Chapter 13 Even in death, this scumbag is still the same.

Men are all despicable!

Zhong Ying had already seen through this fact when she was seven or eight years old.

Boys at that age, when cats and dogs hate them, often have an itchy hand and like to tease little girls of the same age. They might deliberately trip them up or pull their hair, and they're happy when they make the little girls cry.

After Zhong Cheng stood in front and kicked each of them, Xiao Zhongying found that kicking was still effective. Once these boys realized that you were not easy to bully, they would behave themselves. Isn't that just being a jerk?

Zhong Ying now thinks that even if a man dies, he'll still be like this.

The bastard initially tried to kill her, and Zhong Ying was terrified, but several times she stopped at the last moment. What, did her fear satisfy his twisted psychology? The more afraid she was, the more excited he became?

Even the most ruthless are afraid of those who have no regard for their lives. Last night, Zhong Ying gave up all hope and lay down to let him kill her, and the ghost actually ran away.

Even though Zhong Ying later practically insulted him and trampled on his reputation, he still didn't turn back to kill her.

Zhong Xin, still half asleep, came out of the room next to Zhong Ying's. "Sis, did you have a dream last night? I heard you talking in your sleep when I was half asleep. It sounded like you were cursing someone, saying something about meddling in other people's business."

“Yes, I dreamt that a man came up to me out of nowhere and started pointing and whispering,” Zhong Ying said without blinking. “Take this as a warning. If I find out you’re acting like that, I’ll be the first to teach you a lesson!”

Zhong Xin was startled by his sister's glare and quickly waved his hand, "I wouldn't."

"Don't you know what?" Deng Xia and Miao Suyun came out of the kitchen carrying food. She urged the siblings, "Hurry up and get ready to eat."

After the family finished eating, they all went to work. Old Man Zhong and Deng Xia took their youngest son, Zhong Xin, to the fields to water and fertilize. Miao Suyun carried Xiao Guoqiang on her back to do weeding. Zhong Ying went to the threshing ground to pick up the wheat that had fallen through the chaff.

However, not long after Zhong Ying arrived at the threshing ground, before she even started working, her mother, Deng Xia, came running back in a huff, furious.

"You foul-mouthed scoundrel, get out here right now!"

Deng Xia let out a roar that shook the entire threshing ground, and everyone's eyes were drawn to her.

Lai Hunzi, whose name she called out, trembled all over.

Deng Xia glared at her daughter with eyes that seemed to be spitting fire, furious at her daughter's lack of self-respect. "You little brat, you didn't even tell me when you got home after being told all this? You good-for-nothing, haven't you learned a thing or two from me all these years? You can't even yell back!"

Zhong Ying tilted her head in confusion. She had indeed cursed back, she had cursed back last night.

Lai Hunzi walked over with a smirk, smiling obsequiously at Deng Xia, "Zhong Lao Er's wife, why are you here looking for me instead of going to work?"

Deng Xia told Zhong Ying to stand aside and learn from her. She took a deep breath and, as if breathing fire, opened her mouth and cursed at the lazy bum, "What are you doing? Don't you know what you've done? Now the whole production team knows what nonsense you spouted yesterday! You shameless, foul-mouthed thing, you want my daughter to marry a dead person? Why don't you do that first? You're too old for that, you definitely can't find a living wife, so at least you can have a dead wife through a ghost marriage. Oh right, wasn't Widow Han poisoned because of you? You're not just looking for a wife, you're paying off a debt!"

After his past was exposed, Lai Hunzi almost couldn't catch his breath.

The reason why Lai Hunzi has been gambling away his entire fortune until he is this old is not only due to the objective factors of his parents dying early and his family having little wealth, but also due to subjective factors caused by himself.

Although Lai Hunzi was not tall and had an ordinary appearance when he was young, he was a young man in the prime of his life.

After the widow Han's husband died, she returned to Tonggan Village to stay with her brother and sister-in-law. She was then seduced by the smooth-talking and charming Lai Hunzi. Her brother and sister-in-law did not want to support their sister any longer, so after learning about their affair, they confronted Lai Hunzi and demanded that he take responsibility.

Remarriage is a matter of personal choice. Widow Han is still young and has no children, so she is willing to remarry. However, she never expected that her sweet-talking lover would deny it outright.

Lai Hunzi was just looking for something new and exciting; he wanted to marry a young, unmarried woman, not a widow several years his senior.

Unable to bear the thought of everyone knowing about the affair, and with Lai Hunzi denying everything, Widow Han impulsively drank pesticide. Her brother and sister-in-law, ashamed, also moved away from Tonggan Village.

Lai Hunzi wanted to find a wife again, but everyone knew about his despicable deeds and despised him. No one was willing to marry their daughter to him, so he remained a bachelor year after year.

Lai Hunzi sometimes couldn't help but wonder if he was being punished. If he had taken responsibility back then and married Widow Han, he wouldn't be without a wife and children now.

Now that Deng Xia had brought up his past mistakes, Lai Hunzi became furious. "A good young man gave his life to save your daughter and died without even a wife. Any kind-hearted girl would be willing to give her life to repay him, let alone arrange a ghost marriage with him!"

“My family gave the thank-you gift, my family helped with the funeral arrangements, and we also distributed the work points Chengzi earned,” Deng Xia said without backing down. “Even the Li family wouldn’t say they would ask my daughter to spend the rest of her life guarding his son. What are you saying here? Cat-crying and meddling! What’s it to you!”

Lai Hunzi choked, then suddenly remembered something and said with his neck stiff, "Captain Li's aunt is my mother, and I am Li's cousin. How can I not have the right to say that!"

In rural areas, most people are related by blood or marriage, like the intertwined roots of a tree; if you trace them back, you'll find that everyone has some kind of kinship.

"He's your nephew, not your son!" Deng Xia suddenly remembered what her daughter had said before and blurted it out, "You sonless widow, stop thinking about your nephew and start thinking about what will happen to you after you die!"

Upon hearing this, everyone in the threshing ground widened their eyes.

The term "extinction of the family line" is usually used by men to curse women for not bearing sons and thus cutting off the family's bloodline. This is the first time people have heard this term used by a woman to curse a man, but when combined with the character Lai Hunzi... it is indeed quite fitting.

Having his past exposed and then having his sore spot hit, Lai Hunzi's face turned purplish-red. Unable to win an argument, he flew into a rage and charged at Deng Xia.

Deng Xia was holding a water-carrying pole, unafraid of him. She wielded it like a big stick, and when the scoundrel rushed over, she hit him on the arm with the pole.

Lai Hunzi is now furious. He doesn't care about being beaten and just wants to teach Deng Xia a lesson.

Zhong Ying looked around and quickly grabbed a wooden fork used for threshing wheat straw to help her mother.

When Li Ming, the production team leader, and the others arrived, they saw a scene of a mother and daughter fighting a lazy bum. One was holding a carrying pole and the other was holding a wooden stick. No one else on the threshing ground dared to step forward, fearing that they would be caught in the crossfire. They could only anxiously try to persuade them from the sidelines.

"Hey, Mrs. Zhong, stop hitting him! How can you bring your daughter to beat someone up?!"

"Hey! You lazy bum, really! You're such a liar!"

"Yingni, quickly put down the stick in your hand and persuade your mother to stop too..."

It was a complete mess.

Li Ming frowned and shouted in a deep voice, "What are you doing?! Stop it, all of you!"

Zhong Chunsheng stepped forward to stop his wife, and in the process, stomped hard on Lai Hunzi's foot. He, Deng Xia, and their youngest son went to the river to fetch water, but when they got the water to the fields, they found that Deng Xia hadn't returned. They asked the others and found out what had happened.

That shameless old bastard! If Captain Li hadn't been there, Zhong Chunsheng himself would have wanted to beat that scoundrel to a pulp! He'd barely escaped with his daughter's life, and he was only doing all this because he was afraid the Li family would pursue the matter, afraid they'd want Zhong Ying to stay with their son for life. He'd finally managed to get through this, and now this scoundrel had brought it all up again!

Following closely behind Li Ming's wife, Liu Hongyan also rushed forward to pull Deng Xia away, saying, "Don't listen to that idiot's nonsense! My family has no such idea, sister. I promise you, I have no intention of having your daughter marry my son in a ghost marriage!"

Only after receiving this promise did Deng Xia stop. This was the reason she had made such a fuss. "Sister-in-law, everyone heard what I said."

Liu Hongyan nodded repeatedly, "Although I'm not a man, my word is my bond!"

Deng Xia then let her take the carrying pole from her hands.

Liu Hongyan took the wooden stick from Zhong Ying's hand again. If such a fierce girl were to be tied to her son's red thread, what if they were reincarnated as husband and wife in the next life? Wouldn't her son just be beaten all the time? When Lai Hunzi talked about ghost marriages, was he trying to harm the girl or her son?

Seeing his wife separate the two fighting groups and make a fair and impartial judgment, Li Ming said, "Zhong Lao Er's wife, you skipped work to fight, so all the work points you earned yesterday are wiped out; Ying Ni didn't stop you, she just followed her mother's nonsense, so the work points you earned yesterday are also wiped out!"

Li Ming then looked at Lai Hunzi, "You troublemaker! Look at all the things you've stirred up! I'll deduct three days' work points from your pay!"

Deng Xia received the promise and saved her daughter; what did a day's work points matter compared to that?

After the work at the threshing ground was made easier, she only earned four work points a day. So what if they deducted them? Zhong Ying didn't care. After all, her family didn't rely on her to earn work points.

Lai Hunzi is no good. He has no wife or children to help him earn work points, and he is the kind of person who will do whatever it takes to get by. He already earns few work points, and now three days' worth of work points have been deducted from his pay. How much grain will he get after that?

"Captain, isn't this a bit too much?" Lai Hunzi said shamelessly, raising his hand to slap himself. "I'm lying, I'm slapping myself. As for work points, can you deduct two days less? You only deducted one day from those mother and daughter, why are you deducting three days from me?"

Li Ming was too lazy to deal with this troublemaker, and simply raised his voice to the others with a stern face, "Those who are supposed to be working, get to work!"

Of course, punishment doesn't mean the end. Even in modern times, this kind of workplace feud would be hotly discussed in Zhong Ying's various company group chats. It's human nature to gossip.

Back to the present, that's the first topic people start chatting about when they have some free time after the busy summer harvest.

"Have you heard? The other day, the Zhong family almost broke Lai Hunzi's leg!"

"Huh? Why?"

"What else could have angered that shrew? It's all because of the incident where the Li family's son saved her daughter but ended up drowning himself. Lai Hunzi said that Zhong Lao Er's daughter should arrange a ghost marriage for the Li family's son to repay this kindness!"

"This...a perfectly good girl marrying a dead man? That scoundrel got a beating for nothing, how could he say such a thing!"

"Yes, but it's fine for the Li family to arrange a ghost marriage for their youngest son. If they quietly inquire around the surrounding villages, there must be other girls who died young like him."

"That's true, they were all orphaned children who died alone, so at least they can keep each other company in the afterlife..."

As more and more people talked about it, Liu Hongyan couldn't help but listen.

Li Ming lay in bed, trying to fall asleep while thinking about how to arrange the production tasks for the next day and planning what he needed to do.

The weather is getting hotter these days, so we need to keep up with the watering to prevent the corn seedlings from drying out.

The person next to me turned over.

By the way, judging from previous years, there will be even more rain in July, so we can't forget to clear ditches and manage canals, because waterlogging in the fields can cause root rot.

The person next to me turned over again.

Then there's weeding. The weeds and seedlings compete with the corn seedlings for water and fertilizer, so the field has to be cleared every day. Then there's applying coarse fertilizer, which earns the commune members seven work points per acre…

Another turnaround.

Li Ming couldn't help but ask, "What's wrong with you? Why are you tossing and turning and unable to sleep?"

Liu Hongyan turned around again and faced Li Ming, saying softly, "I'm thinking, should we really arrange a ghost marriage for Si'er?"

A note from the author:

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Li Linshi: Huh???? He's dead and you're still pressuring him to get married?

The setting is that Tonggan Production Team is located in a very remote and secluded mountainous area, so these ideas were not completely eradicated.

This is merely a setting to drive the story forward; the idea of ​​ghost marriages is a feudalistic and unacceptable concept (damn it!).