Underneath the concerned words of the elders, marriage always has a particular purpose, which is to have someone to take care of you. This was nicely said when they're persuading you to look for a partner, but once you are married, they will then urge you to have babies because that was the real retirement insurance they were investing in!
So her ultimate goal was to skip the husband and keep the child.
The most ideal was to be a stepmother and occupy the nest.
But although she wanted to be a stepmother and skip the birthing process as well, she must first survive the beatings of her loving parents. No, she also has to face an army of brothers, cousins, and nephews trying to hinder her plan. Dreading the one-sided battle, there was no choice but to scrap this idea.
Choosing a fellow villager isn't good either. If she wants a divorce, she'll be forced to compromise before she even breathes about it. If she dares to break rather than bend, a long line of aunties will schedule a day-to-day session with her to talk about life.
She can escape on the first day of the month, but can she escape on the fifteenth? After all, everyone has to meet each other almost every day and we need to leave some face.
Marrying a worker has a higher chance of ending up in divorce as they look down on country girls but the custody battle will be gruesome. A soldier is a good choice. Their current death rate was very high, and a dead man will not come back to snatch a child with her. It was very ideal but her morals weren't low enough to allow her to yearn for someone's early death.
Shen Miaomiao then turned her attention to the educated youths.
These people possessed a sense of superiority in their bones and have seen and experienced the prosperity of the world; they will always yearn to return to the city.
But they have no roots, no backers, and are easily bullied. The work in the fields can torture them into a bag of skin and bones, and if they want to survive, they will need to struggle and stabilize themselves among the locals, even if it means resorting to tricking others or dragging people.
To escape the hardship, they might offer themselves, but even so, their hearts will never take root in this backward rural land.
Thinking about the resumption of the college examination and the chaos it ensures, Shen Miaomiao knows there will be plenty of scandals at that time, including families breaking up and the abandonment of their lovers and children.
This was a safe choice.
She has been lingering around the village entrance, which has alerted people, especially the male educated youths.
Some simply hid in fear at the first hint of danger, while others paused and were undecided whether to take advantage, but lacked the guts to truly provoke this female bandit and weren't confident to get out unscathed.
These people are aware of current affairs and are either too timid or want to raise the price. Shen Miaomiao felt it was not worth taking drastic measures against them.
Before she could turn to target the educated youth next door, the newly sent-down educated youth came just in time.
Among them was Shen Xingshen.
Whether it's his beautiful feature that he can't hide under his ashen face or his scary-looking paleness that threatens to pass out, he was really conspicuous, especially when his peach blossom eyes stared at her with astonishment.
With breeze, unhurried steps, Shen Miaomiao delivered Shen Xingshen to the clinic and gestured to Doctor Gu that there was a patient.
Their village clinic was a brick and tile house with one large room for patients and two smaller rooms; one served as a warehouse, and the other was the room occupied by the village barefoot doctor.
It was also surrounded by a tall brick wall and a front yard where vegetables were planted.
"He's having a heat stroke."
Doctor Gu: "???"
He had anticipated that the new educated youths would end up in the clinic and indeed, someone came. But in his expectations, it might be accidental injuries when handling farm tools, not that they wouldn't be able to endure in just one morning.
Shen Miaomiao dragged a small bamboo chair beside the bed and fanned the poor guy.
"...Thank you."
"No problem." She smiled and adjusted her position, sitting a bit more appropriately. "Let me formally introduce myself, my name is Shen Miaomiao, 19 years old. Although I don't have a job and don't earn work points, I graduated with a high school education. My father is the brigade's old accountant and my mother is the director of the Women's Federation in the brigade. Comrade Shen Zhiqing, I hope to make friends with you."
This guy wasn't just useless looking; he's also in poor health and doesn't look like he will survive on his own.
Shen Miaomiao was happy to look forward to whether he would have the resolution to take a bite of her soft rice.
She was just beaming at finding an initial person to cheat when the guy who always averted his eyes in seconds raised his gaze and stared intently at her face.
"...??"
What? I haven't teased you yet.
"Do you have a big family?"
"Umm... I have three older brothers with a large age gap and nine nephews between them. The oldest child is 15 and the youngest is 7."
In the village, their family weren't considered a large household, but for city dwellers, that should be considered a lot of family members, right?
A glint shone in Shen Xingshen's eyes, and a curl of a smile appeared on his lips.
"I heard that the surname Shen is one of the major surnames in the brigade."
"...Yeah. At least half of the villagers are related to me."
Shen Miaomiao felt a force in her hands as Shen Xingshen took hold of them. The young man smiled softly, flashing his most behaved and innocent demeanor.
"Comrade Shen Miaomiao, I'm happy to be revolutionary partners with you. My name is Shen Xingshen. I'm 17 years old but I'll be 18 soon. I'm from the Capital. My grandfather and father are still alive. I have an older uncle and older cousins who have just been separated, a stepmother, an older brother who is married, and three younger siblings. I'm not in good health but I have a decent style and no bad habits. I can do household work and I brought all my savings."
".....???"
We're talking about friendship and you jump straight to revolutionary partners?!
"Sister, when do you think we should talk about marriage?"
"Shen Zhiqing, we can't be hasty about life-long events!"
Shen Xingshen nodded in understanding. "Then do we have to wait after the autumn harvest to set up the date?"
Shen Miaomiao was really caught off guard. These past few days, she has been looking for a pit to dig; she thought that since marriage is a pit, who says she can't be that pit? But then someone brought his own rope, tied himself up, and jumped down by himself.
Doctor Gu, who just grabbed a cold towel, "....."
Why are these kids having a blind date in the clinic?