“Mom, I don’t want to go back. I never want to go back again. But what if Li Zude tracks us down? He’s a complete scoundrel. What if he starts causing trouble for our pickle stall?” Xiaomei’s concerns were very practical. She could endure Li Zude herself, but the pickle business was their source of confidence and survival. If he latched onto it, the losses would outweigh everything.
“Mom has a solution for that. Right now, the most important thing for you is to take care of your pregnancy and your health. Don’t overthink things and wear yourself out,” Qin Suian said. After a moment’s thought, she decided to tell the truth.
“Xiaomei, actually, I’ve already divorced Wang Fuyuan. The paperwork is done. The only thing left is that our household registration hasn’t been moved out yet. Xiaojun is staying with me too. From now on, we have nothing to do with the Wang family anymore.
“And Xiaomei, after the baby is born, if you want a divorce, Mom will support you. If you don’t want one, then we’ll find a way to beat Li Zude into submission so he’ll never dare hit you again.”
Qin Suian realized Xiaomei was much stronger than she had imagined. It was better to tell her sooner.
Xiaomei stared at Qin Suian in complete shock, disbelief written all over her face.
The concept of divorce had never even existed in her mind.
Everything she had been taught, along with reality itself, made it something she didn’t even dare think about.
All she had imagined was following her mother to sell pickles, earning a little money herself so she could stand a bit taller in the Li family. Maybe she wouldn’t even have to return to the Lis at all—perhaps she could raise her child alone in the county town.
And now her mother was telling her she had already divorced her father.
Not just fought with him—the procedures were completed.
And now her mother was saying that she, too, could get divorced?
“I want a divorce.”
After the initial shock, Xiaomei made her decision immediately.
It was even more decisive than Qin Suian had expected.
“The sooner, the better,” Xiaomei said. Once she made up her mind, the thought only grew stronger.
“Not yet. If things blow up now, it’ll definitely affect your emotions. If you get too upset, both you and the baby could be in danger.” Qin Suian feared most that Xiaomei would repeat the tragedy of her previous life—dying from difficult labor and hemorrhaging.
At that moment, something suddenly moved in Xiaomei’s belly, calming her down considerably.
She gently touched her stomach, soothing the little life inside.
This was the child she had carried with such hardship. Nothing could happen to it.
To reassure Xiaomei and prepare her mentally, Qin Suian explained her plans for the future.
They definitely couldn’t simply threaten the Li family with knives the way they had with the Wangs before.
The Li father and son were shameless rogues with nothing to lose, unlike the Wang family, who still had some concerns about reputation.
And in these times, it was very difficult for a woman to successfully divorce based on domestic violence alone.
That night, Qin Suian gave Xiaomei the fifty-yuan bride price money and told her to keep it herself.
After the lights were out, Xiaomei hugged the fifty yuan tightly and cried and laughed in the darkness.
Because of those fifty yuan, she had been sold to Li Zude.
That man beat and cursed her constantly. Whenever she even showed the slightest hint of resistance, Li Zude would hit her even more self-righteously, saying things like:
“Your Wang family didn’t even give a dowry. Those fifty yuan bride price mean the Li family bought your life. What right do you have to act tough? Even if I beat you to death, the Wang family wouldn’t say a word!”
Every time Xiaomei heard those words, her spirit weakened before anything else.
Clearly, she had never touched a single cent of those fifty yuan, yet she always felt indebted to the Li family, unable to hold her head high or straighten her back.
Her life did not belong to her.
Even her bride price had not belonged to her.
She had to divorce him.
She refused to spend the next several decades living such a miserable life.
The next morning, when Qin Suian got up, Xiaomei was already making breakfast.
She noticed that while cooking, Xiaomei was also reading that tattered seventh-grade Chinese textbook missing several pages.
While they were eating breakfast, Xie Kaihua arrived with the delivery. Besides the vegetables they had agreed on, she also brought several chickens and a black puppy that was only a little over a month old, lively and energetic at first glance.
There was already a chicken coop in the backyard. Yesterday, Qin Suian and Xiaojun had cleaned and repaired it.
They had also built a small doghouse out of wooden boards.
After settling the chickens and puppy, Qin Suian gave Xiaojun a few instructions.
She had something to do that morning, so Xiaojun would have to sell the pickles by herself.
“Mom believes in you. Even if you can’t sell everything, the worst that happens is we carry it back home,” Qin Suian reassured her after noticing Xiaojun’s nervousness.
“How about I go with Xiaojun?” Xiaomei still felt uneasy about letting her younger sister go alone.
“No. Your pregnancy is far along already, so you have to be careful. If anything happens, just shout for Granny Qin. She looks cold, but she’s soft-hearted and won’t ignore you,” Qin Suian said. She was even more worried about Xiaomei.
“Actually, forget it. Xiaojun, stay home with Xiaomei. I’ll come back before noon.”
“It’s fine. I can do it alone,” Xiaomei said after thinking it over. They had finally started getting regular customers. If they stopped setting up the stall after only a few days, what if customers stopped coming?
“If you’re staying home alone, be careful. If someone knocks, don’t make a sound. Pretend no one’s home.” Qin Suian nagged a few more times before leaving and climbing onto Xie Kaihua’s cart.
“This Immortal Aunt Hao sure has a lot of people looking for her. If you don’t have an appointment, she might not even see you,” Xie Kaihua said as she drove the cart.
She had delivered customers there several times before, and every day the place was packed. Without arrangements, people couldn’t even get in.
“She’ll see me,” Qin Suian replied confidently.
After riding for more than an hour, they finally arrived at Wu Fang Village, where Immortal Aunt Hao lived.
Sure enough, at least twenty or thirty people were lined up outside her house, all seeking fortune-telling and spiritual advice.
Rumor had it that Aunt Hao could tell fortunes, communicate with spirits, drive away ghosts, and dispel evil influences. People said she was extremely powerful.
Years ago, she had been imprisoned during political campaigns, but she had survived stubbornly. After being released, she resumed her old trade.
Perhaps because one or two coincidences had actually come true, her reputation had grown increasingly mystical.
She also understood how to survive quietly. Most of the time she only accepted food or drink as payment, and even when taking money, she capped it at five yuan.
That made many people willing to trust her and keep quiet about her activities.
So despite everything, nothing had happened to her over the past two years, and no one had targeted her.
Qin Suian told Xie Kaihua to wait nearby while she circled to the back door of Aunt Hao’s house.
She waited in the backyard for a while before finally seeing an elderly woman around sixty or seventy years old slowly walk out toward the latrine.
This should be Aunt Hao.
On the way there, Xie Kaihua had told Qin Suian about Aunt Hao’s background.
Decades earlier, during the great famine, no one knew where she had fled from before ending up here. She married a widower surnamed Wu, but the man died not long afterward.
They had no children.
Later, members of the Wu clan forced Aunt Hao to adopt an heir, or they wouldn’t let her continue living in her late husband’s house.
Left with no choice, she adopted a son.
At first, Aunt Hao thought her later years finally had some security.
Unexpectedly, when the political movements began, the son she had painstakingly raised reported her for “feudal superstition,” even taking the lead in publicly criticizing her, which resulted in her being imprisoned.
What was even more unexpected was that the son himself met a miserable end, dying of illness a few years earlier.
His wife had remarried too.
People all thought Aunt Hao was eerie somehow, with an exceptionally “hard fate.” After the political campaigns ended, no one dared chase her away anymore.
When Aunt Hao saw Qin Suian, she looked at her warily.
“If you want your fortune told, line up in the front.”
“Hello, Auntie. I actually wanted to discuss something with you… about the Han family,” Qin Suian quickly explained her purpose.