Chapter 604: Building a Plank Road in the Open

Su Ya suddenly saw Su Juan and Su Mei, and was so shocked that her mouth hung open wide enough to fit a fist.

After the three women stared at each other for a moment, they suddenly embraced, weeping with joy.

Chen Meng and I stood to one side, watching them cry and laugh. These three women, who had once met in a foreign land, had come to know and understand each other through a shared ideal.

They had all come from the mainland, but their methods were different. Su Ya had been adopted by her great-uncle from her own clan since she was a child, so she had come over openly and legitimately. Su Juan and Su Mei were different; they had smuggled themselves over by boat in the dark of night, two people without identities.

Su Ya's great-uncle had drifted to Macau in his early years, relying on odd jobs to make a living. He had never married in his life, so naturally, he had no descendants. But as people age, they always hope for someone to care for them, so he returned to the mainland and tried every possible way to bring Su Ya to his side. The great-uncle was uneducated and had no roots in Macau, so of course, he could not provide Su Ya with much of an education. Although he raised her, he could not give her the life of an ordinary person.

Therefore, Su Ya entered society early, struggling and busy for her livelihood. Despite this, she had always relied on her own labor to eat; although it was hard, she felt at peace with herself.

Su Juan and Su Mei were different. Their families were poor, and being girls, they had been looked down upon since childhood. Both of them had only finished the third grade of primary school before being forced to drop out and stay home to help their families raise pigs, herd cattle, and gather firewood.

Su Juan was a person with high aspirations. She did not complain about her poor background, but only regretted that she lacked the strength. Not only could she not change her family's life, but she could not even change her own circumstances.

It wasn't until one day when there was a market fair in the township that Su Juan asked Su Mei to go with her to buy yarn. Winter was coming, and someone had asked Su Juan to knit a sweater for five yuan.

Su Juan hadn't read many books, but she was clever and dexterous. This was especially evident in knitting; she could replicate any complex stitch or pattern perfectly after just one glance.

At that time, the two girls were already twenty years old and had grown into beauties. Many people had asked matchmakers to intervene, almost wearing down their doorstep by three inches. Su Juan would not give in regarding marriage, and since Su Mei was younger than her, she naturally felt embarrassed to marry first.

According to the local customs, girls of their age should have been mothers of one or two children. Su Juan refused to marry, which provoked many passionate boys to come and sing under her window every night. No matter how much affection or effort others put in, Su Juan's heart remained like a pool of tranquil water, unmoved by the wind and rain, without a single ripple.

A young girl's budding love is natural. Su Juan's refusal to marry was not because she wanted to remain single, but because there was someone in her heart—the son of her former teacher.

The teacher's son also knew that Su Juan liked him. He had once snuck into Su Juan's village in the middle of the night, pulling her to sit by the lotus pond to watch the moon, staying for half the night. Later, the teacher's son was admitted to a university far away. On the night before he left, he asked Su Ya out, again to watch the moon by the lotus pond, until the dew dampened their hair, and only then did the teacher's son muster the courage to kiss her.

Su Juan was shy at first, standing as still as a stone statue, not even knowing how to open her mouth to respond. The boy was clumsy and impatient, groaning in frustration, and before he knew it, one of his hands pressed against her chest. At this touch, the two were like dry wood catching fire, and they immediately consummated their fleeting union in a haystack by the lotus pond.

Before leaving, the boy held Su Juan and swore that as soon as he graduated, he would return to marry her.

Su Juan's heart felt as if it had been filled with honey, incredibly sweet, and she believed his words implicitly. After seeing him off with teary eyes the next day, she began to wait at home with single-minded devotion for him to come and marry her.

The boy studied away for four years and only returned once in between. On the night he returned, they still met by the lotus pond to watch the moon, only the lotus pond was no longer there, leaving only a deep, dark pool of water.

The lack of lotus leaves did not interfere with their affection. The boy was hungry and thirsty for Su Juan, and as soon as he arrived, he held her and begged for intimacy. Su Juan could not bear to refuse him, and just as they were being intimate, they were discovered by a fellow villager who had come out at night to look for a lost cow.

Su Juan happened to be naked, shivering under the beam of a flashlight. After the boy scrambled to put on his pants, he pointed at Su Juan and cursed, saying she had seduced him. He was a dignified university student; no matter what, he could never have taken a fancy to a rural girl like her. If she hadn't seduced him, he could never have done such an outrageous thing.

Su Juan was surprised that he would say such things. Remembering that he was a university student, his skin was naturally thinner than most, so she didn't take his accusations to heart and even helped him smooth things over, saying that it was indeed she who had seduced him.

For women in the countryside, chastity is the most important thing in their lives. Especially for unmarried women, chastity is more important than life itself.

If a woman had illicit relations with someone before marriage, her reputation would be ruined to the extreme. Except for marrying a mentally disabled or crippled man who couldn't find a wife, dreaming of marrying into a normal family was not even worth the effort.

Su Juan sacrificed her reputation in the hope that the boy would marry her; as long as he married her, the issue of reputation would cease to exist.

Who would have expected that after the boy left, there would be no more news. Su Juan had wanted to go to the place where he studied to find him several times, but unfortunately, she didn't know exactly where he was, so she could only wait at home with longing for him to come and marry her.

Su Juan asked Su Mei to go to the market to buy yarn, but in fact, she had another motive: to see if the boy had returned.

The boy's family had moved to the town a few years ago. His father was now a cadre in the township education office, and his mother was a teacher in charge of instruments at the township middle school.

Su Mei did not understand Su Juan's thoughts. The two of them had grown up together since childhood, and they even took turns wearing the same clothes.

Su Mei was less than a year younger than Su Juan, but she relied on Su Juan as if she were a dozen years younger. If Su Juan didn't marry, Su Mei certainly wouldn't marry either.

The two arrived at the market, bought the yarn, and browsed the various goods on the street while walking toward the middle school.

Before they even reached the school gate, they saw a lively scene ahead with blowing and beating. Su Mei was young at heart and loved to watch the excitement. As soon as she heard the sound of the suona and gongs and drums, she knew it was either a wedding or a marriage.

Su Juan was unwilling to go at first; what did other people's weddings have to do with her? No matter how lively it was, it was someone else's excitement, and no matter how happy, it was someone else's happiness.

But Su Mei clamored that she must go and see, and Su Juan couldn't resist her, so she had to follow her to watch the excitement.

Just as they reached the school gate, Su Juan saw the words on the balloon arch at a glance, and her vision went black, and she almost fell down.

It turned out that the names of the people getting married were written on the balloon arch, but the bride was not her.

Su Juan thought she had misread it, steadied herself, specifically took out a handkerchief to wipe her eyes, and looked again, but it was still that name that haunted her dreams.

She stood still, her legs unable to move another step forward.

Su Mei knew her story with the boy. She wasn't as temperament-less as Su Juan. After seeing it, a wave of anger rose from the soles of her feet. She rushed to the balloon arch in two or three steps, picked up the scissors she was carrying, and poked at the balloon arch.

The balloon arch was poked a few times by her, and it immediately leaked air and fell down limply.

This was outrageous! The host's family was about to come over to beat Su Mei. Su Mei glared at them angrily and cursed: "Chen Shimei, Chen Shimei, come out!"

When the boy learned that it was Su Juan and the others causing trouble, he refused to come out to see them even if he died.

In the end, the host's family called the police, and the police took Su Juan and Su Mei to the police station for the night. In the middle of the night, Su Juan learned from the police that the woman the boy married was also from the town, but the girl's father was the richest man in the whole town.

When she came out of the police station the next day, Su Juan concluded a hard truth: in this day and age, without money, even love cannot be expressed!

Su Juan had held onto hope the first time she lost face, but after losing face this time, she was already in despair.

Once a person's heart is dead, they are just a walking corpse.

One winter, Su Juan didn't even step out of the front door. On the third day of the Lunar New Year, she took Su Mei with her to Zhuhai to seek refuge with a distant cousin.

Su Juan and the others hadn't figured out what kind of business Su Juan's cousin was actually in even after they had been there for nearly half a month.

Su Juan wanted her cousin to help them find work, saying that she felt uneasy eating for free every day. The cousin laughed and agreed verbally, saying he was looking, but that night he called Su Juan and the others to eat, saying that some big bosses from Macau had come and were his business partners.

Su Juan was unwilling to go at first, but she couldn't resist her cousin's entreaties. Remembering that she and Su Mei had been eating and living at his place for half a month without earning a single cent, she thought that since they were her cousin's friends, helping her cousin was helping herself.

So she took Su Mei with her to eat. That night, they drank a lot of alcohol, and under the repeated urging of the table of men, the two of them drank quite a bit.

Su Juan could still see people clearly at first, but by the time she realized she couldn't drink anymore and looked at Su Mei, all she saw were blurry shadows.

When she woke up the next day, she heard Su Mei crying heart-wrenchingly in the next room. She ran over to look and saw Su Mei completely naked, her skin covered in blue and purple bruises, and even her delicate breasts had been bitten until they bled.

Su Juan understood that she had fallen into her cousin's trap, and when she went to look for him again, she couldn't even find a ghost of him.

Su Juan and the others hadn't brought much money when they came, and the cousin's disappearance left them unable to move. Just when the two were at their wit's end, the cousin appeared and handed Su Mei ten thousand yuan, saying it was compensation for her.

Su Mei refused to take the money; she wanted to fight the cousin to the death.

The cousin laughed and said that this was an era that laughed at poverty but not at prostitution. Only when people have money can they be superior to others; without money, they are nothing!

This sentence was like a heavy hammer, striking Su Juan's heart. She grabbed her cousin and said: "From now on, the two of us are your people. You must help us become people superior to others."

The cousin agreed readily. After seeing Su Mei lose her chastity, Su Juan understood what kind of person her cousin was. She knew that she and Su Mei had walked right into a trap, and wanting to walk out unscathed was harder than ascending to heaven!

Su Mei had no mind of her own; she had followed Su Juan's lead her whole life. Whatever Su Juan said to do, she had no further objections.

Thus, the world lost two swallows and gained two stray warblers! ===== CHAPTER 605 =====