Chapter 2101: Chapter 2061: Family Genealogy
Ye Qiu and Xiaomai were at home, it wasn’t lunchtime yet, when they saw Ye Weidong and his wife, along with Ye Xue, had returned again.
Ye Qiu was puzzled and asked, "Dad, Mom, why did you come back so early today?"
"We cleared things up at the restaurant, so we naturally came back."
Although Ye Weidong used to care a lot about face, after Ye Qiu’s reminder, he became much more low-key. After all, in Ye Weidong’s view, his son had given him everything, there was no need for such boasting. Clearly, the residents of the old textile factory community envied him greatly when they saw him.
Ye Weidong knew that the reason he had what he did today was thanks to his son, Ye Qiu.
"Ye Qiu, come over here, let me tell you about the situation back home."
One could say that Ye Qiu’s predecessor didn’t understand the home situation at all, and he understood even less.
As for Ye Xue, she seemed to know a bit, but she had only gone back a few times.
The previous times she went back, due to the cause of her polio, she was mocked by the villagers behind her back, and later she stopped going back.
Now, when Ye Xue heard her father mention the situation back home, she couldn’t help but feel like crying again.
"Chen Fang, go find that genealogy book."
Basically, every surname, even in small families, has its own genealogy book.
Like in Ye Weidong’s hometown where those with the surname Ye also have a genealogy book.
This genealogy might trace back to the earliest ancestors, possibly even thousands of years back.
These genealogy books are often updated every twenty years or so.
Because there are continuously new births.
When Chen Fang returned from the room with that thick genealogy book, it was Ye Qiu’s first time seeing such a genealogy book.
Of course, the so-called genealogy, by listening, one could guess what it was about.
For those royal families, and some large families, their genealogy might be richer, with more content recorded, while an ordinary person’s genealogy might just document a few generations, and the people involved, many events couldn’t be recorded because they’re just ordinary people, what’s there to record?
Now, Ye Weidong flipped the genealogy book to his page.
He is the twenty-eighth generation of the Ye Family, above are his parents’ names, next to it is Chen Fang’s name, and below would be Ye Qiu’s name.
And there was no mention of Ye Xue at all.
Why is that?
This isn’t because of male preference over females, it’s because daughters are to be married off, so even if they’re recorded in the genealogy, they’ll be recorded on the man’s side of their family.
As for those names without records underneath, just having only a name, it’s obvious, they’re bachelors.
This implies that, for the next generation, there will be no heirs, and in rural people’s eyes, this is considered extinction.
From this point, there’s a reason why boys have been valued so much throughout history.
Because even if there’s a daughter, unless it’s a live-in son-in-law situation, the son-in-law would have to take the woman’s surname, and get the family’s approval, and by then be recorded in the genealogy.
However, the son-in-law’s children must follow the woman’s surname.
This is also why the status of a live-in son-in-law is so low.
"Dad, are you an only child?" Ye Qiu asked surprised.
He saw the branches and figured it out, that Ye Weidong had no other brothers, but he wasn’t sure about the sisters because they weren’t recorded here.
"Let me tell you, your grandfather used to work at a state-owned enterprise, at the textile factory, then your grandfather retired, I took over his job, and got to know your mother Chen Fang. During your grandfather’s time, family planning policies had started, having extra children would mean not being able to work in state-owned enterprises."
Family planning?
Ye Qiu seemed to understand a little now.
So, in Ye Qiu’s generation, it’s evidently the same.
However, in Ye Xue’s case, having had polio, counting as disabled, under normal circumstances, they could have had another child due to the eugenics and health policy.
However, because they adopted Ye Qiu, who was male and healthy, they couldn’t have another, otherwise, they would have had to leave the textile factory.
State-owned enterprises back then were secure jobs, no one wanted to give up such secure jobs, and it wasn’t until after the opening-up when various aspects began to improve.
Many state-owned enterprises started to mismanage, leading to closures, so Ye Weidong and his wife had to leave the textile factory to do small businesses themselves.
For this part, since he absorbed all the soul consciousness of his predecessor, Ye Qiu was very clear.
"Your grandfather had four brothers, and two older sisters, and two younger sisters."
Four brothers, four sisters?
So does that make eight siblings?
This really made Ye Qiu somewhat incredulous.
However, soon, Ye Qiu thought back, for his grandfather’s generation, this was extremely common, having eight siblings was nothing unusual.
Before, maybe there wasn’t much food, but as long as they could feed the children, that was enough.
"Eight siblings?" Xiaomai, standing beside, was also surprised.
"In Ye Qiu’s grandfather’s generation, that was basically how things were, but it was a poor generation, just after liberation, life was still poverty-stricken, but back then, families had closer ties, siblings stayed close, but in my generation, due to family planning policies, Ye Qiu’s grandfather only had me, they didn’t dare have more, otherwise, they would lose their secure job, but my grandfather’s brothers — my uncles, and sisters, since they weren’t working at state enterprises, they secretly had several more kids."
Secretly had several more kids?
Although during Ye Qiu’s father’s time, the family planning policy was already in action, those who weren’t civil servants or working in state-owned enterprises couldn’t be controlled.
Even if the village cadres tried to handle it, many villagers just went to other places to have children, this led to the situation in Weidong’s generation.
Some could only have one child, but others still had five or six, or three or four.
Clearly, Weidong and his wife envied their sisters and brothers a little, they were the ones with many children, a household full of sons and daughters, and by the time it got to the grandchildren’s generation, there were a lot more.
On the contrary, his parents had just him, and by Ye Qiu’s case, it is just Ye Xue and Ye Qiu.
Comparing families with over ten members, or even more than twenty, he found it hard to believe.
But Weidong and his wife knew, with gains always came losses, if they had secretly had more kids and got reported, they wouldn’t have been able to continue at the old textile factory, wouldn’t have gotten the benefit of an old community house.
They also might not have been able to adopt Ye Qiu.
So, Weidong often thought, did heaven treat him well, or not?
Every time he thought about those things from before, he felt that heaven had been too nice to him, giving him the feeling of being above others, otherwise, he might have just lived ordinary till the end of his life.
