As soon as He Daqiang entered the room, he saw Li Lanfen beating their daughter again. He frowned and stopped her, saying, "What are you doing, you woman? Can't you have a moment's peace?"
Li Lanfen froze, immediately withdrew her hand, gritted her teeth and looked at He Xiaohua, saying, "Go cook, don't tell your dad anything."
"Okay," He Xiaohua replied weakly, then turned and went into the kitchen.
She usually gets home around this time to cook, so Li Lanfen hitting her today must mean she's had some bad luck outside again.
He Daqiang saw his daughter go to the kitchen and winked at his wife, "Come to the room with me."
After the two went to the room, He Daqiang closed the door and said in a bad tone, "Li Lanfen, didn't I tell you not to hit our daughter anymore? What if you hurt her?"
Li Lanfen rolled her eyes speechlessly: "I only pinched her twice, how could that be broken?"
“What do you know? Today, Cai the matchmaker’s son told me that he has found a good family for Xiaohua. They are from the city and are willing to give a bride price of 500 yuan.” He Daqiang’s face showed a hint of excitement when he talked about the bride price.
Li Lanfen looked at her husband in disbelief: "What? 500 yuan? You're not kidding me, are you?"
Nowadays, in rural areas, the bride price for a wedding is usually a few dozen yuan. Families with better financial conditions might give 88 or 128 yuan, but I've never heard of anyone giving 500 yuan for a wedding.
Li Lanfen has never seen what 500 yuan looks like in her entire life.
Suddenly, her eyes darted around, as if she had thought of something: "Giving such a high dowry, is there something wrong with the man?"
He Daqiang's expression darkened: "It's nothing, he's just a bit old. Older people are more caring, and Xiaohua is lucky."
"It must be more than just a little big," Li Lanfen glanced at her husband's obviously not-so-good expression and guessed that there must be something else going on inside.
His wife would find out about this sooner or later, so He Daqiang didn't intend to hide it and simply explained the man's conditions.
Actually, the original words that Cai the matchmaker's son relayed were: "The man is 40 years old this year. His wife passed away from illness two years ago. He only has one daughter, who got married recently. He wants to remarry and have a son for himself. It would be best if she were a virgin. It would be hard to find someone like that in the city, but there are plenty of them in the countryside..."
Li Lanfen's eyes widened suddenly: "40 years old? Isn't that older than you and me?"
He Daqiang is 39 years old this year, Li Lanfen is 38 years old, He Xiaohua is 18 years old, they have an older sister who is 20 years old, and a younger brother who is 12 years old.
"That's not a good idea. If others find out, they'll laugh themselves to death. How can a son-in-law be older than his father-in-law?"
Li Lanfen couldn't accept it. The thought of those old women mocking her behind her back because of this made her extremely upset.
He Daqiang also felt bad. As someone who cared a lot about his reputation, having to endure other people's gossip and ridicule was worse than being killed.
But that's 500 yuan! In their rural area, how many daughters do they have to marry off to receive 500 yuan in betrothal gifts?
When He Xiaohua's sister got married, He Daqiang and his family received a relatively high dowry of only 88 yuan, which emptied the groom's family's savings.
Most of the money was spent on their son. Their youngest son, He Dabao, ate an egg every day and never lacked candy or snacks. Compared to other children his age, he was significantly taller.
He Daqiang and Li Lanfen were very proud of this. In those days, no family was rich, and children were thin and frail due to malnutrition. Only their eldest child was chubby and plump.
Seeing his wife's long face, He Daqiang said angrily, "That's 500 yuan, are you willing to give it up?"
"I... I just need to think about it some more, after all, Xiaohua came from my belly," Li Lanfen tried to find an excuse for herself.
Suddenly, there was a knock on the door, and He Xiaohua's voice rang out: "Mom and Dad, dinner is ready, you can eat now."
"Coming," He Daqiang replied quickly, then turned to his wife and said, "Don't mention this to Xiaohua yet. I'm afraid she'll be unhappy if she finds out. She's a little girl and doesn't know what's important. We, as her parents, would never harm her."
Li Lanfen nodded: "I know, I'm not stupid. I'll tell her after things are finalized."
——
Threshing floor.
Xia Qingqing deliberately didn't wear gloves while peeling corn today to keep cool. After peeling for a while, her hands felt burning painful. She endured it until after 4 o'clock, when she finally couldn't take it anymore and asked Ding Miao to come and calculate her work points.
Ding Miao glanced at the corn kernels she had husked, then at the other women still working enthusiastically, and said with some disappointment, "Xia Qingqing, you only got 6 work points today. Are you planning to call it a day already?"
Xia Qingqing felt that Ding Miao had been acting strangely these past few days, as if she had high hopes for her and was afraid that she would earn fewer work points or do less work.
"I still have to go home and cook. My younger brother will be home from school soon, and I want him to be able to eat as soon as possible," Xia Qingqing continued with her old excuse.
In fact, her mother, Ms. Zhang Hongyan, had already deprived her of the right to enter the kitchen.
So she simply couldn't keep going and wanted to go home and rest. She suspected that if she continued working, she would definitely get blisters on her hands.
Fortunately, Ding Miao didn't suspect that she was trying to slack off and diligently recorded her work points.
After returning home, Xia Qingqing first soaked her hands in cold water, and the cool touch made her hands feel much more comfortable.
Just as she was soaking her hands, she saw Gou Dan come back with a long face, his clothes were dirty, and there were bruises on his face.
"Xia Jiale, did you just get into a fight? Can you tell me what happened?" Xia Qingqing didn't rush to criticize Gou Dan. She calmly shook off the water droplets on her hands and casually wiped them on her clothes.
Gou Dan pouted, trying hard to hold back his tears: "Sis, the schoolbag you gave me has been ruined."
As he spoke, Gou Dan held up his schoolbag for Xia Qingqing to see. Sure enough, the military green schoolbag that was brand new that morning was now covered with footprints and the seams on the sides were coming undone.
"Who did this?" Xia Qingqing asked with a faint chill in her voice.
Gou Dan looked at his sister with a pitiful expression: "It's Huang Guoqiang, the boy in the classroom who took me to register yesterday."
Xia Qingqing frowned deeply, thinking of the naughty little boy in the classroom yesterday: "Did you get these injuries on your face from fighting with him?"
"Yeah, he ruined my new schoolbag. After school, Da Niu and I beat him up and turned him into a big pig's head," Gou Dan said with the most aggrieved expression, while saying the harshest words.
Xia Qingqing looked slightly embarrassed.
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