He criticized one match-making prospect for having a garlic nose, an underbite, triangular eyes, and a stature like a short winter melon. He even remarked that her teeth looked so yellow it seemed like she hadn’t brushed them in a year. Oh, his tongue was absolutely venomous, and what was even more outrageous was that he actually called one of his blind dates “Auntie.”
Tell me, wasn’t he just asking for it?
It was his good fortune alone that he hadn’t been stuffed into a burlap sack and beaten up.
When he encountered someone who was genuinely nice and perfectly flawless, he would defame himself.
He would claim that he had terrible personal hygiene, didn’t shower or wash his face for months at a time, and that after marriage, all of his salary would be given to his mother. Furthermore, the wife’s salary would also have to be handed over to his mother.
Whatever his mother said went.
He even claimed that if they had a daughter after marriage, they would give her away to someone else, asserting that he favored boys over girls. He said having one boy wouldn’t be enough, and they would need at least seven or eight.
With a series of maneuvers as fierce as a tiger, his own reputation was completely ruined, and even his mother Old Mrs. Zhao’s reputation suffered a slight blemish.
The younger women in the commune avoided him like snakes and scorpions. The town was only so big, so it didn’t take long for any piece of news to spread everywhere.
Almost everyone knew about it, except for Old Mrs. Zhao, who was still kept completely in the dark, happily dreaming of marrying off her son.
She even grumbled that her son was a bit too picky, to the point of being blinded by choices.
Later on, she gradually noticed that not only did her relatives and friends stop introducing anyone to him, but they also gave her sour looks and cold shoulders whenever they saw her. After making some discreet inquiries, the old lady was so furious that she couldn’t eat well for several days, feeling a heavy blockage right in her chest.
She wept and wiped away her tears at home, wondering how she had ended up with such a son. It was truly a sin from her past life.
Even Old Man Zhao ended up taking the blame, with her claiming that the Zhao family simply had bad roots.
The innocent Old Man Zhao: …In the past, the old woman used to say that their youngest son took after her.
But he was a coward and didn’t dare utter a sound.
In his heart, he also muttered that his youngest son’s tactics were far too outrageous.
They were much more sophisticated than his own methods back in the day. Back then, he had merely claimed that he was infertile. When his wife became pregnant with their eldest child after marriage, his own parents felt as if the sky had fallen.
It took a long time of explaining before the elderly couple finally believed him, not to mention he still got whipped with a leather belt by his father.
Seeing the state of her son’s reputation now, Old Mrs. Zhao didn’t want to bother with it anymore. She decided to let him be, since she couldn’t manage him anyway. Children and grandchildren make their own fortunes; he could marry whoever he wished.
But as time went on, seeing her son looking depressed and listless, and having lost a significant amount of weight, Old Mrs. Zhao felt heartbroken all over again.
Admitting defeat, Old Mrs. Zhao went to the Liu family to propose marriage, carrying a mindset that she would beg if she had to, just to secure Liu Manhong.
Whow! Upon arriving at the Liu family home, she discovered that the girl didn’t even blush when looking at her son. On the contrary, her son was buzzing around her attentively like a servant.
All of Old Mrs. Zhao’s petty sense of superiority vanished in an instant.
Taking a closer look at Liu Manhong, it was no wonder her son’s eyes and heart were completely filled with this girl. She didn’t look like a country girl at all; she was fair-skinned, slender and tall, with eyes that were large and round, looking exceptionally pretty.
From being completely unwilling, she instantly became fifty percent satisfied.
At the very least, her future grandchildren wouldn’t be ugly.
Looking at the old Liu family home, although it was a thatched house, it wasn’t short and cramped at all. Instead, it was built sturdy and grand. The interior must have been three meters high; standing on the brick bed, one couldn’t even reach the ceiling.
There wasn’t a single speck of chicken droppings in the courtyard, and the rooms were tidy and spotless, looking even neater than her own home.
Old Mrs. Zhao became another twenty percent satisfied.
After chatting and interacting with them further, she also learned that the Liu family members were all honest, dutiful, and hardworking people. Especially the parents of her future daughter-in-law; one look told her they were not only somewhat worldly but also highly reasonable.
With this, she became even more satisfied.
She even felt a tiny bit that her own family wasn’t quite a match.
Though they lived in the commune, aside from their own son having a job, they didn’t possess much else.
Once the daughter-in-law was married in, she proved to be both filial and capable, even better than her eldest daughter-in-law who came from the commune. The old lady was thoroughly content and praised her to everyone she met. Now, she lived with her youngest son for her retirement.
The old Liu family would also send over vegetables, millet, small river fish, and the like for no reason at all, and over the past two years, they had been sending meat much more frequently.
Living in the commune, they also had a small vegetable garden where they usually planted some green onions, garlic, green beans, eggplants, and Chinese cabbage, which was just barely enough to get by. In recent years, because of the Liu family, they had achieved complete freedom in vegetable consumption.
It wasn’t that she, an old lady, was shallow-minded and coveted these small items; rather, among relatives, there had to be a mutual giving and receiving to maintain a long-lasting relationship.
Riding her bicycle and bringing her children along, Liu Manhong didn’t feel quite right in her heart when she returned and saw so many things.
“Second Brother… why did you bring so much meat again? The autumn harvest is coming up soon, you all should be nourishing yourselves more.”
Liu Manhong knew that her maiden family was doing this to give her face!
On one hand, she was happy to have prestige in her husband’s home, but on the other hand, she thought about how her maiden family was losing out by giving her so much.
Reflecting on how she had eaten a lot of meat from her maiden family over the past two years, Liu Manhong’s eyes grew a bit red for a moment.
“What’s this? You usually have such a brisk and straightforward personality. Your children are already this big, so why are you still acting like a young girl, letting your nephew and niece laugh at you?” Liu Mancang looked at his sister with a smile and tilted his chin toward the side.
Turning her head, Liu Manhong saw her own son and daughter staring straight at her, making her feel rather embarrassed for a moment, her cheeks flushing red.
She didn’t know what was wrong with her lately; her emotions had been rather inexplicable over the past few days, wanting to cry one moment and wanting to laugh the next.
She was also craving specific foods.
If she didn’t already know that she had harmed her body when giving birth to Xiaomei, she would have suspected she was pregnant again!
Seeing that she was embarrassed, Liu Mancang wanted to ruffle his sister’s hair just like when they were little. He raised his hand, but feeling a bit self-conscious, he lowered it again.
“There’s still plenty of meat at home, more than enough to eat. You’ve also brought plenty of things back to our house over the years. Weren’t those sweet little hair ties and the patterned fabrics all given by you? How could our family be so shameless as to only take advantage of you?”
Liu Manhong grinned and smiled. She knew her second brother was just comforting her!
How could her maiden family ever take advantage of her? Back around the years of ’58 and ’59, her maiden family had actually assisted her husband’s family with grain several times!
Back then, grain wouldn’t be traded even for gold nuggets; that was life itself.
It was also from that time onward that she completely straightened her back in her husband’s home. Even her eldest sister-in-law, who had given birth to three boys, didn’t dare cause trouble for her anymore, and even sarcastic remarks became very rare.
She wouldn’t indulge that behavior anyway!
If anyone dared to speak against her, she would dare to snap right back.