Nanhu City, Shanghu Township, Beiquan Production Brigade.
"Father, what are we going to do now?" Shi Cuixia's face was etched with worry. She felt suffocated by her troubles, and above all, consumed by guilt.
During the height of the "purification of class ranks" campaign years ago, in order to protect the whole family, she had married her eldest daughter off to Li Baoqing, the idle and good-for-nothing son of the brigade captain's family. It was she who had personally pushed the "flesh and blood" she had borne into the fire pit.
Li Baoqing spent his days stirring up trouble and chasing after women, carrying on ambiguous affairs with several young widows in the surrounding villages. If not for his father being the brigade captain, he would have long since eaten "peanuts" — a bullet.
She had originally thought that once her eldest daughter gave the Li family a grandson, she could stand tall again and smooth things over.
Who could have imagined that before long, Li Baoqing developed a drinking problem. On top of that, his damned mother stirred up trouble from the sidelines, and he would beat and kick her eldest daughter at the slightest provocation. There was hardly a patch of unbruised flesh left on her body. If things continued like this, they would surely be burying their child before their own time.
"Bring her back. The policies have changed. As her father, I've failed my eldest daughter. I can't just watch her wither away alive." Lu Changgui stood up and made for the door.
Shi Cuixia grew anxious and hurried over to pull him back. "Even if the policies have changed, that's still the captain's family. Life in the village will only get harder for us from now on. And what about our second child's marriage? Will the Liu family agree to let their daughter marry into a household where there's already a divorced sister-in-law? Our third child graduates from high school next year — she takes after me, not much of a student — and she'll need to be matched for marriage after graduation. Given our family's situation now, if she also has a divorced older sister, no decent family will want her."
"Mother, if the Liu family can't accept my sister, then let the engagement fall through. That'll save us the betrothal gift money they're demanding, and we can use it to fix up the house. If Baoxi can't find a good match in the future, I've got strength — I'll work harder and make sure she never goes hungry. Let's bring eldest sister home. These past few years, she's been tormented until she barely looks human anymore."
Lu Baohua's eyes were red-rimmed, his fists clenched so tightly that the veins on his arms bulged.
When his eldest sister had married, he was studying in town. He'd been young then and had actually felt proud that his sister married into the captain's family.
Later, when he learned how badly his sister was suffering, he'd made a scene at home several times demanding to bring her back. When his mother saw she could no longer hold him back, she told him the truth: his grandparents weren't actually dead, and he had a biological aunt who had taken a boat to America before liberation.
That was a death sentence — overseas connections. And a family that could afford boat tickets abroad before liberation — were they simple folk?
They were landlords, capitalist roaders. If anyone reported them, the fate of his entire family didn't bear thinking about.
He had seen people paraded through the streets during struggle sessions in town. He was afraid, so he backed down.
But now the policies had changed. The city was even building hotels for foreign guests, and just recently there had been reports of overseas Chinese returning to visit relatives. He had to bring his eldest sister home, or he wouldn't be worth the name of a man.
As for the Liu family, he would kneel and beg if he had to. If they truly wouldn't agree to the marriage because his sister came back, then he simply wouldn't marry. His eldest sister had sacrificed herself for the family — as a man, he could do the same.
Shi Cuixia gritted her teeth, a fierce resolve hardening in her heart. However bad life got, it couldn't get much worse. She couldn't sacrifice her eldest daughter's life just to get by.
"Then let's go to the Li family and demand her back."
The Li family naturally refused to let her go at first. But now that the policies had changed, using "overseas connections" as leverage no longer worked.
Shi Cuixia had been holding this in for years. She threw all caution to the wind and spilled everything about the two families.
"Wang Siniu, you shameless old poison. Today we either both go down together or we don't. Captain Li, do you know why Wang Siniu has been tormenting my Baozhen so cruelly? Because back then, she stripped naked and stood in front of Baozhen's father, and still couldn't seduce him!"
"You're lying! Shi Cuixia, how dare you sling mud at me! I'll tear your mouth apart!"
Wang Siniu's face went deathly pale, her eyes burning with venom. How dare she — how dare she say such things! Wasn't she afraid — afraid that her whole family would be subjected to the half-shaved head and sent to the labor farm for struggle sessions because of their "overseas connections"?
Before Wang Siniu could lunge at her, Lu Baohua stepped forward and shoved her to the ground. Toward this old poison who had nearly tormented his eldest sister to death, he felt not a shred of hesitation about raising his hand against an elder.
"Li Zhuzi, you're the captain of our Beiquan Brigade. Your family may not know the policies have changed, but you should. You're the brigade captain — a leader of sorts. If word of how you used my family's 'overseas connections' as leverage to force my Lu family to marry our daughter to your good-for-nothing son reaches the commune, it won't just be a matter of losing face. Your position as captain will be finished. I never laid a finger on Wang Siniu back then. Today, I just want to take my daughter home. Do you agree or not?"
Lu Changgui's words were essentially an admission that Wang Siniu had indeed seduced him back then.
Li Zhuzi's face turned ashen. Now he understood why the Lu family had agreed so readily to marry their daughter to his son. Wang Siniu, you're something else!
He, Li Zhuzi, the dignified captain of the Beiquan Production Brigade, had been wearing the green hat of a cuckold all these years. He was a man—didn't he know how men thought? A woman who'd stripped bare and thrown herself at a man—how could he not have touched her!
Why pass up something free for the taking?
Li Zhuzi slammed the table hard. His lips trembled slightly from the sheer rage he was barely containing. "Your Lu family's daughter—our old Li family, eight generations of poor peasants, can't afford her! Let's go, straight to the brigade office. I'll write the release certificate myself!"
"Father, father—it's all nonsense! I never did anything to wrong you!"
The commotion nearly tore the Li family apart too. No—it already had, in a sense. But Li Zhuzi was past fifty, already a grandfather; divorce with Wang Siniu was out of the question. Besides, as captain of the Beiquan Production Brigade, if he filed for divorce, the commune leaders would certainly ask questions. And what would he say—that he'd been cuckolded?
Li Baoqing was a good-for-nothing, but he still had an eldest son studying at the Workers' and Peasants' University with a bright future ahead. He couldn't let that son carry the shame of having such a mother.
Everyone in the village knew what kind of person Li Baoqing was, but in these times, people preferred to pin the blame on the woman. Naturally, the Lu family became the talk of the town—the favorite topic of gossip over tea in the Beiquan Production Brigade.
"If you ask me, it's Lu Baozhen who didn't know how to keep her man in line. And with that face of hers, she doesn't look like the settling-down type. If I were the captain's daughter-in-law, I'd keep a tight leash on him too."
"Exactly. And that old Lu family—are they out of their minds? Their son's engagement is right around the corner. Will the Liu family still go along with it? This marriage is probably going to fall through."
"And their youngest daughter—I used to think she was decent-looking, sweet-talking too. I was thinking of introducing her to my nephew on my mother's side. Not anymore. With a divorced sister in the house, if I brought that up back home, my sister-in-law would beat me out the door."
"Mark my words, the Lu family's days of good living are over. They've offended the captain's family."
"Aiyo, all of you—show some mercy with your tongues. The Lus took Baozhen back and sent her straight to the clinic in town. I heard she nearly got beaten to death."
"That serious? No wonder we haven't seen anyone from the Lu family these past couple days. I figured they were just too ashamed to show their faces."
"If someone really got beaten half to death, then… what for? Don't tell me it was—"
"Don't go spreading wild talk. Baozhen's a girl we watched grow up—she's always been proper. I heard from Auntie Lin that two nights ago, the captain's wife was wailing half the night. She probably got a beating herself. She hasn't left the house these past two days either."
Shanghu Town, Liujia Kiln Production Brigade, the Liu household.
"Mother, the fact that Baohua's family took his sister back shows they value their daughters. What's wrong with that? And with my temperament, do you think I'd let myself be bullied by a divorced sister-in-law?"
Liu Jinfeng couldn't have cared less. Was there any man in these parts who could match Lu Baohua's looks? Forget the town—you wouldn't find a man as handsome as Lu Baohua even in the city.
And he was good to her too. Every time Lu Baohua looked at her, that look couldn't be faked—it was the look of a man who adored her, who couldn't bear to be apart from her.
As for having a divorced sister-in-law in the house—sure, the reputation wasn't great, but life wasn't lived for outsiders to judge.
It wasn't that she, Liu Jinfeng, looked down on Lu Baozhen. If Baozhen had any spine at all, she wouldn't have been ground down like that. But a soft temperament was a good thing, wasn't it? After she married into the Lu family, having an extra pair of hands to help was nothing but a plus. It was just one more pair of chopsticks and a bowl.
Besides, if Lu Baozhen ever dared to throw her weight around as the senior sister-in-law, Liu Jinfeng wasn't afraid of a fight.
"No. I won't agree. I never liked the Lu family's circumstances to begin with, and now with a divorced sister-in-law in the house, you'd walk out that door with your head hung low. People's spit would drown you. This time I won't let you have your way. Jinfeng, your mother wouldn't steer you wrong. I've been through it—a husband's sister is like a second mother-in-law. You walk through that door and you'll have three mothers-in-law breathing down your neck. How could life be good under that? It's precisely because the Lu family values their daughters that I'm worried."
"I don't care. I… I've already slept with Baohua."
As Liu Jinfeng spoke, her face flushed bright red. She was making it up, but she was still an unmarried girl, so the shame of it was real enough.
The moment Liu's mother heard this, her whole body swayed—she nearly lost her footing. She slapped her thigh. "Aiyo, you little ancestor! You're a debt collector! How could you, how could you do such a thing! You'll regret this one day!"
With that, she did something she'd never done before—she raised her hand and pounded Liu Jinfeng a few times.
She regretted it—she never should have spoiled her daughter so much. Now she had no choice but to grit her teeth and accept it.
"If your father finds out about this, he'll break your legs."
Liu Jinfeng rubbed her arm. Her mother had quite the grip. If she hadn't dodged quickly, it would definitely be swollen by now.
"If you don't tell him, he won't know either. Alright, Mother, it must be Sister-in-law and Second Sister-in-law who've been whispering in your ear. They just can't stand to see me live well. Father hasn't said a word, which means he agrees. I'm your own daughter—how could I end up badly?"
Mother Liu sighed. The rice was already cooked; what else could she do?
As soon as Liu Jinfeng stepped out the door, she stormed off to settle scores with her eldest and second sisters-in-law. They claimed they were looking out for her, but really, weren't they just trying to get her to fetch a higher bride price so they could split the money? Dream on. No matter who she married, she wouldn't leave a single cent of that bride price at home for them to enjoy.
Father Liu and the two Liu brothers returned from the fields to find the house in an uproar. Father Liu furrowed his brow. "What's all this racket now? Shameful. If Jinfeng is set on marrying, then let her marry. Her future is hers to make."
"Father, we sisters-in-law are only thinking of Jinfeng's good."
Father Liu waved his hand impatiently and went to the courtyard to draw water and wash his hands. He knew exactly what his two daughters-in-law were scheming. As for the Lu family taking back their divorced eldest daughter, he didn't see much harm in it. If Jinfeng ever ended up mistreated in the Lu household, he certainly wouldn't stand by and watch.