Rebirth begins with an arranged marriage

Chapter 1 Marriage Swap

"Erwa, don't go to school tomorrow. Our family is going to arrange a marriage between you."

Tang Huaiyi, who was swallowing a bowl of cornmeal, was taken aback and looked up from the chipped bowl of rough porcelain at the other side of the table.

What's going on?

After transmigrating from the city like a beast of burden, I've finally gotten used to my twenty-year-old body and my identity as a high school senior after summer vacation. I'm ready to put all my effort into studying, pass the college entrance exam in this era, come back to the city to live a good life, and finally get a stable job and never be a beast of burden again...

I managed to get used to the hardships of cornmeal porridge, steamed buns, and a bare house, so why am I suddenly not allowed to go to school?

"What's going on? Why won't they let me go to school? What kind of marriage is this?"

As Tang Huaiyi spoke, he looked at everyone around the table.

After finishing his meal, Father Tang Zhengjin was slowly rolling up some shredded tobacco leaves on a piece of paper to make himself a cigarette. Mother Wang Lanhua, who had just spoken, was pressing a rough porcelain bowl to her lips as if the rim of the bowl were a scraper, scraping off the bits of corn porridge from her lips and then licking the rim of the bowl clean, not wanting to waste a single drop.

Upon hearing Tang Huaiyi's words, Wang Lanhua licked the last bit of corn porridge from her bowl clean: "Why do you think that is?"

"Your brother is so old, and he still can't settle down."

"Now that someone has finally taken a liking to you, Erwa, you should go and become a live-in son-in-law. Your brother can get married, and you can get married too. Suddenly you're both settled down, and the family won't have any worries anymore. Isn't that great?"

Tang Huaiyi pointed to himself in astonishment: "Me, a live-in bride? My brother is marrying me?"

"So, this is how it works—a marriage exchange?"

He then turned to look at his elder brother, Tang Huai-ren.

Tang Huai-ren looked away, then quickly lowered his head and remained silent.

The third brother, Tang Huaili, and the youngest sister, Tang Xiaoli, also stared in astonishment at their parents, eldest brother, and second eldest brother, not knowing what to say for a moment.

The square table was small, and with a half-brick foot supporting its limp leg, the family of six could barely sit down. The grandparents had to sit separately at a high table inside the house.

This tall table serves as an offering table during the Mid-Autumn Festival and Spring Festival, while my grandparents usually sit on either side of it to rest and eat.

Now, on the high table, besides corn porridge and cornbread, there is a half-eaten salted egg—a "good dish" that no one else in the family has. Grandpa is using chopsticks to pick up the salted egg bit by bit and eats it. He has already eaten it for three meals, and only half of the salted egg has been eaten. The remaining half can probably last for more than a day.

Listening to Tang Huaiyi's conversation with his mother, Grandma put down her bowl, sighed, and couldn't eat.

"Sigh, if our family weren't so poor, we wouldn't have let our children marry into another family... There's no other way. One goes in and one goes out, so at least they both have a way out."

Grandpa put down his chopsticks, picked up his old pipe, touched it, and then put it back on the table without smoking it.

"Huaiyi, are you willing or not?"

His wrinkled, tree-bark-like old face, though his old eyes were not yet clouded, looked at Tang Huaiyi in front of the low table and asked.

Tang Huaiyi didn't hesitate: "Grandpa, I don't want to."

"What? Why are you being so disobedient?"

Wang Lanhua, the mother, grew impatient: "It's good enough that they've taken a liking to you! If you miss this opportunity, not only will your older brother not find a wife, but you won't find one either!"

The father, Tang Zhengjin, also frowned, put the rolled tobacco to his lips, took out a match, rubbed it hard on the shoe to light it.

Smoke immediately filled the room.

After taking a drag of his cigarette, he said, "Erwa, your mother and I have discussed it. We have to do this. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

Tang Huaiyi shook his head again: "Father, Mother, I won't do this."

"I need to take the college entrance exam."

"What the hell are you taking the test for!" Tang Zhengjin wasn't one to patiently reason with people. He stood up, cursing, and went to the door to grab a broom. As parents, they had said everything they needed to say: if a child is disobedient, then they should be punished.

Seeing that a beating was about to be served, Tang Huaiyi immediately grabbed his bowl, stood up from the low table, and hid behind his grandparents, saying, "Dad, don't do it yet! Let's talk this out!"

"If you lay a hand on me today, I won't be able to go through with the arranged marriage now, since I haven't even been properly informed!"

Grandma reached out and shielded him behind her: "Eldest son, don't rush to fight. First, explain things to Huaiyi."

Seeing his mother protecting him, Tang Zhengjin didn't dare to step forward and pull them apart. Holding a broom in one hand and a cigarette between the other, he pointed at Tang Huaiyi and said, "Tell me, what don't you understand? Don't you know how poor our family is?"

"How did you manage to get through high school? Your older brother stopped going to school after finishing elementary school and learning to read. You had to beg and plead to get him to continue until now, even having the teacher come to our house to talk to you. That's how you got to the second year of high school. Do you even know how much money that cost you each year?"

"What's the big deal about studying for another year? Is it more important than getting married and starting a family?"

As he spoke, Tang Zhengjin's tone became heavy. He threw down the broom, and with a sense of annoyance and frustration, he lowered his head and smoked.

Tang Huaiyi immediately said, "Dad, if I study for another year, I can get into university. Once I get into university, I'll receive a stipend, and after graduation, I'll be able to find a job in the city—"

"Second child!"

"Why can't you understand?" exclaimed Wang Lanhua, the mother.

"If our family still had any savings to support you, we would never let you drop out of school and go to that girl's house."

"We only have enough food left at home to barely survive, we have nothing else; don't even talk about how great it would be if you got into university, what if you didn't? We wouldn't be able to afford to support you for your entire senior year of high school!"

Tang Huaiyi was stunned: He really didn't expect that his family, which looked so poor, was in such dire straits—they couldn't even afford to support their son's senior year of high school, so they had to send one of their sons to be married off to another family in exchange for a marriage to settle things quickly.

In my past life, I always portrayed myself as a poor, destitute animal online, but I never imagined that I would be so poor that I couldn't even afford to go to school.

"Why is our family so poor?" he couldn't help but ask.

"Too many people and too little land..." Tang Zhengjin replied in a muffled voice. "Now the commune and production team are gone. Every household pays grain tax based on the amount of land they own and levies based on the number of people they have."

"Our family is large, and the land we contracted is in a remote area. The harvest is not as good as that of Jia Laoyi and his family. After a year of farming, there is not much left. This year, we have some expenses at home. Erwa, there is really no way you can continue your studies."

"Where do you spend money?" Before Tang Huaiyi could even ask, his younger sister Tang Xiaoli asked curiously.

Tang Zhengjin waved his hand: "That's not something you should be asking. Hurry up and eat!"

"Erwa, don't go to school tomorrow. Come with me to Lijia Gou to visit the girl's family."

Tang Huaiyi stepped out from behind his grandmother's outstretched arms: "Dad, I don't think this is a solution—if we keep getting poorer and poorer, how long will we stay poor? If we don't go to school and move to the city, our family will be farming for generations!"

"What's wrong with farming? Everything you eat and drink comes from farming."

Tang Zhengjin said impatiently, "Erwa, don't get cocky just because you've had a couple of sips of ink. We farmers should just settle down and farm, it's all fate."

So you've just accepted your fate?

This logic doesn't seem to hold water.

Tang Huaiyi thought for a moment, looked at his family in the dim light, and said, "Father, Mother, why don't you let me try it myself first?"

"Can I figure out how to take care of my food, drink, and schooling myself, so I won't be a burden on my family?"