The Ladder of Love (Part II) Zhang Baotong 2017.10.10

As I said, the old man's words are difficult to understand, there are many repetitions and verbosities, and some places are upside down. After all, when people are old, their memories and narratives cannot be as neat and complete as those of young people. Her story sounded very laborious, and there were many things I didn't understand, so I listened carefully and kept asking questions, trying to understand every word she said. Therefore, I cannot repeat her original words, but can only retell her words as much as possible in their original appearance or meaning. Here's her story.

"In 1939, I was 13 years old. A 13-year-old girl can do a lot of things. At that time, I didn't have to go to school, and my parents didn't let me go to school because it cost money. I have been beautiful and smart since I was a child, and I am so envious when I see other people's children carrying schoolbags to school. I remember when I was 9 years old, the gentleman in the school saw me standing in front of the school and watched the students in class, so he said to me, 'Baby, you look so smart, you must be a good billet to go to school, you should come to school too.' ’

I nodded, ran home and said to my dad, 'Dad, I want to go to school.' Dad glanced at me, frowned, and said, 'You girl, sooner or later, you will get married, what do you want to learn?' So, from then on, I stopped thinking of going to school. I knew that I was a girl, not a boy, and I didn't have the right to go to school.

We live in Xinfang Village, which is 20 miles away from Changle Village. It's also mountainous, and it's surrounded by tall mountains. There are many people in the valley and few places, and life is hard. Our family has two acres of paddy fields and a few acres of mountainous land, and we live in two very old houses. My dad and mom spent the day in and out of the fields, cooking, carrying water, collecting firewood, doing laundry, cleaning, and taking care of my 7-year-old brother. But these jobs can't help me, and I can't be tired, and I don't have to worry about things at home, so I feel that my life is peaceful and peaceful.

That is, during the Mid-Autumn Festival when I was 13 years old, I followed my mother to my second aunt's house as a guest. Because the second aunt gave birth to a male baby, the family was very happy and held a big banquet, so the mother brought some eggs and a packet of brown sugar to give gifts to the second aunt. I was very impressed by that visit, there was pork and smoked fish at the banquet, and I had never eaten meat since the end of the Chinese New Year, so at this banquet, I ate meat, and the meat was so fragrant that I will never forget it.

After eating, the adults sat together and drank tea. At this time, the second aunt asked my mother if I had told anyone else. Mom said she hadn't. My second aunt called a woman in her 40s from her village to meet and talk to her mother. Because I've been playing shuttlecock kicking with my second aunt's cousin outside the house. After a while, my mother called me to me and asked the woman to look at me. The woman took me by the hand and asked me what my name was. I said that my nickname is Xiu'er, and my name is Xu Chaoqing. She asked me again how old I was. I said I was 13 years old. The woman said to her mother, "You are so beautiful."

Not long after, the woman came to my house with a few people and brought us bacon, salted fish, vermicelli, rice cakes, and some flower cloth. Our family was very happy, and my mother asked me to make tea and tea for them, so I happily made tea for them and served them tea. As I brought the tea to the woman, she took my hand and said, 'Does Xiu'er still recognize me?' and I smiled at her and nodded. Then she said to her mother, 'This girl is so beautiful, the more she looks at it, the more she likes it.' My mother immediately said, 'My girl is not only beautiful, but also smart and capable, and she is asked to do all the work inside and outside the house.' ’

At noon, my mother made a table of good meals and dishes, and asked my father to accompany the guests to drink and eat. After eating and drinking tea for a while, Dad and Mom sent the guests away. Later, I heard from others that my father and mother had promised me to someone else, and that family was the Wu family in Changle Village, and it was a family with a good background. But as soon as I heard that my parents were going to marry me to someone else, I was scared, and I went to Changle Village because my second aunt married there. I've heard that life is better there than we have here, but I still don't want to leave my home and go to a place I'm not familiar with.

One morning, my mother pulled me into her house and said to me, 'Baby, mother teaches you to dress up, and a girl can only make a man happy if she dresses herself up beautifully.' I said, 'I don't want them to rejoice.'" But the mother shook her head, and said, 'What can a girl do not please a man?' and then she combed my hair, braided it, and tied it up with a red wool rope. Then he showed me the mirror, and I looked at it, and my hair was very neatly combed, and my two braids were beautiful. Then, my mother took me in her arms and said, 'Baby, Dad told you to the Wu family in Changle Village, and their life is better than ours. When I heard this, I put my arms around my mother's neck and said, 'Mother, I'm not going over there, I'm going to be with you.' My mother wiped her tears and said to me, 'Baby, how can there be a girl who doesn't get married, and how can a girl live with her parents for the rest of her life?'

A few days later, some more people came to the Wu family, and they also brought an old man who counted eight characters, saying that he was counting eight characters for me to see if my life and the boy's life were compatible. I secretly thought in my heart that my life had better be able to restrain that man's life, so that I would not have to marry someone over there. However, the old fortune teller heard my birth date counted, and said that our eight characters were not compatible. This made me feel very disappointed.

Since then, I have often dreamed that my parents have given me away, and I will cry and cry until I wake up from the dream. I've also seen a married girl crying dizzily before leaving home and getting into a sedan chair, so I've always been scared about getting married. After that, the Wu family came a few more times, and once sent a lot of gifts, which were packed in two large boxes. When my parents opened it, they saw that there were a lot of silver dollars and a lot of food. Mom and Dad were so happy that they didn't go to bed until midnight. I heard my mother say that it was a gift for betrothals, so it should be heavier. I was only 13 years old at the time, so my family set my wedding date for June 16, three years later. I heard that this day was specially selected by the old man who measured the eight characters, and it was a good day.

I'm getting older day by day, and people say I'm getting prettier the older I get. I've started to know how to dress up, which my mother taught. Every day in the mirror, I can see that I really look better and better. Once, I followed my mother to my second aunt's house as a guest, and as soon as I came to my second aunt's house, some people came to see me. One of them, a young man of seventeen or eighteen, also came to see me. Someone coaxed him and said, 'Look, this girl is your future daughter-in-law.' The lad turned around in shame and ran. Unfortunately, I only saw his back, not his face. But I know he's not low, he's tall and thin.

When my mother and I left, my second aunt deliberately took me to see the Wu family. At that time, we were standing twenty or thirty meters away from the Wu family, and my second aunt pointed to the half-old blue brick and tiled house and said to me, 'That's the Wu family's house. I saw that it was a large compound, and there were at least seven or eight houses in it, much larger than ours. I knew this was where I would live and live.