Yan Ruizhi’s eldest sister-in-law was called Li Guiqin, and she had married Yan Ruizhi’s eldest brother Yan Ruilin two years ago. Li Guiqin had given birth half a year back. It was the busy farming season now, so even though it rained during the day, Yan Ruizhi’s eldest brother and sister-in-law and her younger brother and sister were all out working.
Li Guiqin’s hair was soaking wet. She came in, first scraped the thick mud off her shoes, and asked Huo Shufen urgently.
Huo Shufen’s face was dark. “You heard about it while you were working up on the hill?”
“It’s all over the place, Mom. Ruizhi was nearly hit by a truck yesterday, so how did it come out as her carrying on with someone?”
Huo Shufen turned and started cursing straight out into the courtyard. “Every one of them, mouths running with pus and rot, upper lip knocking against the lower lip, jabbering nonsense all day long. Every one of you, did you see it with your own eyes or what? Watch out, one day you’ll all go down to the hell of tongue-pulling [1]hell of tongue-pulling (ba she diyu, 拔舌地獄) Idiom, a hell reserved for liars and gossips, where their tongues are ripped out jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3247429_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3247429_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); and die badly…”
Once she had let it all out, Yan Ruizhi stepped up and called to her softly, “Mom, plenty of people in the village saw what happened yesterday too. It isn’t just whatever they choose to say.”
Besides… Yan Ruizhi looked out into the pitch-black rainy night. Zhou Ze’an wanted to step on her reputation to harvest his love. How could she agree to that?
Even though it was the era of reform and opening up now, out in the countryside a girl’s reputation was still very important. If word got out that some family’s daughter was not proper, not only would the girl herself be pointed at, even her family would be looked down on.
“Ruizhi, you shouldn’t have agreed to break the engagement with Zhou Ze’an. Haven’t you heard what the villagers say? Their family is probably a ten-thousand-yuan household [2]ten-thousand-yuan household (wan yuan hu, 萬元戶) Slang, 1980s term for a family whose yearly income topped ten thousand yuan, marking them as newly rich jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3247429_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3247429_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });! Miss out on Zhou Ze’an, and with the name of a broken engagement on your back, where are you going to find a family that good?”
Her eldest sister-in-law Li Guiqin went inside and changed into a clean pair of cloth shoes, then had Yan Ruilin fetch her a cloth. Drying her hair, she said, “Besides, about breaking the engagement, is the bride price going back or not?”
The moment Li Guiqin said this the house went quiet. Yan Ruizhi knew perfectly well that the bride price money from her engagement had gone to her eldest brother’s wedding. Now there was this whole household, and it had only been two or three years since the land was contracted out to households. Every year the family had to hand over public grain and pay retention fees, and the bit of rice left over always had to be mixed with more than half corn grits just to barely feed the old and young of the family. If they had to return the money now, six hundred and some yuan of bride price, how could the family possibly produce it?
Yan Zhengguo sighed and could not help taking out his homegrown tobacco again, lighting it and smoking. “That’s exactly what that boy Zhou Ze’an said today. I was just saying to your mother that when you got back we would all talk it over, this six hundred and some yuan of bride price, how are we going to scrape it together?”
Li Guiqin heard that and got anxious at once. “Dad, where is our family going to scrape together six hundred and some yuan? The Zhou family wants to break the engagement themselves, so what does it have to do with us? We just won’t hand over the money. Let’s see what they can do about it!”
Huo Shufen’s face was grim. “Ruizhi has already agreed to break the engagement, so this bride price money… it certainly has to go back. Everyone think of something!”
Huo Shufen had not put it that bluntly, but the family all understood. Since the money had been spent by their eldest son and his wife, then now that it had to be returned, those two would have to be the ones to think of something.
Li Guiqin heard that and immediately turned her head to Yan Ruizhi. “Ruizhi, how could you agree so easily? And return the bride price too? Zhou Ze’an is the one who wants to break the engagement. We just refuse, flat out, and see what they can do about it!”
Looking at Li Guiqin’s eyes, slightly red from her agitation, Yan Ruizhi could not help a flush of guilt on her face. She knew the family had no money, but in this life she did not want the slightest tie left to Zhou Ze’an!
Yan Ruizhi’s eyes went around every person in the family and finally settled on her mother Huo Shufen. “Mom, about the bride price money… I’ll think of something. I need to go out for a bit right now.”
Huo Shufen got anxious the moment she heard that. “You’ll think of something? You’re a girl, and it’s several hundred yuan, not several yuan. What can you think of? Good child, Zhou Ze’an doing this means he’s surely prepared to make an open break. Don’t worry, your dad and I will think of something for you!”
With that Huo Shufen turned to Li Guiqin and her son Yan Ruilin. “Eldest, eldest’s wife, Ruizhi’s bride price money was used for your wedding back then. Now that it’s come to this, how about you two…”
“Ruizhi, Ze’an’s family is one of the two richest households in our village. He’s good-looking too, and his family has money. Everyone in the village says they’re a ten-thousand-yuan household. He comes and says he wants to break the engagement, and you’re really willing to break it?”
Looking at her sister-in-law’s urgent manner, Yan Ruizhi sighed quietly to herself.
Her eldest brother Yan Ruilin tugged Li Guiqin’s sleeve. Li Guiqin shook off his hand and went on, “Ruizhi, you and Ze’an grew up together. Go and beg him properly. It’s several hundred yuan, and your younger brother and sister are still in school. Where would we get that much money?”
Yan Ruilin cursed Li Guiqin under his breath. He looked at Yan Ruizhi. “Ruizhi, don’t worry. About the money, your brother will think of something!”
Li Guiqin hurried to pinch the flesh at Yan Ruilin’s waist, but Yan Ruilin did not move. He kept his eyes fixed on Yan Ruizhi’s. “Ruizhi, your sister-in-law is blunt. Don’t listen to her. Don’t worry, I’ll find a way to get this money!”
Yan Ruizhi’s nose stung. In her last life she had hanged herself, threatening to die, and Zhou Ze’an and the Zhou family had not asked after her at all. It was her eldest brother who stood in the Zhou family’s courtyard with a firewood knife, and only then did the Zhou family agree to let her in.
“Big Brother, I’ll find a way with this!” At first Yan Ruizhi had meant to settle things with Zhou Ze’an once and for all, but she had not expected that Zhou Ze’an would want to break the engagement and grind her reputation into the ground as well. “Mom, I’m going to the village head’s house!”
Huo Shufen was startled. “What are you going to the village head’s house for?”
Yan Ruizhi swept a glance over her family and said to Huo Shufen, “Mom, go and call some people over to the village head’s house for me.”
Huo Shufen was full of questions but did not press. Once Yan Ruizhi finished speaking, she went out. Yan Ruizhi tidied herself up a little and went out as well.
Once they had gone, Li Guiqin gave Yan Ruilin’s clothes a hard tug. “You agreed just like that. Does the family have money? Do we have money? Isn’t Mom’s meaning obvious enough? She wants us to pay it. I’m asking you, how are we going to pay? It’s several hundred yuan, how?”
“They’ve come to the door to break the engagement. What do you want? For Ruizhi to swallow her pride and crawl over to them?”
Yan Ruizhi left the sound of her brother and sister-in-law’s quarrel behind her. The village paths were wet and slippery, but she paid no attention to the mud on her feet or the dirt all over her trouser legs. When she reached the village head’s house, she laid the matter out in a few sentences, and stressed that Zhou Ze’an was the one who had come to their house saying he wanted to break the engagement, yet now the whole village was talking about her being cast off. For this, she needed the Zhou family to give her an explanation.
The village head was about to try to talk her round when Zhou Ze’an and his family all arrived, and after them several of the village’s senior elders came in one after another.
Once everyone had sat down, Yan Ruizhi came straight to the point with Zhou Ze’an. “Zhou Ze’an, you came in a rush today to break the engagement, and I agreed on the spot. I also agreed to return the bride price from the engagement. But the moment you turned around, your family went shouting all over the village that you had cast me off. You owe me an explanation for that!”
Zhou Ze’an instinctively looked at his mother beside him. Yan Ruizhi understood at once. She stared at Zhou Ze’an. “I got engaged to you at eighteen, and back then it was you, Zhou Ze’an, who sent a matchmaker and went through the proper steps. Now you want to break the engagement. I thought of the years we grew up together, and that even if we couldn’t be husband and wife, we would still be running into each other from now on, so it needn’t have come to this! You want to break the engagement, fine, but you shouldn’t grind my reputation into the mud!”
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