Wang Yongshun nearly lost his footing. No matter how remote their area was, even he knew how chaotic things were outside now. Word had it that in some schools, when students rioted, they went as far as beating teachers to death.
Xu family’s eldest son was said to be studying at a provincial university. When things got really bad the year before last, classes were suspended for a while, but eventually they resumed, albeit barely.
He was supposed to graduate next year—once he got his diploma, he’d be assigned a job.
So how did he suddenly get labeled a Rightist at this critical time?
Wang Yongshun’s mind raced. He paced back and forth in the house several times before finally making up his mind and heading out—just in time to run into Li Chunjuan, who was rushing back to inform their daughter.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
Li Chunjuan was drenched in sweat from anxiety. “I have to tell Lingling—we need to take her over to the Xu family to see what’s going on.”
Wang Yongshun felt like smacking this foolish woman. “What’s the point of taking Lingling there?”
Li Chunjuan had always been indecisive, and now she was completely flustered. “They’re still our in-laws, we should go see how they’re doing.”
Wang Yongshun didn’t have the patience to argue with his wife. He waved her off. “No need for you to go. Just tell your daughter she’s sick and can’t leave the house for a few days. I’ll go take a look myself.”
Wang Yongshun had a good head for judging situations. The Xu family used to be a good match, but now, maybe not so much.
Being labeled a Rightist was a serious matter—one that could drag the whole family down. The Xu family had originally been classified as poor peasants, with a clean revolutionary background. But if, because of this eldest son, they were reclassified as middle or even rich peasants…
Wang Yongshun was a bit annoyed. What had seemed like a good marriage alliance was suddenly looking troublesome.
If he broke it off now, people in the commune would surely gossip. But if he didn’t, and their family got dragged into trouble, wouldn’t that affect Yaozong’s chances of entering the city?
Wang Yongshun sighed repeatedly as he made his way stealthily toward the Xu house.
Even from a distance, he could see a crowd gathered outside. But at least there was no sound of smashing or breaking—Wang Yongshun was slightly relieved.
If no one was ransacking the place, maybe it wasn’t too serious. Perhaps it was just a false alarm.
The people in the crowd seemed to be waiting for someone from the Wang family. As soon as they spotted Wang Yongshun sneaking through the crowd, someone immediately pushed him forward.
Wang Yongshun cursed inwardly at these nosy busybodies. A few of the more talkative ones even tried to strike up a conversation.
But Wang Yongshun wasn’t in the mood. His eyes were fixed on the front door of the Xu house.
He didn’t have to wait long. Soon, a group of people in Zhongshan suits came out. The man leading them had a pen tucked into his breast pocket and neatly combed hair—he radiated authority.
“Who’s that?” someone asked.
“You don’t know our commune secretary? That’s Zhao Zhichun.”
“Wow… what did the Xu family do to bring the secretary here?”
“Who knows! But that Xu family eldest son, no idea what’s wrong with him—he was doing just fine at university and now he’s being sent down.”
…
Zhao Zhichun stepped out of the Xu family home and looked around. He made a hand gesture, signaling everyone to quiet down.
“Fellow villagers, Xu family’s eldest son, Xu Ming, secretly possessed foreign books and was anonymously reported. After verification, it has been determined that Comrade Xu has issues with ideological awareness. Therefore, the provincial university has expelled Xu Ming, and he has voluntarily agreed to support border development efforts in the Northwest.”
“Although Comrade Xu Ming made a mistake, considering that young people still have the opportunity to correct their wrongdoings, we came this time to inform his family of the situation and to encourage them to also make timely ideological progress,” Zhao Zhichun said.
“We are all part of the same collective, and in the future, we must help each other and ensure that no comrade falls behind.”
After Zhao Zhichun finished speaking, the crowd followed his lead and applauded.
Amid the applause, someone whispered, “What does this mean? Is the Xu family in trouble or not?”
“You’re so dense,” another replied. “He didn’t say they were in trouble, and he didn’t say their class status changed—so they’re not in trouble.”
“That’s not necessarily true. Even if it’s not now, the fact that the secretary came… who knows? Maybe the second Xu boy’s future job prospects are doomed.”
“True. Even if not doomed, he probably won’t be able to rise any higher.”
Zhao Zhichun and his group arrived in a grand procession and left just as grandly.
“Hey, why is the Xu family’s door closed now?”
“Why wouldn’t it be? You expect them to let you in to ask all sorts of questions?”
“I think the Xu family will probably be keeping their heads down from now on.”
“Where’s Yongshun? Wasn’t he just here?”
“And what about Wang Lingling? She’s supposed to be the second Xu boy’s fiancée. Isn’t she going to show her face?”
…
Wang Yongshun trudged home, keeping his head down. He didn’t respond to anyone who greeted him along the way, just stared at the ground and kept walking.
The Xu family’s situation was clearly worse than he had imagined. Xu Ming wasn’t stupid—he probably knew he couldn’t return, so he deliberately chose the farthest place, claiming he would support border development, trying to spin the situation into something more positive.
But what had happened couldn’t be erased. The whole country was the same now. If the Xu family had any sense, they should be cutting ties immediately.
He figured the commune leadership came with exactly that goal. A Rightist had emerged within the commune, and since they couldn’t reach him personally, his family should have understood the unspoken message and severed ties. That way, at least they could patch up the ideological awareness issue.
Unfortunately…
Judging from what Zhao Zhichun said when he came out, it was obvious the second Xu son refused to cut ties.
That made things tricky. Even if their class status hadn’t changed, the reality was plain for everyone to see. The people in the village would surely start distancing themselves from the Xu family…
Wang Yongshun angrily kicked a stone on the ground. Now, even if he wanted to grit his teeth and go along with it, he couldn’t anymore!
The Wang family couldn’t be associated with the Xu family any longer!
When Wang Yongshun reached his front door, a sudden thought struck him. He quietly circled around the house and peeked in through the window ledge.
Finally, he saw something that made him erupt with rage—he stormed back into the house like a whirlwind.
He kicked open Wang Lingling’s door and shouted in a low, furious voice, “Was it you?! Was it you?!”
Wang Lingling was sitting on the bed, not showing a trace of fear. There was even a mocking smile on her face. “Yes, it was me. So what? I told you, I don’t want to marry Xu Shuang—I want to marry Zhao Jun.”
Wang Yongshun shoved Li Chunjuan, who was standing dumbfounded nearby, and started rummaging around the room for a stick. “I’ll beat you to death! What the hell is wrong with you?! Why did you have to ruin a perfectly good engagement?!”
It was the first time Li Chunjuan had ever seen Wang Yongshun so angry—she was too scared to intervene. Meanwhile, Wang Lingling stood her ground defiantly. “It’s not like I reported him falsely! Didn’t he hide foreign books?”
Wang Yongshun shouted, “So you snuck out through the window to go report him?”
Wang Lingling replied, “That’s right! I went straight to the Revolutionary Committee in town. They acted fast—took them only two days to uncover everything.”
Wang Yongshun pointed a finger at her nose. “How could I have raised such a fool for a daughter! What good do you think will come of destroying the Xu family? Marrying into their family was nothing but good for you! Now that you’ve ruined it, I’d like to see who would still consider you a good match!”
Wang Lingling sneered, “I won’t marry anyone else. I only want to marry into the Zhao family.”
With her reputation ruined, it wouldn’t matter anymore if she became a stepmother.
She was lucky she had racked her brains and remembered that in her previous life, Xu Shuang’s older brother had gotten caught up in an incident and ended up being sent to the labor camps. That was around 1973. He would have been released in about three years, but his health didn’t hold up—he died in the countryside.
Wang Lingling thought, since Xu Ming was doomed to die eventually anyway, she might as well bring him down now. That way, her father would give up his stubborn idea of marrying her into the Xu family.
She just didn’t expect the Revolutionary Committee to act so quickly—two days and everything was exposed. Xu Ming, however, was different from her past life. Maybe because this incident wasn’t as serious, he voluntarily applied to support the border areas, so the damage wasn’t too great.
Still, Wang Lingling felt a little regretful—why couldn’t Xu Shuang have lost his job and been sent down too?
Originally, after being reborn, she had planned to match Wang Ying and Xu Shuang together. But things were urgent now—she no longer had time to set that up, and could only achieve her goals by using this mutually destructive tactic.
Wang Lingling’s cold and stubborn expression infuriated Wang Yongshun beyond measure. After a long pause, he finally said coldly, “Keep dreaming. If you won’t marry Xu Shuang, I’ll have your mother find you a match in a distant commune. Perfect. If you marry far away, in a few years the villagers will stop gossiping.”
Wang Lingling looked completely stunned. Even after she’d done all this, why was Wang Yongshun still refusing to let her marry into the Zhao family?!
Wang Yongshun’s face was stone cold as he spoke harshly: “The Xu family was the best match you were ever going to get. Don’t think you’ll find someone like that again.”
He knew his two daughters were his best assets. In the city, buying a job cost at least four to five hundred yuan. Wang Yongshun had been saving for years—he was just over a hundred short now. In the whole commune, barely anyone could offer over a hundred yuan in betrothal gifts. Only distant matches could reach that amount.
He looked at his daughter as if she were a fool—ruining a perfectly good engagement. He could only hope she wouldn’t regret it in the future.
Wang Yongshun dragged Li Chunjuan out of the room and locked Wang Lingling’s door from the outside with a padlock.
“Before the engagement is finalized, don’t let her out!”
Wang Yongshun turned around and went back into the house. He still had to worry about how to cover up this matter with the Xu family in a decent way.
The Xu family’s yard had three adobe houses and one brick house. In the commune, it wasn’t considered particularly good or bad.
The main issue was that Xu Ming had spent a lot of money on his university education. Though Xu Shuang’s salary had been increasing in recent years, most of it had been used to support his older brother.
However, the two brothers of the Xu family had a good relationship and didn’t hold grudges against each other.
Besides working as a cook, Xu Shuang occasionally helped with weddings and funerals, and sometimes went up the mountain to collect things. All in all, Xu Lao Tai (Xu’s grandmother) had a decent standard of living in the commune.
But at this moment, the Xu household was no longer filled with Xu Lao Tai’s loud voice. Instead, there was the sound of crying.
“How could your brother do this! I told him over and over to be careful, how could he let someone report him?”
“You too, I told you to cut ties with your brother, but you wouldn’t listen! Now that your brother has gone down, what will happen if something happens to you?”
“And Wang’s daughter, you didn’t cut ties with them. People will say bad things, and no one will want to marry into the family.”
…
Xu Lao Tai was straightforward and lively, but for the first time, she was crying like this.
Xu Shuang remained as dazed and silent as ever, only after a long while did he hoarsely say, “After a while, I’ll send some dried goods to my brother.”
Xu Lao Tai slapped her thigh, “He’s a stubborn mule, and you’re a stubborn mule too! He’s so stubborn that he sent himself to the northwest! Are you planning to do the same?”
She wiped away her tears, “It’s not that I’m heartless, but the future of our family is probably going to get worse. Your job might not be safe either. Although your brother has gone to aid the border, at least he wasn’t sent down to the countryside. His life will be tough, but he’ll get by. Don’t be stubborn; keep things calm for this half-year. When next year comes, we’ll talk about the marriage matters.”
Xu Shuang mumbled an “Mm,” and fell silent again.
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door, and Xu Lao Tai hurriedly said, “Go open the door; it’s probably the in-laws. After such a thing happened to our family, they still came to visit. We should remember this!”
Xu Shuang walked to the door and opened it slightly, but there was no one there.
His gaze fell to the ground, where he saw two bundles wrapped in old newspapers.
Xu Shuang brought the paper-wrapped bundles inside.
Xu Lao Tai was puzzled, “Why isn’t it the in-laws?”
Xu Shuang silently looked at the contents inside the newspaper packages. One contained a wild rabbit with a branch stuck in it, along with black fungus, and the other contained what seemed like medicinal herbs.
“It’s fine. If they didn’t come, so be it.”
Wang Ying never expected that after just half a day of going up the mountain, she would hear that something had happened to the Xu family when coming back down.
Xu Shuang’s older brother had been labeled a rightist, and the people in the commune were trying to avoid the Xu family. But they all murmured about how the Xu family’s eldest son had gotten into trouble.
Wang Ying and Xu Shuang weren’t really close, but since the other had given her a rabbit last time, Wang Ying felt she should show some goodwill in return.
So, she gave Xu Shuang a rabbit she had just caught. Not wanting Xu Shuang to misunderstand that she was trying to cut ties with the rabbit, she added some black fungus and a few herbs she had picked, along with instructions on how to use them, written on the paper.
She placed the bundles at Xu Shuang’s door and waited until Xu Shuang picked them up before leaving.
Along the way, Wang Ying couldn’t help but reflect on the unpredictability of life. Just a few days ago, her reborn cousin had been adamant about not marrying Xu Shuang, and now the Xu family was in trouble. She figured her shrewd uncle wouldn’t let her cousin marry into the Xu family anymore.
Wait… hold on!
It had only been two days!
A ridiculous thought crossed Wang Ying’s mind. Could it be that her cousin, who had big ideas but was a bit foolish, had done something?
Otherwise, how could the Xu family have gotten into trouble so suddenly?
Damn, if this was true, her cousin was really lacking morals, ruining an entire family just to marry a potential prospect.
Wang Ying rushed home, and as soon as she entered, she heard arguing coming from Wang Lingling’s room. After listening for a while, Wang Ying sighed deeply. So, it really was her cousin’s doing.
This person was really heartless, willing to ruin an entire family just to get a man.
At the end of the argument, Wang Yongshun declared that Wang Lingling would be locked up and not allowed to see anyone.
However, Wang Ying felt that her uncle had seriously underestimated his daughter.
To report someone just to marry someone else, ruining another family’s entire life.
Her reborn cousin’s determination was as firm as a rock.
Wang Ying felt that her cousin would eventually get her way.
Sure enough, in less than three days, something strange happened in the commune.
Wang Lingling from the Wang family had gone missing.
I am just a novice translator and Chinese is not my native language. I try my best to translate the chapters as accurate as possible.
If there are any mistakes then kindly comment and remind me. Your support means a lot.
