Text: Sister Ping who loves words
Picture: From the Internet
For some unknown reason, recently I often think of Li Guihua, a woman from my husband’s village. I even miss her very much, her voice and smile often flash through my mind. It’s just that I haven’t seen her in years.
When I first married into my husband’s family, my dull husband told me a vivid story.
is talking about Li Guihua. When she married Yang Jiayi in the village, she was unwilling to have sex with Yang Jiayi for more than a month because she was helping her brother change her marriage. Yang Jiayi was honest and kind by nature. Maybe he couldn't hold it in any longer, so he told his family about Li Guihua not sleeping with him.
Good things don't go out, but bad things spread thousands of miles. Everyone in the village knew about it and regarded it as a joke.
Several old men in the village tried to hurt Yang Jiayi, saying that if Li Guihua doesn't sleep with you next time, they will spank her with a mallet until she submits.
Li Guihua’s home is at the entrance of the village. Every time I come back from the street, I have to pass by her door. Li Guihua greets me with a smile every time she sees me, and always asks if I have eaten yet.
At that time, I had just married in that village and was relatively unfamiliar with the place. When I met such a kind woman like Li Guihua, I was filled with joy. After going back and forth, I got to know Li Guihua and got to know her family situation.
Li Guihua’s eldest daughter Tingting is seven or eight years old, and her son Erchun is four or five years old. Because Li Guihua has two and a half-year-old children, the door is always open, so she often does chores at the door.
That Yang Jiayi is slow, speaks slowly, and looks like his IQ is not online. The old people in the village often say that Yang Jiayi has one thing and is a fool. If his little sister hadn't helped him change his marriage, he would have been the bachelor.
Li Guihua disliked Yang Jiayi from the bottom of her heart, but since she married him, she finally had to give in. I don’t know if Yang Jiayi defeated Li Guihua.
Yang Jiayi has no skills. Every year on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, he goes to Shanghai to work with the villagers. Yang Jiayi does small jobs on the construction site.
When Yang Jiayi goes out, there is always a handsome and tall man in Li Guihua's house who comes to live at Yang Jiayi's house. Li Guihua called him Xiaoshuang affectionately, with gentle eyes. Xiaoshuang usually stays at Li Guihua's house for several months at a time.
Xiaoshuang brought a fishing net and a ground cage for catching yellow worms. Every night, he went to the nearby fields to lower the yellow worm cages and also used the net to catch fish. This is the happiest time for adults and children in Li Guihua's family. Every day at noon, her family either eats fish or grills shrimps , and occasionally stir-fries a yellow frog.
Xiaoshuang seems to be very good at fishing, catching yellow snakes, and often carries some fish and yellow snakes to sell on the street.
The affair between Li Guihua and Xiao Shuang was also widely spread among the villagers, and it was an open secret in the village. Li Guihua's mother-in-law's family didn't pay attention to her things. They knew that their son was not smart, so they just followed Li Guihua.
Although Li Guihua had an affair with the twins, she was a good wife and mother. She took care of the housework and farm work all day long, and took care of her son and daughter. Her life was very hard.
What’s amazing is that Li Guihua’s eldest daughter Tingting looks exactly like Xiaoshuang. Later I found out that Li Guihua and Xiaoshuang grew up in the same village and were childhood sweethearts.
When Li Guihua was a girl at home, she had a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship with Xiaoshuang. The two were a very well-matched couple. Her family forced Li Guihua to change her brother's marriage. Li Guihua, who was pregnant with the twins, was forced to marry Yang Jiayi.
Everyone in the village knows that Li Guihua’s eldest daughter is the twin of the younger one. Because their father and daughter look so much alike, they can't hide it.
Xiaoshuang never married a wife because he and Li Guihua had a daughter. It stands to reason that Xiaoshuang's conditions are good, so it is not difficult to get a wife and have children.
As time goes by, Li Guihua’s family regards Xiaoshuang as a relative.When Yang Jiayi was at home, Xiaoshuang also came to stay at Li Guihua's house. The troublemakers in the village often instigate Yang Jiayi to chase Xiaoshuang away. The honest Yang Jiayi said, "You guys are really nosy. I don't even care about my wife. What the hell are you doing?"
To a certain extent, Li Guihua has a husband and a lover, which is against public order and good customs. But her husband Yang Jiayi didn't mind. It seemed that the three of them had agreed to live together peacefully without any quarrels or arguments.
Li Guihua’s eldest daughter, Tingting, has a very good relationship with Xiaoshuang. Her son, Erchun, looks like Yang Jiayi. Growing up, these two children did not chase Xiaoshuang away, and seemed to be used to Xiaoshuang’s existence.
There is a Widow Wang next door to my house. Her husband was accidentally electrocuted while pulling electricity to irrigate the crops. When Widow Wang was busy farming, she had to do the heavy work alone, carrying one heavy load and one light load. She was often exhausted and full of resentment.
Widow Wang often said to herself that I can't get a man, but she, Li Guihua, has no shame in having two men at home. Sometimes Widow Wang even insulted Li Guihua in person. Li Guihua was mild-tempered and only responded with a few words and had no temper.
Widow Wang is such a fierce person. Her husband has been dead for many years, but no man dares to ask Widow Wang to be his wife. Widow Wang was tall, fat, and extremely strong. She was angry like a dominatrix, and she also brought a son to drag her down. Which man dares to marry her.
Widow Wang was just jealous of Li Guihua, and would scold Li Guihua from time to time to vent her anger. This is also a strange thing. Whether Widow Wang can find a man or not has nothing to do with Li Guihua.
These things in rural areas are so confusing that they cannot be explained clearly. In fact, sometimes people's lives are even more ridiculous than those TV series. People don't know what to say.
People in the village were even more angry than her husband when they talked about Li Guihua, which surprised me. I don't like to meddle in other people's business. Besides, it’s not my turn to care about Li Guihua.
When my son was young, Li Guihua’s son Erchun often played with my son. At that time, like Xianglin’s wife, I often talked about when my son would be as old as Erchun. Li Guihua often comforted me with a smile. She was very happy, as a child can learn from the wind.
Although Li Guihua has two men, she is gentle and kind-hearted by nature. She never causes trouble in the village, and she is not a showy woman. She respects her mother-in-law, gets along well with her sister-in-law, and is always kind to others. In that village, Li Guihua was my favorite woman.
Getting along with her was like taking a breath of fresh air. Because the child was young at that time, he always took the child to play with her son Erchun.
People in life cannot be simply defined by good or bad. In such impoverished rural areas, many women cannot choose their own path, but are forced to move forward by fate and suffering.
In life, there are not many things that a person can decide by himself. Most of us are products of the times and environment, and we also have an indescribable destiny.
Don’t say that I have incorrect views, and don’t criticize me. I am sincere about writing, but I am just copying life. It's not like those asshole experts who propose "monogamy".
