Ji Changze opened his eyes and had just sat up, when a disgruntled middle-aged female voice outside could be heard raising her voice to scold someone:
“I didn’t even ask for three wheels and a ring! He wants a bike and you’re not happy about it?! As the eldest brother, it costs money to get a bicycle for your brother’s wedding, and you’re still a public servant in the city, so you can’t be so heartless!”
(TNote: three wheels and a ring = also known as the four major items, is a term used in China in the late 1950s. It refers to the four household items that the country was able to produce at that time and were hoped by every family. The four household items are: a radio, a bicycle, a sewing machine and a watch.)
Ji Changze didn’t leave, but continued to listen quietly to the noise outside, while listening, he checked the memory of the body’s original owner.
This place was in the midst of nation-building, and it is still in an era where eating together from big pots is common, as well as doing collective work.
The original owner’s home was in a small village in the north. He had one brother and two parents, and he was the youngest child.
Generally speaking, the youngest son should be favored, even here.
At first, it was because he was sweet-mouthed and could coax people to do things for him. Although he was lazy and incompetent, he was especially good at promising big things. ‘Just wait for me to be successful in the future…’ he often said, and coaxed his parents to be biased towards him.
Later, his elder brother got married, and his elder sister-in-law was the only daughter from the family of a salesman of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives in the city. It was impossible to give up such a good position and follow her husband to the countryside, so his father-in-law tried to find a connection and later found him a job in the city.
In this age, normal workers were very common, and the original’s brother would be crazy not to go, so he went along to the city. Because he could not afford to buy a house there, he was living in his in-law’s house.
Also, because workers are not good at asking for leave, they can’t come home to visit often.
This made the original owner’s parents dissatisfied, and felt that their son, who they have worked so hard to raise, has become biased toward his wife’s family, which made them feel ashamed when the villagers said that their son has ignored his family.
So, what was just a preference for the younger son evolved directly into a disapproval for the elder child, and overwhelming love for the younger one.
After all, in their eyes, the eldest son has run off to be a son to his in-laws, and the youngest son is still their own.
With the eldest son as a negative example, the original owner, who had a sweet mouth, said that he wants to stay with his parents and be filial to them for a lifetime, each and every day. Whatever he does is always good in his parents’ eyes.
Always lazy and absent from work?
That’s because he is weak.
Not working hard, and eating faster than anyone else?
Of course, if you are weak, you should eat more and recover your strength.
Lazing around in bed every day, sleeping, walking the dog and teasing the cats instead of doing work?
It’s family attachment, and it’s better than just thinking about running out the door every day.
Their eldest son was a hard worker before he got married, but what happened? He got married and became someone else’s son.
The body’s original owner was crooked, lazy and liked to take advantage of others. Now, he was even more confident in living with the old parents, but also asked his parents to pressure his older brother and live off him with them.
His older brother is a filial man. Although he was reluctant to work in the city, half of his monthly salary was handed over to his parents. As soon as he took a break, he came back to see his parents again with food and drinks, and it was only natural that all this money and stuff went to the body’s original owner, so he lived a nice little life.
There was no reason to worry about eating and drinking, and when he came of age, the original owner began to think about marriage.
The problem is that although he has no skills, his vision of a future wife was quite a lofty one. He despised the rustic girls in the village, and only likes the pale, tender, and good-looking kind of girls.
The point is, he’s attracted to that kind of girl, but that kind of girl is not attracted to him.
One time, he was lazy and didn’t go to work. When he strolled home, he happened to see a beautiful schoolgirl from the same village who happened to fall into the river. His eyes lit up, and he plopped into the river and fished the person up.
Don’t get him wrong, he didn’t do a good deed.
He was trying to take advantage of the situation by making the girl feel indebted to him.
The owner fondled her smoothly. The female student was half confused at that time and didn’t realize it. When the villagers around him heard the noise and ran over, all they saw was him just pulling the person out of the water.
For the original owner, it was an astonishing and risky attempt at taking advantage.
Unexpectedly, a few days later, he heard that the female student caught a cold at the time, and had a high fever when she came home. She was too busy to take care of her sick mother and father, who broke his leg. Nobody knew how, but the fever made her lose her voice and she became mute.
Originally, she was a good-looking high school student. Her future was definitely not limited to this small village, but now all of a sudden, she had become mute. Even with a high school education, there’s a lot of jobs out there. But who would hire someone who can’t speak?
Her father broke his leg and can’t work, her mother is sick and has to spend money on medicine. She was mute and couldn’t find a job. Because she was an only child, she had to take care of her parents. If she wanted to cure her mother, she had to have money to buy medicine, but where would she get the money?
The schoolgirl had no choice but to go to a matchmaker on her own to help her find potential in-laws. She also asked to get a bride price, so that after she got married, the man would help to take care of her family.
(TNote: Bride price = this is money paid to the bride’s family from the groom, different from a dowry. Some call it tradition, some call it paying to buy a bride.)
The money she asked for was according to the doctor’s estimate for the mother’s medicine. If she bought medicine to slowly nurse her mother’s body, she would at least gradually get better.
The problem is that they were all villagers, and they weren’t rich. The bride price she set was three times that of what would be considered ordinary. But now, she was mute, and she couldn’t find a job even with a high school degree. Who would want to spend money to marry her?
Besides, it’s not cost effective to spend money, and also take responsibility to care for her maternal family afterwards.
Others didn’t want to, but the original owner thought differently.
He was greedy for her good looks and good figure, so whether she is mute or not, her appearance was good enough.
When thinking it over later, he realized he was just planning on marrying someone for the happy ending.
At first, his family didn’t agree. They felt she would not contribute to the family, and that her parents would only be a burden right now. It was useless to marry such a daughter-in-law, but they couldn’t resist the original owner’s insistence on marrying.
So they gritted their teeth and agreed to the bride price, using money from the elder brother which he had sent to them.
This is why the original owner was not satisfied. He had to declare that his wedding was a big day, wanted money to buy things, and also asked for a bicycle to make a scene. He lied to his parents to make them ask his Older Brother for a bicycle, said he’d pay for it when it arrived, and then turned around and spent all the money.
When the Older Brother came to ask for the money, he went back to his parents to argue, saying that the Older Brother didn’t consider his married family when he sent the money, and he needed it back to supplement his Sister-in-law’s family.
Now, however, he stepped on the minefield in his parents’ heart. The most taboo thing for them was to raise the eldest son to go to someone’s home as a ‘kept son-in-law’, so naturally they didn’t hesitate to stand on the side of the younger son.
The original’s Brother was sullen in his heart. He was a filial child. He was supposed to stay the night, but because of this mess, he felt that his parents were biased and that he really couldn’t stay at home. So, he drove back in the dark.
It turned out to be too dark, and there were no streetlights at this point, so he slipped and fell into the pond.
In the middle of the night, he wasn’t as lucky as the schoolgirl who had someone come out to save her. He splashed a few times, and sank.
When the eldest son died, the original owners’ parents were confused. They were angry that the eldest son had left them to go to the city and become someone else’s ‘son’, making them feel ashamed and ridiculed, but had never thought of the possibility that he would die.
They were both nearly blind with tears and remorse.
Only the original owner was heartless, and when the Older Brother was buried, he tossed around the idea of having to conduct his own wedding.
Meanwhile, as for the marriage, the bride herself was saved by the body’s original owner, and in the most desperate and helpless time, it was him who agreed to marry her and help her take care of her parents, which was enough to make a young girl full of hope for her future husband.
In the end, the original owner’s bride price was paid, but he had no intention of helping her take care of her parents.
Anyway, he has eaten up everything, and taken home a wife. They belong to each other now, but he doesn’t act like it. He just doesn’t take care of them. What could an unemployed, mute wife do in this situation?
At that moment, the female student also found herself falling into a trap, and wanted to get a divorce, but she couldn’t get it because she couldn’t speak. She angered the body’s original owner and was beaten as a result.
When the two elders were there, he could still be stopped. When the two elders died early because of heartbreak and loneliness, her life was completely plunged into domestic violence and gloom.
She was pregnant twice, and once she was with twins. But in the end, because of domestic violence by the original owner just before the birth, she gave birth to a pair of stillborn children.
At the last pregnancy, she happened to give birth to a daughter, who had a high fever. However, the original owner thought it was a girl was worthless and refused to go to a doctor. He was clever enough to cool the child with cold water.
As a result, that day in the middle of winter, when she was already sick, she was wiped with cold water and not given dry swaddling clothes. Thus, the baby girl died.
The loss of her child drove her completely insane.
While still in confinement, she abruptly chased the body’s original owner with scissors and stabbed him to death, after which the original owner died and she was arrested for voluntary manslaughter and spent the rest of her life in jail.
Ji Changze read the original plot and thought the body’s original owner was really impressive.
He alone, directly or indirectly hurt his wife, his parents, the older brother, the older sister-in-law, and three children. A total of eight people.
[Ding! The memory has been transmitted, and the task is to protect the parents, wife and children, change the set ending, and not be out of character. Please choose whether to stay or not. ]
After the system released the task, it went offline.
The voice of the middle-aged woman outside was still loud and clear, filled with righteousness and intense discontent:
“I have long known that when you get a wife you would forget your mother. When you go to the city and become a city man, you forget your brother, who was still suffering in the countryside! You also don’t want to think about it. When Changze didn’t learn to swim, you took him to play. As a result, he fell into the river and almost drowned. If it weren’t for his great fortune, how could he live anymore? What did you tell me when your brother just woke up? You said it was all your fault. You will take good care of your brother in the future. Is that what you think of him now?!!”