Chapter 59 Is the marriage contract real?
“It’s alright.” Long Buxi said, her eyes red as she looked at the grave. “They are just happy that you came to see them.”
A gust of wind suddenly blew up in front of the grave, sweeping away some small grains of sand from the ground.
Long Buxi felt the wind blowing across his face, like his father and mother gently brushing his cheeks. He immediately let go of Cheng Ying's hand, knelt before the grave, and covered his face with his hands, weeping.
Standing before rows of graves, Long Buxi's thin figure appeared particularly lonely.
Cheng Ying silently watched Long Buxi's retreating figure, unsure whether she felt sympathy or pity for him. After he had finished crying, she took a crumpled handkerchief from her pocket and handed it to him: "Wipe your tears."
She carried this handkerchief with her to wipe her mouth and hands.
In those days, tissues were very expensive, unlike in later generations when tissues were cheap and you could pull out tissues anytime to wipe your mouth. If you wanted to wipe your mouth or hands, you could only use a handkerchief.
Handkerchiefs were very common everyday items in this era, used by men, women, and children of all ages.
Cheng Ying carried this handkerchief with her, but rarely used it.
"Thank you, I'm sorry you had to see this." Long Buxi took the blue and white checkered handkerchief from her and wiped her face.
He slowly stood up, his handkerchief accidentally falling to the ground and getting covered in dirt. He picked it up and said apologetically, "I'm sorry, I got your handkerchief dirty. If you're not in a hurry, I'll wash it and give it back to you."
"It's alright, I'm not in a hurry to use it." Cheng Ying saw that his eyes were red from crying and said with a pang of sympathy, "I won't laugh at you. You've managed to raise yourself, do laundry, cook, and make medicine. You've taken very good care of yourself. You're already very capable. Your parents will be very proud of you."
"Really? You really think I'm amazing?" Long Buxi's tears were still wet, with a few teardrops still clinging to her curled eyelashes. Her eyes were red, making her look pitiful.
Cheng Ying nodded: "I really think you're amazing."
Long Buxi laughed, "I also think I'm very powerful. After my parents died, everyone in the village thought I was a monster and wanted me dead. They wanted my hideous face to die, which scared me so much that I couldn't sleep at night."
Even after the old clan chief adopted me, he was only afraid of my Gu worms and didn't take care of me. Most of the time, he would just throw me some food and let me fend for myself.
As a child, in order to survive, I not only had to learn to do my own laundry and cooking, but also had to be wary of those who wanted to kill me, living in constant fear every day.
The old clan chief had a very eccentric temper. He lived in the inner village for many years and rarely went to other villages. He had few children to take care of his daily life, so I had to take care of him since I was a child, washing his clothes and cooking for him.
If the food wasn't cooked well, I'd get scolded; if the laundry wasn't done properly, I'd get beaten; if I disobeyed him and ran away from the village, he'd lock me in a small dark room...
I'm alive today entirely because of myself.
No wonder he was such a good cook. Cheng Ying thought he just had a talent for cooking. Little did she know that behind his good cooking skills were such a sad story.
Cheng Ying felt a mix of emotions, including sympathy, guilt, and pity, which made her feel very uncomfortable. She felt that everything Long Buxi had gone through was caused by her visiting Pu Cang Village and his family when she was ten years old.
Standing before Long Buxi's parents' graves, she murmured, "Uncle Long, Aunt Long, please forgive my ignorance back then, and thank you for your warm hospitality, for erasing my memory and preventing me from going mad. From now on, I will visit Long Buxi more often on my way to the post office, to be kinder to him, as a way of making up for my mistake and also to look after him on your behalf. I hope you can bless him, that he may live a peaceful and healthy life until old age."
Long Buxi's smile grew wider and wider. He said gently, "Dad, Mom, did you hear that? Sister Cheng Ying said she would take care of me and treat me well. With her by my side, you won't have to worry about me being all alone and being bullied anymore. I've been very obedient to you and raised myself up well."
Towards the end, his tone had the air of a child pleading with their parents.
But Cheng Ying felt something was off about what she was hearing.
Before she could think it through, Long Buxi grabbed her hand and led her outside, saying, "Let's go, it's getting late."
His overly familiar gesture made Cheng Ying frown involuntarily and pull her hand away: "I can walk by myself, you need to wake up my big yellow dog first."
Long Buxi didn't speak, but glanced at Alan on his shoulder.
Alan squeaked and reluctantly flew onto Big Yellow's head, biting it on the forehead.
Big Yellow suddenly opened its eyes, jumped up like a spring, looked around, and finally barked loudly at Long Buxi, barking its teeth.
It seemed to be hurling insults at him, telling him to stay away from its owner!
Long Buxi took a step back and said innocently, "Don't bite me. I didn't do anything to you or your master."
Big Yellow kept barking at him, pressing closer and closer, trying to bite him.
Cheng Ying quickly grabbed the rope around Da Huang's neck, gently stroked its head and said, "Da Huang, don't bite him. It's getting late, we have to hurry back. He didn't hurt me, so don't hold it against him."
Big Yellow turned around and whimpered pitifully at her.
He's clearly not a good person; I can tell!
Cheng Ying, of course, couldn't understand its dog language. She was now focused on getting Long Buxi to detoxify Wei Muchen and get back to the post office as soon as possible. Seeing that it was unwilling to leave, she simply picked up the whole dog and followed Long Buxi out of the village.
The process of detoxifying Wei Muchen was very simple; all he needed to do was for Alan to bite him again, and he would regain his senses.
To prevent Wei Muchen from harming Long Buxi, when Alan bit him, she only took a small bite. He stopped going crazy and arguing, and became somewhat senile, following Cheng Ying's instructions like a fool.
Cheng Ying was astonished. "Isn't Alan a poisonous Gu worm? How can it detoxify people and even manipulate them to make them stupid?"
"It has two mouthparts, one for making poison and one for detoxifying. It's very clever; it can completely control how it makes and detoxifies people," Long Buxi said, touching Alan, who had flown back into his hand.
“Squeak (That’s right)!” Alan proudly raised her little head, her tiny eyes filled with pride.
Cheng Ying suddenly understood, "So that's how it is. Ah Lan is really amazing. I just wonder how long the poison Ah Lan left in Wei Muchen's body can last?"
Long Buxi held up two fingers: "Two days is enough time for you to bring him back safely."
After saying that, he looked at Cheng Ying meaningfully and said, "If you don't want him to bother you, I can also use a spell on him to turn him into a complete idiot so that he can no longer bother you."
Cheng Ying waved her hand and refused: "I have already told you that Wei Muchen is a son of a high-ranking official from the capital. If anything happens to him in your village, his parents will not let it go. You must not do anything to poison him, otherwise the consequences will be unimaginable."
Long Buxi didn't say anything, but watched intently as she packed up the mailbag, took a rope, and led the wooden-like Wei Muchen away.
"Squeak." Alan squeaked on his shoulder.
Long Buxi turned to look at it, "You also think that man named Wei Muchen is an eyesore, right?"
Alan nodded, her tiny limbs fluttering on his shoulder.
"You want to kill him?" Long Buxi leaned lazily against the second-floor corridor railing, watching Cheng Ying's departing figure. "I really want to kill him too, but if I do, Sister Cheng Ying will be angry. If she's angry, she might never talk to me again. I'd better forget about it."
Upon hearing this, Alan lowered her head, looking very unhappy.
Long Buxi picked up its small body with two fingers, placed it in front of her, and looked it in the eye: "You like Cheng Ying very much, don't you?"
Alan flapped her limbs and wings in the air, glancing at him sideways with an expression that said, "What do you think?"
A smile appeared on Long Buxi's lips, seemingly helpless and sighing, "Father once said that liking someone is not a good thing, because it means that you have to give your heart and your whole life for it."
Cheng Ying, carrying a mailbag and holding hands bound by ropes, kept giggling foolishly. Wei Muchen, looking dazed and confused, walked out of Pucang Village and saw Sailan at the village entrance.
Sailan was leaning against a tree, eating something. When she saw Cheng Ying come out, she stepped out from under the tree, walked up to Cheng Ying, and said with a smile in broken Mandarin, "You've come."
Cheng Ying stopped Wei Muchen, who was walking straight ahead, and looked at her, asking, "What do you want to talk to me about?"
"It's nothing," Seran said, twirling a strand of hair between her fingers. "I just wanted to ask if you like Arno."
Miao people are known for their straightforwardness; they say what they mean directly and rarely beat around the bush. They dislike being scheming or calculating.
Cheng Ying was taken aback. "Why are you asking me this question?"
“Because I want to marry Arno,” Seran said bluntly. “But he doesn’t like me. You’re engaged to him. If you don’t like him, I’ll fight for him.”
Cheng Ying's pupils contracted, and she gasped sharply. Was what Long Buxi said true? When she was ten years old, she really said she wanted to marry him?
If what Long Buxi said is true, and his mother agreed to her promise to marry him when she was ten years old, then in Long Buxi's eyes, she is his fiancée!
If she doesn't marry him, it would be a breach of contract for him! It would be a sign of not keeping his promise.
The Miao people are stubborn and have a very obstinate personality; once they make a promise, they will never change it.
Long Buxi was convinced that she was his fiancée. If she didn't marry him, given the nature of the Miao people, they would definitely use a curse on her, torture her to death, and take revenge on her in every way possible until she was dead!
She suddenly remembered that in her previous life, after she married Wei Muchen, she took Wei Muchen back to her parents' home for a homecoming visit in the second month after the wedding. The day after they arrived home, she developed a high fever, her internal organs were in pain, her limbs were convulsing, and she was foaming at the mouth, as if she had a seizure.
Her parents, sister, and Wei Muchen were terrified and rushed her to the county hospital. The doctor said she had a high fever, examined her, and said there was nothing seriously wrong with her.
But she was in pain all over her body. Her internal organs felt like they were being gnawed at by insects. Every part of her was in pain, and she was screaming and rolling around on the floor in the hospital.
Wei Mucheng had no choice but to drive her to the city hospital for a check-up overnight. With the medical technology at the time, the doctors there couldn't find anything wrong with her.
Finally, Wei Muchen hurriedly took her to the best hospital in the capital for treatment. After a thorough examination, the experienced doctor there confirmed that she was likely infected with some kind of parasite, which was why she had those symptoms.
As Cheng Ying was an officer, he spent many years training and on missions in the military. When he was out in the field and there was no water to drink, he would drink raw water from the wild.
Everyone thought she had contracted parasites in the wild, and even she thought so herself. Despite taking a lot of deworming medication, it still didn't seem to work.
Later, a distant cousin of Wei Muchen knew a Miao ethnic group in western Hunan and asked them to get her some deworming medicine, which gradually helped her recover.
Even so, she remained in bed for a month, suffering from pain for a month. Wei Mucheng's mother said she was unlucky, that she got sick as soon as she married into the Wei family, and cursed her as a jinx.
After she recovered, she and Wei Mucheng went to the hospital for checkups. Both were healthy, but they just couldn't conceive. It wasn't until their seventh year of marriage that Wei Mucheng brought home a child...
Looking back now, perhaps the month she was sick in her previous life was because Long Buxi had cast a spell on her.
Thinking about it this way, she felt a chill run down her spine. If she really was engaged to Long Buxi, then things would get really out of hand!
She had to hurry home and ask her dad if it was true.
"Sailan, how did you know I was engaged to Long Buxi?" Cheng Ying was eager to know more about what happened back then.
Seran looked at her strangely and said, "Arno, you said it."
Cheng Ying was stunned for a moment, "You believe what he said?"
Seran said, "Arno, you never lie to me."
Cheng Ying had no interest in talking to her anymore and said bluntly, "I don't have much affection for Long Buxi. Whether you like him or want to marry him has nothing to do with me. You don't need to come and ask for my opinion."
"This is what you said. If you go back on your word, I will put a curse on you and torture you severely." Sailan's beautiful face was filled with a frank smile.
Cheng Ying's eyelids twitched as she recalled that Pucang Village was a Miao village before the founding of the People's Republic of China. Even after the founding of the PRC, as they gradually intermarried with Han Chinese from the outside world, they still retained their old customs and habits.
Most importantly, the vast majority of couples in this village are related by blood, and their children often have some mental issues. It seems that the term "paranoia" is just a cover-up for the fact that they are neurotic.
Long Buxi and Sailan, like other Miao people in their village, are very dangerous individuals.
Cheng Ying didn't linger. She grabbed Wei Muchen, called Da Huang, and left Ayishan as quickly as possible, heading towards the post office.
A day and a half later, she returned to the post office unharmed and sorted and delivered all the mail entrusted to her by the mountain people along the way.
After doing all this, she locked Wei Muchen in her house in town, and then rode her bicycle with Dahuang to the Cheng family in Qingshui Village without stopping.
Wan Shuhui was overjoyed to see her return safely. After showering her with concern and asking about her well-being, she went to the kitchen to get busy.
Cheng Xue wasn't home. Wan Shuhui said she went to pick mushrooms in the back mountain of the village with a few of her close female friends and hadn't returned yet.
After exchanging a few words with Wan Shuhui, Cheng Ying went directly into Cheng Jiantong's room and recounted the events of her trip to Pucang Village. She then asked, "Dad, did I really say I wanted to marry Long Buxi back then? I even saw Long Buxi's brother eating people, which terrified me. And what about Long Buxi's mother using Gu to erase my memories?"
Cheng Jiantong leaned against the headboard, his half-blind eyes wide open. After thinking for a while, he said, "I don't know if you ever said you wanted to marry Long Buxi. Back then, you pestered me to go with me to run the mail and to see what my work was like. I originally wanted to refuse, but you said I was always busy with work and didn't care about your and your sister's lives. You kept crying in front of me. I felt really guilty, so I thought I might as well take you on a mail run."
I thought you were too young, and that the mountain path was so far and difficult, you probably wouldn't be able to make it. I wanted you to give up, but who would have thought that you would grit your teeth and persevere, and walk the entire postal route with me?
When we arrived at Pucang Village, I held your hand the whole time, telling you not to leave my side, not to touch anything, and not to eat any of the village's food, so as not to offend the locals and cause unnecessary trouble.
But when I was getting a letter from a Miao family, I let go of your hand, and when I turned around, you were gone.
I was terrified and searched everywhere for you. When I finally found you, you were having dinner at Long Buxi's house. Long Buxi's parents even invited me to have dinner with them, but I politely declined and took you away.
After leaving Long Buxi's house, I couldn't help but scold you, asking why you were running around everywhere and disobeying me by eating Miao people's food, fearing that Long Buxi's parents might have poisoned you with the food you ate.
You explained the reason to me with a feeling of grievance. You said that you saw a particularly beautiful butterfly, were attracted by it, chased after it, and saw Long Buxi on the way. You thought he was as beautiful as the butterfly, became curious about him, and followed him home.
I was very angry and wouldn't listen to your explanation. I took you back, but on the way back, you slipped away again when I wasn't looking.
I was both angry and anxious, so I went to the village to look for you again. Something big had happened in the village, and it was in complete chaos. By the time I found you again, it was almost dark. Long Buxi was holding your hand as he came to find me. He didn't say a word and just turned and left.
That's when I noticed something was wrong with you. You seemed a bit dazed, and you didn't remember anything about what happened in Pucang Village. But after you came home, you were lively and energetic again, and I couldn't see anything wrong with you. That's when I felt relieved.
Cheng Ying fell silent after hearing this. So, she had indeed lost her memories of being ten years old in Pucang Village. Even her father couldn't confirm whether she had said she wanted to marry Long Buxi. She felt a surge of unease.
Cheng Jiantong could roughly tell what she was thinking, and said with a deep gaze, "Xiaoying, regardless of whether you told Long Buxi that you wanted to marry him when you were ten years old, one thing is certain: Long Buxi probably has his eye on you, otherwise he wouldn't have said these things to you. If you don't like Long Buxi and don't want to have anything to do with him, Dad suggests you go to the branch office manager and ask him to change your mail route. You should run a different mail route to avoid unnecessary trouble."
In fact, Cheng Ying had guessed before that Long Buxi was interested in her, but she was unwilling to admit it or think about it too much.
Hearing Cheng Jiantong's words, she was shocked. "Dad, if I switch to a different postal route, do you think other postmen would be willing to run this difficult postal route in Ma'anshan and endure this hardship? Are you comfortable letting others deliver mail on this route?"
Cheng Jiantong fell silent. Of the several postal routes under Qingqu Town, the Ma'anshan postal route was the most difficult to travel, making mail delivery particularly challenging.
When he was young, he did consider switching routes with other mail carriers and taking some easier routes.
The branch manager agreed to his request and had other colleagues take turns delivering the mail. However, those colleagues either encountered wild wolves or wild beasts on the road and were bitten by them, almost losing their lives; or they were too slow in delivering mail, far exceeding the prescribed delivery time; or they couldn't endure the hardship and came back complaining endlessly, unwilling to deliver that route again.
The branch manager had no choice but to ask Cheng Jiantong, a retired veteran with excellent physical fitness, who was the most suitable person to run this postal route. So he consulted Cheng Jiantong and asked if he could continue running this postal route. In return, the branch manager would apply to his superiors for an extra subsidy of five yuan per month on top of his original salary.
Five yuan wasn't much, but Cheng Jiantong saw that no one was willing to run the postal route to Ma'anshan, so he agreed to continue running it for the branch manager, and he did so for more than 20 years.
Cheng Ying took over his job, running the postal route in Ma'anshan, and received a subsidy of five yuan per month.
But if she were to switch jobs with other mail carriers, the others would probably rather take the less detour and forgo the small amount of salary and subsidies than go through all that trouble for themselves.
Cheng Jiantong said, "If you don't change your postal route, you will still send mail to Pucang Village. Long Buxi is the future clan chief of Pucang Village, and he will definitely contact you. Miao people are stubborn. Once they have decided on someone, they will try their best to keep that person by their side, regardless of what the other person thinks. Do you want to marry Long Buxi and stay in Pucang Village for the rest of your life?"
"Of course I don't want to marry him and stay in Pucang Village for the rest of my life."
Cheng Ying admitted that Long Buxi was very handsome. His androgynous face, comparable to a demon's, stunned her when she first saw him. She even wondered what kind of woman would be suitable for such a handsome man.
But no matter how handsome Long Buxi was, she never had any feelings for him that went beyond that of a man and a woman.
She had been hurt in love, and in her previous life she had been entangled with Wei Muchen for most of her life. She had long been disillusioned with men and relationships, and in this life she only wanted to live for herself and do what she wanted to do.
Even if she wanted to get married, she would only hire a man to be her live-in son-in-law, who would revolve around her and her family.
Long Buxi clearly did not meet her requirements.
Putting aside the fact that Long Buxi is two months younger than her, which she finds hard to accept in a relationship between an older woman and a younger man, the fact that Long Buxi is the future clan leader of Pucang Village means he has to protect the village and cannot leave it at will, let alone become a live-in son-in-law. Therefore, there is no possibility for her to be with Long Buxi.
Thinking of this, she lowered her eyes and said, "I've gotten used to running this postal route. I can't just give up halfway and let others think I can't handle the hardship and laugh at me. I have to run it for two or three years to let people know that I can do this job, and then I'll find a way to change postal routes or change jobs so that I won't be criticized."
If Long Buxi really has feelings for me, I will pretend not to know until he confesses to me. I will delay as long as possible.
If he dares to disregard my wishes, cast a spell on me, or force himself on me, and if he angers me, I'll take him down with me! We'll both die together, and no one will get away with it!
Cheng Jiantong sighed helplessly, "You're all grown up now. You make your own decisions about your affairs. Just do what you think is best. If Long Buxi does anything to hurt you, you must tell Dad. Even if I have this crippled body, I will fight to the death to get justice for you!"
"Okay, I understand." Cheng Ying turned and left, unmoved by his words.
As a father, he was absent throughout her childhood. He failed to protect her when she needed it most, and for many years he shirked responsibility and ignored the harm the Cheng family had caused her. Even if he has now realized his mistake and wants to make amends, it is too late.
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