Chapter 644: The Fifty-Year-Old Daughter-in-Law System (1)

"Mingcheng's mother, I heard your Mingcheng has achieved great success and been promoted to a Cadre. When will he come to pick you up to enjoy life in the city?"

"Need you ask! Mingcheng is the most filial to my Old Zhuang, perhaps in a few days he will come personally to pick up Old Zhuang and his wife to enjoy life in the city!"

"I heard that people in the city eat supply grain; no matter how the harvest is in the fields, they never go hungry."

"That's what they say! Otherwise, why would everyone be hoping to move to the city?"

At the river pier in Shili Village, several women were chatting enthusiastically while gripping wooden clubs to beat their dirty clothes.

The protagonist of their conversation—Zhuang Mingcheng's mother, Qiu Caohua—was beaming with joy.

Her son had become a Cadre! And a Cadre in Beijing at that! This was the first time such a thing had happened in Shili Village!

So many young men in the village had thrown themselves into the revolution, but her son was the only one who had been promoted and would remain in the big city as an official!

No one else's son was as successful as her Mingcheng!

"Looking at it this way, Xie Yun really had a good eye! He had his daughter married to your Mingcheng early on. As things stand now, with your Mingcheng's ability, finding a city girl wouldn't be any trouble at all."

"If you ask me, marrying the daughter of a Cadre family is what you call a perfect match!"

Qiu Caohua's smile faltered, and a look of guilt flashed across her eyes.

She thought of what her son had instructed in his letter: absolutely do not let his Child Bride know that he had married in the city, and that he had married the daughter of his direct superior, which would be of immense help to his future career.

He also urged the family to send the Child Bride away.

In any case, this marriage took place before the founding of the country, and it was only because Xie Yun was dying and wanted to find a secure backing in the village for his thirteen-year-old daughter that he approached the Zhuang family, who were dirt poor but honest and quiet, and used two gold bars to facilitate the marriage.

Before the Zhuang family could follow Xie Yun's request to hire a matchmaker and formally present the betrothal gifts, he passed away from illness.

He left behind his only flesh and blood, Xie Yang, who was taken back by the Old Zhuang Family in the capacity of a "Child Bride."

Originally, since Xie Yun was dead, the fact that they had received his two gold bars was known only to heaven, to them, and to the Old Zhuang Family; no one else knew, so what if they reneged on it?

But thinking that Xie Yun could produce two small gold Fish, there was no guarantee there wasn't a third, a fourth... or even a large jar full.

After all, the Xie Family ancestors ran a tailor shop in the city, specializing in custom-made long gowns and cheongsams for the wealthy, and their income was not small.

Later, when the city became chaotic due to the war, Xie Yun brought his pregnant wife back to Shili Village.

If they reneged on this marriage, they would get at most two bars, but if they took Xie Yang home as the Zhuang family's daughter-in-law, wouldn't whatever inheritance Xie Yun left her belong to the Old Zhuang Family?

Thus, the original owner, at only thirteen years old, became Zhuang Mingcheng's Child Bride from then on.

At this moment, Xie Yang, who had already replaced the original owner as the Zhuang family's Child Bride: "..."

This was the "honest and quiet" husband's family that the original owner's father had carefully selected for his daughter?

They were old and quiet, alright?

Being dirt poor was certainly true!

Before receiving the gold bars from Xie Yun, the Old Zhuang Family couldn't even afford a meal of dry rice, eating only coarse vegetable porridge so thin one could see their own reflection in it; their clothes were also years-old rags covered in patches that they didn't dare wash vigorously for fear of tearing.

Especially in winter, the men in the family took turns wearing one pair of cotton-padded trousers, and the women took turns wearing one cotton-padded jacket.

The men who weren't wearing the trousers huddled on the kang and didn't go out. The women without the jacket didn't have that luxury; they still had to wash clothes and cook while wearing thin, unlined garments.

It was only after receiving the gold bars that Xie Yun had given them to prepare the betrothal gifts that the Old Zhuang Family's life began to improve.

The first year the original owner "married" into the Zhuang family, life was not too bad; at least she could eat a meal of dry rice every few days and see some meat a few times a month.

But as the money from the gold bars was nearly spent, and under Qiu Caohua's explicit and implicit hints, the original owner never produced more gold bars to subsidize the husband's family, and even claimed her father had left her no inheritance, the original owner's good days came to an end!

After that, she slept in the woodshed, ate slop, and her few good clothes were snatched away by Qiu Caohua for her two daughters to wear, while she did the dirtiest and most tiring work and frequently became the Old Zhuang Family's punching bag, suffering endless abuse from her mother-in-law.

Her nominal husband, Zhuang Mingcheng, looked down on this bean-sprout-like Child Bride and, because he was teased by other children his age in the village, felt extreme disgust toward the original owner.

Later, as revolution broke out across the country, he followed like-minded companions and hopped a train to leave Shili Village.

Qiu Caohua had given birth to seven children, but because they were too poor, she gave away two and two died young; in the end, the only son left by her side was Zhuang Mingcheng. The two daughters would eventually be someone else's wives, so her son was the apple of her eye.

She never expected that her son would be gone for years without a word, and she had nearly cried her old eyes blind.

She blamed the original owner for her son's departure and failure to return, cursing her as a jinx and a bringer of misfortune! She had no ability to hold onto her son's heart and even caused him to not want to return home.

If it weren't for the fact that the original owner was hardworking and capable, she would have been divorced long ago.

It was precisely because with her there, Qiu Caohua didn't have to work in the fields or even worry about housework; aside from the food and lodging not being great, having someone to serve her was not much different from the landlords before liberation.

That was why she kept the original owner year after year. If she really drove her away, Qiu Caohua's life would not be so comfortable.

But keeping her didn't mean she wouldn't torment her.

In any case, the Xie family was all dead, and with no maternal family to back her up, who would care if a mother-in-law tormented her daughter-in-law?

The original owner had lost her mother in childhood and her father just as she entered the ignorant stage of puberty; no one taught her what it was like to be a normal daughter-in-law. Hearing Qiu Caohua and other mothers-in-law in the village often say "marry a chicken, follow the chicken; marry a dog, follow the dog," she assumed that marrying into a husband's family meant she had to work like an ox or a horse and give her all, so she was hardworking and never once harbored any thoughts of resistance.

While the original owner had been working like an ox or a horse for the Old Zhuang Family all these years, Zhuang Mingcheng had indeed carved out a path for himself, becoming an envied Cadre and catching the eye of his direct superior, becoming his superior's son-in-law.

With a beautiful wife in his arms, while feeling smug and satisfied, he inevitably thought of the Child Bride back home. While feeling disdain and contempt, he wrote a letter home to his parents, asking them to divorce the Child Bride for him.

In any case, there was no betrothal document, nor had they registered the marriage; he just needed them to find an excuse to drive her away.

Besides the letter, he also sent money and gifts to show filial piety to his parents, but he didn't mention a word about taking them to Beijing to enjoy life.

Qiu Caohua and her husband pondered that it couldn't be that their son wasn't filial; it must be that the new city daughter-in-law wasn't willing.

After all, she was the daughter of a Cadre family, so it was understandable that she didn't like her rural parents-in-law.

Moreover, the money their son sent back was enough for them to build an impressive new house in the village, so not going to Beijing was fine too.

They said that houses in the city were like pigeon cages; perhaps they weren't as comfortable or free to live in as the house in the countryside.

But if they didn't go to Beijing, and the Child Bride was divorced, who would serve them and care for them in their old age?

Qiu Caohua, who was used to having everything handed to her and doing no work, hesitated for a long time, discussed it with her husband for half the night, and finally decided to keep the Child Bride without telling her son.