Chapter 02 Chapter 2

Seeing that Grandma Ah Xi was also about to join in the fun, Su Rui reached out and hugged her.

Suddenly, a gust of wind blew at the back of her head. Su Rui turned around quickly and saw a figure in black running past her yard.

Su Rui intuitively felt that this person was related to the beating of Guo Jiarong.

This time she will not miss the opportunity.

She was small in stature but fast, and in one breath she dragged the man from the front door to the earthen embankment at the north end of the village.

Su Rui panted and put her hands on her hips to block the man.

The man in front of her was about 30 years old. He held a wrench in his hand and waved it at Su Rui. He was afraid of hurting her, so he nervously hit the wrench a few times. Then he put his hands behind his back and smiled at Su Rui: "Xiao Rui...Xiao Rui..."

Because he beat Guo Jiarong, his clothes were covered in mud. He looked carefully and found that the length and size of the clothes were right, without a single patch.

His eyes were set far apart, his thick hair was longer than that of the average gay man, and his forehead was big and shiny, which together with his thick lips competed for Su Rui's attention.

Su Rui often patrolled with the militia for self-defense. She had never seen this man before, and her first reaction was that he was a vagrant from outside the area.

In the past two years, the "Up to the Countryside and Down to the Mountains" movement has been in full swing. A very small number of people cannot stand the hardship in the countryside and have jumped on trains, stolen things, and desperately run to the city. Two such incidents have already occurred in the countryside this year.

Su Rui stood face to face with him and realized something was wrong. This man's eyes were dull and his smile was a bit foolish.

Su Rui understood that this might be someone's locked-up idiot son who had escaped.

Xiaoba Village is only five miles away from the county town, which is considered to be on the edge of the county town. Some people believed that he ran away from a good family in the county town.

Su Rui asked: "Do you know me? Was it you who beat me?"

The foolish man had a low IQ and thought that Suri was happy. He clapped his hands and said, "Beat him to death, beat him to death!"

"Don't beat him to death. It's okay to beat him every day." Su Rui was happy to see Guo Jiarong being beaten. She turned around and saw that someone had already noticed their movements and was rushing over. After thinking for a moment, she quickly asked, "How did he offend you?"

The foolish man raised his arm and wiped the saliva from the corner of his lips, stammering: "He is not allowed to date you! You are my wife!"

Su Rui thought, this is bad. Another bad love affair has come.

While they were talking, Guo Qingwang had already arrived with his men. Guo Jiarong described to him that it was a fool from outside the province who beat him, but he still didn't believe it. How could his son not be able to beat a fool?

When he saw the fat and stupid man in front of him, he stopped for a moment and ordered several male comrades behind him to go up and help subdue him.

Guo Qingwang was furious when he saw Su Rui standing by, "It's not enough that you can manipulate the fools in our village, but you actually manipulate other fools?"

Bang!

A slap landed on Guo Qingwang's face. There was no handprint on his purple old face, but the sound was deafening.

Not only Su Rui, but also the villagers who were helping were stunned.

"I'm not a fool!" The foolish man withdrew his hand and stamped his feet like a child: "Don't talk about her! Kill you! Kill you!"

"Hey, what are you still looking at? Tie him up and send him to the police!"

Guo Qingwang did not take the foolish man's words seriously. He gritted his loose teeth, covered his cheeks and said angrily: "No matter if he is a fool or not, I must seek justice for our grandfather!"

Su Rui was happy to pour cold water on him and said calmly: "It is not illegal for a fool to hit someone. I don't think you can get justice back."

She saw that the stupid man didn't resist at all and seemed to be used to being tied up and escorted, so she guessed that this was not his first crime.

"How is it not illegal? He beat me and my son, so he should be held responsible!" Guo Qingwang covered one side of his face and waved his hand, asking everyone to escort the man to the county public security bureau.

Su Rui told the stupid man, "Don't come again." After they walked away, she was still thinking about how Guo Jiarong was beaten, but unfortunately she didn't see it.

After they all left, Grandma Axi came in with a cane: "Are you late again, old lady?"

"You should take good care of yourself in the next two days. Our group will have militia training next week. Please don't fall behind."

Grandma Axi trembled and took out a small handkerchief, wiped her forehead and lips, and said, "Don't worry, I will fight to the death to live until that day, and I can't let your group disband."

"Thank you, please go back first, I hope you will live a long life."

Su Rui says every day that she will live to be a hundred years old.

The minimum number of members in a militia group is four, one leader and three members. Su Rui's group of three was just barely qualified. If one person was missing, the group would be disbanded.

Grandma Ah Xi is a very important quarter!

Looking at Grandma A Xi's back as she slowly returned home, Su Rui went to the women's office.

It is called an office, but it is actually a building.

If we were to talk about the oldest and most historic building in Xiaoba Village, it would probably be this two-story building that looks neither Chinese nor Western.

This was originally the village committee of Xiaoba Village. After the three villages were merged, as there were many female comrades here, a women's office was set up specifically for Sister Zhao to do a good job in women's work.

The slogans "Women's liberation, social progress" and "Pursue independence, strive for self-improvement" are printed on the left and right sides of the wall.

This office building was built in 1958 for Soviet aid experts and is designed in Stalinist style.

When the Soviet Union withdrew its aid experts, the towering building full of revolutionary passion and glory collapsed in the middle of the road, and a second floor was hastily built. Only the peace doves flying on the dome still indicate the former ideology.

There were originally two flagpoles on the rare cement ground in front of the door, one belonging to the motherland and the other to the Soviet Union.

There were a few Soviet words on the ground. Su Rui didn't recognize them, but she walked up and stepped on them just like she did when she was a child.

If the Soviet experts had not been withdrawn and the dam had been successfully built, the women in Xiaoba Village would not have become widows.

Later, the Soviet Union flagpole was torn down by angry women, leaving only a cement platform, where green radish strips and mustard heads were exposed to the sun. The iron flagpole was melted into a collective iron pot, which was shoveled back and forth by the widows who cooked in Xiaoba Village every day.

Su Rui shook her head and said, forget it, it’s useless to blame others, you have to fight for your own happiness!

Suri now has two wishes:

The first one: marry a live-in son-in-law.

The difficulty is beginner level, because Xiaoba Village has rich experience in marrying men.

The second: Becoming the most courageous woman in Xiaoba Village.

Difficulty: Hellish.

After all, it was very difficult for a young lady to stand out among more than 400 widows. Moreover, more than 120 of them married live-in sons-in-law, which made it twice as difficult with a good wife.

"Sister Zhao!"

People in Xiaoba Village, both adults and children, like to call Director Zhao "Sister Zhao", regardless of whether her age is appropriate or not, as it makes them seem closer.

"The newspaper is over there." Director Zhao combed his hair and tucked the loose hair around his ears. He put down his pen and said, "But you should have read it all. Do you have any insights you want to share with us?"

Su Rui is a new cadre under her, who is ambitious and passionate. What is rare is that in such a big environment, Su Rui, who has no one to teach her, is still willing to take the initiative to learn, which makes Director Zhao have a lot of good feelings towards Su Rui.

"I'm not here to report ideas." Su Rui spends half a day here every Sunday to learn advanced ideas and policies from newspapers and magazines.

It is mainly used to refute that old thief Guo Qingwang with reason and evidence.

Su Rui did a good job on the surface, but Director Zhao didn't know about it, and even if he knew, he couldn't do anything about it.

Su Rui sat down opposite Director Zhao and said hesitantly, "Sister Zhao, I want to apply to hold a labor competition."

Sister Zhao put the cap on the pen and carefully placed the Hero fountain pen in the pen holder: "We hold a labor competition every year during the harvest season. We can wait until next month."

Su Rui was much more docile in front of Sister Zhao, and she tactfully expressed her thoughts: "Old Guo thinks that female comrades don't work as much as male comrades, so he gives male comrades four more work points a day. At the end of the year, it is equivalent to earning one more laborer's salary. Look at Aunt Chen Xianglan, she can carry two 160-jin sacks of corn in one breath, which is more than many male comrades do, far exceeding the stipulated 800-jin daily task. It is really unfair that she can only get six work points for this."

Su Rui has been observing the difference in male and female labor recently, and the final difference is that there is no difference! Compared with the lazy workers in Qingnan Village, the women in Xiaoba Village are working hard, and some even perform better than the hard-working men.

After all, what the Chairman said is right. Women can also have power. Women truly hold up half the sky.

Su Rui continued to talk about her idea: "I want to hold a labor competition for men and women. From breaking corn to carrying corn and peeling corn kernels, the whole process, let's see who works harder and better!"

If she lost, she would accept it and say six work points was six work points. If she won, they would all get ten centimeters from now on.

"You are going to put Captain Guo on the fire." Director Zhao stood up and walked around the office.

She also wanted to fight for the interests of the women in her hometown, but Guo Qingwang was her direct supervisor, and many things she raised were suppressed. She racked her brains for this in the past few months.

Some things are not convenient to say at the moment. She pondered Su Rui's words and said, "You go back first. I will organize a meeting with the staff to study it."

Director Zhao walked to the door and stopped to look at Su Rui: "Are we really sure we can win?"

Su Rui said seriously, "I have been observing for more than half a month, and I am absolutely right. I can't say anything else, but the aunties are definitely the best at breaking corn and rubbing corn kernels. As for carrying corn, Chen Xianglan, Wanzi's mother and his aunt are here, and the three of them are all heroines. I counted the corns delivered to the granary today, and three-fifths of them were carried by them. They have the strength to use, and they also help other women."

The situation in Qingnan Village was completely different. After failing to shirk responsibility, they asked Guo Qingwang to approve two-wheeled vehicles for them, but they did not give them to the women in Xiaoba Village. This was very bad.

As for Chen Xianglan, she was the butcher of Xiaoba Village. She could hold down the big fat boar with her elbow, and the big fat boar could not get up even if it tried its best to suck milk.

Wanzi's mother and aunt raised a collective cattle herd. One time, a mad cow ran away. They each used a horn to knock the cow weighing more than 700 kilograms to the ground. It can be said that they are full of bull spirit.

Su Rui said in a quirky way: "It doesn't matter if we can't win. It's still six work points anyway. Are they going to reduce it for us?"

She is barefoot and is not afraid of those who wear shoes.

The last sentence played a crucial role. Sister Zhao laughed and said, "Okay, I'll let you know later."

Su Rui achieved her goal, so she stood up, patted her butt and said goodbye.

She returned home, her father would not be back for half a month. The door of the main room was locked tightly, Su Yuqin and Su Chang'e were sleeping inside. Occasionally, laughter could be heard.

Pushing the door open and entering the room, Su Hongpei was mending the uppers of shoes under the kerosene lamp. When she came back, she pointed at the kettle and said, "There's hot water in it. Wash with hot water."

By the end of August, the weather in the north had already become cooler in the mornings and evenings.

Su Rui, who was jogging back in her short-sleeved shirt, shuddered and thought about taking out her spring and autumn clothes to wear.

"Here you go." Su Hongpei wrapped five or six glutinous rice sticks in straw paper and put them in Su Rui's hand. "That's all. My mother said Guo Jiarong was dishonest because he ate most of the glutinous rice sticks I brought."

At this point, Su Rui perked up and told her about how Guo Jiarong and his son were beaten by a stupid man.

"Ah, then you'd better not eat it. Who knows where it came from?" Su Hongpei took the glutinous rice sticks and put them on the small table under the window, intending to throw them away. No matter how good something is, if it doesn't come easily, she would rather not have it.

Su Hongpei got on the small kang and turned to Su Rui and said, "My mother has been trying like crazy to find a husband for my second sister these days. They were chatting so happily just now that if you didn't know better you would have thought my second sister was getting married."

Su Rui said nonchalantly, "She's almost 22."

After saying that, he glanced at Su Hongpei. He didn't know when Su Hongpei's lover would come to propose marriage. It has been delayed for four or five years. If it were an ordinary family, they would have had two children.

Su Hongpei was simple-minded. She sighed and said, "She always likes to compare herself with you. If you two could get along well, I wouldn't be stuck in the middle. You have to be more calculating, too."

After Su Rui finished washing up, she also climbed onto the kang and took out the small cloth bag from the kang cabinet. She admired the scraps of cloth she had accumulated and said with a smile, "What you said is strange. You are the most insignificant person in our family."

Su Hongpei was not angry either. She just shook her head and said nothing more.

The next morning, the village radio was playing "Our Life is Full of Sunshine". The beautiful music added a bit of anticipation and strength to the early morning.

Su Rui got up early for a rare occasion. She put some sweet potato dough in her pocket, picked up some eggs, put them on the windowsill, and went out in high spirits.

She wanted to know how the incident of Guo Jiarong being beaten yesterday was handled. It was not mentioned in the book, but only briefly mentioned.

In order to live up to her expectations, the girl who wakes up early gets to enjoy the melon.

At the entrance of the village, six or seven women gathered and said in a serious tone, "Oh, your head is as big as a pig's head, and it's so colorful, it's really scary to look at it..."

"It's very beautiful!" Su Rui replied with a smile.

As soon as she opened her mouth, the women comrades burst into laughter. The people of Xiaoba Village shared a common hatred for the people of Qingnan Village.

In a short while, they had portrayed Guo Jiarong's miserable appearance vividly.

Su Rui had wanted to beat him up for a long time. Her father's trap was placed under the bed. She planned to lure Guo Jiarong to the mountains one day, hang him up and beat him up so that he would give up the desire to continue pursuing her.

Anyway, she is not afraid of the Guo family. Guo Qingwang will be finished sooner or later. In order to have a hot meal, Guo Jiarong has become the son-in-law of a middle-aged sister and is being taught a lesson all day long. Hehe.

Unexpectedly, before she could make a move, Guo Jiarong did something unjust, taking the foolish man's glutinous rice noodles as a gift and eating so much of them. It would be strange if he didn't get beaten.

As they were talking, it was time to go to work. Guo Qingwang lived up to everyone's expectations and showed up with a swollen cheek. His old eyes were covered with swollen black bags and he reeked of cigarettes.

The idiot man stood far behind him. Fortunately, there was someone accompanying him this time. This surprised Su Rui. She thought he would be locked up for a while after beating someone. It seems that the idiot man's family is quite capable and loves him very much.

During work, Su Rui noticed something was wrong.

Several people following the idiot kept sweeping at her. Among them was a middle-aged couple who looked a bit like the idiot and were probably his parents.

Su Rui recalled the events in the book. During this period of time, the original owner should have been married to a place deep in the mountains, and there was no chance for the foolish man to appear.

Su Rui couldn't figure it out, so she stopped trying. Anyway, she would just deal with it. She would not go anywhere, and would stay in Xiaoba Village, where it was safe and there was no discrimination against boys. It would be very prosperous in the future!

It was lunchtime and Su Rui wanted to go home for lunch.

Su Yuqin and Su Chang'e were not included in the labor force at home. Su Yuqin said that she was the head of the family and was unwilling to work. Su Chang'e said that she had asthma and could not work. They spent all day at home discussing whose son was better, but they did not cook. At least they did not feed Su Rui and Su Hongpei.

Su Hongpei served the corn grits porridge to Su Rui and whispered, "Why is there always someone hanging around outside the door?"

Su Rui put down the bowl, picked up the hoe at the base of the wall and walked outside, but saw no one.

This was the same feeling as when a fool was peeping at her. Su Rui was brave enough to shout, "Who is it?"

No matter what, she didn't expect it to be Guo Jiarong.

Guo Jiarong stood up outside the wooden fence, his felt hat pulled down low and wearing a mask, and said in a muffled voice: "It's me, it's me, keep your voice down."

Su Rui said cheerfully, "Marshal Tianpeng has arrived."

"My dear, stop joking with me." Guo Jiarong looked around and said quickly, "I advise you to look at the current situation clearly. It's best to agree to date me. I will take you to live with my relatives in the county for a while! Otherwise, you will die!"

When Su Rui heard such unlucky words, she raised her hands and said, "Pah, pah, pah, believe it or not, I will beat you!"

Guo Jiarong said urgently: "The idiot has entangled you! He even said that he would stab anyone who treats you well!"

Just as Su Rui was about to speak, a person suddenly climbed over the yellow mud wall diagonally opposite her. It was none other than the stupid man.

He waved his fists in the air, muttering, "That's my wife! My wife! Whoever steals my wife, die! Die!" As he spoke, he pulled out a sugarcane knife from behind and ran towards Guo Jiarong.

Guo Jiarong shuddered, his legs went weak and he almost couldn't stand. He howled in fear and ran away quickly.

Last night he and his father realized that it is not illegal for a fool to hit someone. No matter how angry he and his father were, the other party's parents paid two yuan for the medical expenses and the matter was over.

This time the other party took a knife and played a bigger game. Guo Jiarong didn't dare to try whether it was illegal for a fool to kill someone. When his body was cold, it would be meaningless even if it was illegal.

He ran out into the open field and met three or four live-in sons-in-law who were washing clothes by the river, but none of them offered to help.

Guo Jiarong looked down on the sons-in-law who came to live with him, and cursed as he ran: "If you marry a woman, you will become a woman too!"

The foolish man followed him viciously, yelling, "Whoever steals my wife, I will kill him!" He ran faster than the limping Guo Jiarong.

Fortunately, the stupid man ran ahead, and his family heard the news, so his two strong brothers went to capture him.

Su Rui went home to get a rope to control the stupid man, but when she followed him, she heard that the stupid man was controlled by his family. Guo Jiarong, this useless guy, was not hurt by others, but he sprained his ankle and was carried to the county hospital for examination.

Su Rui thought about it and went back to the field to continue picking corn.

"He is so stubborn that he has to go to the hospital. Normally, he can just go to Yiwang Village and ask someone to break his neck a few times." The aunt who worked with him looked down on Guo Jiarong's useless appearance and said, "The mule in our village had a crooked neck, but it was also fixed by them."

Su Rui smiled silently, but when she thought about the stupid man calling her "wife", she felt a little flustered again.

She suddenly remembered a plot in the book where a foolish man got married, then went crazy and killed his wife and her entire family.

Su Rui shuddered in broad daylight.

Unexpectedly, my eldest sister came running over and said, "That idiot and his whole family are here!"

"What? They didn't leave?"

"Why are you leaving? I'm coming here for you."

Su Rui held an armful of corn cobs, knowing in her heart that the last thing she wanted to encounter had happened.

I thought I was safe as long as I wasn't married off to the mountains, but it turns out there was a disaster waiting for me with this foolish man.

The sister-in-law who was working next to her was also a white person. At noon, the idiot kept shouting "Steal my wife, steal my wife" and many people heard it, but no one asked Su Rui in person.

After hearing this, my sister-in-law quickly asked, "What are we going to do at your house?"

Su Hongpei said foolishly: "Here comes a marriage proposal for my younger sister!"

My sister-in-law said, "Oh, for a family like that... it would take a lot of dowry, right?"

Su Hongpei made a “three” gesture and said, “What a big deal!”

"Wow, three hundred yuan! It's higher than the prices in the city." My sister-in-law asked, "When will it be settled?"

Su Hongpei tried to open her mouth again, but Su Rui covered it with her hand.

Su Rui closed her eyes and said, "Sister, please stop talking."

If she keeps talking about this, she'll be rumored to have had a baby with a fool.