Chapter 21

“Sister Wei, Captain Shen is getting married today. Did you hear about it?”

In the yard of Room 13, Bai Hongmei sat on a stone, rubbing a large basin of dirty clothes in front of her vigorously.

He looked up at his neighbor Li Yan and raised his eyebrows with a half-smile.

“Captain Shen is getting married? I haven’t heard of that.”

“Hey, Brother Hao didn’t come back last night. Did you hear my Wei Dong tell you about the mission?”

Li Yan’s hand holding the wash basin froze for a moment, and she praised with a forced smile.

“You are so attentive. I don’t even know what Lao Hao was doing last night. I was so sleepy waiting for him for half the night.”

“After all this time, your Weidong knows where Old Hao is. He didn’t even tell me. My aunt loves him very much…”

Bai Hongmei chuckled, pinching her throat: “How can you take a child’s words seriously? What if he heard it from someone else? If he told you, and you locked the door and waited for Brother Hao to come back, you would have to sleep in the yard.”

Li Yan only hated herself for being slow-witted and stupid, as she couldn’t think of any words to respond to Bai Hongmei.

She cursed in her heart: Humph, you really take me for a fool. You two must have deliberately not told me. This kind of thing has happened several times since Bai Hongmei moved in with her children.

Whenever she got angry, Bai Hongmei would either bow and apologize to her in front of other family members, or go to her husband, Lao Hao, to complain. It was as if she was being unreasonable and bullying an orphan and a widow.

Li Yan thought about how she was the one who volunteered to lend half of her house to Bai Hongmei. She felt so upset that she wanted to beat herself to death.

I thought she would just stay for ten days or half a month and then leave, but I didn’t expect that she would stay at my house for three months with three children and four big mouths to feed.

If Captain Shen hadn’t sent her some rice, flour, oil and rations from time to time, Li Yan would have gone crazy.

Thinking of Shen Xiao, who shared the same fate with her family, Li Yan looked at Bai Hongmei with glee.

“Wei family, you are always supported by Captain Shen. How much gift money do you plan to give back to him when he gets married this time?”

When Bai Hongmei heard Li Yan bring up the topic of Shen Xiao’s marriage again, a hint of annoyance flashed in her eyes.

“I told you, Captain Shen doesn’t have a partner yet, how can he get married?”

Li Yan pretended to be surprised: “Ah? Don’t you know? Today is Captain Shen’s lucky day. The bride brought a six-horse carriage of dowry, which caused a sensation in the entire family compound.”

Bai Hongmei’s face changed drastically, her eyes ferocious: “Impossible, they went on a mission last night, how could they get married today?”

Li Yan looked at Bai Hongmei’s jealous and angry expression, and felt a sense of revenge in her heart. She covered her mouth and took a breath: “You really don’t know?”

“I was saying that, based on the relationship between your old Wei and Captain Shen, how could you not go over to help him get married?”

Bai Hongmei looked unhappy and was panting heavily. She was about to argue with Li Yan when a little girl with pigtails and as dirty as a black coal ball ran in.

Li Yan saw the child, frowned and screamed: “Wei Hong, did you go rolling in the coal pile? How come you are so dirty? What’s on your hair? It’s all sticky…”

Wei Hong held two candies in her hands and one in her mouth, and ran excitedly to Bai Hongmei.

“Mom, sugar, sugar.”

Bai Hongmei felt much better when she saw the candy in her daughter’s hand.

He looked at Wei Hong with a smile: “Who gave you the candy?”

Bai Hongmei thought of something and her eyes lit up: “Is it your Uncle Shen who is back? Your Uncle Shen loves you the most, so he must have given it to you, right?”

Wei Hong shook her head and said with a smile: “Bride, the bride gave it to me.”

“Bride? Whose bride?”

Bai Hongmei didn’t expect that someone would get married in the family compound today. Her heart skipped a beat and she had a very bad feeling.

“I told you, Captain Shen is getting married today. Everyone in the streets around our family compound knows that Captain Shen’s second aunt has arranged a good marriage for him.”

Bai Hongmei took her children back to her parents’ home a few days ago. Yesterday, there was a misunderstanding at the supply and marketing cooperative in the city, which made her lose face in front of Shen Xiao.

She planned to invite Shen Xiao to her home for dinner in the evening and take the opportunity to explain what happened during the day. Unexpectedly, Shen Xiao took a task halfway and found a truck to send them back, leaving without even saying goodbye.

Bai Hongmei refused to believe it. It was just one night since they last met, so how could Shen Xiao get married?

“impossible!”

She roughly pulled her little daughter over and loudly asked Wei Hong: “Have you seen your Uncle Shen?”

Wei Hong was frightened by her mother’s horrified expression and burst into tears. Bai Hongmei became even more annoyed when she saw her daughter crying without saying anything. She raised her hand and spanked Wei Hong’s buttocks twice.

“I want you to cry, I want you to cry. I’m asking you a question, tell me quickly, have you seen Uncle Shen?”

Li Yan was frightened by Bai Hongmei’s hysteria and quickly pulled Wei Hong into her arms.

He yelled at Bai Hongmei, “Why are you mad at the child?”

“Captain Shen is on a mission today and can’t pick up the bride. Can’t he let his relatives pick her up for him? Is this something new? In the past, younger brothers held roosters and married their older brothers’ wives. Isn’t that common? Are you going to beat a child for such a trivial matter?”

Bai Hongmei looked heartbroken and stood up dazed.

“I don’t believe it. I don’t believe it would be like this. I have to ask him why he treats me like this.”

Looking at Bai Hongmei’s crying and running away, Li Yan spat in hatred.

“Bah! Why do you say that? Of course I saw through your thoughts and was on guard against you.”

“Do you really think we are blind and can’t see your plan?”

Bai Hongmei staggered to Yard No. 28 and saw that the yard was full of people.

She stretched her neck and looked into the yard, and saw several men moving furniture out of the house.

Bai Hongmei knew those furniture. When Shen Xiao was assigned this house, she was the one who ran over and cleaned the house inside and out.

“Oh, you don’t want such nice furniture?”

“What kind of good furniture is that? They are all tattered furniture left over from the previous family. Didn’t you see the bride’s dowry? All that camphorwood furniture is so magnificent.”

“I’m not blind, how could I not see? When the truck was unloading just now, I stepped forward to take a look. That double-layered kangqin is a full 1.8 meters high. Wow, how much would a room full of furniture cost!”

“Hey, you didn’t calculate, but I did. The big furniture plus the small parts, not counting the material, the labor cost is about 40 dollars.”

Bai Hongmei stared at the furniture in the yard with an unwilling heart, feeling so miserable that she wanted to die.

“Humph, a woman who brings so much furniture as a dowry must be an ugly woman. She knew she was not worthy of Captain Shen, so she deliberately spent so much money.”

“Money-losing, ugly, country girl who throws herself at men…”

Bai Hongmei felt much better when she thought that Shen Xiao’s bride was an ugly and uneducated rural woman.

She turned around and left the noisy courtyard.

As she walked home, she comforted herself: “The one who can afford such a high dowry must be an ugly and uneducated country girl. How could Shen Xiao like such a low-class woman?”

“As long as I dress myself well and show my cultured side, and outdo that country boy, Shen Xiao will change his mind.”