Zhao Wu's wife

Author: Adapted by: Wang Su | Illustrations by: Fan Yixin / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-08-01
Features: Zhao Wusao was originally the daughter of a poor farmer. She was born in a rural area in northern Jiangsu and lost her parents at a young age. She worked alongside her older brother and sister-in-law, enduring a hard life of eating bran and coarse grain. At the age of nineteen, she married a man named Zhao, who was the fifth child in his family, and from then on, people called her Zhao Wusao. Zhao Wuguo was a strong and capable farmer, and the couple shared a deep bond. Zhao Wuguo also had no parents and had worked as a cowherd and long-term laborer for a landlord since childhood. After marrying Zhao Wusao, he returned home to rent a few acres of land to farm. That year, a drought struck, resulting in no harvest. Unable to pay rent, the landlord took back the land, and both husband and wife were forced to work as laborers to settle the debt.
This landlord was wealthy and powerful, acting like a local tyrant in the area. Zhao Wuguo and Wusao suffered immense torment at his hands. Wusao was already eight months pregnant, yet the cruel landlord’s wife forced her to carry a millstone and grind grain. Due to the harsh pressure of the rough millstone on her abdomen, her child was born prematurely. Three or four days after giving birth, Wusao not only had no rice to chew but was even denied a glass of water by the landlord’s wife. With no milk to feed her child, the baby quickly starved to death. Wusao cried until her tears ran dry, holding her dead child. Zhao Wuguo’s heart broke into pieces. He knew the child had died at the hands of the landlord and could no longer bear the hatred. Suddenly, he took the child from Wusao’s arms and went to confront the landlord.
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