Volume 3 Chapter 6 Ex-wife

  On Tuesday after work, Lu Zhong arrived at Guo Zhuang Bai Erqiang's home as scheduled, and also brought a carpenter over to measure the dimensions, reinforce the doors and windows that needed reinforcement, and replace the new ones.

  The western-style house to be rented to Lu Zhong has been cleaned up, and Lu Zhong also brought new bedding over, all of which were newly purchased from the department store at noon today.

  The carpenter was busy there by himself, Bai Ergang went to the front yard and came back with half a catty of braised pork head and a large plastic bottle of Chinese white wine, smiling at Lu Zhong and saying: "Zhongzi, come have a couple of drinks."

  As soon as the back door of the hall is opened, it is the "front yard" in Bai Erqiang's mouth. It is the home of Bai Dazhuang, the elder brother of Bai Erqiang. There are three main rooms and several side rooms, all of which are built with a strong sense of grandeur. Moreover, they were renovated and painted not long ago. The pillars, doors and windows are all red, indicating that life is also quite prosperous.

  In fact, the Bai Dazhuang family is located on the north side of the street. As soon as the gate of the northern courtyard opens, it leads to the asphalt road that runs through the town. With his quick wit and geographical advantage, he opened a sales outlet selling cigarettes, wine, tea, sugar, daily necessities, and other goods. The business was quite good, making them one of the wealthiest families in impoverished Guo Zhuang Village.

  The pork head and Baijiu in Er Biao's hands were bought from his elder brother, he had finally saved up some money and wanted to improve his diet.

  "I know you haven't eaten, so I bought this for you." Bai Erqiang held up the braised pork head and showed it to Lu Zhong, saying: "I got it from my elder brother's place, cheap, only 80 cents." He also lifted the wine jug: "The wine is what I bought myself, please have a drink."

  Lu Zhong smiled: "Then I should thank you?"

  Bai Erqiang's face was thick-skinned, and he didn't care about Lu Zhong's sarcastic remarks. He smiled and said: "Don't be polite, from now on, you'll live here, we're like one family, like close brothers."

  Lu Zhong smiled: "I really don't dare to be." For this kind of petty person, it's hard to say whether I like or dislike him.

  Lu Zhong thought for a moment, then took out five yuan from his pocket and handed it to Bai Erqiang, saying: "You buy some more small dishes and whatnot, and get something for the master craftsman too." He nodded towards the carpenter who was busy working on the other side.

  Bai Erqiang smiled with joy and gave a thumbs up: "Brotherhood!" Then he turned around and left happily.

  Bai Erqiang came back with a bunch of things in his hands, including peanuts, canned peaches, and walnut cookies. He arranged them on the tea table in the east room and called out to Lu Zhong: "Come on, let's have a snack first." Then he said: "I spent all the money on pork head meat, but I still have one yuan left, I'll give it back to you." After that, he started searching his pockets, but somehow couldn't seem to find it.

  "Never mind."

  Bai Erqiang then pulled out a one-mao note from his pocket and said, "You see, Zhēnzi, am I someone who takes advantage of others? Alright, another day I'll treat you well." As he spoke, he put the one-mao note back into his pocket.

  Lu Zhong sat down, didn't drink wine or eat braised pork head, took a piece of walnut pastry, hastily bit two mouthfuls, just about to clap hands and say he had finished eating when footsteps sounded outside. Bai Erqiang immediately beckoned to the outside: "Daughter, come in quickly, today there's something delicious."

  "Oh, what's delicious?" A slightly childish and clear voice came from behind Lu Zhong, the light footsteps stopped abruptly, seemingly having seen Lu Zhong sitting in the house with his back to the door.

  "Come on in, it's nothing. This is your brother... come on in and call someone." White Erqiang faced his daughter with a more benevolent expression, his smile not as lewd as before.

  Lu Zhong also turned his head, but saw behind him a beautiful girl standing, with eyebrows and eyes like a painting, elegant and unparalleled, clear apricot eyes, long eyelashes curled up, just like the beauty of the later generations. The eyelashes that were pasted on, but she was born with it, more beautiful than the exaggerated eyelashes in the cartoon.

  Although the red padded pants were patched, they also set off her slender and delicate figure that had just developed, like a simple and tender green apple.

  But between the eyebrows, how familiar it seems? Qing Long, surname Bai, Lu Zhong's mind flashed with that gradually forgotten figure once again.

  "Brother Zong." The beautiful girl greeted Lu Zong very politely, but was somewhat shy and didn't dare to look at him much.

  "Hey Bai, how old is your daughter this year? What's her name?" Lu Zhong asked casually.

  Bai Erqiang looked at Lu Zhong with a somewhat strange expression, then let out a sigh and said, "Alas, it's been 15 years since the New Year. Call me Xiao Feng."

  Bai Xiaofeng?! Lu Zhong's mind went blank for a moment.

  In the 1990s, Lu Zhong had a brief marriage to a girl who had just graduated from Beijing Medical University. The two were introduced by others and Lu Zhong thought that marriage was a necessary decoration for adults, so they got married after only a few months of dating. However, this marriage only lasted for over two years before Lu Zhong proposed a divorce, and he didn't even show up in person, leaving everything to be handled by his proxy lawyer.

  Lu Zhong's reason for divorce is also simple. He thinks she is too opinionated and independent, and the relationship between them is not what he imagined a husband and wife to be.

  There was no news of her afterwards, until a few years later, when I occasionally heard people mention that she had stood on the front line in the SARS disaster and eventually died of illness.

  Lu Zhong heard that before signing up to enter the non-standard epidemic area, she wrote a letter, which was left for herself. Lu Zhong had never intentionally looked for this letter and didn't want to see it either.

  Even Bai Xiaoxue, Lu Zhong didn't want to think about her again, because every time he thought of her, his heart felt uncomfortable.

  Now Lu Zhong gradually understood that this uncomfortable feeling was called guilt and a sense of sin.

  Although he had no feelings for her, he still married her and then hoped she would become a thoughtless and opinionless zombie, placed at home as an ornament of marriage.

  When they found her performance was not up to their expectations, they quickly abandoned her.

  Maybe many things in my past life were wrong and absurd.

  Bai Xiaofeng... Bai Xiaofeng...

  Lu Zhong sighed inwardly, but also felt a little puzzled. In his previous life, although he had never visited her family, he had heard that her parents had stable jobs and good family conditions. But how could Bai Erqiang, his ex-father-in-law, be divorced and in such a state?

  Lu Zhong looked at his "former father-in-law" with a mixture of helplessness and resignation. Bai Erqiang was chuckling to himself as he picked up a large piece of lean pork from the pig's head and put it in his own bowl, giving the skin to his daughter. When he saw Lu Zhong looking over, he revealed his usual sly smile: "Zhongzi, you're not eating anymore, huh?"

  Lu Zhong smiled wryly and said, "Alright, I won't eat anymore. You eat yours." Looking at the little girl who was eating the meat skin with her head down, Lu Zhong felt a strange taste in his heart.

  He pulled out a pack of cigarettes, lit one up, and immediately saw Bai Er's gaze fixed on the Red Pagoda Mountain cigarette pack. Lu Zhong handed him the cigarette.

  Bai Er was busy, hastily taking over, pulling out two cigarettes from inside, lighting one and tucking the other behind his ear, chuckling: "Good fellow, Zhēnzi, you've made a pretty penny, haven't you? This pack of smokes is worth as much as a pound of pork head meat!" As he spoke, still unsatisfied, he pulled out another cigarette and tucked it behind his other ear.

  Lu Zhong was silent.

  Bai Erqiang enjoyed puffing out smoke rings, and patted his daughter's head, saying: "Later help your brother make the bed, go to sleep early. If the weather is good tomorrow, dry the corn on the roof, get some sunlight, it's about time to dry, should be harvested."

  Bai Xiaofeng nodded obediently.

  Lu Zhong was taken aback and asked: "Isn't Xiaofeng going to school?"

  "What's the point of girls going to school?" Bai Erqiang sighed, rubbing his waist. "Besides, my waist is no good. If Xiaofeng goes to school, who will do the farm work? Just saying, moving the corn stalks from the house, my legs and feet can't handle it at all. Alas, I'll have to find someone to help. If only Xiaofeng were a boy!"

  Bai Xiaofeng's face darkened, apparently, Bai Erqiang had said this kind of "a daughter is not as good as a son" remark more than once or twice. A child's thoughts would naturally be hurt.

  Lu Zhong was stunned for a while, and this white second-hand was clearly good at eating and lazy, treating his daughter as a free servant. At first, he saw that he left the lean meat for himself and gave the skin to Bai Xiaofeng, thinking it was because Bai Xiaofeng loved to eat skin, but now it seems that's not the case at all.

  But Bai Xiaofeng is obviously a top student at Beishida in the future, why did she drop out?

  Lu Zhong immediately remembered what Lu Xueyou had said. Last year, after Ma Weiguo took office as county magistrate, he began to promote the contract system for factory directors of state-owned and collective enterprises. Bai Erqiang was a temporary worker, and the new factory director looked down on him. After taking office, he expelled Bai from the factory. Soon, Bai's wife ran away with someone else.

  In her previous life, Bai Xiaoxue had a complete family. Bai Erqiang was not expelled and later became a formal employee, so he supported Bai Xiaoxue to finish college and cultivated an excellent doctor.

  Now, with Bai Erqiang losing his job, the fate of Bai Xiaoxue also changed. The source of all this was because Ma Weiguo was transferred to Qinglong as the county magistrate of Qinglong County.

  But thinking about it, there seems to be a reason for this too.

  Although Ma Weiguo was transferred to Qinglong and had no direct relationship with himself, he had stirred up the muddy waters in the Guangning government for a long time, and in the struggle between Ma Weiguo and Qiu Dahai, some things were indeed changed.

  In his past life, Ma Weiguo seemed to have never summoned Qinglong.

  From this point of view, Bai Xiaoxue's reversal of fate is her own inescapable responsibility.

  She wasn't enough to harm her in her past life, but now she wants to harm her again in this life.

  Lu Zhong smiled wryly and looked at his "ex-wife", who was still a little beauty, and in his heart, it was truly a mix of sour, sweet, bitter and spicy flavors.