Perhaps she knew that she could no longer conceal what she had done, or perhaps these things had been accumulated in her heart for too long. After being exposed by Gu Zhisang, the old lady’s hands that were holding the door frame were shaking, and her face showed a twisted smile of resentment and pleasure.
“You feel sorry for your mother, but these are all retributions for her biological father and mother!”
She trembled and told the truth about the child exchange that everyone was most concerned about.
The old lady’s ancestral surname was Xia.
A few decades ago, she was a wealthy businessman and a wealthy family.
“Our ancestors were salt merchants. They contributed money and effort during the war, so they can be considered hero merchants. Although they declined a little later, they still accumulated wealth and fame in the local area.”
Old Lady Xia spoke slowly, with some reminiscence in her slightly turbid eyes:
“When it came to my generation because some relatives in my family went abroad to seek refuge during the war, they wrote a lot about the development of the outside world in their usual correspondence, which made me yearn for it.”
“So when I was 14 years old, I went abroad to seek refuge with my relatives. When I was studying abroad, I met my husband. We fell in love at first sight and promised to spend our lives together.”
“My husband’s mother was one of the Xia people who went abroad to seek refuge during the war. She married a local foreigner and gave birth to him.”
According to Old Mrs. Xia, her husband has half foreign blood.
So his facial features were much different than those of traditional Xia citizens. He was tall and handsome, and he treated her very well. He was simply a perfect lover.
The period of love abroad was the most unforgettable and beautiful memory in her life.
Later, her father was critically ill and urgently called her back to the country.
In addition, her family firmly disagreed with her staying abroad. On one side was her father who had raised her for more than ten years, and on the other side was her beloved lover. The young girl fell into pain and entanglement.
It happened that it was the early 1960s, and there was a large-scale trend of excluding Xia citizen compatriots in her lover’s country. She and her lover, who had Xia characteristics, were also excluded in school.
After several considerations, her lover said goodbye to his mother and returned to Xia Country with her.
The young girl was excited. On the way back home, she kept imagining the beautiful life after marriage.
But she never thought that reality was different from what she was expecting.
After returning to Xia Country, the two were arranged to continue their studies at a local university. It was in this school that they met Shijianwu‘s biological grandparents, who were also students at the school at that time.
At this point, Old Lady Xia’s eyes once again showed strong hatred.
Her eyes, which were wearing reading glasses, turned and fixed on Shijianwu‘s body, and gritted her teeth and said:
“If I had known that those two beasts were so shameless, I should have spit on their faces when I first saw them!”
In her narration, four young people of similar age and like-mindedness became good friends.
When they got married, although they did not dare to publicize it and still followed the traditional wedding ceremony of Xia Country on the surface, they knew in their hearts that they were each other’s bridesmaids and best men.
After marriage, she and her husband lived a happy life for a period, which was very short, only about two years.
She worked as a clerk in a street unit, and her husband worked as a writer and reporter in a local newspaper.
Because of the characteristics of his job, her husband often saw some dark injustices, backwardness, and ignorance hidden in society.
These were very different from the education and things he had received and was exposed to since he grew up abroad.
In particular, some people emerged at that time and formed a special group of Red Soldiers.
Many intellectuals who had studied abroad were reported for improper collection of books at home or extravagant and petty-bourgeois behavior.
Also, because many people took advantage of the situation at that time, who were actually anti-rich or simply evil-minded, fanning the flames, some intellectuals who had no faults, received higher education, and had knowledge and ideals, were pulled down from the altar overnight.
Books and paintings in the house were destroyed, furniture and antiques were smashed, and critical words written in red ink were hung around their necks. They were pushed in front of the people on the street to be criticized and abused.
Old Lady Xia’s husband, a newspaper reporter, saw the miserable conditions of these people and could not accept it in his heart. He was very angry.
But at that time, their family was also the focus of attention, and they did not dare to show it in front of outsiders. Only occasionally when they had dinner with Shijianwu‘s grandparents, Old Lady Xia’s husband would complain after drinking some wine.
Who would have thought that such a good friend who had known them for many years would betray them?
Shijianwu‘s biological grandfather was from a military family, so he also had a good future. He worked in a local government agency but offended some people because of his youthful vigor.
The other party wanted to bring him down, as well as his father behind him, so they used his behavior to make a fuss.
At this time, to clear himself and get the family out of the dispute, Shijianwu‘s biological grandfather made a decision.
He reported Old Lady Xia’s husband.
He wrote down the other party’s complaints and dissatisfaction at the wine table in the letter of denunciation and expressed his determination to cut off ties with such people with bad ideas.
This move instantly pushed the young couple into the knife mountain and oil pot.
With the letter of denunciation from Shijianwu‘s biological grandfather, the Red Soldiers broke into the young couple’s home and searched out many foreign books, as well as some dissatisfaction and poems written by the husband as a newspaper reporter.
With these books, plus the fact that Old Lady Xia’s husband was a foreign mixed-race with a special identity, he was directly judged as a bad element.
Old Lady Xia’s family background was also quite rich. She was a big businessman and had studied abroad, which was also quite dangerous.
But she still had a chance to get out at that time.
As long as she reported her husband like what Shijianwu‘s biological grandfather did.
At that time, Old Lady Xia’s parents and relatives, as well as the neighbors who watched her grow up when she was a child, all persuaded her, saying that everyone did the same thing. Children and parents reported each other.
Even her husband smiled bitterly and said:
“Just report me, so that you can still protect yourself. How can you, a woman, endure those tortures? I will not resent you, but I only hate myself for not knowing people well and making the wrong friends!”
In the end, Old Lady Xia did not decide to report. She wanted to share the hardships with her husband.
But what came with it was that her identity was also judged as a bad element.
When the couple were in their twenties, they were both sent to the countryside to undergo transformation and live in a cowshed.
When they were in the countryside, Old Lady Xia and her husband lived a very hard life.
The people in the village will not delve into what crime you came here for, nor will they know whether you have been wronged. They only know that those who are sent to the cowshed for reform are bad people and should be despised.
Old Lady Xia and her husband eat the worst food here and do the heaviest farm work.
Every week, they were dragged to the empty wheat field in the village to undergo ideological transformation, even mixed with force.
Countless rotten eggs, rotten vegetable leaves, and even stones were thrown at them.
At first, Old Lady Xia felt humiliated, but after a long time and many times, she and her husband became numb.
The eldest lady who used to live a life of luxury, after only one year of reform in the cowshed, her hands and face became rough, and her knee joints also suffered large and small injuries.
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