Chapter 69: Qin Xue’s Marriage

Seeing her mother’s tears, Qin Xue quickly comforted her, “Mom, I’m not blaming you. I just… I feel sorry for you.”

Qin’s mother was also a remarried woman. She had a son and a daughter with her first husband, who died in the war. She remarried into the Li family.

The Li family had three children. They were poor and had to support five children, rarely having enough to eat.

Qin’s mother was weak, her husband was strong, and the three older children were also older.  Her in-laws were also watching over them.

Qin Xue and her brother almost starved to death.  Qin’s uncles and aunts found out and took Qin Yang back to the Qin family.

Each uncle and aunt raised Qin Yang for a year, taking turns.

Qin Xue, being a girl, was left with her mother in the Li family until she married at nineteen.

A few years ago, Qin Xue’s stepfather died, and Qin’s mother was driven out by her stepchildren.

She had nowhere to go and returned to the Qin family to find her son, Qin Yang.

Qin Yang was already married with children. He was cold towards his mother but didn’t say much. His wife and Qin’s uncles and aunts were not kind to Qin’s mother.

Qin Xue loved her mother. When the Qin family abandoned her, her mother kept her and never abandoned her.

Especially during the famine, starvation was common.

Her mother protected her, saving her meager rations to send to Qin Yang, allowing her and her brother to survive.

Her mother was small and couldn’t earn many work points, spending her life by the stove.

She was gentle and weak, never raising her voice or arguing with anyone, working hard her whole life, but never receiving kindness in return.

Her brother and she resented her, and her stepfather’s children hated her. She was disliked by both families.

She had been subservient in her stepfather’s family and now in her brother’s.

Qin Xue’s nose turned sour, “Mom, I resented you before, but now I have a child.

I understand your helplessness. You couldn’t support my brother and me, so you remarried.

At that time, your uncle and grandmother told you not to take care of us, that you could choose a better life without us, but you still took us.

Even in the most difficult times, you didn’t abandon us. You did what a mother should do.  The reason my brother and I suffered was because we didn’t have a father.”

Qin’s mother sobbed softly, “I’m useless, I’m useless.

Because I’m an experienced person, I want you to find someone while you’re young.

Then you two can have your own child and have someone to rely on. If I had children in the Li family, I wouldn’t have been kicked out at this age.

I know you’re thinking about Zhuzi and want to save money for him, but your aunt mentioned a family who agreed to let you keep Zhuzi. They’ve asked several times.

Just go and meet him. His wife died of illness, leaving a young daughter. You wouldn’t be a stepmother.

And it’s your home village. I’m there, your brother and sister-in-law are there. We can look out for each other.”

Qin Xue finally agreed, returning to the village with her mother. Her sister-in-law was unfriendly.

At noon, she went to meet the man’s family with her aunt.  The man’s family was crowded, from elderly parents to a baby, over twenty people.

Her aunt introduced, “These are all relatives.  Just meet them.”

Qin Xue nodded, constrained, and was pulled to a table by several women to drink tea.  After tea, everyone left, leaving Qin Xue, Qin Dehui, her aunt, and Qin Dehui’s widowed mother, Xie Xiaoxiao.

Qin Dehui knew Qin Xue when they were children.  He was about the same age as Qin Xue, married at 20, and his wife gave birth to a daughter the following year.

His daughter was only a little over a year old when his wife died.  Then, when his daughter was three, she also died due to neglect.

He’d been single for almost ten years.

Xie Xiaoxiao gestured for Qin’s mother and Qin Xue to sit down while she went to the kitchen to cook.

Qin Dehui sat on a low stool, awkwardly unsure of what to say, nervously rubbing the calluses on his hands.

Qin’s mother, sensing the awkwardness, chatted casually with Qin Dehui, subtly praising his capabilities.

Qin Xue glanced around the house; it was dirty and messy.

There were pigs, dogs, and chickens.  The yard, the house, and the doorway were covered in chicken droppings.

Dog and chicken bowls were by the door, dirty and swarming with flies.

Qin Xue stood up, pretending to look around the house, and glanced into the kitchen.  She saw Xie Xiaoxiao using a wooden ladle to scoop water from a pig trough to wash the pot before cooking.

She cooked pumpkin, added more water to the pot, poured cold rice into the water, added some lard and salt.

Lunch was rice soup, boiled pumpkin, two salted duck eggs, and a bowl of pickled garlic.

Qin’s mother’s face was displeased, but she chuckled, “Xue, it’s like this in the countryside. Your Aunt Xie is thrifty; otherwise, she wouldn’t have built such a large tiled house.”

Qin Dehui’s face was also unhappy; he had bought two blocks of tofu that morning.

Xie Xiaoxiao urged them to eat, “Don’t mind the mess. I’m old and don’t like cleaning. We’re all familiar; it’s just a simple meal.

There will be more mouths to feed. They say half-grown children eat their fathers to death.  We need to be thrifty.

After Xue moves in, she’ll take care of the housework. Then we’ll have a proper meal with her aunt.”

Xie Xiaoxiao laughed, “Dehui and Xue are destined. Dehui is diligent and filial. He only listens to me.  What I say is what he does. That’s our family rule…”

Qin Dehui blushed and interrupted, “Mom, what are you saying? I’m a grown man. I listen to myself.”

Qin Xue was no longer smiling.  This was clearly a warning. She left, claiming she had something to do.

Outside, Qin Xue heard her aunt arguing with Xie Xiaoxiao, “What’s wrong with you? When you couldn’t find a wife, you begged for one. Now I’ve found one for you, and you’re giving her a hard time. Do you think she’s stupid?”

Xie Xiaoxiao also raised her voice, “Sister, she’s just a remarried widow with a son. Her brother and mother are in the village; she can’t run away.

She’s lucky to find Dehui.  She has a child; Dehui doesn’t. I’m afraid she’s trying to trick him.

What did I do? I served her food. I almost chewed it for her. She’s giving her elders the cold shoulder before even moving in. She thinks I didn’t serve fish and meat, right? Does she deserve it?”

Qin Xue’s anger surged, but thinking of her mother, she suppressed it.

Her mother was already gossiped about and looked down upon; she couldn’t give people more reason to laugh at her.

Qin Xue trembled, her eyes red.  She remembered someone’s image.

That person had lifted Zhuzi onto the cart.

In the cold wind, that person’s back was slightly hunched, nervously and carefully watching her, with unyielding shame and timidity in his eyes.