Year 1972, Spring
It was noon, a time for people to work. Smoke arose from every house in Taohua Village. Both the sound of children's excitement and adults' voices made the village look particularly lively.
But in the house of one family, two people shouted at each other. The rest of the family members were quiet and didn't dare to join the argument.
"You! It was you who said you wanted to marry him! Now you want to go back on your words when he became a disabled man! Was this how you were taught, Su Jiaojiao?!" The man's angry roar resonated in the house. The three children in the family and the other four adults did not dare to make a sound.
The eldest daughter-in-law of the house cooked in the kitchen in silence. The second daughter-in-law burned the fire. Several others squatted in the yard.
Su Jiaojiao bowed her head. Her brain had not yet fully awaken, so she stayed quiet. She arranged her thoughts silently and didn't worry about being beaten at all, because she knew that someone would help immediately.
Sure enough, after the man roared, a sharp female voice immediately roared back angrily: "What do you mean, dead old man? Song Qinghan had become like this, and yet you still want my daughter to marry him? My daughter is smart enough not to continue this marriage because that man wouldn't be able to marry anyone else with his situation!"
"Nonsense! You spoil her too much!" The man became more angry, his face turned from the color of black to red. The blue veins around his neck were about to pop out.
He pointed to Su Jiaojiao's nose and shouted, "He didn't want you, yet you wanted to force him to marry you, making our family look like a joke! Now when he's willing to marry, you suddenly don't want to! The labor and management have told us this matter was settled half a year ago, so even if you want to change it, you can't! If you are unwilling, then Laozu will tie you up—!"
Halfway through, the man was pushed and staggered two steps. As he stopped talking, the woman's crying voice became louder and louder: "Su Zhengyang, you are sentencing our daughter to suffer a death of a thousand knives! Do you want to hurt her forever!?"
Death of a thousand knives: Chinese idiom meaning a slow and painful demise.
The woman said while beating him with her hand, hitting his body with a 'thud', but the man just gritted his teeth: "A spit on a nail! What she wanted at the beginning, can't be changed!"
Spit on a nail: Chinese idiom meaning you are responsible for your own words.
"Su Zhengyang! Our daughter is still young and is not yet sensible!" The woman gritted her teeth with despair.
But at this moment, the girl who kept her head down suddenly looked up with a look of innocence. Her clear eyes looked at the two people who were messily fighting, and said in a crisp voice, "Marry! Who says I will not marry?"
Sun Fang tore her husband's hands away, pulled her daughter, and said with anger: "You girl, is your brain not working? He's already like that, and yet you still want to marry him! Who will support you, that woman from the Song family? Back then, I thought it was a good match since he could still follow in the army!"
Su Jiaojiao blinked twice and nodded seriously: "Mom! I want to marry! I asked for this marriage, and I should fulfill it."
Her voice was soft, her eyes were clear, her face seemed even more delicate than before, and there was no haze between her eyebrows, which was very different from the past.
Listening to her words, and then looking at their daughter's composure, Su Zhengyang and Sun Fang were both dumbfounded.
Just now, they had been arguing to determine whether to marry their daughter to Song Qinghan, who was wounded and returned five days ago.
