Chapter 36 Miao Zhi, the Third Generation Returns to His Ancestor, Come Back.
Chen Yu, a close friend of Wang Xiufen, has been going to the school whenever she has free time, just like her these days.
She didn't know many characters and was a bit clumsy at holding a pen, but she had something on her mind, which gave her a special kind of tenacity.
That afternoon, she found a table in the corner of the classroom, sat down, and spread out a sheet of letter paper.
Chen Yu ground the ink and began to write, concentrating his mind and energy, stroke by stroke on the paper.
She wrote intermittently, sometimes frowning in thought, and occasionally flipping through the "Elementary Dictionary" she had borrowed from the library, painstakingly checking each word and sentence.
From the bright sunshine to the gradual setting of the sun, her writing did not go smoothly. She even made several mistakes and wasted several sheets of paper, which were covered with ink spots of different sizes. She then crumpled them up and put them aside.
Finally, a short letter was laid out before her.
She picked up the paper, feeling both hopeful and uneasy. She wanted to ask Wen Qingshi for help, but felt that her writing was too crude and probably wouldn't be worthy of his attention. So she could only hold the paper and hesitate in place.
Just as she was feeling lost, a gentle voice caught her attention: "Aunt Chen, are you writing a letter? Would you like me to take a look?"
Chen Yu looked up and saw that Wen Yu had walked over at some point and was looking at her with a smile.
They were quite familiar with each other. Wen Yu would not only help them with farm work, but also visit the school in her spare time. Everyone felt at ease when they saw her.
Chen Yu seemed to have found her pillar of support, and quickly handed over the letter, rubbing her hands somewhat embarrassedly: "Oh, Wen girl, I'm so sorry to trouble you. I... I've only just learned a few characters, and I'm afraid I won't write well or make any mistakes..."
Wen Yu took the letter and read it carefully.
The handwriting is indeed somewhat immature, with some strokes crooked, but it's clear that the writer put in a lot of hard work.
The letter was simple; it was written to a younger sister, offering greetings and briefly describing the changes in Luxi Village.
She wrote that the harvest was plentiful, that there was hope for the future, and that even at her age, she had started learning to read. Her words were filled with joy.
At the end, she awkwardly but very warmly invited her sister to come back and visit.
Chen Yu watched Wen Yu's expression nervously from the side. Seeing that she was looking at her carefully, she couldn't help but explain in a low voice, "My cousin Miaozhi is different from me. Her family was a little better off when she was young. She had a proper education and knows quite a few characters."
She rubbed her hands nervously again: "Sigh, I'm just afraid I'll write it wrong, or that the words won't express the meaning, and that she'll laugh at me for no reason..."
After reading the letter, Wen Yu gently handed it back to Chen Yu and comforted her, "Aunt Chen, don't worry, the letter is written very clearly and the meaning is very clear. There is no problem at all. Your sister will definitely understand your feelings after reading it."
Upon hearing this, Chen Yu breathed a long sigh of relief, her face showing a sense of accomplishment as if she had accomplished something of paramount importance. She then carefully folded the letter.
After hesitating for a moment, she looked at Wen Yu again, her eyes filled with cautious expectation, and lowered her voice: "Wen Yu, there's something else I want to ask you."
"Please go ahead," Wen Yu said, perking up.
"If Miaozhi really comes back, do you think we could arrange something for her to do at the school?" Chen Yu paused, finally saying what had been on her mind for days.
Seeing that Wen Yu was listening attentively, she continued to explain, "My sister is much more knowledgeable than us. There was even a well-off family who wanted to hire her to tutor their young lady. However, she got married and couldn't leave, so the job was dropped."
“I see you’re busy with everything these days, taking care of the fields and managing the school. It must be really tough. If she could come, even if it’s just to help teach the children to recognize a few characters, it would be good…it would relieve some of your burden, wouldn’t it?”
Wen Yu's eyes lit up slightly as she listened.
This is truly a pleasant surprise!
She was worried about the school's expansion and the lack of teachers. If a literate woman could come and help, it would be a godsend.
The audience was delighted.
Wow! A new teacher has been booked!
[That's great! The school definitely needs more teachers, especially female teachers!]
[I support this. There are more girls now, so it would be much more convenient if she could come.]
[I'm looking forward to separate classes; the current mixed-age classes are definitely making things difficult.]
[Come on, Aunt Chen! You must bring your sister back!]
In any case, this is a good start.
“Great!” Wen Yu agreed readily. “Aunt Chen, this is wonderful news! Our school is short-staffed. If your sister is willing to come back, we welcome her anytime. With her literacy, we can’t have too many more!”
Chen Yu was overjoyed to receive Wen Yu's affirmative reply.
But soon, she looked out the window and sighed softly, "Sigh, I just don't know if this letter will get to her, or if she'll be willing to bring her whole family back. This whole family has been gone for three years, and I don't know how they're doing."
"No matter what, I have to try and send this letter..."
She clenched the letter in her hand.
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The Chen family's donkey cart traveled along the official road towards Luxi Village.
The cart wheels rolled over the dirt road, raising clouds of dust.
Chen Miaozhi held her daughter Qianshan tightly, her gaze fixed on the unfamiliar scenery receding outside the window, but her thoughts had already flown back to her hometown, which she had not seen for nearly three years.
She instinctively pulled the letter out of her clothes.
A letter written in hand by my cousin Chen Yu from Luxi Village.
The letter said that the village was very different from before. The fields had grown enough grain to feed everyone, and there was even surplus grain that could be sold for a lot of money. For the first time ever, a school had been set up, and even girls could go to study.
My cousin herself learned to write because of this, and this letter is proof of that.
It was this letter that rekindled the almost extinguished fire in her heart, making her determined to go back and see him no matter what.
But her husband, Liu Haoyan, dismissed it with disdain.
"Nonsense!" He jumped up immediately, reaching out to snatch the letter from Chen Miaozhi's hand. "Your cousin Chen Yu? That illiterate village woman? She can write? You're kidding me!"
His spittle almost hit Chen Miaozhi's face, causing her to instinctively back away.
He only escalated his anger: "You women are all talk and no action, you can't see things clearly, but I see things perfectly well! It's probably some random guy who sweet-talked her and wrote this nonsense for her, trying to trick you into going back, and who knows what he's up to!"
Chen Miaozhi did have some doubts.
My cousin has indeed never been to school.
But the descriptions in the letter about schools and how women could also read and attend school filled her with longing.
If, as Liu Haoyan maliciously speculated, it was indeed his cousin who hired a man to write the text, then what kind of man would write such content that is considered "heretical" in this world?
This doesn't make any sense.
More importantly, during the three years she was away from home, she never missed her family.
“No matter what you say, that’s where I was born and raised, and where my loved ones are.” This time, Chen Miaozhi didn’t back down like before. Instead, she showed a stubbornness that Liu Haoyan hadn’t expected. “I have to go back and see for myself.”
Liu Haoyan was taken aback, then instantly flew into a rage, raising his voice: "You've gone too far! A woman like you dares to talk back to your man!"
Chen Miaozhi gently raised her eyes, her expression indifferent.
She didn't even raise her voice, yet her words silenced him completely.
"You're too scared to go back, aren't you?"
Liu Haoyan's raised hand froze in mid-air, and the anger on his face also solidified.
Chen Miaozhi's gaze swept over his awkward expression, and she said sarcastically, "Of course you don't want to go back. Outside, no one knows your background. You can call yourself 'Master Liu' and be carefree."
She paused slightly, looking at the other person's suddenly changed expression, and spoke slowly and deliberately.
“But once you return to Luxi Village, you will always be that son-in-law who married into the family. You can’t change that no matter where you go.”
"I..." Liu Haoyan opened his mouth, wanting to refute or rebuke, but found that all the words were stuck in his throat.
He simply couldn't deny it.
In his early years, Liu Haoyan's family was poor, and they didn't even have a house or land. In order to make a living, he had no choice but to take this path.
When he first married into the Chen family, he was relatively restrained and behaved diligently and honestly, out of consideration for the Chen family's financial situation.
But ever since his family fled famine three years ago, leaving behind the villagers of Luxi Village and losing the invisible constraints of his family, he has gradually revealed his true nature.
Outside, he stood up straight and spoke louder, as if he had completely forgotten his status as a "son-in-law," and insisted that the whole family was able to survive this famine entirely because of the meager income he earned.
Liu Haoyan became increasingly domineering at home, and even repeatedly and forcefully demanded that both children change their surname to his Liu surname.
In front of outsiders, taking advantage of the fact that no one knew their background, he boldly called himself "Master Liu" and claimed that they were a family with the surname Liu.
Until one dinner, he brought up the old matter again.
Chen Miaozhi's long-suppressed anger finally erupted. She slammed down her chopsticks and said, "Liu Haoyan! Are you trying to force my Chen family to 'revert to our ancestral lineage' for three generations by doing this?"
Liu Haoyan completely abandoned all pretense of civility, mocking sarcastically, "What Chen family? In this world, the husband is the head of the household, and a woman follows her husband wherever he goes. Since you've come with me, you're a member of the Liu family! A mere woman dares to act tough and arrogant in front of me?"
"Since you look down on the Chen family so much, there's no need to continue this marriage!" Chen Miaozhi stood up without backing down an inch and said decisively, "Divorce!"
Liu Haoyan seemed to have been waiting for these words, and immediately retorted: "Divorce it is! You think I can't live without your Chen family? Hmph, there are plenty of women out there who want to live with me, Liu Haoyan!"
At the dinner table, the son, Peichuan, pretended to be eating his rice while his eyes darted around, secretly watching the two of them.
The daughter, Qianshan, leaned closer to her mother without saying a word.
Anyone could see that the rift in this family was already irreparable.
The matter was only reluctantly suppressed because the divorce had to be processed in the person's place of origin.
After receiving the letter this time, Chen Miaozhi brought up the old matter again.
"Haven't you been thinking about divorce every day, wanting to become your Mr. Liu? Perfect, let's go back to Luxi and get the paperwork done!"
"Fine, let's go! Who's afraid of who!" Provoked by her, Liu Haoyan stubbornly agreed, looking like he couldn't wait to get rid of her.
Thus, this family, which had long been estranged, embarked on their journey home despite their differing intentions.
Along the way, Liu Haoyan deliberately only took his son Peichuan in a rented car, but forced his daughter Qianshan into Chen Miaozhi's hands, as if he was eager to distance himself from them.
Before boarding the car, he didn't forget to say something harsh: "Divorce is fine, but my son must stay with me! He is a member of the Liu family, and from now on he will be named Liu Peichuan, to carry on the Liu family line!"
Ten-year-old Peichuan held his father's hand tightly, as if he had found his greatest support.
He even imitated his father's tone, making a smug face at his sister and laughing shrilly, "Hahaha, Dad works hard to earn money to support the family, he's a real man! From now on, I'm going to follow Dad, and you can go with your useless mother!"
Qianshan, who had been silent all along, suddenly raised his head, his clear black and white eyes looking at his father: "And what about me?"
Liu Haoyan glanced at his daughter impatiently, his gaze not like that of someone looking at their own child, but rather like that of someone looking at a nuisance.
He forced out a sentence through gritted teeth: "You? A worthless piece of trash."
Now that the facade has been torn off, he's too lazy to even maintain the last shred of feigned warmth.
Chen Miaozhi's heart sank completely.
Without saying a word, she simply hugged her daughter tighter in her arms, then resolutely turned and got into the car.
In the bumpy car, Qianshan nestled beside her, looking up at her with clear eyes: "Mother, what Father said... is it true?"
"He's talking nonsense!" Chen Miaozhi's anger hadn't subsided. "What kind of person is he, earning money to support his family!"
In the two years before she fled the famine, the family managed to survive only by relying on the savings she brought from the Chen family and the money she got from selling her dowry and jewelry.
It wasn't until last year, when their savings were exhausted and the family was on the verge of running out of money, that Liu Haoyan reluctantly went out to do some odd jobs.
But the few copper coins he earned weren't even enough to buy himself a drink!
Whenever he came home drunk, he would start a fight, cursing and swearing, disturbing the peace of the whole family.
He looked down on his daughter Qianshan, but doted on his son Peichuan, hoping that this "only son" would bring glory to his Liu family in the future.
Now it seems that his son has been completely spoiled by his father, selfish and cold-hearted, just like his father, an ungrateful wretch.
Chen Miaozhi spent some time calming her daughter down and watching her fall asleep peacefully before opening her cousin's letter again.
She still remembers what happened in the past.
My cousin's family used to be even worse off than hers. They had five daughters and one son. As the eldest daughter, my cousin could only watch helplessly as her younger brother was sent to school, while she herself didn't even have the right to touch a book.
But now, my cousin wrote in her letter, "Please bring Qianshan back soon, because girls in the village can go to school now."
Miaozhi, have you forgotten? You also went to school for a few years when you were a child, and you can read and write.
If you come back, you might be able to find a teaching job at the school...
Chen Miaozhi's fingers gently traced the words on the paper, as if she could hear her cousin calling her.
Miaozhi, please come back.
She suddenly thought that returning to Luxi Village might actually be a good thing for her and Qianshan, allowing them to sever ties with the past and start anew.
As for Liu Haoyan...
Her gaze passed over the car window and landed on another car not far away, her eyes turning completely cold.
Once back in Luxi, the bridge and the road will go their separate ways.
She wanted to see if their arrogant and ignorant behavior would still work back in Luxi Village!
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The author's note: "女昏" means marriage.
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