The Cannon Fodder Beauty of the Sixties

Lin Huaizhu was renowned throughout the surrounding villages for her beauty.

Her almond-shaped eyes always seemed to smile, full of warmth. Whenever she walked along the irrigation pond, at least eight or ten people would fall in.

Everyone secretly wondered which lucky young man would get to marry her.

After all, when she was fifteen or sixteen, suitors had nearly worn down her doorstep. Her mother couldn't bear to part with her daughter and chased them all away.

But when Lin Huaizhu finally turned eighteen and was old enough to marry, not a single matchmaker came by.

The fields were suffering from famine, and the work points earned by the whole family couldn't keep them fed. Who could think about taking a wife?

Lin Huaizhu watched as the mother who had doted on her all her life lay in bed and starved to death, just to save one last mouthful of food for her.

After her mother died, her sister-in-law grew even more hostile toward her.

As it happened, a cripple from the village offered three liang of rice to take Lin Huaizhu as his wife.

Without the slightest hesitation, her sister-in-law accepted the rice and drove Lin Huaizhu out of the house.

But the cripple was no one she could build a life with. He beat and berated her every few days, and two years later, Lin Huaizhu died young.

*

In a bright room, seventeen-year-old Lin Huaizhu finished reading the short account of her own life, still not understanding what a sacrificial character or a foil was.

But when the male lead, Meng Qiulin, mentioned in the book as a man who supported his entire family on his own wages, passed by her home again, she called out to him.

She didn't want her mother to starve to death, and she didn't want to marry a cripple.

*

The thing Meng Qiulin regretted most in his life was not being more resolute when he proposed to Lin Huaizhu.

Given another chance, he decided that even if he had to wear down the mound of earth in front of the Lin family's home by walking over it, he would never let one rejected proposal discourage him and drive him away.

But just as he made up his mind, the young woman sitting inside suddenly beckoned to him.

His feet carried him inside against his will.

*

Lin Huaizhu had it all figured out. Meng Qiulin served in the army in the north, where, according to the book, there was no famine and plenty of factories were willing to hire workers.

Meng Qiulin's little sister earned a month's wages equal to the work points her whole family earned in a year!

In the book, seventeen-year-old Lin Huaizhu turned down Meng Qiulin's proposal and became the unforgettable girl of his dreams, the greatest thorn between the male lead and the female lead.

This time, she planned to marry him and go north with him.

As soon as she found a job, she would bring her mother over too. If Meng Qiulin didn't agree, she would divorce him.

Then she would let him be with the female lead.

Meng Qiulin: Divorce? What's that supposed to be? I've already swallowed the marriage certificate. There's no way we're getting divorced!

The blurb will be revised after January 22.

Theme: Live well