Chapter 1: Rural Absurd Tales Chapter 1: Shangou Village

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Protagonist:

Li Xiulan

1993.

Shangou Village.

The southern summer was stuffy and hot, like a steam room.

In the mulberry-filled terraced fields, cicadas chirped incessantly.

Li Xiulan's white "Dacron" shirt was soaked with sweat, the thin clothes clinging to her flesh, the pink underwear inside faintly visible, revealing the clear contours of her enviable figure.

Her slightly protruding belly was also especially noticeable.

Even though she was pregnant now, she still worked diligently.

Wearing a straw hat with her hair slightly messy, she picked mulberry leaves diligently with both hands while occasionally looking back at the field ridge of the mulberry field.

"Mom, when can we go home?"

On the field ridge were two children wearing open-crotch pants, the older one about three years old, the younger one about one year old, still unable to walk, crawling on the ground.

These were Li Xiulan's biological sons, the older one named Wang Dashan, the younger one named Wang Erhai.

The two children were dirty all over, black as coal balls, the kind that couldn't be washed clean.

Their skin had several mosquito bites, and they didn't cry much, just scratched from time to time.

"Dashan, don't rush, stay with your younger brother. After I fill this snake skin bag with mulberry leaves, we'll go back."

Li Xiulan had a simple smile on her face, patiently comforting them. She had already given birth to two children, and now she was pregnant with a third child.

The three-year-old Wang Dashan was very sensible, accompanying his toddling younger brother Wang Erhai without making noise, and even knew to pick mulberries for his brother to eat; both brothers had black mulberry juice all over their mouths.

Li Xiulan picked mulberry leaves desperately, not just because her two sons were hungry and she had to hurry home to make lunch, but also because the silkworm babies at home were waiting to be fed.

Those silkworm babies were her main source of income; absolutely nothing could happen to them.

Finally, after great difficulty, she finished picking the mulberry leaves, filling four large snake skin bags, and it was already noon.

It was time to go back.

But just then, sparse footsteps came from outside the mulberry field.

A middle-aged man appeared before Li Xiulan.

This middle-aged man was short and fat, with bronze skin, wearing a gray short-sleeved Dacron shirt and black pants with a belt, looking greasy with a big head and big ears.

He was none other than the Women's Federation Director of the village, Yang Dafu.

"Xiulan, I have something to discuss with you."

The stuffy weather made Yang Dafu's face look as if smeared with lard, and his big nose was like a stinking, rotting garlic clove.

"Director Yang, what is it?"

Li Xiulan stood stunned in place; she didn't know what business Yang Dafu had come all the way from the village to the mulberry field to find her for.

But she had already guessed in her heart that it probably wasn't anything good.

As expected.

"Family planning is strictly enforced now. You've already had two, and now you're pregnant again..."

Yang Dafu had a face full of false sympathy: "This makes it difficult for me as the Women's Federation Director. Why don't you have your husband take contraceptive measures?"

Li Xiulan remained expressionless, because she knew that Yang Dafu saying this meant the people from the Family Planning Office would soon come to the village to inspect.

It was said that those caught by the Family Planning Office would not only be fined but also taken for forced abortion; she didn't know if it was true or false.

"Thank you, Director Yang, for the reminder. I'll go to my maternal home to hide for a few days tomorrow."

Yang Dafu shook his head:

"You can run from the monk but not from the temple. You are now a serious over-quota household and have long been a key target of the town's Family Planning Office. If you run, will you abandon the valuable things in your home? Will you abandon the pigs you raise, the chickens you raise, and even the silkworms you raise?"

Li Xiulan felt very stifled in her heart. She really couldn't understand why her own belly couldn't be decided by her and her husband.

Actually, this time it wasn't an accidental pregnancy; it was simply because they had already had two sons, and Li Xiulan and her husband Wang Zhanggen wanted to try for a daughter.

Although her family was poor and suffered hardship, she would do her best to raise her own children.

She didn't think there was anything wrong with wanting to have children.

Having children was her own family's business; by what right did those people unreasonably interfere with her?

"How are they different from bandits entering the village?"

Li Xiulan's eyes were red; she didn't want to abort the child, nor did she want everything in her home to be ransacked.

She stood weakly and helplessly in place, her whole person sinking into despair.

Tears flowed silently.

Yang Dafu comforted her at this time:

"Don't cry. If you want to keep the child, there is a way."

Hearing these words, Li Xiulan saw a glimmer of light in the darkness and hurriedly asked eagerly:

"Director Yang, what is the way?"

"Send the children away, and I'll tell you."

Yang Dafu suddenly said such a sentence.

Li Xiulan found it baffling. Her two children were still so young and knew nothing; why did they need to be sent away?

But now she needed Yang Dafu, so she didn't think too much.

She immediately had her eldest son Wang Dashan take her youngest son Wang Erhai to play at a distant field ridge.

After the two children waddled away.

Yang Dafu watched Li Xiulan.

Li Xiulan's sweat-dampened Dacron shirt had a slit at the collar, just enough to peek at that soft white expanse.

Yang Dafu's gaze was complex yet wanton, and burning hot.

"Cough cough, Xiulan, your husband has been working in the City for several months after the New Year, have you ever thought about……"

"Thought about what?" Li Xiulan's expression changed, her gaze shifting from plea to vigilance.

And just then, Yang Dafu could no longer hold back, suddenly grabbing her, panting and nibbling at Li Xiulan's neck while urgently saying:

"Xiulan, just give me once, I've been dying for you, I know you want it too, right……"

Li Xiulan panicked and hurriedly pushed Yang Dafu away.

She felt a nauseating, sticky saliva on her neck below her ear, and hurriedly wiped it with her hand.

Yang Dafu pounced on her again shamelessly and held Li Xiulan.

Li Xiulan struggled desperately.

But the more she struggled, the more excited Yang Dafu became.

"Xiulan, as long as you submit to me, I will not only help you protect the child in your belly, I will also help you register all three children's household registration!"

Yang Dafu's sentence made Li Xiulan, who was still struggling, suddenly freeze.

Because of over-quota births, Li Xiulan's two sons had never been able to register their household registration.

In a few years the children would start school, and without household registration, schooling would be a major problem.

She and her husband Wang Zhanggen had long been worried about this, but their family was poor, with no money or connections, so the household registration matter could only be dragged on like this.

"Xiulan, do you know? You are truly too beautiful, your body bearing so many children for that brat Wang Zhanggen is simply a waste, it breaks my heart, that brat Wang Zhanggen doesn't know how to cherish beauty! I Yang Dafu know how to cherish beauty! Just submit to me, I will treat you well! I will give you money, and I will also help you take care of your children, I guarantee, once Wang Zhanggen returns, I will take the initiative to disappear! I won't let him know our secret!"

Seeing Li Xiulan frozen motionless, Yang Dafu pushed his luck even further.

He spoke while trembling, and hurriedly went to undo the buttons on Li Xiulan's chest.

Li Xiulan's mind went blank; the matter of the children's household registration seemed to truly be something only Yang Dafu, this Village Women's Federation Director, could help her find connections for……

Most importantly, whether the third child in her belly could be kept might depend on her single thought at this very moment.

To submit, or not to submit?