Chapter 2 I Called My Brother
Being ignored by the couple was not a bad thing for Zhang Wei. It was only the old woman who ordered her around. If she didn't want to do anything, she would pretend to be stupid and run away. Anyway, she could hardly understand a word they said.
What surprised her was that the beautiful wife actually spoke Mandarin! This made her feel even more out of place here. The man communicated with her in broken Mandarin. It was hard to imagine that she would marry into such a family.
From the way the man addressed her, it seemed like she was called "Qin Yuan", but that name didn't sound like someone from here.
Zhang Wei ran around the village like this for a few days and finally found out where he was.
This is a village built on the top of a mountain in the middle of a big mountain. There are cliffs on one side of the village. Zhang Wei's family is on the side closest to the cliff, and the houses of other families are built upwards along the mountain behind. There are only dozens of households in total. It is surrounded by mountains and there is only a small path on the side of the cliff leading to the outside.
The path was only wide enough for one person to pass through. On one side was a mountain wall, and on the other side was a cliff. Every time Zhang Wei walked there, she doubted that she would ever be able to leave the village. Whenever she got close to there, someone would yell at her to leave.
The children in the village didn't want to play with her. As soon as she approached, the children scattered away as if they were avoiding the plague, which made her feel a little confused. She had clearly never dealt with these children before, and her few remaining memories did not show any of them.
In just a few days, Zhang Wei figured out the family's daily route. After breakfast in the morning, the male owner would go out and leave the village through a small path, while the old woman and Qin Yuan would stay at home doing housework and farming.
Then she found Qin Yuan quite interesting. As soon as the man left her, the obedience in her eyes disappeared. She didn't pay much attention to the old woman at all. She only went to wash clothes in the morning, and stayed in the room at other times, and no one knew what she was doing.
Zhang Wei could only understand what the couple said, but she could not get any other useful information. There was no electricity, let alone TV. She could only tell that it was 1998 from the door god calendar on the door, so she could only focus on the only source of information - Qin Yuan.
That day, Zhang Wei followed Qin Yuan to wash clothes as usual. Of course, she just squatted by the stream and played with stones, and Qin Yuan didn't care about her. But this time they came late, and there were already several women washing clothes. As soon as they got closer, they could clearly hear their voices stop abruptly.
I don’t know if Qin Yuan can understand it. It may be related to her family. Anyway, Zhang Wei can’t understand it. The dialect here is very different from Mandarin and sounds like a foreign language.
Strangely enough, Zhang Wei had never seen Qin Yuan interact with anyone from the village, and she had a vague feeling that she would gain something today...
Sure enough, Zhang Wei looked at the reflection in the stream and saw the women exchanging glances. Then a thin woman with a dark blue headscarf said in broken Mandarin:
"Ninth sister's wife, your brother drank the incense ashes from the ancestral hall and he's still not well?"
After saying that, she pointed in Zhang Wei's direction with her mouth, and at the same time, the women all looked at Zhang Wei.
!!!
Zhang Wei lowered his head to look into the water, and suddenly felt that he had received too much information. He didn't know whether it was because he called his brother and drank the incense ash that was shocking, or because the strong man with a fierce look in his eyes called his ninth sister that was shocking.
Qin Yuan just smiled at them coldly and continued beating her clothes.
But the other woman seemed unable to restrain herself and immediately said:
"It's okay for a girl to become mute. It won't affect her ability to have children in the future. You should quickly give birth to a boy for your ninth sister. A woman cannot have children without a boy. We don't have such children in our Chen family!"
It was not Zhang Wei's intention to be treated as a mute. She didn't dare to speak at first for fear of being exposed. This family was so indifferent to her original self. If they knew that her core had been replaced, they would definitely kill her.
Unexpectedly, Qin Yuan actually spoke this time, her tone calm and composed: "It's okay, my husband said it's okay if I don't have a baby."
The women were so angry that they were speechless and didn't say another word until they finished washing the clothes.
Zhang Wei actually admired Qin Yuan a little bit. She had a bit of modern feminine style, but how she ended up marrying here still puzzled Zhang Wei.
Zhang Wei didn't want to stay in such a closed and backward village. There were people guarding the village entrance, and she couldn't run away, not to mention that she was afraid of heights.
She later learned that some of the children in the village did go to school in a town dozens of miles away. Zhang Wei originally still held out a glimmer of hope, but then she remembered that she would be beaten if she ate one more sweet potato, and realized that this path was not feasible.
She has not been doing nothing these days. She runs up and down the village every day. In addition to exercising her body, she also knows every corner of the village well.
She also secretly hid sweet potatoes every day, always thinking that they would come in handy. She felt very insecure here, but she could not touch the money no matter what.
One day, out of curiosity, Zhang Wei climbed onto Qin Yuan's window, wanting to know what she was doing in her room every day. Unexpectedly, she was actually picking the lock of her own room!
Qin Yuan took sticks of different lengths and tried the lock cores one by one. Zhang Wei's feet were numb from standing, but she still couldn't open the lock on the box. However, Qin Yuan looked calm, obviously used to it.
For several days in a row, Zhang Wei would wait there. Unexpectedly, one day, she saw Qin Yuan open the box. She watched Qin Yuan take out a stack of money from inside. They were all old ten-yuan notes. Zhang Wei estimated that there were at least several hundred or even a thousand yuan. It turned out that this family was not that poor...
Zhang Wei watched Qin Yuan take it out, count it, and put it back. Finally, she locked it again and put the small unlocking stick under her pillow. It seemed that she would find another time to take it away.
Seeing Qin Yuan's calm demeanor, I always feel that she is not that simple...
When Zhang Wei thought of the stack of money, his eyes began to light up and he started to make plans in his mind.
The next day, while Qin Yuan was out washing clothes, she sneaked into their room without being seen by Old Lady Chen and found the stick under her pillow.
The box was made of wood and the lid was very heavy. Zhang Wei unlocked it and used both hands to pull up the lid. Sure enough, the money was still there. She knew that Qin Yuan would not touch it for the time being, but Zhang Wei could not care less.
She didn't dare take too much for fear of being discovered. The purchasing power of the RMB should still be good now. Zhang Wei drew five ten-yuan notes in the middle and two five-yuan notes from the top, then sorted them out and prepared to cover them again.
"Yo!" Unexpectedly, the sound of Old Lady Chen chasing chickens suddenly came from the yard!
"Bang!" Zhang Wei let go of the lid in surprise.
When Zhang Wei heard Old Lady Chen's voice stop, she knew that someone outside had heard it. Although she was anxious, she still looked towards the door and took the lock back. When she saw a figure appear at the door of the room, she slipped and rolled under the bed.
Hoping that Old Lady Chen hadn't seen her, Zhang Wei covered her mouth and slowly retreated to the innermost part of the bed. It wasn't until she leaned against the wall that she heard a voice:
"Bang!" The sound was the wash basin dropped heavily on the ground.
"What are you doing!" Qin Yuan's voice came from the door, with a somewhat unfriendly tone.
At this moment, Zhang Wei's heart was tense. She felt that Qin Yuan was more dangerous than Old Lady Chen.
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