Mei Xiangcao looked at her eldest son, then at her youngest son and daughter, and then at her daughter-in-law and in-laws.
"Well, since we're not outsiders, I'll tell you then." Soon, she was immersed in the memories of the man she met across from her, a smile forming on her face. "That was more than twenty years ago, a time of turmoil. There were wars everywhere in the country, but there were also pockets of peace and tranquility.
My family has a spice business that has been passed down from generation to generation. We have our own land to grow spices. During the war years, those lands suffered a lot of damage, but because we had a family background, our family was still relatively prosperous.
That day, I was picking flowers in the fields with some girls from my family. When we passed by the river, we saw a man lying on the riverbank as if he were dead.
The girls were all very scared, thinking he was dead. I bravely went over and found a wound on his forehead. I felt his breath and found that he was not dead yet, so I wanted to save him.
He was breathing very weakly at the time, and if first aid was not given, he would have died soon. When I was in school, my teacher taught me that in this situation, cardiopulmonary resuscitation should be performed on the drowning person, and even breathing should be stopped.
I followed the teacher's instructions and pressed his heart with my hands for a while, but it didn't work, so I could only perform artificial respiration on him.
The women were watching from the side, seeing it all. I eventually rescued the man, and he was very grateful to me, saying thank you right away.
Several girls joked that since I had kissed him, they wanted him to take responsibility for me. He was confused for a moment and looked at me with guilt. I told him that he didn't need to take responsibility, that I was just saving someone, and that he didn't need to sacrifice his life for this.
I asked him where he was from, but he said he couldn't remember anything. He didn't know where he was from, what his name was, or why he was washed here by the river.
I looked at the wound on his forehead and figured he'd hit his head and had temporary amnesia. He was still injured and didn't know where his home was, so I took him home.
He was taken care of in our home for a while and recovered quickly, but he still couldn't remember who he was or where his home was.
My father and I took him to the nearby villages to inquire, hoping to help him find his family. We also asked acquaintances to help look for them, but unfortunately his family was not even near Qingwan.
We even took him to the county police station, but it was a mess and there were few people there, so they couldn't help him either. He had no choice but to go home with us and continue living with the Mei family. He didn't have a name because he was washed across the river. He wore a ring with the Chinese character "Jiang" engraved on it, so my father named him Jiang Dahe.
He wasn't a freeloader at our house; every day he was either working around the house or in the fields. He was big and strong, could do the work of two, was a great cook, and knew a lot.
It was a very chaotic time, and bandits often came down the mountain to rob things. That time, the bandit leader came down and brought people to break into my house, wanting to take me up the mountain to be his concubine. I didn't want to, so he fought hard to drive away those bandits, and those bandits never came down again. He was seriously injured that time and almost died.
As soon as he recovered from his injuries, rumors spread throughout the village: I kissed him when I rescued him, and now he's living with us. He's handsome and capable, so he must have been having an affair with me.
After the rumor spread, he mustered up the courage to tell me and my father that if we didn't despise him, he would be willing to marry into our family. Regardless of whether he could find his own relatives in the future, he would always be the son-in-law of the Mei family.
He also told me privately that he actually liked me, and I also had a secret crush on him, so it was natural for us to get married.
At the beginning, our life was very sweet. Less than a year after we got married, we had our first child, A-Ye, who was named Mei Ye according to the surname of the Mei family.
Business was not good in those days, and our family was gradually declining. My father's health was getting worse due to overwork. He was the only one who took care of everything at home and outside. He was busy every day, but he always found time to take good care of me and my father.
My father sighed that he had found a good son-in-law, and I also felt that it was our destiny to meet him.
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