Out of the village, half a mile to the southeast, You Langli came to the Li River. Pen fun and pavilion www.biquge.info

This riverbank is a simple ferry shared by Youjia Village and Majia Village next door, and on weekdays, there are often two village women washing clothes at the ferry.

At the river crossing, a simple stone staircase leads to the river. At this moment, several women and children were washing clothes on the shore, while there were also a few naughty children, sitting on the rocks, but their little feet were put in the water to play in the water, and from time to time there was a burst of laughter.

Seeing this scene, You Langli couldn't help but smile.

This place, called Yumadu, is where he met his daughter-in-law, who was about to pass through the door. Of course, it's just a relationship, in fact, You Langli hasn't seen the specific appearance of his daughter-in-law who hasn't passed through the door. Speaking of which, there are still some twists and turns in it.

That was three years ago, when You Langli was just in his early twenties.

At that time, the family was still very poor, and You's mother helped people sew clothes every night to supplement the family, in order to save money to buy tung oil, she asked her younger brother You Romance to cut some pine trees from the mountain, and lit them with pine firewood with rosin grease for lighting.

Unexpectedly, the pine wood burned with black smoke, which made You Mu's tears flow, and after a long time, You Mu's eyes slowly became blind. I borrowed some from everywhere and went to see Lang Zhong in the city medicine hall, but in the end it was not cured.

You Mu couldn't make money by sewing clothes, so in desperation, she could only follow an aunt in the same village to wash clothes for big families in the city.

During that time, sometimes, an aunt in the same village couldn't lead You Mu to the ferry to wash the pulp, and You Langli, who was about to go to the river to collect nets and catch fish, led You Mu to the ferry by the way.

Every morning, I can see a beautiful and quiet girl, wearing a plain Luo skirt, and washing clothes at the ferry.

After coming and going, You Langli quietly fell in love with this girl in his heart. I asked someone to inquire privately, but it was the second daughter of Ma Yuanshan, a native of Majia Village, who was in the grocery business in Guilin.

Speaking of this Ma Yuan Mountain, in the south of Guilin City, it is ten miles away, and it is all famous.

Mainly not because he is doing business in the city, although Ma Yuanshan also made a lot of money and bought more than 20 acres of land at home, but this is not the main reason why he is famous. He is famous because he has three beautiful daughters, and each one is better looking than the other!

The eldest daughter Ma Chuntao has been married, and the object of marriage is the only son of the political envoy Si Dushi of Guangxi, although the political envoy Si Dushi is only a petty official from the seventh grade, but after all, he is also an official. Being able to be in-law with the officials of Congqipin, Ma Yuanshan naturally felt that his family was much higher, and the door was right, not to mention that the Ma family had Congqipin, at least it was equivalent to the eighth.

The second daughter Ma Xiahe also had many people go to propose, but it is said that Ma Yuanshan thought that the second daughter was virtuous and hardworking, dignified in appearance, and wanted to find a large family with a better threshold, so he refused many people who proposed marriage.

As for the youngest daughter Ma Qiuju, although she is still young, she is said to be much more beautiful than the eldest daughter and the second daughter. Ma Yuanshan hid it as a treasure, and also released a message, saying that there are no elders in the family and no high-ranking officials above the platform, so don't propose to his third daughter.

After inquiring clearly, You Langli was completely dead.

No one knows the situation at home better than him. Facing Ma Yuanshan's family, his family didn't even have the qualifications to mention.

Mo said that Ma Xiahe was more beautiful and virtuous than Ma Chuntao, and Ma Yuanshan also let out his words, looking for someone with a higher threshold than their Ma family.

But You Langli's family, not to mention that the threshold is higher than the Ma family, and they can't even be the same as the Ma family, and even, there is almost no threshold. The threshold of the gate of You's house is indeed dilapidated and rotten, it has not been repaired for many years, there is no way, I can't eat enough, how can I have spare money to ask a carpenter to change the threshold?

So, You Langli, who knew that it was impossible, asked his younger brother You Rongrong to pick up the old lady to the riverside ferry to wash clothes, and he himself tried to avoid the ferry and hide from the girl Ma Xiahe in his heart.

After more than ten months, one day, You Langli was returning from selling fish in Guilin City, but on the way, he met a group of people blowing and blowing, carrying a red sedan chair, and festively welcoming the team, attracting many onlookers.

You Langli stood in the crowd on the side of the road, looking enviously at the groom official riding a tall jujube red horse in front, fantasizing about when he could marry a bride, preferably Ma Xiahe. Unexpectedly, a villager from Majia Village next to him said a word, so he fell into the ice cellar in August, and his whole body was cold!

"The groom official is the son of the county Cheng of Lingui County, with a rich family wealth and hundreds of acres of land; The bride is the second daughter of Ma Yuanshan in our Majia Village, named Ma Xiahe, who is beautiful and dignified, she is really a rich man and a woman, and she is a good match! ”

You Langli was shocked by such a sentence from a passer-by, and stood stupidly on the spot, his heart like ashes. I didn't even know when I would return home, and I didn't know when the money from selling fish on my body would fall, so it was as if I had lost my soul, and I went back to my room, slammed the door, and cried quietly for half the night.

Immediately afterwards, You Langli, who had always been as strong as an ox, fell ill, had a high fever, and vaguely shouted the name of Ma Xiahe, which made You Mu and You Romance sad.

Although You Mu was blind, her heart was very open, and she comforted You Langli and said, "My son, don't think nonsense. That girl from the Ma family is not something that our You family can climb. Go back, wait to save some money, and my mother will tell you about the house, don't worry. ”

Mother You comforted her son, but she was more anxious than anyone else. At this time, the countrymen all married wives and had children at the age of seventeen or eighteen, You Langli was twenty-one years old, and she hadn't talked about family affairs, could she not be in a hurry?

So, You's mother asked someone to pick up more clothes from the big families in the city and come back to wash them.

A few days later, You Langli's body recovered, but his heart never recovered, he just went out early and returned late every day, fishing hard, wanting to earn more money, make his life better, so that his younger brother You Romantic, who was growing up, could eat more white rice, and let You's mother not work so hard.

But even if You Langli goes out to fish before dawn every day and goes home in the middle of the night, he still can't save much money. Thanks to his younger brother You Romantic, he opened up some sweet potatoes in the wasteland, so that the family would not starve.

However, it was You's mother who was ruthless, and asked the neighbor to give her an ancestral jade bracelet from her mother's house when she got married, and exchanged it for two taels of silver, and finally barely made up the gift money for the matchmaker and the dowry.

So, You's mother asked people to ask around a few nearby villages, which family had a good girl who had not come out of the cabinet, and then asked the fourth aunt of the matchmaker in the village to come forward to propose marriage.

The fourth aunt also watched You Langli grow up, so she naturally knew You Langli's temperament, so she patted her chest and promised to wrap it on her and tell You Mother that she would come back with a good daughter-in-law.

The fourth aunt still really thinks about Mother You. She soon remembered that her maiden family had a distant cousin niece, but it was just right.

That girl, although she is not beautiful and has dark skin, has a thick waist and a big buttocks, she must be easy to give birth to, and her family is also a landless tenant, so she should not have many requirements.

So, the fourth aunt rushed back to her parents' house in a hurry and mentioned this family matter to her distant cousin.

The distant cousin was happy, but the next question made it difficult for the fourth aunt to answer: "Fourth sister, if you come forward, brother, I will definitely have to give you face." However, my brother still has to ask, how many acres of paddy fields are there in that family? My girl got married, so she can't go without food. ”

The fourth aunt couldn't answer a word: the You family is not even as good as a tenant.

Tenants also have long-term fixed owners who can rent fields, but the You family not only does not have their own fixed fields, but they also do not even fish the rented fields.

Youjia Village is too close to Guilin City, there are not many fields, and most of the existing fields are concentrated in the hands of You Wangcai You, but You has already rented the fields, and the rent is close to 60% of the mu yield, so you can't grab the rented land at the price of 70% per mu, right? In that way, the more you plant, the more you lose, it is better not to rent.

Therefore, the You family only cultivated land on the river beach, barely making a living, and mainly relied on You Langli fishing and You Mu's pulp laundry to make a living.

As a result, the fourth aunt, a niece with a dark skin and a thick waist and a big buttocks, and a poor family at home, refused to even give the You family a chance to propose marriage.

The fourth aunt was reluctant to go, and at the same time she was unwilling, so she expanded her scope and looked for a girl's family in a radius of twenty or thirty miles, and lowered the requirements, all looking for a girl with a bad family background, ugly appearance but good health (after all, the You family still expects to marry a healthy daughter-in-law and be busy with farm work. ）

There are also several suitable candidates, but the fourth aunt came to the door several times in a row to propose marriage, but they were still rejected.

"There is no field at home? That's not going to happen! My girl can't marry and starve, right? You can't let me, as my father-in-law, always have to help my son-in-law's family, right? ”

"I can't even eat enough at home, so what wife do I want to ask for, what kind of relatives do I mention? I broke this thought earlier! ”

"Even if my daughter marries Li Laocai as a concubine, she still has something to eat, and she can send a pig's ear to the You family during the New Year's Festival, so don't you want my family to stick it upside down? Fourth aunt, Hugh has to mention this matter again, otherwise don't blame me for turning my face! ”

Although the fourth aunt only told You Mu these words, and did not tell You Langli, but from the fourth aunt's unhappy eyes and You Mu's desperate face, You Langli could still guess a thing or two, he knew that he was afraid that he would have to accept the reality of being a bachelor for a lifetime! (To be continued.) )