Chapter 183:
After filling their stomachs, Luo Zhi’er held Miaomiao’s little hand and strolled idly on the street, with Li Sanmao following.
The group looked at the surrounding shops on the street…
Miaomiao counted, and on Xi Shui Street alone, there were over a hundred shops.
There were money houses, pawnshops, apothecaries, general stores, silk shops, teahouses, restaurants, tailors, dentists, pickled vegetables, sandpot shops, porcelain shops, grain stores, bathhouses, writing supplies, bookstores…
They were everywhere!
It was dazzling to the eyes…
Luo Zhi’er stopped at the doorway of a bookstore, “Song Zhu Zhai”?
“Let’s go in and buy a few books!”
“Good!”
They stepped inside…
The shop boy looked at the arrivals, saw a cute little girl behind Luo Zhi’er, and a burly man, and immediately came up to greet them, “Customer, what books would you like to buy?”
“Are you here to buy books for this little girl?”
Luo Zhi’er nodded, “That’s right!”
“Alright, please follow me.”
The shop boy led them directly to the counter and introduced to her one by one the books neatly arranged in rows on the counter.
There were Women’s Precepts, Women’s Rules, Women’s Instructions, Women’s Book of Songs, Guan Le, Inner Instructions, Women’s Model Quick Records, Women’s Analects…
Looking at another row, this era surprisingly had romance books too!
She casually picked up a copy of Qiong Hua Collection and flipped through it…
The story was roughly about the beautiful love story of a woman named Qiong Hua.
Qiong Hua and Young Master Zhang met by chance and fell in love, Qiong Hua married her husband Young Master Zhang by matchmaker’s words and parents’ orders, and remained devoted after marriage.
Since
In the end, she suffered from severe postpartum infection, with pus, bleeding, foul odor, and her whole body rotting. Unable to get up, she still remained devoted…
To not affect her husband’s mood, to please him, not letting him get close, she sent her pretty little maid who was close to her to him to warm his quilt. Upon learning that she would soon leave this world, she had no resentment and generously took a concubine for him…
Finally, he continued the male family’s bloodline and, before death, contentedly closed his eyes.
In the end, the man promoted his concubine to wife, achieving and continuing their family story, leaving behind a beautiful tale in the world, which all children of noble families imitated when taking wives…
Another book, “Biographies of Virtuous Women”.
Miss Su Niangzi and Young Master Chen had a childhood engagement since childhood. Before their marriage, the war became urgent, and Young Master Chen was conscripted into military service!
In order to let Young Master Chen, who was traveling far away, feel at ease, she kept a lifetime of widowhood, and shouldered the heavy responsibility of earning money to take care of his family.
In the end, Young Master Chen returned home in triumph in his middle age, bringing his family with him, and she had become gaunt and aged beyond recognition.
Young Master Chen used the reason that he couldn’t let down his current wife, to the point that he didn’t even give her half a glance, and in the end got a story of a neat archway!
The points she grasped were basically praising how women desperately sacrifice themselves in various ways, silently supporting men’s careers behind the scenes, enduring humiliation and bearing heavy burdens…
With the husband as the main, with the husband as heaven, the husband’s family’s benefits are greater than everything, one’s own life, one’s own feelings, one’s own dreams are not important, and so on…
Luo Zhi’er huffed and puffed as she pulled Miaomiao and left. Li Sanmao awkwardly followed!
“Sigh, I say, this wife, weren’t you just looking at this book very seriously without buying it?”
“It’s pretty good to give to your young woman to read as stories; it can enrich her worldview!” These books are very popular with those young women at home!
“No need, thank you!”
She didn’t want her worldview to be filled with those unrealistic love fantasies, her thoughts poisoned by falsehoods!
Next, we arrive at the counter where the Three Character Classic, Hundred Family Surnames, Thousand Character Classic, and You Xue Qiong Lin are displayed……
Luo Zhi’er frowned, “Page boy, we’re not looking at these here anymore, let’s go upstairs to take a look!”
The bookboy said, “Isn’t it books bought for this young woman? These are suitable for her.”
“Hehe, we’re not interested in the books in front and won’t buy them. I already have these books Thousand Character Classic, Hundred Family Surnames, and You Xue Qiong Lin at home!”
“Oh, I see. Alright then, come with me. It’s just that… there are no books upstairs suitable for a young woman to read!”
“No relationship, let’s take a look.”
“Alright!”
After the book servant took them up to the second floor, he finally noticed that this plump woman’s eyes now lit up.
She walked around and stopped at a counter, making her selection,
Military strategy category: “The Art of War”, “Wei Liaozi”.
Business category: “Ode to Trade”, “Salt Merchants of the World”, “Abacus”.
as well as chronicles and miscellaneous records: “Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government”, “Dong Li Miscellaneous Records”, “Dong Li Travelogue”.
Martial Arts: “Self-Defense Techniques” “Martial Arts Secret Skills 1”, ……
“This young woman, none of these books are suitable for this little girl. Why not go downstairs and look again!”
The book boy was just kindly reminding her.
She was buying so many; wasn’t this just wasting silver for nothing? Not a single one was suitable. Looking at their clothes, they were just ordinary rural people.
This little girl looked only about five or six years old. Could she even read?
Luo Zhi’er planned to buy them to read and study with Miaomiao, reading to her, since Miaomiao could only recognize some of the characters…
“No, thanks!”
The book boy looked at Li Sanmao. Li Sanmao gave him a confirming look. He listened to his wife.
His wife had her own ideas for buying these for Miaomiao…
“Alright!”
After paying the silver, they came out, and Li Sanmao took the books…
“Husband, what do you think of those two books just now?”
“Which, which two?”
Alarm bells rang loudly in Li Sanmao’s chest.
Seeing his wife’s eyes calm as the sea, smiling yet not quite, looking at him, “Hehe, those two, huh!”
Wiping sweat, if he didn’t answer well, could he not enter the quilt tonight?
“Husband thinks that, for the man’s family, it naturally maximizes benefits!”
“And then?”
“But for the woman, it’s too cruel. Did they come into this world merely to serve the husband, to bear children and exhaust their bodies and years, to care for the husband’s parents in his place? They are people too. What about herself?”
“If this person were Miaomiao, as her father, I, Li Sanmao, could not accept it!”
“I brought her into this world not just to make her happy in her young maiden days, not to have her sacrifice herself and serve others when she grows up.”
Luo Zhi’er turned and left. Some people weren’t worth it! She had no power or influence and should stay a quiet outsider, but thinking of Miaomiao made her furious!
Marrying into a wealthy family to bear children might be a bit better—at least with money, the body would suffer less, get care, and have a little freedom. Marrying into a poor family, the woman was truly miserable!
Not only no care, but even while hovering on the line between life and death, she had to crawl up to tend to the children. Some men were just useless trash…
And to cover up his identity as a great filial son, he deliberately verbally insulted his wife when she was most helpless, used force to make her submit, let her be bullied by his family, do work, do work—just like Luo Zhi’er herself!
Li Sanmao hadn’t bullied her, but he had slightly disregarded her…
“Wife, is husband right?”
Li Sanmao hurried to catch up…
“Heh! Talking about praises—what else but exploiting the principle of flesh? Crudely put, the principle of farts…”
“Flesh?… Farts?”
Li Sanmao was sweating profusely!
Hmph! She was glad that Li Sanmao truly loved Miaomiao.
These damned, heartless bad things knew full well what women went through becoming mothers and wives…
So they designed that ridiculous love to lure ignorant, innocent girls into the trap, going to any extremes to satisfy their selfish desires! Making them willingly bear children and continue the family line for them…
Some even took crooked paths, tricking them into eloping with nothing…
And what about them? They just treated those two pitiful women as a piece of meat!
Right! Just a piece of meat. Using their privileges, setting rules, taking all the advantages, despising women’s wisdom, knowing full well that childbirth would bring pain and death, yet still viewing that tasty fatty meat they called love, devouring it clean, discarding it in disgust, and replacing it with a new one!
They treated her as a fart! Because of their damned self-righteous beliefs, feeling naturally superior, they could swap them out again and again for their own benefit…
He brainwashed them, indoctrinated them, leaving them without their own souls, serving them…
Laughably, people praised and thanked them, taking their sacrifice as an honor. But once the person is dead, what’s the use of that chastity arch?
Women should have extraordinary thoughts, rise to take charge, put themselves first, cherish themselves like a precious pearl. Anyone who harms you, stop the loss immediately, tell them all to get lost!
Don’t let people easily manipulate you!
It’s precisely because you don’t cherish yourself that he treats you like a fart!
You are your own princess, queen. Those who follow me prosper, those who resist perish.
No matter what others think of you or say about you, no matter who they are or their status, if they don’t respect your thoughts and personality, in your heart, they are the fart!
The person you love should be a hero, someone with good character, worth your admiration and devotion…
Li Sanmao listened in a daze; his wife was truly different from others…
…
Walking down this street dazzled Li Sanmao’s eyes. So the world wasn’t just traversing mountains, hunting, reproducing, and that plot of rural land…
Before, to make a living, he had no spare time to stroll, nor ever thought of having the chance to open a shop…
Sighing, thinking about what he had been doing before—wasting his life?
So many people can do business and open shops, how can others succeed while he only knows hunting! Hunting!
Moreover, it’s hunting for Old Li Tou and them!
“Wife, I’m sorry!”
Li Sanmao hung his head, following behind…
“Why say sorry to me?”
“If it weren’t for me, you could have married any small merchant and it would be better than marrying me Li Sanmao!” He wouldn’t be dragged down by those people in his family, to the point of seeing no hope.
“This isn’t your fault either, a turtle matches mung beans, back then I was just like that, marrying you might even be me Luo Zhi’er climbing high!” Luo Zhi’er teased.
“No, don’t belittle yourself like that, you deserve to have everything, you have talent, you’re great! It’s just after marrying me you lost your longing for life, hope, this… is still husband’s problem.
He had only recently come to understand, seeing wife change, her eyes becoming more and more firm, more and more attracting his gaze, his heart felt unprecedented throbbing, and pain, this was different from his initial fondness for her…
He understood, a good husband should support wife, let her grow, achieve herself, realize her own ideals and revenge.
Instead of making her pay for his poor and destitute family, be dragged down, completely sacrifice and dedicate her time, youth, freedom for them to continue the bloodline, making her despair!
Previously he thought marrying him was repaying father-in-law, taking care of her, but after marriage he realized his own naivety and ignorance, it turned out he had harmed her!
Thinking back to when she was still a young woman, taking care of him in Luojia Village, the purity in her eyes without any impurities, simplicity, kindness, Later becoming wooden and sluggish…
It turned out it was him, not providing her with a good environment and cherishing like father-in-law did.
The flower
Her tough-mouthed but soft-hearted care for him back then, and her clumsy actions, made his heart feel warm and fuzzy. Unknowingly, he developed a favorable impression of her, but he never saw that feeling again afterward.
It was he who didn’t understand the meaning of marriage, so he pulled him into it.
“You went through a trip to the gate of hell for me, Li Sanmao, gave birth to such a wonderful Miaomiao. Now I hate myself for not being able to replace you back then to suffer in your place, to share the burden of life for me, and still manage to earn silver…”
“Taking care of the daily life of our whole family, doing three meals a day, doing everything but not being recognized by parents, being scolded, only abandoning oneself.”
Li Xi’er felt a pang in her heart, knowing the wife’s dedication, so for now, she considered him somewhat human, with a bit of kindness.
If Luo Zhi’er were still here, would hearing these hopeful words reignite her longing for the future?
It probably won’t, because that home is too suffocating, with no freedom at all, just a machine serving others, a breeding machine, too despairing, unable to see any hope.
In fact, aren’t the women of this era the same?
How many women harboring dreams and beautiful aspirations have been wronged? Later, upon learning the truth, they felt disappointed and regretful, already trapped by life, but everyone has grown accustomed to it!
“Husband, Miaomiao is not yours alone; she is also my daughter’s. I willingly gave birth to and raised her.”
Li Sanmao took her hand, “Wife, rest assured, from now on I will always stand by your side, I will support whatever you do as your husband, I will go hunting when I get back, earn silver, and strive to make your dream of opening a bread shop come true.”
A flash of determination appeared in Li Sanmao’s eyes. He would not be like those men in the village who obstructed and suppressed their wives, denying their contributions to the home. He lowered his head and said again to the bewildered Miaomiao:
“Miaomiao, the same goes for you. Come with Mother more often to see the outside world. In the future, if you are to choose a husband, you must definitely choose a man who regards you as his life, stands tall and firm, achieves something, pursues something, and can shoulder responsibility—that in itself is a very good man!”
“Especially, at critical times, he can assist you, let you shine, not extinguish the light in your eyes, and stay away from the man who makes you suffer!”
“If he does not cherish you, love you, remember Father’s words, you must absolutely not like him either, and stay away from him…”
“You must be prepared to leave him anytime and anywhere if you can do it well, but rest assured, even if you fall into chaos and he heartlessly abandons you, Father will support you for a lifetime.”
Miaomiao’s eyes darted around as she looked at her tall father, nodding her head vigorously.
“Husband, Miaomiao is still young. What does she understand?” Luo Zhi’er said with a laugh.
“Zhi’er, although I am a man, I deeply know how hard the days are for a woman after giving birth, wandering back and forth at death’s door time and again. Men want heirs to carry on the family line, to dedicate themselves to him and his family’s benefit, while she is the one bleeding—it’s her life at stake!”
No wonder so many women hate it!
Born as a daughter, she naturally endures more physical pain than a man. She has her own duties and mission. In this world, they exploit the fragility of women’s bodies, manipulating and restricting them in various ways. How could he not worry!
“Therefore, my precious daughter Li Sanmao, I must protect her. As her father, of course I must tell her the importance of choosing a responsible good man as her husband!”
Luo Zhi’er strongly agreed. Luo Zhi’er didn’t die in vain. Otherwise, if it were another man, he would think it was only natural for a woman to give birth to children, take care of the children and himself, his entire family old and young, and also help him earn money to lighten his burden.
She sighed, “Husband, relax. Miaomiao won’t marry for another ten years or more!”
Li Sanmao shook his head. As a father, he had already begun to feel heartache over all sorts of anxieties!
“Miaomiao, your father is right, but you can’t slack off either. Learn more skills to create value, strengthen your own heart, so that in the future, even if you have a baby without a husband, without parents, you can still survive well on your own.”
Miaomiao nodded vigorously.
Turned his head and said to Li Sanmao,
“Husband, isn’t a husband and wife just relying on each other, supporting each other, and staying together until old age? You don’t need to blame yourself. No one can choose their own parents or family. You and I are both the same!”
“It’s just… with what you just said, I, Luo Zhi’er, am content. At least you understand my situation, you care about my health. I’ve always believed that poverty is acceptable; two people can strive and support each other together!”
“But a poor husband who treats his wife badly when she goes through a life-and-death crisis, spoils her body, attacks her personality, and ignores her even when he could lend a hand—that kind of person won’t do. I hold grudges and absolutely cannot forgive that. For opening a shop, I’ll figure out a way myself!”
She didn’t take his idea of going hunting to earn money seriously at all, after all, hunting was his old profession!
