Depois de renascer, eu conquistei minha cunhada mais velha

Summer of 2000.

In the outskirts where city and countryside met in East Ping District of River City, inside a house hastily built of red brick and sheets of iron.

Lu Fan was sitting across from a young woman. Between them stood a small tea table, and on it lay a black plastic bag.

The woman was in her thirties or forties. She was plainly beautiful, yet at the corners of her eyes lay crow’s feet that seemed far too old for her age. At that moment, her expression carried a trace of humiliation.

“Auntie, I know Uncle is bedridden right now and urgently needs a lot of money for surgery. I also know you are arranging your eldest daughter’s marriage and hoping to make up the sum through the bride price.”

“Now I’ve brought the money. What are you hesitating for?”

As he spoke, Lu Fan tapped the black plastic bag with his hand.

“Before I came, I also asked around. The families you’ve been arranging for your eldest daughter include one surnamed Zhang in town who sells meat, one man working as a carpenter with a construction crew in the city, and one clerk from the district government here in East Ping.”

“Among them, even the youngest is nearly thirty. Some are even divorced, and all of them are more than ten years older than your eldest daughter. If she marries into any of those families, she won’t have much in common with them.”

“I’m only seventeen this year, about the same age as your daughter. My father is the deputy chief of the street police station in Changle County, and my mother is the head of personnel at the county te