In the winter of 1967, the Red Flag Brigade of Hongxing Commune, Shiyuan County, Northeast B Province, Mopantun.

The rooster crowed three times, the sky was slightly white, the morning fog was thick, and only the low and blurred black outline of the yellow mud grass house could be seen in the dark blue skylight, which was the coldest time of the day.

The chimneys of every house have already risen white smoke, and in the fog, the old man in a black cotton jacket dragged the plough and began to pick up manure, and the breeders of the production team fed the big livestock the first time of the day, and shouted at the little pig officer to drive a dozen slender black pigs out of the pigsty.

The day of hard work in Mopantun began again.

In the courtyard of Wang's house in Tunxitou, Zhou Lanxiang was lying stiffly on the narrow earthen kang in the west wing, her eyes staring directly at the black beams, her hair was scattered and her face was sallow, and she had been lying upright since she was injured and fainted yesterday.

She had a dream, so real that she had to believe that it was something that would happen in her life for more than twenty years, and until now her mind has been echoing the words that Widow Xu said to her before she died.

"Zhou Lanxiang, do you still have a face alive? The mother's family repaid you for your kindness, and gave the old Wang family a cow and a horse for a lifetime, and I didn't even taste what it was like to be a man, but the child raised two for the old lady! Now that the children have grown up, they are still my Xu Lingzi's children! Just kiss me! ”

"Do you think the old Wang family doesn't know? The two old things in the old Wang family think that the two children were born to me and Wang Manho, and even your parents know about it! Just watch you eat chaff for them to eat and drink, and watch you sell blood for them to go to school! Look at your virtue, even your parents use you as a monkey, what do you say you have to live? ”

……

Zhou Lanxiang's pupils contracted violently, in her dream she made cows and horses for her in-laws' family all her life, in order to provide for the elderly, help the eldest uncle, and take care of the younger uncle and sister-in-law, she herself had never eaten a full meal, sold blood for the little uncle and sister-in-law to go to school, gave them a dowry, squeezed out her own bones and scum to provide for her adopted son and daughter to go to school, and was deceived like a fool all her life.

And her husband Wang Manchu, who has never touched her in his dream for the rest of his life, has been accused of not being able to give birth for the rest of her life, and her mother-in-law's family bullied her together, and even the neighbors quarreled with her and talked about her as a hen that did not lay eggs......

Now she has been married for six years, and these six years have been exactly the same as in her dreams, and soon after, she was broken by her parents' parents because she said that Wang Manchu would not touch her, and she was forced to adopt the son born to Widow Xu.

And the two younger brothers who depended on her in her dream and took good care of her were also ruined in this year.

In the yard, her mother-in-law, Wang Xu, was wrapped in a white-washed brown triangular headscarf on her head, drooping her face while slowly opening the door of the chicken rack and touching the chicken's buttocks one by one, while calling her little girl to help with the work.

"Five Blessings! My mother can't spare my hand, you help my mother watch the fire, there is a big porridge boiling in the pot, don't burn it dry! Later, your father and your eldest brother will come back from morning work to eat, and the big cake has not yet been cooked, and this morning I am so busy that I hit the back of the head! What a deal! I'm in a hurry! ”

The words sounded like they were shouted at Wang Wufu in the upper room, but Wang Xu's head was aimed at the doors and windows of the west wing that had been closed.

Wang Wufu, who was sleeping soundly on the kang in the upper room, just turned over in the quilt and continued to sleep unconcernedly, she had long been accustomed to her mother using her as a pawn and chattering to her sisters-in-law.

The door of the east wing room soon opened, and Ma Guyu, the eldest daughter-in-law of the Wang family, wore a cotton jacket to reveal a messy yellow hair: "Mother, Mancang had a cough for half a night yesterday, and Dabao stuck to me this morning and didn't let me get up. ”

Wang Xu waved her hand to let her go back, picked up two eggs from the chicken coop and prepared to cook them for a while, and gave them to the eldest son who was not in good health and the precious eldest grandson of their old Wang family.

There was still no movement at all in the door of the west wing, Wang Xu was tossing the chickens and scolding the dogs in the yard, but he still didn't see Zhou Lanxiang come out, stared at the west wing gloomily, patted the chicken feathers on the cotton pants and hugged the firewood.

The daughter-in-law has to take care of it, but their old Wang family is a well-known and kind family in ten miles and eight villages, and she, the mother-in-law, must not be able to do anything to practice the daughter-in-law. Wait for the second son to come back, see how Zhou Lanxiang, a little **, is still a demon!

Lying on the kang is a day and a night, and watching the hoarding of two big mouths fan her big teeth!

The sky is getting brighter and brighter, the sun finally breaks out of the haze and breaks through the clouds, the strong sunlight will be pasted with hemp paper on the simple window lattice printed on the kang, it is already seven or eight o'clock in the morning, the bell of the production team has been ringing for a while, it is time for Wang Wufu to get up for breakfast.

The courtyard kept coming from the sound of her banging to break the enamel basin, which also woke Zhou Lanxiang from resentment and shock, after this day and night, she finally accepted everything in the dream, and she dreamed of every major event in her life for more than 20 years in the future, as real as her own experience, and as if she had experienced it herself, she was resentful!

Zhou Lanxiang blinked her dry eyes quickly, still immersed in the emotions of the dream, her whole body was so stiff that she couldn't move, only her fingers grabbed the bamboo kang mat under her, and she almost gritted her teeth to prevent herself from crying.

In the dream, she was stunned by Widow Xu's mother and son, and was drugged by them, so she definitely won't survive. Before he died, he thought about his life, and he was so aggrieved, he was all unwilling, and he couldn't close his eyes.

Maybe in the eyes of outsiders, she has been ordinary all her life but she is stable and peaceful enough, her parents were diligent and honest before she got married, she was not partial to their four brothers and sisters, and tried her best to pull them up.

The man Wang is strong and diligent, honest and responsible, and his in-laws are well-known for being kind people who never trivialize their daughters-in-law.

She had two miscarriages in six years of marriage, damaged her body and couldn't give birth, and her in-laws didn't dislike her, and later adopted a son and a daughter, which can be regarded as both children.

Although she lived a hard life in the countryside for many years, everyone came over like this in that era, and later the policy was good, and she and her younger brother began to work in the city.

Later, Han Jin came back and helped them open their own shop, and life was better, and by the time she died, they were already better off than many people in the city.

In such an ordinary life, many people may still envy her, at least in the dream, the people in the village say that she has a good life. But only she knows how aggrieved she has been in her life.

Wang Manchu was a family affair given by her parents when she was seventeen years old, she didn't want to, but she couldn't say what was wrong with him, and the only reason why he was clumsy and wooden was vetoed by her mother: "If you want a man, you have to find an honest and capable person!" Can a flamboyant little white face work in the field to feed a family? ”

In fact, she knew that her parents should not pressure her to marry into the Wang family to repay her kindness.

In 49, my father sent supplies to the bandit troops, and almost died in a mountain fire, but Wang Manchu and his father Wang Dajiang carried it out, and since then their family owes the Wang family a life, and her parents clearly told her before getting married that let her marry is to let her repay the old Wang family by making cattle and horses.

So she separated on the day she married into the Wang family, and most of the work and food earned by the young couple in the production team every year were filial to her in-laws, and she couldn't have any opinions on them eating bran and vegetables. Not only can she not say a word, but she also has to go to the room every day to wash and cook for her in-laws, sisters-in-law, and uncles, clean up the housework, do all the odds and does at home, and stay up late at night to make the family's clothes, shoes and socks.

This is the life she lived in the first six years of marriage, and now she feels very miserable, but it is not worth mentioning compared to the days in her dreams later.

In the dream, after the Chinese New Year this year, in order to make up for the living expenses of her brother-in-law Wang Manyin to go to high school, she was forced by her in-laws and mother's family to sell her first blood. Then she was out of control, in order to grab tonic medicine for Wang Dajiang, for her brother-in-law and sister-in-law to get married, and for her adopted son and daughter to go to school, she was forced to sell blood again and again!

There is also the deception and use of her mother-in-law and in-laws by the mother-in-law and Widow Xu!

So far, she doesn't know whether Wang Manchu is sick and can't do anything, or because he hates her and doesn't want to touch her, after six years of marriage, Wang Manchu has been sleeping with her across a table, a kang head, and the two have never touched each other's hands.

And in the dream, they lived like this for a lifetime, and before she died, Widow Xu said that Wang Manchu was sick and couldn't be a man at all, that is, the two children were born to her with someone else, and I don't know what method was used to deceive Wang Manchu, making him think that it was his own child.

And Zhou Lanxiang's in-laws and mother-in-law don't know this, they have always believed that Wang Manchu said that the two children were born to him and Widow Xu, and they also forced Zhou Lanxiang to raise children for them for a lifetime, watching her suffer and suffer, watching her starve, and even watching her sell blood for the children to go to school.

Zhou Lanxiang twisted her stiff neck and glanced at the calendar card pasted on the earthen wall, which was printed with the good color propaganda poster of the People's Commune of the Great Harvest Harvest, which was clearly written: November 8, 1967, the seventh day of the tenth lunar month, the beginning of winter.

She was so impressed by this day that the day before was the day of her second miscarriage and the beginning of her more terrible life.

When she got married, she was young, she didn't read and her knowledge was limited, and her family didn't teach her, and in the first year, she always thought that two people sleeping on a kang were husband and wife.

Later, I realized that it was not normal for them to be like this, and she could only talk to her mother-in-law Zhang Guirong about this kind of unspeakable thing. Can this kind of thing be said? No shame on the ground! Don't be afraid of people poking your backbone when you say it! Which girl from a serious family thinks about a man all day long? You are so shameless, just go to the old society to be a kiln sister! ”

The more Zhang Guirong spoke, the more angry he became, his eyes were red, and he was about to hang himself on the beam of the house when he took off his trouser belt: "I'm not alive!" I don't have a face to live! Giving birth to such a shameful thing! It's not enough to harm your own family, but you go to your in-law's house again! What have I done? ”

In the end, Zhang Guirong did not die, and Zhou Lanxiang also swore in front of her that she would not mention the fact that she and Wang Manchu did not have a round house.

A few days after talking to Zhang Guirong, her period came two days late, and her mother-in-law Wang Xu said that she was pregnant in front of all the members of the production team. Zhou Lanxiang was only a nineteen-year-old girl at that time, and she was pressed by her parents, although she was shy and anxious, she still didn't dare to say it in front of the big guy.

It was 61 years, there was a poor harvest in the field for three consecutive years, people were so hungry that people were shaking, the menstrual holidays of the eldest girls and little daughters-in-law were not allowed, and some people did not even come at all in those years, and then the disaster year passed to be normal.

can't say it in front of everyone, she still made it clear to her mother-in-law Wang Xu when she went home. Wang Xu comforted her lovingly, saying that the two of them were young and didn't understand personnel, and it would be good if Wang Manchu opened up in two years.

This kind of thing is too difficult to talk about, Zhang Guirong wants to die or live and not let her mention it, she has no one to discuss, so she can only wait for her mother-in-law to make decisions for her.

What was waiting for her was that everyone said that her child did not sit still and had a miscarriage.

Zhou Lanxiang lay on the kang and sighed deeply, for the stupid and timid self back then. Although she felt that her mother-in-law went out like this and said something wrong, she had no other way at all, Wang Xu coaxed her a few words, and Zhang Guirong even scarred and scared, she could only admit the miscarriage head-on.

There are one and two, and now it's like this again, she just fell down the hill and injured her thigh while working, and her pants were stained with a pool of blood, and Wang Xu told people that she had a miscarriage!

In the dream, she did not acquiesce after being "miscarried" this time, but told her and Wang Manchu in front of the two old people of her mother-in-law's family and the inside story of the two miscarriages.

Without the Wang family's hands, her father Zhou Baotian hated to beat her to death on the spot and apologized to the Wang family, her mother picked up scissors and poked her mouth, cutting off her tongue to save her from harming her benefactor.

The beating left her lying on the kang for two whole months, and her right arm was disabled for life, and she could no longer straighten it.

She wanted to go to the women's director of the brigade to make her own decisions when she could get up from the kang, but before she left the yard, her father discounted one of her legs with a shovel: "If you don't live well in Lao Wang's house, I'll beat you to death!" I can't let you harm others if I risk my life! ”

In this way, she was beaten again and again, and she was not able to get up for almost a whole year in 1968.

It was also in this year that Han Jin was wrongfully convicted of robbery and murder and sentenced to life imprisonment, and her younger brother Xiaoshan was also cut off from his studies by his father.

This year, the lives of all three of them were ruined.

Han Jin went to prison before he was eighteen years old; Xiaoshan was admitted to the first place in the commune and failed to go to high school, so he went home to farm; Under her father's sticks, her mother's death, her mother's persuasion, and her own ignorant shame, she finally gave in and accepted her fate.

In her dream, she didn't fight to get a divorce, but in this era, it is a big mistake for a man not to make progress or revolution, and her husband can't be a person, this kind of thing can never be said in public, and the most ridiculous thing is a woman, that can make people say anything, and never want to raise your head and be a man in the future.

Besides, it doesn't necessarily mean that you can get a divorce, and the two of you will live together, and you won't be able to live without sleeping in the bed?

Who dares to say that you can drown in a spitting star!

Even in some special cases, she may be regarded as an immodest woman, and she will be dragged out to parade on the street and criticized and beaten!

In the dream, Zhou Lanxiang became a labor machine after experiencing this, and she no longer had any expectations for life.

Later, she adopted her son and daughter one after another, and her heart began to live, and she raised these two children of unknown origin as her own, in order to let the children not suffer, she was hungry and reluctant to eat the food at home, and she also willingly went into the hospital again and again to sell blood.

Later, she was one of the first to go to the city to work, working hard to learn culture and learn new things, from a live-in nanny to a tailor shop worker, and finally able to start a new life.

Han Jin was also released from prison at this time, he was still the character who dared to think and fight when he was a child, and he quickly expanded his career, and helped Zhou Lanxiang and Xiaoshan open their own shops, and they finally lived a good life.

Under the persuasion and operation of Han Jin, Zhou Lanxiang quickly divorced Wang Manchu, and the shackles of her life were finally removed from her body.

As soon as the divorce procedures were completed, the son and daughter came to the door, the son wanted to get married, buy a house and buy a car, and the daughter wanted to invest in opening a store, they all asked her for money, and if she had no money, she mortgaged the store to borrow, and the mother and son had a lot of trouble.

In the end, it was Widow Xu, an old neighbor of Mopantun, who came forward to mediate, let her son and daughter admit their mistakes to Zhou Lanxiang, and asked her to go back to her hometown to have a good reunion between mother and son.

I didn't expect to go and never come back.

The daughter is straight and young, and accidentally said that she leaked her mouth, it turned out that the two children were not abandoned babies picked up by her mother-in-law, they knew early on that Zhou Lanxiang was not their real mother, and their real mother was Widow Xu!

Widow Xu simply didn't do anything, and told Zhou Lanxiang that Wang Manchu was a cripple and couldn't do anything at all, she set a trap and slept with him a few times, and then said that the two children were his, and he actually believed it!

He always thought that he could only succeed with Widow Xu, and desperately sent money and food to Widow Xu to give birth to a son for him, and the child was secretly born, and was brought back by his mother-in-law Wang Xu's hand for Zhou Lanxiang to raise, and Zhou Lanxiang worked hard for this pair of dog men and women all his life!

Widow Xu then stimulated Zhou Lanxiang: "Do you think that all the money and food that Wang Manhoard has taken over the years has been honored to the old man?" Don't be silly! They all took me here to raise a son for Wang Man! The two old wastes of the old Wang family still think that our little bolt is also the son of his Wang Manchu! Bah! "Xiao Bolt is the eldest son born to Widow Xu and her dead ghost husband.

Zhou Lanxiang's eyes were dark, and her body didn't obey it.

At this time, her son, who had been raised for more than 20 years, came forward to check, but he didn't care about her: "Cerebral hemorrhage, definitely won't survive!" ”

The daughter was scared and happy: "Brother, we won't find out the medicine we gave her, right?" Is her death the inheritance ours? ”

"I can't find out, it's just a predisposing drug, and it's nothing wrong if I don't get emotional after taking it. Okay, don't be verbose, hurry up, let her die in this half an hour! You still don't believe me? I'm graduating from medical school! ”

Before Zhou Lanxiang was completely unconscious, she was still thinking that she was frugal and even sold blood to pay for her son's medical school, but in the end she died in his hands......

thought she was dying like this, but before she died, she heard her younger brother Xiaoshan crying: "Sister! Sister! Don't give up! Brother Jin and I will avenge you! Brother Jin is going to give you a breath! You wait for him, he'll be back soon! Don't go like that! You wait for him! “

In the dream, she didn't close her eyes when she died, because she didn't wait for Han Jin to come, and she hadn't seen those people suffer retribution.

But now that she thinks about it, she is relieved.

Han went in to avenge her, this kid is still as ruthless and ruthless as he was a child, he will definitely be able to avenge her!