Chen Chunhua sat on the tractor and followed the rumbling sound of the tractor as it moved forward. Jin Fengxian was still talking about her childhood, but Chen Chunhua could hardly hear it because the rumbling sound was too loud.
Chen Chunhua's parents' home is actually in the next county, Su County, and they are from the same place as Qi Fagen and others.
But Su County is very big, and the town where Qi Fagen lives is more than ten kilometers away from the town where her mother lives, not to mention their Sihe Village, which is even farther away.
Jin Fengxian also said that the villagers drove a tractor to pick her up. What a joke! If it weren’t for the tractor, Jin Fengxian probably wouldn’t have come herself.
If Chen Chunhua were to describe her parents' home, the only word she would use would be: disgusting.
There are five brothers and sisters in her family, and Chen Chunhua is right in the middle, with older brothers and sisters above her and younger brothers and sisters below her.
Children from poor families don’t remember their birthdays. Chen Chunhua knew that she was born in spring because all the children in her family were named according to the season of birth.
The eldest sister, Chen Xiahua, was as her name suggested, possessing a cheerful and cheerful personality and a fiery and bright appearance. However, in the end, her parents sold her to a paralytic for a high price of 100 yuan.
The paralytic has an older brother who is a cadre and takes good care of his family and younger brother. When he is about to take up a post in another place, he wants to take his parents and younger brother with him, so he needs someone to take care of his younger brother. In those days, it is not allowed to find a nanny casually, but it is possible to find a wife.
In that era when both materials and money were scarce, and 100 yuan could buy 685 kilograms of rice, in the rural areas here, one could marry a wife, pay the betrothal gift, and have more than enough left after the wedding banquet.
So, Chen Xiahua was bought for 100 yuan and married to a paralytic.
Of course she resisted, but in the end, her hands and feet were bound, her mouth was gagged, and she was put into a sedan chair. The people who did this included her parents and her older and younger brothers, because her parents said the 100 yuan was for them to marry wives.
In Shen Chunhua's opinion, the man's family was quite polite. At least after buying someone, they remembered to follow the rules and let the new bride return home three days later.
Chen Xiahua came back and smashed everything in the house. Chen Laicai and Qian Laier didn't dare to say a word because they knew that the official was sitting in the car outside, waiting for Chen Xiahua to come out.
No one asked Chen Xiahua how she had been doing in the past three days. Chen Xiasheng, Chen Xiahua's eldest brother and Chen Chunhua's elder brother, even shamelessly said,
"Sister, you are from a wealthy family, but don't forget your brother from your mother's family..."
So Chen Xiahua started to scratch her hands again, and she was scratched like a sieve. Chen Xiasheng wanted to fight back, but his parents held him down and kept whispering warnings, "That person is outside... That person is outside..."
It is impossible to eat the return meal, and Chen Xiahua can't eat it either. She came here just to vent her anger today.
Chen Chunhua and her sister Donghua had been hiding in the corner, watching her fight the whole family. After she finished beating everyone, they took advantage of the time when her parents were comforting their eldest son and coaxing their younger son to hand a handkerchief to their eldest sister.
"Sister..." Chen Chunhua just called out, and Chen Xiahua turned around with red eyes, startling her. But she still bravely handed over the wet handkerchief.
"There's blood on your hands. Do you want to wipe them? I've wet this handkerchief."
Chen Xiahua didn't move, staring at her silently. In the end, she put away the handkerchief, but didn't wipe it. She just held it in her palm and opened the door to go out. She didn't see where her paralytic brother-in-law was, but she did see her brother-in-law, a high-ranking official, sitting in the car.
Chen Chunhua still remembers what her elder sister said to her before she left.
"Run away as soon as you can. Don't feel sorry for anyone in this family. No one is a good person. If you have the time to spare, you might as well feel sorry for yourself."
That year, Chen Xiahua was 18, she was 13, and Donghua was only 10. That was the last time she saw her elder sister, and they had no news of each other until they grew old.
After Chen Xiahua left in the car, Shen Laicai came out cursing and slapped each of his two remaining daughters.
"What are you looking at? You're not looking at what you should be looking at! Didn't you see your mother applying medicine to your brother? You two losers, why don't you go and cook dinner! You're jealous of that little girl riding in a big car, aren't you? Then go find a high-ranking official and get into his bed with him. Then you can coax them into giving you a few hundred yuan as a betrothal gift, and then you can come back and rob the house!"
The next year, Chen Xiasheng married a wife. In Shen Chunhua's eyes, his sister-in-law was a very gentle person. She was careful and prudent in her words and deeds, but she would still be beaten by Chen Xiasheng for no reason.
Sometimes Chen Chunhua wanted to help, but Chen Xiasheng would kick her away, leaving her with another bruise.
Qian Lai'er turned a blind eye to this and even complained that Chen Chunhua was ignorant.
"If you have some free time, could you please help me with some work? Can't you see I'm already too busy?"
"My brother is beating my sister-in-law again!"
"She wasn't beaten to death. We spent so much money on the bride price to marry her. Isn't it normal for a man to beat his wife? If he's in a bad mood, he can't hit her twice. How can she be so precious..."
Only then did Chen Chunhua remember what Chen Xiahua had said: "Don't sympathize with anyone in this family. None of them are good." The person she wanted to talk to the most was probably her mother, Qian Lai'er.
Even though she had been beaten by Shen Laicai all her life, she had no intention of resisting. As a woman, she could remain indifferent or even help the evil when other women or even her daughter were hurt.
So Chen Chunhua also felt that her mother was disgusting.
She thought about what Shen Xiahua said, that she should run away as soon as possible, but where could she run to? Not a penny of the family's money would stay in her hands, and the food bags were hidden in the locked cabinet in Shen Laicai's room.
She was just a little girl of fourteen or fifteen years old. She couldn't even eat enough, let alone run.
Until Chen Chunhua was 18 years old, which was already 1968, thirty-six legs were popular for marrying a wife in the city, but people in the countryside preferred cash.
In the next village, there was a widower in his fifties who butchered pigs and made a lot of money. His conditions were considered good for the countryside, but like the men in the Shen family, he loved to beat his wife.
Of his first two wives, one was beaten and fled, and the other was beaten so hard that she became stupid. They both jumped into the river and died in the middle of winter. They left behind a daughter and a son. The daughter was from his first wife; her mother had secretly returned and taken her away less than six months after she ran away. The son was from his second wife; after his mother died, he lived with his father. The two men lived together for two years, spending everything they had.
Now that his son was almost old enough to get married, the widower thought he should save up some money to marry him off. But then he thought, he wasn't that old, so he couldn't stay single forever. It wasn't like he was going to become a monk.
But it’s really hard to marry two girls at once if we don’t have enough money at home. What should we do?
Then just marry one! A young girl who can take care of two old men is enough.
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