Chronicle of the 70s
Chapter 75 - 072 Coming back with 90 additional monthly tickets

Chapter 75: 072 Coming back with 90 additional monthly tickets

The river cleaning continued until September, and then the Li Family Village Production Team started a new round of rushed harvesting.

Corn needed to be harvested, wheat needed to be harvested, and soybeans as well, all the men who went to the river returned.

And Li Erfu returned too. He rushed back midway to see his recovering mother and then left again, only saying that he would resolve this issue upon his return and hoped his elder brother and sister-in-law would help watch over things, ensuring no more trouble arose.

Ge Sanmei inexplicably started to feel anxious, she always felt that something was off with him this time; he didn’t speak a word to her upon returning, no matter if she made a scene, threw a tantrum, or begged for the sake of their two children, no one paid attention to her.

She always felt that this matter wasn’t simple, so before the man returned, she went back to her maiden home at Xixiang Team first, telling her brother and sister-in-law that they must come over one day when they received her message.

Ge Sanmei’s intuition was right, something really did happen.

The day after Li Erfu returned, he gathered all the elders of Li Family Village into one room.

Ge Sanmei was puzzled, but she felt that it wasn’t a good topic to broach, so she sneaked off to Li Sanwang’s house first, gave Li Sanwang’s youngest son one yuan, and asked him to ride a bicycle to inform her brother and sister-in-law to come over, saying something big had happened at home.

When Ge Sanmei returned to the house, the room was extremely quiet. Old Mrs. Wu was already sitting by the bed, her eyes slightly red, as if she had just cried.

Li Erfu looked up at the person who entered and coldly said, "Since you sent for your family, let them come, today we need to clarify things."

Ge Sanmei was stunned, "Clarify what? What is there to talk about?"

Seeing that no one paid attention to her, Ge Sanmei suddenly became anxious, and ran over to Liu Aidang sitting below the bed, grabbing her and starting to cry, "Sister-in-law, tell them I’ve worked my heart out for this family, why does nobody care about me, wu wu wu."

Liu Aidang, with the woman leaning against her, felt somewhat awkward; she didn’t know whether to push her away or not, and it gave her the goosebumps.

Li Erfu sneered, "Don’t make it hard for your sister-in-law, what can she say about you? You plotted to sell your daughter, now she has been adopted out, but you think, why not sell her again? Ge Sanmei, you’ve got some nerve!"

Once Ge Sanmei heard this, she stopped crying and nervously swallowed her saliva, "Even though the child was adopted out, didn’t I give birth to her? What’s wrong in seeking a good son-in-law for her future, how is that a mistake?"

Everyone looked up at her; Ge Sanmei was stubbornly deluded. It was no wonder Er Fu wanted a divorce and wanted everyone to witness, this was too cruel. It was such a different time and she still clung to the child who had been adopted out, and received US$ 600 for nursing fees; could it even cost that much to raise the child? And those three hundred pounds of fine grain, how torturous.

Li Erfu coldly sat there, "You speak as if you care for the child, but you’ve sold your heart to the dogs. What have you been scheming all this time? I think you’ve had enough of these days, so let’s talk today and get divorced. Ge Sanmei, I don’t care where you go and cause trouble!"

As soon as Ge Sanmei heard about getting a divorce, especially with everyone present, she suddenly opened her mouth in disbelief, "Old man, what has gotten into you, even if I did wrong, you can’t divorce me, what will I do, wu wu wu." She then threw herself at Li Erfu and started to struggle.

Li Erfu didn’t move, just stood there with a stony face, silent no matter how she shook him or clawed at him.

Mrs. Wu sat on the edge of the bed, rubbing her forehead, "San’er, Er Fu can’t live like this anymore, it’s too hard on him too, see what we can do about this."

When Ge Sanmei heard Mrs. Wu’s words, she became frantic and suddenly knelt down in front of Mrs. Wu, shaking her head in panic, "Mom, I was wrong, I will live well with Er Fu from now on, Mom, please persuade Er Fu, I was wrong, I won’t dare again, Mom, please persuade Er Fu."

Wu Zhaodi felt terribly conflicted at that moment; people of her age had seen a lot. There were plenty of couples who looked harmonious but were actually distant, most stuck it out for a lifetime. Few people divorced after the founding of the nation, but in a peasant family, who would talk about divorce? Most would just quarrel and make it through their whole life.

The day before, her son had returned to her own room and immediately kneeled down, and wouldn’t get up no matter how she pulled, saying he had been suppressed his entire life and needed to stand up for himself at least once. He didn’t want Ge Sanmei anymore, he said even if they divorced and didn’t live together, they could live separately, not leaving the village would be fine too, but he absolutely refused to live with Ge Sanmei any longer.

Her son, already forty, was crying with snot and tears; it broke Mrs. Wu’s heart.

Old Mrs. Wu lost her father in her early years and raised her two sons alone. She had survived the three years of famine, and now, it was because of a daughter-in-law that her household was in turmoil. Nevertheless, believing that each generation has its own luck, Old Mrs. Wu, unable to bear seeing her son so distressed, thus agreed to her second son’s divorce.

And so, today’s affair unfolded; Old Mrs. Wu called in several elders of Li Family Village to initially discuss the matter between Er Fu and his spouse, and also shared the deeds that Ge Sanmei had done over the past year with everyone. Everyone fell silent; in farming households, divorces were rare. But the steadfastness of the old lady herself meant that these fellow clansmen were mere witnesses and offered no objections. Moreover, Li Erfu had stated that he did not oppose Ge Sanmei staying here; he had dug another cave and moved in with San’er, implying that Ge Sanmei living together with their eldest and second sons, wasn’t left uncared for in her old age.

Seeing everyone gaze at her with indifferent eyes, Ge Sanmei stood up and said bitterly, "Li Erfu, do you really want to divorce me?"

Li Erfu knocked his pipe and turned his head with a cold voice, "Rest assured, even if we divorce, you can continue living in this house, and I will take San’er out."

Upon hearing this, Ge Sanmei felt a chill run through her, and scoffed coldly, "You still think San’er would live with you? Dream on. San’er is schooling now and could become a soldier or find a good job in the future. You really think he’d still live with you? How beautifully you think!"

Li Erfu chuckled coldly and turned around, "Then you tell me who you want to live with, you choose; I don’t care."

Ge Sanmei, upon hearing this, suddenly became indecisive. In truth, she didn’t want to divorce or live with anyone else.

A burst of noise came from the courtyard. Ge Sanmei’s eyes lit up and she immediately rushed out.

Author’s note: Thank you to Tear Linglong for the two monthly tickets!

Thank you to An Anle for the monthly ticket!

Thank you to wangdeabao for the monthly ticket!

Thank you to Demonic Hour 333 for the monthly ticket!

Thank you to Ren Nv Jixiang for the monthly ticket!

Thank you for the unverifiable monthly tickets!

Thank you to Miracle Life 123 for your monthly ticket and your reward, thank you!

Thank you, Zheng Yinzhi, for the two tickets and the many earlier ones! Love you!

Thank you, Xiao Yan, for the two monthly tickets!

Thank you, Wen Yan, for the two monthly tickets!

Thank you, Zisha Sunset, for the monthly ticket!

Thank you, Bumaijiadefu for the monthly ticket (bumaijiadefu), haha, saw you voted before, thanks for the support)

Thank you, 18912529299, for the monthly ticket.

Thank you, Zhang Xiaobao 831, for the monthly ticket!

Just saw the monthly tickets reach ninety, so I hastily climbed online to update. Thank you all for your support and affection. I hope you won’t cancel your subscriptions. See the new book sales ranking? I’ve been pushed to fifth, looks a bit risky.

There’s one more update, coming up next.