Chapter 1
1987, Hongshan Village.
A number of women gathered at the lower reaches of the river at the entrance of the village, chattering and gossiping while washing clothes. They talked about the gossip of every household.
The protagonists of today's topic are a young couple who got married in the village some time ago.
"Did you hear about it? Last night, the boy from the Zhou family beat his wife into the hospital! Oh, what a sin! We just got married, how are we going to live in the future? That boy is a good-for-nothing, poor Wen Yue."
"What's so pitiful about that? Didn't she rush to marry him on her own? If it were me, she deserved to be beaten. That girl doesn't look like a good person. Last time, she even flirted with my son."
"Come on, it was your son who was staring at Miss Wen Yue. I saw it clearly from the side."
"If you keep talking nonsense, I'll tear your mouth apart..."
"What? You still don't allow people to tell the truth? I'm telling you, if you dare, try hitting me!"
As the tension grew, the other women rushed over to try to stop the fight.
The riverside location just happened to be able to see the road into the village. A sharp-eyed woman saw two familiar figures walking towards the village entrance, one after the other, and started to divert attention: "Look, are those Zhou Yao and Wen Yue? They just came back from the hospital?"
Everyone stopped in tacit understanding and turned to look at the village entrance.
"Hey, really!"
"Looking at Wen Yue's appearance, she probably didn't hit him that hard. At least she can still walk. Unlike the girl from Guihua's family, she is beaten by her husband all day and can't get out of bed."
"The Zhou family kid has a really bad face. Will he go back and fight again?"
"…I can't say for sure. I still have to persuade him."
They tried to persuade him, but no woman dared to approach and speak.
The main thing was that the kid from the Zhou family was over 1.80 meters tall, and he looked at me with a dark face and cold eyes, which was really scary.
Zhou Yao is a well-known scoundrel in Hongshan Village. He is idle all day long and leads a few equally unruly scoundrels to run around.
If you provoke him, he won't care whether you are related to him or not, he will just punch you. With their bodies, how can they withstand a punch?
-
As soon as Wen Yue entered the village, she felt a lot of eyes focused on her. She turned her head and saw women in the distance looking over here and whispering to each other. To describe this situation in the words of later generations, even a dog passing by would be criticized three times.
She looked away, toward the fields in the distance.
The sun in early summer is not too scorching, and golden sunlight falls on the fields.
As the breeze blew, the crops in the fields, which were growing well, swayed left and right with the wind, creating a vibrant scene.
This kind of scenery was something I had only seen on my mobile phone in my previous life.
Wen Yue's eyes narrowed as she breathed in the fresh air greedily.
It feels good to have saved my life for nothing.
Turning her gaze to the tall figure of the man in front of her, Wen Yue slowed down her pace and sorted out the messy memories in her mind.
Logically speaking, she is dead.
I went out to eat and unfortunately encountered a gas explosion. The impact area was quite large. The whole street was in flames and chaos.
While running away, he saw a little girl of about four or five years old crying in fear. There was no adult around her. The GG sign hanging above her head was shaking and about to fall. Wen Yue didn't have time to think about it and rushed over to push the person away.
He was hit directly and lost consciousness instantly.
It is certain that I will not be able to survive. I can’t say that I regret it, but I just feel it is a pity.
If she had known the accident would happen so suddenly, she should have bought the 50,000 yuan coat she had set her eyes on two days ago.
When I opened my eyes again, I found myself lying in the hospital, with my mind filled with a bunch of messy information.
Wen Yue finally reacted after receiving some information.
It turned out that she had traveled into a period novel and became a cannon fodder female supporting role used to contrast with the heroine.
The original owner and the heroine both lost their parents and were raised by their relatives, living a life of dependence. And these relatives were also extremely weird. After all, they were not their biological children, so they were trying to torture them to death.
The heroine has a rebellious spirit and refuses to bow her head or admit defeat. Although she often causes chaos, she also successfully protects what belongs to her. After being admitted to university, she left the village and rarely returned. In the end, she made a name for herself in the big city.
The original owner was timid, cowardly and had no opinion of his own, and was completely controlled by his uncle's family.
After her grandma passed away, she dropped out of school at the behest of her aunt, stayed at home all day to do housework, and took care of all the household affairs, like a free babysitter. Later, the original owner also replaced her cousin and married her cousin's childhood sweetheart.
My cousin's childhood sweetheart was a notorious scoundrel in the village, who was idle all day and did not work, and ran away every day with a group of equally unreliable people. The original owner did not want to marry, but did not dare to resist, so she was just forced into the marriage.
After getting married, the original owner cried all day and blamed everyone, and died of depression before she was 25 years old.
The original owner's personality is difficult to judge.
What was even more difficult to judge was that Wen Yue had just closed her eyes for a short while when she saw her gangster husband walk in with a kettle, looking at her impatiently with a cold and hard tone:
"We haven't got a marriage certificate yet. If you don't want to live with me, just go back. No one will stop you."
To be honest, Wen Yue was a little surprised when she first saw her gangster husband.
The man in front of me looked unexpectedly handsome. He had sharp eyebrows and bright eyes, and he was imposing. He was about 1.85 meters tall, with broad shoulders, a narrow waist and long legs. His dark blue long-sleeved clothes, which were patched and looked very old-fashioned, did not affect his handsomeness at all.
Even his gloomy face and wrinkled brows looked very handsome, which was completely different from the lazy and slovenly young man one might imagine.
Wen Yue, who was thinking about divorce the last second, looked at her cheap husband's face, thought calmly for two seconds, and thought that it was not impossible to get by in this life.
The main reason was that if she went back to her uncle's house, she would surely die miserably. She had no experience in dealing with extremely powerful relatives and was afraid of causing trouble.
So Wen Yue smiled and said to the man, "I don't want to live with you."
The man sneered when he heard this, with a hint of sarcasm between his eyebrows, and it was clear that he didn't believe it.
It’s normal not to believe it.
Wen Yue recalled the reason why she went to the hospital this time.
The original owner didn't want to get married, and her husband, a gangster, had a bad reputation in the village. She felt very unhappy and disliked everything about the gangster, thinking that her life was miserable. She didn't talk to her gangster husband and cried in her room every day.
The man couldn't stand it anymore and said a few words with a fierce tone, which scared the original owner.
Yes, I was scared.
Now it was Wen Yue's turn. She felt that she should explain it to the police to ease the relationship between them. She put her hands on the edge of the bed and tried to sit up.
But she didn't have the strength to sit up for a long time.
Finally, the man couldn't bear it anymore, so he took a step forward, put his hands around her waist and lifted her up gently.
The man's movements were not gentle, but he did not hurt Wen Yue. He even picked up a pillow and placed it behind his waist.
Wen Yue's body stiffened, then quickly relaxed, leaning back with a smile: "Thank you."
"It's not that I don't want to live with you." She stared into the man's eyes and said seriously, "My uncle and the others told me that you like to beat people. You are so tall and mighty, and it must hurt if you beat people. I'm afraid."
Zhou Yao: “…”
Zhou Yao still looked unhappy, and said with a click of the tongue, "I don't hit women."
Wen Yue nodded: "I know, so I'm not afraid now."
Zhou Yao chuckled again, his face still cold, with no other expression visible.
Wen Yue didn't care whether he believed it or not. She lowered her eyes and thought about what to do next.
Before she could figure out what was going on, a cup of hot water was stuffed into her hand, and two steaming meat buns the size of fists were placed in her other hand.
Wen Yue raised her eyes and looked at Zhou Yao.
"Do you plan to continue staying in the hospital or go home?" Zhou Yao asked. "The doctor said you are malnourished and asked me not to abuse you. This is a new society and abuse is against the law."
After saying this, he seemed to find this interesting and raised the corners of his lips to reveal a smile, but the smile looked gloomy.
“…”
Wen Yue silently took a bite of the meat bun. The soft dough and delicious meat filling went down her throat and into her stomach, soothing her growling tummy.
Then she mumbled something about going home.
Zhou Yao said nothing, turned around and went to complete the discharge procedures.
-
Wen Yue was thinking so hard that she didn't notice that the path beneath her feet was becoming increasingly rugged. She accidentally stepped on empty air and fell into the ditch beside the road. Someone grabbed her arm and pulled her back.
"Are your eyes on the top of your head?" Zhou Yao's voice came from above his head, with a bit of impatience.
Wen Yue's heart was pounding with fear, and she relied on the man's strength to steady herself.
She had been feeling unwell to begin with, and after this shock, her face turned extremely pale, and her lips were completely bloodless, making her look weak and pitiful.
"Thank you." She didn't mind Zhou Yao's tone, patted her chest gently, and whispered softly: "Luckily you are here, otherwise I would have fallen badly, you are so kind."
Zhou Yao pursed his lips and let go of his hand, his tone slightly better than before: "Watch the road."
Wen Yue's eyes narrowed and she hummed.
The two continued walking on the rugged path, but this time Zhou Yao slowed down his pace a lot.
The Zhou family’s home was near the end of the village, and it took about seven or eight minutes to get there.
Wen Yue saw an adobe house from a distance.
There are two green brick rooms on the left side of the house, which look a bit abrupt compared with the earth bricks next to them. There are two pear trees and a peach tree planted outside the mud gate, and there is a loquat tree behind the house that is taller than the roof.
The courtyard door was lightly closed and Zhou Yao pushed it open casually.
Wen Yue followed in and looked around the yard carefully.
The yard is very big.
There was poultry excrement on the ground, two clothes drying racks stood not far away, and strings of garlic and corn cobs were hung under the eaves.
There is a room on the right that looks shorter, most likely the kitchen. The kitchen is next to the chicken coop, and behind it is a pigpen surrounded by a fence.
From time to time, there was a humming sound in my ears, accompanied by a bad smell that went into my nose.
The green brick house on the left doesn't look like it has that much stuff in it, just a small kitchen also made of green bricks.
Even though she had prepared herself mentally, Wen Yue was still shocked when she saw such an environment. Standing at the gate of the courtyard, she felt cramped as if she had nowhere to put her feet.
Oh my god, this environment is so bad.
"Why are you standing there? Come in." Zhou Yao turned around and took a look.
Wen Yue took a deep breath, took a step forward as if ready to die, and tiptoed, holding her breath, and quickly walked through the yard full of excrement and stepped onto the steps under the eaves.
Zhou Yao stood in front of the door of the blue brick room, took out his key, opened the door and walked in.
Wen Yue tilted her head slightly and looked inside.
There was a mosquito net hanging over the bunk bed against the wall. The sheets were crumpled into a mess. The mosquito net was white with a gray tint and didn't look very clean. She had only seen this kind of old-fashioned bed on TV.
Next to it was an old-fashioned wardrobe painted green with a mirror in the middle. Under the window was a desk with some messy things on it.
In the middle is a small square wooden table, which seems to be used for dining.
Wen Yue stopped at the door and slowly moved her eyes to scan every corner of the room.
The conditions in this era are really harsh.
She now had no idea whether it was lucky or unlucky to lose her life for nothing.
There were voices talking outside the yard.
Two women came into the yard, chatting and laughing, carrying wooden basins, and were stunned when they saw Wen Yue standing under the eaves.
The woman in the white dress with floral patterns was the first to react. She walked towards the clothesline, laughing as she walked, and said loudly, "It's Zhou Yao's wife. She's back so soon. What did the doctor say? This Zhou Yao is the same. If you have something to say, why can't you just talk it out? Why did you hit her?"
"You are his wife after all. It's inappropriate for you to hit someone right after you got married! But Zhou Yao has a stubborn temper. You..."
"Standing at the door as a gate god?" Zhou Yao came out of the room and stopped beside Wen Yue. His height, which was a head taller than her, made her feel very oppressive.
He glanced at the woman who was speaking and said nothing. The latter felt as if someone was strangling her neck, and the unfinished words were stuck in her throat and she dared not spit them out.
The woman looked embarrassed, her momentum weakened instantly, and her voice was not as loud as before: "Zhou Yao is back too."
She hung the clothes a lot faster, and if you looked closely, her lips seemed to be trembling.
The other woman didn't even dare to breathe.
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