Page 520 - updated on July

Yu Jihui: “A Stinking Old Ninth – A Tale of the Coal Capital” (updated on July 2020)

leave and went back to his hometown in the south of

China. When he came back to school, he announced

that he had got married. His sister helped him find a

girl. He said nothing and married her. The girl was a

teacher at a primary school in a village.

One day I told Xi Si that I was getting impatient

to marry her and asked whether she would marry me

soon. She forced a smile and said, “I know. I know

you love me. I love you too. I agree to marry you, but

I don’t know whether my mother will agree or not. I

have to ask her for her permission. It was very hard

for my mother to bring me and my younger sisters up.

If I marry a man without her consent, she will be sad.

I don’t want to make her disappointed. She suffered

through a lot to bring us up. You know I have no

father…”

“So far as I know, you had a father for a while.

You told me that he died only two years ago.”

517