"I didn't buy white rice, only a bag of brown rice. Everything I hunted today was traded in town for those things; there's nothing left. If your wife wants to eat, I'll go up the mountain again tomorrow. Also, from now on, you should come up the mountain with me. You're about to be a father. You've been learning to hunt for years; it's time you knew how."
Hearing his brother tell him to go hunting in the mountains, Van Tu knew full well how arduous hunting was.
Instantly, his face fell, and he wore a pained expression:
"Eldest brother, my skills…"
His younger brother had been frail since childhood, always doted on by their parents.
And now, after he had built a house and arranged a marriage for him, Van Tu wanted to work even less?
He thought about how he would have a wife and children in the future.
Once he had a wife and children, he would have to provide for them. He couldn't possibly support his brother's entire family every day, could he?
In an instant, Van Dai's face darkened as well:
"If your wife is pregnant this time, you'll be a father. If you don't work hard yourself, how will you raise your child? It's settled then. From now on, you'll come up the mountain with me. You raise your own child! I'm tired. We'll talk tomorrow if there's anything else!"
Van Tu was six years younger than his brother. Since they were young, his eldest brother had shouldered the family's burdens, so he had no concept of providing for a family.
Hearing his brother speak like this, he felt very reluctant.
He especially felt that his brother was speaking strangely tonight; he had never been so decisive before.
Had something happened?
Previously, whenever he asked, his brother would give him at least a little something. But today, he was being so unaccommodating?
Van Tu felt very uneasy, but he also knew his brother's temper had always been fiery. He was hot-headed, loud-voiced, and incredibly strong; no man in the village dared to provoke him.
Therefore, although Van Tu felt resentful, he could only stare at the closed door and leave in silence.
However, before leaving, he quietly observed the dilapidated courtyard gate of his brother's house.
Why was he so strange today?
After looking a few times, Van Tu thought to himself, forget it. Do all men without wives have something wrong with their heads? Maybe his brother was just too repressed, and it was messing with his mind.
Whatever, I should hurry back and hold my wife. Maybe I can make a baby tonight!
Van Dai carried the lamp back inside. Only after hearing the footsteps outside fade away did he take off his clothes and get back on the platform bed.
The woman on the bed had not yet woken, but her small face had turned slightly pink.
Van Dai reached out and touched her forehead: "Even though it's hot, you were soaked in the river for a long time. You haven't caught a cold, have you? Hmm? Isn't this a little too warm?"
He wasn't sure if the woman was truly sick. He had clearly picked up a sleeping wife; he couldn't let her die of illness. He knew there were no good doctors in this mountain village.
Thinking of the doctor from down the mountain who had come to treat his mother a few years ago, Van Dai pulled back his hand and pressed his own forehead against Quynh's:
"Thank goodness, thank goodness. If you had really died from sickness, my joy would have been for nothing!"
His heart pounded like a drum, and a single thought filled his mind:
"From now on, you are my wife, and you must bear me a child! I don't care where you came from. Once you bear my child, you will be my woman…"
Yes! I must make her have my child! Only then will she be unable to leave!
The thought flared up like a fire, scorching Van Dai's reason. He bent down, intending to make the woman his through his actions.
At that very moment, the unconscious Thu Quynh suddenly awoke. Opening her eyes to see an unfamiliar man's face right next to hers, she screamed in terror:
"Ah… who are you? Get away…"
Her scream startled Van Dai. His first reflex was to clamp a hand over her mouth, his heart hammering. He absolutely could not let the villagers hear. If they knew he had found a woman, that bunch of bachelors would definitely come to cause trouble!
With her mouth covered, Thu Quynh grew even more frightened. She struggled fiercely, tears streaming down her face. Seeing the hot tears roll down her cheeks and feeling the terrified trembling of the body beneath his hands, the brutish impulse in Van Dai's heart suddenly cooled.
What was he doing? He was scaring her to death.
He froze, his hand over her mouth involuntarily loosening. He wanted a wife, but not like this.
In the very moment he was still stunned, a knock came at the door again...
Damn it!
Why would someone come at a time like this?
For a moment, Van Dai had the urge to kill!
"Who is it? It's pitch black outside, what do you want with me?"
Outside, Tran Hung often came to Dai's house to call for him, but he had never heard such an angry tone of voice:
"Dai, it's me, Hung."
What kind of friend comes running over when it's pitch black to ruin his good fortune?
"What is it? I'm asleep!"
Tran Hung saw the light was still on in the house and knocked on the door, "Thump, thump." "Dai, I came to get you for a drink! Tru just got back from down the mountain and brought a jug of wine. He told me to come get you!"
Normally, Van Dai would have rushed out long ago.
After all, the long nights were hard to sleep through. With roasted peanuts to go with the wine, he could drink two large bowls, come home, douse himself with a ladle of cold water, and sleep soundly until morning.
But now, on his bed, there was something far more tempting than wine. How could Van Dai possibly be in the mood for a drink?
He wouldn't be interested even if it were ginseng soup!
"Just tell him I'm tired today. I'm not going. Next time!"
Tran Hung felt something was strange. His friend was a bachelor; every time he was called, he would answer and come running out immediately.
Besides, there was wine to drink, and he was saying sleep was better?
What had happened to him?