The snow had fallen all night, showing no sign of stopping.
In a thatched hut, the second to last house in the last row of Qingshan Village, it was dim and cramped. A worn-out Eight Immortals table was placed against the wall at the north end, with several people gathered around it. Chen Mantun, his pregnant wife Wu Chunmei, and his five children.
The room was very cold, and everyone shivered with their faces grim, yet no one bothered to start a fire. Fuel was limited, and besides, they weren't in the mood.
"This is all my fault. If I hadn't listened to Mother and quietly gotten some grain, Liu San'er wouldn't have found an excuse to grab it and blab about reporting me to the Revolutionary Committee. And Lishu wouldn't have argued with him and cracked her head."
"She wants twenty catties of grain? Where are we supposed to get that? If you could get grain, you wouldn't have to sneak out dried goods to trade in town. If the Revolutionary Committee really arrests you, how are we, your mother and children, supposed to live?" Wu Chunmei said, starting to cry.
"Yesterday, the comrade surnamed Lu from the educated youth point looked for me. He said he wants to marry our Lishu and is willing to offer a hundred yuan in betrothal gifts."
Wu Chunmei stopped crying. Although she couldn't get grain, a hundred yuan was more than enough to buy twenty catties of grain, with plenty left over. "But what about the Gu family? We're already engaged."
Chen Mantun was also troubled. He frowned for a long time before making up his mind, "Although they promised half a bag of grain and fifty yuan, there's news that Gu Xingdong already died outside. We can't be blamed for this, and we can't let our daughter become a widow."
...
The adobe walls weren't soundproof, and every word the couple spoke reached Chen Lishu's ears clearly.
She stared at the dark thatched roof for a long while before finally realizing that she had been reborn. She had been reborn back to the winter of 1975, when she was seventeen years old, before she married Lu Chengming, and before her tragic fate later on.
In her memory, it was this year that she broke off her engagement with the Gu family and married the educated youth Lu Chengming. She had naively thought she had found a good man. Who knew he was a wolf in sheep's clothing.
Not long after getting married, she became pregnant. During her pregnancy, Lu Chengming was involved with another educated youth. She chose to forgive him for the sake of her unborn child. But she didn't know that there are only zero or countless times for infidelity.
Later, when the educated youth returned to the city, she followed him back to his home in the city with their child. That was where the nightmare truly began.
Not only did she have to work like a beast of burden to take care of the whole family, but because of her rural background, she was always looked down upon by her husband's family due to her lack of a job. Lu Chengming turned a blind eye to all of it. He even resorted to violence when she protested a few times.
She thought that once the children grew up, they could finally endure the hardships. But she never expected him to get another woman pregnant at the factory and then drive her and their child out of the house.
With no face to return to her maiden home and no education of her own, she had to do manual labor in the city. Later, as life gradually improved, her health deteriorated.
"Then I'll go and break off the engagement with the Gu family. And I'll tell that young Lu. If this matter is settled soon, the family can live in peace."
Chen Lishu heard Chen Mantun get up outside. Without thinking further, she immediately got out of bed, put on her shoes, and rushed to the door.
"Dad, I'm not marrying Lu Chengming, I want to marry into the Gu family."
She didn't want any further entanglement with Lu Chengming. Even if all the men in the world were dead, she would never marry him again.
The Gu family was different. The two families were already betrothed. Moreover, since Gu Xingdong was gone, this was the best outcome for her.
Having experienced a failed marriage in her past life, a man was no longer a necessity for her. With the title of marriage, she wouldn't be pressured to marry, and she could do whatever she wanted.
At that time, she would earn money while studying, and in a couple of years, when the college entrance examination resumed, she would strive to get into a good university and secure a stable job. She thought about how comfortable such a life would be.
"That boy from the Gu family is already gone, and you'd be marrying into widowhood!" Wu Chunmei tried to persuade her earnestly, but her daughter was determined as if she had swallowed a plumb bob, insisting on marrying into the Gu family.
Helplessly, Chen Mantun sighed, picked up the dog-skin hat on the table, adjusted his tattered cotton jacket, and turned to go out.
As the door opened, the cold wind mixed with flying snow particles drilled into the room through the gap, and mother and daughter shivered in unison.
"Mom, I'm hungry," the youngest, Chen Lijuan, lifted her small face to look at Wu Chunmei.
Wu Chunmei's already sallow face darkened. She reached out and touched her sparse yellow hair, "Good girl, be patient. Your dad went out to get grain and will be back soon."
Hearing Wu Chunmei's words, Chen Lishu's delicate brows furrowed involuntarily.
Although she knew her family was poor, she hadn't expected them to be so destitute that they couldn't even cook a meal. She immediately thought that it made sense. In her previous life, she was so happy about her upcoming marriage to Lu Chengming that she hadn't paid attention to anything else.
The house was too dilapidated to be warm, and she was already freezing her hands and feet. Her gaze fell on the mud stove in the middle of the floor. She took two steps forward, picked up some firewood, and prepared to start a fire.
Seeing her actions, Wu Chunmei opened her mouth but finally said nothing.
"Big sister, I'll help you," the second daughter, Wu Liyuan, ran to the corner to grab a few branches.
The fire in the stove soon sprang to life, and the room gradually filled with a little warmth. The other children obediently gathered around Wu Chunmei. Chen Lishu watched the flickering fire, contemplating ways to earn money.
Given the family's current situation, if they didn't find a way to get some food, the whole family would likely not survive this winter.
Not long after, with a creak, the door was opened, and Chen Mantun returned from outside, carrying half a bag of grain on his shoulder.
He stomped his feet at the doorway and shook off the snow, then looked up with a smile, "The Gu family was very happy to hear that our Lishu was willing to marry into their family. As agreed, the wedding date is set for the eighteenth of this month."
Chen Lishu calculated in her mind that today was the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, and there were still ten days until the eighteenth.
With grain in hand, the family could finally cook. As the aroma of food filled the air, adults and children alike swallowed their saliva.
After eating, Chen Mantun set aside twenty catties of grain and delivered it to Liu San'er. Meanwhile, Chen Lishu had already tidied up the kitchen and had a clear understanding of the family's situation, finally realizing what destitution meant.
And she had never noticed these things in her previous life.
"Big sister, why are you taking out the goji berries that Mom dried?"
Chen Liyuan, seeing her sister's upper body emerge from a corner of the cabinet, couldn't help but ask curiously.
Chen Lishu didn't answer but asked in return, "Second sister, do we have anything similar to this?"
Chen Liyuan shook her head, her round, big eyes showing a hint of sadness. "We originally saved some chestnuts and pine nuts. Dad said he'd take them to town to sell, but he was tricked out of everything."
Chen Lishu was speechless upon hearing this. How could he be tricked like that?
However, what she didn't expect was that even more speechless things would happen later.