Tin Maung Myint - Myaw

Introduction

As soon as spring came, "Ling Kaung" returned to the village of Ganphyu. He wanted to divorce his wife, "Che Yu " . Even when he arrived at the Gujia Township Court, Che Yu changed his mind. Year after year, it had been the same for a long time. He went to the city once a year. He had to return with the original marriage contract.

This time, Lin Kaung brought a letter that would help with the divorce. It was a letter of recommendation from the officials at the Muji Hospital. He was a military doctor at the Muji Hospital. He comforted his beloved teacher, “Mana,” with the belief that this time the matter would be resolved.

As an officer, I was entitled to twelve days of leave per year. If I subtracted the cost of a train and a car to get back and forth to the village, I would only have ten days to spend in Ganphyu.

Once, when I returned home, I thought that the matter would be resolved immediately, but even after seven days of returning to the village, it was still the same. It was hard to start talking to the woman. How could it be? No matter how much I tried to talk, not a single word came out.

Their mud-brick house is over twenty years old. It has a thatched roof. It has three square windows (). It faces south. The window frames are painted blue. Lin is drying the moldy books in the sun. She is not interested in the books. She does not know how to take care of them. Now, these books are of no use to Lin. She thinks of giving them to her children.

The sound of chickens fighting with each other in the yard. - The sound of ducks cawing. The young chickens were running around and playing in the yard. In the backyard, the bean plants and the pumpkins were growing on the terrace, and the eggplants were rubbing against the eggplants in the rows on the ground. The lettuce plants were straight and green.

In addition to the chickens and ducks, Shuyu also raised two pigs. And a dairy goat. Their droppings were fertilizer for the plants. They could no longer smell them. She could no longer smell the smell of the kitchen where Xueyu was cooking. The shade of the trees from the neighboring houses covered their yard. She could hear the barking of dogs from the neighbors.

After putting the books aside, Lin walked over to the front fence. The fence was about three feet high. The thorns were neatly trimmed. In Lin's hand was a Russian dictionary with broken corners. It was the same book he had had in high school.

With nothing else to do, Lin sat down on the millstone and flipped through the dictionary in his hand. Well, he remembered it pretty well. He could even form sentences. But he couldn't write it grammatically right, so he closed the book and put it on his lap. The pages fluttered in the breeze.

In the distance, I saw villagers planting potatoes in the fields. With their own labor and their own shovels. At one end of the field, a red flag was raised. The goal they had to reach that day.

Dr. Lin was impressed by the view. However, he was not familiar with agriculture. He had left Shaanxi and come to Gujia when he was in the tenth grade. He was sixteen years old at that time.

A bullock cart loaded with grain was driving on the road. The hind leg of the cow pulling the cart was stuck. I saw two girls sitting on the cart, almost completely buried in the grain. One of them was her daughter. The two girls were singing happily. The driver of the bullock cart was an old man in a hat, with a cigarette in his mouth. The bullock cart was driven briskly, hitting the back of the bullock with a whip. The cart's wheels were clanking on the rough road.

At the gate, the cart stopped. Hua pushed down a large, bulging sack of sandalwood and jumped off the cart.

"Thank you, Uncle Yang," he shouted to the cart driver and then to his plump companion, the girl.

"See you in the evening, huh?"

Then he shook the wheat off his body with his hand. The cart driver and the little girl smiled at Lin. They didn't say anything. Lin didn't really remember the old man. They also stopped the girl. Lin noticed that according to village custom, they didn't impregnate him. He also wondered if it was because he was wearing a military uniform.

Lin got down from the mill and asked the maid.

"What's that big bag, girl?"

"Mulberry trees"

"To feed the worms?"

" Yes"

Hua was eager to talk to her father. In the backyard, he had three giant baskets full of worms.

"Is the bag heavy?"

"No, it's not heavy."

"Give it to me, Dad will carry it."

Lin waited for her to say something before entering the house. But the little girl didn't say anything special, just said, "Okay." She took the big bag with both hands and put it on her shoulder. She glanced at her father with wide eyes and walked to the back of the house. Lin noticed that Hua's arms were sunburned. The sun had come out. She could work in the garden now.

The way my daughter looked at my father was a bit cold. Well , I think she was trying to divorce her mother because she knew 'Hmm'. Yes, yes, yes. I haven't talked about that year yet. Seeing her daughter being cold made Lin feel uncomfortable. When she was young, she loved her father very much. When my father came back, we used to play together and have fun. As she got older, she gradually became colder. | Does he really hate me? Lin thought uncomfortably. Well, she is already a young girl. Soon she will be married and have her own. She doesn't need an old man like me. F. Lin is a mature person for her age. .

Although he was over forty, he was still as lively as a young man. He was a handsome man with a straight nose and a thin face. He wore glasses, making him look dignified. It was obvious that he was an educated man. His wife, Chey Yu, was different from him, small and slender, like an old woman. Her thin, slender arms were wide open in the sleeves of her shirt. The worst thing was that Chey Yu was short-legged. Although she had beautiful eyes, her lips were hollow, making her look ugly. No matter how you looked at it, they couldn't keep up.

After dinner, Lin asked the woman.

" Let's talk about divorce, Shuyu."

Hua had gone out with his friends to study. He was studying for the entrance exam to Harbin Commercial College.

"Say it."

As usual, Yu replied coolly.

"Are you going to the city tomorrow?"

"Go"

"Well, will you change your mind when you get there? This time you: I'll have to be patient."

The old man was quiet. They had never quarreled, and the rich man was a woman who would do anything a man could do.

"Yu Ye, you know, I want to live in a house with a pot in the camp. It's not easy to live alone anymore, and I'm not young anymore."

"Xu Yu nodded. He didn't say anything.

"If the judge asks this time, I'll say yes, right?"

"Yes"

The room fell silent. Lin continued to read a newspaper, tapping the table with her fingers.

Xu Yu is sewing a dress for her daughter. Two cockroaches are flying around the 25-light bulb hanging from the ceiling made of cardboard. The shadow of the hanging light cord on the whitewashed wall is visible. A smooth mat is spread on the brick bed. On the mat, three pillows that look like giant loaves of bread are placed, two quilts folded. Frogs can be heard croaking from the pond in the south of the village. Crickets are also chirping. The bell rings from the production office. It is a meeting of the members of the common house.

In 1962, Lin was only twenty-one years old when he entered Shenyang Medical College. One summer day, he received a letter from his father. He said that his mother was ill and that he could not return home because he was working full-time on the farm owned by the commune. His father wanted to marry Lin off. He was in a situation where he could not afford to have a daughter-in-law to take care of his wife. Finally, Lin agreed to help his father find a daughter-in-law.

The village elders arranged for the eldest daughter of the Lias family to be betrothed. The family had moved to Ganphyu Village from the Lokou River. The groom was a doctor or an officer after school (the bride’s parents did not ask for any material or financial support). Lin’s parents sent Lin a black and white photo of Chey Yu. Lin agreed, as he was a simple villager. Chey Yu was twenty-six years old at the time. He was a year younger than Lin.

That winter, Lin returned to the village. He had never seen his future wife in person. Lin was disappointed. Xu Yu looked like a woman in her forties. Her face was already lined. The worst thing was that her legs, her little feet, were only four inches long. Lin had already told her father and mother to break off the engagement. Lin could not accept the girl. However, according to village customs, it was impossible to break it off.

My father said with a stern face. "It's more important to be useful to the house than to be handsome," my mother agreed. "

"You can't find a girl with such a kind heart anywhere, son. If you agree, my mother will be happy."

Everything was planned, so Lin gave up. However, it was impossible to take her to the hospital where she worked. Therefore, even after twenty years of marriage, Che Yu had never been to the city where her husband worked.

It has been seventeen years since the birth of their daughter, Hua. They no longer live as husband and wife. When they return to Sha, they sleep in the same bed. Because they had married without love, Lin could not love the woman. He did not hate her either. He treated her like a sister.

Now Lin's parents have passed away. Her son has also graduated from middle school and is preparing to enter a trade school. Lin feels that his mother and father are becoming independent and no longer need his support. It is time to start a new life and build a house. In any case, it is time to get out of this unhappy marriage.

The next morning, the couple came to Gujia to buy a tractor for the rice mill owned by the village community center. Chey Yu's brother, Hin Si, also came with them. The three of them sat on the tractor's half-trailer. Bin Si, the tractor driver from the village production battalion, dropped them off at the courthouse. Since it was a small courthouse, there were very few cases of divorce between husband and wife.

When the judge arrived, he usually preached reunification rather than divorce. The judge was in his fifties, wearing a police uniform. When he saw the two of them, he frowned, shook his head, and whispered, "Oh... they're here again." He called a policewoman from a distance to take notes. As everyone took their seats, Lin walked over to the judge to give him the letter of support he had brought.

When the court formalities were completed, the judge asked Lin to speak about the case.

Lin began to speak.

"Your Honor, there is no love, affection, or desire between us anymore. We have not lived together as husband and wife for seventeen years. During that entire time, I have been fulfilling my duties to my wife..."

The judge interrupted Lin and said, "Let's be brief. You wrote that you are filing for divorce by mutual consent, but your affidavit is written for you alone. Will your wife also file for divorce?"

"That's not true, sir, I'm applying."

The judge had already dismissed the case, and he already knew that Dr. Lin Kaung had a girlfriend at Muji Hospital. So he didn't ask any further questions and turned to Yu.

"Is what you said true? " Shuyu nodded and replied softly.

"Yes"

"Is it true that you and your husband haven't lived together for seventeen years?"