Chapter 6: Grievances
From the fact that the Meng family was willing to let their daughter repeat her studies and take the college entrance exam, it can be seen that Meng Shulan was born in a happy family.
This kind of happiness has nothing to do with wealth, but comes from the unity and friendship among family members.
Meng Shulan's parents are both authentic farmers, nothing special, they grow a few acres of land to support the whole family.
The Meng family has three children, one boy and two girls. The oldest is the elder brother, Meng Chenggong, who is 28 years old this year and has been in the army for 12 years. Because of his ability, he won awards every year, made great contributions, and was handsome, so he was favored by the leaders and became the son-in-law of the regiment commander. He has been married for two years and has a son who is less than one year old.
The second child is the elder sister, Meng Changli, who is 26 years old. She has been married for five years to the son of the village party secretary of the neighboring village. She has two daughters, one four years old and the other two years old.
The youngest is Meng Shulan, who just turned eighteen.
Meng Shulan is quite older than her older siblings and can be considered the late-born daughter of the Meng couple. She has been loved by the whole family since she was a child.
In that era, everyone had a hard time. The Meng family had elderly and young people to support, and life was particularly tight, but Meng Shulan never lacked food and clothing.
Of course, it doesn’t mean how much she eats or how beautifully she wears, but that she has a full meal and a pair of cotton shoes in winter, instead of having to work barefoot like other girls.
Her older brothers and sisters also protected her and she did little housework.
Although she was spoiled by the whole family, Meng Shulan was not spoiled. Instead, she was very well-behaved and obedient. When she reached school age, her grades were always good.
It is because of this reason, and the resumption of the college entrance examination, that the Meng family has always had high expectations of her.
Meng Shulan herself also worked very hard. In the two months leading up to the college entrance examination in the first half of the year, she only slept four to five hours every night, and sometimes even stayed up all night to memorize and practice questions.
The college entrance examination was resumed two years ago. There were millions of people competing, and the admission rate was only 200,000 or 300,000. It was extremely difficult to pass the exam.
Moreover, Meng Shulan wants to get a bachelor's degree and doesn't want to go to a junior college. This is impossible without risking her life.
It's a pity that she tried too hard and exhausted herself during the exam days. Although she took the exam, she had a high fever and was not in a clear state, so she naturally failed.
Fortunately, her family members understood her and encouraged her to get over it and repeat her year.
In her previous life, Meng Shulan successfully passed the entrance exam after repeating a year. Although her major was very ordinary, at least she had a stable job. In addition, her marriage to Han Ning made people around them envious for several years.
But this envy did not last long. When his brother returned home due to injury and he himself was diagnosed with cancer, his happy family collapsed in an instant.
Needless to say, what happened next. Although she did not divorce Han Ning and the financial burden of medical treatment did not fall on her parents' family, the smiles of the whole family disappeared, and whenever they met, they were either crying or worried.
My sister originally wanted to divorce, but she didn't dare to tell anyone about these things for fear of causing trouble for the family and continuing to be bullied by her in-laws.
My brother, who never drank, also started drinking to drown his sorrows, and his former high spirits were gone forever.
Whenever Meng Shulan thought of everything that happened in her previous life, she couldn't stop crying and kept crying.
In front, Gu Hansong saw her wiping her eyes constantly, her lips tightly pursed. After a while, he whispered, "Don't cry."
His voice was not much different from that of a mosquito. Meng Shulan was immersed in her own thoughts and didn't hear it at all.
However, Meng Shulan did not continue crying, for she was afraid that her eyes would become swollen like peaches, which would be difficult to explain when she returned. So she suppressed her emotions.
Gu Hansong had been paying attention to the situation behind him. When he saw that her shoulders stopped shaking, her stiff back slowly relaxed.
Just now, he went a little too far.
After the mule cart had been driving for about half an hour, they arrived at Yantang Village.
Yantang Village is named after a large reservoir in the village.
The Meng family is just above the reservoir. Just cross a dam and walk up for two or three minutes to get there.
The mule cart was driving on the dam. Meng Shulan stood up holding the edge of the cart and could see her own houses with tiled roofs and the courtyard walls made of yellow mud and stones.
The courtyard wall was built by my brother and my father before he joined the army. It took the father and son half a year to complete it. Now, twelve years have passed, and the stones on the courtyard wall have turned blue-black, and green plants have sprouted in the cracks between the stones.
Meng Shulan remembers that in the second year after she started working, there was a rainstorm in her hometown and the wall of her house collapsed.
At that time, she was thinking about renovating the yard of her home and building a cement wall like other people's homes.
My parents were unwilling to hear this, saying that the money should be kept to prepare more dowry, and that the house was only for the two of them, so they could just do some casual work on it.
The wall at the back of the courtyard was not rebuilt, my father repaired it himself.
But without my brother’s help and my father’s handicapped legs, the bricks would have been ugly and there were gaps in some places.
Now, the courtyard wall appeared in front of her, and it was still in its original appearance. Meng Shulan could no longer hold back her excitement and jumped out of the car.
In front, Gu Hansong saw her go down and immediately straightened the reins.
Although the mule cart is not fast, it is dangerous to jump down like this! Gu Hansong's face was slightly cold, and he pursed his thin lips and looked over. He opened his mouth to scold her, but he didn't expect Meng Shulan to be one step ahead of him and burst into tears.
Gu Hansong: “…”
Is it so unfair? I cried all the way but never felt enough.
Gu Hansong thought Meng Shulan was still angry and sad about what happened before, but that was not the case at all.
Meng Shulan saw her mother He Jinqiu, who was walking out of the yard carrying a bamboo basket, apparently going to work in the fields.
The mother who had a sad face and gray hair in her previous life reappeared in front of her, and she looked young and lively. Meng Shulan couldn't bear it and ran towards home crying.
He Jinqiu was locking the gate of the courtyard. He felt strange when he heard the crying sound. Why did it sound a bit like his daughter?
When she looked back, she was startled.
"Shulan, why are you back!"
He Jinqiu put down his backpack and ran over, saying as he ran: "What's wrong with you? Why is there so much mud on your body? Did you fall?"
Oh, you're still barefoot in such a cold day.
He Jinqiu felt so heartbroken.
Meng Shulan cried so hard that she was out of breath and couldn't speak.
He Jinqiu didn't mind that her body was dirty, and quickly held her daughter in his arms to comfort her.
What happened to this person? Did he fall or is he feeling unwell? It's not even time to go home yet, why is he back?
He Jinqiu looked towards the road and saw Gu Hansong. It seemed that his daughter must have come back in his mule cart. He wanted to ask, but Gu Hansong's face was too cold, so he didn't dare to open his mouth.
Meng Shulan's crying soon alarmed several households nearby, and many people ran out to see what was going on.
Someone asked He Jinqiu what was going on and why she was crying so hard.
He Jinqiu had no idea, so he said that maybe he fell on the road and was covered in mud, which made him feel bad.
She is an eighteen-year-old girl, and she can't bear such a little grievance.
Some people rolled their eyes and couldn't bear to watch.
Only the Meng family treats their daughter who is about to get married as a treasure. If it were someone else, they would have slapped her in the face long ago.
(End of this chapter)
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