The wind was freezing outside. Even though the windows were closed, cold air still seeped in through the cracks. Wang Youli felt a chill running down his spine, which made him feel absurd and weird from the bottom of his heart: "You must be crazy."
"You really want to get married? Really get married? With that girl you used to fight with when you were kids?"
If he and Xiao Shen were destined to meet each other despite being thousands of miles apart, and their marriage was gifted by heaven, then for Gu Sheng, it was purely an evil fate sent from heaven. They tortured each other and made a hasty decision to get married in the heat of the moment.
"How big of a favor is this? You're going to repay it like this?"
"She carried me on her back for ten kilometers." Gu Sheng was playing with the lighter in his hand. He seemed to feel a little hot. He pulled down his collar and his Adam's apple rolled slightly.
“It’s not a big deal.” He lit another cigarette. “I had a high fever at the time, was confused, hungry and sleepy, so she threw me on the roadside and waited for someone to pick me up… I didn’t intend to take the share of that project in the first place.”
Who knew that she would actually drag him to the finish line.
Thinking back now, I still feel embarrassed about being carried on the back of a woman. I really can't treat her as a woman.
"That's indeed a favor." Wang Youli's eyes were dull. He glanced stupidly at Gu Sheng's "tall" figure, thinking how big and strong this girl must be to carry him on her back for ten kilometers.
At this time, Wang Youli had already sketched out the portrait of the girl in his mind: she was big and strong, had a bad temper, and had short hair. As for her appearance and facial features, she was probably one of the relatively short and pretty male soldiers. If he imagined "him" as a woman, that would be pretty accurate.
"Do you have any photos?" Men are mostly visual animals and like beautiful girls. Although his Xiao Shen is not a great beauty, she is also a pretty and lovely girl. She looks like a little bird standing next to him.
Gu Sheng: “Yes…”
He actually brought a photo with him. Wang Youli was very curious and urged him to take out the photo and look at it. "You have seen our Xiao Shen's, so you should let me see it too. Take a look, buddy, take a look."
Gu Sheng took out the photo and Wang Youli was stunned when he saw it.
There are a few little kids in the black and white photo, one of them is Gu Sheng who looks about six or seven years old, and eight or nine kids, all with the same little cheeks.
Wang Youli scratched the back of his head: "Why do I feel like they are all boys?"
The children above all have hair as short as the other one, and they all look very naughty.
If I were to pick one of Gu Sheng’s “wife” from above, nothing would feel right no matter how I tried.
"Guess who it is?"
"This is it." Wang Youli hesitated for a long time and chose the one who looked more like a girl in the photo. She had relatively round and delicate facial features, probably a girl.
Gu Sheng shook his head: "No."
"This one isn't it?" Wang Youli frowned. This one isn't it, and the others are even less likely. "Then I can't guess it. Anyway, I can only guess that it's definitely not this little bald guy."
There was a little bald head standing in the corner of the photo. He looked silly and had a bitter expression, and his facial features were distorted.
When this guy grows up, he will definitely be a big and strong man.
Gu Sheng couldn't help laughing: "Pfft..."
First eliminate the correct answer.
He laughed every time he looked at this photo. As their sworn enemy since childhood, he kept all of this guy's ugly photos carefully. After joining the army, in addition to photos of his family, he also carried her ugly photos with him, and he would take them out from time to time to look at them and reminisce about them.
"It's this little bald girl, my future wife." Gu Sheng narrowed his eyes and gave the answer lazily.
Wang Youli: “…”
To be honest, he doesn't believe it, even if you beat him to death.
But Gu Sheng spoke very convincingly.
"Don't look at her with a big head and a small body back then. She was very strong when she was in elementary school. She was even taller than me for a while. She came to provoke me every day, making me hate her so much. She just deserves a beating." Girls develop earlier than boys. Zhan Aiping grew rapidly for a while and surpassed Gu Sheng, who was two years older than her. She finally got the chance and mocked him for being the dwarf of the Gu family.
He has four older brothers, none of whom are short, but Zhan Aiping keeps saying that he has a genetic mutation, saying that he will be a dwarf for life, shorter than a woman, and that he is handsome, prettier than his brothers, and looks like a girl. It must be because he was born without a penis, so he should be a sister to his younger sister. There are two sisters in their Gu family, and she also instigated his younger sister to call him sister...
"If you have the guts, let my brother call me brother, Lululu."
Zhan Aiping's nonsense gave the teenage Gu Sheng nightmares again and again. He was afraid that he would really become a dwarf, a beautiful "fake woman", a sissy, and that Zhan Aiping would be taller than him in this life.
Gu Sheng was very anxious at that time. He tried every possible way to increase his height in private, and jumped around every day. Later, Gu Sheng got what he wanted. He grew up suddenly and became the tallest among his brothers. He became taller and more manly, and finally he avenged himself.
As for Zhan Aiping, her height almost stopped at her peak and she didn't grow much afterwards.
When he met her at the age of nineteen, Gu Sheng looked down at her. Now things have changed dramatically, and he took every opportunity to laugh at her.
Before he could feel proud for a few days, he was carried on her back for ten kilometers. Zhan Aiping then said to him that he was tall and thin, weak, and had a silver-plated gun tip.
"Remember, you owe me a favor."
Favors, bah.
Didn't you ask him to return the favor? Show it to her!
Gu Sheng gritted his teeth and said, "It's never too late for a gentleman to take revenge... Just wait and see how I deal with her after we get married."
Wang Youli: "...Are you getting married or becoming enemies?"
Wang Youli: "No, Comrade Gu, you are too unreliable. Marriage is not a joke. You need to consider it seriously."
"How dare you say that to me." Gu Sheng felt that he was even less reliable: "At least I am more reliable than you."
"She's just a pen pal. How long have you known each other? You're so hasty to get married. She and I have been together for at least 20 years."
Wang Youli was stunned: "..."
There is such a far-fetched argument. Twenty years of love? Twenty years of hatred.
Your fucking Gu Sheng is only twenty-five years old.
Wang Youli: "If you quarrel with your wife, Xiao Shen and I will not try to stop the quarrel. You are asking for it."
Gu Sheng is clearly asking for trouble in a loveless marriage. He is marrying his enemy, and one can imagine that his future will be filled with misery.
Gu Sheng adjusted his sleeves and sneered: "A clay Buddha can't even protect himself when crossing the river, and yet he still worries about me."
"Comrade Wang, you need to think clearly. You are a girl from Shanghai. You are giving up your good life. You are going to Yunnan Province with you because of love. It looks beautiful and you can adapt to everything. You are just waiting to be in trouble."
"I won't say anything else, just talk about the snake. How did your little Shen react when he saw the snake?"
Wang Youli: "Any normal girl would be scared."
"My wife is a snake killer. She caught such a big snake with her bare hands."
Wang Youli: “…”
"I've competed with her in catching snakes before. Although her sense of direction is not very good, her dynamic vision is very good. She..."
Wang Youli felt his scalp tingling after hearing this: "..."
"Believe it or not, if I throw my wife into the mountains of Yunnan Province, she can live happily for decades."
"She is a medical student and treats her own illnesses."
Wang Youli could no longer imagine what Gu Sheng's future wife looked like. Needless to say, she would definitely not be pretty, but she would be strong, fertile, and capable, and would not require men to worry too much.
He must have believed what his sisters-in-law over there said, that he should find a strong man with a big butt when he gets married.
"Are you looking for a wife or a comrade?"
Gu Sheng is just trying to save trouble.
"Didn't I say that marriage is a battlefield? Is there any difference between finding a wife and finding a comrade-in-arms?" Gu Sheng grabbed a handful of melon seeds and ate them while saying, "Although she and I don't get along well on weekdays, she is indeed someone I can trust with my back."
Wang Youli shook his head, thinking that this man was really stubborn: "Just wait and regret it. You, just wait and envy the loving and happy life of Xiao Shen and I in the future."
"Let's ride the donkey and read the opera. We'll see."
*
He family.
"Has the Zhan family called? The day is almost here."
When He Mingzhang thought of Zhan Aiping's bright and beautiful face, his heart moved. After a few days of cold war, he secretly glanced at her from afar today, and unexpectedly, she became more beautiful.
In winter, she is the red plum blossom that blooms proudly in the snow.
"I'm going to coax her and make peace with her today."
His mother Zhou Jiacui said, "Don't go. Whoever goes first will admit defeat. We need to let the other side surrender first."
When contacting their family, Zhu Jiaorong was too humble on the phone. The anxiety she revealed made Zhou Jiacui feel that the He family had already taken control of the situation, and all that was left was for Zhan Aiping to bow her head.
There was something wrong with the He family's background. A distant relative of the He family was a big capitalist. The He family once got some of the benefits from that, but later when the background was divided, their family was successfully left out.
The He family is very versatile and can speak differently to different people. He Mingzhang is able to get along with everyone and is now doing very well. If he could marry a girl from a good family and with a good background, he would be able to rest easy.
The He family was very satisfied with Zhan Aiping's identity and background, but they knew very well that "it's not a good deal if you're chasing after someone". Business people play tricks on you. It's a simple truth: young girls are easy to deceive. The girl will only be loyal to them if her husband's family plays the good cop and the man plays the bad cop.
Even though she was bullied by her husband's family, she still felt that the man was on her side and treated her well.
Many families unite to control their daughters-in-law in this way.
"Women are like this. They have a stronger sense of morality than men. When she bows her head first, you let bygones be bygones, then lower your posture and try your best to coax her. I guarantee she will be moved, feel guilty, blame herself, and think that she is unkind. Together, we can lower her bottom line step by step and suppress her temper."
(End of this chapter)