Chapter 1: Shuibiwei, Shuibiwan
Chapter 1: Shuibiwei, Shuibiwan
In a certain province in the south, there is a place called Shuibiwei.
"Wei" is not a name for any township or county level. It is more of a general term for a group of villages that are enclosed by high dikes that block the surging river. The dikes protect the villages from the natural disaster of rising river water during the rainy season, and they also protect the diverse local customs and traditions of dozens of villages. The people of Shuibiwei have made a living from rice paddies and aquatic products for generations. The exquisite charm of the picturesque water town is rare. Every household has a passionate spirit that has been forged in the mud and fields.
At the very end of the Shuibiwei River, where the villagers live and work, the people who live along the river finally come together here, forming a deep U-shaped geographical shape.
This place, shaped like a rice fork, is densely populated with dozens of households. Perhaps out of fear that they might grow distant and lose touch, outsiders gave this place a name as intimate as that of their own children: Shuibi Bay.
That spring, the first major event that happened in Shuibiwan took place in the Fang family.
Speaking of which, the Fang family is the most prominent family in Shuibi Bay. They are located at the very top of the rice paddy, which seems to create a natural class distinction between them and the families living on the riverbank. The old man of the Fang family is also a teacher at the only public junior high school in town. Whenever he returns from school after a holiday, he walks with his shoulders straight and his head held high, displaying a proud and scholarly demeanor.
When Teacher Fang was young, she met the Song family's daughter, and they got engaged after a few visits. Now, decades have passed in the blink of an eye, and the Song girl has become Old Lady Fang. In order to remember her eldest daughter Hongya, whom she could not raise during the famine, everyone outside calls her Hongya's mother. Hongya's mother is famous. In her youth, she was a capable and shrewd old lady who could climb to the top.
This important matter is related to the Cheng family, which is located across the river from the Fang family. Both are outstanding families in Daochatou, but the Cheng family relies on their carpentry skills. They are not competitive and treat people kindly. It was because of this temperament that Old Madam Fang personally went to their home to ask for a marriage proposal for her son.
However, just two years into their marriage, right after the Lunar New Year, a shocking lawsuit erupted in the Fang family. Cheng Qiuyan, the Fang family's daughter-in-law who had just finished her postpartum confinement, jumped into the river with her child in her arms.
It's impossible not to think it through.
Cheng Qiuyan was gentle and kind, but she was incredibly strong at heart. She found a wooden basin, put the child in it, and swam across to the other side in the freezing cold while pushing the basin.
This terrified a long line of elderly women and young women on the shore who had been listening to the noise and commotion. How could they possibly go into the water with their bodies still recovering from childbirth?
The mother cried and cried as she stumbled out with a quilt. The father rushed into the water to catch his daughter and granddaughter, forgetting to take off his old cotton-padded coat. When the three of them got ashore, their faces were all purple from the cold.
Neighbors rushed over to help, and in a noisy commotion, they took the foolish girl, who had risked her life, home.
Where is Grandma Fang?
She gripped the broom in her hand, twisted her nose hard with one hand (she was so angry she didn't even bother to blow it), and cursed, "You damned thing! It's best you ran away!"
He then turned around and went back to his residence, closed the gate, and ignored everything else.
Good news doesn't travel far, and in the blink of an eye, the rumor that Hongya's mother had driven her newborn daughter-in-law into the river spread to every nook and cranny of Shuibi Bay.
However, most of the people who heard the news weren't particularly surprised. They just rubbed their hands together, shook their heads, and commented in a low voice, "It was bound to happen sooner or later!"
Ever since Cheng Qiuyan entered the family, Old Mrs. Fang's skills and eloquence suddenly seemed to have found the perfect direction to be displayed. With her gentle daughter-in-law, she could really do whatever she wanted to her. The rice was too soft, the dishes were too salty, and the clothes were so stiff after washing. The stove was always greasy, huh? When I was a daughter-in-law, I could see everything. I didn't need my mother-in-law to tell me anything about the chores inside and outside the house!
Cheng Qiuyan neither argued nor made a fuss, diligently completing her mother-in-law's instructions, and becoming increasingly impeccable, which only made Old Mrs. Fang more and more frustrated.
Not long after, Cheng Qiuyan became pregnant. How she spent her ten months of pregnancy is another story. She finally went into labor and gave birth to the child after a lot of hardship.
It's a daughter.
Grandma Fang was furious. The Fang family had government jobs and absolutely could not have more children than allowed.
She planned to secretly give the child away and tell everyone that she was dead. How could that little brat cut off the Fang family line?
Cheng Qiuyan refused, fearing that her mother-in-law would secretly take the child away. She held the child day and night and wouldn't let go. Old Mrs. Fang had no choice but to say, "It's useless for you to keep her. Unless you're not careful one day, I will definitely take her away. Xiao Wu (Fang's son) will not go with you to register this dead girl's household registration. Whether it's the government or the King of Hell, she can't take the place of my Fang family's descendant. Think it over carefully."
Teacher Fang didn't care much about his family affairs, but he casually remarked that "the girl is quite pretty," and then Old Mrs. Fang pointed her finger at him and started cursing him from his ancestors to future generations. A barrage of insults of all colors rained down on him, forcing him to return to school that very night, out of sight, out of mind.
So, on that morning, feeling that her strength had almost recovered, Cheng Qiuyan gritted her teeth and jumped into the water after her mother-in-law tried to snatch the child again.
In the past, whenever her parents came back, she never spoke of her sorrows. During her postpartum period, her mother brought her food and drinks every day, and she comforted her mother by saying that her mother-in-law only disliked her because she was a girl, and that she would get over it in time. Now that things have escalated to this point, Cheng Qiuyan has nothing left to hide. In front of her parents, she poured out all the bitterness she had endured over the past two years.
After crying through the night, I made up my mind.
Not long after, Cheng Qiuyan got divorced. Since the child was still young and needed to be breastfed, the child naturally went to live with her and was registered in the Cheng family household, named Cheng Xiaoxiao.
Grandpa Cheng was exceptionally skilled, hardworking, and at fifty years old, he could easily support three generations of women in his family. The Cheng family had long since lost its elders, and Xiaoxiao was especially close to her in-laws. With the arrival of the child, life became much more vibrant. That's how the people of Shuibiwan are; when life has a glimmer of hope, it seems to flourish, and they have energy for everything they do.
The following summer, amidst the sounds of music and celebration on the other side of the river, Fang's new daughter-in-law entered the family.
The new bride's name is Wang Jing, and she is an extremely feisty girl.
On the first day of her marriage, Old Mrs. Fang planned to set a rule for her to get up and cook. Wang Jing slept until the sun was high in the sky. When she came out of her room, she saw her mother-in-law's ashen face, as if she couldn't cut through her mother-in-law's skin with a knife. Without saying a word, she smashed the enamel mug in her hand.
"I didn't come to your house to see your bad temper."
This caused a sensation in the surrounding area.
A few days later, Grandma Fang was surprised to find that she had met her match in her proud vocabulary of insults. She had used all the words she had ever accumulated in her life, but every single one of them was countered by Wang Jing. When she finally had to resort to tantrums, Wang Jing just stood there with her hands behind her back, watching her with a half-smile, and said, "Mom, what's the use of making a scene at your own doorstep? If I were you, I would have gone to your father-in-law's school to make a scene long ago. A person still has to save face, doesn't he?"
The wailing that was about to come out of Grandma Fang's mouth was choked back down.
By this time, Xiaoxiao could already vaguely call her parents-in-law "grandfather" and "grandmother."
Not long after, Wang Jing also became pregnant.
Grandma Fang was planning to take advantage of this time to get to her, but who knew that after cooking a half-cooked meal, Wang Jing pushed the table aside and went straight to the hospital in Shuibiwei Town, saying that she had an upset stomach and that she probably couldn't save the baby!
It was only after Teacher Fang, blushing, came to pick Wang Jing up that she was able to go home.
After the same ten months of pregnancy, Wang Jing gave birth to Tian Xiao's daughter!
Grandma Fang was so angry that she tried to take the child away again, but Wang Jing slapped her in the face at the hospital.
"You dare touch a single hair on the head of the family I gave birth to!"
Cheng Qiuyan showed no signs of gloating as outsiders might have guessed. She let Xiaoxiao's hair grow long and braided it. Cheng's grandfather also made a complete set of wardrobes and bookshelves for his granddaughter and tidied up her boudoir.
When Fang Junjun, the daughter of the Fang family, turned four years old and reached the age where she could grow up quickly and argue with her grandmother and mother, Cheng Qiuyan quietly remarried.
No matter how chaotic things get on the other side, it has nothing to do with her. The son-in-law she chose is an apprentice under Master Cheng, named Lin Guohui. He has no parents and has lived with his aunt since he was a child, learning a trade from Master Cheng to earn money for the family. He is a diligent and gentle young man.
After the two got married, the first thing they did was to carefully plan Cheng Xiaoxiao's school. In September, Cheng Xiaoxiao, carrying her little schoolbag, skipped and hopped into school under the watchful eyes of her in-laws and parents.
Then the winds shifted, and families who had given birth to daughters as their first child gradually had a second child.
Both Wang Jing and Cheng Qiuyan had their second child around the same time, and the two families were once again on the same path.
Lin Guohui doted on his wife so much that he didn't know what to do. Ever since Cheng Qiuyan became pregnant, his eyes were always beaming with joy. He was cheerful to everyone he met and became even more willing to work hard. However, Fang Wu on the other side of the river still loitered around the village entrance all day long, just like before his two daughters were born.
On New Year's Eve that year, two boys were born at the same time in the town's hospital.
Both families were overjoyed, especially Old Mrs. Fang. If the nurse hadn't stopped her, she probably would have immediately bought some paper money to burn for the Bodhisattvas and ancestors.
Cheng Xiaoxiao, who had come to the hospital with her brother, was overjoyed. She was even more excited to be able to help her brother with his clothes. But at the door of another ward across the corridor, Fang Junjun was biting her dirty fingers, seemingly oblivious to the adults' joy. Her clothes were also dusty and grimy. The five-year-old girl was thin and emaciated, with a small face that made her eyes appear frighteningly large.
The Cheng family's son was named Cheng Bing.
Lin Guohui was so happy when he heard those two words: "I have a son! My son's name is Cheng Bing!"
Aunt Lin would bring red eggs and milk, and visit the baby twice a day. Cheng Qiuyan felt bad about it and said not to bring these things, as they were too expensive. She said the baby had milk to drink. Aunt Lin listened to her and replaced them with various rare winter foods that new mothers could eat, and still brought them twice a day.
The Fang family was not so casual when it came to naming their child.
Grandma Fang prayed to gods and Buddhas and consulted the Five Elements. She listened to the master's words and insisted that the Fang family was originally destined to have three girls. This eldest grandson was given to the Fang family because the King of Hell did not know that he was a boy in the cycle of reincarnation. Therefore, the name had to be somewhat girlish. Moreover, he was born on such an auspicious day as New Year's Eve. After much discussion and fuss, the family finally settled on the name of the Fang family's long-awaited heir: Fang Yue Nian.
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