Chapter 15

Sister Yang turned around and saw Lin Xixi staring straight ahead. She turned her head and glanced again, and found that she was staring at Yan Lei and Qiao Wei.

Sister Yang slowed down a step, waited for Lin Xixi to come forward, and nudged her with her elbow: "What are you looking at?"

Lin Xixi came back to her senses and covered up: "Nothing."

Sister Yang became more and more suspicious that her niece had fallen in love with a married man.

Captain Yan is indeed a handsome young man. With that face, everyone who meets him will take a second look.

But the army cannot have such a style of work. The girl will also ruin her reputation, and she is even more afraid that her uncle's own husband will be implicated. Sister Yang deliberately said: "Look at Xiao Yan and his wife, how good their relationship is. It's just that they have too few children, only one, they should have at least three or four."

As she spoke, she glanced at Lin Xixi. But Lin Xixi had a very strange expression, and it was hard to tell what it meant.

In fact, Lin Xixi didn't fall in love with Yan Lei because he was handsome. When Lin Xixi died, she was already a sullen old woman who had suffered for half her life. In her heart, a man's face was nothing.

Back then, she was attracted by the educated youth's face, and she married him by relying on pregnancy before marriage. She

was only briefly glorious when she returned to the city with the educated youth, and then she suffered endless hardships.

The city mother-in-law looked down on her rural daughter-in-law and made trouble for her everywhere. Her husband who returned to the city also thought she was embarrassing. Other educated youth got married after returning to the city, and their wives were all from the city, but he couldn't resist the temptation in the countryside, and was beaten by her father and brother, so he was forced to marry her, a country girl. After returning to the city, he straightened his back and started to boss her around.

Lin Xixi, a rural daughter-in-law, was helpless in the city and could only bow her head to please her parents-in-law, elder sister-in-law, and younger sister-in-law.

But the most annoying thing was that after returning to the city, the filters that her identity as an "educated youth" had given her were all gone.

It turned out that the educated youth in the city were just ordinary people. The face she liked was good-looking, but he was really mediocre. She had never had a good life in her life.

The flower in the village was worn out in the city, with frosted hair and dusty face.

And the man was middle-aged and was demoted. She was so poor that she had to go to the next city to borrow money from her natal uncle and aunt.

She died in such a depressed state.

The hard-working middle-aged woman returned to her youth and realized that a man's face was useless. Yan Lei's handsomeness was a pleasant surprise, and what she really valued was that he had great prospects.

Lin Xixi wanted to change her fate. This time she had to choose the right person.

Lin Xixi asked Sister Yang softly: "Sister-in-law, has the relationship between Captain Yan and his wife always been so good?"

Sister Yang paused.

In fact, Sister Yang was also a little strange. The relationship between Captain Yan and his wife had always been bad, and their neighbors all knew about it. Indeed, it seems that it has suddenly become quite good now?

But this is other people's business. It's okay to gossip about it when you are free. But the premise is that there must not be anything shameful in your family that others gossip about.

She insisted, "It's always been this good! Look at them, one is an official, the other is a cultured person. How can they not be a good match?"

Lin Xixi pursed her lips, her eyes revealing an indescribable emotion.

Sister Yang saw it and frowned slightly.

When they arrived at the compound, there were only men wearing cross-rail vests, slippers and basins, and women with children, all going to take a bath.

Generally speaking, factories will have bathhouses for employees and their families to take baths, and they are all free. But the economy of the town is not good, and there are no factories. There are two factories in the county seat.

So whoever's family in the town looks better in spirits and has better hygiene is likely to have someone in his family working in the county. Because they don't have the conditions, they can only bathe in their own water, so they don't bathe that often.

In addition, the families of the troops are all energetic and clean. Most of the clothes they wear are also very decent.

Yan Lei's family of three is a typical family of military officers.

The men are energetic, the women are beautiful and wear shabby clothes, and even the children's clothes and shoes look half-new.

When they arrived at the door of the bathhouse, Yan Lei was about to give Qiao Wei the clothes of Yan Xiang in his basin, but Qiao Wei pushed Yan Xiang from behind and said, "Go with Dad."

If Yan Lei refused or questioned, Qiao Wei had already prepared a set of words, telling him that children must cultivate gender awareness from an early age. Boys should not enter the women's bathroom.

But Yan Lei said nothing, handed in the bathing ticket and led Yan Xiang to the men's bathroom.

Qiao Wei felt like she had no power to use.

She stood there and watched the father and son go in.

Originally, it was Sister Yang who led the soldiers in Captain Zhao's house. When the soldier saw Yan Xiang entering the men's bath, he broke free from his mother's hand and said, "I'll go there too."

Sister Yang ignored him and just gave his clothes to her husband. Captain Zhao handed Wu Ni'er, who was riding on his neck, to his lover and went in with his three sons.

The women went in together.

There were actually not many boys in the bathhouse, and the few who were there were all very young, and their age was acceptable. There were almost no big boys.

Qiao Wei slowly understood while taking off her clothes. In this era, there were five or six children in a family, and they were not raised as intensively as the only child in later generations. Children raised in an extensive way were very self-care. The older boys could jump into the river to take a bath by themselves, and they did not need to stay with their mothers all the time.

Qiao Wei calculated again and laughed.

Not to mention ten years old, let's just say the boys of seven or eight years old in this era, in fact, they were already the white-haired old men who could do dozens of pull-ups on the horizontal bar in the park without changing their expressions in Qiao Wei's era. They

were not in the same dimension as the boys raised in later generations.

Qiao Wei had a preconceived sense of superiority of the times. In a scene like the bathhouse, she self-righteously thought that what she thought would happen would happen. She was even prepared to baptize the old antiques with the concepts of later generations.

The result... your grandfather is still your grandfather, and your mother is still your mother.

Thinking of Yan Lei who was also a grandfather in the park in her era, or even older, and then tied his feet on the horizontal bar and spun around and around... Qiao Wei couldn't help laughing again.

Of course, with Yan Lei's later status, he is more likely to be a vigorous old man in a high-end nursing home, looking at the landscape and thinking about the chessboard.

There must be a guard and a dedicated nurse standing behind him.

But Qiao Wei couldn't help but put herself in the shoes of the grandfather doing morning exercises in the park, and couldn't help laughing when she imagined it.

Sister Yang took off her clothes, turned her head and looked at her, wondering: "What are you laughing at? What's so funny?"

"Oh, I suddenly thought of a joke." Qiao Wei said.

Sister Yang insisted on listening. There are many jokes in the later generations, so Qiao Wei picked a safe joke that was not contemporary or political, and Sister Yang laughed happily.

In the big bathhouse, everyone was naked in front of each other, and there was nothing to be ashamed of.

When Sister Yang just came from the countryside, she was embarrassed when she entered the big bathhouse for the first time. But the big bathhouse was free, and you had to burn firewood or coal to take a bath at home. That little bit of shame was immediately overcome. Whenever the bathhouse was open, Sister Yang would never miss it, and would rush to take a bath with her whole family.

For her, if she didn't use the free hot water, it would be like a loss, and others would take all the benefits.

No one was allowed to be lazy and not wash, and

everyone was soon naked.

Sister Yang bent down to undress Wu Ni'er, revealing Lin Xixi next to her.

Lin Xixi closed the door, looked up and down at Qiao Wei, and suddenly exclaimed, pretending to be surprised and said: "Aunt Qiao, what's on your belly?"

Qiao Wei had no sense of shame about her body after her experience in the ward. She looked down at the sound.

The body she took over was much healthier than her original sick body, but from the perspective of future generations, it could only be considered thin and slender, not very fit. Qiao Wei was tortured by the disease and became skinny, and she longed for that kind of fit and strong body the most.

She touched her belly, which was flat but not firm: "Is this it?"

She looked at it carefully and finally said with certainty: "This is... stretch marks."

Lin Xixi covered her mouth and pretended to be surprised: "It's so scary, I thought you had some skin disease. Does your lover mind it?"

Lin Xixi certainly knew what stretch marks were. She had given birth to three children. She had experienced stretch marks, mastitis, sagging, urinary incontinence, back pain and heel pain after childbirth...

She did it on purpose.

She was reborn and regarded "marrying Yan Lei, who later became a high-ranking official" as her life mission. Who knew that Yan Lei's ex-wife, who was supposed to be dead, was still alive.

How could she achieve her goal of a rich life!

Lin Xixi gritted her teeth in hatred.

She wanted to find evidence that Qiao Wei had "eloped", but she had no evidence. When she was in a bad mood, she took off her clothes and saw Qiao Wei's body, then looked at herself, and suddenly she gained confidence -

I am young, I am beautiful, I am a virgin!

I still have the perspective from the 1980s and 1990s, which is not comparable to people of this era.

She immediately puffed out her chest and started to attack Qiao Wei - physical humiliation.

If she had attacked the original owner Qiao Weiwei, it might have been effective. Qiao Weiwei's temperament is a bit sad, she is so self-pitying.

But Qiao Wei doesn't care at all.

Qiao Wei doesn't even feel ashamed to be naked in front of the opposite sex, so why would she care about these stretch marks.

A healthy body without any disease, what's wrong with a few marks.

But she clearly felt the malice from Lin Xixi - female-to-female body shaming, and age shaming derived from stretch marks. She

smiled slightly: "Don't be afraid, you will have it too. Well... there may be a lot."

It's just the truth.

In this era, it is not popular to be single and childless, and Lin Xixi has the heart to marry Yan Lei. As a stepwife in a second marriage family, what can better bind this man firmly than giving birth to more children for this man.

Originally, this kind of stepmother novel likes to write about the heroine and the hero giving birth.

In particular, after converting the ages of Yan Xiang and Yan Lei, she realized that although Lin Xixi died in middle age, if she didn't die, she would be an old lady in her seventies when she lived to Qiao Wei's time.

So although the girl in front of her was a young girl with a youthful body and a pretty face, Qiao Wei looked at her and saw through her appearance that she was old and stale in spirit.

Sister Yang just stood up and patted her lower back: "What are you two talking about?"

Lin Xixi immediately raised her voice to complain: "Aunt Qiao said that I would have that mark on my stomach. Look how ugly it is! I'm not even eighteen, how can Aunt Qiao say that about a little girl like me!"

At this moment, she started to act young by calling "Aunt Qiao" all the time.

She wanted to ruin Qiao Wei's impression on others first.

In her cognition, if everyone around her said bad things about a person, it would definitely have a negative impact on her and the people around her.

Qiao Wei said nonchalantly, "Everyone has it. Look at everyone, who doesn't have it on their belly?" Those

who came to bathe were all military dependents from the compound. Military dependents, military dependents, this refers to military wives.

Nowadays, there is no married woman who doesn't have children. Two or three are normal, and four or five are not too many. Who doesn't have a loose belly with brown dark lines of broken muscles.

And sagging breasts.

There was white noise in the bathhouse, and the people around didn't pay attention to what they were talking about. Her two voices got louder, attracting the attention of the people around.

Qiao Wei said: "I know you are a little girl, but you little girls should not rely on your youth to look down on married women like us. What's wrong with stretch marks? Who doesn't have stretch marks after giving birth? Unless you don't want to have children. Xiaolin, do you not plan to have children after you get married?"

Qiao Wei stared at Lin Xixi, waiting for her answer.

Lin Xixi was choked.

It is impossible to say "not to have children". Not to mention that it is contrary to the mainstream concept of this era, it is also contrary to Lin Xixi's own concept.

In the article, Lin Xixi kept having children and tied Yan Lei tightly.

How can she answer now?

When Lin Xixi started to humiliate Qiao Wei physically, Qiao Wei was not angry.

This beautiful girl is an old lady at heart. Her values ​​are completely out of touch with Qiao Wei.

Qiao Wei couldn't possibly argue with a gray-haired old lady on the street about world views.

But Qiao Wei suddenly remembered that Lin Xixi gave birth to many children for Yan Lei, and later their home was very lively.

In this noisy and lively atmosphere, the article occasionally mentioned that "Yan Xiang watched quietly in the corner of the house."

Thinking of these details, Qiao Wei suddenly got angry. The woman who had been tortured by illness and life and death suddenly got angry.

That's why she fought back against Lin Xixi.

Captain Zhao and his wife were still thinking about finding a partner for Lin Xixi to marry in the barracks, so how could they say "I don't plan to have a baby".

Bathhouses, public toilets and cafeterias are all very important social places for women. If Lin Xixi said "I don't want to have a baby" today, it would spread throughout the compound through the mouths of these women tomorrow. How can we introduce a partner to her then? People have to retreat three feet away.

Sister Yang said on behalf of Lin Xixi: "If you want to get married, you must give birth. Needless to say."

"That's it. So Xiaolin, don't laugh at us married women with children for having ugly bellies." She said, "You just haven't had the time yet. When the time comes, you will have one too."

Several women who were close to her understood and rolled their eyes at Lin Xixi.

But Lin Xixi took the initiative to attack, and Qiao Wei was only defending herself now.

Because she thought of Yan Xiang in the book, Qiao Wei's emotions were affected by the original owner. After defending herself, she began to counterattack.

"You girls, although you are young and beautiful, don't open your mouth and ask if my lover dislikes my ugly belly. When a woman gives birth, does the child fall from the sky? It is born with the lover. We were pregnant for ten months and our bellies were damaged. Their men can't share the burden for us at all. Why do you dislike the tattoos on our bellies? Besides, what does a married man want to do by disliking his wife? Do you want to be with a girl like you?"

Lin Xixi is a flower in the village, young and beautiful.

Moreover, she is the heroine. The protagonist has her own aura.

Lin Xixi is a rural girl, and her world view has blessed her with the buff of "not getting tanned by the sun". She is very white, and Sister Yang next to her looks like a charcoal in comparison.

And Lin Xixi really works in the countryside, and her physical labor is not light at all. The high-intensity physical labor makes her body tight and very fit.

No wonder she feels superior when she sees Qiao Wei's stretch marks.

There are many soldiers in the countryside, and naturally many of their families are also rural women.

Now their men are successful, but they are not old yet, still young and strong, which is the age when they are restless. They just have to be on guard against young girls like this.

When Qiao Wei said this, several fierce eyes around them swept towards Lin Xixi.

Lin Xixi: Attack!

Qiao Wei: Counterattack!