The twenty-second day of the winter month in the Gengshen year is cloudy, suitable for marriage and engagement, but not for marriage, groundbreaking, or digging wells.
Zhangjiagou had been ablaze with firecrackers early in the morning. A red wedding sign was plastered on the door of the shabby old house at the west end of the village. A grimy, broken lantern hung from a crooked tree nearby, rustling in the cold wind. The exploding firecrackers left a small sliver of red dust. Mu Boai, the eldest uncle of the Mu family, lit his pipe and squatted beside the broken threshold, frowning as he peered into the backyard.
It was supposed to be a happy wedding, but the house was deserted and there was no one watching the ceremony. The only sound was the middle-aged woman's scolding voice in the back room, which became louder and louder.
"The old almanac says you can't get married, but I asked someone to calculate it, and it turns out your fate is against the norm, so you have to do the opposite of what everyone else does!"
"Huai Xi Huai Xi, I'm talking to you!"
Mu Huaixi sat on the cold wooden bed, gazing around the strange yet familiar rooms of the old house, unable to tell if this was a dream or a revolving doorway before death. Clearly, Zhang Hongwei had raised his knife to kill her, and she'd had enough of the constant beatings. She closed her eyes and rushed forward, only to find herself back in the old house the next day, seemingly on the day of her wedding.
She felt a pain in her arm and looked up to see the unpleasant face of her great aunt Zhang Shaozi, who only looked a few decades younger. Her great aunt pinched her again and said, "Don't do this in the Zhang family anymore. You have to listen carefully to everything your mother-in-law says!"
Mu Huaixi gasped in pain, but felt happy in his heart. This was not a dream!
She really came back!
Zhang Shaozi, standing by, saw that her originally cold face looked a bit more endearing when she only frowned slightly, which made her even more displeased. She curled her lips and put the lipstick paper she had just taken out back away. "You're going to be a daughter-in-law, so don't always think about dressing up. Normal people don't like seductive women. Keep it simple and elegant."
Mu Huaixi knew what she was thinking when she saw her pout. Her aunt had a flat nose and small eyes. Even after marrying her uncle, the children she gave birth to were plain-looking. She therefore labeled all good-looking women as vixens and spoke ill of countless people behind their backs.
Since she inherited her parents' good looks, her aunt had always disliked her. Ever since her grandfather passed away and she had been living with her uncle, she had never worn anything other than black or gray. Her aunt even said that her three white eyes were bad luck for her parents, and that her eyes were drooping, bringing bad luck to her relatives. She said that only hard work could atone for her sins.
At the time, she was young and believed it all, believing she was responsible for the deaths of her parents and grandfather, crying every night. Fearing she would cause trouble for her uncle's family, she moved into the backyard woodshed and began working before dawn. But her aunt wasn't satisfied, blaming her for her cousin's illness and her brother's poor grades. Zhang Shaozi beat and scolded her daily, the most familiar puncture being "that pinch." But her aunt praised her lavishly in public, partly for her reputation and partly because she feared she had long harbored the idea of arranging a marriage for her.
Years later, Mu Huaixi finally understood that she had been manipulated by her aunt into doing PUA. Her parents died saving people during a flood; they were heroes. Her grandfather fell off a cliff while collecting herbs in the mountains; it was an accident. She shouldn't have used these to punish herself.
Thinking back on all these years of foolishness, Mu Huaixi couldn't help but sigh softly, which made his aunt furious. She frowned and scolded, "Why are you sighing? Don't sigh away the Zhang family's blessings!"
"Don't listen to what people say. Although Zhang Hongwei may not have good eyesight, he's a good man! He's graduated from high school and will be able to take over next year. By then, he'll be a regular employee at the county textile factory. You'll live a happy life if you marry him!"
"I asked someone to find this marriage for me. You should remember to be kind to your family in the future!"
Mu Huaixi sneered in his heart. When Zhang Hongwei was a child, his left eye was blinded by a whip while playing with it, and the other eye could not see things clearly. He said that he had attended high school, but was persuaded to drop out in the second year of high school. He was idle and wandered around the streets every day, stealing and fighting, and he just got out of jail after two years.
Zhang Hongwei had a bad reputation and couldn't find a wife in the county. However, his mother wanted him to marry a beautiful woman to calm down, so she took 2,000 yuan and went to the countryside to look for one. It's unknown how his aunt got the news and made this "good match" happen.
Two thousand yuan!
Even twenty years later, her salary from odd jobs was only two or three thousand, and not a cent of these two thousand yuan went to her. Her aunt didn't even prepare a dowry for her and just sent her into the devil's den!
A year later she found out that all the two thousand yuan had been spent on her cousin Mu Huaimin, buying him a job in the transport team, building him a new house and marrying him a good wife.
"Huaixi, your mother-in-law is a very open-minded person. She said that if you have two children in three years and three children in five years, then maybe one of them will have your surname, and your family will not be cut off." Zhang Shaozi patted her shoulder, "Okay, stay here, I'll go and meet my nephew-in-law!"
I have to say that my eldest aunt knows how to handle her. Back then, she was blinded by this illusory "big cake" and tolerated everything until she couldn't bear it anymore. And she and Zhang Hongwei had no children at all. Zhang Hongwei lost his job for molesting the factory director's sister-in-law. When he was drunk and crazy, he kicked her and caused her to miscarry. Later, she ran away many times and was caught. Zhang Hongwei had already found another concubine. If he caught her, he would either ask for money or beat her up. How could he have a child.
"Huaixi, Mu Huaixi!"
A hurried call came from the back window. Mu Huaixi turned her head and saw her third cousin Mu Zhao waving at her. Only then did she remember that this happened on her wedding day, when Mu Zhao wanted to take her away from the wedding.
My uncle's family has three daughters and one son. The first two cousins got married early. Mu Huaimin is the apple of my aunt's eye. She is so "ominous" that she has to avoid mentioning it. Only Mu Zhao has a good relationship with her and brings her steamed buns and pancakes from time to time. Most of her clothes are picked up from Mu Zhao.
"Mu Huaixi! Hurry up! It will be too late if we don't leave now!"
Mu Huaixi's eyes were filled with tears as she remembered that in her previous life, she was taken out to the mountains by Mu Zhao, and was caught and brought back not long after. That night, she was beaten and scolded by Zhang Hongwei, and she couldn't even get up to go back home. She heard that Mu Zhao also had a bad ending. Perhaps because he was afraid of being implicated again, the two of them basically didn't speak when they met again.
She would not implicate her cousin in this life. Mu Huaixi suddenly stood up, closed the window and locked it, leaving Mu Zhao anxiously banging on the window frame. She took a deep breath, unplugged the wooden hairpin from her bun at the back of her head, unscrewed it, took out the gold needles her grandfather left her, and held them all in her hands.
She had made up her mind that instead of marrying him and being tortured to death, it would be better to blind Zhang Hongwei's eyes today and end this farce!
There was a noisy sound of footsteps outside the door. Mu Huaixi stared closely. When the old wooden door was pushed open with a creak, he jumped high and stabbed the intruder hard.
Hatred filled her heart and she shot out like an arrow, but she hit a strange face!
The person outside the door is not Zhang Hongwei!
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