, but more Educated Youths, and most of those Educated Youths were already married, though, of course, there were also those who had divorced."
There were too many divorces for the sake of a better future.
Du Ruo was glad that college entrance exams had resumed before she graduated from high school, sparing her from having to go to the countryside.
When her older brothers and sisters went to the countryside, she was still young.
Now they either managed to get back to the city for college, or found a job in the city.
Mrs. Zhao also knew many Educated Youths who had divorced to go back to the city.
Back then, Laosan’s Wife had made a fuss with Laosan.
In the end, no one knew exactly what happened, but Laosan ended up also taking the exam to come to the Capital City for college with his wife.
Not getting a divorce was also a good thing.
"Then, Xiao Du, do you know any decent female classmates who are still single?"
Most of the female students in her class were unmarried.
"Aunt, who are you planning to matchmake?"
Mrs. Zhao started explaining with a smile, "Isn’t Xiao Yang still single? Just thought of matching him to see if it would work."
"Despite Xiao Yang being at this age without a partner, his parents passed away early, and it was his grandma who raised him and his siblings. They were very poor, and in the past years, they even struggled to have enough food. He also wasn’t very healthy and endured disdain from his uncles and aunts, who believed they were wasting their charity on their nephew and niece."
Du Ruo was somewhat surprised.
She really didn’t know about this.
Sister Yun hadn’t mentioned these things about Fang Chaoyang to her.
Seeing Du Ruo visibly shocked, Mrs. Zhao continued, "Xiao Yang is a good kid, not afraid of hard work, not afraid of suffering. Before his parents died, he attended school and was the top student in his class. After his parents’ accident, he stopped attending school, but he didn’t give up on learning. When my Laosan reached high school, Xiao Yang would come to borrow books to read..."
From what Mrs. Zhao said, Du Ruo imagined a thin figure carrying the weight of his family forward.
He wanted to study, but they couldn’t even afford meals, let alone schooling.
Yet he didn’t let this defeat him; instead, he self-studied by borrowing books.
"Xiao Yang is considerate and a very capable young man with a particularly good demeanor. He works at a garment factory, seems to be some kind of assistant director, and now he’s also attending night school, apparently studying something about management. I don’t know, does management need studies? I also heard from Laosan’s Wife that Xiao Yang has bought a house, so there won’t be any problem accommodating the family."
Mrs. Zhao’s words were aimed at informing Du Ruo about Fang Chaoyang’s current situation.
He has a job, earns money.
Attends night school, shows ambition.
Even owns a house, doesn’t need to depend on others.
Essentially, Mrs. Zhao emphasized all of Fang Chaoyang’s strengths.
There were still some flaws to discuss.
"Xiao Yang, well, he speaks little. While Xiao He and Da Li are loud and boisterous, he just sits quietly on the side, listening to them."