Chapter 14 Chapter 14 The Li Family's Retribution Begins
Li Xianjin stayed at Zhou Wu's house from the first to the third day of the new year.
He felt like a boss, eating and drinking with his eyes open and sleeping with his eyes closed. Even Zhou Wu was surprised by his shamelessness.
Li Xianjin was taken home by donkey cart on the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, reeking of alcohol.
Sun Xiufen thought he had an accident, but after smelling the stench of cigarettes and alcohol on his body, she felt satisfied and thought Zhou Wu was a good person who took good care of her beloved son.
After Li Xianjin woke up, he started talking with saliva flying all over the place. He told his parents all the delicious cigarettes, wine and meat, making them swallow their saliva in envy.
"His family is so rich, why didn't they bring some meat?"
Sun Xiufen asked Zhao Xiaoxing to boil some water to wipe Li Xianjin's face. Li Xianjin stared at Zhao Xiaoxing's back and said, "What a jerk! She has no sense at all. Only after going to Zhou Wu's house did I know how a man should live. Their brothers and their wives are too good at serving people. They can't wait to feed them. They can even sing a few lines when they drink wine. When I have money, I will find a good woman. She only eats things that can't lay eggs and has no interest. It's better to divorce her."
Sun Xiufen gestured to him to stop talking, urging him to be careful, as walls could be eavesdropping. Being able to sing was not a glamorous thing in this world; revealing it would lead to accusations.
As for whether to change her daughter-in-law when she becomes rich, Sun Xiufen thinks it's okay. Her son deserves better, and right now this one is just enough to do some work.
Li Xianjin was still drunk, thinking about how he had been living like a god in the past few days, and now he had to face his old hag again when he got home. He couldn't bear it any more: "Why can't I say anything to her? Even if we have a child in the future, if it's as ugly as her, we might as well not have it! She wants to add a child to the Li family, but does she have the qualifications?"
Zhao Xiaoxing paused as she lifted the door curtain, sniffed, pretending not to hear, and went outside to fetch firewood.
Zhao Xiaoxing squatted in front of the stove and added firewood one by one.
She had originally believed that if she married a chicken, she would follow the chicken; if she married a dog, she would follow the dog, and that a hard life was okay. She was occasionally scolded by her in-laws and beaten by her husband, but she thought she could just get through it and have a child.
Now it seems that it was just her wishful thinking.
Zhao Xiaoxing took out some sour dried apricots from her pocket and put them under her tongue. The sour taste stopped her tears.
If this place can't be a good home for her, why can't she stay away from here like Qingmei?
After boiling water, she rubbed a towel for Li Xianjin and handed it to him. Li Xianjin lifted his neck and let her wipe it.
Zhao Xiaoxing still looked expressionless and just wiped him a few times.
Li Xianjin was still saying to Sun Xiufen, "He gave us eighty as a deposit. He said he would give me another two hundred. Later, over a few drinks, I bargained with Zhou Wu. If I gave birth to a son within the first year, he would give me another hundred."
Sun Xiufen glanced at Zhao Xiaoxing and noticed that her eyes were a little red.
Sun Xiufen thought Zhao Xiaoxing had learned to be pretentious from Qingmei, and what would she do if she couldn't punish her or scold her in the future? So she pretended not to see anything and let her go to the yard to wash clothes.
After Zhao Xiaoxing left, Sun Xiufen complained to Li Xianjin: "Why did you ask for money in front of her?"
Li Xianjin said, "So what?"
Then, he opened the window and said to Zhao Xiaoxing, who was about to wash clothes, "Why are you washing? Go buy me some wine. There's pig heads at the supply and marketing cooperative today, buy as many as you can. I also want fried crispy peanuts and crab roe in sauce! Also, ask when there are ox hooves and ox tails, and have them save them for me."
Li Laoer went to visit, and Chen Xiufen couldn't control Li Xianjin. Not only did Li Xianjin not give her the money, he also spent it lavishly.
Zhao Xiaoxing stood up, rubbed her frozen hands, and took the five yuan from the crack in the window.
This reminded her that there was still five yuan in the shoe shell that Qingmei gave her.
That's enough.
Zhao Xiaoxing first went to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy some snacks that Li Xianjin had ordered. After washing the clothes, she said to Li Xiufen, "I want to go back to my parents' home."
Seeing that she had finished her work and her parents' home was not far away, Li Xiufen let her go.
Zhao Xiaoxing and her mother depended on each other for survival. Later, her mother found a widower to live with and gave birth to a younger sister. Zhao Xiaoxing was so happy for her that she seldom went back.
Today, Zhao Xiaoxing lied and didn't go back. She wandered alone at the village entrance until night, and finally disappeared on the road to the county town.
She didn't show up for the next few days, and when she returned to Donghe Village again, her face had lost much color.
Li Xianjin even held a grand banquet at his home, inviting all the people who usually drank and boasted to come drink at his house. The villagers were saying that Li Xianjin had become rich, but no one knew where the money came from.
Li Laoer couldn't control him. When Li Xianjin was drunk, he not only beat his wife, but also dared to beat his father.
After a few quarrels, Li Laoer was so angry that his blood pressure soared and he fell unconscious on the bed. Li Xianjin didn't even look at him and continued to drink and brag with his friends.
During the first month of the year, the Li family's yard was filled with the aroma of wine and meat day and night.
Li Xianjin was incredibly happy, but when others asked him about it, he refused to say that it was the down payment from selling his brother's wife.
Zhao Xiaoxing seemed to suddenly come to her senses and took the initiative to buy meat and wine for him, and even lit cigarettes for him.
Li Xianjin thought that what he said that day made Zhao Xiaoxing feel a sense of crisis, and he was still feeling complacent.
Eighty yuan was a lot, enough for a family to live comfortably for a year or two. But it was also not enough, for the extravagant Li Xianjin, it was not enough.
The supply and marketing cooperative sold all kinds of good stuff during the first month of the year. He spent money lavishly there, but when he got home and checked his pockets, he found that he had no money left.
Li Xiufen kept persuading Li Laoer that he could get another 120 yuan after Qingmei got married, and he could keep the money for himself and not give it to Li Xianjin. He also hoped that Qingmei would get pregnant and earn another 100 yuan for them.
After hearing this, Li Laoer was left holding his breath and finally opened his eyes on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month.
On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the gray-tailed magpie stood on the roof and kept chirping.
Chen Xiufen tidied her hair and urged the hungover Li Xianjin to go with her to see if Qingmei had left.
Zhao Xiaoxing was at home taking care of her bedridden father-in-law. Li Xianjin and Sun Xiufen went to Qingmei's house to find her early in the morning.
Mrs. Fang, holding the swill bucket, said to them, "They've already left."
Li Xianjin looked at the empty tile-roofed house, which still had traces of cleaning, and squinted his eyes and asked, "Where did you go?"
Before Mrs. Fang could say anything, Xiao Gang pointed at the back mountain and said, "There! There! The young widow in the red cotton-padded jacket is getting married!"
A fool cannot lie. Li Xianjin stretched out his hand to hit Xiaogang's round head, but Xiaogang dodged it.
"Amitabha." Li Xiufen was really afraid that Qingmei would regret it. When she heard that Qingmei had left, she immediately stroked her chest and muttered, "Good child, my golden baby."
Mrs. Fang raised her eyebrows. "'Amitabha'? You still believe in these things? Wait, I'm going to talk to Captain Jin."
Li Xiufen quickly said, "I misheard you, I didn't say that."
Li Xianjin kicked open the courtyard door and went in to search through the boxes and cabinets. He found nothing valuable. But then again, Qingmei didn't have much stuff to begin with.
Li Xianjin raised his lips and said, "Instead of going to complain, why not go to the party? Today is a good day. Your neighbor is happy, and you should be happy too."
Mrs. Fang pulled a piece of candy from her pocket, tore open the wrapper, and stuffed it into Xiaogang's mouth. "I know about this. She gave my family some wedding candy before she left this morning. But it's not a glorious thing for a widow to marry a second time, so no one else gave any. Your family is considered her second marriage family, so shouldn't you prepare some peanuts, sunflower seeds, or something for everyone?"
Sun Xiufen spat and said, "Give her nothing. She's already passed away. Giving her anything is a waste."
Mrs. Fang said with a forced smile, "That's true." After finishing, she pulled the small pot back to the house.
Xiao Gang was clamoring to go to the party, and Mrs. Fang said to him, "Why are you in such a hurry? There's a show for you tonight."
They entered the house, and Li Xianjin and Sun Xiufen returned home.
Li Xianjin took advantage of his childhood sweetheart's marriage and shamelessly asked Sun Xiufen for two yuan to buy some wine, which he drank until the afternoon.
Li Laoer was leaning against the wall at the head of the kang and humming. The men in the Li family were delicate and had to be served by women.
Zhao Xiaoxing had a stomachache and didn't want to touch cold water. Sun Xiufen scolded her every now and then, so she just lay on the kang.
By the time Sun Xiufen was serving Li Laoer, Li Xianjin was also drunk. Zhao Xiaoxing jumped up and sneaked to the Gu family's old house.
"It's me, open the door." Zhao Xiaoxing's face was pale, without a trace of blood.
Qingmei hid in Gu's house early in the morning. When she heard Zhao Xiaoxing's voice, she quickly opened the door.
Zhao Xiaoxing hugged Qingmei and said to her, "Save me, I can't stop bleeding."
Qingmei didn't know what was going on at first, so she called Zhao Xiaoxing to come in. Zhao Xiaoxing refused to come in, so she pressed her and said, "A woman who has lost her child cannot go into someone else's house. It's the worst kind of bad luck."
The Gu family is a wealthy family with many rules. Zhao Xiaoxing dare not hide it, nor does she want to hide it.
Qingmei had no experience with this, so she supported her and called out to Zhao Wuhe, "Auntie Gu, come and help me."
Zhao Wuhe ran over and was also dumbfounded when she heard this: "Oh, silly girl, you really do great things without saying anything! Come on, lie down on the bed, I'll make you some tonic."
Zhao Xiaoxing made a bitter face and pointed at her crotch and said, "Am I going to die?"
Zhao Wuhe was so angry that she laughed: "What are you dying for? It's the dirty blood in your stomach that's flowing. It will stop in two days."
Zhao Xiaoxing said, "I won't die?"
Zhao Wuhe said, "Of course you won't die. You had the surgery at the county hospital, not somewhere else. It's a minor operation, so don't be afraid."
Zhao Xiaoxing perked up: "Then hurry up and make me some medicine. I'm almost out of blood."
Zhao Wuhe said with a helpless smile: "Okay, you wait." This child is also capable of ordering people around.
Qingmei held Zhao Xiaoxing's hand and sat on the edge of the bed, listening to Zhao Xiaoxing's muffled voice: "He said he would divorce me in the future, and said my child would not be well. Then forget it. I have my own ideas. I don't want children, and I don't plan to live with him in the future."
It was great that Zhao Xiaoxing was willing to escape the hell. Qingmei was happy for her, but at the same time, she said distressedly, "Why didn't you tell me earlier? I would have gone with you. You must have been so offended. Besides, why didn't you tell me you were pregnant? I didn't even know about it."
"I haven't had my period for two months, and I didn't go to the hospital to check it out." Zhao Xiaoxing said, "Did you know? It's a boy, so small."
Qingmei sighed and said, "You must feel sad." She knew how much Zhao Xiaoxing wanted to expand the Li family.
Zhao Xiaoxing leaned on Qingmei's shoulder and said with a firm expression, "At first I felt a little sorry for the child. Then I thought if his father raised him to be a drunkard and a wife-beater when he grew up, he would have been better off not being born. Thinking of this, I no longer feel sad. Instead, I'm happy for my future daughter-in-law. By the way, I have to thank you. If you hadn't given me five yuan, I wouldn't have been able to afford the surgery."
When Qingmei gave me the money, I never thought she would spend it wisely...
At most, I thought she would secretly buy some delicious food.
Qingmei helped Zhao Xiaoxing lie down and said, "Just take care of her first. We'll talk about the future later."
Zhao Xiaoxing nodded, and after finishing, she grabbed Qingmei's hand and said, "Can you still set up a bed for me at home?"
Qingmei held her hand in return: "Are you sure you want to leave the Li family?"
Zhao Xiaoxing sniffed and said, "He said he'd divorce me if he became capable in the future, so I'll divorce him first since he's incompetent!"
Qingmei said: "Is it true?"
"Of course!" Zhao Xiaoxing patted her chest and said, "It would be best if Zhou Wu beat him to death. I'll be a widow with you. You don't know how much I envy you."
Qingmei: “…” That’s not necessary.
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