northernbook Chapter 214 Parents Who Prefer Sons to Daughters 1
Chapter 214 Parents Who Prefer Sons to Daughters 1
Jiang Qing, the only girl and the youngest in the Jiang family, has five older brothers. However, she is not the heroine of a sweet romance novel; she is simply a product of the patriarchal society of that era.
She was born in 1958 in Gala Village, a poor and backward village.
Her parents were genuine farmers who were illiterate. Influenced by the older generation, people's thinking at that time was still relatively backward. They believed that only boys could carry on the family line and continue the bloodline, while girls were considered a financial loss after marriage.
Unfortunately, Jiang Qing was the one who lost money.
Despite having five older brothers, and despite being obedient and sensible since childhood, in her parents' eyes, she was still the kind of person who, when she grew up, would be someone else's daughter-in-law and a money-loser.
Influenced by her parents' words and deeds, her older brothers never treated her as a sister. She was just a servant in the family, the lowest of the low.
She tried her best to please everyone in the family. She only hoped that her parents would give her a little bit of the love they gave to her brothers, and that her brothers would stand up for her when she was bullied, just like other brothers do.
Unfortunately, no one cared about her needs. Because of her diligence, her parents would only give her more work to do, and her brothers would only find pleasure in bullying her. After all, she was the only girl in the family, so she deserved to be isolated.
Even if her brothers were bad at school, they were still boys, and their mother would chase after them and spank them, but they still had to go to school. As for Jiang Qing, no matter how good she was at studying, she could only stay at home and help out.
Whenever she questioned her mother, "Why do you treat me and my brothers so differently? Am I not your biological child?"
Her mother would always grab whatever was at hand and throw it at her, whether it was a stone or a stool, and even if it made her bleed profusely, she showed no pity whatsoever.
She could only yell angrily, "You brat, what do you have to compare with your brothers? They are the ones who can carry on the family line and continue the Jiang family's ancestral worship. What can you do? Once you grow up and get married, you'll belong to someone else's family. Raising you is worse than raising a pig. You stupid thing, get up and get to work. You won't get to eat until you finish."
The father, meanwhile, was tapping his pipe on the side, looking completely unconcerned about the farce between the mother and daughter. Anyone who annoyed him would be grabbed and beaten. In his eyes, no one was more important than himself than his son.
In the winter of 1968, her older brothers were being mischievous. They disliked Jiang Qing for being dirty all the time, looking like a little beggar. So they stripped her naked and threw her into the ice hole where they used to fish in the winter, saying they were going to give her a good wash.
Several people stood on the ice, watching Jiang Qing struggle with amusement. No matter how much she begged, they ignored her until she stopped breathing.
The little girl was as thin as a little monkey, her whole body was black and purple from the cold. Even though her little hands kept grabbing the ice, her brothers kicked her back into the water again and again.
At that moment, she wanted to live, no matter how much her parents disliked her or how much her brothers hated her.
She wanted to make her parents regret their actions and to repay her brothers for the humiliation they had caused her, bit by bit. Her hatred materialized at that moment; all she wanted was to live and go back to take revenge on everyone.
Unfortunately, reality doesn't offer so many miracles, and the little girl remained forever in the ice cave.
She was still a child, and her older brother was already of marriageable age. Even if the other brothers were immature, he should have been.
But he didn't. Instead, he was the first to suggest throwing Jiang Qing down. They were all teenagers. Didn't they understand that people could die?
Maybe they understand, maybe they don't, it doesn't matter anymore. They just wanted to add this significant achievement to their rebellious and ignorant youth.
It wasn't until they saw that Jiang Qing was no longer moving or struggling that they realized what was happening and hurriedly picked up their younger sister. Unfortunately, it was too late to save her.
Realizing they had caused trouble, the group panicked and threw Jiang Qing back into the ice cave. They then hurriedly ran home.
"What are you doing? What are you doing? You little brats, all soaking wet, where have you been playing in the water again? In the middle of winter, you'll freeze to death."
When the mother saw her sons return in a panic, each of them looking anxious and shivering from the cold, she was busy finding clothes for them and heating up the kang (a heated brick bed) to make sure they didn't catch a cold.
The group silently changed out of their wet clothes and huddled on the kang (heated brick bed) without saying a word. Although their bodies had warmed up, they were still trembling. It would be a lie to say they weren't scared; if they were discovered, they'd be in for a beating.
After the mother finished tidying up, she saw that the children were still trembling. When she touched them, they shrank back like frightened birds. She realized that something might have happened. After all, these children had been naughty since they were young, and stealing chickens and dogs was a common occurrence for them.
After leaving the room and closing the door, she checked to make sure no one was eavesdropping, then returned to her brothers' room and began questioning them: "What's wrong? What happened? Did you get into trouble again? Boss, tell me."
The eldest son lowered his head and remained silent. The other children were also quiet. The mother was furious and knew that things might be serious, so she grabbed her youngest son and started hitting him.
The youngest child, the fifth, couldn't withstand his mother's beatings and scoldings. Finally, he spoke up: "Mother, please stop hitting me, Mother. My little sister, it's my little sister! My little sister fell into an ice hole and drowned! Waaah, it has nothing to do with me, it has nothing to do with me!"
Upon hearing the fifth son's words, his mother's first reaction was not to grieve over her youngest daughter's death, but rather to guess that it was probably the boys who did it, since they usually liked to bully their younger sister.
"Oh, you damned boys..." The mother was about to yell and scold the boys, but then she fell silent, as if she had thought of something.
She glared at her brothers, then turned and went out to find the child's father. She didn't care which icy hole her youngest daughter was still in.
With such a big incident, she naturally had to call the head of the household back to take charge. When her father returned and learned about the cause and effect, he didn't say much.
He only said one sentence: "Remember, no matter who asks in the future, your little sister went out to play by herself and fell into the ice hole by herself. None of you saw it, and no one knows anything about it."
Everyone nodded hurriedly. They were terrified and knew they wouldn't talk about the mistakes they had made.
And so, none of the seven family members took the youngest daughter's death seriously. When outsiders asked, they only said that she was unlucky and had no good fortune. She fell into an ice hole in the dead of winter. Who could she blame?