Take the initiative
Given the prevailing social climate, adultery is a crime punishable by public criticism, having one's shoes hung up, being paraded through the streets, and being pelted with stones. Some people have even been killed on the spot.
They were shameless first, so they shouldn't blame Wang Shuitao for going to extremes.
In fact, Wang Datong, a married man, was already in a bad position the day he got involved with the widow Feng Shuiyun; no one looked down on them.
So the two of them, along with the three children, always greeted everyone else in the village with smiles and were always willing to give way to them.
Most of the people here are surnamed Wang, and they believe that they were one family five hundred years ago. Since they have no loss, the villagers turn a blind eye and live their lives without making things difficult for them.
It's just that my family members are being manipulated by these shameless people. Now that Wang Shuitao has come here, she will not allow this situation of being continuously exploited to continue.
Feng Shuiyun pursed her lips, not daring to provoke her any further. Still unwilling to give up, she tried to persuade her: "Then your and your brother's social standing isn't good either. After all, Brother Wang is your father."
Upon hearing this, Wang Datong immediately raised his head, which had been hunched over, and straightened his back.
Wang Shuitao was surprised that the widow actually thought she would care about this, and sneered, "This is a job! If you lose your job, don't blame me for hurting myself as well as the enemy."
If the job isn't worth fighting for, then why are they making such a scene? You have to understand, this is the widow's first time visiting.
Although she usually encouraged Wang Datong to plunder the family's wealth, she never met with Wang Shuitao and her brother, and would immediately detour if she saw them from afar.
She then emphasized, "If I lose my job, none of us will have a good life. My older brother and I are the victims, and we always receive more sympathy. What about you? What about your children?"
Wang Datong said unhappily, "How dare you talk like that? This is your aunt!"
He hadn't been back for a long time, and even though he had just been beaten, the impression of his obedient daughter still lingered. He realized that he had been offended and had lost face in front of the woman he loved.
In his excitement, he tried to stand up and intimidate Wang Shuitao from a higher position, but his calf scraped against the bench, and the pain made his legs go weak, so he sat down again.
He didn't utter a single word.
Wang Shuitao sneered, picked up whatever was on the table, and threw it at his eyes, but the widow blocked it for him.
After fighting for so long, everyone was exhausted. No one criticized Wang Shuitao, who was always ready to use violence to subdue everything, and no one spoke anymore.
Seeing that the stalemate had dragged on for a long time, the widow took her children and Wang Datong and left first.
Qian Lijuan, who had been silent since she sat down, came back to life, muttering complaints that her daughter shouldn't have treated her father that way and that her son shouldn't have stopped her.
Wang Shuitao slammed her hand heavily on the table, making the room shake three times and stirring up dust in the air.
Ignoring her numb palms, she roared, "What did you say?!"
Qian Lijuan's heart trembled when she recalled the man's manhood, which was covered in cuts and bruises, and she shut her mouth.
Her daughter was more ruthless than she had imagined; now she realized that her daughter had always held back when they fought.
Wang Jinbu went to the kitchen and filled a ladle of cold water for his sister to put her hand in. His eyes were still full of tears. He went into the house and snuggled up to his wife.
Every time his parents argued, he would act like this for a long time. Maybe it was because when he was little, his parents would make up as soon as he acted like this, and their family would be happy again.
Unfortunately, his glue had expired far too long ago.
Wang Shuitao put the wooden ladle back into the water vat, lifted the pot lid, and inside were steaming cornbread made from a mixture of cornmeal and sorghum flour. The cornbread was stuffed with a little bit of wild vegetables seasoned only with salt; it was very bitter, but there was nothing she could do about it at this time of year when food was scarce.
It must have been left for her by her older brother.
The flour nowadays isn't ground very finely, and they can't bear to throw away sorghum husks and corn cobs, so they grind them in together. The cornbread made from this kind of flour takes a long time to chew before you can taste the sweetness of the hydrolyzed starch. This is the first time she's tasted it since she came here.
Previously, I didn't have much free time, and I would wolf down my food.
The house belonged to Wang Datong because he had an affair with the widow Feng Shuiyun, and even after his grandparents found out, they refused to separate.
It was built after the family was divided and the residents were driven out. It's not big; the eldest brother and sister-in-law lived in one room, and Qian Liju and her daughter lived in another.
After finishing her cornbread, Wang Shuitao refused to go inside. She fussed around at the table for a long time before calling her older brother out.
Mother also peeked in, asking suspiciously, "What are you doing so late?"
Wang Shuitao was filling a basket with eggs when she casually replied, "Today the brigade leader gave me a form to go to the county town to pick up some eggs for his family. I'm moving tomorrow and don't have time."
Qian Liju complained that the brigade leader was too hardworking. He would always discuss the spring plowing dates with several elderly people in the village, and it never seemed to end.
The Wang family has just found a job, such a big deal, and they immediately issued a note after seeing a young woman go to their home to ask for her permission, without even bothering to come and check on her. If the brigade leader had been even a moment slower, things wouldn't have turned out like this today.
They originally wanted to chase after him, but he blocked the door with his body and refused to move. After a long time, they realized it was too late and stopped.
At this moment, she pouted and didn't want to say anything. She just felt that her daughter hadn't grown up and didn't understand.
The family was only spared from being bullied because of her hard work in winning over her husband. Otherwise, what would a widow do if she seduced her husband? There still needs to be a man in the house.
He relied on his parents when he was young, but now that he's grown up and capable, he's become so unfilial.
I need to talk to Da Tong tomorrow. This child can't treat his parents like this; being unfilial will bring divine retribution.
The three little beasts the widow raised will definitely not raise Big Copper when they grow up. As long as she educates her children well, her husband will eventually come home. Otherwise, what will he do when he gets old?
Qian Lijuan's mind raced with thoughts, but she didn't dare to have a long talk with her daughter.
I'm just waiting for my daughter to start working in the county town so I can have a good chat with my son.
She comforted herself, thinking that it was okay for her daughter to be disobedient, but her son was more important. Her son was very filial, and besides, in the countryside, it was the son who was responsible for taking care of her in her old age.
Moreover, he will have a job in the future and is capable of supporting his parents.
Wang Shuitao said, "Brother, it's too dark. Come with me to the brigade leader's house."
Mother didn't stop her; this was a favor she had to do, and it was indeed too dark for her daughter to be alone.
When we arrived at the brigade leader's house, it was also a mud house. The family hadn't separated their households; the small rooms were crammed together.
Knock on the door, and the captain, wearing trousers and a patched-up coat, came out to open it.
Who is it?
It was late at night, and the brigade leader was already in bed. He was in a bad mood, but when he saw it was Wang Shuitao and her brother, he smiled politely.
These are workers, from a sugar factory.
He has many daughters-in-law and daughters, and one after another they'll be in postpartum confinement. I'll have to ask her to buy some brown sugar then. After exchanging a few polite words, I even invited the brother and sister to come in and sit down.
Wang Shuitao didn't go in; instead, she took five eggs out of the basket and handed them to the brigade leader.
Wang Jinbu simply stood behind his sister like an iron tower, without saying a word. When it was his turn to speak, he would chuckle twice.
The captain declined a couple of times before accepting, and he did indeed process the orders very quickly today.
He did notice a stack of papers in the basket, but didn't pay much attention. It was pitch black, and most people suffer from severe night blindness these days, so he couldn't see it clearly and assumed it was just to prevent the eggshells from breaking.
Eggs are precious, so it's normal to protect them.
As Wang Jinbu walked with her younger sister, she realized something was wrong; this wasn't the way home.
"Sis, where are we going?"
"Go to the widow's house."
She's been passively retaliating for so long, even though she's new here and too weak because of the drastic changes in the world.
If we don't teach them a lesson, they'll really think she's a pushover.
Not long after her husband died, widow Feng Shuiyun moved to a corner of the village.
Later, Wang Datong moved into her house. Although a man came to live there, her reputation plummeted, and she continued to live there in two lonely bungalows.
Ultimately, it was the lure of profit that drove people; the job at the sugar factory was simply too tempting.
Selling the property can earn two jobs in town, one for each of the two sons, and this way, even if the daughter has a rural household registration, she can still marry into the town.
With her children all taken care of, she could say she had done right by the dead man who had been buried long ago.
After thinking it over, Feng Shuiyun realized that Wang Shuitao didn't have much affection for her father anymore, but she definitely cared about her mother, who lived and ate with her. Feng Shuiyun knew how to manipulate her mother very well.
They've been holding this in check for over a decade now.
After letting the three children go back to their rooms to sleep and locking her daughter's bedroom door, Feng Shuiyun called out to Brother Wang affectionately and chattered with him about how to talk to his wife when she brought him food the next day.
Wang Shuitao and her brother waited outside, watching their father and another woman's shadows projected onto the translucent curtains, their intimate embrace resembling that of one person.
It took another half hour until the light was blown out.
The basket contained glue and leftover paper from my school days; a layer of glue had already solidified on top of the glue.
Wang Shuitao picked them apart, stirred them with a small wooden stick she picked up, and then drew a small circle in the middle of each sheet of paper.
They then handed the prepared paper to the brother, and the two of them quietly covered the widow's door with the paper.
I went home to sleep.
The next day, the widow got up early and opened the door, her shrill screams almost piercing the entire village.
The three children and their father rushed out to see what was happening. The door was covered with papers, crooked and some even upside down, each with three large characters written on it:
Adulterer.
The Wang family was also eating. Qian Liju was about to take her bowl out again when Wang Shuitao glanced at her, slurped up a mouthful of mixed grain porridge, and said, "If you dare to go out, I'll break the lock and replace it."
Qian Liju stood frozen at the door, thinking that her daughter would soon have a salary and would actually have the money to change the locks. She returned home dejectedly and sat down at home to eat, something she hadn't done in a long time.
“Every time I go to the county town, I will ask my sister-in-law if she sent food there,” Wang Shuitao continued.
Qian Liju didn't say anything, but rolled up her sleeves, lowered her head, and secretly wiped away her tears.
She felt terrible that her daughter was bullying her so much right after she found a job.
The thought that her husband, son, and daughter were not on her side made her unable to hold back her tears.
Wang Shuitao didn't pity her. If she hadn't acted decisively and gone to the county town to complete the formalities yesterday, the job would indeed have fallen into her mother's hands according to the plot.
At first, she held back and didn't give it away as easily as food. But after Wang Datong came home and stayed for two days, Qian Lijuan softened.
Fortunately, after inquiring about the relationship between the replacement personnel and Wang Datong, the sugar factory explicitly rejected the idea of changing the replacement personnel.
He then called the military base, forcing Wang Jinbu to rush back after just returning to his unit.
The parents and widow, unable to achieve their wish, caused a scene at the sugar factory.
Unfortunately, Wang Jinbu remained silent and even took sides between the genuinely helpful outsiders and her parents who were hindering her.
In the end, after negotiations, the job ended up in the younger sister's hands. However, by then the factory leaders were already very unhappy, feeling that the entire Wang family were all birds of a feather.
Leaving aside the troublemakers, Wang Jinbu also accepted the benefits he received from tipping him off, while also helping his parents.
Wang Shuitao remembers that in the drama, her younger sister became a sugar-boiling worker, the largest group of workers in the sugar factory, who had to be baked in high temperatures every day.
Unlike now, she was assigned to be a sugarcane buyer.
They didn't live in family dormitories but in single dormitories with four people, which were actually the best single dormitories available.
Moreover, in the drama, the younger sister's monthly salary of 25 yuan was used to give 15 yuan to her family, which was actually a subsidy for the widow's family of four.
Stopping thinking about the changed plot, Wang Shuitao packed her things—not much: a thin quilt, two sets of clothes, and a small pot that could be used for cooking and cooking.
He didn't need Wang Jinbu to see him off; he carried a small package and went to the county town himself.
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