Zhou Zhijun started off walking with large strides, but soon his walking turned into a run.
Chuntao's head drooped against his back, bouncing with his every step. The jolting made her dizzy and disoriented, draining away what little strength she had left to struggle.
In her daze, she was gently set down. A quilt was spread out on the ground, soft underneath as if padded with wheat straw. At one end of the quilt lay Zhou Zhijun's faded military greatcoat.
Afraid that the hard ground would chafe Chuntao's delicate skin, Zhou Zhijun had prepared this makeshift bed just this evening.
Before Chuntao could recover from her panic, the man's tall, scorching hot body pressed down, completely enveloping her petite frame.
It was incredibly dim inside the brick kiln; she could only make out the blurry outline of the man.
...
A gust of cold wind blew in through a hole in the brick kiln, and the rustling sound of the wheat straw gradually died down.
Holding her face in both hands, Zhou Zhijun looked at her with burning eyes. "Leave with me! Let's go live our own life!"
Chuntao seemed to snap awake. She raised her aching, weak hands to push him away, tears welling up in her eyes. "No... I can't leave!"
Recalling the words Wang Lanhua had said to her during the New Year, her voice choked with sobs. "If I leave, what will happen to my brother? My sister-in-law won't stay with him... My grandma is getting old; she won't be able to handle the shock..."
The bitterness in her heart surged up, and she couldn't help but weep softly.
"Please, don't do this to me anymore, okay? Just let me have a few days of peace. This is my fate, and I have to accept it..."
She knew that refusing to accept her fate wouldn't change anything. Should she go and die like Wang Chouni? It wasn't that she hadn't thought about it; she had thought about it many times, but she never had the courage to take that final step.
Whether people called her weak or foolish, it seemed she was destined to live her whole life for others...
"Tao, why are you so silly?" Zhou Zhijun's voice was filled with heartache. "They only tie you down like this because they see you are soft-hearted. If you leave with me, your sister-in-law might not necessarily divorce your brother..."
"Stop talking, I'm not leaving!" Chuntao interrupted him.
Zhou Zhijun knew she wouldn't be able to wrap her head around this anytime soon.
Deep down, he hoped she would get pregnant; maybe then she would be willing to leave with him.
But he wasn't entirely sure. Chuntao had a stubborn temper. If she really did get pregnant, she might just do something drastic.
Zhou Zhijun's heart was torn between contradiction and inner turmoil. Fortunately, the previous few times had been safe. This time, he had specifically brought something, so he finally didn't have to worry about it anymore.
Before the New Year, while going to the holiday market, he had made a trip to the health clinic.
The doctor told him that the clinic was no longer responsible for distributing them. The supplies had been allocated to the production brigade headquarters in each village, and if he needed them, he had to go to the Women's Director to get them.
According to the policy, women who were not allowed to have more children were taken to the commune to have their tubes tied, so they didn't need them at all. And those who met the family planning requirements needed them even less.
Zhou Zhijun figured the Women's Director must have hoarded quite a lot.
He was on duty on New Year's Eve and had the key to the brigade headquarters. Taking advantage of the empty building, he unlocked the door and rummaged around, actually managing to find a whole box.
He quickly stuffed the pockets of his padded jacket and trousers full, hid them in the cabinet in his inner room, and even bought a padlock specifically to lock them up.
When he left the house today, he shoved a few into his pocket.
"Tao, don't cry, I won't force you..." Zhou Zhijun reached out his rough, large hand and gently wiped the tears from her face.
He fished a piece of candy out of his pocket, peeled off the wrapper, and popped it into her mouth. "Have a sweet, it'll make you feel better!"
The apple-flavored fruit candy spread traces of sweetness across her tongue, but it couldn't suppress the bitterness in Chuntao's heart.
Zhou Zhijun wrapped her tightly in the military greatcoat, his arms around her, refusing to let go. Every time he was with her, time flew by so fast.
He wanted to just hold her like this forever, never to be separated, but fulfilling that wish was simply too difficult.
After quite a while, Zhou Zhijun finally let go. He carefully helped her put her clothes back on, untied her messy braids, used his rough fingers to comb her long hair smooth, and clumsily re-braided it for her.
The braid was crooked and uneven, but his earnest and gentle movements made Chuntao's nose sting and her eyes burn with unshed tears.
No one would ever imagine that an unsmiling, serious man like Zhou Zhijun would actually braid a woman's hair.
"Tao!" He picked her up from the ground.
Suddenly, he smashed his fist fiercely against the wall of the brick kiln. A shallow dent was left in the wall, and blood seeped from his knuckles, but he acted as if he didn't feel the slightest pain.
He bent down to put her shoes on, wrapped the military greatcoat tighter around her, and carried her on his back as he walked out.
On this early spring night, when the warmth had barely returned, the outside air was biting cold. But wrapped up by Zhou Zhijun, Chuntao felt toasty and warm.
However, she was afraid of being seen by villagers getting up in the night, and even more afraid of running into Xiaohong and the others returning from watching TV, so she struggled to get down.
"I'll walk by myself, you go back to the kiln to get the quilt!"
"I'll carry you home first, then come back for it!"
Zhou Zhijun refused to let her go, and Chuntao stopped struggling, only hoping to get home as quickly as possible.
As they reached the threshing floor at the north of the village, they suddenly saw the beam of a flashlight shining toward them from the north...
