boyutpedia Chapter 38 You Have to Pay for Your Own Life
Chapter 38 You Have to Pay for Your Own Life
Xiaoying followed her sister excitedly all the way. At that time, with the limited leisure time, going to the market was the most lively activity in the southern suburbs.
When the two sisters were busy choosing cloth at the stall, neither of them noticed a figure staring at Darong motionlessly.
"What are you looking at?"
Li Meili looked at Cheng Laoxiao who was stuck in the spot with displeasure. In fact, she always knew that Cheng Laoxiao was still thinking about Darong in his heart.
Cheng Laoxiao's thoughts were still on Darong's voice, appearance and smile, but Li Meili hit his arm hard. He glanced at Li Meili angrily, turned around and left without saying a word.
Li Meili looked at Cheng Laoxiao's back, then at Da Rong who was bending down to pick cloth. She felt so suffocated that she couldn't breathe.
"Yuan Furong!"
Da Rong, who was picking up cloth, heard someone calling her name, stopped what she was doing and looked up.
Seeing that it was Li Meili standing at the side of the cloth stall with a gloomy look and staring at her, Darong frowned. Not wanting to provoke this lunatic, she led Xiaoying and prepared to leave.
"Cheng Dinghua and I are getting married. We've set the date, April 16th. Come to the wedding then." Li Meili did not act weird like she usually did. Instead, she made a serious invitation to Darong.
"Oh, congratulations. I'll definitely go when I have time."
Darong responded politely. The two of them didn't have a close relationship, so there was no need for Li Meili to tell him about her marriage. Darong knew that she did it because of Cheng Laoxiao.
Darong smiled helplessly. Although she and Cheng Laoxiao had spent a short period of time together, they no longer had any connection with each other. However, Li Meili still treated her as a love rival.
Darong didn't think any more about it. This little episode didn't affect Darong and Xiaoying's mood for going to the market. The two sisters visited other stalls and bought some food and daily necessities. They started walking home around noon.
Not far from the market entrance, they arrived at the intersection of the big alley. Xiaoying saw with her sharp eyes that the person standing at the intersection was Cheng Laoxiao.
"Sister, that's Brother Cheng." She quickly pulled Darong's sleeve and reminded her.
Darong hesitated for a moment. She didn't want to meet Cheng Laoxiao again, so she led Xiaoying into a small road in advance.
"Da Rong."
But before he had taken a few steps, Cheng Laoxiao caught up with him and called out to Darong from behind.
"Brother Cheng, we know you are getting married, please stop looking for my sister."
After Darong pinched Xiaoying's hand, Xiaoying understood and turned to say to Cheng Laoxiao behind her.
"Da Rong, I can apply for a dormitory now. Just say the word and I will break up with her immediately. If you are willing, you can never go to my mother's house again. I will take care of my family..."
"Don't say that. It's not good for others to hear such words. We broke up a long time ago. It doesn't matter anymore."
Darong didn't turn around, and spoke clearly word by word in a voice that was loud enough for Cheng Laoxiao to hear.
Cheng Laoxiao just watched Darong's figure disappear at the end of the alley, extinguishing the last glimmer of hope in his heart.
Li Meili stood in the corner and heard everything clearly, but she turned around and left without saying a word, as if nothing had happened.
Many times, we can only understand the thoughts and behaviors of those who have similar values as us, but it is difficult for us to resonate spiritually with those unconventional ways of doing things and strange cognitions, such as Li Meili's excessive tolerance and compromise.
In order to avoid Cheng Laoxiao, Darong and Xiaoying turned an intersection early and walked directly to the door of Qiaozhen's house. Qiaozhen was working the middle shift today and was preparing to eat and go to work.
"Darong? Are you going to the market?" Qiaozhen saw Darong through the courtyard wall and walked out of the yard happily.
"Oh, yes, I just came back from the market. You haven't gone to work yet?" Darong and Xiaoying greeted Qiaozhen happily.
"Zhongban, we'll be leaving after dinner. Come in and sit for a while." Qiaozhen warmly invited Darong to come to her home and sit for a while.
Darong was only thinking about going home to cook, and besides, it was noon and people were having dinner at home, so it was not the time to be a guest.
"No, come talk to me some other time when you're off duty. I have to go back to cook, so I won't go in."
"Okay, I'll talk to you another day. Zhou Xiaomei is divorced. She's only been out of confinement for a few days, and she's suffered a lot." Qiaozhen said another day, but she still threw out the gossip about Zhou Xiaomei at the right time.
Darong didn't seem too surprised, she just didn't know what to say for a moment. That marriage was doomed to be unhappy from the beginning, but she didn't expect this day to come so soon.
"I'll tell you in detail another day. I'm waiting to go to work. If you don't come in, I won't keep you here."
After saying goodbye to Qiaozhen, Darong and Xiaoying were on their way home. Zhou Xiaomei's matter made Darong feel uneasy for a long time.
On the day of Zhou Xiaomei's wedding, she asked Darong to do her makeup. At that time, there were no professional wedding makeup artists, and most girls didn't know how to put on makeup.
Darong was considered to be more knowledgeable among her peers because she often visited her great aunt's home in the city and had been to Northeast China once. She also liked to simply draw eyebrows and eyes on weekdays, so she was considered to be quite good at putting on makeup. That's why Zhou Xiaomei specially asked her to help her with her makeup.
In the southern suburbs, the bride is usually picked up in the morning. Although it is not like the old custom in the village to rush to pick up the bride in the middle of the night, most people still go out to pick up the bride at five or six in the morning. So Darong stayed at Zhou Xiaomei's house the night before.
The process that had been discussed well the night before was temporarily changed due to the instigation of Zhou Xiaomei's aunt. Zhou Xiaomei's mother might have felt that there were too few things to say and it was embarrassing to be brought up by her sister-in-law, so she actually listened to her aunt.
The man didn't receive the news until midnight. Even if he wanted to make the marriage happen, he had no place to prepare anything. The market economy in the 80s was not as active and developed as it is now, and 24-hour stores could be found everywhere.
The boy's father and older brother came to the house in person. After all, the wedding day had arrived, and no one wanted to make any mistakes and be laughed at by others. However, no one expected that Zhou Xiaomei's mother would be like a possessed person and would not give up.
The two parties did not reach an agreement, and the boy's family left in anger. Zhou Xiaomei cried at home all night, fearing that the boy would not come to pick her up the next day.
Darong started applying eye compresses to Zhou Xiaomei in the middle of the night so that she didn't have to get into the car with swollen eyes when she was picked up by her bride.
Although the man came to pick up the bride as scheduled at dawn, he had a gloomy face the whole time. When he entered the room, in front of a room full of people from her parents' family, he coldly asked her if she could get in the car as there was no time to prepare the extra things.
Darong looked at the people in the room with different expressions, and her heart was filled with sighs. What should have been the happiest days of her life had turned out like this.
Zhou Xiaomei got into the wedding car with tears in her eyes, amidst the mocking, contemptuous, or sympathetic gazes of her relatives and friends.