In the early winter of '85, it was cold and frosty.

It took a day to toss and hand over the public grain, but the Li family didn't feel sleepy at all.

Old man Li squatted in the corner between the kang and the wall, smoking a cigarette pouch, and couldn't say a word for a long time.

He didn't speak, and neither did Li Guangzhu and his daughter-in-law Li Guilan.

In the low and cramped space, there is a thick and choking smoke, which is suffocating.

In the end, it was Li Yonggang who was sitting on a small pony at the root of the window.

He frowned, his intact left hand stroked his right hand that lacked two fingers, and said with a sigh: "Grandpa, Mom, if the Guo family doesn't agree, let's wait for a while, I'm only twenty, work hard for a few years to save some money, and I'll talk about it in a few years." Chunyang herself is not happy, let's not force her. Besides, it's not nice to say this, you can't make our old Li family can't raise their heads for me. ”

Li Yonggang is the first son of Li Guangzhu and Li Guilan, he has an older sister above him, married to Xishan Village next door two years earlier, and has two younger brothers and a younger sister below, Chunyang just mentioned is her sister, who is only 14 years old this year.

His right hand was mischievously broken when he was a child, using the production team's guillotine to misoperate, with a middle finger and an index finger, which will be more or less affected when doing fine work.

Since beating his finger off, the family has been afraid that he will not be able to marry a daughter-in-law because of this, but fortunately, he is angry on his own, and when he went into the mountains to do a side job last winter, he looked at Cao Yun, a girl from the same village who was cooking there, and the two young people have been secretly for more than half a year.

Cao Yun is the same age as Li Yonggang, she is a beautiful and diligent girl, but the situation in her family is quite complicated.

She was picked up by her mother Cao Peiyu when she was washing clothes by the river, and Cao Peiyu was widowed and dependent on her mother-in-law who was paralyzed in bed at that time. A few years later, Cao Peiyu remarried Guo Houze, an intellectual who was sent down from the city, and gave birth to a pair of double-stick sons, named Guo Zhien and Guo Zhili, of which Guo Zhili was born stupid, and Guo Zhien was a normal child. Guo Houze died suddenly five years ago, and fifteen-year-old Cao Yun and her mother Cao Peiyu took care of their grandmother and younger brothers together, and life was very difficult.

The Guo family is poor, and when Guo Zhili and Guo Zhien are older, I don't know if they can talk about their daughter-in-law. Especially Zhili, a natural fool, who is willing to marry a girl to him.

After Cao Peiyu knew that Cao Yun was dealing with Li Yonggang, she started the idea of the girl of the Li family.

Li Chunyang is fourteen years old, one year younger than Zhi'en Zhili, and his age is quite appropriate. If the Li family agrees, then change relatives, Cao Yun marries into the Li family, Chunyang comes to the Guo family, and then gets married when he is old enough for a few years.

They are not a good place, there are many mountains and few lands, they are far from the town, and they are poor since they came. How many years ago, there was a change of parents, but I haven't heard of someone changing relatives for many years, and the Li family has been hesitating for fear of being poked in the back.

There was silence in the room for a long time, and Li Guilan said in the middle of her eyes: "Silly boy, who doesn't know that the girl of the old Guo family is good-looking, and there are many people who are worried about it." Originally, the son of Captain Zhao of the production team fell in love with her, what are the conditions of the Zhao family, in case ..... We don't have a place to cry. ”

Li Guilan said that Li Yonggang, the boy of the Zhao family, also knew that they had worked together when they were engaged in side jobs, they were tall and strong, mentally capable, and the family conditions were not bad, if you don't change your relatives to the Guo family, you will definitely choose the Zhao family.

Thinking of this, Li Yonggang lowered his head sullenly, and his attitude was obviously not as firm as before.

Old man Li took out a cigarette pouch from his chest pocket, pinched out a pinch of tobacco and pressed it into his pipe, lit it, took a deep breath and asked in a deep voice: "What about Chunyang?" Call her in and tell her that if you want to continue going to school, you will go to Guo's house, and our family has no money for her. ”

Chunyang, who had been squatting with his second brother and younger brother to gnaw on baked potatoes in front of the stove pit in the outhouse, trembled when he heard this, and the half-eaten potatoes rolled to the ground, stained with dirty things such as gray beans in the pot.

"Second sister, are you still eating?" Li Yongming, a seven-year-old younger brother, reached out to pick up the half-pulled potatoes, and was about to send them to his mouth.

Sixteen-year-old Li Yongqiang frowned and reached out to grab the potato, hesitated for a moment, stuffed his half of the clean potato to Chunyang, and ate the half of the dirty potato in two or three bites.

When Li Yongming was about to cry, Li Yongqiang said in a low voice: "You have eaten both, and then you have a bloated belly, your second sister didn't eat anything at night, and you still robbed her." ”

I don't know if I really listened to it or was afraid of Li Yongqiang, Li Yongming sniffed, and the tears didn't fall.

Chunyang was staring at the potatoes in his hand, Li Guilan pushed the door out, walked over and pulled Chunyang twice and said, "Your grandfather has something to tell you, hurry in." ”

Chunyang didn't get up, lowered his head and slowly ate the potatoes. She eats very quietly, and the silence is distressing.

Li Guilan was irritable, and pulled her again: "Hurry up, don't delay the family to sleep if it's too late." ”

"Mom..." Li Yongqiang was about to say something, but Chunyang suddenly stood up, handed Li Yongqiang a small piece of potato that was left, and said softly: "Second brother, I can't eat it, you can eat it." ”

The voice is very light and trembling, and the nose of the listener is sour.

"Chunyang, don't blame your mother for being ruthless, if it weren't for the Guo family, your mother wouldn't have given you to their family. How good is your eldest brother to you, you can't bear to see that your eldest brother can't marry a daughter-in-law? In the future, your sister-in-law will still be the eldest sister of your in-law's family, and the relationship will be closer, and she will definitely not treat you badly. Li Guilan whispered in her ear.

Chunyang didn't squeak, and walked into the back room with a sullen head.

Old man Li still said just now, if he wants to go to school, he will go to Guo's house, and if he doesn't agree to change his parents, the Li family will not provide Chunyang to continue studying.

Chunyang had just entered the first year of junior high school, and he had to get up at four o'clock every morning to clean up and walk for nearly two hours to get to school. My parents and grandparents said that it was useless for her to study as a girl, so she asked her to come down to help the family, and she carried several brooms and pimples to this day.

It's kind of ridiculous when you think about it now.

Chunyang did laugh, laughing and crying.

The crying and whimpering are really heart-wrenching.

Li Yonggang couldn't stand the heavy sigh and went directly to the courtyard, out of sight, out of mind, out of mind, out of hearing.

When Chunyang was crying, Li Guangzhu and Li Guilan talked a lot, and she didn't listen to it when she cried.

Tired of crying, he stopped, rubbed his eyes and wiped away his tears, looked at his parents and grandfather, Chunyang said stubbornly: "The year before last, Dad, you drank a lot of wine and almost beat people to death when you fought with others, you married my eldest sister to the Wang family in Xishan Village for peace, and now you want to send me to the Guo family for my eldest brother to marry a daughter-in-law, you are a girl who has fewer children, and you don't even have to do work if you have a few more children, you can live by selling girls!"

"Chunyang!" Li Guangzhu shouted angrily in annoyance, staring at his cloudy eyes and yelling: "If your wings are stiff, you dare to say anything." Your eldest sister herself is willing to marry into the Wang family, how good her life is now. What can you do to be a parent, if the Guo family is not good, we can still force you to pass. If you don't listen to what you say, then it's decided without discussion!"

"It's certain, you're afraid of me!" Chunyang's temper also came up, and he said with a stalk around his neck: "I will never come back even if I eat pig food and live in the cowshed in the future, I can see that any haystack outside is more humane than this family." ”