Divorce!
Liu Fen actively demanded a divorce from Xia Dajun!
In those days, divorce was extremely rare, and for the usually submissive Liu Fen to bring it up—had the world turned upside down?
Those listening outside the Liu family courtyard were startled. Even Xia Xiaolan hadn’t expected her mother to be so strong-willed, let alone the three from the Xia family.
Xia Dajun wondered if he hadn’t beaten his wife recently enough, making her forget her place as his woman?!
They had walked from Dahe Village to Qijing Village, bringing along his elder sister-in-law and younger sister-in-law—three people coming to fetch the mother and daughter. That should have been enough face for Liu Fen. Though he was unhappy that she couldn’t bear a son, he had never thought of replacing her. Now here she was, saying she wouldn’t continue living with him and wanted a divorce.
“Say that again!”
Xia Dajun suddenly stood up, his iron-like muscular body as intimidating as a mountain.
“What are you doing? Trying to cause trouble in the Liu house?”
Liu Yong immediately grabbed a wooden pole nearby and stood in front of his sister. Li Fengmei ran out calling for help, “Someone’s fighting! They’re bullying our Liu family! Think Qijing Village has no one to stand up to them!”
After her initial shock, Xia Xiaolan went over and held Liu Fen’s hand.
Drawing support and courage from her daughter, Liu Fen remembered this was the Liu home, not the Xia house. She couldn’t be afraid of Xia Dajun anymore.
Even if they were at the Xia house, Liu Fen would fight to speak the truth.
“I said divorce. Dajun, I can’t live with you anymore. Let’s get divorced.”
Xia Dajun clenched his fists, trying to grab Liu Fen. Liu Yong swung his pole at him, but being smaller and weaker, he soon lost the pole to Xia Dajun. As the two men fought, Xia Xiaolan protected her mother behind her while Zhang Cui looked anxious:
“Xiaolan, tell your mother to calm down. Can’t we sit down and talk things through? Why bring up divorce so quickly? It hurts relationships!”
Xia Xiaolan remained coldly indifferent, “Then didn’t it hurt relationships when he beat my mother? Aunt, I didn’t see you trying to stop the fights then.”
Zhang Cui wanted to say, hasn’t it been the rule since ancient times that women get beaten?
Li Fengmei had returned with villagers who separated Xia Dajun and Liu Yong. Some of Liu Yong’s friends secretly kicked Xia Dajun a few times.
“What’s this? Coming to our village to throw your weight around?”
“Kill the dog! Men who beat their wives have no balls, and he dares to fight Brother Yong!”
“Coming here looking for trouble, think Qijing Village has no one to stand up to you!”
No one knew exactly what Li Fengmei had told them, but the villagers grew increasingly angry and collectively beat Xia Dajun. Two fists couldn’t fight eight hands—Xia Dajun was beaten to the ground. Liu Fen gripped her daughter’s hand tightly, realizing that the man who had terrified her wasn’t invincible after all. Xia Dajun might raise his fists at home, but outside he was a coward.
“Stop, all of you!”
A man in his sixties walked into the Liu house with his hands behind his back.
Several villagers held Xia Dajun down, preventing him from moving.
“Uncle Da is here.”
“Uncle Da, this Xia fellow is worthless.”
“Quiet, Uncle Da surely has a plan.”
Uncle Da was Chen Wangda, Qijing Village’s chief. Chen was also a major surname in Qijing Village, and Chen Wangda had been village chief for many years, commanding great respect. He had served in the military in his youth, and though he hadn’t achieved any great feats, he was a genuine revolutionary veteran. Though he was content being a small village chief in Qijing Village, who knew what positions his old war comrades now held?
Chen Wangda was well-known not just in Qijing Village, but also at the township and county levels.
He had even been elected as a county people’s representative. When Liu Yong was still wasting his days away, he hadn’t dared to be too unruly in front of Chen Wangda.
“Uncle Da, you’re here. Please sit.”
Liu Yong offered Chen Wangda the seat of honor, and Chen Wangda accepted without ceremony. After sitting down, he looked at Liu Fen:
“Though your family is outsiders who came here as refugees and don’t belong to my Chen family ancestral hall, you’ve lived in Qijing Village for decades, making you people of Qijing Village. With your parents gone, I’ll presume to act as an elder and make this decision for you today. Liu Fen, tells Uncle Da, do you want to divorce your husband?”
Liu Yong wrung his hands, his eyes reddening.
The village hadn’t treated them as outsiders—they had received their share of land distributions and benefits. Now that Chen Wangda was stepping up for Liu Fen, Liu Yong was grateful.
So was Liu Fen.
By rights, having been married away for twenty years and not bearing the Chen surname, Chen Wangda could have completely ignored the matter.
“Uncle Da, I do want a divorce. Please be our witness.”
Chen Wangda nodded, “I’ll only handle this once. If you regret it someday, I’ll be happy to see you reconcile and live happily as husband and wife again, but I won’t step in to help a second time. Liu Yong, get paper, pen, and ink. We’ll draw up the agreement today.”
Pinned to the ground, Xia Dajun shouted angrily, “I don’t agree! She married into our Xia family—living or dead, she belongs to the Xia family. She’s my wife!”
Zhang Cui and Wang Jingui hadn’t expected things to turn out this way. They weren’t familiar with Qijing Village’s situation, but Chen Wangda’s demeanor showed he wasn’t someone to be trifled with. They had come to persuade Liu Fen and her daughter to return, how had it turned into talk of divorce?
“Xiaolan, quickly persuade your mother. She’s just angry right now. How can a woman live after divorce? Her household registration is still in Dahe Village, and neither of you has any land in Qijing Village.”
How could farmers live without land?
Zhang Cui wasn’t concerned about Liu Fen and Xia Xiaolan—she just didn’t want them to escape control.
Chen Wangda didn’t even lift his eyelids, “Transferring their household registration back isn’t difficult. You’re quite concerned for your former sister-in-law but don’t worry. Once their registration is transferred back, Qijing Village will naturally allocate land to mother and daughter.”
Even though Xia Xiaolan didn’t care about a small plot of land and had no plans to stay in the village long-term, she was grateful for Chen Wangda’s words.
He was standing up for them.
Looking at the villagers holding Xia Dajun down and those watching from the courtyard, when Chen Wangda said he would allocate land to Liu Fen and her daughter, surely not everyone was willing, but no one immediately objected. Chen Wangda’s authority was high, and Qijing Village’s people knew they needed to present a united front to support Liu Fen and her daughter at this moment—they couldn’t let the side down!
Xia Xiaolan didn’t need to say anything—once Chen Wangda stepped in, the matter was as good as settled.
“Someone comes to write the agreement.”
A young man stepped forward from the onlookers. Xia Xiaolan knew him—Chen Qing, the village chief’s grandson and a high school student in the village. Chen Qing would blush whenever he saw Xia Xiaolan, but now he stood straight-faced, appearing quite scholarly.
This was no joke—in a rural village in 1983, a high school graduate was considered educated. Chen Qing had failed the college entrance exam this year and would return to school to study after helping with farm work. High school graduates weren’t assigned jobs; Chen Qing only had two options: continue studying for college or return to become a farmer.
Chen Wangda dictated while Chen Qing wrote.
The agreement was made in triplicate, similar to modern divorce agreements, though Liu Fen and Xia Dajun only had two broken-down rooms and no real property to divide. Xia Xiaolan didn’t need to choose whom to follow—she was eighteen, and no one could control her.
Zhang Cui kept trying to persuade them, but Liu Fen remained unmoved.
When Xia Dajun refused to sign and fingerprint, Chen Wangda didn’t care whether he was willing—he had people grab Xia Dajun’s hand and press it onto the paper.
Liu Fen took the agreement, looked at Xia Xiaolan, and then at her brother and sister-in-law. No one objected.
Without even glancing at Xia Dajun, she dipped her thumb in red ink and firmly pressed two fingerprints.
Chen Wangda stuffed one copy at Zhang Cui, “This is your family’s copy. One stays with Liu Fen, and I’ll personally file the third copy at the county civil affairs bureau. If you have no other business, you can get lost.”