Comfort Women's Japanese Aberdeen (novella) Zhang Baotong 2017.12.22

In the countryside, girls reach the age of seventeen or eighteen, and young men begin to look for a partner when they reach the age of twenty. After finding a partner and becoming a family, you can set up your own door and separate your family. Luo Shanxue has been very lonely since he was a child, which has made him develop a withdrawn and inferior character. How he hopes to find a woman, get married and start a family, and the two of them love each other and live together beautifully. However, he was twenty-five or sixteen years old, his eldest sister had already married, and no one in the family had taken care of his personal affairs.

One afternoon, on the way, he saw a village aunt holding a child and carrying a basket containing a watermelon and some eggs, and he took the initiative to help the aunt take the basket and send her back home. The aunt said to him, "Good at learning, how old are you, why don't you hurry up and find a woman, and if you delay it like this, when you reach twenty-seven or eighteen, you will be old, and it will be difficult to find it again." These words reminded him all of a sudden and gave him a sense of crisis. watched other men get married at the age of twenty-two or three, but he was twenty-five or sixteen years old, and no one had ever introduced him.

He wanted to remind his parents to find a way to help him find a partner, but his father didn't seem to care about him, because they didn't usually talk much. He also knew that his adoptive father would not take care of his affairs, because it was not easy to marry a daughter-in-law, and it would cost a lot of money to say the least. And his adoptive father would definitely not spend him that much money. So, he said to his mother, "Mom, you can help me find a partner for my grandfather." He knew that his mother's maiden home was in the Yao area, and the people were poor and the place was poor, so it was a high climb to marry here. In the past, his adoptive father went to the mountains to marry his mother because his family was poor.

The mother thought that her son was pitiful, so she went back to her mother's house, and asked her to tell her about a girl. Soon, the mother's family sent a letter saying that the subject had said that it was okay, and asked Wei Shaolan to take Luo Shanxue over to take a look. So, Wei Shaolan took Luo Shanxue to her parents' house together. It stands to reason that going to someone's woman's house to propose marriage is a big deal, and it is necessary to bring some gifts. The general etiquette is to give a golden leaf and two bottles of local Daqu wine, and then give the girl a red envelope of 20 yuan. However, a cigarette costs more than 20 yuan, two bottles of wine also cost 10 yuan, plus 20 yuan of gift money, to say the least, it costs 50 or 60 yuan. But as soon as Wei Shaolan mentioned this matter to Luo Xianxian, Luo Xianxian immediately waved his hand and said, "I don't care about this matter, I don't have this much money." And when he had said that, he spoke of it no more. Therefore, Wei Shaolan had no choice at all, because the family's money was in the hands of Luo Xianxian.

Wei Shaolan had no choice but to borrow 20 yuan from others, and went to the woman's house with the only hen and two catties of glutinous rice in the family. The woman's family lives in a Yao cottage, the family is naturally very poor, the house is dilapidated, and the house is quite shabby, but the girl is not bad, upright, slim, at most eighteen or nineteen years old, so that Luo Shanxue likes it with all his heart at first glance.

People in poor places always regard people outside as rich, but they don't know how much better the Luo family is than them. Therefore, seeing that the mother and son of the Luo family came to the door to propose marriage, they looked so stingy, and their faces immediately looked very bad. Seeing the displeasure on their faces, Wei Shaolan felt a little unable to sit still, and casually talked to them and left.

Originally, the woman should have left them for lunch, but because there were too few gifts for others, the mother and son of the Luo family did not want to stay for dinner, and they did not want to leave them for dinner. So, Wei Shaolan went to her parents' house for lunch with her son. Because the Luo family did not give gifts to other women's women according to local customs, it naturally made the Wei family introduced from it also feel disgraced, so Wei Shaolan's father blamed his daughter for giving gifts too lightly. Wei Shaolan could only explain that because Luo Shanxue was not the biological son of the Luo family, the Luo family didn't want to spend more money on his affairs.

After a while, Wei Shaolan's sister-in-law came over with a gift list and handed it to Wei Shaolan, saying, "People have said that everything here is indispensable." Wei Shaolan couldn't read, so he asked Luo Shanxue to tell her. Luo Shanxue read the money and items on the gift list to his mother one by one. The items on the gift list are very detailed, filled with a whole page, including five gold leaves, ten bottles of liquor, five catties of tea, ten catties of salted fish, ten catties of pork, ten catties of kelp, five catties of cakes, ten catties of vermicelli, ten catties of soybeans, ten catties of glutinous rice, two sets of clothes for four seasons, two pairs of shoes and socks, and 300 yuan in cash.

Although Wei Shaolan is illiterate, he calculates with his heart, and this bride price will cost seven or eight hundred yuan, to say the least. However, their family's total income in a year, including raising chickens, feeding pigs, and dividends in the team, is less than 400 yuan. To give this bride price, the whole family had to go two years without food, drink, clothing, or use before they could give the money to the family.

Wei Shaolan felt very worried, so she went home and told her husband about it. When the husband heard this, he shook his head like a bully drum and said, "Who can get such a large amount of money?" In fact, Wei Shaolan knew that these bride prices were not very much, because when their family married their daughters, they asked for a lot more than that. Of course, Wei Shaolan knew that the main reason was not the amount of the bride price, but that Luo Shanxue was not his biological son, if he married his own biological son, not to mention these bride prices, even if it was doubled, he would also find a way to buy it.

Just because the family has no money, Luo Shanxue's good wishes can only be lost. This made Luo Shanxue feel very bad, and he often couldn't figure it out because of this. Because his parents can't come up with this amount of money today, and if they can't come up with this amount of money in another two or three years, then there will be no hope for him forever.

Luo Shanxue knew that his adoptive father would not spend more money on his affairs, so he died of this heart. He wants to make people feel good about him by making a good impression on them. Therefore, he enthusiastically took the initiative to help others, regardless of the village or acquaintances, as long as he needed his help, he would respond to his request, regardless of gains and losses.

Once, when it was raining heavily, he happened to pass by on the highway, and saw an old man slipping and falling on the road, and he couldn't get up for half a day, so he insisted on helping the old man up, and then, braving the rain, carried the old man to a house five miles away. The old man was very grateful to him and left him for dinner. He didn't want to have dinner, but because it was raining heavily, he had to stay at the old man's house a little longer.

After a while, the old man's daughter returned. The old man's daughter was neatly dressed and looked dignified, which made Luo Shanxue very impressed. The old man told his daughter that he had fallen and let the young man carry him back, and the daughter was very grateful and had to keep him for dinner. Because he liked this woman, Luo Shanxue decided to stay for dinner. The old man told Luo Shanxue that since her husband died, she had lived with her daughter, and in order to take care of her, her daughters were twenty-two or three years old and had not yet married. Then he asked Luo Shanxue if he was looking for a match. Luo Shanxue shook his head pessimistically and said, because the family gave a target, but because there was no money to give a bride price, the matter was settled.

The old man boasted that he was good at learning, and the old man's daughter also had a good impression of him. This made Luo Shanxue's heart sweet. After that, Luo Shanxue came a few more times, and every time he came over, he had to help the old man do some heavy work. Both the old man and his daughter were very polite and kind to him. Once, the old man said to Luo Shanxue, "Young man, you can come to our house to be a son-in-law." When Luo Shanxue heard this, he was so happy that he didn't sleep that night.

A few days later, when he came to the old man's house again, he found that the daughter had gone into hiding when she saw him. He thought it was strange, so he asked the old man what was wrong with Yurong. The old man said to him, "Young man, tell you the truth, I think you are a good child, a good man, and a very diligent man, and I wanted you to come into our house as a son-in-law, but yesterday a relative came to our house, and I told him about you." But he said you were a Japanese boy. Hearing this, Yu Rong didn't want to see you anymore. ”

Hearing this, Luo Shanxue didn't say a word, and went out with his head down. On the way home, he felt that it was dark in front of him, and tears were flowing down uncontrollably.