At this time, in the ordinary alleys of Beiping City, in an inconspicuous or even dilapidated bungalow, some people were worried about this marriage.

The mottled black lacquer gate has lost a lot of paint in many places, revealing the wooden planks inside, and the plaster covering the wall has also fallen off one by one, revealing pieces of uneven stones.

The yard is very small, next to a big tree in the west, there is a stone mill, a main hall in the middle, two bedrooms, a kitchen, and a utility room. They are all adobe walls, simple, which should be the appropriate adjective, but it is in this simple small courtyard that two bright "plum blossoms" unexpectedly bloom......

There are more than ten days left in the wedding, and Mei Ruojun is becoming more and more uneasy, although she knows that this is her life and the best choice at the moment, but she is still flustered. Looking at the rich dowry sent by the Zhou family, she knew how rich the Zhou family was, and she was willing and obligated to use her marriage to repay her parents' nurturing kindness, especially whenever she saw her father coughing up blood, she knew that she had no reason to refuse.

Mei Ruojun and her half-sister Mei Ruoli were washing clothes in the yard, the water was cold and biting, Mei Ruojun bent over, rubbing her clothes on the washboard, her hands were already frozen red, and from time to time she put them on her mouth to breathe, or put them on her cheeks to keep warm, but her sister Mei Ruoli brought a bucket of hot water from the kitchen and added it to the wooden basin and said: "Sister, isn't it cold if you add some hot water?" ”

"Oh, why did you pour out all the hot water, you have to boil another pot later, and the price of firewood has increased recently." Mei Ruojun sighed softly, half as if complaining, but looked at her sister lovingly.

"What do you see your hands are frozen?" Mei Ruoli took her hand and said, "The hot water is boiled to use, and I'll go to the woods to chop some firewood later." ”

"Don't go, what kind of firewood are you chopping at your girl's house, what if you get hurt?"

Mei Ruoli coquettishly hugged her sister's shoulder, the two of them put their heads on their heads, and couldn't help laughing together, although they were not born to the same mother, the relationship between her two sisters was so deep.

Mei Ruoli asked with a smile: "Sister, you will marry into the Zhou family in a few days, are you afraid?" ”

Mei Ruojun shook her head with a shallow smile and said, "Either marry the Zhou family or marry the Wang family and the Li family, you always have to marry." ”

Ruoli pulled down her lower eyelids, stuck out her tongue and said, "Liar, I've always seen you sighing at the moon for the past two days." ”

Ruojun smiled and said nothing, and Ruoli said again: "I heard that the eldest young master of the Zhou family walked with a limp, and his hands were like this. As he spoke, he retracted his five fingers and kept shaking his left hand.

Ruojun's heart was sour, and he sighed lightly and said: "People can't be good-looking, maybe others are good?" ”

"What if someone else is bad?"

Sister's words made Ruojun's heart sink, yes, what if others are not good? Ruojun stopped what he was doing, looked at the shaking laundry water in the wooden basin in a daze, and said lightly: "That's fate." ”

Ruoli snorted and said, "I don't want the matchmaker to find my mother-in-law's house for me, I want to find it myself." ”

Ruojun looked up at her, a youthful face, how beautiful, how innocent, how arrogant, sneered and said, "You, have you learned any new ideas in the school?" ”

Ruoli smiled: "That's natural, do you know, now many college students are looking for their own marriage partners, and there are many free lovers in college." ”

Ruojun looked at her lovely immature face and smiled: "Okay, good, I hope you will find a good husband for yourself in the future." ”

Wakari stood up, put one hand behind her back, pointed to the sky with the other, raised her head, and said with a full heart, "Of course, I want to go to college, and I have to go out to work." ”

The two were talking and laughing, when suddenly there was a sound outside the wall, and there was a burst of talking: "Hey, do you see it?" ”

"Oh, don't shake it, Jiawei, don't shake it."

"Hey, of course you're not tired standing on it, or if you come down, I'll try it on your back......."

Ruojun and Ruoli looked at each other, hurriedly ran out of the courtyard gate, detoured to the grove behind the courtyard wall, and saw two young men who looked like college students, one was lying on the ground, and the other was stepping on the back of the person, peeking in against the courtyard wall.

Wakari stepped forward and asked loudly, "Hey, who are you?" Why peek into our house? ”

The two college students were shouted by her like this, panicked, the one below had weak hands, lying on the ground, the center of gravity above was unstable and fell to the ground, embarrassed, the two fell to the ground and shouted, it looked really funny, Ruojun and Ruoli couldn't help but be amused by their appearance.

The two college students turned over, patted the soil on their bodies, walked forward with a smile, and said to the one lying on the ground: "Hello, my name is Cheng Jiawei, and his name is Zhou Ruikang, haha." He grabbed his head as he spoke.

Ruojun and Ruoli looked at them, Ruojun's eyes involuntarily turned to the slender man with sword eyebrows behind Cheng Jiawei, and his heart was stunned, his name is Zhou Ruikang? He and Zhou Ruian should have something to do with it.

Zhou Ruikang stepped forward a little shyly and said, "I'm sorry to scare you." ”

Cheng Jiawei also looked at her sisters and smiled: "You are the two plum blossoms of the Mei family, if you really live up to your name, Ruikang, now your brother can rest assured." ”

Ruojun lowered her head, she was dressed in plain coarse cloth clothes, without any ornaments on her body, only two blue ribbons on her braids, which made her even more elegant like a hibiscus out of the water, especially her eyes, which were crystal clear, warm and affectionate. Zhou Ruikang has never seen a suffocating woman who can be beautiful without embellishment.

Cheng Jiawei pushed him and said with a smile: "Hey, look stunned, I said earlier, the two sisters are famous beauties here, you don't believe it, what do you say about arranged marriages are rotten, what's the matter, now admit defeat." ”

Zhou Ruikang felt that he was looking at Mei Ruojun intently just now, it was really a little abrupt and impolite, and Cheng Jiawei said his thoughts, he couldn't help but have a fever on his face, he was very embarrassed, he didn't know what he was going to say, so he pushed Cheng Jiawei and said, "What nonsense are you talking about?" As he spoke, his eyes flickered a little, he bowed to Ruojun, and left in a hurry, Cheng Jiawei nodded and apologized while smiling, and left hurriedly behind Zhou Ruikang.

The inexplicable back and forth of the two of them made Mei Ruojun and Mei Ruoli a little confused, and the two sisters glanced at each other and couldn't help laughing.

Ruoli clapped her hands and said: "Sister, this Zhou Ruikang should be Zhou Ruian's younger brother, his younger brother is so good-looking, then his brother shouldn't be bad, sister, congratulations." ”

Mei Ruojun nodded her head and smiled: "You won't be in love with others, right?" Why don't you marry into the Zhou family with me, then we don't have to separate. ”

Mei Ruoli blushed and said, "Sister, don't talk nonsense." ”

The two sisters laughed and went home.

//

Three days later, in the afternoon, Mei Ruojun took the time to read the book in her own room, although the family is down, but she inherited the poetry gene of her ancestors in her bones, and she has liked poetry since she was a child. ”

was thinking about the words and sentences, and suddenly the door was pushed open, Mei Ruoli ran in happily, threw the schoolbag on the kang, and excitedly pulled Mei Ruojun's arm and said: "Sister, our school organized a visit to Peking University today, do you know who I met?" ”

"Huh?" Mei Ruojun was still immersed in her poems and didn't pay much attention to it.

"I saw Zhou Ruikang!" Mei Ruoli snatched the brush from Mei Ruojun's hand.

Mei Ruojun didn't know why she was so excited, so she couldn't help laughing: "So what? ”

"Oh, sister, you don't know, he is really amazing, he talked about the Three People's Principles on the podium, talked about anti-Japanese, the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, passionate, all the people were infected by him, God, you don't know the scene at that time, the applause from the audience was thunderous, it was so shocking!" Saying that, Ruoli poured herself a glass of water, took a sip, and then said: "Sister, he is too dazzling, oops, I was really proud at the time, you think, you are going to marry his brother, then I will become his relative, haha." I told my classmates at the time, and they didn't believe it yet. In the past, I always wanted you to marry later, but now I want you to marry sooner haha. ”

Mei Ruojun saw her excitement, she only felt cute, and said with a smile: "Okay, okay, I'll marry as soon as possible, I said it earlier, why don't we let Mrs. Zhang be a matchmaker for you, and just marry you to him?" ”

Mei Ruoli pushed her shyly, and said, "Sister, don't be joking, do you know that in the university today, many female classmates are around him, and it is like a starry moon." ”

Mei Ruojun listened to Ruoli praising Zhou Ruikang on the side, and couldn't help but think of Zhou Rui'an, who was going to marry in seven or eight days, although she kept persuading herself to accept the arrangement of fate, no matter whether she was beautiful or ugly, good or evil, she had to accept this husband, but she still hoped that as Ruoli said, Zhou Ruian could also have a similar appearance and demeanor to Zhou Ruikang, it is undeniable that the closer she gets to the marriage, the more uneasy she becomes.

She couldn't help but look out the window in a daze, Ruoli couldn't help but push her and said, "Sister, did you hear what I said?" I just asked you something. ”

Mei Ruojun came to her senses, turned her head to look at her and said, "What? ”

Ruoli said: "I just said, Zhou Ruikang asked me to greet you." And ask me what do you like to do? ”

Mei Ruojun didn't understand for a while, thought for a while and said: "He is polite, I am his future sister-in-law, he may be worried about his brother." ”

"yes, so I told him, you know, a lot of girls were looking at me at that time, it's really funny." Ruoli smiled again: "Later, his friend Cheng Jiawei also came, and brought a very beautiful girl, who was his sister, named Cheng Jiaqi." That Cheng Jiaqi said he wanted to come and see you. ”

"Look at me?" Mei Ruojun couldn't help but be a little surprised.

"That's right, because Cheng Jiawei said that you are more beautiful than her, so she was angry and said that she wanted to come and see you with her own eyes." Mei Ruoli blushed and smiled: "Cheng Jiawei also said that I am also beautiful." ”

Mei Ruojun smiled and shook her head, she didn't take these jokes seriously at all, and continued to look down at her book.