Living like a widow? My rough neighbor is coaxing me to have a baby every night.

Chapter 67 That woman is a shrew!

When Li Weimin saw his savior arrive, he ignored the burning pain on his face and scrambled over to hug Li Jianshe's leg, wiping his snot and tears all over his father's polyester pants.

"Father! You have to stand up for me! I want to marry Xianglian! My mother is forcing me to marry that pockmarked woman! Father, you're a reasonable man, please speak up for me!"

Li Jianshe nearly lost his balance from the sudden tackle. He quickly pulled his leg away, disgustedly brushing the dust off his trousers: "Get out of the way! How old are you? Don't you care about your appearance? What a mess of a pockmarked face and Xianglian!"

Liu Xiaocui threw the shoe sole into the basket, annoyed, "Ask your own son! He's making a scene over that good-for-nothing Li family woman, and he even wants to spend two hundred yuan to fill that bottomless pit of the Li family! Li Jianshe, this is unbearable! Aren't you going to do anything about this spendthrift son?"

"What? Two hundred yuan?"

Li Jianshe's eyes widened instantly, as if he had heard something out of the blue. "Is this kid crazy? Two hundred yuan is our whole family's life savings for two years!"

He turned to look at Li Weimin, who was still kneeling on the ground. His previous air of wanting to be a strict father instantly crumbled, leaving only exasperation.

"Weimin, have you lost your mind? That girl from the Li family is a piece of trash Zhao Gang doesn't want! Even if she's not bad, Zhao Gang is a cadre now. If we pick up his discarded shoes, how will we ever be able to face anyone in the commune again? Where will I put my old face then?"

"Dad! What does this have to do with Zhao Gang? I just like her!"

Li Weimin scratched his head anxiously, "Besides, Xianglian has just had a hard life..."

"Shut up!" Li Jianshe roared, spitting everywhere. "Just because you're unlucky doesn't mean you can ruin the Li family! Let me tell you, as long as I, Li Jianshe, have a breath left, that woman Li Xianglian will never step foot in this door! You want to marry her? Only when I'm dead!"

Li Weimin was completely dumbfounded.

I originally thought my father was reasonable, and that as long as I talked to him nicely, he would be better than my mother, who would never give in no matter what.

Unexpectedly, the father was even more ruthless than the mother, completely blocking the way.

"Then... what should I do...?"

Li Weimin slumped to the ground, his face filled with despair. "I'm already twenty-five. Kids my age in the village are already old enough to run errands..."

Li Jianshe looked at his son's pathetic state and felt frustrated and disappointed.

He sighed, placed the black leather notebook under his arm on the millstone, took out an unopened box of Daqianmen cigarettes from his pocket, reluctantly opened it, and lit one.

"Alright, stop wailing. It's just your wife, it's not a big deal."

Li Jianshe exhaled a smoke ring, his anger subsiding somewhat, replaced by a shrewdness that suggested he had everything under control. "I've already found someone for you. I haven't had a chance to tell your mother about this yet."

Upon hearing this, Liu Xiaocui immediately perked up her ears and stopped sewing shoe soles.

Aunt Zhang also stopped eating sunflower seeds, and the two of them craned their necks to look in this direction.

"Whose is it?" Liu Xiaocui asked. "I don't want it if it's someone who's dirt poor or has health problems."

Li Jianshe flicked his cigarette ash triumphantly: "Li Xiaotao, the second daughter of the village party secretary."

"Who? Li Xiaotao? Father, if you want my life, just say so!"

Upon hearing those three words, Li Weimin's hair stood on end instantly; his reaction was even more intense than when he had just heard that he was going to marry the pockmarked woman.

He stopped lying there and, as if he had a spring under his buttocks, sprang up from the ground with a whoosh, waving his hands repeatedly and taking two steps back until his back hit the millstone.

"No! Absolutely not! That woman is a shrew! She's like Zhang Fei reincarnated in the wrong body!"

Li Weimin's cheeks throbbed with pain at the memory of that woman's fist, and his voice trembled like a leaf: "You didn't see it! Last time I ran into her at the village entrance, I just glanced at her new hair tie, and she slapped me so hard she almost knocked my teeth out! She even tried to shove my head into the pig trough! Marry her? That's not marrying a wife, that's inviting the King of Hell to worship! If I marry her, you'll be collecting my corpse in less than three days!"

Li Weimin became more and more frightened as he spoke, his mind filled with the painful images of being ridden like a horse by Li Xiaotao when he was a child. That woman had a ruthless hand, always picking on the softest parts of his body.

Liu Xiaocui was still wondering if the village secretary's house was expensive, but when she heard her son's words, her triangular eyes lit up instantly, even more so than when she saw a large commemorative plaque.

The village secretary's daughter—who would dare to hold her back when she gets things done in the village?

As for beating his son?

Let's fight then. Anyway, we've been beating this coward since he was a kid, so he's tough and resilient.

"Pah! You good-for-nothing!"

Liu Xiaocui slammed the basket on the ground, pointed at Li Weimin's nose, and started yelling, "They hit you because they think highly of you! They were just teasing you! Besides, what family doesn't have its ups and downs? Xiaotao is just straightforward and a little fierce, so what? If a woman isn't fierce, how will she support this family? How will she control you, this softie?"

She rushed over and poked Li Weimin's forehead hard, making his head bob up and down.

"Let me tell you, if this works out, it'll be like our Li family's ancestral graves are emitting auspicious smoke! The Party Secretary is your father-in-law, who will dare to bully you in the village after that? You pig-brain, can't you even figure this out? Still thinking about that barren Li Xianglian, are you trying to drive me crazy?!"

"I won't listen! I'm not marrying! You can marry me if you want!" Li Weimin covered his ears and huddled by the millstone like a frightened quail.

Li Jianshe threw the cigarette butt on the ground and crushed it out with his toe.

"You have no choice! I already mentioned the bride price to Lao Li. It's two hundred yuan, not a penny less, plus two bottles of good wine."

Li Jianshe, hands behind his back, completely disregarded his son's life or death and issued an ultimatum: "If this works out, our family will be the most prestigious in the village. Forget about Li Xianglian; if you dare mention her again, I'll break your legs! Tomorrow morning, change into clean clothes and come with me to the Party Secretary's house to deliver gifts!"