“Wasn’t I dancing in the square with three old ladies?”
“W-where is this?”
Zhang Wei rubbed his dizzy, throbbing head and looked around.
He was covered with a red-and-white peony-patterned quilt, old and yellowed, with threads coming loose.
The rough, peeling wall revealed the yellow mud underneath.
On top of an old vermilion cabinet stood two chipped magpies with their paint worn away.
The dark brown roof tiles were covered with clusters of gray cobwebs that looked like cotton candy.
A hemp rope hung from the roof beam, and a woman was hanging from the end of it.
Her feet swayed slightly, while an overturned wooden stool lay beneath her.
“Does China still have places this backward?”
“Why is there a woman hanging from the roof beam?”
“A person?”
“Gasp~”
A chill caught in Zhang Wei’s throat, and goosebumps immediately covered his body.
Suppressing his fear, Zhang Wei widened his eyes and stared at the woman hanging from the beam.
Although her face was bluish and her eyes were rolled back, Zhang Wei recognized her at once.
Th-this isn’t my first wife, Li Hui?
Long-forgotten memories suddenly came flooding back.
“Me?
I’ve been reborn?
I’ve returned to the day Li Hui hanged herself?
1977?”
Just thinking about it made Zhang Wei angry.
He had spent two hundred yuan marrying this woman, and before he had even gotten to enjoy his new wife, she was already gone.
“Wait, her feet are still swaying, and there’s no wind in the room.”
“She must have only been hanging for a short while. Maybe she can still be saved.”
“Right, save her! Save her! I can’t let my two hundred yuan go to waste.”
Using what strength he had, Zhang Wei took Li Hui down from the beam.
He put his finger beneath her nose.
The bad news was that she wasn’t breathing.
The good news was that her body was still warm.
“While she’s still warm?
Should I get a little something back in interest?”
“Bah~”
“What the hell am I thinking?”
“Maybe I should try artificial respiration?”
“Haha!
As expected of a young body. I’ve got strength to spare~
Almost forgot. I’ve been too focused on chest compressions. Breathe into her, breathe!”
After blowing several breaths into her mouth, Zhang Wei continued with chest compressions.
Li Hui, who had died with her eyes open, suddenly moved her eyes and regained consciousness.
She saw a man frantically pressing both hands against her chest.
Seeing the man’s crazed appearance, Li Hui felt a chill run through her heart.
“You beast! You beast!
I-I’m already dead, and he’s still doing this to my body…”
Before she could finish cursing him in her mind, the beast Zhang Wei moved his mouth toward her again.
As she watched that disgusting, gaping mouth draw closer and closer, the light disappeared from Li Hui’s eyes.
“Just as I thought. I, Li Hui, really did marry a beast…”
Zhang Wei’s lips ultimately did not touch hers.
“Why are you staring at me?
You’re awake, so why didn’t you say anything?
Oh!
I forgot. You’re mute.
I really don’t know what my uncle was thinking, spending two hundred yuan to bring home a mute wife for me.
Why are you looking at me like that?”
As a local ne’er-do-well, Zhang Wei was very familiar with the look in Li Hui’s eyes.
It was the look of a woman despising a pervert and a scumbag.
“Heh!
You think I was trying to do something to you?”
“Haha!
That’s right. I just wanted to take advantage of the situation while you were still warm. Who told you to be so pretty? Hahaha~”
Looking at Zhang Wei’s sinister grin so close to her face and listening to his demonic whisper, Li Hui felt her entire body tremble.
She wished she could leave this world immediately.
Zhang Wei grabbed Li Hui by the chin as his demonic whisper continued.
“Two hundred yuan!
That’s two hundred yuan! Even if you threw it into the water, you’d at least hear a splash~
Li Hui, if you still want to hang yourself again, I won’t stop you.
But I can’t let my two hundred yuan go to waste.
If you’re gone, then let your younger sister come and pay off the debt.
Do you really think the Zhang family is easy to bully?
Don’t forget, my uncle is the production brigade leader.
If you make me, Zhang Wei, unhappy, I have plenty of ways to deal with your family.”
Li Hui couldn’t speak. She simply pressed her lips tightly together, biting them until she tasted blood without even realizing it.
Seeing Li Hui close her eyes as if she had accepted her fate, Zhang Wei finally breathed a sigh of relief.
If Li Hui really intended to die, his two hundred yuan would truly have gone to waste.
His uncle was indeed the brigade leader, but according to rural customs, the dead were treated with the utmost respect.
“What are you standing there for?
Go cook. You’re mute, not deaf.”
Zhang Wei lightly kicked Li Hui, sending her off to cook. Only then did he have time to sort out his thoughts.
It was now 1977, and Zhang Wei was nineteen years old.
His parents had been buried in a landslide two years earlier, leaving him as the only child in the family.
Fortunately, his uncle was the leader of the production brigade and had never had a son.
So Zhang Wei didn’t have to worry about going hungry.
But that was all—just enough to eat and survive.
What if he wanted better cigarettes, a little alcohol, or some money to gamble with?
After being reborn, was he really going to spend his days working in the fields just to earn work points?
This marriage had been arranged by his uncle, who wanted to secure an heir for the Zhang family as soon as possible.
Zhang Wei originally didn’t want to get married, but when he heard that the bride’s family would receive two hundred yuan in bride price, he got an idea.
He had planned to get his hands on the bride-price money and use it to gamble, hoping to make some easy money.
What infuriated Zhang Wei was that the bride price never even passed through his hands—it went directly to his father-in-law.
Yesterday, his father-in-law and mother-in-law had brought Li Hui over. At the dinner table, Zhang Wei had loudly demanded that the marriage be canceled and the two hundred yuan bride price returned.
His father-in-law refused, so Zhang Wei showed the older couple a taste of his fists and kicks. He beat them so badly that they almost agreed to return the bride price.
Unfortunately, Li Hui panicked and struck Zhang Wei over the head with a club, ruining his plan.
Thinking Zhang Wei was dead, Li Hui then hung herself from the roof beam, intending to exchange her life for his.
After going over everything in his mind, Zhang Wei immediately made up his mind.
First, he couldn’t let the two hundred yuan go to waste. He would make Li Hui work in the fields to earn work points and support the household.
Second, naturally, he needed to get some money from his uncle to spend…
“Ah-ba~”
“Ah-ba~”
Li Hui gestured toward her mouth, mimicking the act of eating, then pointed toward the main room outside.
On the dining table in the main room were four boiled sweet potatoes and a small dish of pickled vegetables.
There was also a small coarse porcelain bowl filled with watery rice porridge so thin that one could almost see their reflection in it.
Zhang Wei was furious and immediately cursed.
“You—you’re raising fish or something?
Useless! You can’t even cook porridge properly…”
He grabbed Li Hui and dragged her over to the rice jar.
“Come here!
Look carefully. My rice jar is full. It’s full.
Do I look like someone who can’t afford food?”
Zhang Wei was about to continue cursing when his expression suddenly changed. Then he let out a strange, almost hysterical laugh.
“Hahahaha~”
Terrified, Li Hui stumbled backward several steps until her back hit the wall, yet her hands and feet continued to tremble uncontrollably.
“Go, go, go! What are you still doing here?
Eat all that pig feed on the table yourself.
If you waste even a single grain of my food, I’ll beat you to death…”
Zhang Wei grabbed Li Hui by the collar, kicked her plate, and sent her stumbling out of the storage room.
“Haha!
I, Zhang Wei, actually got a cheat ability…”
“Holy crap!
If I’d known I was going to get a cheat ability, I shouldn’t have saved that mute woman.
With a cheat ability, what kind of woman couldn’t I marry?
Or should I hang the mute woman back on the beam before anyone notices?”