Chapter 37 Marriage "I still want to marry you."...
When Zhong Ying heard her brother say that Zhong Ni hadn't come out yet, she became anxious. If something happened to Zhong Ni, wouldn't her aunt go crazy and become a vengeful ghost?
Fortunately, Zhong Ni ran out of the threshing ground after a short while.
Zhong Ying rushed forward and grabbed her, looking her up and down. She seemed fine, but she was soaked to the bone by the rain. The autumn rain was cold and made her shiver.
"Quick, let's go find shelter from the rain." Zhong Ying pulled Zhong Ni towards the eaves of someone else's house, saying with lingering fear, "I was so scared. I was really afraid that the person who shouted 'Someone fell down' was you."
Zhong Ni felt a little awkward and stammered, "No, just now... I'm fine."
The rainy night was too dark for Zhong Ying to notice.
The film screening that ended inconclusively resulted in the projector needing repairs, and the screening that was supposed to be shown in the Tonggan production team being postponed indefinitely; a woman surnamed Ye in Liwangou injured her leg, and it will likely take a hundred days to recover, so she won't be able to walk again until around the Lunar New Year; Zhong Xin not only retrieved his own shoes, but also twenty-seven mismatched shoes, five broken stools, a basket full of broken stool legs; and…
"Did the Liu family ask Hu to inquire at your house and arrange a marriage between their third son and your sister?"
Zhong Ying repeated Zhong Shuanzhu's words in disbelief.
Zhong Shuanzhu nodded. "That's why I've come to call my aunt over."
Deng Xia immediately put down her work and followed her nephew.
Zhong Ying was completely bewildered by this sudden news. When did this happen? Why was there a marriage proposal? What on earth had happened?
Unable to come up with an answer no matter how hard she tried, Zhong Ying put down what she was doing and ran out to find someone who could give her an answer.
As expected, Zhong Ni was not allowed to listen in this time either, and was found by Zhong Ying by the river.
Faced with a barrage of questions from her cousin, Zhong Ni looked a little embarrassed, but still answered truthfully, "That night when the movie went wrong, he was the one who protected me and got out..."
Zhong Ying crossed her arms, raised her hand and tapped her head with her fingers, "...So you two hit it off?"
Do young men and women develop feelings for each other so quickly at this point?
Zhong Ni's face flushed bright red. "Sis! What did you say?"
"You don't want to?" Zhong Ying turned and left. "Then I'll go and talk to my mother right away, so it's not really settled."
"Sister!" Zhong Ni hurriedly chased after Zhong Ying and grabbed her. Her hands, which had been soaked in the river, were icy cold, making Zhong Ying shiver.
Zhong Ni was a little embarrassed, but she still expressed her thoughts, "I... I wasn't unwilling either. He's honest and hardworking..."
Although the young men and women in the production team didn't talk much on weekdays, they all lived in the same place and knew each other to some extent. Compared to the young man from Liwangou before, Zhong Ni felt more confident about Liu Guangtian, who came to propose marriage this time, and was no longer as uneasy as before.
Zhong Ying looked at Zhong Ni. She was a girl born and raised in this era, and her thinking was still very traditional. She hoped to marry a good man. Since she was willing, Zhong Ying thought about it and realized that apart from having more brothers and sisters and being introverted and taciturn, this third son of the Liu family was not bad. He was better than his younger brother, the fourth son of the Liu family.
Cao Fang sighed softly, "This is fate."
She almost got into trouble this one time because she couldn't stay by her daughter's side, but this time someone protected her daughter.
Cao Fang thought that this was perhaps fate. She was going to leave sooner or later. She had always been insistent on her daughter's marriage, hoping that someone would protect her daughter after she was gone.
After parting ways with Zhong Ni, Zhong Ying walked home and ran into another party involved in the incident.
Liu Guangtian knew that his mother and Hu had gone to arrange a marriage for him. His heart was pounding like a drum, and he couldn't concentrate on his work. He went out for a walk and ran into Zhong Ying. He respectfully greeted her, "Sister Ying."
This time, Zhong Ying couldn't treat him like a nobody. After a serious examination, she realized that compared to the other young people in the production team, Liu Guangtian was actually quite good; he just had too many brothers.
"I'm asking you, which is more important, your brothers or your wife?" Zhong Ying asked with a hostile expression. "If a conflict were to arise one day, whose side would you take?"
Liu Guangtian did not answer immediately. After thinking about it carefully, he said, "My wife is important. After my brothers get married, they will each start their own families. If there is a conflict, it will be for the benefit of their own families. I will definitely stand on my own side."
Zhong Ying pursed her lips. Well, at least she's sharp-eyed and quick-witted.
“I’ll be keeping an eye on you.” Zhong Ying gestured with her eyes wide open and said to Liu Guangtian, “If you treat my sister badly, you’ll be in for a world of hurt.”
Liu Guangtian nodded obediently.
He was a year younger than Zhong Ying. Although he had never been beaten by Zhong Ying when they were young, he had seen her beat his younger brother Feng Shou many times. Liu Guangtian was naturally afraid of her and knew that Zhong Ying was not just making threats, but was telling the truth.
After walking a short distance, Zhong Ying remembered something, turned back, and asked, "You won't beat your wife like your older brother, will you?"
Liu Guangtian, who had been grinning foolishly, immediately composed himself and repeatedly denied it, "No, no, I wouldn't do that with my older brother!"
Zhong Ying nodded with some doubt, but still let him go.
"How come the Liu family's children are so inconsistent, one generation good and one generation bad..." Zhong Ying muttered to herself on her way home. "The eldest is no good, the second and third are alright, but the fourth one is bad, and the two younger ones seem okay..."
Deng Xia had watched these children in the production team grow up. If the young man who came to propose marriage was from another production team, she would definitely have to look him over again. But since it was Liu's third son from the same village, whom she knew well, she agreed after thinking it over. He was an honest young man.
And so, Zhong Ni and Liu Guangtian's marriage was arranged.
The women chattered amongst themselves, finalizing every detail: how much the bride price would be, how much the dowry would be, the wedding date, how the bridal chamber would be decorated…
Hu, the matchmaker, was delighted; the deal was done! She was obliged to receive the matchmaker's gift.
Lin Shuhong, the groom's parent, was very happy. Her third son had finally found a wife, unlike his eldest son!
Deng Xia, an elder on the woman's side, was also very happy, feeling that she had not let down her deceased sister-in-law and niece.
Only Zhong Qiushou was unhappy. The bride price was only twenty! And he even wanted his daughter to take him with her to live on! He got nothing, and now the family would be short one cook!
Zhong Qiushou tried to speak several times, but couldn't get a word in edgewise.
Deng Xia glanced at him, secretly pleased. Serves him right. He had a wife to support him first, and then a daughter to support him later. It's time for that old bastard Zhong Qiushou to go to "hell" and suffer a miserable life.
However, Deng Xia became unhappy again after only a few days.
Zhong Ni is already engaged, but Zhong Ying, who is two years older than her, is still unmarried.
"Do you like the youngest son of the Hu family? He's two years younger than you—"
Zhong Ying, engrossed in sweeping the floor, interrupted her mother, "I don't like him. He's like a child, always following his mother around."
Deng Xia chased after her daughter again, "Where's that Cheng Zhiqing? Didn't you like him quite a bit before?"
“People still want to go back to the city, Mother. Don’t you think ‘leaving the rural gate’ is a bad thing?” Zhong Ying retorted.
Deng Xia considered the remaining unmarried young men in the production team. After removing those who were too young, the rest were all undesirable men.
"Then let's ask around in other production teams," Deng Xia said, her heart heavy with worry. She was still reluctant to let her daughter marry so far away.
Zhong Ying was annoyed. "Wasn't it supposed to be next year? You should take a break. The New Year is just over two months away. Aren't you going to clean the house? Aren't you going to prepare the New Year's goods? Didn't my brother say he was going to send some money back so we could cut fabric and make clothes?"
She talked about many things in one breath, which finally distracted Deng Xia.
However, Zhong Ying sighed heavily, feeling that she couldn't escape this ordeal sooner or later.
But to ask her to marry a man of this era is like putting a brass key on an electronic lock!
As Zhong Ying splashed water on the ground and swept, even setting aside the generation gap between her and the men, she thought about the married women in the production team: Aunt Liu had six children, and Aunt Fan Wu next door had five…
After a woman gets married, she starts having children non-stop. This is an unavoidable thing in this day and age. There is no family planning policy, and people don't have much entertainment. They either work in the fields or sleep. And when they sleep, babies just pop out in droves.
Moreover, rural areas view children as a form of productivity; the more children a family has, the more people are needed to work.
Zhong Ying did the math and realized that only her mother had a relatively small number of children—three children in total. This was because giving birth to her brother and herself in quick succession had taken a toll on her health, and she only gave birth to her younger brother, Zhong Xin, seven years later. Her uncle's family also had few children, because her aunt had died young, but she had given birth to five children before she died. Hu Wen also mentioned that she had only three children, because her husband had died young…
In summary, either you ruin your body to have fewer children, but Zhong Ying neither wants to ruin her body nor wants to have any children.
The only remaining options are either for her to die, like her aunt, so she won't have to have children, or for her husband to die, so she can remain a widow like Hu Dating and not have any more children...
Zhong Ying gripped the broom tightly, her thoughts already straying to "it's either you or me." She genuinely didn't know if, if that day truly came, she would say, "Brother, come and drink your medicine."
Men, who can breathe, are now seen as the root of all evil in Zhong Ying's eyes.
But if she were to actually do it, Zhong Ying, having grown up in a society governed by the rule of law, would find it difficult to commit such a crime. Moreover, if ghosts who kill indiscriminately can only be reborn as animals, wouldn't humans be able to do the same?
Zhong Ying thought with a headache, muttering, "I really want to marry a dead person..."
Wait, she got married!
Zhong Ying's mind cleared up in an instant. Since everyone has to get through the marriage hurdle, then don't blame her for using a different "method to pass the hurdle".
"Are you there? Are you there?" After lunch, Zhong Ying came to the river to wash her clothes, found a quiet spot, and asked the river.
There was no response from the ghost for half a day.
Zhong Ying listlessly dipped her hand into the river water and played with it. "Not here again?"
But on the night the movie was shown, who else could appear and disappear so suddenly and inhumanly?
“If you don’t show up, I’ll assume you’ve really gone to be reincarnated.” As Zhong Ying spoke, her hand, which was immersed in the river water, was suddenly clamped, and slender fingers covered her wrist.
The ghost, who hadn't shown its face for a long time, finally made its appearance. Li Linshi calmly looked at Zhong Ying; he was indeed planning to reincarnate.
Li Linshi returned to the Ganlin River, recalling how he had actually harbored murderous intent towards a complete stranger that day; signs of "losing control" were beginning to emerge.
He shouldn't have done that.
Yes, Zhong Ying has a very unique soul. Even in the dark of night, when everyone is watching a movie intently in the shadows, and the screen is clearly the source of the light, Li Linshi feels that it is Zhong Ying who is shining, which is why he can see her at a glance.
No, he shouldn't have looked at her; he just kept staring at Zhong Ying too much.
Li Linshi couldn't deny that he had been touched by her in countless moments, but the pitiful cries of the pig still seemed to echo in his ears. He liked Zhong Ying, but that liking wasn't enough to make him rush headlong into a flame and be willing to pay such a price.
Hesitation leads to trouble.
With his "reason" returning, Li Linshi calmly considered: what could possibly develop between him and Zhong Ying in his current state? She would eventually marry someone else; she would have a normal, happy family, and children surrounding her...
As Changgui said, it's better to let go of everything and reincarnate now than to witness these scenes later.
Li Linshi restrained the turbulent emotions that would rise within him just by thinking about it; anger and murderous intent transformed into a gloomy despondency.
"Reason" seemed to become a sharp pen, etching one "shouldn't" after another into Li Linshi's mind. He shouldn't have looked at her, he shouldn't have been moved, he shouldn't have had delusions...
He should be reincarnated.
"Reason" suppressed "loss of control".
Even now, facing her directly, Li Linshi felt calm.
Zhong Ying thought that the original owner had acted first and informed later last time, so this time she would discuss it with her mother. "My mother is starting to get anxious about my marriage. You know, I don't want to get married at all."
Li Linshi listened quietly.
“So, after thinking it over and over,” Zhong Ying said earnestly, looking at the ghost in the river, “I still want to marry you.”
The calm water surface was shattered.
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Author's Note: Li Linshi: Rationality...good, I've calmed down...
(Suddenly, a giant radish was thrown into the river.)
Li Linshi: !!!
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