A Widow with Her Late Husband's Baby Remarries in the Sixties

When Lin Ying was sent to southern Yunnan as a volunteer, she fell for a wounded soldier. He was handsome and refined, with deep, dark eyes. He barely spoke, but after finishing the congee she brought him, he would always secretly tuck a little wildflower into the bottom of her lunchbox.

Before either of them could say a word, that faint, unspoken affection came to an end.

Her father was critically ill and urgently needed money to save his life, so she had no choice but to marry a man from the neighboring town.

The man who married her was tall and rough around the edges. She heard he'd just returned from the battlefield and wanted an heir, so he'd paid a generous bride price to marry Lin Ying, a beautiful girl from a poor family.

The suona played a festive tune. When her veil was lifted, Lin Ying hadn't yet made out her husband's face when she met a pair of deep, black eyes.

As it turned out, the man she'd married was from the same village as the soldier she loved. They'd grown up together and sworn brotherhood before joining the army.

On her wedding night, Lin Ying thought of the love that had gone nowhere. Looking at the husband before her, who was overjoyed and swore to treat her well all his life, she closed her tearful eyes. So be it.

Her husband truly treated her well, cherishing and pampering her. He never made her do hard labor and handed all his money over to her. Aside from being rather demanding in bed, Lin Ying couldn't find fault with him.

She thought she could accept living this way for the rest of her life. She ought to be content.

But three months later, the situation at the front grew urgent, and her husband rushed back to his unit without time to say goodbye. Three months after that, the terrible news arrived: he had died on the battlefield.

Lin Ying was struck as if by lightning. She looked down at her growing belly, then up at the man who had brought her husband's belongings home. She wept in mute, inconsolable grief.

*

Xie Yansheng had never imagined that one day he would see the girl he loved again at his best friend's wedding.

They lived in the same courtyard. Day after day, he watched them go everywhere together. At night, he could even hear her soft cries through the wall.

He was jealous and bitter, imagining in the darkness that he was the one with her.

His friend gave him a sincere pat on the shoulder. “You should get yourself a wife soon, too. Once you have one, you'll realize what a miserable life we used to lead.”

Xie Yansheng always fell silent.

A few months later, they went to the battlefield together again.

His friend died. He survived.

By then, she was carrying his comrade's child.

And yet, I still want to marry her.

Theme: Love means giving, not demanding.