Chapter 2: The mad woman locked in the cage seemed not to be a human being,...
Hu Honghua trembled, her face turned pale after being scolded, and she shrank her neck and dared not speak.
Li Tianci has always disliked her because she has never been to school, is clumsy at work, and can't do anything well. She didn't dare to refute him because Li Tianci was one of the first batch of college students, and he had every reason to look down on her and scold her.
"Mom!" Seeing that Shi Meilan didn't move, Li Tianci said in a more serious tone, "Xinran is right. Your tuberculosis is an infectious disease. You should get out. You have to think about our family."
"What the hell are you talking about!" Shi Meilan was so angry she couldn't speak, but now she calmed down and finally shouted, "This house is also my family fortune! I saved it! I'm not even dead yet, and you dare give my house to someone else!"
Shi Meilan felt chilled to the bone, and then she was filled with endless hatred. She shook off Hu Honghua and walked into the main hall. "Are you afraid of getting infected? Are you afraid of getting infected? I'll infect all of you! No one will survive!"
She worked so hard for this family, but were these people ungrateful? Did they have no conscience at all?
The group of people in the main room were frightened by Shi Meilan's appearance. They were not afraid of Shi Meilan, but they were afraid of tuberculosis!
Shi Meilan walked in and everyone retreated.
"Mom! Have you had enough of making trouble?"
"Do you really want your son to get sick too?"
"Other people's elderly don't burden their own children, why do you only choose to cause trouble to your own children?"
Shi Meilan walked over and said, "I'm dying, but my family is still alive! Have you asked my parents before you marry someone else?"
When Shi Meilan mentioned her mother's family, Li Jianye immediately felt confident.
"I'm telling you the truth. Your family said they don't care about this matter. Your brother came to me and asked for twenty yuan as your dowry back then. If he returns it, we'll be even! Your family has agreed, so what else can you do?"
Li Jianye also dug out a note that Shi Meilan's brother had fingerprinted on, threw it to Shi Meilan, and said, "We, the Li family, have done our best for you! If you continue to act up, I'll send you back to your mother's family. Your brother has already married, and if you go back, they won't even prepare a grave for you!"
"Yes, Mom, we gave Uncle a lot of money. I won't even have enough money to marry in the future!" Li Tianfu said indignantly, "We don't owe you anything. It's you who is in poor health and got sick. How can you take revenge on us?"
The three elders of the Li family all looked annoyed. They were thinking, how could Shi Meilan be so ignorant? She was about to die, and yet she had to come back to mess with them!
Shi Meilan's eyes turned red from the stimulation of these words. She walked over step by step and picked up the note with trembling hands.
It was indeed her brother's fingerprint. Her brother could not write, so he could only draw fingerprints. There was a very special scar on his thumb, and Shi Meilan always remembered it.
She said, she was still alive, and Li Jianye wanted to marry a widow, so how could her brother not intervene? He had intervened before, but he didn't intend to stand up for her, and instead used this matter to blackmail her.
When she was alive and useful, this group of people surrounded her sweetly, relying on her to make fire, cook, and carry the household chores. When she died, they couldn't wait to devour the last of her flesh and blood, and then look for the next replacement.
She didn't seem like a human being, but just an object in this house that could be thrown away when broken.
Seeing Shi Meilan approaching step by step, the fear on the faces of Widow Wang and Lin Xinran became even stronger. They were afraid of getting sick!
"Forget it, if she doesn't leave, we'll leave. Let's go quickly." Widow Wang pulled her daughter and ran to the door.
"No, don't go!" Li Tianfu pulled, "Hey, hey," and said, "You stay here, Dad, go send Mom away! It's you who's in such a hurry to get married!"
He said that this matter should be handled after Mom died, but Dad was so eager to get married, and now look what happened! Such a big fuss!
Li Jianye didn't dare go over. He was afraid of being infected, and also afraid of seeing Shi Meilan's eyes. He just hid behind like a turtle and shouted, "Son, say something."
Li Tianci hesitated for two seconds, then glared at Hu Honghua fiercely and said, "Hu Honghua, why don't you take your mother-in-law away!"
This is all Hu Honghua's fault. If Hu Honghua hadn't gone out of her way to deliver food today, how could such a big fuss have happened?
"Mother-in-law, what should we do?" Hu Honghua was soft-hearted and was about to cry when Li Tianci glared at her.
Li Jianye was forced to persuade her: "Come on, what on earth do you want to do? Get out! What if you really infect your son?"
Shi Meilan was filled with hatred! She wanted to curse, but her chest was blocked. The moment she opened her mouth, she vomited blood uncontrollably. Then her eyes went black and she fell down.
When she fell over, the people around her were scared to death by the blood. A group of people shouted, and the high-pitched voices seemed to be about to blow the roof off the house. They pulled one after another and ran out, leaving Hu Honghua alone kneeling to guard her.
Run? No! No!
Shi Meilan screamed and roared, but only spit out more blood. Her vision went completely dark and she could not see anything. The voices of the group of people were getting farther and farther away, and smaller and smaller, as if they were isolated in a very far place. She tried desperately to open her eyes, to see clearly, and to tear the skin off the faces of these people, but she had no strength left.
Anger burned away her last bit of vitality. Her soul was dried up, burned thin, and shattered into pieces in the anger.
When she died, everyone in the house ran out, except for her daughter-in-law, who had never been close to her, who cried and saw her off.
She saw that after she died, Li Jianye disliked her for being sick and was afraid that she would be infected by the corpse. Perhaps he was also annoyed by the embarrassing scene she made that day, which delayed his marrying a new wife. With new and old grudges piling up, he simply threw her body to her parents' home, saying that since the dowry had been returned, her parents should be the ones to deal with her body. Her family was unwilling to do so, and the two sides kept arguing.
Her brother-in-law's family, who lived next door, remembered the old quarrels and just laughed at her, saying she deserved it. Her mother-in-law shouted cheerfully, "Who made her get that disease? It delayed my son from getting married."
Her damned daughter-in-law was also kicked out of the house, and finally returned to Old Hu's house crying with her body. There was only one man left in Old Hu's family. When he saw this, he sighed, bought her a small coffin, and buried her in the mountains, right next to the land temple.
Until her death, she never thought that it was her daughter-in-law whom she had always looked down upon who buried her.
When she comes to the human world, she stays at her father's house for a while, and then at her husband's house for a while. If she gets sick and can no longer be used, she has to make room for her husband's next one quickly. She also has to die quickly to avoid causing trouble to her husband's family.
She hates, why?
Why why why why?
Why did she die like this?
What does it feel like to die?
It was as if a person was floating in a stream, being lifted up by the soft current. As the water flowed, he became lighter and lighter, his consciousness became more and more blurred, as if he was about to forget everything.
All those hatreds and grudges must be forgotten, forgotten——
No.
Shi Meilan floated in the water, thinking resentfully that she must not forget.
She was carrying this trace of hatred and couldn't leave it. She just kept turning around and around in a daze, unwilling to leave.
She hated if she were still alive, if—
——
Early June, summer of 1986 in China.
A scorching fireball hung in the sky, exploding and scorching the sandy soil of Lijia Village. The ground was so dry and cracked that it was hot to the feet, and the dogs had to hide under the wall and stick out their tongues.
A gentle breeze blew through the midsummer, caressing the entire Lijia Village, blowing the new leaves on the old trees, and playfully sneaking into the window of the east room of the old Li family.
There are four rooms in the east and west, front and back. The front east room is the brightest and largest, and is the bedroom of Li Jianye and Shi Meilan.
The bedroom was tidy and clean. There was a large wardrobe at the entrance, which was Shi Meilan's dowry. There was a large kang against the wall at the back. The bedding was neatly stacked in the corner. There were New Year pictures of dolls on the wall, smiling and holding fish.
It is the hottest summer now, and there is a low wooden couch next to the window with a mat on it for people to cool down in the summer.
At this time, a middle-aged woman was sleeping on the low wooden couch. She was probably in her thirties. The years had filled her eyebrows and eyes, making her look heroic and powerful. Although she was wearing an ordinary white cloth shirt and blue pants, she was tall and round, with a round white face, rosy lips, and thin dark eyebrows. She looked very beautiful.
It was Shi Meilan.
Shi Meilan is famous for her good fortune in Lijia Village. She married a teacher and gave birth to two sons. One has good academic performance and is expected to be admitted to university, and the other is very strong and does all the work in the fields. Shi Meilan would wake up laughing in her dreams when she thinks of such a family.
But Shi Meilan, who was lying on the wooden couch, seemed to be trapped in a nightmare. She kicked and thrashed on the couch, and her face became more and more hideous in her sleep.
Her hands were tightly clutching her clothes, as if she was competing with someone.
Just then, a breeze blew in through the window, brushing against Shi Meilan's body as she lay on the low wooden couch. The next second, her feet suddenly stepped on empty air, and she rolled over from the couch and woke up in shock.
When she woke up, Shi Meilan's head was buzzing.
The resentment in my heart was still surging in my chest, and the anger at the time of death was still circling in my mind, but what was going on in front of me?
In the familiar front east room, there is a wardrobe that I have seen for more than ten years. There is a calendar hanging in the corner of the wall, and the date is June 2, 1985.
She was confused, wondering if it was possible that her ghost had come back as a ghost?
She stood up unsteadily, and unskillfully used her body to move out of the back room, walked through the corridor, and staggered out of the main room.
The sun fell from behind the eaves, creating a dividing line between the inside and outside. The leaves in the yard rustled, as if asking her: Shi Meilan, have you turned into a ghost and come back?
She stood in the room and stretched out a trembling hand.
The scorching sun beat down on her, and she was still alive.
It's not a ghost.
She was back! Like a mountain goblin, buried in the earth, she reached out from the muddy grave and crawled back to the pile of her enemies!
She still looks like a human being, but what flows in her skin is no longer blood, but surging hatred.
Just as she was in a daze, she heard footsteps in the yard. Shi Meilan shuddered and looked over.
She saw with her own eyes a figure coming out of the main room, with his back to her, and carefully jumping from their yard to the yard next door on the left.
That's Li Jianye.
In the whole village, only Li Jianye likes to wear a white shirt and black pants, a pair of black leather shoes bought from the town, oiled and waxed every day, and gold-rimmed glasses. He is gentle and refined, and never gets involved in housework.
Li Jianye!
Shi Meilan suddenly retracted her hand that was stretched out outside the house, and her nails dug into the flesh, almost drawing blood!
The courtyard wall was made of bricks and was almost one person high. Li Jianye was a scholar and it was very difficult for him to jump. He did not notice that Shi Meilan had come out.
In the yard next door lived Widow Wang and her family.
When she saw the roof of Widow Wang's house, the confusion in Shi Meilan's eyes gradually faded away, and memories of the past flooded into her heart.
She remembered that it was now June, four months before she was diagnosed with tuberculosis, one month before her eldest son took the college entrance examination, and one month before Hu Honghua got married.
She hasn't contracted tuberculosis or is seriously ill yet, but judging by how skillfully Li Jianye climbed over the wall, it was definitely not his first time.
It turned out that the adulterous couple had been together long before she fell ill, but she was so immersed in the happiness and troubles of life that she didn't notice it at all.
No wonder Li Jianye was so eager to marry her as soon as she fell ill in her previous life.
She wanted to run over right now and give each of these scumbags and bitches a big slap in the face, but she restrained herself.
She hated them too much, and simply exposing them was no longer enough to satisfy her. She wanted to bring these two people to ruin!
Shi Meilan stood there, gritting her teeth. She did not choose to explode in anger on the spot, but slowly walked to the wall and listened to what the two people next door were saying.
"Teacher Li, you didn't let your wife find out, did you?"
The rustling sound reached Shi Meilan's ears through the wall.
At the same time, Li Jianye on the other side of the wall had just started talking to Widow Wang.
Widow Wang was standing up.
Her real name is Wang Yulian. She placed a small chair against the wall in the yard for Li Jianye to step on. At this time, Wang Yulian was holding the chair and letting Li Jianye come down slowly.
"No, she had a very deep nap and couldn't get up at all." Li Jianye's voice was full of tenderness, with a hint of guilt: "Hey, Yulian, it's my fault. I made you suffer with me."
Li Jianye and Wang Yulian have been together for a month.
At the beginning... Lin Xinran was studying in the school where Li Jianye was, and Wang Yulian could occasionally say a few words to Li Jianye.
Wang Yulian was not like Shi Meilan, an uneducated woman. She was literate, knowledgeable in poetry, song, and dance, and could even discuss a few lines of classical poetry with Li Jianye, much to his delight. Wang Yulian was gentle and would not shout at the top of her lungs, "Li Jianye, come and help me pick beans," but would instead gently stroke her hair and say, "Hello, Teacher Li."
Li Jianye was so fascinated by the way she played with her hair that he couldn't open his eyes and felt itchy in his heart.
Later, Wang Yulian's husband returned to the city, leaving Wang Yulian and Lin Xinran behind. Wang Yulian always cried at night and had no energy to do farm work during the day. Even Lin Xinran couldn't concentrate on her studies. Li Jianye's second son, Li Tianfu, came here every day to help plow the fields.
Li Jianye thought, since they might become relatives in the future, he might as well come and help in advance.
After helping each other for a while, the two of them secretly fell in love.
Since it was a secret, it must not be seen in public, so every time the two of them dated, they could only do it at noon when no one could see them. Shi Meilan was asleep, the eldest son was at school, and the second son was busy in the fields. Only at this time could Li Jianye be his true self.
Only after climbing over this wall did he arrive at his own paradise.
When Wang Yulian heard Li Jianye say that she was wronged, she just lowered her head, smiled faintly, and did not complain.
What could she complain about?
At the beginning, she was a child abandoned by her parents. Her parents couldn't bear to part with her brother and her younger brother, so they let her go to the countryside alone. In the first two years, there were letters from her, but later, no one would reply to her letters. It was like she was exiled here and could only die of old age on this land.
In the end, she was a woman abandoned by her husband. Her husband only had one position transferred back to the city, but he chose to go alone, leaving her and her widow in this barren and backward land, and making her endure the gossip and bullying of others, both openly and covertly. Those tortures were hidden in the corners of the house, under the stones on the ground, and on the tip of people's tongues. They seemed invisible at first glance, but they were everywhere.
You can imagine how her life was.
She doesn't fit in here.
She was an educated youth sent here. Her hometown was not here, and she was wandering here without a home. She had been educated and learned the cello, but was forced to stay and clean the toilet with her own hands. She hated everything here, but was forced to stay.
If she wants to survive and live a good life, she has to find someone to rely on.
At the very least, Li Jianye is better than those smokers with yellow teeth and drunkards who are so drunk they can't find their way home. At the very least, Li Jianye is a man who is willing to give.
She held Li Jianye's hand, and her palm gradually moved upwards, landing on Li Jianye's chest. She leaned over and whispered, "I'm not wronged at all with you. It's just that my daughter makes me worry so much."
Wang Yulian's voice was filled with worry. "She won't get into the school at all. There's no point in sending her to school. I'm thinking of finding her a job. You know that factory in town? They say they're hiring. It's a stable office job with housing. I heard from the manager that they only want high school graduates who have completed an education, but they also need connections. You'll have to pay a gift, and it'll cost a hundred yuan per person. If you count me, it'll be two hundred. I don't have that kind of money."
At the end, Wang Yulian sobbed: "I only have this one daughter. I'm a woman, and there's nothing I can do."
Seeing Wang Yulian crying, Li Jianye immediately became anxious and said quickly: "I have this money, I'll pay for it! Use it to buy two jobs for you and your daughter. You are an educated person, so you should also do office work."
Although he is a coward who is afraid of his wife, he really likes Wang Yulian. If Wang Yulian cries a little, he will forget his brain, take off his pants and think with his dick.
"How can this be?" Wang Yulian's eyes reddened as she shook her head. "This isn't right. How are you going to explain this much money to that tigress of yours? How can I bear to see you being bullied like that by Shi Meilan?"
"Don't worry, I can handle it!" Li Jianye immediately patted his chest and guaranteed.
Wang Yulian is different from Shi Meilan. Shi Meilan lives in his house, gets paid by him, and orders the two children to do this and that every day and acts domineeringly. But Wang Yulian has nothing, so of course he has to give Wang Yulian more.
He's a man! How could he let his woman live a hard life?
The two of them stuck together, and Li Jianye secretly made a move, but he just touched them up and down.
Although they were secretly together, there was still a thin layer of window paper between them. Wang Yulian was shy and timid, and kept refusing, not daring to do that kind of thing with him. In addition, there was not enough time at noon, so the two of them could only kiss at most.
While they were kissing, Li Jianye pressed Wang Yulian to the ground.
This was a woman completely different from Shi Meilan. She was gentle, delicate, and pitiful. Her lips that were red from his kisses, her moans from his pinching, and her misty eyes all made Li Jianye intoxicated.
——
Wang Yulian just felt light and airy.
The blue sky, white clouds, green grass, and clean hem of clothes rolled up in the dirty dust gave her a strange feeling of refreshment, as refreshing as tearing off a blood scab from a wound. Wang Yulian looked at the sky above her head, and the anger in her chest finally burst out.
Her husband treated her unfairly, and the people in the village bullied her. They constantly ridiculed her as a "capitalist lady" and said that "no man would want her no matter how noble she was." She suppressed her anger and complained all the time.
She is not a widow. Her husband is not dead. Who knows when he will miss her and come back to take her away. But everyone keeps calling her a widow. Under the influence of so many people, they forget her name and nail her to this humiliating title.
Only when she is flattered and pursued by another man can she forget the pain her husband brought her. Only when she gets money can she be happy. These days are like sugar dipped in arsenic, poisonous, but so sweet.
Li Jianye's affair was simply out of greed, but Wang Yulian's was because of the heavy shackles, the confusion of not being able to find a way out, the oppression day after day, and the resentment of being abandoned.
These complex and changeable emotions weighed down her, turning her into a mad woman locked in a cage. Only when she did "bad things" could she feel that she was still alive and not be crushed by this miserable life. Beneath her gentle appearance was a deep pit that could never be filled.
The crude and backward rural land is a man's world. They don't need to hide their ugly posture, they just need to unbutton their pants and get in. If they can get in, it's his ability, and if they can't, it's the cheap woman who doesn't know what's good for her. But the same place is a long, humid rainy season for women. They have to endure a dark, rotten and moldy life, stepping on their legs with rheumatic pain, rummaging through rotten things and even rottener things, taking out some food that can fill their stomachs and stuffing it into their mouths, trying every way to make their lives better.
The happy time was short. Guessing that Shi Meilan was about to wake up, Li Jianye got up reluctantly and climbed over the wall to go back.
Wang Yulian saw him off with a gentle look on her face.
The wooden chair creaked and tilted when stepped on. Li Jianye's hands and feet were weak, and he crawled and climbed up in an awkward posture to the other side of the widow's yard - the Li family compound.
After he climbed over the wall and landed on the ground, he looked around guiltily.
The Li family compound is large. There is a large cowshed on the left side of the door. There are some vegetables planted in the yard on the right, and there is also a grape vine. When he bent down carefully, he jumped down. The afternoon was quiet. The grape vines in the yard swayed back and forth, and there was no one around.
He had just breathed a sigh of relief and straightened up when he heard someone calling out from the door: "Uncle Li, is Aunt Shi awake?"
Who's here?
Li Jianye shuddered and turned his head in fear, only to see a timid figure standing at the door. When he saw him looking at him, the other person forced a flattering smile at him.
It was Hu Honghua, his eldest daughter-in-law who had not yet married into the family.
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