July 24, 2023Ai Hrist
The younger brother in the family was a little emperor. He eats maltose and drinks malted milk essence, and the meat in the bowl will always be his.
While their sisters were maidservants, sometimes they can’t even get enough of the thick noodles, let alone new clothes and shoes.
Later, it was time to go to school. If the school office in the village hadn’t come door-to-door to tell her, she wouldn’t have had this opportunity at all.
At that time, the college entrance examination had been revived for several years. Even in a small mountain village like theirs, people with shallow knowledge and vulgarity like her parents knew that college students were glorious.
At that time, Ms. Zhou was the smartest child with the best grades in the village.
The teacher who taught her told her that she must pass the exam and go to a university in the city.
There was no patriarchy outside, and only by going to college can you change her destiny.
Enrolling in university became the only and most important dream of Ms. Zhou at that time;
To convince her parents, she has been working hard to maintain first place in the village. In addition, she has to take care of herding cattle, mowing grass, feeding chickens and ducks, etc.
But when she was in the third year of junior high school, this dream was ruthlessly shuttered by her parents.
She was ‘married’ by her parents to a rich bastard in the same village with a bride price of 1,500 yuan, plus a bicycle.
To this day, Ms. Zhou still remembered what her parents said when they tied her with a rope and whipped her with a stick:
“What’s the use of studying for a girl, who wants to be a college student? You don’t even look at whether you are worthy, we didn’t give birth and raise you to let your heart run away. I have always arranged for my daughter to marry, and you have to marry even if you don’t want to!”
So at the age of seventeen, the heartbroken Ms. Zhou was sent to the wedding room with gongs and drums.
She thought her life was just like this, but she never thought that getting married was just the beginning of her bad luck.
Gu Zhisang’s voice continued:
“Your ex-husband is an uneducated bastard and treats you very badly. You think that with these two children, he will turn from being a prodigal son to being a stable person, but you never expected him to get worse.”
“In the end you couldn’t bear it anymore and divorced when your child was 5 years old, completely cutting off this marriage line. You took away your eldest son, who is Feng Miao’s fiancé, and your ex-husband took away your younger son.”
Mentioning her ex-husband, Ms. Zhou’s expression was filled with disgust and resentment.
She took two deep breaths, gritted her teeth, and said, “That bastard, he is a scum! I only hate that I didn’t divorce him earlier, and I only hate that… I didn’t do my best to take both children away back then.”
“Otherwise Xiao Xing wouldn’t… and wouldn’t…”
As she spoke, Ms. Zhou’s voice choked up.
She raised her hand and covered her eyes, trying to calm down her grief.
After marriage, that rascal, only eat, drink, play, and wiped out the family’s meager property.
After drinking too much, he will domestically abuse his wife!
Ms. Zhou was often beaten with cuts and bruises all over her body, her nose was bruised, and her face was swollen. And because that rascal’s family knew that she was married by force, they were afraid that she would still want to escape when she was young, so they guarded her very strictly.
This situation only slightly improved after she became pregnant.
After giving birth to twins, or a pair of boys, her in-laws rejoiced. At that time, she still had faint expectations;
She hope that after the child was born, her ex-husband can be a person and stop being such a jerk.
But before she finished confinement, she fell into domestic violence again.
Every time her ex-husband drank alcohol or got angry outside and ran out of money, he would vent his frustration on her when he returned home. The two young sons were frightened, and their faces turned pale.
Every time, her elder son will threw his fat and limp body on him, crying, and shouting ‘Don’t hit mother’, while her younger son will lie to the ground and cried loudly. Her parents-in-law would come and take the two children away, turning a blind eye to her plight.
One day, Ms. Zhou curled up in a corner, feeling the burning pain in her body, looking at the living room with four walls, she suddenly felt very desperate.
She was not yet twenty-five years old, and she can see death at that time.
Her future will be accompanied by pain, and she will have to endure continuous violence from her husband and difficulties from her in-laws. Was it really necessary to continue living such a life?
She was not reconciled and decided to divorce this beast.
So she went to the village chief with her scars all over her body, and the women director made the decision.
In the rural areas at that time, divorce still has to be judged, and it was considered a disgraceful event by the villagers. Whether it was her parents-in-law, villagers, or even her sisters, they all come to persuade her:
“How can there be a husband and wife who don’t quarrel? Why don’t you look at how old your baby is, do you have the heart to let them have no father?”
But Ms. Zhou was so resolute that she even severed ties with her family. If she refused to divorce, she would go to the county and report to the police officer in the city and finally get divorced.
She wanted to take the two children away. Although she knew that her parents-in-law were at home, and her ex-husband values the ‘blood’ and will not beat the two sons, she always feels that with such grandparents and fathers, her children will not grow up well.
But how could the ex-husband’s family agree?
They felt that this woman was vicious. Not only did they want to discredit their family, but they also wanted to take away their precious grandsons.
After tossing for half a year, Ms. Zhou barely got custody of a child and took away her eldest son.
At that time, she just wanted to get away as soon as possible and stay away from this family. She felt that it might not be a good thing for her younger son, who was sweeter and more loved by her in-laws, to stay at her ex-husband’s house.
Because she left the house without a dime, the eldest son lived with her on the street and suffered instead.
Ms. Zhou didn’t expect that the decision at the beginning would make her younger son a source of regret and pain in the future.
After she calmed down a little, she looked at the camera with red eyes and said:
“Sorry, I lost my composure just now.”
“It’s okay, Ms. Zhou, would you like to take a break?” Gu Zhisang asked.
She pursed her lips and shook her head: “No, I’m really fine.”
Seeing this, Gu Zhisang continued:
“In the first two years after the divorce, you worked several odd jobs every day. Except for looking for a nursery for your eldest son, all the other money was saved as start-up capital. A few years later, you bought a tobacco and alcohol store, and later you started to invest in chain hotels and expand stores. You made a lot of money, and it was very hard.”
“On the other hand, your ex-husband has been in a daze. If I read correctly, he has been enjoying the money you gave him.”
Ms. Zhou showed helplessness and said: “That person, he is a dog skin plaster, but I can’t help it. I can ignore his life, but I owed Xiao Xing too much back then, and I couldn’t ignore Xiao Xing…”
Her eldest son has been taciturn since he was a child, but he was very sensible. He knows that he has worked hard and never needs pocket money. His academic performance was also among the best, which was her pride.
The youngest son has been weak since he was a child, and he can cry and fuss and his mouth was sweet after he can talk;
No need to mention her in-laws, before the divorce, she put more energy on her youngest son.
After the divorce, she often wondered how Xiao Xing was doing with her ex-husband.
After she earned some money, she also tried to contact her younger son.
But when she left, the child was too young, and her ex-husband’s family hated her, feeling that she had made them lose face in front of the villagers, and they were unwilling to let her have contact with the child.
The youngest son also felt resentful because she divorced and left him. He was unwilling to leave his father and follow him.
Ms. Zhou heard that at a young age, he didn’t do well in school. He skipped classes and played games all day long, and his grades couldn’t even get him into a technical school.
She was very sad and felt ashamed of her youngest son. She felt that she, as a mother, was also responsible for such a smart child becoming what he was today.
But every time he called, the youngest son poked her in the heart with a mean tone:
“When you abandoned me back then, why didn’t you feel sorry for me? You know that the children in the village call me a child without a mother, and even laugh at my father and my grandparents, so stop pretending and say that you love me!”
