Daily life of farming and supporting a family on the ancient Loess Plateau

So when the word "divorce" was about to be applied to her, Ji Shuihua felt a chill run through her body. She wasn't afraid of becoming the bad woman in the gossipy women's eyes, but she had four brothers, which meant there would be four sisters-in-law. Her brothers didn't resent her, but would her sisters-in-law be able to accept her being divorced and sent home?

Can a woman who has been "abandoned" still have a family home to return to or a place to go?

Moreover, the Tian family has a powerful figure in the county government. How could her family, a mere peasant household, possibly resist them?

Reality forced her to submit, and she followed Old Lady Tian's instructions every day, paying her respects morning and evening and serving her food and clothing.

However, Old Mrs. Tian did not care whether she and Tian Lao Er consummated their marriage, because Tian Lao Er's wet nurse's daughter had long been Tian Lao Er's concubine without a title, and had always served Old Mrs. Tian.

The original purpose of Old Mrs. Tian arranging for Tian Lao Er to marry Ji Shuihua was to have this shrewish and skilled woman keep Tian Lao Er in check and hopefully get him to quit gambling. Therefore, Ji Shuihua would occasionally go to the county's secret gambling dens to arrest people, as instructed by Old Mrs. Tian.

Perhaps because she was a woman, or perhaps because she went there carrying a stick, the people in the gambling den and Tian Lao Er would give her some face, and they were able to drag Tian Lao Er back every time.

What good would it do to bring him back? Old Mrs. Tian wouldn't be willing to punish her son. At most, she'd lock him up for a day or two, only to be deceived by the various reasons Tian Lao Er made up and released.

She thought that if she were Old Mrs. Tian, ​​she would definitely break Tian Lao Er's legs and lock him at home, not letting him go out. How could he gamble if he didn't go out?

But she wasn't Old Lady Tian, ​​nor did she understand the thoughts and actions of these so-called wealthy families.

Just when she thought that her hard work would surely earn her the Tian family's favor, reality slapped her in the face again.

The second month after their marriage, she was drugged by Tian Lao Er. When she woke up, she found herself sleeping with Tian Lao Er, and the clothes scattered on the kang (a heated brick bed) reminded her of what had just happened.

After getting up, Tian Lao Er raised his eyebrows at her defiantly and said, "There's not much difference between domestic chickens and wild sparrows!" Then he turned and left.

Ji Shuihua felt insulted, but everyone around her told her that this was how husband and wife should be. She was confused and began to doubt herself.

She thought about it every day, wondering what benefits a woman could gain from getting married, but she couldn't figure it out.

People often say, "Marry a man for food and clothing." If a woman has food and clothing even if she doesn't marry, does that mean she can choose not to marry?

But if she doesn't marry when she reaches marriageable age, she won't get the family's land or the family's cave dwellings. How will she support herself? Where will she get food and clothes? She won't even have a cave dwelling to stay in.

Grandma Tian still followed her so-called rules for high-class families, not allowing Ji Shuihua to go out freely, not allowing her to play with guns and sticks, and her favorite thing to do every day was to set rules and serve her mother-in-law well, punishing her if she was not satisfied.

Fortunately, Ji Shuihua has a strong personality and can be as stubborn as a mule at times. When Grandma Tian sets rules, she can get so angry that she can drive herself crazy, so sometimes she turns a blind eye.

One day, Ji Shuihua overheard an old woman in Old Madam Tian's courtyard saying that a young lady from a high-ranking official's family in the capital had divorced her husband.

In her excitement, she realized what she wanted: a divorce.

That day, Ji Shuihua secretly ran back to Niujiazhuang overnight and squatted at the gate of Old Ji's house waiting for dawn. But when the gate opened, she was greeted by Old Master Ji's scathing scolding.

Grandpa Ji said at the time, "How can we farmers get divorced? That's something only city people do. For us farm women, marriage is for life!"

Ji Shuihua suddenly realized, "Yes, how can a peasant woman be compared to the daughter of a high-ranking official?"

However, she was young and stubborn at the time, and she always wanted to try things she wanted to do. So she went to Tian Lao Er to propose a divorce. She thought it didn't matter if his parents disagreed, as long as she agreed with Tian Lao Er.

When Tian Lao Er heard her mention divorce, he sneered as if he had heard the biggest joke in the world: "According to the laws of our dynasty: 'Any wife or concubine who beats her husband shall be punished with one hundred strokes of the cane... If the injury is broken or more serious, the punishment shall be three degrees more severe than that for injuries sustained in a fight; if the injury is serious, the punishment shall be hanging; if the injury is fatal, the punishment shall be beheading; if the injury is intentional, the punishment shall be slow slicing.' Look at me, the injuries on my body from every beating I received from your sticks, everyone in these two courtyards has seen them."

"According to the law, as a wife, you should be punished for assaulting your husband, regardless of the severity. I, Tian Lao Er, am a gentleman who doesn't fight with women. I'll let you go since you can spar with me for a few moves. Don't be ungrateful and bring up divorce. My Tian family can't afford to lose face like that!"

"You beat me up and I'm covered in bruises too!" Ji Shuihua retorted.

"You really are a naive and ignorant village woman! There's a law in our dynasty: 'If a husband beats his wife, he will not be punished unless he causes serious injury; if he causes serious injury or more, he will be punished two degrees less severely than an ordinary person. The wife must report the crime for the husband to be punished.' In other words, if I beat you, unless I kill or maim you, the government won't care, and beating you will be pointless!" Old Tian mocked as he left.

"How could this be? This is clearly unfair!" Ji Shuihua kept repeating to herself, "Unfair, unfair." But later she realized that there was no such thing as fairness in this world.

People have no choice about their birth; birth determines your social class, and those at the top rely on the hierarchy to maintain their privileges.

Therefore, this unfairness is predetermined from the moment a person is born. Some people are born into royalty or high-ranking officials, with no worries about food or drink and no troubles in life; while others are born into poverty, struggling their whole lives and still not being able to fill their stomachs.

Ji Shuihua lived in a daze for two months. One day, while eating breakfast, Grandma Tian asked her about her recent menstrual period. Suddenly, she felt cold all over. She had completely forgotten that intercourse could lead to pregnancy.

When the doctor, whom Old Mrs. Tian had invited to the house, took her pulse, she learned that she was pregnant and could no longer leave the courtyard.

And so, Ji Shuihua was trapped in this house, unable to escape.

It was just as her mother, Yang, had said: "A woman's fate is like a rapeseed; wherever she is thrown, she will remain."

Ji Shuihua was unwilling to accept this. She didn't want the child in her womb; she felt the child was a testament to her humiliation. She was constantly on the go, and secretly practiced with guns and sticks at night, but the baby in her womb remained healthy, showing no signs of miscarriage.

One day, Tian Lao Er went gambling again and didn't return until dark. Old Madam Tian asked Ji Shuihua and the servants to go look for him separately.

Ji Shuihua was so familiar with Tian Lao Er's route back from the various gambling dens that, though unwilling, she still went out to look for him.

She didn't let anyone follow her and chose a path that Tian Lao Er didn't often take. She hadn't gone far when she saw something white hanging on a mud wall on a hillside. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be Tian Lao Er. It looked like he had fallen from there, was knocked unconscious, and was hanging on the mud wall.

She pulled him down. Tian Lao Er had already passed out and was covered in alcohol. He didn't even realize he was being dragged down and thrown to the ground.

Ji Shuihua turned to leave, but suddenly remembered the night she got pregnant.

She walked over quietly, squatted down, and looked the man up and down as if she didn't recognize him.

She thought, if this man in front of her died, given Old Madam Tian's temperament, she would definitely be forced to remain a widow, so it would be better to... be crippled...