Some people in the crowd started muttering.
"Village head, why? Why let this young lad choose first? I don't accept it!"
Chen Qingshan, in his early forties, was in his prime. His skin had a bronze tan from working in the fields all day.
He glared at his youngest son, who was lying on the ground playing with ants, and shouted, "Dazhuang, tell your Uncle Zhang what those words your teacher taught you at school."
The child was only five or six years old. After thinking for a while, he said, "The master said, 'Young people are like the rising sun... middle-aged people are like candles.'"
After he finished speaking, the village head was about to criticize him.
Suddenly he noticed that the villagers were looking at him with blank expressions.
A group of rural women, how could they possibly understand what that meant?
The village head coughed and reprimanded the visitor: "What you mean is that young people have unlimited potential, while older people basically have no room for development."
"A thirty-year-old man is destined to toil in the fields for a living."
Only then did the people of the countryside understand.
The village head said impatiently, "Alright, young people, choose first. Draw lots to select your numbers. Stop with all this nonsense!"
Soon, some people began to take action.
"Dog Egg, go and choose the one with a big butt and a thick waist, just like your mother told you before."
It's noisy around me.
The boy named Gou Dan grinned and said, "I know, I won't choose those bean sprouts. It's just an extra population tax, and they can't do any housework. Only a fool would choose a useless woman."
"I'm not stupid."
Finally, under the watchful eyes of the villagers, the eighteen-year-old boy chose a dark-skinned, robust woman, took her hand, and happily returned to the queue.
The villagers were filled with envy.
"Dog Egg, you're really lucky. I just saw this girl. She looks like she can endure hardship and work in the fields. Your family's future will only get better and better. She has a bright future ahead of her."
In this era, without large agricultural machinery, everything relied almost entirely on manpower. The only purpose of a wife was to give birth.
They also had to work in the fields like the men.
To share the burden with men.
If a woman is truly weak and unable to take care of herself, paying an extra poll tax would be enough to exhaust any man.
Chen Xian was positioned slightly behind. At this point, besides a tall woman in the group, there were only a few young girls.
The villagers started talking about it.
"My goodness, isn't that the widow from Red Leaf Village?"
Which one?
That's her, the tallest one.
"My God, Uncle Village Head, what's going on? Why did you bring this jinx here?"
Actually, this whole thing is quite strange.
Su Liniang was originally a famous and beautiful girl in the surrounding villages.
My father was a hunter, and we lived a pretty good life.
But after her father fell off a cliff while hunting in the mountains, life became increasingly difficult.
At the age of sixteen, he became engaged to the son of a well-known cloth merchant in town. He thought his life was getting better and better, but little did he know that the young man was not a lucky one.
After drinking, the boy rode a horse, which suddenly became startled and kicked off, killing him instantly.
At this time, there was still one month left before Su Liniang's wedding.
It wasn't a big deal originally. The girl was only sixteen, and people from the countryside have the worst memory. She would forget everything and be attracted by new things in just a few months.
Su Liniang was strikingly beautiful. A year later, a matchmaker came to propose marriage again, saying that her husband was the young master of a famous restaurant in the next town.
The young man was handsome and good at business, so the Su family naturally agreed.
Everyone was envious, feeling like they had fallen into a paradise of good fortune.
She could become the young mistress of a restaurant, with no worries about food or drink, and wouldn't have to do farm work.
Unfortunately, the young man was delivering goods to a major customer when he arrived in a remote mountain area. There, he encountered a band of bandits who robbed him of the goods. During the ensuing chaos, the bandits slashed him, leaving a deep wound that exposed the bone.
He barely escaped with his life, but a few days later, the boy died of a high fever.
At this time, a rumor started spreading from some gossipy old woman.
"Su Liniang is a jinx!"
"At first I didn't believe it either. Once it was just that the child was unlucky, but twice? It can only be said that Nizi is too unlucky and brings bad luck to her husband!"
As the rumors spread, they began to circulate.
No one proposed marriage, the family's burden grew heavier and heavier, and he got older and older.
"quiet!"
Li Zheng looked at Chen Xian with a complicated expression, then glanced at the several worried children, and tiptoed to look into the crowd.
Xian Ge's children are all obedient. The family was already struggling because of this scoundrel's mismanagement, and with another wife on the side, how could the family survive?
He quietly ran to the yamen and said with a smile, "Sir, look, there are still a few old men left, especially the oldest one, who is thirty-five years old. He has a hard time supporting himself and has several children to take care of. Why don't you give his marriage quota to someone else in the village?"
He secretly took out a dozen or so copper coins, feeling a pang of regret, and stuffed them into the hands of the yamen runner.
The constable hesitated for a moment, then waved his hand and said, "Chen, I have a mission, don't make things difficult for me."
He added in a low voice, "I came with orders. You have no relation to that person, so don't meddle in his business."
The conversation on the other end was fragmented, but Chen Xian seemed to hear things like "old age," "senile," and "raising children."
No way, is this talking about me? I almost burst out laughing. Good heavens, I'm only in my early twenties!
In the group, Su Liniang lowered her head. She was quite tall and stood out among the women.
Her face was burning hot.
It was even a little shameful.
In the village, people dared not go out during the day, for it seemed as if they could hear voices around them saying things like "jinx!" or "bad luck!"
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