When Lin Miaoyin woke up, her parents had already returned.
As the production brigade captain, her father had first gone to see the Party Secretary to discuss some matters. Her mother, worried that her daughter had been frightened, went to their private plot of land and picked some young corn to boil for her.
Lin Miaoyin followed the faint sweet smell in the air into the kitchen.
It was the season for eating young corn. The Lin family had planted quite a lot in their private plot. Her mother was busy in the kitchen. Several ears of corn were bubbling in a large pot, while cucumbers, eggplants, and a small piece of pork belly were laid out on the chopping board.
Her mother quickly cut the meat while Cui Fen tended the fire.
When she saw Lin Miaoyin come in, her mother happily said, “You’re awake at just the right time. The corn is almost ready. Take it out, then go share it with Yuanzheng.”
Lin Miaoyin paused.
“He’s here too?”
“He’s sitting in the main room.”
Lin Miaoyin sat down beside the stove.
“I don’t want to stay married to him. I want a divorce.”
Her mother and Cui Fen both stopped what they were doing and looked at her.
“Why are you suddenly talking about divorce?”
Given their daughter’s personality, they thought that since her husband had saved her life, all their previous little arguments should be forgotten. They had expected her to cling to him immediately, not suddenly demand a divorce.
But Lin Miaoyin was nothing like the original owner, who was soft and indecisive—stubborn when she wanted something, but completely without principles when she softened.
Why would she keep a scumbag like that around just to shorten her own life by getting angry at him?
However, her mother and sister-in-law clearly did not see things that way.
First, Meng Yuanzheng had saved Miaoyin’s life.
Second, in this era, it was very difficult for a divorced woman to remarry. Even if she did remarry, her life might not be good, and she would have to endure gossip from the people around her.
Besides, Miaoyin had been the one who had cried and begged to marry him in the first place.
Her sudden talk of divorce might just be something she had said out of anger. Young people were impulsive, and once they regretted their decision, it might already be too late.
So both women thought they should persuade her not to divorce him. They wanted Meng Yuanzheng to seriously reflect on his mistakes, change his ways, and treat Miaoyin properly from then on.
“Miaoyin, men sometimes can’t resist temptation. Men in the past even had several wives. Yuanzheng didn’t do anything too serious with Zhang Hui. Since he’s willing to admit his mistake this time, why not give him another chance?” Her mother spoke earnestly as someone with more life experience.
Her sister-in-law also tried to persuade her.
“That’s right. These days, it’s hard for a divorced woman to find another husband. You’re still young, so you don’t understand.”
Her mother suddenly remembered something.
“It’s all because of that Zhang Hui woman. She’s always acting flirtatiously. Maybe Yuanzheng didn’t even like her at first, and she was the shameless one who kept throwing herself at him.”
Cui Fen agreed.
“Of course! Zhang Hui isn’t even as pretty as our Miaoyin. She can’t do farm work either. She’s so skinny, with hardly any flesh on her. Just looking at her, you can tell she won’t be able to give birth to a son.”
Lin Miaoyin was speechless.
This wasn’t about whether Zhang Hui was pretty or ugly.
The real problem was that Meng Yuanzheng was a shameless man who would accept advances from any woman. He might act polite and refined toward the young women in the brigade, but no one knew what dirty thoughts were going through his mind.
It seemed that before the Reform and Opening-up, the thinking of rural women was still deeply traditional.
“Mom, Sister-in-law, your thinking is outdated and ignorant. The Marriage Law clearly states that there should be one husband and one wife. If either person has an improper relationship with someone else, that’s against the law. It’s considered corrupt thinking and an improper relationship between a man and a woman. They can be criticized and punished for it.”
After a moment, she added, “In places where the rules are enforced strictly, they could even be executed.”
Her mother and Cui Fen looked at each other, completely at a loss for words.
Her mother sighed.
“Miaoyin, weren’t you the one who cried and begged to marry him? Your father and I disagreed, but you even threatened to jump into the well.”
Lin Miaoyin sighed inwardly as well.
The original owner had simply been foolish.
But her expression remained calm.
“Because Meng Yuanzheng is a hypocritical man who is good at pretending. I only discovered his true nature after we got married. After what happened this time, I’ve made up my mind to divorce him and correct the mistake I made before.”
“I think you’ve gone crazy,” her mother said. “If you refuse to listen to your elders, you’ll suffer later. Divorce isn’t something you can decide by yourself. Your father and I won’t agree to it. Unless he gives you the required certificate, you won’t be able to get divorced.”
She tapped Lin Miaoyin lightly on the forehead, trying to make her give up the idea.
Seeing how firm her mother and sister-in-law were, Lin Miaoyin fell silent.
She knew that divorce was extremely complicated in this era.
She would need approval and paperwork from the lowest level, and sometimes people even had to rely on personal connections. It could take one or two years to complete the process.
It was already the late 1970s, and the Reform and Opening-up period was not far away. In the 1980s, getting a divorce would no longer be quite so complicated.
Then she suddenly remembered something else.
In the original story, when the educated youths were allowed to return to the cities, Meng Yuanzheng had abandoned the original Lin Miaoyin. He had simply left and returned to the city.
By her calculations, that was only about two years away.
Before leaving, he had even confessed his love to the female lead.
The original Lin Miaoyin had begged him not to leave, but he had kicked her away.
Her mother saw that she was no longer saying anything and assumed she had given up.
She urged her, “Go on. Did you hear me? Don’t argue with Yuanzheng.”
Unable to win the argument, Lin Miaoyin stood up.
She took the corn out of the pot, placed it in a bamboo tray to cool, and carried it into the main room. A large enamel basin was underneath the tray.
She placed it on the table and said coldly,
“Go wash your hands. Otherwise, you don’t get any.”
Meng Yuanzheng was sitting on a wooden bench, staring blankly at a saw hanging on the earthen wall.
Only after hearing her did he come back to his senses.
“Okay.”
He stood up and went to the well to draw water.
He was from the city, and both of his parents were intellectuals. He had been well cared for since childhood. He was tall and long-legged, and every movement he made had a certain elegance.
He was also handsome and dressed rather stylishly.
If he had been dropped into the Hong Kong entertainment industry of the 1990s, he probably could have debuted as the center of a boy band.
The problem was that he was the perfect example of why you should never judge a person by his appearance.
Just then, he remembered something and returned to the kitchen.
“Do you have any buckets? I need to draw some water.”
Her mother was busy, so she simply pointed beneath the chopping board.
“There are two buckets there.”
Meng Yuanzheng picked up both buckets, but after thinking for a moment, he put one back down.
He bent over and walked out.
The kitchen door was quite low and had a threshold. At nearly 1.8 meters tall, Meng Yuanzheng would definitely hit his head if he didn’t duck.
Cui Fen was washing vegetables beside the water channel.
When she saw Meng Yuanzheng carrying the bucket, she quickly removed the cover from the well.
He lowered the bucket into the well, pulled hard, and brought up a full bucket of water.
He carried it into the kitchen, then soon came back out with the empty bucket.
After several trips back and forth, he finally crouched down and washed his hands.
Cui Fen looked as if she had just witnessed something unbelievable.
She stood up, wiped her hands on her apron, and went into the kitchen.
She said to Lin Miaoyin’s mother, who was equally surprised,
“Did Yuanzheng just fill the water jar?”
Her mother also found it strange.
Her son-in-law was from the city. His skin was delicate and fair, and he had been pampered even more than their daughter. He had never done farm work before.
Why was he suddenly working so hard today?
“Maybe he finally realized his mistakes. We should give him a chance to change.”
The two women nodded and reached the same conclusion.
In the main room, Lin Miaoyin had witnessed the entire process of Meng Yuanzheng drawing water.
She was holding an ear of corn and eating it.
When Meng Yuanzheng came over and reached for another ear, she immediately moved the tray away.
Meng Yuanzheng looked at her in confusion, as if silently asking why she wouldn’t let him have any.
After all, she had just told him to wash his hands so he could eat.
“Mr. Meng, tell me. What exactly are you planning?” Lin Miaoyin asked coldly.
Meng Yuanzheng looked even more innocent.
His eyes fell on the tray.
“Didn’t you tell me to wash my hands and eat the corn?”
“Are you trying to win over my family so they won’t let me divorce you?”
Meng Yuanzheng frowned.
His voice was low.
“No.”
Lin Miaoyin gave him a cold look.
“You’re pretending to regret your mistakes so you can gain their sympathy and continue taking advantage of my family, eating and living here for free.”
Unexpectedly, Meng Yuanzheng did not react the way he usually did.
He didn’t argue with her or call her an ignorant woman.
He didn’t try to sweet-talk her either.
He simply stood there quietly.
“Maybe I did many things wrong before,” he said. “But from now on, I’ll only do what I’m supposed to do.”
“You think I’ll believe you?”
Lin Miaoyin shot back at him before carrying the corn away.
What did “what I’m supposed to do” even mean?
What was a villain supposed to do?
Other than getting himself killed and hurting people, what else could he do?
If he wanted to take a roundabout approach, she wasn’t going to give him the chance.