Chapter 185
The weather was getting hotter and hotter, and the wind blew the curtains gently. She lay on the bed with a copy of "Chu Ci" in her arms, and the kitten lay there licking its paws leisurely.
"What is he doing?"
But washing clothes in cold water will make my bones ache in this season.
The woman on the second floor offered to help with her laundry and earn her some pocket money. She declined, believing it was best not to get too close to these people, lest there be trouble later. She also wanted something to do to distract herself. Ever since she finished that story, she hadn't had the inspiration to start a second one, and her thoughts were more likely to wander.
This town is quiet and sparsely populated, but there are too few shops and no movies. If I were in the city, watching a movie would be a good distraction.
She wanted to buy green plums, but there were none at the market. There was no proper dried fruit shop here either, only the grocery store that sold some cheap plums or something.
On market days there would be a used books stall with a sheet spread on the ground and a few old books on it, but none of them I wanted to read.
After walking for a while, she sat down at the ferry again. Lotus leaves grew on the water surface, and a red dragonfly landed on them. Several women came with wooden basins to wash clothes, and the dragonfly flew away.
She watched them washing clothes, and after a while, she heard a noisy sound behind them.
A man carrying a basket of vegetables on the street was beating his wife. He yelled and kicked for a while, and as if that wasn't enough, he grabbed a carrying pole and started beating her. The woman howled dryly under the beating, and the man's voice was actually overshadowed.
A woman who was washing clothes put down her mallet and went over to watch the fun.
The woman was sitting on the ground, wailing. The people around her gathered in a circle, laughing and watching the fun. The louder she wailed, the harder they laughed. Seeing the man start beating her with a carrying pole, she was afraid of being beaten to death, so she ran faster than a rabbit. The man then chased her with the carrying pole, and the people around her burst into laughter.
Later, the people there dispersed, and the woman washing clothes came back. She said to the one next to her, "They fight every day, and they're not afraid of being laughed at. The neighbors treat them like monkeys."
Another said, "Her man thinks he's very proud. There's nothing you can do about country folk; they're just so stupid."
Wang Jiazhi had been here for a while and had previously encountered the man beating his wife. The woman hadn't done anything, but the man simply felt it was embarrassing not to hit her. People around him laughed at him, but he still felt powerful and feared losing face if he didn't hit her enough. He was more timid than anyone else around outsiders.
The woman also looked stupid. When her man beat her, she just sat on the ground and cried. She didn't think there was anything wrong with the man beating her. It seemed that men should beat women for no reason and women should accept men's beatings. However, she couldn't remain silent. She had to cry out to show her strength.
The vegetables he sold were quite good, but Wang Jiazhi never bought anything from him.
After a while, the man and his wife came back and found that a lot of the vegetables in the basket had been taken away. The man was angry but dared not say anything, but the woman sat on the ground and cried and cursed, this time she even shed tears, crying like she had lost her parents.
The man felt that she was embarrassing and wanted to hit her with a carrying pole, but then he realized that he had lost the carrying pole somewhere when he chased her out to beat her. He quickly went out to look for it, and the people around him laughed even harder.
"Idiot!" Wang Jiazhi said in her heart.
Wang Jiazhi grew up in the city, having only visited the countryside a few times with her mother. She refused to believe that all the men there were bad and would beat women for no reason.
When she was little, her mother and her sisters were chatting about her aunt's cousin. Her family was poor, and her husband was also poor, but he treated her well. However, she died of complications during childbirth with her third child.
My aunt said, "During the years she was gone, life did get better. But she wasn't that lucky, and all the good life was earned by others."
Her mother said, "Your cousin's husband is really rare. He waited for a year before remarrying."
My aunt said, "That's true. There's nothing to complain about my cousin's husband."
At that time, Wang Jiazhi was only six or seven years old, and she thought it was an absurd fairy tale.
If a husband loves his wife very much, wouldn't he be sad for a long time? It would be great if he could marry a new wife within a year.
She still had those romantic ideas until her mother died. Even when her mother was seriously ill, someone had already started matchmaking for her father. No one else thought it was a big deal, no matter how reasonable and normal it was. Even his eleven-year-old brother didn't think it was a big deal.
She didn't think his father had any feelings for her mother, but at least it wasn't like the old man was still alive. There should always be basic morality.
Later she realized that this moral belief was just her own foolish belief, and most people would just think she was ridiculously stupid.
Thinking about it this way, it makes sense that my aunt's cousin's husband waited for a whole year and was seen as very infatuated.
Another time she heard the woman selling silk thread at the door chatting with another woman.
One said, "My family's man is really good to me. All the men in the country beat their women. If they don't, they'll lose face and be laughed at. He couldn't help but beat me, but he couldn't bear to do it. He took a stick and beat me in front of everyone, but he always hit me sideways. It didn't take long for the blows to land on me. People say I'm lucky."
Wang Jiazhi just thought it was ridiculous.
Once, when I went to dinner with the wives of officials, I met a lady. After talking to her for a few words, she left in a hurry, as if she was afraid to see people.
Mrs. Yi and the others said that she was beaten by her husband, and her eyes were black, and she was afraid of being laughed at.
From what the wives said, she inferred that the man held a high position in government and had studied abroad. His wife was also a university graduate and had studied abroad with him, and the two were in a free relationship. Wang Jiazhi was shocked.
To say that a man torturing a woman has nothing to do with status, knowledge, wealth, etc. is simply because he is a bad person.
That country man, who can't read a word and whose family is extremely poor, can still not beat his wife and daughter and treat his son and daughter just as well as before. That upper-class man with a dignified and well-dressed manner can also be a scum who beats women and sells his daughters behind closed doors.
The same applies to women.
On the way back, she met a few young hooligans who looked like they were drunk. She dodged to the side as one of them started to talk dirty.
She just walked quickly. She was almost home anyway. There were so many people on the street in broad daylight, and they were just talking.
"Little wife, don't leave in such a hurry..."
It was so annoying that he was following her. She walked even faster.
Suddenly I heard someone fighting with those people behind me. I turned around and saw that it was the man selling fruits on the first floor. He was passing by with a shoulder pole on his shoulder. He went up and punched the man, knocking out several of his teeth.
Wang Jiazhi saw that the man's mouth was full of blood, and it was really a bloody mouth.
The other young men, seeing the man's face bloodied by the punches, ignored him and ran away. The man was dizzy and dazed, and he stood up shakily and ran away too.
"These bastards are really disgusting. What kind of behavior do they have at such a young age?"
Wang Jiazhi hurriedly thanked him. But then, worry welled up inside her. This kind of scoundrel was the worst kind of trouble. What if he came looking for revenge? This neighbor was being overly aggressive. If he really came looking for money and started causing trouble, he'd still say he was standing up for her and told her to figure it out herself.
"We are all neighbors and should look after each other."
This big brother looked like a righteous Liangshan man, and she remembered the time when he gave the widow fruits and quarreled with his wife.
She noticed that he had some nice greengages and dried apricots in his basket. She had never bought anything from them, but she often went next door to buy cakes. His fruit looked really good.
She wanted to buy those green plums and dried apricots, and the eldest brother smiled and said, "We are neighbors, so you don't have to pay this time."
Wang Jiazhi insisted on giving it to him, so he had no choice but to accept it.
Only then did she remember that if his wife knew about this, she would probably misunderstand him.
This guy looks serious, but he actually loves chatting up women. He's always giving them free gifts, while his wife is so frugal. It's really excessive.
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