Chapter 229: Shocking and Unconventional Words
It was true that although the laws of the Dayong Dynasty were thorough and did not forbid divorce and remarriage, the common people still viewed the matter as taboo.
The citizens of the Dayong Dynasty did not lead particularly difficult lives. Once their bellies were full, they began to place great stock in purity and reputation.
While remarrying or taking a new wife in private was permitted, one had to do so hidden from sight. Even with a marriage certificate in hand, walking out the door would still draw whispers and pointing fingers from others.
The best course of action was to quietly stay behind closed doors for three to five years until the surrounding street neighbors gradually accepted it. Only when newly moved-in neighbors were entirely ignorant of the past could one step out, show their face, and live a normal life.
Otherwise, the gossip and rumors alone were enough to break a person.
Consequently, after being divorced or repudiated, many women had almost no option left but to become Buddhist nuns.
They could not return to their maternal homes, their marital families no longer wanted them, and living alone invited too much slander. Their only choice was to head to the mountains.
In short—
No one dared to discuss their “second marriage” or “falling in love” with a man so openly and grandly.
Yet at this moment, this group of women was chattering away without pause.
One said, “Exactly! My late husband has only been gone for two years, and seven or eight people have already tried to set me up. I’ve been seeing two candidates recently; whichever one turns out better is the one I’ll stay with.”
“Yes, my older sister is the same way, though she’s only in her thirties and just got divorced. Now she has a handsome young guy driving her to and from work every day.”
Zhao Meihua vented her grievances, saying, “It’s only because Mingming is still too small; otherwise, I would divorce Lu Xiangshui this very instant!”
“But I don’t want to look for anyone else. Men only get in the way of me making a fortune. If I get a divorce, I’ll just start a small business of my own, earning my own money and spending it on myself. How wonderful would that be?”
Everyone discussed the matter with lighthearted laughter.
Among them were women like Auntie Lu, who had both a son and a daughter and enjoyed a happy marriage, yet she still shared trivial anecdotes of daily life, drawing bursts of laughter and playful banter from the group.
Ruan Xiang watched and listened in sheer disbelief.
What kind of place was this?
Did women here truly place so little stock in their purity? The way they spoke of divorce and remarriage was as casual as discussing eating food or drinking water.
There were even young women declaring they wouldn’t marry, and someone casually walked over cradling a child. “Why should I get married? I already have a child. Not getting married is wonderful; I just live with my parents and focus on raising my baby.”
Auntie Houjun, Auntie Lu, Zhao Meihua, and the others had all received quiet instructions beforehand.
At this point, someone intentionally asked, “Aren’t you afraid of people gossiping then? Having a child before even getting married.”
The young woman holding the child had only recently returned to the village, so Jian Xingxia didn’t really know her. But from just this brief moment of casual small talk, she understood the situation.
This woman was a true warrior—she had returned home with a child after an unwed pregnancy.
The young woman said, “If anyone’s going to gossip, it should be about his family! We agreed on a bride price of eighty-eight thousand yuan, but the moment they found out I was pregnant, they immediately dropped it to thirty-eight thousand. How shameless can you get?”
“They thought they could handle me just because I was carrying a child. Bah! What era do they think this is? Am I incapable of raising a child on my own? Do I look like I’m lacking that tiny bit of money from his family?”
“His family has no shame, trying to use an unwed pregnancy to beat me down. Hilarious! It’s not like I can make a baby all by myself. His son couldn’t control his lower half, so why aren’t they blaming him?”
“Besides, his son can’t control himself and can’t take responsibility, but I can! My salary might not be incredibly high, but it’s eight thousand yuan a month—one hundred thousand a year. They’re even still paying me during these few months of maternity leave. Raising a child by myself is more than enough!”
This girl’s mother was also among the guests. Seeing her daughter speak so entirely without filter, she grabbed a handful of melon seeds and threw them at her.
“Listen to you, blurting out whatever comes to your mind!”
It sounded like a scolding, but it was actually a display of doting exasperation.
Sure enough, the moment she turned her head, this mother couldn’t resist bragging to the other women her own age: “Before, when Lingling said she wanted to marry someone so far away, I didn’t agree. After decades of marriage, I’m afraid we’d only see each other once every few years.”
“She’s my only daughter. If she married far away, her dad and I would be left at home, and the second half of our lives would be completely meaningless.”
“Right now, it might look a bit embarrassing, but Lingling brought the baby back to live with us, and we are absolutely thrilled.”
Lingling’s mother claimed her daughter’s unwed birth was embarrassing, but her face was covered in smiles, and she looked absolutely nothing like someone who was ashamed of her.
“The little thing babbles and coos in the house every day. Oh my, it just melts your heart.”
“And Lingling is a lazy creature, sleeping past noon every day. But her dad and I just love watching her sleep in. She gets up whenever she wants and eats whenever she wants.”
“When she wasn’t at home, eating dinner with her dad felt completely pointless. The two of us would just have a bowl of plain noodles or a bowl of porridge with a mantou bun every day; we didn’t want to cook and couldn’t be bothered to go through the trouble.”
“Now that she’s back, the two of us are bursting with energy to cook. Every single day, we just think about what kind of food to make for her.”
“Lingling loves her food too. She even took her dad and me to the town to eat something called ‘pizza.’ Oh my, isn’t that just a large flatbread? They just spread meat and vegetable fillings over the top of the dough and bake it. It’s not even as delicious as our fried oil cakes!”
Everyone laughed merrily, and truth be told, they actually envied Lingling’s parents a little.
Nowadays, every household only had one or two children. They went to school, they went to work, and once they married and established their own families, they really only returned once every few years.
Leaving the elderly at home was quite lonely and dull.
“If only people in this world didn’t have to marry—everyone could just raise their own children and return to their own homes. That would be ideal.”
“Exactly, that’s what I told my daughter. Take your time with dating. Find someone with a genuinely good character before considering marriage, and if his character is just mediocre, we’ll just swap him out!”
“Don’t let yourself be manipulated just because you get pregnant. Which family can’t afford to raise a child these days? If the child stays with us, everyone will shower it with love. That’s always better than sending it to a bad family and having them corrupt its character!”
Listening to this, Ruan Xiang’s heart was thoroughly shaken, and her emotions could not settle for a long time.
Only Auntie Pang was muttering to herself, “Putting the filling on the outside of the flatbread? Can you even call that a filling anymore? But they say it’s a novelty and the city folks love to eat it…”
Auntie Pang made up her mind: “Then I’ll make one and give it a try too.”
What chef could ever resist trying out a new dish?
