"Come on! Brother Huo, have a bite."
Sitting back at the table, Gu Daqiang raised his glass with a smile.
The food was reheated, but Huo Qianli no longer had the previous interest. He reluctantly raised his glass and clinked it with Gu Daqiang's, then tilted his head back and poured the drink down his throat, then fell silent again.
Gu Daqiang paused, finished the wine in his glass, then turned around, grabbed a handful of fried peanuts from the cabinet, put them on the table, peeled one and threw it into his mouth, "This matter today has nothing to do with you, don't think too much about it."
"Gangwazi drinks and plays cards when he has nothing to do all day. He often beats his wife when he loses money. Everyone in the village knows about it. He only makes up an excuse to cheat on his wife. No one believes it."
"Is it a common occurrence?" Huo Qianli was immediately indignant. "The village doesn't care? For so many years!"
Gu Daqiang took out a cigarette box, shook out a cigarette and handed it over. After Huo Qianli shook his head to refuse, he lit it himself, took a deep breath, squinted his eyes in the smoke, and said, "How old do you think Xu Yanting is? She is just a woman who just had a baby."
Huo Qianli's mind flashed back to that sallow, haggard face, and he tried to guess in the direction of youth: "25?"
“17.”
Gu Daqiang spit out a number and looked at Huo Qianli, who was shocked. "They were classmates in junior high school. They did something bad and got pregnant. They sold everything they had and raised 20,000 yuan for the Xu family, and then brought the baby back home."
The baby was about one year old, plus the time of pregnancy, which means Xu Yanting was only 15 at the time...
There was no wind in the room. It was still August, but Huo Qianli felt a chill on his back.
He murmured again, "Fifteen."
Gu Daqiang took a puff of his cigarette and sneered, "If I give the girl to the Gu family, not only will I not have to worry about tuition and living expenses, but I can also get an extra 20,000 yuan. This is a simple arithmetic."
Arithmetic... Huo Qianli sighed and said, "But our village should take care of it!"
Gu Daqiang didn't answer directly, "Do you remember the woman in red standing in the front eating melon seeds today?"
Huo Qianli nodded, "The man next to her should be her husband."
Huo Qianli was deeply impressed by these two people, not only because they stood in the front row, but also because they were among the ones who laughed the most happily when he accused domestic violence.
"Those are Xu Yanting's uncle and aunt." Gu Daqiang paused, looked directly into Huo Qianli's eyes, and added, "Dear ones."
Huo Qianli leaned back in his chair as if struck by lightning.
He did not ask any more questions. He dared to come to the countryside to work and had some understanding of the countryside. He already understood the attitudes of Xu's parents and other relatives.
From this, he also understood the attitude of the Gu family towards Xu Yanting.
That is not a family, that is purchased goods, or purchased...
He really didn't want to mention those two words, so he had to purse his lips and remain silent, his fists unconsciously clenched.
Gu Daqiang threw the cigarette butt to the ground, stomped it out with his foot, picked up the wine bottle, filled both glasses, and clinked theirs. "All we can do in this village is to not do it too often. We can't do it like today, where blood is shed. But there are too many cases of beatings and cuttings every now and then, and we can't do anything about it."
Huo Qianli held the wine glass, turned his head and looked out the window, thinking of those windowless adobe houses, and said with emotion: "It's because we are too poor."
Gu Daqiang took a sip of wine and smacked his lips. "You're right. It's because of poverty."
He peeled a fried peanut and held it in his hand. "There was an old man in Group 3 who was diagnosed with a disease half a year ago. He drank pesticide a few days ago. I found the only motorcycle in the village to take him to town. You can see the road. We pushed and lifted him. We were covered in mud. When we got to the main road, the old man had died. His disease was not a serious one, but it cost money, five or six hundred yuan a month."
"There was a married woman in Group 1 who ran away less than two months after giving birth. She would rather not have her own child than endure poverty."
"The daughter of a family living by the river in Group 2 was sent out by her parents to work to earn money before she even graduated from junior high school. She was then killed by evil people outside, and her body could not even be brought back."
Gu Daqiang patted Huo Qianli on the shoulder and said, "I said this to tell you that there are too many things like this in this place. You just got here, so don't take it to heart. Think positively."
After he finished speaking, he raised his glass, raised his voice, took a breath of heroic excitement, and raised the glass, "Okay, okay, I'm done talking! Come on, take a sip."
Huo Qianli looked at him, but did not raise his glass. Instead, he said seriously, "Brother, we can't be poor anymore."
At this moment, he forgot his desire to overtake others and make great achievements, and also forgot his hesitation after witnessing the difficulties. Only the purest wish and the passion to change this village and prevent these tragedies from happening again remained.
But surprisingly, as soon as this sentence came out, Gu Daqiang put down his wine glass and his face became calm.
After a short silence, Gu Daqiang slowly said, "In fact, before you, there were three other cadres who came to Hushan Village to help."
He raised his head slightly, his face full of reminiscence, "There was a person like you, also a college student."
"That college student is also very capable. He studied in Beijing and is said to be a big leader somewhere. When he came here, he said something similar to what you just said, that he was determined to make the village prosperous."
Huo Qianli listened silently, he already knew the ending.
Gu Daqiang's subsequent narration was the same as what was written in the materials. The ending of the ambitious college student was just like those villagers who always said "one hour" and "can't get out of bed". After quickly surrendering, he was mercilessly ridiculed.
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