While rubbing his hands and stamping his feet to warm them up, Xu Erchun paced around the entrance of the brigade headquarters.
The villagers passing by all knew what Xu Erchun was waiting for, and one of them deliberately went up to him and asked, "Erchun, hasn't your ex-wife sent you money yet? The New Year is just around the corner. Could it be that your ex-wife has a new family and that's why she doesn't have money to give you?"
Others chimed in, "That's right, they've been giving you money for years, haven't they? Maybe your ex-wife thought you weren't married, so she sent you money. Now that she knows you're married again with two or three kids, she doesn't want to raise your children anymore, does she?"
Xu Erchun's face flushed red: "What do you know? I think you're just jealous, aren't you? Well, you're just unlucky—"
"Pah! What luck? Shameless! I'm not as shameless as you, taking money from your first wife to support your second wife and kids! I don't even know if that money is clean—"
"Hey, you don't understand, do you? They don't care if the money is clean or not. As long as they have the money and can make ends meet for a year, that's all that matters!"
...
Everyone laughed and mocked.
Xu Erchun had no interest in arguing with them. His eyes were fixed on the village entrance, where a familiar figure, eagerly waiting, was riding a bicycle toward the brigade headquarters.
Isn't he just the town's postman?
Xu Erchun rushed forward: "Are you delivering a letter to the brigade leader? Do you have a money order?"
The postman has been delivering money orders for so many years, so he naturally knows the story behind them.
He glanced at Xu Erchun but didn't answer.
He rode his bike to the entrance of the brigade headquarters and then shouted inside, "Xu Jianguo, there's a letter for you."
The captain came out, smiled at the postman, and familiarly offered him a cigarette before taking the letter from the postman: "Thank you for your help! It's cold, come in and warm yourself by the fire."
The postman waved his hand and then searched his bag for letters from other families in the Unity Brigade.
Xu Erchun couldn't wait any longer and stepped forward: "Captain, whose letter is this? Is it from Chen Fangfang? Is there a money order inside?"
Their eagerness was almost unbearable to watch.
The captain felt disgusted. He looked at the letter in his hand, sighed inwardly, and tore it open.
Instead of the familiar remittance slip, I found several pieces of paper.
The captain's expression hardened. He opened the letters, glanced at them quickly, and then his expression turned strange. He looked at Xu Erchun a few times, then at the letters again, and finally said, "It's a letter from Chen Fangfang. She wrote to me saying that she will never send you money again! The money she sent you before was enough to settle your past grievances! You, Xu Erchun, will have nothing to do with Chen Fangfang anymore!"
This made the postman, who was originally planning to deliver mail to other homes, stop pedaling and start rummaging around in his green bag, but he couldn't find anything.
The men who had previously mocked Xu Erchun perked up, their eyes shining as they looked at the captain.
Xu Erchun was shocked and couldn't believe it: "Impossible! Captain, are you sure you're not mistaken? Why isn't she sending me money anymore? Doesn't she send money every year? Why isn't she sending it anymore? How will my family survive if she doesn't send money?"
"Captain, give me her address. I need to write to her and ask if she's having an affair."
Xu Erchun's eyes were bloodshot, as if he would rush over and kill someone as soon as he knew the address.
The brigade leader sneered: "You've already had two children with someone else, so what right do you have to care whether she has a husband or not? Chen Zhiqing has been more than good to you! She's only been married to you for a few years, and she's been starving and freezing, and she's been bullied by your parents and your brother and sister-in-law. You've never stood up for her."
"They got into university on their own, and you don't support them, you even lock them at home! If it were anyone else, they could run away, go to university and live a good life on their own, who would care about you?"
"Even your own parents never treated you like this, never gave you this much money, right? How dare you ask her? What do you want to ask her? Why doesn't she give you money to spend? How can you even bring yourself to ask that? You're such a grown man, you can't even support your own wife and children, and you expect others to support you? What's the point of getting married then?"
The captain scolded him angrily.
Xu Erchun's face turned pale, but he still refused to give up: "If I hadn't been soft-hearted and let her go, could she have gone to university peacefully? Could she have earned money outside? She has such a good life today because of me! For that, she should be grateful to me—"
Before he could finish speaking, the brigade leader interrupted him: "Xu Erchun, aren't you ashamed to say that? Are you saying you're being soft-hearted and letting her go? You're just a coward, a weakling, too afraid to leave the Tuanjie Brigade! You don't even dare to go to the county town, yet you dare to go to the capital to find her?"
"Back then, when Chen Zhiqing wanted to go to university, she promised you that you could go to Beijing with her. Why didn't you agree? Besides, do you have any money? Before Chen Zhiqing got into university, she gave a lot of the money she earned to her family, right? In the end, your parents didn't even give you money for the travel expenses, did they? You were able to marry your later wife, raise two children, and build a new house, all thanks to the money Chen Zhiqing sent back."
"A grown man, at such an advanced age, still relying on his ex-wife to support his wife and children! If it were me, I would be ashamed to death!"
Xu Erchun's face turned purple from the scolding. His anger, which had just erupted, was like a balloon that had been punctured by a needle, and all the air had been released.
His face was filled with panic: "But, but we can't just not give her the money without saying a word, can we? Captain, could you call her or write to her and ask her to give it to us one last time! After the New Year, we won't ask her for money anymore, is that alright?"
The brigade leader scoffed: "Your own parents didn't give you money and kicked you out without even consulting you. Why should your ex-wife give you money again? Chen Zhiqing attached a list to her letter. Starting from her second year of university in Beijing, she sent you money every year. In the last installment, she sent you a total of 2,980 yuan."
"This amount of money, even if your own parents gave it to their son, wouldn't be enough to cover it all back in the countryside. Over the years, you haven't spent this much on getting married, building a new house, or raising your children, have you? What else do you have to say?"
The captain waved the few sheets of paper in his hand.
Everyone gasped and crowded around to look. Sure enough, it listed the year and how much money had been sent back.
Upon seeing the final number, they couldn't help but exclaim in surprise, "Did they really send this much?"
"Chen Zhiqing is such a good person!"
Xu Erchun was also stunned: "Are there... that many?"
The captain sneered, "If you don't believe me, I have a copy of all the remittance slips. If it really doesn't work, I'll go with you to the post office to check and see if it's really this much."
The postman next to him immediately nodded: "That's right, if you don't believe me, go to the post office and check, you'll definitely be able to find out!"
The captain went inside as he spoke, and soon came out with a thick stack of remittance slips.
Xu Erchun was too ashamed to say anything more, and walked home dejectedly, stumbling along...
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