On that night, Fang Taoer was sunk in river.
On that night, Zhang Genbao was detained in the ancestral hall and kneeling as punishment.
On that night, aunt Li lost all her hair. Aunt Fang almost turned blind from crying and pricked a simulated doll all night.
On that night, sister Zhang cleaned up her house, did washing, cleaning and repairing…
Some were too excited to sleep while other sighed. Still others gathered a family meeting to warn the female members not to go out casually and the male members to lead an honest and clean life…
On that night, many didn't fall asleep, including Mo Qianxue.
She sighed how fragile an ancient woman was and how unfair her fate could be. Both were the committers of adultery, but the woman was sunk in river while the man was only grounded in the ancestral hall.
Mo Qianxue lay on the bed, turning and tossing.
What Fang Taoer had said kept replaying and bombing in her mind.
"You have no matchmaker or betrothal gifts…"
"Neither have you worshipped heaven and earth or his parents with Mr. Ning. Nor did you give birth to children for him…"
"How ridiculous that you think you're his legal wife…"
The satire kept snowballing and became clearer and clearer.
Ahhhhhhh! Wasn't she a legal wife? Was it called illicit relations out of wedlock?!
Ning Shaoqing could feel that there was something on Mo Qianxue's mind. He thought she was scared by the event of Fang Taoer being sunk in river, so he reached out and took her into his arms. By the tight hug, he intended to give her some warmth.
"Don't be scared. I'll always be by your side."
The cello-like whisper tickled the ear of Mo Qianxue, who wasn't intoxicated by it as usual but sprang up instantly, "I should live in a different room."
"Why?" Ning Shaoqing smiled and sat up. Fearing that she might catch a cold, he took over a coat to put on her and hugged her again, believing that she was being shy again, "At most…I won't take off your clothes anymore."
Mo Qianxue wasn't in the mood to joke with him right now, "We don't have a matchmaker or betrothal gifts, and we didn't worshipped heaven or earth or your parents. It's not proper that we live together like this."
Ning Shaoqing sensed the seriousness in Mo Qianxue's tone, panicked a little, and his face turned cold at once, "Who said these?"
"It doesn't matter who said these." Restless, Mo Qianxue struggled to get rid of the hug.
"I don't agree!" Ning Shaoqing sounded firm and also serious.
"Based on what?"
"No means no!" Ning Shaoqing's domineering character jumped out again, "Who said we don't have a matchmaker? You marry me as a lucky life, so the village head and elders are our matchmaker. The jade you're wearing is Ning heirloom; it's the betrothal gift.
If you want to worship heaven and earth, we can do it right now. As for worshipping my parents, I'll bring you to meet them in the future. As long as I recognize you as my wife, you're my wife. Why do you care so much about what others said?" As long as he recognized her as his wife, she was his wife?
At first, the autocratic statement sounded sweet and intoxicating. That was right. As long as she was recognized by him as his legal wife, why should she care what others thought? As long as he recognized, and as long as she accepted it.
However, at a second thought, what if in the future he recognized some other woman as a concubine? Should she still don't give a shit to others' opinion? Should she also accept that?
In the past, Mo Qianxue believed that Ning Shaoqing didn't have concubines for two reasons. First, he was in a poor health; second, concubines wouldn't normal in the Wang village. The poor villagers could barely make ends meet and had no money to take concubines.
But now, she knew that Ning Shaoqing was rich. By his identity and origin, it was more than normal for him to take concubines, especially in this ancient society where males were respected as heaven. What should she do if in the future he took a few concubines when his physical conditions got better?
In complicated expressions, Mo Qianxue skim through many thoughts and decided at once: if he treated her well, she would be loyal to him. If he dared to take concubines, she would leave him immediately, leaving no room to mend the relationship.
Thinking of this, Mo Qianxue sounded ironic, "If you recognize me as your wife, then I'm your wife. If you no longer do, I'm not your wife anymore? I'm so scary, so why don't we live in separate rooms?"
Then, she added, "In addition, I don't share toothbrush and man."
Today, she must figure out his outlook on marriage.
The past shouldn't be held accountable but the future was unpredictable. It would be better for her to know in advance how this man viewed their relationship.
"You don't share toothbrush and man. Darling, you're talking about concubine?"
"Exactly." Mo Qianxue's determined eyes looked right in the shining bright pair of Ning Shaoqing. That was what she meant. No need to hide back.
Ning Shaoqing's cold face stiffened for a second but quickly cracked a smile. His little wifey was being jealous. Yet, he had never thought of getting other women except for her.
Was it so funny? As she expected, the man was coquettish in nature, or why did he smile on hearing concubines?
Mo Qianxue flew into a fury, jumping and stretching out her leg to kick him off, and cursing secretly: you chauvinist pig, go get yourself another bed.
Her kicking foot was clenched by Ning Shanqing who stopped smiling and said with all seriousness, "Believe it or not, I never think of taking concubines."
Then, the palm stroked the smooth little foot. Mo Qianxue felt a wave of warmth on getting the desirable answer. She tried to take back her foot, but her several attempts of pulling back failed.
The touch on the foot was dense and itchy.
No matter how she struggled, Ning Shaoqing kept rubbing and dotting the foot.
Mo Qianxue's question reminded him of the filthy schemes and conspiracies taking place in his original mansion. Though he wasn't a participant, he always heard of this sort of things. In Ning family, there were only two legal sons, he and his younger brother. There weren't sons but daughters of concubines.
He had heard of his stepmother's ruthless schemes, but when he thought of how lovingly she took care of him with a shining smile, he hadn't been willing to believe those gossips or to believe that she was a vicious woman.
In retrospect, the reason why she didn't dare to frame him up was that she had been waiting for a proper timing and a sensible reason block the mouth of the world.
Recalling the feuds in the mansion compared with the peace and comfort he had enjoyed since he met Mo Qianxue, Ning Shaoqing stopped caressing the little foot.
What he wanted was never superficial power or glory of a bunch of wife and concubines. What he cherished was a peaceful and sweet life with Mo Qianxue and becoming old with her hand in hand.
"I, Ning Shaoqing, swear to heaven that I'll only have Mo Qianxue as my wife for life. If I violate this oath, I shall…"
In a hurry, Mo Qianxue covered his mouth with her hand.
This kind of oath scared Mo Qianxue, because the ancient people valued oaths to a horrible extend and she didn't want to hear any horrible oath coming out of his mouth.
Only have she as wife for life! A sweet announcement it was, Mo Qianxue found it ambiguous.
For life. It could be his life or her life. Her life would be long, but his might be short, less than two years…
Mo Qianxue became sorrowful, "Don't swear. I believe you!"
She sprang to him, took the initiative to kiss Ning Shaoqing. He closed his eyes. This was the first time she actively kissed him.
The air in the room turned sweet again…
Of course the sweetness naturally flowed until a proper end.
*
In the middle of the night, there was a scream in the ancestral hall.
The village was instantly thrown into uproar again.
Upon the scream, people immediately rushed to the ancestral hall, only to witness Zhang Genbao standing there with a knife in his hand while Li Kaishi laying on the ground, full of blood near his pants.
Therefore, in the midnight, torches gathered in the ancestral hall.
The village head, elder Gao and elder Yun were dragged here from their quilts.
Due to the scandal of Fang Taoer and Li Kaishi, elder Fang and elder Li had been deprived of their identity as Elder. The village planned to select other old men of high integrity and prestige as elders. Therefore, at present there were only three of them who could preside over village affairs.
Some carried out first-aid to Li Kaishi and others interrogate Zhang Genbao. After all this painstaking effort, the whole story came to light.
Li Kaishi, having lost all his face, became murderous. Fang Taoer had been sunk in river and died, but Li Kaishi's rage didn't vent at all.
Zhang Genbao, the one who had ruined his life, was still alive, quite well.
He wouldn't let him live well. He must drag a person to share the miserable life. For this life, he couldn't be a man, so that guy who had stolen his wife shall not be a man either.
Therefore, in midnight, Li Kaishi sneaked into the ancestral hall. Originally, he had planned to cut off that thing of Zhang Genbao when he was in sleep, yet, as a lazy and cripple man who seldom worked, Li Kaishi didn't have much strength.
When he dashed to Zhang Genbao, he only scratched his arm, and after a round of wrestle, at last, Li Kaishi not only didn't pull off his goal but also gave away his real intention.
Zhang Genbao had swallowed a fire of rage. He took over the knife and, thinking of what Fang Taoer had said that she was tortured by Li Kaishi day and night, on an impulse, stabbed Li Kaishi's thing once, twice…
Even he himself didn't know how many stabs he had given him. His eyes were red in the heart of passion.
Zhang Genbao thought it this way at the time. Anyway, Li Kaishi couldn't be counted as a man. In case that in the future he would take drugs and disgust others, why not end it once and for all so that in the future the guy would never recover and waste money.
The audience sighed. A doctor from the neighboring village was invited here.
Zhang Genbao only had scratches in his arms, which didn't matter at all.
Li Kaishi's condition was terrible. Even the barefoot doctor shook his head after bandaged him.
The doctor said that although Li Kaishi's condition wasn't life-threatening, his thing was chopped up by Zhang Genbao, so for this life, he could never be a man again. Even to urinate would be a difficult task for him, and very likely, he would suffer incontinence.
At the moment, elder Li rushed forward, in an attempt to kill Zhang Genbao, but was pulled back by the crowd.
Previously, although Li Kaishi suffered dysfunction, as long as he had the organ, there was a glimmer of hope for recovery. Now, without the organ, there wasn't any hope at all.
Although elder Li was dragged by the crowd, his sharp-knife murderous eyes couldn't be hidden from the village head.
With such an animosity, Li family wouldn't let it go easily. Worrying that there would be more incidents, the village head had Zhang Genbao sent to Yamen (government office in feudal China) of Tianxiang city before dawn.
Hence, Zhang Genbao's life or death was transferred to officials and had nothing to do with the Wang village. In this way, Li family wouldn't be offended and the village wouldn't need to worry about future risks.
Before sending away Zhang Genbao, the head let people invite sister Zhang, who, on hearing the purpose, only shook her head, replied with a simple whatever, and then turned back to cleaning the house.
The two message-senders looked at each other in confusion. Every body knew that sister Zhang was a chatterbox who could manage to pour out words nonstop when there was actually nothing to talk of. But at present, with such a severe event, she should only say whatever unhurriedly?
They found it weird and knew the reasons, so they only forced a smile and persuaded sister Zhang to take one more look at her husband. After all, he would be serving a sentence of at least a few years once he was sent to Yamen because of wounding with intent.
If she wanted to meet him, she must go to Tianxiang city.
But sister Zhang still said whatever and that now she was too busy to go to the ancestral hall.
It was okay that Zhang Gengao cheated her.
It was okay that Zhang Gengao hit her for another woman.
Nevertheless, she couldn't forgive him for tell her privacy to that unchaste bitch. What on earth was she in his heart?
Yes. She had a physical problem, but she suffered it only because of giving birth to his son.
She felt sorry for this, but she always saved all the good food and wine to him.
In order to make him proud, she worked diligently, spent her dowry and abandon her face to borrow money from her original family, just to buy a horse carriage for him.
In order to pay off the loan, she couldn't be harsher to herself and was known as a notorious miser.
However, what did she obtain at last? She would agree to divorce if he put the card on the table.
But why did he humiliate her like this? She had impressed people as a tough woman for her entire life. There were only times when she humiliated others, but she had never expected that now she became a laughing stock to everyone.
Doing the housework, sister Zhang never stopped shedding tears.
Today wasn't an ordinary night for her. A violent night.
Soon after the message-senders left, people of Li family came over, taking away the horse carriage, searching every corner of the house for money, moving everything valuable, and even pouring out the rice in the tank.
In the past, if anyone dared to rampantly plunder her house like this, she would have long taken out a knife and beaten up and driven away every single one of them.
Yet, on this night, she just calmly watched it, and after they left, turned back to cleaning…
At dawn, sister Zhang poured out the last grain of rice to make a bowl of porridge for her son, and then, in crying, let his son write down what she said.
She said that she had no face to continue to live in the Wang village. She had seen through the vanity of life and was going to become a nun at the temple. She only hoped that Mo Qianxue could help her take care of her son Tiezhu.
Then she ordered Tiezhu to pass the letter to Mo Qianxue after school.
After all, Zhang Tiezhu was only a ten-year-old boy. He only asked when he saw his mother being so sad but was easily cheated. Although, he worried about her, he still went to school obediently.
As soon as Zhang Tiezhu left, sister Zhang took out her pack, walked out of the house and headed for the Peace Temple next to Hanshan Temple.