country bumpkin

A month has passed in the blink of an eye. The weather is starting to get hot. Today is the sixth day of the sixth lunar month, another auspicious day.

Whether in rural areas or cities, wedding processions can be seen everywhere.

Under the old locust tree in the village, a group of children gathered, covering their ears but their eyes were fixed on the hanging firecrackers, waiting for the moment they would explode.

Meanwhile, the adults were busy preparing for the wedding feast. The women were chopping and cooking in the kitchen, with steam rising from the pots and the aroma filling the entire courtyard.

The men were moving tables and arranging chairs, their faces beaming with joy. It was a lively scene.

Red double happiness characters were pasted all over the streets and alleys, and the entrance of a hotel in town was filled with guests who came to offer their congratulations.

The groom wore a sharp Zhongshan suit, and the bride looked beautiful in a red cheongsam. They walked hand in hand, receiving blessings from everyone.

Amidst the hustle and bustle, a young woman stood on a path next to the hotel, her eyes filled with a sense of melancholy.

She was Zhang Qingjiao, the youngest daughter of Granny Zhang. The man she once loved had become someone else's husband.

They were forced to separate simply because the man's family background was considered bad and he couldn't afford the bride price his mother demanded.

Listening to the continuous sound of firecrackers, she felt a mix of emotions.

However, she quickly composed herself. After all, life had to go on. She took a deep breath, turned around, and walked towards the village, the sound of firecrackers still echoing behind her.

Zhang Qingjiao returned from working in another city and has been helping with farming ever since. In her spare time, she goes to town to help shell peanuts.

There are workshops in the town that specialize in processing peanuts. Machines tend to damage peanuts by peeling them, often splitting them in half, so peanuts are all peeled manually.

Girls, wives, and mothers-in-law in the village who have free time all come to work at the processing point. The processing fee is 5 cents per pound, and a fast worker can peel eight or nine pounds a day.

Zhang Qingjiao also came to shell peanuts, and she worked there for half a year. It was also here that she met this man.

This man's name was Xiao Zhe. He had bronze skin and a straight posture. His facial features were well-defined and deep-set.

Zhang Qingjiao felt a mix of emotions as she watched her beloved marry someone else.

Her mother demanded a dowry of 2000 yuan from her sweetheart so that her brother could get married.

It would be difficult for an ordinary family to afford it. The man she had her eye on had a grandfather who used to be a landlord.

After the reform and opening up, there were no more taboos, but people still talked about his background behind his back.

The two liked each other, but their respective elders were picky and disapproved of each other.

Unfortunately, Zhang Qingjiao's brother had taken a liking to a girl, but she didn't want a bride price; she just wanted to arrange a marriage exchange.

This girl's name is Zhu Mengmeng. Her brother, Zhu Zhiqiang, is a cripple. The family is poor, and her brother is disabled, so they can't find a wife. In order to continue the family line, their mother came up with the idea of ​​a marriage exchange.

Zhu Mengmeng had no choice but to obey her mother's arrangements, as she was powerless to resist her mother's influence.

Zhang Qingjiao's beloved had married someone else, leaving her heart empty; her heart had died along with the lost love. She had no choice but to accept her family's arrangement for a marriage exchange.

On the eighth day of the sixth lunar month, she and Zhu Mengmeng got engaged. There was no grand wedding, no blessings from relatives and friends, only a donkey cart and the groom coming to pick up the bride.

Zhang Qingjiao sat on the bumpy donkey cart, staring blankly into the distance. Zhu Zhiqiang, sitting beside her, would occasionally steal a glance at her, hesitant to speak.

After arriving at the Zhu family home, life went on uneventfully. Zhang Qingjiao spent her days washing clothes, cooking, and working in the fields, living mechanically like a puppet.

One day, while she was feeding the chickens in the yard, she heard a commotion outside. It turned out that her former sweetheart was passing by.

He didn't seem to be doing well; his wife always complained about his family's social class and they often argued.

A ripple of emotion stirred in Zhang Qingjiao's heart, but she quickly calmed down. At that moment, Zhu Zhiqiang, leaning on his crutch, limped over to her and handed her a wild fruit he had just picked.

"Jiao'er, have some fruit." He smiled kindly. At that moment, Zhang Qingjiao suddenly realized that although the person in front of her was disabled, he had a kind heart.

Perhaps past relationships are ultimately in the past, and the present life is what truly matters.

She took the fruit, a slight smile appearing on her face, and decided to try to let go of the past and make the most of this new life that she had started out of necessity.

Her family, Zhu Mengmeng, has been causing trouble ever since the day she married into the family.

The excitement quickly spread to several villages.

Zhang Pozi's eldest daughter, Zhang Qingxia, took a bite of her steamed bun and said to Zhang Qingguo, "Little brother, we need to find a way to manage Mengmeng. This constant trouble-making can't go on."

Zhang Qingguo sighed, "I'm worried too, but no matter how I try to persuade her, she won't listen."

Just as the two were talking, the sound of something being smashed came from inside the house.

The two rushed into the house and saw Zhu Mengmeng with tears streaming down her face, shouting at her in-laws, "You're selling your daughter! I'm just as unhappy as your daughter!" Her in-laws were so angry that they trembled but didn't know how to respond.

Zhang Qingxia stepped forward, took Zhu Mengmeng's hand, and said, "Sister, things have come to this point, there's no use making a fuss now. We women may not be in control of our own lives, but since we're here, we have to find a way to get by."

Zhu Mengmeng shook off her hand, "You make it sound so easy. Do you know how much I've suffered?"

Zhang Qingguo also said, "Mengmeng, I'm sorry. I'm not capable, but if we work together to get the family in order, there will be better days ahead."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Mengmeng gradually stopped crying. The family sat together and began to discuss their future livelihood, such as how to grow more grain and raise some livestock.

Since then, although Zhu Mengmeng would still complain occasionally, she stopped causing trouble all the time.

Meanwhile, Zhang Qingjiao completely let go of the past and devoted herself to family affairs, and the Zhu family gradually came back to life.

Just when both families thought everything was getting better, life took another turn for the worse.

As time went by, Zhu Mengmeng grew increasingly anxious. She knew she had always been physically weak, and a doctor had once told her that she might not be able to conceive after marriage. She feared this would be exposed, so she lived in constant fear.

Everyone in the village who married on the same day as her got pregnant, and all sorts of gossip started circulating. People said she was petite and frail, and that she wouldn't be able to have children easily. Her mother-in-law's face grew increasingly grim upon hearing these rumors.

Zhu Mengmeng was filled with grievances and anxiety. She went to see a traditional Chinese medicine doctor and drank countless bitter herbal soups, but her stomach still showed no signs of pregnancy.

One day, a traveling doctor came to the village. Upon hearing this, Zhu Mengmeng hurriedly dragged her husband to find him.

After examining Zhu Mengmeng, the itinerant doctor quietly told Zhang Qingguo that Zhu Mengmeng had damaged her health due to past emotional outbursts and also suffered from uterine coldness, which might make it difficult for her to conceive.

Zhang Qingguo was struck dumb, and Zhu Mengmeng understood the outcome from his expression.

On her way home, Zhu Mengmeng was distraught. She thought about her past willfulness, and if she really couldn't even leave her child with the Zhang family, she was filled with guilt.

After arriving home, she confessed everything to her parents-in-law and expressed her willingness to leave the Zhang family so that Zhang Qingguo could remarry.

The in-laws remained silent for a long time before finally shaking their heads in refusal. After spending so many days together, they realized that finding a daughter-in-law wasn't easy, and since Zhu Mengmeng had finally calmed down, whether or not she had children wasn't so important anymore.

Anyway, my family is poor, and it's hard to find a wife, so let's just make do for now!

Granny Zhang pretended to be very reluctant and said, "Girl, it's our destiny that you married into our family. Just live a good life from now on, we won't look down on you. Besides, the wedding is still a short time away, who knows, you might get pregnant after a while."

Zhu Mengmeng burst into tears. She secretly vowed to live a good life, learn to manage the household, and repay her family for their tolerance.

Because the man in the Zhu family was lame, most of the housework fell on Zhang Qingjiao's shoulders.

Not long after the marriage, some gossipy women in the village started spreading rumors about Zhang Qingjiao's past relationships.

Zhu Zhiqiang already had a physical disability, and he felt resentful, especially since the burden of the family fell entirely on his wife. He suddenly felt utterly worthless.

Lately, he's been hearing a lot of gossip from the villagers, and he's gradually become addicted to alcohol. When he's drunk, he tortures Zhang Qingjiao in bed.

Over time, the situation worsened, and his mind became distorted without him realizing it. He is no longer the doting husband he was when he first married.

His wife has a lot of work to do every day: washing clothes, cooking, going to the fields to cut pig feed. She does all the work.

Zhang Qingjiao had no time to rest during the day, and at night she wanted to lie down and get some rest, but the drunk Zhu Zhiqiang wouldn't give her a chance to rest and kept coming to humiliate her.

He hurled all sorts of vulgarities at her, accusing her of having feelings for other men. Sometimes he would beat her, leaving her body covered in bruises.

Even if the mother-in-law and father-in-law heard it, they wouldn't stop them. When the neighbors asked, the mother-in-law, Liang, would just give a vague answer, saying, "The young couple is newly married, it's nothing serious, they just played around a bit too much."

Everyone was speechless.