Xie Yuejin was getting married.
Wang Ying wasn’t surprised: “Didn’t he say a long time ago that he wanted to do it? Why has it been delayed until now?”
Wang Ying had actually met Xie Yuejin’s fiancée, the one named Li Ying. The two of them coincidentally had similar-sounding names. That woman had once inexplicably given her a dirty look in a restaurant.
Xu Shuang: “He used to say they’d get engaged first, then married, with two ceremonies. But after several delays, now he’s saying they’re skipping the engagement and going straight to the wedding.”
Wang Ying: “That’s really rushed. Shouldn’t things be slowing down around this time? Normally there should be enough time.”
From now until winter, farm work had loosened up. In the countryside, weddings were usually held during this period.
Xu Shuang: “Who knows. Xie Yuejin booked a banquet—it’s on the eighth of October.”
Xu Shuang was also going to be the head chef.
Xu Shuang was very unwilling.
Wanguodong, a leader from the state-run restaurant, for some reason insisted on presiding over the wedding. He directly informed Xu Shuang, saying that this was part of the restaurant’s duties and that he should do it as usual.
Xu Shuang: “Xie Yuejin lied to the bride’s side, saying he had a house. The bride is a worker at the thermos factory in town. A marriage based on deception—I don’t think it’ll last.”
Although he didn’t think much of Xie Yuejin’s fiancée, who often came to the restaurant to eat and take things without paying, acting high and mighty, it was still a fact that Xie Yuejin had committed fraud in marriage.
But since Wanguodong had given orders, and the banquet was booked through the restaurant, Xu Shuang had no choice but to go along with it.
The grain hoarding incident exploded, dragging in both the Li family and Wang Lingling.
Wang Lingling’s main charge was involuntary manslaughter; the grain hoarding was considered a minor offense. But the Li family ended up in serious trouble over it.
Wang Lingling had hoarded 400 jin of grain, about 100 jin of which had been brought back from her mother’s village production team. The rest—about 300 jin—was grain she had bought herself, mostly coarse grain.
Because she’d been provoked when the Li family stole and ate the grain, she had taken only the coarse grain when splitting households with Old Lady Li. She didn’t want the fine grain! She left that to the Li family. Since they were obsessed with eating the fine grain, let them have it! It was all theirs anyway!
So when the grain was valued and converted to monetary value, Wang Lingling’s involvement totaled less than 100 yuan. The Li family, on the other hand, had more than 300 yuan worth.
Over 200 yuan, and the nature of the offense changed.
The Li family never imagined that after sacrificing all their savings, they’d end up like this. They quickly turned on each other.
Several of the daughters-in-law reported that their mother-in-law had orchestrated the hoarding. The Li brothers reported that Li Qing had been directly involved. Old Lady Li desperately tried to clear herself, saying the money at home all belonged to her sons, and that she only made decisions with their permission…
This drama gave the police quite a spectacle.
In the end, it was decided that only Old Lady Li and Li Qing would go to labor reform camps. The other branches of the family were spared.
The main reason was that the grain hadn’t been sold, making it difficult to determine the severity of the crime. Based on the amount, the punishment should’ve been heavy, but in practice, it was treated more lightly.
After over a month of back and forth, the final sentences were: Old Lady Li, 3 years of labor reform; Li Qing, 5 years. The others were released because they genuinely hadn’t been involved.
But the family was now branded with a criminal record, and the Revolutionary Committee had formed a negative impression of them—they were now classified as backward elements.
When the Li family members got out, they didn’t even have time to feel relieved—they had to face harsh reality.
The reality was that word of the Li family’s incident had spread within the factory, and everyone involved had been fired from their jobs.
Even the daughters-in-law who were temporary workers lost their positions.
The Li family was devastated.
Back at home, their grain had been confiscated. Their money had all been tied up in the grain—now it was all gone. No jobs, a criminal record, and even finding new temporary work was impossible.
The Li family was shrouded in gloom, and they began blaming each other.
“All your mother’s fault! That greedy old hag! Couldn’t live a good life, had to get involved with grain!”
“You’re blaming me? Weren’t you the one sucking up to her back then? Whatever she said, you agreed with!”
“Pah! You’re blaming me now? I haven’t even blamed you, you useless man! It’s your fault I lost my job!”
“I’ll beat you!”
“Go ahead! Hit me if you can! I won’t live with you anymore!”
…
The Li household fell into chaos. Within two days, two of the daughters-in-law packed their bags and went back to their parents’ homes.
They were still young—even if they had married and had children, so what? At worst, they could remarry, just not to someone from town. They could still find someone from a nearby village with better prospects.
Hadn’t Wang Pingping left as soon as she got out?
She was lucky—no kids, Li Qing was locked up, so she was free to remarry whoever she wanted. But the other daughters-in-law had children. Even if they remarried, they’d still have to come back to visit their kids.
Three daughters-in-law left, and the children’s cries echoed through the house. Neighbors started avoiding the Li family altogether.
The remaining Li men sat in the main room, trying to figure out what to do.
The eldest son had a dark expression: “Damn it. Women are all the same. As soon as we fall on hard times, they run. They don’t even care about their kids. They’re worthless!”
The second son snapped: “Bro, we can’t let this slide! They ran, fine—but at least give back the bride price!”
He had done the math—if the wives were gone, fine, but they couldn’t lose the money too. He needed the dowry back if he wanted to marry again.
The eldest son gave his brother a bleak look, wanting to say, “What’s the use!”
Their old mother had always been unreasonable. Among the brothers, aside from the third (who had health issues and so had received more financial support), all their bride prices had only been 20 to 30 yuan each.
Chapter 74 (Continued) – English Translation
Who told them that back then their family looked decent?
Four brothers, all of them workers—anyone who saw their family’s condition would think they were doing well. It was easy to find wives.
Even if that weren’t the case, the eldest Li brother still didn’t want to go ask for the bride price back.
He had been thoroughly frightened while he was locked up.
Now, with a bad political record and no job, he had become timid. Asking him to go to his in-laws and stir up trouble? He wouldn’t dare.
His father-in-law’s family had several adult sons too.
Second Brother Li brought it up, but no one responded, leaving him fuming with anger.
The fourth Li brother sat with his wife beside him—she was the only one of the Li daughters-in-law who hadn’t left.
Fourth Brother Li rolled his eyes and said, “Big brother, second brother, I say we stop dwelling on our sisters-in-law. The important thing now is what we’re going to do next.”
The eldest Li brother slumped back in defeat. “What can we do? We still have our old house in the countryside. Move our household registration back and farm the land, I guess.”
The Li family had urban worker household registration in the town. But now with no job or money, staying in town was just wasting time. The only path left was to return to the village and farm. After all, they still had some relatives there, and it wouldn’t be too hard to move the household registration back.
Fourth Brother Li didn’t like that. “But what about our house in town if we move back?”
The Li family’s old house in the village was already in terrible condition. If they returned, the first thing they’d have to do was repair it.
Giving up a perfectly good house in town to live in a broken-down rural one and farm? It was hard to swallow.
The eldest Li brother said, “What choice do we have? Stay here, and we won’t get any grain in the countryside, and there’s no salary in town either! What, we’re just going to starve to death?”
He shouted as he spoke, full of frustration. Now that their mother was in prison and all the wives had left, he had to take care of the kids and think about the family’s future—it was overwhelming.
Fourth Brother Li spoke quietly, “But don’t we still have our little sister?”
The eldest Li brother replied, “What can a girl do?”
Fourth Brother Li’s wife chimed in, “Why not? Yingzi’s boyfriend, isn’t he the head chef at the town’s restaurant? Last time she took me to eat there, and we didn’t even have to pay. Now that our family’s in trouble, don’t you think, if Yingzi could really snag him, maybe he could get you all a job as servers in the restaurant or something?”
Second Brother Li scoffed, “You women, long hair and short sense. Our family’s like this now, and you think Yingzi’s boyfriend would still be willing?”
The eldest Li brother agreed, “Exactly. We’ve got nothing now—why would he still want to marry her?”
Fourth Brother Li quickly consoled his wife, seeing her pout. All the other sisters-in-law had left; he couldn’t let his own wife leave too. So recently, he’d been treating her especially well, agreeing to everything she said.
“Our family’s situation—if Yingzi doesn’t say anything, how would her boyfriend even know?”
Fourth Brother Li had a cunning look. “And even if Yingzi does marry him, we can support her from the back.”
The eldest Li brother snapped, “Support her? That girl hasn’t even come home lately. She probably already plans to cut us off and live her own good life! You want her to marry Xie Yuejin, fine. But counting on her to get us jobs? Don’t even think about it.”
Fourth Brother Li said, “Sure, she wants a good life. But big brother, don’t be so pessimistic. If Yingzi really wants to marry Xie Yuejin, she’s going to need her family to show up, or her boyfriend’s going to get suspicious. How about this—let’s go find Yingzi. Tell her we can help her get married to Xie Yuejin, as long as she listens to us. Otherwise…”
He lowered his voice, “She’s told quite a few lies to Xie Yuejin. If she doesn’t want to lose this guy, she’s going to have to drag the whole family along.”
Fourth Brother Li had no intention of going back to the countryside to farm. He’d been raised in town since he was a child. Now he was married—how could he go farm? He couldn’t do it!
Unquestionably, Fourth Brother Li’s idea struck a chord with his two older brothers.
The eldest and second Li brothers exchanged glances and realized the key to their situation.
Indeed, looking at the family now, the only one they could rely on was Li Ying.
Only by leaning on her and her fiancé could the four of them live decently again.
