Lai family
Lai Chunming was both disabled and insane. He had to eat, drink, and relieve himself on the kang (a heated brick bed) every day. In the first few days after he returned from the hospital, Lai's mother helped Fan Jinglan take care of him. However, Lai Chunming was too difficult to take care of. He not only kept defecating and urinating on the kang, but also yelled at people and even bit them.
After a few days, Lai's mother got annoyed and handed over the responsibility of taking care of Lai Chunming entirely to Fan Jinglan.
Fan Jinglan disagreed, but Lai's mother said, "Chunming is your man. If you don't take care of him, who will? I am his mother. I took care of him when he was a child. Now it's your turn."
Fan Jinglan recalled that Lai Chunming used to be a womanizer, openly and secretly disliking her. Now that he was down on his luck, none of those women were around anymore, and she was the only one left to take care of him.
She took care of Lai Chunming's food and drink every day, and cleaned up his excrement and urine. When Lai Chunming went berserk, he left many teeth marks on her body.
Sometimes, she thought about divorce, but divorce was rare among rural people. Even if they were frequently beaten by their spouses, they wouldn't divorce as long as they weren't killed. As long as Lai Chunming was alive, she would take care of him for the rest of her life; otherwise, if she divorced him, people would point fingers and gossip behind her back.
As time went on, she became numb and couldn't stand Lai Chunming anymore. She proposed a divorce, but no one in the Lai family was willing and refused to divorce him no matter what.
Someone told her that she could sue the Lai family in the People's Court and achieve her goal of divorce through legal means.
However, because her family owed the Lai family a sum of money that they had never been able to repay, the Lai Party Secretary used this money to threaten her to continue serving Lai Chunming, otherwise her family would have to repay the money immediately. She had no choice but to continue staying at the Lai family to serve Lai Chunming.
Ah~
Lai Chunming soiled the bed again. He's like a child; if he feels uncomfortable after soiling himself, he'll yell and scream.
Fan Jinglan brought a basin and sweeping tools, enduring the unpleasant smell, and cleaned the feces off the bed. Lai Chunming, however, picked up the basin and dumped it on Fan Jinglan. Fan Jinglan felt disgusted and naturally blamed Lai Chunming, so she hit him with a broom. Lai Chunming was still a child, and when he was hurt, he naturally cried loudly.
When Lai's mother and the Party Secretary heard this, they rushed in. Seeing their son being wronged, Lai's mother slapped Fan Jinglan across the face.
“You abuse our son even though we’re not here to watch over him. Do you want to kill him sooner so you can remarry?”
Fan Jinglan originally wanted to return the money, but when she thought about the money her family still owed the Lai family, she could only swallow her grievances. She shook her head and said, "Chunming just dumped the toilet on himself, so I gently tapped him with a broom, and he started crying."
Lai's mother retorted fiercely, "Don't you know what Chunming's situation is like now? How can you still stoop to his level? Today you can hit him with a broom, tomorrow you might chop him up with a knife. You woman, how cruel you are!"
As he spoke, he reached out and pinched Fan Jinglan hard twice.
“You better remember this: you are a daughter-in-law of the Lai family. It is your duty to serve Chunming. If you dare to mistreat Chunming again, your family will immediately pay back the money they owe the Lai family.”
Thus, Fan Jinglan had no choice but to compromise: "Mother, I won't do it again. I will never hit Chunming again."
Lai's mother went over to comfort Lai Chunming: "Chunming, does your body hurt? Don't cry."
Lai Chunming grabbed a handful of excrement from beside him and smeared it on his mother's face. Lai's mother got angry and slapped Lai Chunming on the back several times: "You brat, you actually smeared excrement on your mother's face, ptooey ptooey ptooey, it's disgusting!"
Lai Chunming was in pain from the beating and started crying loudly again.
Fan Jinglan said, "Mother, you told me not to hit Chunming, so why did you hit him?"
Lai's mother argued unreasonably: "I can hit my son whenever I want, but you are the only one I can't hit."
After saying that, Lai's mother felt nauseous and went out to wash herself.
Fan Jinglan said to Secretary Lai, "Dad, you are the village secretary. Tell me, is what Mom said right? She can fight back and teach Chunming a lesson, but I can only wait to suffer Chunming's temper."
Lai, the Party Secretary, said coldly, "At home, I'm not the Party Secretary. You're a daughter-in-law of the Lai family, so listen to your mother-in-law."
After cleaning the dirt off her body and the kang (a heated brick bed), Fan Jinglan wanted to rest for a while, but Lai Chunming kept her from resting. She couldn't hit Lai Chunming, so she could only silently endure the grievances.
Seven days later, Xue Yanchen's letter to his family finally arrived at the Beijing Post Office. The people sorting the letters were Wu Yueying and another middle-aged woman named Chen Qiulan. Wu Yueying was Chen Xiaoyue's second aunt.
When Wu Yueying saw a familiar name on the envelope, she pointed to the name and started chatting with Chen Qiulan.
"This young man is currently working as an educated youth in Northeast China. He's not bad-looking or tall, but he has a problem: he can't have children. No matter how good-looking he is, who would marry him and live a life of widowhood? That's not worth it."
Chen Qiulan and Xue's mother had a good relationship, so she naturally wanted to protect Xue Yanchen.
"Who told you that? I'm quite close to Yanchen's mother. Some people say that Yanchen has some kind of problem, but his mother says that's not true at all. Her child has always been very healthy, with a great physique. Among all the children in their compound, none of them have a better physique than her child. Later, he joined the army and received commendations and awards every year. I just don't know why he was discharged from the army recently and sent down to the countryside as an educated youth."
Wu Yueying was immediately puzzled. "When he was a child, he was too naughty and fell off the wall, hitting a rock. Wasn't that where he was injured? They said it was quite serious, and that the child would probably be ruined for life from that point on. My child's aunt is a doctor in the hospital, and she told us that."
Chen Qiulan shook her head and asked Wu Yueying, "Which department in the hospital is your child's aunt in?"
"Obstetrics and Gynecology".
"In the obstetrics and gynecology department, she knows so much about this. She must have made a mistake. Maybe she mistook another child for Yanchen. Yanchen has always been very healthy. He may have been to the hospital when he was a child because of a fever or a cold, but he has never suffered the kind of injury you described."
"So it was all fake. Oh dear, such a young man, this must have delayed his chances of finding a wife."
"That's what people like you who don't know the situation think. It's not that Yanchen can't find a wife, it's that he doesn't want to. Otherwise, Minghui would have a grandson by now."
Yes, yes.
Wu Yueying agreed, but gradually fell into deep thought.
Xue family
Mrs. Xue received the letter and package from Jilin Province and happily took them home.
It was already evening, and Mr. Xue had returned home from get off work and was sitting on the sofa in the living room reading the newspaper.
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