The wedding was held in grand style, inviting almost everyone in the compound who knew them.
Old man Li, who had been stingy all his life, put a gold necklace around Qin Xiangru’s neck.
Their third son, Li Baohai, beamed and raised his glass: “Aunt Qin, you and my dad have endured so many years together, and finally, true love prevails. Today, I wish you both a lifetime of happiness, growing old together.”
Liu Meiling felt a surge of anger. True love prevails?
If it weren’t for Old Li stubbornly pursuing her back then…
She would never have married some penniless nobody!
Rage overtook her reason. Like a madwoman, she stormed through the third son’s body, slapping his face again and again.
Even though she was merely passing through him, she wouldn’t stop.
Li Baohai shivered.
Beside him, Li Baoqing teased, “Third brother, why still call her Aunt Qin? It’s time to call her Mom!”
Liu Meiling watched helplessly as the children she had painstakingly raised accepted another woman as their mother. Her heart felt like it was tearing apart.
Her whole life had been utterly wasted, fifty years thrown away!
She should have been the kind of woman who, when Old Li refused to give her any of the family fortune, just walked away and let the kids starve!
The joyful scenes of the wedding stabbed her heart like knives.
At that moment, the usually quiet second son spilled his wine on the ground: “My mom has been dead less than a month. Aunt Qin, I won’t wish you happiness.”
He cast a cold glance at the eldest and third sons and stormed off.
Second son…
Tears streamed down Liu Meiling’s face.
She looked at her second son’s lame leg and regretted everything.
Her second son!
How could she have heartlessly given him up for a bunch of ungrateful brats?
Feeling like her heart had turned to ashes, she seemed to see her twelve-year-old daughter from the past, showing her eight broken teeth: “Mom, don’t cry. I’ll come for you.”
“Bao Mei… my Bao Mei… Mom has failed you! Mom didn’t protect you!”
…
1983
Unit 08, Huaxin Workers’ Compound.
“Mom, mom, what’s with you? I’m talking to you! Hongmei said the bride price must be 888 yuan for luck, plus a bicycle. When we get married, you must give me the biggest room on the east side…”
“Why should I give it to you? Everyone knows that room is the best. I’ll be getting married in a few years too!”
“Yes, Mom, you can’t be biased!”
Liu Meiling snapped back to reality amidst the nagging.
She looked closely and saw Li Baoguo in front of her, dressed in a dark blue Zhongshan suit, half-sitting on the edge of the kang, holding the drawstring of his pants.
“Mom, talk! Hongmei said if you don’t agree, she won’t marry me!”
It was October 3, 1983—the day her eldest son, Li Baoguo, was pressing her for the bride price.
Also the day Old Li forced her to give her job to a cousin from the countryside.
She would never forget it.
Seeing her three sons and Old Li’s faces as they appeared younger, Liu Meiling didn’t hesitate. With one huge slap, she hit Li Baoguo squarely in the face.
“Ah! Mom, why are you hitting me! Have you gone mad?!” he screamed.
The third son shrank into the corner, too scared to make a sound.
If Mom hit the eldest, maybe she’d give him a few slaps next.
“I’m hitting you because you’re greedy! 888 for bride price, a bicycle, the east room… You unfilial little brat! Why didn’t you try to starve your own mother?”
She hit the eldest son’s other cheek.
Li Baoguo covered his face with his hands and tumbled off the kang, looking comically miserable.
“Mom, it’s just 800-some yuan! How does that mean you should hit me?”
He was frustrated.
His dad, a level-two worker at the steel plant, earned over 80 yuan a month, among the highest in the compound.
His mother, a level-two worker at the textile factory, earned 56.3 yuan. Together, their monthly income barely reached 130 yuan. How could they not scrape together 800 yuan in ten years…?
“It’s just over 800? Why don’t you ask your dad for it! Ever since the year after I had you, he never gave me a cent! For over a decade, I scrimped and saved, and you just ask for 888! Why don’t you just eat your mother!”
Liu Meiling unleashed the secrets Old Li had hidden all his life.
In her previous life, she had been foolish, always believing family harmony was everything.
She never wanted the children to resent their father. But after a lifetime of enduring and carrying everything herself, her children had died, leaving her to waste away.
Old Li, who had never cared for the children, received all their filial piety after her death.
A fire surged in Liu Meiling’s chest. She jumped off the kang, grabbed a shoe, and struck her eldest several times.
She realized that the eldest son didn’t resemble any of them—he was Qin Xiangru’s child.
No wonder nothing she did for him worked.
Old Li, smoking his dry tobacco, froze in anger: “What nonsense are you telling the children!”
Liu Meiling spun and struck Old Li three times with her shoe: “You didn’t hit the kids, but you deserve it! You old miser, taking nothing from home and acting like a lord, puffing on your dry tobacco—you’re worthy?”
She also slapped the third son in passing.
The Li family was stunned, silently ducking for cover.
“You’re insane!” Old Li shouted, but Liu Meiling was unstoppable. A few strikes left his face bruised and swollen.
“Insane? Yes, I’m insane!”
She had spent her whole life keeping family secrets, swallowing bitterness, only for her children to die in misery.
What good were all these ungrateful children?
With a sneer, she opened the main gate.
At that moment, workers from the steel plant were finishing their shift.
She shouted, messing her hair and collar, and lunged toward the gate.
“Li Mingliang, you’re not human! Over ten years, no household allowance, and you forced me to give my job to your rural cousin! I won’t live like this anymore!”
Her scream drew the attention of everyone in the compound, cooking, washing, and returning from work.
“Meiling, what’s wrong? Get up!”
Neighbor Wu Chunhua, also a textile factory worker, hurried over to stop her.
“Why don’t you talk calmly? First, get up!”
Tears and snot streaming, Liu Meiling cried, “Li Mingliang isn’t human! Since the year after I had my eldest, he never gave me household allowance—not a cent! Now my eldest wants to get engaged, and the bride price is 888! For over a decade, I’ve been scrimping and saving. How could I have any savings to marry him off? I told Old Li to give it, but he refused, saying the money was gone, forcing me to hand my job to his rural cousin! Without this job, how will I survive? My second and third sons, Bao Mei, are still in school!”
Li Mingliang’s (Old Li’s) mind went blank, his face red and hot.