In 1970, right in the middle of a famine!
Old man Gao spent fifty yuan to buy himself a little bride. After placing the tightly bound young girl on the east kang (heated brick bed), he sat heavily on the threshold of his courtyard gate, puffing on his dry tobacco pipe one puff after another!
Just when he thought he would never have the chance to taste a woman in this lifetime—right when he was about to finally experience that feminine fragrance—trouble struck!
Not long ago, a widow in the village whose husband had passed away showed some interest in him. The two of them had grown hot as dry tinder meeting fire and embraced right out in the fields, only to find out after struggling for a long time that he wasn’t capable down there!
At that time, the widow put her clothes back on piece by piece. Before leaving, she even spat at him and cursed him as a useless piece of trash!
Thinking of this, he gnashed his teeth in anger. Then, reaching into his trouser pocket, he pulled out a packet of medicine used for breeding cattle. Without a single moment of hesitation, he dumped the entire packet of white powder into the enamel mug beside him.
The powder dissolved instantly. His aged, trembling hand picked up the enamel bowl…
Right at that moment, he heard footsteps approaching, until he saw a stranger walk into his courtyard. The man was extremely tall with sharp, rugged facial features—he looked like a city man at a single glance!
The stranger was wearing a full military uniform, with something tucked at his waist. Old man Gao’s white beard even began to tremble with fright.
The bride he bought with money shouldn’t be illegal, right? He didn’t snatch or steal her; she cost him the savings of half a lifetime!
Chu Yanhan smiled and spoke first, “Uncle, don’t be scared. I’m just passing through and wanted to ask you for a drink of water. Is that alright?”
So he was just a passerby looking for water!
Only then did the heart that old man Gao had just brought to his throat settle down a bit. Eager to keep the man from lingering at his house, he hurried back inside to grab an enamel mug. “Comrade, my place is a bit of a mess. Go ahead and drink up so you can be on your way…”
Chu Yanhan had been walking all day and was truly parched. Seeing a mug of water sitting right where old man Gao had just been sitting, he picked it up and drank it all down!
Old man Gao came out of the house holding another enamel mug, only to watch the man gulp down the entire cup of water laced with cattle breeding medicine!
He panicked. He had purposely gone to the commune’s machinery station in town just two days earlier to buy this packet of medicine, lying at the time that it was for the production team. Without this drug, how was he going to consummate his marriage tonight?!
At the thought of the tender, fair-skinned young girl on the kang, a look of despair appeared in his withered eyes!
“Get out! Get out!” old man Gao gritted his teeth in anger, his attitude turning sour.
Chu Yanhan had no idea that the water he had just drunk had something added to it!
He was returning home from military leave to visit family. One of his new recruits, a rookie named Gao Feng, was from this very village, and had entrusted him with half a year’s wages to deliver to his grandmother back home.
Chu Yanhan had just stepped off the bus and barely had time to catch his breath before finding his way to Gaojia Village, but unfortunately, it was already dusk.
Gaojia Village had seven or eight hundred households—it was simply too big!
Unfamiliar and with night falling fast, he wanted to find a place to stay for the night and go look up Gao Feng’s family address as soon as dawn broke tomorrow.
“Uncle, I’m a soldier. I won’t hurt you, and I won’t steal anything from your house. Can you let me stay here for the night?”
Old man Gao was a lifelong bachelor, and he did indeed have space to take in this soldier.
However, the thought of the fair, tender new bride lying on the east kang made him unwilling to host a guest.
Still, looking at the man before him—whose body was already starting to heat up and whose eyes were turning bloodshot—he realized that if he chased him out to find lodging elsewhere, by tomorrow morning everyone in Gaojia Village would know the man had drunk cattle breeding medicine at his house.
He wasn’t afraid of doing time behind bars, but he was afraid of ruining his reputation!
After pondering for a long time, an idea formed in his mind.
He decided to let the man stay in the main room. Once the man went inside, he would lock the outer door and keep him locked up until the drug wore off by tomorrow morning, then let him out.
Old man Gao pointed toward the north room. “Seeing as you’re a city boy and our village conditions are limited, if you don’t mind, just make do in that room for the night!”
Although Chu Yanhan was from the city, he knew the custom that the main room was reserved for the host. He pushed open the door right behind old man Gao. “It’s fine, Uncle. I’ll stay in this room!”
With that, he stepped inside and—to prevent old man Gao from offering any more polite formalities—shut the door from the inside!
Old man Gao muttered to himself: Is this kid a hound? Does he know there’s “fresh meat” on the bed in the east room?!
The new bride on the kang had already heard the commotion outside, but because she was tightly bound head-to-toe, she couldn’t move at all!
Who could have guessed that the Chu Yanhan who had just collapsed to the floor would stand up with a smirk? Though the drug’s effects were coursing through his body, his mind remained quite clear for the time being!
He had intentionally faked his collapse just now, though he had already realized something was wrong with the water in that enamel mug.
There was no use talking about it now; he just had to weather the night until the drug wore out, and then go investigate the truth!
The room was dim, illuminated only by a sliver of moonlight filtering through the window.
Cursing softly, Chu Yanhan began feeling his way toward the bed!
A pair of hands with delicate calluses suddenly brushed against him, landing right on the softest part of a woman’s body!
The woman let out muffled cries!
There was actually someone else in the room—and it sounded like a woman!
The burning heat within Chu Yanhan flared up even more intensely. Though he could normally rely on sheer willpower to suppress the fire in his body, that single touch had been so absurdly soft that it nearly drove him to pounce on her right then and there!
With the room’s faint glow, Chu Yanhan’s exceptional night vision allowed him to clearly make out the girl’s delicate features!
The young maiden looked utterly charming, with an extraordinarily youthful face!
Reaching quickly into his tactical backpack, he pulled out a military combat knife, and in a flash, the ropes binding the young girl were cut away.
“Who are you? Why are you in this place?” Chu Yanhan’s voice remained as cold as ever.
“Sob, sob!!”
Only then did he notice a ball of cloth stuffed inside the woman’s mouth. He pulled it right out.
The woman gasped heavily for air. She could feel the scorching temperature radiating from the man beside her, which terrified her!
“My name is Jiang Nuo. I’m the bride that old man Gao bought!”
Chu Yanhan: “……”
Having been single for thirty years, this was the first time he felt a pang of sympathy for a woman!
“Why did your parents sell you?”