Song Lan smiled with a playful look in her eyes: "Big brother, it's really hard to say."
"Fine, I give in."
Song Qingbin looked helpless and shrugged: "Who told me to be your eldest brother?!" As the eldest brother, it's understandable that I have to spoil my younger siblings.
Song Lan and Song Guoqing burst out laughing simultaneously. After a moment, Song Lan asked Song Guoqing, "By the way, what do you want to tell me and my brother about?"
"Our village's second-in-command, Shi Baogen, is going to get a wife!"
As Song Guoqing spoke, his expression became somewhat complicated. Seeing this, Song Qingbin asked, "What's wrong?"
"On this freezing cold day, Yuan, an educated youth at the settlement, went to the riverbank for some reason and then fell into the water. Just then, the second son of the educated youth, Shi Baogen, happened to be passing by the riverbank and jumped into the water to rescue Yuan."
Who knew that Yuan Zhiqing would fall unconscious after choking on water? The second brother, a scoundrel, having heard it from somewhere, performed CPR on Yuan Zhiqing in front of many people in the village, and even unbuttoned Yuan Zhiqing's collar..."
As he rambled on, Song Guoqing concluded, "After Yuan Zhiqing regained consciousness, she slapped the second rascal. Then she got up to leave the riverbank, but she fainted again after only two steps. The second rascal rushed forward, picked her up, and cried out, 'Wife, what's wrong with you?'"
Later, several educated youths arrived and snatched Yuan from Lao Erliuzi's hands; otherwise, Lao Erliuzi would have taken even more advantage of Yuan.
Song Qingbin then looked at Song Lan and said, "According to seniority, we should call Shi Baogen 'Sixth Uncle,' but he's a real scoundrel. Because he has five older sisters, his parents only managed to give birth to this son after a difficult sixth pregnancy."
So he was spoiled from a young age. I once heard my grandmother say that Shi Baogen's parents really doted on their son, giving him whatever he wanted, and demanding that all five of his older sisters pamper and spoil him, putting him first in everything.
In order to ensure that Shi Baogen could live a good life, almost all of his five older sisters were sold to their husbands' families by their parents. However, his five older sisters did not blame their families at all. After getting married, whenever their husbands' families had something good, they would think of taking it back to their parents' home for their younger brother.
Over the years, the five sisters have been beaten by their husbands countless times, but they have never repented. As a result, their respective husbands' families treat their daughters-in-law like thieves. A couple of years ago, two of Shi Baogen's five sisters were sent back to our village by their husbands' families, who said that they could not afford to keep their disloyal daughters-in-law.
Sending him back is tantamount to a divorce. After all, people in the countryside rarely get marriage certificates. Guess what Shi Baogen's parents did?
Song Lan: "You've been married off again?"
Song Qingbin: "It's less about remarrying and more about being sold off again. Moreover, Shi Baogen's parents somehow managed to marry their two daughters off to a village with only a few households deep in the mountains."
One was to become the wife of three brothers, and the other was to become the wife of an old bachelor with polio in both legs and mental problems. Last spring, it was said that one of the sisters died in childbirth, and the other fell off a cliff while working on a hillside and died on the spot.
But Shi Baogen and his parents continued their lives as usual, as if his two older sisters and daughter had never existed, which clearly showed that none of the three of them were good people. As for Shi Baogen, he was about thirty-two or thirty-three years old this year. He had married two wives before, the first of whom died in childbirth along with her unborn child.
The second woman was driven away by Shi Baogen in less than six months... Four or five years have passed since then, and everyone in our village and the surrounding villages knows what kind of people Shi Baogen's family is. It's as if they've agreed that no one wants to marry their daughter into that hellhole of a family like Shi Baogen's. Who would have thought that something like this would happen now.
As the words fell, Song Qingbin felt a deep sense of melancholy.
Song Guoqing: "Sister, the second son of the gangster is a big drinker. When he gets drunk, he beats people up. Many people in the village suspect that his first wife was beaten into premature birth and died along with her unborn child."
By the way, the second son, a good-for-nothing, never works in the fields. After his five older sisters got married, his family relied entirely on his parents to earn work points. Shi Baogen spends his days eating and sleeping, or wandering around looking for people to gamble with. If Yuan Zhiqing marries him… she definitely won't have a good life!
"That person, and by such coincidence, saved Yuan Zhiqing, and Yuan Zhiqing appeared by the river on this freezing day, and then accidentally fell into the water. I can't help but feel that there's something fishy going on here."
Song Lan shared her opinion.
Song Qingbin nodded: "It certainly seems like this was all caused by someone."
"Big brother, sister, I was watching the commotion outside when I heard the village aunties say that all the educated youth in the educated youth compound are very cunning. They also said that when Yang, the educated youth, fell into the water and was rescued by Er Gouzi, it was mostly because of the schemes of those educated youth in the educated youth compound, forcing Yang to marry Er Gouzi for the sake of her reputation."
Now, Yuan, the educated youth, has gotten into the same situation as Yang. The aunties say that in a few days, Yuan will probably have to go to Lao Erliuzi's house. Otherwise, she's afraid she won't have the face to stay in our village anymore, and might even be sent to a farm for re-education.
After listening to Song Guoqing's words, Song Lan frowned slightly and said, "As a victim, why would Yuan Zhiqing marry that man named Shi Baogen? Being sent to reform through labor is even more impossible in my opinion!"
"Yuan Zhiqing's reputation will definitely be affected after Shi Baogen performed CPR on her. Shi Baogen is clearly after Yuan Zhiqing, and given his loose tongue, he's capable of saying anything. If Yuan Zhiqing doesn't marry him..."
Unless you're thick-skinned enough to tolerate Shi Baogen's mother causing trouble at the educated youth compound, you either have to find a way to become an educated youth in a village far from ours, or have your family transfer you back to the city. Otherwise, you have no choice but to marry Shi Baogen.
Song Qingbin shared his opinion.
Song Guoqing: "Sister, Big Brother is right. Yuan Zhiqing either has to leave our village and go to another village to work in the countryside, or her family has to take her back to the city. Otherwise, if she doesn't marry Lao Erliuzi, given how difficult Lao Erliuzi's mother is, Yuan Zhiqing will definitely not have a good life in our village."
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