"Ah Xiang, stay with me for a night, I can't be at ease when you go back at this hour." Da Hua said affectionately, holding Yuan Xiang'er's arm all the way.
Dahua is the eldest sister in the family. Her parents are busy with business and have no time to manage. Since childhood, she brought her younger siblings and a group of children like Yuan Xianger to play in the mountains and rivers. Plenty with a healthy glow.
She was originally a lively and cheerful personality, but she had to be restrained by marrying into a family with such a large population as a new daughter-in-law.
"Is it convenient?" Yuan Xiang'er asked. She had planned to stay at the inn for a day or two.
"It's very convenient. There is an empty room next door to me. My mother just packed it up for her to live in when she came a few days ago. Besides, my husband lives in the study and hardly ever comes to my place. You don't have to worry about it."
She soon realized that she had missed the point, and she was timid in front of her friends. She was a little embarrassed, and she shook Yuan Xianger's arm.
"Okay? Okay? Since I got married here, I really miss you guys."
Yuan Xianger accepted her warm invitation.
Since he is staying as a guest, he should pay a visit to the mistress of the house. Yuan Xianger followed Da Hua through the front hall to the wing where her mother-in-law lived.
This house was originally a three-entry yard, and the vermilion lacquer on the beams and eaves has long since peeled off, but from the auspicious patterns carved on the Quetiyun piers, it can still be seen that the ancestors of the owner of this house had also been there before. A period of glory and wealth.
Nowadays, there are too many descendants who can't live in the house, and the large and small courtyards are separated by their own covers. Even the downside house that was supposed to be the servant's house now has a few family members.
People have lived a lot, cooking fires and cooking, draining the water, making the road stones on the corridors accumulate thick mud, and the painted walls are smoked black and yellow. Housewives in shabby clothes and naked children pass in and out of the thresholds of each house, showing a slump and bleak with a large population but unable to maintain the ancestral foundation.
The patio in the backyard is very small, and only a small piece of the sky can be seen. The house in the east here is divided into three rooms, which is the residence of Dahua's mother-in-law and sister-in-law.
In the dark corner of the room, a thin and serious middle-aged woman sat. She looked at Yuan Xianger's clothes and jewelry, and the pork gift in her hand several times with a scrutinizing gaze, and then she opened her mouth to speak. ,
"Since there are guests here, please treat them well. You don't have to come and serve dinner."
There is no servant in this family, and all the trivial matters are handled by the two daughters-in-law. But because the youngest son was admitted as a scholar, the mother-in-law felt that she could set the stage for the official wife in advance. The girl from the butcher's family who was married because of the economic constraints at the beginning seems to be unpleasant now.
After Yuan Xianger stepped out, she just heard the voice of Dahua's unmarried sister-in-law from inside the house, "Mother is true, second brother is as capable, sooner or later he will be a master, even if he is older, there is no need for it. Marry him a daughter from a butcher's family. You see these relatives who come every once in a while to fight the autumn breeze are coming in waves now."
Da Hua blushed and pulled Yuan Xiang'er embarrassedly away.
"Although my mother-in-law and sister-in-law are a little more serious, they are still ok with me. They never... never beat or scold me." She added to herself.
The house where Dahua lived was isolated from the ear door. Dahua took Yuan Xianger into the house, closed the door, and was relieved. She asked Yuan Xianger to take a seat at the tea table by the window, opened the cabinet and took out all kinds of peach cakes and almond cakes, and made a pot of fragrant jasmine tea.
"Try it now, my mother came back to see me quietly stuff it for me. I've been hiding it all the time, and I'm not willing to take it out."
"Your little treasury hides well, and the treats for guests are much better than your mother-in-law's." Yuan Xiang'er sat face to face with her, "How is it, how is your husband treating you?"
Dahua's mellow face showed a bit of silence, "The husband is naturally good, but now the whole family is pointing to him to get the fame, and his mother-in-law makes him study hard every day, sleep in the study room at night, and don't let him relax for a moment. I don't like him coming. From my house. We can't speak for many days."
"Besides, my husband is a scholar, so it's impossible for me to like a lady like me." Dahua sighed, "Ah Xiang, if only I could read and write like you. Maybe I can talk to my husband more. words."
Yuan Xiang'er looked at her teenage playmate, who was as young as herself, but she had already pulled up the woman's bun and lost her innocence, and began to live cautiously and cautiously in such a small world all her life. .
This is really an era that is very unfriendly to women, Yuan Xianger picked up the peach blossom cake on the table depressed.
She suddenly found two little people who were less than the height of a finger standing on the table, and together they lifted a piece of peach blossom cake and walked to the window.
Halfway through, the villain's eyes met Yuan Xiang'er's surprised eyes.
The villain hesitated for a moment, as if they didn't expect to be seen, they hurriedly lost the piece of cake and slipped out from the windowsill with their little sleeves flying. But soon he pulled the edge of the window again, revealing two small heads on top of each other, looking at Yuan Xianger curiously.
"Ah Xiang, what do you think?" Da Hua's voice came.
"What? What did you just say?" Yuan Xianger came back to her senses, but didn't hear what Dahua just said.
"I'm talking about Chen Xiong, that is, Tie Niu. Can't you see what Tie Niu has in mind for you? It's been so many years, you can be accurate."
Yuan Xianger was stunned for a while, she has been running around all year, this kind of shy affection from a boy who was a childhood sweetheart, she really didn't receive much, and she would probably live up to it immediately.
"You're too old, so you should think about it. Brother Tie Niu is handsome and down-to-earth, and he is still working in the yamen. There is nothing more suitable than him."
Dahua was talking vigorously, when the little white milk dog squatting on Yuan Xianger's knee suddenly turned its head and barked at her, the sound was low and deep, not like a dog barking, but a bit like a wild beast in the wasteland. , Dahua shivered in fright.
Yuan Xiang'er brought the dog back with a smile, stretched out his hand and pinched his tail back and forth until he was so soft that he could lie down on his lap again.
"I don't like Chen Xiong, I have a sweetheart." Yuan Xianger said while stroking Nan He's hair. After saying this, she felt that Xiao Nan under her hand was smoothed and rolled on her leg comfortably. .
"Auntie, can I come in?" A childish voice sounded outside the door.
Dahua opened the door and led in a five- or six-year-old girl.
"This is my niece, the girl from the uncle's family, her name is Dong'er." Dahua lifted her niece to the chair and shared her food without hesitation, "Dong'er came just in time, auntie has delicious food here."
The little girl thought that she came a lot on weekdays, and she was very familiar with Dahua, and took the pancake handed to her with both hands.
She has a pair of swarthy round eyes, looking at Yuan Xianger, and inadvertently said, "Sister, your dog is so big and beautiful."
Yuan Xianger was very surprised. This was the first time she had met an ordinary person who could see the body of the monster. She couldn't help but think of her childhood when she saw demons. At that time, Yuanjiacun seemed to be very similar to this place, and there were goblins living in the crowd.
Fortunately, Dahua, who was very nervous, didn't find the loophole in the little girl's tone.
Yuan Xianger was sipping tea when she saw the little girl Donger, who broke a piece of peach blossom cake in half when no one was prepared, and quietly handed it to the little goblin who was pulling on the windowsill.
The two goblins happily held the half of the cake above their heads and ran away quickly. After a while, the two little hands on the windowsill raised again, and placed two wildflowers that are common in summer on the window edge.
When Dahua went to prepare dinner, Yuan Xianger asked Donger, "Donger, can you see it?"
While eating snacks, the little girl looked at her alertly and did not speak.
"My elder sister is just like you. I have been able to see them since I was a child." She raised one of Nan He's paws. "This is Nan He, elder sister and my good friend."
The little girl lowered her eyebrows and hummed softly.
"Then tell your sister, has anything strange happened in Lianghe Town recently?"
"Yes, demons... more. The river god is gone."
"The river god is gone? What is the river god gone?"
"It's just gone, gone, can't see it anymore," the five-year-old said as best he could.
Before dinner, Dahua's sister-in-law came to pick up Donger. Although this sister-in-law dresses simply, she observes etiquette in her words and deeds, and her actions reveal the gentleness and gentleness of a woman.
"I'm bothering my brother and sister again. Dong'er likes you the most. I heard that there are guests coming, I never thought she was such a beautiful sister."
She took out a small hand-embroidered purse from her bosom and handed it to Yuan Xianger. "Dahua often mentions her sister. It's not surprising that she can't show her a little greeting when they meet for the first time."
Yuan Xianger even claimed that Xie took it over. The embroidery of the purse was excellent. It embroidered a koi carp and its tail fin was swaying and vivid. The strange thing was that when looking at the light, a pair of wings seemed to grow on the back of the fish. After rubbing his eyes, he could not see clearly .
At night, Yuan Xianger slept in the guest room. Dahua took the foot-washing water and waited for her mother-in-law to go to bed, and then brought a late night snack to her husband's study, busy with various household chores, and then slipped into Yuan Xianger's bed.
"It's great, Ah Xiang, thank you for coming to see me. I don't know how long it has been since I slept with my sisters." She hugged Yuan Xianger's neck and acted like a spoiled child.
This is obviously still a child who has never grown up, Yuan Xianger tickled her, and the two of them laughed and made trouble in the bed for a while.
"Where's your dog, do you want to bring it into the house? It's rare for you to hold it all the way." Dahua asked.
"No, no need, he's probably on the roof."
Dahua looked at the roof in the dark night,
"Ah Xiang, when I got married, my mother cried a lot. I didn't understand it at that time. I didn't know why my mother was crying until I got married. My mother was reluctant to let me go to someone else's house to suffer."
Even a marriage like hers was considered a rare good marriage in the eyes of many girls. Whoever gets married doesn't have to take care of their in-laws and take care of housework from morning till night.
"It's not easy being the daughter-in-law of someone else's family," Dahua sighed in the dark night, "I really want to go back to being a daughter by staying with my parents forever before I get married."
Yuan Xianger: "All the girls in this world live too hard."
"Xiang, I really envy you. Do you know that all our girls envy you. You can read, read, and look around. You can even... choose someone you like." Dahua hid under the quilt, a pair of Her eyes were sparkling, carrying the memories of her dreams, "You said that in a long time, there will be a day when all girls can be like you."
"Yes, I promise you, girls will always be treated as fair as men. This time will not be too long, maybe one or two thousand years is enough."
"One or two thousand years is not a long time, Ah Xiang, you are so bad."
There is a small skylight on the roof, covered with a bright tile, and a faint beam of starlight penetrates into the dark world of the house.
In the dead of night,
Suddenly, there were several rude cursing sounds of men, and the crackling sound of dishes shattering.
Yuan Xianger opened her eyes,
"It's Uncle, my husband's brother is back." Dahua said softly in the dark, "He likes to drink some wine, and he always does this when he comes back. Pity my sister-in-law, such a gentle person."
In the dark night, punches and kicks and insults rang out incessantly, but the victim's words were not heard, as if it was just a ridiculous one-man show in the night.
This is why Dahua feels that she is still happy, because her husband never beat her. In this world, men are given so much power that as long as they don't commit such atrocities, they are considered good husbands and good marriages.
There was an inaudible sound of walking on the roof tiles.
It was followed by a loud bang.
"Oh, the meteorite fell from the sky and smashed the roof of Ah Da."