A woman in her 70s marries a rough-looking man; her plump wife is too delicate and alluring.

After confirming that only Liu Hongmei met the criteria, Sheng Yuze went to Liu Hongmei's house with He Zhaoyang after lunch.

He Zhaoyang was stunned before he even entered the house. The house was made entirely of adobe walls with cracks, and the roof was covered with layers of straw.

Sheng Yuze paused, knowing that Director Zhang had said Liu Hongmei's family was poor, but he hadn't said they were this poor.

They pushed open the door and entered, only to see Liu Hongmei's father, Liu Wei, standing on the threshold, stuffing sweet potato leaves into the doorway while holding a pipe.

Hearing the door open, he immediately stood up and looked honestly at Sheng Yuze and the others.

Sheng Yuze stepped forward and offered Liu Wei a cigarette. "Old man, don't be nervous. I'm just here to find out about Hongmei's situation."

Liu Wei hesitated twice, but eventually accepted the cigarette. "Thank you."

"Who is it?"

Liu Hongmei's mother, Zhao San, came out.

Seeing that the visitors were dressed in distinguished attire, he assumed they were some kind of leader. He wiped his hands and quickly invited Sheng Yuze and the others into the house, saying, "It's a bit messy, please don't mind, make yourselves at home."

He Zhaoyang shook his head. "It's very clean."

He Zhaoyang was not lying. The ground was yellow mud, but there was no trash, and the matches next to the stove were neatly piled up.

You can tell this family is very hardworking.

He Zhaoyang frowned as he looked at Liu Wei and Zhao San's clothes. It was already December, so why were they still wearing such thin clothes?

Moreover, she noticed that Liu Wei had difficulty walking and walked with a limp, and Zhao San seemed to have a disability in his hands as well.

She whispered in Sheng Yuze's ear, "Their family is so poor, don't they receive any subsidies? Why are they wearing such thin clothes?"

Sheng Yuze also whispered, "Logically speaking, there should be."

Liu Wei carefully tucked Sheng Yuze's cigarette behind his ear. "What do you want to know about Hongmei?"

Upon hearing the name Hongmei, Zhao San stopped in his haste and sat down beside her.

Zhao San asked anxiously, "Did Hongmei do something wrong?"

He Zhaoyang shook his head. "Please don't worry, we just want to know about Hongmei and her in-laws."

Zhao San fell silent upon hearing this.

Liu Wei lit the pipe only after asking them if they minded the smell of smoke.

He took a deep breath and coughed several times, choking on it.

"As you can see from our family situation, we were initially unwilling for Hongmei to marry into our family."

But Shi Ping couldn't resist her affection. He came to our house every day to do farm work and used sweet words to make Hongmei happy. We disagreed but there was nothing we could do. He tricked Hongmei into getting a marriage certificate with him, but we found out and said that free love is advocated nowadays.

"Our Hongmei has been the subject of gossip and backbiting in the village for years because of this."

Zhao San wiped away his tears with his hand.

Liu Wei continued, "Shi Ping gave us a dowry of twenty yuan. Everyone in the village knew about it, saying that we were selling our daughter. But we took the dowry back with us."

As Liu Wei spoke angrily, he took a few deep breaths. "Although our family didn't have much money, we still managed to scrape together ten yuan as a dowry for Hongmei, hoping that her family would treat her well."

Liu Wei started coughing incessantly. Zhao San patted his back, and she wiped away her tears and said, "Just like that, as soon as we arrived at their house, they wouldn't let Hongmei go home. My husband and I wanted to go see Hongmei, but when we knocked on their door, they wouldn't open it. We can't see Hongmei all year round."

A while ago, Hongmei came home just before giving birth. She was bleeding from her vagina and crying, telling me that the Shi family wouldn't let her go to the hospital. We rushed her to the clinic; Hongmei almost had a difficult delivery.

Zhao San kept crying, and Sheng Yuze and He Zhaoyang exchanged a glance, both understanding the meaning in each other's eyes.

The Shi family is truly despicable.

They waited patiently for Zhao San to calm down.

Zhao San continued, "After they found out that Hongmei was born, they took Hongmei and the child away. Later, they heard that the Shi family disliked that it was a girl, so they accused Hongmei of adultery."

We wanted to pick up Hongmei and take her home, but we couldn't get into the Shi family's house at all. Asking the village committee was useless; that administrator, Shi, kept blocking our way.

Liu Wei sighed. "That's right. Is there anything else you'd like to know?"

Sheng Yuze shook his head.

He Zhaoyang spoke up, "Old folks, don't you receive any subsidies? Why are you still wearing such thin clothes, which even look quite old?"

Liu Wei snorted: "There's a subsidy, but what's the difference between that and not having one? Every time we go to collect it, either Administrator Shi makes excuses that it's all gone, or he says it hasn't been issued yet. We can't get it at all."

Sheng Yuze nodded thoughtfully. "Is that Administrator Shi related to the Shi Ping family?"

Liu Wei nodded. "They are cousins. We don't want to contact him, but every time we go to the brigade, he is the one who hosts us and even prevents us from being near other people in the brigade."

He Zhaoyang stood up. "We're planning to go to Shi Ping's house. Do you want to come?"

Zhao San and Liu Wei exclaimed excitedly, "Is that possible?!"

Sheng Yuze nodded. "Let's go, let me see that beast's family."

Sheng Yuze opened the car door and asked them to sit in the back, but they clung to their clothes and refused to get in.

Zhao San: "Our clothes are too dirty, we're afraid of getting your car dirty."

He Zhaoyang sighed, "A car is for riding in, what's with all the dirty stuff? Hurry up and get in, or it'll be dark by the time we get to Shijia. Don't you want to see Hongmei?"

They then sat in the back seat, He Zhaoyang in the passenger seat, and Sheng Yuze started the car and drove off.

Liu Wei and Zhao San in the back row didn't dare to move, afraid of getting the seats dirty.

Sheng Yuze arrived at Shi Ping's house following the route Liu Wei had given him.

As soon as you get off the bus, you can see the imposing Shi family mansion, which is comparable to the Sheng family mansion.

"Heh." He Zhaoyang sneered, "This family is quite wealthy."

Before they could even knock on the door, a loud cry came from inside the courtyard, "No, no, Mother, I don't want to go out."

Li Xiangxiang's vicious voice rang out.

"What do you mean, 'don't want'? Get out of here! You're cheating on me, and you even dare to do it to me? If I hadn't come back, would you have slept with my husband? You shameless slut."

As soon as he finished speaking, he heard the sound of someone slapping their face.

Liu Hongmei cried, "I didn't! I was sleeping. I don't know what happened. Dad suddenly came into the room. I didn't!"

Shi Xiaoxue shouted, trying to drown out Liu Hongmei's voice.

"You're talking nonsense. You're the one who told me to go to your room. You said that Mother and Shiping aren't home right now."

Turning to Li Xiangxiang with a wronged expression, she said, "Believe me, how could I possibly be interested in my son's wife?"

"No, it's clearly..."

boom.

It was the sound of a heavy object falling to the ground.

Before Liu Hongmei could finish speaking, she was kicked to the ground.

Sheng Yuze and the others panicked and tried to open the door, but it was bolted from the inside. With no other option, Sheng Yuze and He Zhaoyang decided to climb over a low wall.

Shi Xiaoxue: "You little slut, don't slander me! You're cheating on me and then trying to seduce me, and now you want to ruin this family's peace?"

Li Xiangxiang sneered, "Fine, since you enjoy seducing people so much, then go ahead and go seduce them!"