short series

Fake Marriage Turned Real: The Peasant Girl and the Zhiqing

share time: 2026-02-02 12:35:09

In a poor mountain village in northern Anhui in 1975, Zhou Xiulian, a peasant girl, gritted her teeth and signed a "contract marriage" with Lin Weimin, a Shanghai intellectual youth (zhiqing). Lin needed the honor of "rooting in the countryside" to secure a return-to-city ticket, while Zhou needed 200 yuan as bride price to save her critically ill father. They agreed to "put on a show together," but as they lived side by side, Lin discovered the girl would make ginger tea for him on rainy nights and save eggs for half a year for his exam preparation. Zhou also found the zhiqing wasn't a spoiled young master—he would climb roofs to fix leaks and stand up for her when villagers called her a "jinx" for her father's illness. When Lin got the return-to-city notice, he rushed to Zhou with industrial coupons saved for a year: "Xiulian, I don't want to leave. I want to live with you for real." But Zhou took out the contract, crying: "You were supposed to go..."

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