Reborn in a small village in the 1990s

the other side.

Wang Guixiang had been squatting by the fence for a very long time. This doesn't mean that Wang Guixiang was squatting there, but rather that it's a local custom to squat by the fence when entering such a place.

This is not a glorious thing, and in fact, people who have squatted in the countryside and have a background in this kind of thing will have a certain impact on their work in the future. Fortunately, Wang Guixiang didn't have a job at all.

Moreover, Wang Guixiang doesn't do any work at all. Indeed, as Zhao Da'e once said, this place is quite suitable for Wang Guixiang.

Food and lodging are provided, and you don't have to do any work.

Of course, the provision of food and lodging came at the cost of poor quality food. There were only cold cornbread buns. If you wanted better food, you had to pay for it. The sleeping conditions were also terrible—just ordinary wooden beds with blankets, but no heating or stove in the room, so it was terribly cold.

It's already the second nine-day period of winter, and soon it will be the third nine-day period, when the weather will be extremely cold. During this coldest time of winter, Wang Guixiang is feeling frustrated and upset, which has made her particularly depressed.

Recently, only Zhao Tingxu has come to visit her; as for her children, none of them have come. Wang Guixiang is particularly angry and dissatisfied.

She was old and in poor health, and couldn't stand the cold. But she couldn't go out and had to stay quietly, so she started to resent Zhao Da'e.

Wang Guixiang asked someone to speak with Zhao Chunqin, asking her to use her connections. However, she received no reply, and it's unclear whether the person she asked couldn't find Zhao Chunqin or what happened.

Wang Guixiang was filled with resentment, but she was powerless to do anything about it. So, in desperation, she asked someone to send a message to her family, saying that she had been imprisoned in Balizi and asking her brothers to redeem her.

Wang Guixiang is in her fifties, but not yet sixty. Her brothers are also in their fifties; she has two older brothers and one younger brother. Her ancestral home is Nianfang Village in Xinglong Town. The village gets its name from a mill that Wang Guixiang's ancestors operated there.

Wang Guixiang's ancestors were indeed very wealthy, owning a lot of land, all of which was fertile. And even now, Wang Guixiang's brothers in her hometown are still doing quite well.

The Wang family's land was later returned to the village, but the mill remained with the Wang family. By this time, although every household had electricity, people still mostly used the millstone in the mill to grind their food.

This isn't free; it costs some money.

So the Wang family was considered a wealthy household in the village because of this.

The old man from the Wang family was still alive, in his seventies or eighties. Upon receiving Wang Guixiang's letter, he hurriedly sent Wang Shengli, the eldest son of the Wang family, with money to ransom Wang Guixiang.

He wrote guarantees and acted pitiful before finally being released after only ten days in jail.

Wang Guixiang went back to her parents' home first. This wasn't because she was angry. Like Zhao Da'e's mother, Cheng Jinxiang, she was willing to give up on the marriage and file for divorce.

Wang Guixiang is the head of the family; it's not her place to file for divorce.

Returning to her parents' home was truly a bitter pill to swallow, as neither her sons nor her daughters had spent any money to redeem her.

Another thing is to go home and ask your family how you plan to live from now on.

Old Man Wang was still in decent health, exactly eighty this year, and would be eighty-one after the New Year. He grumbled, "Guixiang, you're driving me crazy! I'm already eighty, how many more years do I have left to live? Why are you so troublesome? You're a grandmother now, and you still have your eldest granddaughter bring you a bamboo fence? Twice?"

The old man had heard some things, but only half of them; Wang Shengli told him all of them after he returned.

Wang Guixiang gritted her teeth with hatred whenever she thought about this, and then said that she had done nothing wrong, that her good intentions were taken for granted, and that her whole family was full of bad people.

Finally, he added that he wasn't going back and wanted to stay home for a few days to celebrate the New Year.

"how?"

The old man's voice immediately rose: "What do you mean? You're going to stay at home until the New Year? Third son, you're almost sixty, and you're still living at your parents' house? What will your sister-in-law think of you?"

Wang Guixiang was also stunned; she hadn't expected the old man to be so hot-tempered: "Then what should I do?"

“You’re not telling the truth.” The old man stroked his beard and stared at Wang Guixiang. “You’re not a good mother-in-law.”

"I heard from your eldest brother, Shengli, that the year after your eldest brother got married, you spent money to build a house. Then you supported Chunqin's education. Your third brother also went to school. After that, your second brother got married much later. If it weren't for your second brother's wife's family being poor, and your aunt's husband thinking that your second brother was quite capable, your second brother would have remained a bachelor back then."

"It wasn't easy for him to finally get married. The two of them leased a lot of land, worked day and night, and saved up some money, which you then spent. That's fine, even if you gave it to Chunqin, it wouldn't be a big deal. You could have just openly admitted it, wouldn't that have been enough? Why did you have to make such a fuss?"

Wang Guixiang muttered, "Chunqin has it tough. She's all alone in the city and just had a son. Her boyfriend's family is quite wealthy. I was thinking of giving her some financial support so that her in-laws wouldn't look down on us."

The old man stared at Wang Guixiang for a long time, and finally sighed, "Foolish."

"It's already the sixth day of the twelfth lunar month. After you've had lunch, you should go home. You can't go back to your parents' house anymore. Your father is eighty years old, and your eldest brother is over sixty. They already have grandchildren. There's no room for you. Go home and live your life as usual. From now on, you have to treat them equally. This matter will be over. When you get home, call your three sons together and tell them that whether you, as their mother, spend the money yourself or give it to Chunqin, it's fine. Anyway, it's gone, and it's gone. They can't kick their mother out of the house, can they?"

The old man arranged for his eldest son, Wang Shengli, who was also Wang Guixiang's older brother, to hitch up a horse-drawn carriage and take Wang Guixiang home.

However, instead of being sent to the old courtyard, they were sent to the home of Zhao Tiebao, the eldest son of the Zhao family.

Wang Shengli felt that Zhao Tiebao was a real headache, and it would be better to send Wang Guixiang's eldest son instead. After all, Wang Guixiang's imprisonment was a disgraceful affair; she was sent to jail by her own family. Now that she was going home without any repercussions, it was still a loss of face for her.

Zhao Tiebao teaches at two primary schools in the neighboring Dadao Village and Xigou Village. There is a severe shortage of privately-run teachers at the moment. After graduating from primary school, Zhao Tiebao went to junior high school, but his grades were average, and he kept repeating a grade.

Many children in later generations don't know what "repeating a grade" means. But in the 1990s, it was a very common thing.

At that time, everything was in ruins and needed to be rebuilt, especially in remote rural areas where there was a severe shortage of teachers. Moreover, even when teachers were available, many of them were not very qualified. Some had only graduated from junior high school, and many had only graduated from primary school.

This created a situation where there was nothing that could be done. Some teachers themselves didn't know how to solve junior high school problems, or even understand them. But at that time, that was just how it was, and there was nothing that could be done.

Zhao Tiebao wasn't very bright. Getting into junior high was already his limit. So his grades were consistently poor, and he kept repeating grades.

While others completed three years of junior high school, Zhao Tiebao spent five years in his first year. He finally made it to the second year, but the Xigou Village Elementary School in the countryside was short of teachers and recruited from the junior high schools. They immediately recognized Zhao Tiebao's potential, and he became the Chinese language teacher at Xigou Village Elementary School.

That year, Zhao Tiebao was seventeen years old. Later, Zhao Tiebao and Wang Guixiang's sister, who was also the daughter of Zhao Tiebao's aunt, started flirting.

Because in rural areas during the 1970s and 80s, there was no systematic education system, so it was common for aunts to be relatives.

And it's also a particularly common thing.

Later generations will think that this situation is already a big problem, but at the time, the older cousin and his sister had no problems.

Furthermore, two very important characters in the once-popular literary work, *One Hundred Years of Solitude*, are cousins. Therefore, while this question may seem bizarre, it does indeed exist.

(For example, in Jin Yong's novel *Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils*, Murong Fu and Wang Yuyan are also cousins.)

Moreover, since they were childhood sweethearts, they were essentially engaged.

But then something quite amiss happened: Zhao Tiebao's cousin became pregnant.

This incident caused a huge uproar at the time. Even decades later, the problem remained unresolved.

The marriage ran into trouble because of his cousin's pregnancy. Zhao Tiebao didn't say anything, neither confirming nor denying it. However, Wang Guixiang and Zhao Tingxu didn't believe Zhao Tiebao was involved and insisted that it was because his cousin had a child with their village accountant.

This incident directly led to Wang Guixiang's break with her family.

This is also the main reason why the old man of the Wang family generally doesn't like Wang Guixiang, and why he doesn't accept her this time. Although the old man sent someone to spend money to redeem Wang Guixiang, she was still imprisoned, so there was nothing he could do after redeeming her.

However, her family, especially her maternal family, generally didn't treat Wang Guixiang well.

There's no other reason than that everyone knows how this should be done.

My cousin said the child was Zhao Tiebao's. Zhao Tiebao neither denied nor confirmed it.

It's difficult to say whether the two people crossed any boundaries during their relationship.

Therefore, that account was a matter of conscience.

However, it was clear that the Wang family believed their cousin hadn't lied, and that Wang Guixiang and the others were heartless. Therefore, they didn't treat Wang Guixiang and Zhao Tiebao well.

But Wang Shengli also knew that at this moment, Zhao Tiesheng's wife had gone back to her parents' home, and Zhao Tiegang's wife had run away. If he went back to the old courtyard now, he would see Zhao Tingxu again…

Wang Shengli was actually quite annoyed with Zhao Tingxu. After all, Zhao Tiebao was only seventeen or eighteen years old when that incident happened, but Zhao Tingxu was no child. So, it was Zhao Tingxu who made the most of the accusations that his cousin and the village accountant had a problem.

The result of that incident was that the two families broke off the engagement. Zhao Tingxu went to Wang Guixiang's house several times and eventually got back the betrothal money, about three or four hundred yuan. After that, my cousin got married at seventeen or eighteen to a bachelor in his forties, and lived out her life thereafter.

Of course, Zhao Da'e knew many things that happened forty or fifty years later, which Wang Shengli didn't know. Anyway, the future was very interesting.

As the eldest brother in the family, Wang Shengli naturally didn't like this kind of thing happening.

Wang Guixiang and Zhao Tiebao's aunts are also his sisters. It's ultimately not good to ruin things like this.

However, given the current situation of the Zhao family, Wang Shengli had no choice but to come to Zhao Tiebao's house.

Zhao Tiebao is currently on winter break. He has a son, Zhao Yongze, who is ten years old this year. His wife is from the next town, I think she's from the east side of Shuiquan River, but Wang Shengli has only heard rumors about her, so he's not entirely sure, but she's said to be very fierce.

Wang Shengli didn't think too much about it and went to Zhao Tiebao's house. There was a particularly large willow tree in front of the house, a weeping willow, with firewood piled under it and several bundles of sorghum stalks on the other side. Sorghum for brewing, as the name suggests, is sorghum used for brewing alcohol and is not edible. Its taste is particularly poor, but the yield is much higher, reaching approximately a thousand jin (500 kg). Ordinary sorghum, on the other hand, only yields five or six hundred jin (200-300 kg). Because of its high yield, but poor quality, it's only suitable for brewing alcohol.

The gate to the courtyard was a black iron gate.

The house is a single-story building with four rooms. It seems like they're living a pretty good life.

Just then, Wang Shengli called out, "Tiebao, come out. Your mother's home."

Whether Zhao Tiebao was inside or not was unknown, but after a while, Zhao Tiebao's wife, Wang, came out.

Wang was quite young, of medium height, with short hair, and dressed well. She came out and looked at Wang Guixiang and Wang Shengli with a look of disdain, saying, "What are you doing here? We separated our households a long time ago. My mother-in-law is going back to her own home. What is she doing here?"

Wang Shengli was stunned: "Where's Tiebao?"

Wang did not answer.

Wang Shengli had no choice but to say, "Your mother-in-law just got back, and she's having a fight with your second and third sons. If she goes back like this, your second and third sons might question her. Besides, no matter how you look at it, it's still unfilial of the sons. I'm thinking of having Tiebao go up and send a message, and have Tiesheng and Tiegang take your mother-in-law back."

Wang Shengli's thinking was actually quite simple: he could just go home, but if his son picked him up, the whole family would look better. It would also be better for the villagers to see.

After all, the mother was imprisoned and no one could redeem her. It was her husband, an old man in his eighties, who paid to redeem her and let his son take her home, which made things a little better.

Unexpectedly, Wang refused outright: "I don't care. You two go do whatever you need to do."

"So my uncle can't come to your house?" Wang Shengli said angrily.

“You’re not my uncle, why should I care about you?” Wang said, closing the door behind her.

Wang Guixiang: "..."

Wang Shengli: "..."

Left with no other option, the two had to walk home.

"Is the eldest son's wife like this?" Wang Shengli asked.

Wang Guixiang did not answer.

Wang Shengli sighed, "Girl, how did you become such a mother-in-law? My nephews are such scoundrels. They won't even let their own mother visit her sons. How will you manage when you get old?"

Finally, Wang Guixiang was taken home. Wang Shengli was so angry that he didn't even eat and turned around and left.

Wang Guixiang looked at the empty courtyard. Only Zhao Tingxu was sleeping on the kang (a heated brick bed) after drinking too much, and the third brother, Zhao Tiegang, was also sleeping in the west room after drinking too much. Zhao Tiesheng was also sleeping in the storeroom after drinking too much.

Wang Guixiang felt a lump in her throat and fainted from anger.