Not long after Dongqing got married, she went to Erwang's house to play cards. That night, she met this person named Yi Xiaofan, and from then on, she became more and more addicted to gambling.
Dong Qing later followed him and gambled bigger and bigger, but Dong Qing didn't win many times.
When Dong Qing lost all his money, Yi Xiaofan lent him money. In just a few months, Dong Qing owed Yi Xiaofan 3,600 yuan in gambling debts. In those days, 3,600 yuan was an astronomical figure, so he sank deeper and deeper into debt and couldn't stop.
Li Yuzhu was startled to see Yi Xiaofan. She asked, "What are you doing at my house?"
Yi Xiaofan said, "I sent someone to your house to invite your husband, but he wouldn't budge. Since you've managed to turn your husband into a henpecked husband, I have no choice but to come to your house myself."
Dong Qing asked in confusion, "Yu Zhu, do you two know each other?"
How did Yi Xiaofan and Li Yuzhu meet? This story begins before Dong Qing and Li Yuzhu got married.
Two years ago, Li Yuzhu and Yi Xiaofan met through an introduction. They were both very satisfied with each other after meeting and got engaged a few days later.
(To put it simply, in the 1970s and 80s, there was very little free love in rural areas. Generally, it was arranged by a matchmaker or relatives. After the man and woman met, if they were willing, they would choose a date to get engaged.)
The man hosts two banquet tables, and the woman goes to the man's house for a meal. The man and woman sit at one table each, and after the meal, they exchange watches, which is considered an engagement. If things go smoothly, the engagement can be completed in three days from the first meeting, and usually no more than half a month.
Customs vary from place to place; at least that's how it is in my hometown.
For example, the man might give the woman a pen, and the woman a notebook; this is called exchanging tokens. The exchange of gifts signifies engagement. The amount of money given is another matter; exchanging a token is sufficient. After the engagement, they can choose a date to get married. That's how marriages were in those days.
Continuing from the previous text;
The summer before last, not long after they got engaged, Li Yuzhu rode her cousin's newly bought bicycle to the city to buy clothes. Her dress had no pockets and nowhere to put her money, so she took off the handlebar grips, stuffed the money into the steel tubes of the handlebars, and then put the grips back on. This way it was safe; as long as the bicycle wasn't stolen, the money wouldn't be stolen either. Her method was quite ingenious.
Li Yuzhu locked her bicycle outside the clothing store and went inside to look at clothes.
The young woman was quite picky about her clothes. She went into several stores but couldn't find anything she liked. After running around for more than two hours, she finally found a dress she liked. But when she went back to get her money, she was shocked to find that her bicycle was gone.
Li Yuzhu thought she had misremembered where she left her bicycle, and searched the area for a long time, but ultimately could not find it.
Money was hard to earn back then. Except for food, which wasn't expensive, everything else was pricey. A bicycle cost around 200 yuan. Buying a bicycle was like buying a car today. In those days, it would take a family several years of work to buy a bicycle. And you needed a license to buy a bicycle; if you didn't have the license, no one would sell it to you even if you had the money.
Li Yuzhu lost her car and went home. How could she explain it to her cousin? She sat there and cried for a long time, until noon before taking the bus home.
Li Yuzhu went straight back to her cousin's house. Her cousin, though inwardly worried, didn't say anything. Li Yuzhu said, "Cousin, I don't have any money right now. When will I be able to pay you back for the car?"
My cousin neither said she wanted me to pay nor refused to pay. She just said, "Go home first. Don't let your uncle know about this. He'll beat you if he finds out."
The Spring Festival arrived, and Yi Xiaofan came to Li Yuzhu's house on the sixth day of the Lunar New Year to celebrate the holiday, riding a 26-inch bicycle.
Li Yuzhu found Yi Xiaofan's bicycle very familiar; it looked exactly like the one she had stolen last summer. But bicycles all look the same, and besides, it wasn't hers; she just thought it looked similar.
While Yi Xiaofan went out to buy cigarettes, Li Yuzhu unscrewed the handlebar grips of her bicycle and saw that her money was still in the steel pipe. Only then did she realize that it was the bicycle she had stolen. It turned out that her fiancé was a thief.
When Yi Xiaofan returned home after buying cigarettes, Li Yuzhu asked, "Xiaofan, did you borrow this car?"
Li Yuzhu desperately wanted the car to be one he had borrowed. If that were the case, the car wouldn't have been stolen by him, and it wouldn't really have much to do with him. In that case, their engagement could still be maintained.
Their wedding date was set for the sixth day of the third lunar month. With only two months left until the wedding, Li Yuzhu had to figure this out; she absolutely could not marry a thief.
Yi Xiaofan said, "It's not borrowed. This car was a birthday gift from my sister last year; she bought it from a dealership."
Li Yuzhu asked, "Could you give me this car?"
Yi Xiaofan said, "We're getting married soon, so of course you can have it if you want. I'll leave the car at your place when I leave, and I'll take the bus home."
"Why take the bus? I'll take you home and pick up the bicycle receipt while I'm at it."
Li Yuzhu thought to herself, "Didn't you say that your sister gave you a new car? I want to see where your invoice came from."
Yi Xiaofan's expression changed slightly upon hearing this, but he quickly regained his composure and said, "It's not that complicated, the invoice is with me."
There was indeed a bicycle invoice in Yi Xiaofan's wallet, but the invoice belonged to her older sister, who bought a Flying Pigeon bicycle last year.
The older sister's bicycle was her own, so it didn't matter whether she had the receipt or not. The bicycle he stole was the same model as his sister's, so he got the receipt back and put it in a pocket of his wallet, which matched the stolen bicycle perfectly.
Yi Xiaofan took the invoice out of his wallet and handed it to Li Yuzhu. She didn't know whether the invoice was real or fake, but judging from the tax stamp on it, it should be genuine. The invoice did indeed have his sister Yi Cuiping's name on it.
But this car was indeed stolen by him, so how could it match the invoice?
Li Yuzhu's face darkened after looking at the invoice. She said, "Yi Xiaofan, who knows where you got this invoice? To tell you the truth, this is the same bike I stole last year. I won't call the police to arrest you. Just leave the bike with me and go. This bike is mine. I never expected that you would be the one who stole it. I could never marry a thief. Let's break up."
Yi Xiaofan was shocked. He knew the bicycle was stolen, but he didn't believe it belonged to his fiancée. All bicycles looked the same; if she said it was hers, it was hers. He said, "My bicycle has an invoice, and you have it. You say it's yours, so what proof do you have?"
Li Yuzhu said, "Hehe, you really did a perfect job. Who knows where your invoice came from? I had 32 yuan hidden in my right-hand grip. Take off the grip. If there's no 32 yuan inside, then I won't say anything. On the contrary, I'll apologize to you."
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