In the plains of northern Henan, there is a village called Wangniugang on the old path of the Yellow River. The cattle are gone long ago, but the post is still there.
In the winter of 2010, 25-year-old Zhang Jianguo spent all his savings and borrowed money from relatives to collect a gift of 200,000 yuan and married Li Cuihua from the next village. On their wedding night, the bride let him sleep on the sofa.
Their neighbor Wang Xuejun is a substitute teacher in the village, and his salary is not as much as his wife's hair-cutting salary. Ma Yanmin opened a barber shop in the town. She was fierce and capable, but she suffered from lifelong infertility due to a miscarriage before marriage. She vented all her grievances on her husband, smashed bowls, slammed doors, and cursed for three hours.
Two couples, fourteen years together, from their early twenties to their late teens.
Zhang Jianguo worked as a construction site laborer and became a foreman. When he became rich, his wife moved to the town to rent a house. Wang Xuejun went to Xinjiang to grow cotton and gave his family 5,000 yuan a month. His wife only replied with two words: "Received."
The debt for the bride price was paid off, and the debt for the child came again. We quarrel when we have no money, and we also quarrel when we have money. Divorce is on the lips, but life has to go on.
Some people ran away, some came back, some gave up, and some got pregnant - after the third test tube.
This is a story about "living". Everyone in Wangniugang is waiting for a cow that will never come back.
There is no right or wrong here, only days
