Chapter 04: A Man Who Brings Misfortune to His Wife

Lin Yingying caught the small medicine bottle, stamped her foot as she looked at the man’s departing back, and then cried out in pain.

The brigade leader hurriedly said, “Quick, take Educated Youth Lin back to see the doctor and make sure there’s no hidden injury. You can rest for the next few days and don’t need to work.”

For him to take the initiative to let Lin Yingying rest was already showing considerable concern. After all, in the countryside, there were incidents far more serious than startling the livestock, and as long as no one was seriously injured or dead, he generally would not take it to heart.

Ye Zhiting borrowed the brigade leader’s bicycle. “Lin Yingying, I’ll take you back first.”

Lin Yingying’s delicate, pretty face turned away as she haughtily rejected him. “No way, how could I possibly ride another man’s bicycle?”

Ye Zhiting’s handsome face turned as dark as it could get, and he growled in a low voice, “Stop making trouble!”

Ye Manman said, “Brother Ting, don’t be angry. Sister Yingying is already pitiful enough.”

After being held by such a rough man, it would be hard for her to marry in the future. Lin Yingying had no choice but to resort to this; what else could she do?

Enduring the pain, Lin Yingying twisted open the little bottle Huo Qingshan had given her. Immediately, a strong medicinal scent wafted out. Ah, this man was surprisingly considerate!

She scooped out a lump and first rubbed it into her palm. The moment the ointment touched the wound, a sharp, burning pain shot through, making her shiver involuntarily. She quickly spoke to divert her attention. “Brigade Leader, tell me, why did Huo Qingshan say that marrying him is as good as courting death?”

The brigade leader did not want to answer. After all, it was not a good matter, and it was better if too many people did not know.

Seeing that the brigade leader would not speak, Lin Yingying shot Ye Zhiting a sidelong glare. “You two step aside. My Brother Qingshan’s privacy is not for you to hear.”

Ye Zhiting was so angry that he trembled all over, unable to say a single word. In the end, he tossed Lin Yingying’s canteen onto the ground. “Fine, go ahead and make trouble. I can’t be bothered with you! Manman, let’s go!”

Ye Manman’s eyes were brimming with tears, looking as though she felt utterly sorry for Lin Yingying. “Brother Ting, don’t be angry with Sister Yingying. Didn’t you see how dangerous it was just now? How about you head back first, and I’ll stay with her.”

Ye Zhiting gave a cold laugh. “If you stay with her, she’ll just bully you.”

He shot Lin Yingying a hateful glare, really wanting to turn and walk away, never to bother with this arrogant and willful young lady again. But he was still worried she might have been scared witless.

Over on the other side, the brigade leader could not withstand Lin Yingying’s wheedling and pestering for even a second before he gave in.

Because Mother Huo had a stain on her background, she feared her son would have difficulty finding a wife when he grew up, so she wanted to arrange a childhood betrothal for him. She took a liking to a little girl from a certain family and planned to officially arrange the engagement after the girl turned eight. Unexpectedly, the girl fell ill and passed away. Misfortunes never come singly—when he was twelve years old, his father led the brigade in blasting a mountain for mining and died in an accident. As the eldest son, he shouldered the family’s burdens.

Later, when the county military recruitment office came to select new soldiers, although he was only fifteen, because he was tall and strong, skillful with his hands, and knew how to handle explosives, he was chosen to join the army. His mother, afraid that something might happen to him while serving, cried twice and decided to arrange a marriage for him first. That way, when he grew up and returned home on leave, he could consummate the marriage. Who knew that just when talks with the chosen family were underway, the girl accidentally fell into a deep ditch and died.

Huo Qingshan was a capable man. After joining the army at a young age, he trained and worked hard alongside a group of grown men. Not long after he arrived, he learned to drive and repair vehicles, became a squad leader, spent a year with the transport team, and then transferred to the reconnaissance company^[1]In the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) structure of the 1970s, a company (连 lián) was a military unit typically consisting of 100–150 soldiers, made up of several platoons (排 pái). It was … Continue reading. On his very first mission with the team, he rendered outstanding service, and upon returning, he was promoted to platoon leader.

By that time, he was eighteen. When he returned home on leave, the old lady wanted once again to arrange a marriage for him. She asked a matchmaker to introduce several young women, hoping to see which one would be suitable. Before she could decide, one of them drowned while washing clothes in the river.

No one knew who started spreading the rumor that he was destined to bring misfortune to his wife, but the other families no longer dared to proceed. No matter how fine a young man he was, a girl still had to have the fortune to marry him.

So it went until he became a company commander. Mother Huo thought that, with her son’s status, finding a wife would be easy. Yet before she could even send a matchmaker to visit, a young woman of suitable age was violated by a scoundrel.

It had nothing to do with him, yet some people in the countryside could not keep their mouths shut. They spoke nonsense, insisting on pinning it on him, and forcibly placed the iron hat of “a man who dooms his wife” on Huo Qingshan’s head.

The brigade leader sighed deeply. “I don’t even know whether to say his luck is simply too bad or what. He hasn’t even married yet, but he’s already burdened with the notorious label of bringing misfortune to his wife. In truth, his circumstances are good. If it came to it, he could find someone from outside the village, and outsiders wouldn’t know these old stories. But he doesn’t want to deceive anyone. Instead, he took the initiative to abandon the idea of marriage and told the old lady not to bother, nearly worrying his mother to death.”

Lin Yingying’s bright, water-clear eyes narrowed slightly, and she curled her lips. “Someone must have deliberately smeared his name.” Then she covered her mouth with a light laugh, a hint of shyness in her tone. “But if it weren’t for this, Brother Qingshan wouldn’t have been able to wait for me. Didn’t you say Madam Huo wants a daughter-in-law? If you put in a word for me, she would surely be overjoyed.”

If anyone else had said this, the brigade leader would have immediately scolded her for being shameless. But when Lin Yingying said it, he felt it was perfectly natural.

Standing so close to Lin Yingying, the brigade leader found that Educated Youth Lin’s beauty was enough to make one afraid to look directly at her. It could only be described as breathtaking, so one could imagine how the hot-blooded young men must feel.

“Educated Youth Lin, Qingshan is an honest and upright lad. Carrying such a bad reputation hasn’t been easy for him, and he’s become more and more serious and taciturn. He didn’t mean to be impolite to you, so don’t be angry. As for marrying him, just take it as a joke.”

He neither believed that Lin Yingying truly wanted to marry him nor thought the two of them were a good match. Although Huo Qingshan was handsome and capable, his temperament was cold and stern. He was reserved, disliked talking, and would never utter sweet words. He was definitely not the type to handle someone like Educated Youth Lin, who was as much like a celestial maiden as she was like an enchantress.

He suspected her words carried more mischief than sincerity. After all, to dare to publicly say she wanted to marry a man she barely knew—if she weren’t spoiled and used to having her way—such words would never have left her lips.

Lin Yingying wore an expression of absolute determination and said with great pride, “I just like men like him!”

At this moment, Ye Manman leaned in again and timidly asked, “Sister Yingying, doesn’t it hurt anymore?”

She knew Lin Yingying’s sensitivity to pain was greater than most people’s. This was something the doctor had said, not mere fussiness on Lin Yingying’s part. In the past, she could not bear even the slightest pain, so how was it that today, after all the bumps and knocks, she was not insisting on going to the hospital?

Lin Yingying rolled her eyes at her, then let out an “aiya” and flopped down onto the pile of wheat straw beside her, pretending to faint. After all, she had suffered such a fright—no one could say fainting was going too far!

In the end, Lin Yingying had no interest in sitting on Ye Zhiting’s bicycle. She lay in the cart and was pulled back. So as not to scare her, the brigade leader specifically refrained from hitching up any livestock and pulled the cart himself.

When they arrived at the educated youth point, the barefoot doctor was already there waiting to examine Lin Yingying.

The doctor had no fondness for these educated youths sent to the countryside, especially not for this delicate yet reportedly hot-tempered Educated Youth Lin. In a gruff voice, she told Lin Yingying to undress for the examination.

Lin Yingying did not refuse. Seeing a doctor was nothing to be shy about in her mind, so she straightforwardly undressed until she was wearing nothing but her cute little pink-trimmed undergarments.

The female doctor’s face instantly flushed so red it seemed it might drip blood.

Th-this Lin Yingying was far too shameless… and her figure… it was far too perfect, so much so that one hardly dared to look straight at her. A single glance was enough to make the blood rush to the head, as though about to get a nosebleed.

Her skin was snowy white and flawless, her figure curving generously at the front and back, with long, well-proportioned legs. One could say there was not a single part of her from head to toe that was not exquisite. Yet her skin was so delicate that even a light pinch would leave it red, let alone after being tossed about so roughly. The bruises mottling her body were startling to see.

Fortunately, there was no damage to her internal organs or bones.

The female doctor even felt a twinge of pity for such beauty and carefully prepared a folk medicinal recipe for Lin Yingying. She instructed her to boil the herbs into a wash to clean and soak the injured areas, so the bruises would fade more quickly without leaving any pigmentation that might mar that snowy-white skin.

Thus, Lin Yingying could openly recuperate without having to go out and harvest wheat, all while enjoying bowls of egg noodles sent over by the brigade leader’s wife.

To avoid unnecessary trouble, the brigade leader gave strict orders that no one was to speak of how Huo Qingshan had rescued Lin Yingying, especially not a single word about the rolling and holding. Anyone who did would have to bear the blame for injuring Educated Youth Lin. He was still investigating the matter of the spooked ox, after all.

But while he could control the commune members, he could not keep the educated youths in check. By the time the commune members returned for their meal, nearly everyone knew that Lin Yingying had been held and embraced by a man named Huo Qingshan, and that she had even declared on the spot she wanted to marry him.

A few male educated youths immediately jumped to their feet in righteous indignation. That was right—they readily admitted to admiring Lin Yingying.

She was delicate and strikingly beautiful, with skin like snow, more stunning than the leading ladies of the cultural or theatrical troupes. Marrying her would be a joy just to look at her every day. What was more, she came from a good family; her father was an old revolutionary and, at present, a man with real authority who had not been sidelined. Whoever married Lin Yingying would have a secure life, with children and grandchildren all rising to success. In their eyes, any man who said he did not want to marry her was either pretending or blind.

Take Huo Qingshan for example—if anyone failed to show proper attentiveness to their goddess, it was as if they were insulting their faith.

When Ye Manman heard several male educated youths making a ruckus, her face flushed red with anger. “Can you keep quiet and not disturb Sister Yingying’s rest? And stop talking about Company Commander Huo.”

But in the next moment, they saw Lin Yingying swaying gracefully out the door under her little floral parasol, her hand still wrapped in thick gauze, looking every bit the image of someone wounded yet determined—especially pitiful and endearing.

Ye Manman hurried to catch up. “Sister Yingying, tell me what you’re going to do.”

Lin Yingying cast her a cool glance. “Go find your Brother Ting and stop bothering me.” With that, she lifted her beautiful head proudly and walked off, leaving Ye Manman’s eyes reddening.

She spotted a group of children playing and waved to them. “Kids, big sister has candy. Come here!”

The moment they heard there was candy, the children ran over happily, mouths open and eyes wide as they looked at her, their gazes filled with the unabashed amazement of youth.

Because Lin Yingying was so beautiful and pristine, and because she was holding the floral silk parasol that had only been made for the “fairy” in the stilt-walking troupe, the children simply took her for a fairy herself.

Lin Yingying reached into her little handbag, scooped out a handful of fruit candies, and bent forward gracefully to hand them out. “One piece each. If you see Huo Qingshan coming back, you have to tell me. Whoever tells me will get another reward.”

“Alright!” The children were overjoyed, stuffing the candies into their mouths. From that moment on, they decided they were the eyes and ears of Fairy Lin and that they must help her keep watch for Huo Qingshan.

A slightly shy boy asked timidly, “Um… could you tell us a story?”

Lin Yingying’s eyes lit up. She reached out a slender, fair finger and gently brushed it across his dirty cheek, smiling softly. “Of course I can. A child who knows to ask for a story will receive candy that never runs out.”

On the third morning, a group of muddy little rascals came running barefoot, their feet slapping against the ground. Because some ran faster and some slower, they stretched into a long line, all shouting loudly, “Educated Youth Lin, your Qingshan is back—”

Huo Qingshan, riding in on horseback and covered in the dust of travel: “???”