"I want to marry you."
The girl, carrying a bulging old cloth bag, blocked someone's doorway. Her soft voice was barely audible, and her thin, frail body trembled slightly in the morning breeze.
Her face was tense and fearful; she didn't even dare to look up, let alone meet his gaze.
Xiao Cheng stood alone, hands in his pockets, leaning against the doorframe with a cigarette tucked behind his ear. His demeanor was neither roguish nor slovenly, but his deep eyes were filled with a cold indifference that kept people at a distance. He glanced at her with a cold look and a nonchalant sneer appeared on his lips.
"Not interested."
After saying that, he took long strides and walked straight out.
The cold wind that brushed past her sent a shiver down her spine, and her voice rose several octaves.
"I am pregnant."
She quickly opened the faded cloth bag, took out the creased report, and tremblingly handed it to Xiao Cheng. Meeting his gloomy face, she immediately lowered her head.
"Yes, yes, it's yours..."
Suddenly, a deafening knocking sound came from the door.
The memory was interrupted. Bai Lu rubbed her throbbing temples and sat up from the wooden bed, holding an unopened green plastic bottle in her hand.
"She-devil, open the door!"
The knocking on the door was accompanied by the little boy's angry shouts.
Bai Lu raised her hand and lifted the old-fashioned cotton mosquito net, looking at the simple, shabby, and unfamiliar everything in the room.
Finally, I had no choice but to accept it—
She traveled back to the 1990s!
She also transmigrated into the body of Bai Lu, the wife of a notorious local tyrant whom everyone avoided at all costs.
On the wooden table, in the mirror, was a girl with fluffy hair, fair skin, bright and clear eyes, and delicate, flawless features. Her appearance was almost identical to hers, except that she was a little thin and frail.
The person knocking and shouting outside was Xiao Wei, the half-brother of the bully Xiao Cheng.
The wooden door panel without a latch can be opened by tapping it a couple of times.
Seven-year-old Xiao Wei was short and thin. He rushed in with a bowl cut and wore old, yellowed clothes that hung loosely on his body. However, he looked quite well. His round face, which was not very fleshy, was yellowish with a rosy tint.
He was probably angry, because at that moment, he was glaring fiercely at the green bottle in Bai Lu's hand.
Three years ago, Xiao Wei's parents argued and fought... Xiao Wei's mother drank this stuff and left him.
Xiao Wei suddenly snatched the green bottle and threw the tightly clenched ball of paper in his other hand at Bai Lu.
He glared at her and ran out.
Bai Lu looked bewildered and unfolded the crumpled paper in her hand.
The scattered old five-cent, one-yuan, and two-yuan notes, though old, are flat and smooth, and the new creases from crumpling them into small balls are still clearly visible. They add up to a total of twenty yuan.
Due to their family backgrounds, Xiao Cheng and Xiao Wei have a bad relationship. Xiao Wei is very afraid of Xiao Cheng and dares not trouble him with anything. Xiao Cheng is also often away from home.
This money must have been saved by Xiao Wei from collecting and selling scraps for a long time, which he planned to use to buy school supplies and the like.
Forced by circumstances, he had no choice but to hand over his resentment to her.
"What a tragedy!"
Bai Lu sighed, got up and went out.
This remote southern border town, due to its geographical location and other reasons, missed out on the benefits of reform and opening up, resulting in a lagging economic development, with the streets still lined with houses made of blue bricks and black tiles.
In the central hall of the main house, there is an eight-immortal table and four long benches corresponding to the four directions, arranged in a staggered and orderly manner.
The old wall clock, with its long and short hands pointing to eleven, emitted a deep and resonant sound as its pendulum rang out.
"Clang, clang, clang..."
The yellowed calendar was blown by the wind.
Sunday, March 23, 1997.
It was raining heavily outside, with thunder and lightning. When Bai Lu arrived at the kitchen, Xiao Wei was sitting in front of the stove, tending the fire.
On the stove, a rooster bowl was piled with a few eggs. The only seasonings were salt, oil, and soy sauce, with only a faint layer of dark brown remaining at the bottom of the bottle, and a layer of dust on the bottle cap.
I don't even know how long it's been since I last opened it.
After heating the pot, Xiao Wei stuffed a few long bamboo strips into the stove hole and patted the ash off his hands.
He picked up a small stool, placed it in front of the stove with practiced ease, stood on it, and prepared to add oil and crack eggs.
"I'll do it."
Bai Lu stuffed the money back into Xiao Wei's hand, took the oil bottle, and poured a ring of oil into the pot.
Heat the oil and crack the first egg into the pan.
Xiao Wei was surprised and shocked. He stared at her with wide eyes, his little hands motionless.
Only after confirming that she wasn't joking did he carefully fold the money and put it back in the innermost part of his pocket.
Just as I stepped off the small stool, I heard a "thud" as a black tile fell into the pot.
Torn apart.
The freshly cracked eggs, splattered with broken tiles and mixed with the constantly falling rainwater, were black, white, and yellow, leaving the pot covered in crumbs.
Bai Lu, who grew up in the 21st century, had always been well-fed and clothed, and was completely stunned when she saw such an unprecedented scene for the first time!
She held a spatula in one hand and a broken eggshell in the other, glancing down at the crumbs in the pot.
He looked up again at the hole in the tiled roof.
I was stunned for a full three seconds.
Cai Mumu turned her head and looked at Xiao Wei, who was also stunned: "This..."
"What do we do?"
Xiao Wei looked at the broken egg mixture in the pot with a pained expression. If the fire had been hotter, the eggs would have set immediately after being cracked into the pot and would still be edible.
Unfortunately, it's all wasted now.
Leaky roofs are common and nothing unusual, but he had never seen a tile fall directly into the pot before.
"I'll go get the rice cooker and switch it with this one. We'll use that for now, and then I'll go up to the roof to check again when the rain gets a little lighter..."
Before he could finish speaking, there was another "bang".
This time, several tiles fell off together, and even the bricks that were holding them down fell off, smashing the pot to pieces.
A flame rose from a hole the size of an egg, only to be extinguished in the blink of an eye by the torrential rain.
Bai Lu and Xiao Wei were standing close together, and their faces and bodies were splattered with black rain mixed with dust.
The two hurriedly moved the condiment bottles, the remaining eggs, the rice cooker, and other intact items to the woodshed next door, and then put the enamel washbasin on the stove to collect water.
The basin was too small and filled up in no time, so I had to switch to a larger bath basin, which would last a little longer.
After working for half a day, my clothes were mostly soaked, and my hair was dripping wet.
The kitchen was on the left side of the main house. It wasn't part of the main house, but a separate tile-roofed house. One room was for storing firewood, and the other was for cooking. The two of them, one big and one small, ran back in the rain to change their clothes.
After changing her clothes, Bai Lu casually wiped her hair with the damp corner of her clothes, then went to the woodshed, took the pot lid outside to collect rainwater to wash it clean, and continued frying eggs.
The conditions were too harsh.
We can only make the best use of them.
After frying the eggs, we stir-fried some vegetables. Although there wasn't a single piece of meat, it was enough to feed the two of us.
In fact, although Xiao Cheng rarely went home, he would give out household money every month. The original owner of this body always took all the money and never used it to improve their living conditions.
They all went elsewhere.
After the meal, the torrential rain turned into a drizzle.
Bai Lu opened her old, rusty umbrella and told Xiao Wei before leaving, "I'm going out to buy a pot. You stay home alone. Don't go up on the roof. Wait for me to come back."
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