The Devoured Sister Is Reborn
The Devoured Sister Is Reborn Chapter 15

Chapter 15

After the small commodities market opened, the first to pour in were young female migrant workers from other places.

Most of them were around thirteen or fourteen years old, right at the age when girls love to look pretty.

In the market, there were stalls selling clothes and shoes.

Not far away, in Hangzhou, a clothing wholesale market had also opened. The small shop owners from the local market would go there at three or four in the morning to buy goods, then come back and open their stalls. Many items sold out the very same day—showing just how strong the purchasing power of those young girls was.

It wasn’t just clothes that sold well—snacks were selling like hotcakes too.

The local people were used to being frugal. They couldn’t imagine anyone spending so much money on snacks for no special occasion. If a local girl dared to say she was craving a piece of candy, she’d probably get a slap in the face. “Eat, eat, eat—is something wrong with you? Got tuberculosis or something? All you think about is eating.”

To them, anything eaten outside of regular meals was something for the sick. Only those on death’s door were allowed to eat store-bought snacks or canned food.

Sunflower seeds, peanuts, and sugarcane were reserved for New Year’s celebrations—or occasionally when local fruits were in season, or someone in the family was sick and relatives came to visit. Only then might there be a chance to snack on something.

So the stall owners selling sunflower seeds and peanuts were completely stunned.

Stunned—but also overjoyed.

The local area didn’t have many snacks, but didn’t Hangzhou have them?

All kinds of fancy snacks soon started flooding into Qingzhen Town.

Teenage girls with their own wages? Of course they were going to spend like crazy!

Word spread quickly in the villages: “Those girls from out of town really don’t mind spending money!”

They bought new clothes every month, snacks every day. Villagers would shake their heads in disbelief: “Aren’t they afraid of being beaten when they go home? Spending so much money!”

Li Xiaofang even warned Zhang Hongying:
“Be a good girl, don’t learn from those outsiders. Spending all your earnings will lead to a hard life in old age.”
“You give me your wages, I’ll save them for you.”

Zhang Hongying nodded:
“Mm-hmm, I know, Mama. When you’re young and can still work, you should save more. That way when you’re old and can’t count on anyone else, you’ll have something to rely on.”

“A son won’t care for his father, and a grandson will only rely on his own dad—that’s what the old sayings say. Remember that movie we watched, Ghost on the Wall? The old man in it couldn’t work anymore, and his daughter-in-law gave him just a bowl of thin gruel. When he complained, she dumped it on the ground—only three grains of rice in the whole thing!”

“I must save money for myself, and no one should expect me to support them—definitely not Zhang Hongxing.”

Zhang Hongying spoke earnestly but with a hint of sarcasm.
But Li Xiaofang didn’t catch on. Even though she always said they should save more to avoid suffering later in life, deep down she believed her son would be filial no matter what.

As for Ghost on the Wall, the original title was actually The Miser. But since few villagers could read, and those who could only recognized the character “miser” as sharing a component with “wall,” everyone just called it Ghost on the Wall.

The movie had been shown several times in the village, and people loved it. Zhang Hongying tried to use it as a warning, but it was useless.

Then Li Xiaofang suddenly said,
“Someone came today to ask for your birth information.”

That was an old-fashioned way of saying someone came to discuss a marriage proposal. In the past, when a girl was born, her birth date and time would be written down on a piece of paper. When a family was interested in proposing marriage, they’d ask for it. If the girl’s family was also interested, they’d hand over her Eight Characters (ba zi) to be matched for compatibility.

But for someone like Zhang Hongying, from an ordinary family, “asking for the birth information” just meant someone had come to propose.

Zhang Hongying frowned,
“Mama, I’m still young.”

Li Xiaofang replied,
“Young? You’re not that young anymore. You start looking at matches at sixteen—it’s not like it happens overnight.”

“You need to go out together a few times, buy some clothes together before things settle. Even after you’re engaged, he’ll have to work for us a few years, send gifts during holidays, so you can all get familiar.”

“That way when you marry, you won’t feel awkward.”

Zhang Hongying stayed silent.

On this matter, she had no say. Li Xiaofang would carefully choose whichever man would benefit the Zhang family the most.

Although there were a few cases of people falling in love freely, if Li Xiaofang ever found out she had fallen in love on her own, she’d definitely beat her into submission.

Zhang Hongying felt that her generation was really unfortunate. Whether she liked it or not, she’d be forced to marry whoever had the best material conditions.

In their area, the bride price wasn’t pocketed. Whatever the groom’s family gave, the bride’s family would not only return it but also add a dowry. Only the extremely poor would keep the bride price for survival.

But if you married into a well-off family, you could keep receiving gifts and support for years to come—for a brother’s wedding, for a nephew or niece’s wedding, the in-laws would all be expected to contribute heavily.

When these girls got older and had their own children to marry off, they wouldn’t even be allowed to voice their opinions. If they dared ask, they’d be met with impatience.

Especially Zhang Yuhao—the son she had with Shen Yongjian—had inherited his father’s withdrawn personality. He never responded when spoken to. If you pushed him too hard, he’d just yell.

Zhang Hongying definitely didn’t want to be married off like this.

But she had no education and didn’t dare leave on her own.

She’d heard that outside, there were human traffickers and highway robbers.

Even in her own village, there were traffickers. Every so often, someone would bring back a group of girls from outside to show to the village’s older bachelors.

Zhang Hongying had seen it more than once: a few men walking around the village with seven or eight girls, visiting the homes of single older men to “show” them.

Each girl cost about 1,000 to 2,000 yuan as a “bride price.”

Some were from Sichuan, some from Hunan.

Some were already married, some were not.

The last time Zhang Hongying saw such a group of girls was back in 1993. After that, it stopped—mainly because the local bachelors were now in their fifties and no longer looking for wives.

As the economy improved, a large number of young female migrant workers came in from outside, and most ended up marrying into the local community.

Back when Zhang Hongying worked at the silk factory, one of her coworkers had been bought by her in-laws. When asked about her past, she would just smile.

Shen Jianzhen’s mother, Wu Xiaohong, was also from out of town—but she hadn’t been bought.

Back then, food was scarce in her hometown. A relative helped arrange her marriage into a place “where you could eat your fill.” Shen Jianzhen’s grandparents had even begged for her to be married into the area. Not only did she come, she even brought along a big wardrobe as part of her dowry from eight miles away.

Zhang Hongying thought about those girls and felt sorry for them—dragged to a place where they didn’t know anyone, treated like goods, picked over by strangers.

She remembered one of them was just seventeen, and the man she was being shown to was already in his forties!

In the end, that older bachelor turned her down, saying, “I could be her grandfather.” He ended up marrying a local widow.

If that man had agreed, that poor girl would’ve been forced to marry someone older than her own father.

Zhang Hongying figured that if she ever tried to run away, she’d probably end up just like them—bought and sold like merchandise.

But staying here? She’d just be sold off by Li Xiaofang anyway.

So she pinned all her hopes of escape on Shen Jianzhen.

Leave A Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

@

error: Content is protected !!