Xi Feng is a bad woman.
That's what everyone says, and Tian Xiaocao thinks so too.
On the day Tian Xiaocao got married, a thick layer of stagnant water had collected on the threshold stone of the Li family home.
Ma Xifeng stood beneath the eaves in a peach-pink jacket, shelling peanuts. The juice of balsam flowers stained the creases around her fingernails red, like the aftermath of a murder that never quite happened.
That was their first meeting.
One was a "bride traded in marriage," whose life was worth no more than a blade of grass. The other was a "fiery phoenix," bristling with thorns.
Ma Xifeng snapped Tian Xiaocao's only wooden comb. The crack echoed through the cramped kitchen, becoming the first rift between them, one that could never be mended.
In the dark, Tian Xiaocao picked up the broken pieces and wrapped them round and round with red thread. With every turn, she bound tighter the heart that was close to going cold.
She envied Ma Xifeng's brazenness and selfishness, the very freedom she would never dare hope for in her own life.
Ma Xifeng thought she had won, but in Tian Xiaocao's eyes, deep as stagnant water, she saw the barren rest of her own life.
They tormented each other, yet in each other's wounds, they caught the scent of the same kind of poverty.
Later, the phoenix broke a wing and fell into the mud.
It was the withered weed she had trampled countless times that grew strong amid a steel jungle.
When they met again, Ma Xifeng thought Tian Xiaocao would look down on her, despise her, and mock her. Instead, she gazed at her with tenderness and said, "Xifeng, come home with me."
The broken comb, wrapped again and again with red thread, finally untangled the fixation that had bound the two women for half their lives.
Content warnings:
There are men in this novel! (They don't get much screen time, and they die quickly.)
Neither woman is a virgin!
Both women have children with other people!
Theme: A harmonious and beautiful rural life
Maybe I just can't watch this kind of subject matter. I feel so frustrated. Tian Xiaocao, why do you want to please Ma Xifeng so much? She ruined you so much and tortured your children. Ahhhhhh. I feel like I am angry at her but I don't regret her misfortune. I want to scold Tian Xiaocao but I don't know what to say. After all, she has not sorry for anyone except her child [changed]
Mrs. Li feels so confused that she can't even tell that Xiaocao is pregnant.
After reading it, I still don't have a good impression of Ma Xifeng. Maybe it's because she did too many wrong things and tortured Tian Xiaocao like this, but she did very few good things and didn't accomplish them, so my impression of her is still bad. I also felt that the suffering she suffered later was caused by herself, and there was nothing to feel sorry for. Moreover, the suffering she suffered was all told by Tian Xiaocao, so there was no real feeling. And she finally got Tian Xiaocao's sincere love and her son's forgiveness and guilt, so I think she is really very lucky. As for Tian Xiaocao, I really think she is too kind [holding up her chin] and hardly resists. She is bullied by many people, especially by Ma Xifeng. Anyway, it makes me feel very uncomfortable. However, she is really very strong, and she has done nothing wrong and has not sorry for others. Maybe I think she is a bit stupid, but maybe it is her choice to follow her heart at the moment. Although I am not very comfortable with this choice. Although I still don't like Ma Xifeng, but who made Tian Xiaocao and Ma Xifeng the protagonists of this novel? They only need to follow their hearts and live their own lives. Why do they need to care about what I, the spectator, think? 🤷 In short, I hope they can get better.
Xiaocao: happy Feng'er, come home with me
Oh my god, someone actually wrote it, hahahahaha
It feels like Xiaohao and Dalong have inherited each other's mother's personality 😂
Maybe I'm not suitable for watching this kind of subject matter. Not only do I have no good impression of Xifeng, but I also dislike her very much.
Oh, two poor women
I feel so uncomfortable after reading these chapters. Hug Xiaocao 😭
Xiaohao: I saw my aunt kissing another man