(The Woman Who Told History – No. 1814)
Filial piety comes first. Honoring parents and elders has always been an excellent tradition of the Chinese nation. This point cannot be compared with western countries. In the West, in many countries, parents raise their children until they are 18 years old, so their children have no obligation to support their parents when they grow up. Therefore, compared with China, their "family affection" is relatively thin. In China, there are two aspects of family affection, one is that even after the children reach the age of 18, their parents still have to manage, worry about your work, worry about marriage, and worry about your children; on the other hand, after the parents are old, the children must support their parents and thank their parents, that is, filial piety.
However, in real life, some unfilial sons smear our "filial piety" culture and do some strange things. The example in this article is typical: an old lady has 5 sons, but she was hungry for feed, and in 2009, when she was 82 years old, she starved to death at home! In the end, her sons were sued in court, but when they were sentenced, they were not satisfied.
(1) Difficult years
In 1927, Chai Yuji was born into a wealthy family in Jixian County, Tianjin. In the turbulent times of the time, she grew up safely under the protection of her family. By 1944, the 17-year-old Chai Yuji had become a beautiful big girl. Like many progressive youth of her time, she did not satisfy the warmth of her small family, but chose the revolutionary path. That year she met a young revolutionary, Xiao Cheng, who worked at a newspaper office owned by the Eighth Route Army.
At that time, the girls were very simple, and when they met like-minded people, they expressed their chests. If you love him, you will marry him, and Chai Yuji and Xiao Cheng will soon get married. Xiao Cheng is engaged in intelligence work, and although this line does not go to the battlefield with guns, the risk is still very large. Therefore, Chai Yuji really did not have a few days of stability with Xiao Cheng. The Japanese were on the verge of rout, but they were not dead-hearted, and their agents were constantly making trouble, so much so that our intelligence personnel were often in danger. Chai Yuji followed her husband all day worrying.
In order to escape the enemy's search, the couple kept moving. The year after their marriage, their son was born, and Chai Yuji hid in Tibet with his son in his arms. One night, the family of three hid in a broken temple to avoid the enemy's pursuit. The temple was dark and cold, and Chai Yuji was behind the idol in the black room, enduring hunger and taking his poor son in his arms to feed, while worrying about his son crying. Later, I thought that such a day was really miserable...
After several years of suffering, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, Chai Yuji lived a stable life, and he followed her husband to Zhang Xinzhuang Village in Beijing's Tongzhou District to settle down. After the eldest son Cheng Yimin, Chai Yuji gave birth to the second eldest Cheng Yitian, the third Cheng Yiping, the fourth Cheng Yishi and the younger son, a total of five sons.
According to traditional logic, many children and many blessings, Chai Yuji and her husband should have a good life in the future. But in fact, having many children is not necessarily blessed. When the country was founded, everyone's life was not good, and it was even more difficult for children to live more. Being able to pull the five sons up, Chai Yuji and her husband suffered a lot.
In order to fill the stomachs of several children, Chai Yuji even opened up the wilderness; in her spare time, she also carried the basket up the mountain to dig up medicinal herbs to sell money to supplement the family.
During the three-year famine, Chai Yuji suffered greatly. At that time, many rural areas had starved people, and her sons survived smoothly, which was really not easy. She often divides a nest into several portions and gives them to each child, even if she does not eat a bite. One year, Chinese New Year's Eve, there was really nothing good to eat at home, so she shyly borrowed a handful of tofu residue from the neighbor and made a Chinese New Year's Eve meal for the children.
Chai Yuji remembers that once her husband returned half a bag of sweet potatoes from the production team, and as soon as they fell to the ground, the children rushed over, grabbed the sweet potatoes, did not wash them, and swallowed them with the soil. That year, it was really sad to think about, she had always felt that she owed too much to the children.
Chai Yuji's life was very bumpy. In addition to being tired, his husband Lao Cheng also has a problem, with a bad temper and a tendency to domestic violence. At home, he didn't work as much as his wife, and if Chai Yuji didn't do a good job, he would punch and kick her. Chai Yuji had the heart to divorce Lao Cheng, but thinking about this big pile of dolls, it was too pitiful, so he had to endure it. She thought that when the children grew up, maybe they would be able to enjoy a few years of happiness.
Later, after the fight between the two families, no matter what, the life gradually improved, and the family's house was built. But as the sons grew up, one by one they had to marry their daughters-in-law, and Chai Yuji and her husband began to worry about the marriage of their sons...
Life is so cruel, waiting for the sons to start a family one by one, Chai Yuji and Lao Cheng have really become the old two - becoming hunched over, waist and legs are sore, can not do heavy work, according to the logic of many children and blessings, they should enjoy the blessings of their children and grandchildren. However, the reality is so punched in the face...
(b) an agreement
Chai Yuji and her husband Lao Cheng worked hard all their lives and built five houses for their family. After several sons are married and start a family, of course, they can't live together, from the eldest to the fourth, they are separated, start another stove, and live their own small lives. Only the fifth remained in the old house and lived with his parents. This phenomenon is very common in the countryside, there are many brothers, after the separation, generally one should be kept in the family. It's called a win-win. On the one hand, the elderly are convenient for their sons to take care of, on the other hand, the elderly can also show their sons children.
But there are still problems. There are many sons, and there are many troubles. On March 14, 1982, Lao Cheng called his sons to a meeting, and he said: "I am old, maybe that day when the two eyes are closed and their feet are pedaled, they will go to see the King of Yan." While I'm still alive, I'll divide up my family first. Save me the death, you rip the calves of these broken houses! ”
When the sons heard about the separation of the family, they all agreed, but sooner or later anyway.
So Lao Cheng took out the agreement drawn up in advance for everyone to see. It is clearly written above. There are 5 houses in the family, so that the old five bought these 5 houses, each according to 500 yuan, a total of 2500 yuan. Then, the parents' maintenance obligation belongs only to the fifth. To put it bluntly, these five houses originally belonged to the 5 brothers, but now all of them have been bought out by the old five, and the old five have divided the money to buy the house to the four brothers.
This is also fair, the eldest two old three old four each got 500 yuan, took away a part of their own real estate, and then they were exempted from the obligation to support the elderly, the four brothers also fell into a stop, as for the 500 yuan to take advantage of the loss, it does not matter. They are all their own brothers, who is with whom? Besides, this is Daddy's idea, everyone is not in contention, so-so IT is OK, and everyone will sign it.
So everyone continued to live in peace, and the years were quiet. Chai Yuji and Lao Cheng and lao cheng lived with their younger son Lao Wu, or the old fifth followed the old two mouths to eat mixed rice, all the same. The fifth is still filial piety, and the daughter-in-law is also filial piety, so the family's old and young life is still good. Chai Yuji was also comfortable in his heart, and he could still live a good life for a few days when he was old.
However, the weather is unpredictable. Within a few years, Lao Cheng fell seriously ill and really left the family to go west. It seems that the old man still had the foresight to know that he would not live forever, so he made a contract in advance so that the sons would not have infighting over the matter of dividing the inheritance. Sure enough, after the old man died, there was no unhappiness in the family, and everyone still lived their own days, and the wind and waves were calm. The fifth elder and his daughter-in-law are still filial piety, and Chai Yuji continues to be quiet for many years.
However, the sky is not the limit. Chai Yuji's years did not last much, and something happened to his family again.
(c) Another agreement
In 2007, the fifth son who lived with the elderly Chai Yuji was alcohol poisoned and suddenly died!
As Chai Yuji's youngest son, her most beloved son, the unfortunate death of lao wu, made the 80-year-old lady very sad. On the other hand, among her five sons, the fifth is also the most filial, otherwise she and her wife would not have chosen to live with the younger son. Now that the old fifth is gone, it also makes the old man himself fall into a daze, where will he go? Continue to live with the old fifth daughter-in-law? Will she continue to be filial to herself? Will she remarry? She remarried, what should she do?
This is still a difficult problem. First of all, the third elder set an example, he first took his mother to his home to take care of a period of time, but Chai Yuji was not used to it, and insisted on returning to the old house where he had lived for decades and lived with the wife and children of the fifth elder.
Fortunately, the old fifth daughter-in-law is still virtuous, and has no intention of remarrying for the time being, as always, to the mother-in-law. However, it was not long before misfortune came again. On November 3, 2007, Chai Yuji accidentally fell off the sofa while watching TV at home. Old people have brittle bones, and falling is not a joke. She had a fractured hip and was admitted to the hospital.
When the old lady is fine, everyone is fine. Once the old lady has an accident, everyone will be in trouble. During Chai Yuji's hospitalization, the four brothers were in a big fight because of the medical expenses, and no one wanted to pay this "unjust money", no one wanted to take more, and everyone thought that they had suffered losses. In less than ten days, the old man was transferred three times, from a hospital with good conditions to a hospital with poor conditions.
On December 6, 2007, Chai Yuji was discharged home from the hospital after his injuries did not improve. At this time, her legs could not walk normally at all, and her eyesight was very poor, she suffered from cataracts, and she could not take care of herself. She felt that she could not just let the old fifth daughter-in-law suffer alone, because it would not be fair, and the other sons should also take care of her.
This is very normal, after all, the fifth elder is his own brother, he is gone, the children are still our Cheng family, their orphans and widows are also quite pitiful. So the four brothers discussed countermeasures together. The second agreement was born, the Rules and Regulations on the Maintenance of mothers. The agreement is roughly as follows:
First, the old man belongs to the four brothers, and each person (takes care of) three months a year, starting from the eldest;
Second, when the shift is handed over, all the documents of the mother are handed over with the old man, and in whose class, the mother is solely responsible for all things, and there must be no mistakes.
Second, the elderly have a disease, in whose class who is responsible, medical treatment and hospitalization must be hospitalized in the designated hospital within the scope of cooperative medical treatment, the procedures are complete, beyond this range, the consequences are at their own risk.
Fourth, in whose class the mother is in, others are not allowed to go to the class of the person concerned to make trouble, spread rumors, make things up, make things up out of nothing, and fabricate facts...
Fifth, the handover time is 8:00 a.m.
Sixth, at the time of handover, all the documents of the mother should be handed over with the elderly, if the documents are incomplete, the successor has the right not to accept...
Although the narrative is somewhat inappropriate, and the mother seems to be a kind of property, an object, it is fair, and if it is really fulfilled, it is also good.
But there was one problem that ultimately affected the implementation of this agreement. Or because of property issues. It is said that Chai Yuji's husband Lao Cheng had solved the real estate problem when he was alive, but the unexpected death of Lao Wu disturbed the problem again. Because in China, the status of women is very delicate, and the husband is there, it is the same; once the husband is gone, her situation will change.
After the death of the fifth elder, although the daughter-in-law did not remarry and was still supporting her mother-in-law, the Cheng brothers began to covet the old house left by their father. The reason is that at this time and another time, with the acceleration of the development and construction of Tongzhou, the house price has risen sharply, and the house of the old house is not the original 500 yuan per room.
The second and fourth elders first attacked, proposing to redistribute the old house and redefine the ownership of the property. To put it bluntly, I want to divide the points again. Of course, Mother Chai Yuji objected, the fifth elder is dead, but the daughter-in-law and children are still there; besides, your father is dead, I am not dead yet.
That makes sense. So the eldest and the third elder expressed their agreement with their mother's opinion and opposed the proposal of the second and fourth elders: You are not taking advantage of the fire to rob and bully people, orphans and widows! The second and fourth elders also felt that they were in a loss and did not have seizures for the time being. But the hidden dangers have been buried.
September 14, 2008, is the day of the handover. Handover of what? Mother. According to the agreement, the elderly Chai Yuji was handed over from the third to the fourth. When the fourth elder picked up his mother, he took the opportunity to propose that the real estate deed of the old house should be handed over at the same time, that is, it would be kept by his fourth elder. It should be pointed out here that Chai Yuji's wife neglected one thing when she was alive, that is, she did not transfer the old house to the fifth son, so that although according to the agreement, the ownership of the old house belongs to the fifth son, but there is one less procedure, and the name of Chai Yuji is still on the real estate deed. This is a bit subtle, which provides an opportunity for the fourth and second elders to play Lai.
At this time, the fourth elder proposed to keep the real estate certificate himself, and the third elder, who had not agreed to re-divide the old house, refused. The fourth elder touched a nose of ash and took his mother away very unhappily.
A few days later, the third elder went to visit his mother at the fourth house after work, and found that his mother was eating very hard with a bowl. He looked closer, where his mother was eating rice, it was a bowl of black feed! The old man actually ate feed, which shows how hungry the mother was. So he was furious, and with the bowl he went to question the fourth elder.
The angry old third also took the bowl of feed out of the old house and went to the village committee to file a complaint. Soon, the story of "the fourth elder of the Cheng family feeding the old woman feed" spread throughout the village. At that time, there was a fierce quarrel between the third and fourth elders, and the contradictions between the two quickly escalated.
(4) When a handover accident occurs
After Chai Yuji lived in the old fourth family for 3 months, on December 14, 2008, it was the handover day again, and it was the turn of the boss to take over. Previously, every handover day, the brothers would quarrel over the property problems of the old house. This time is even more excessive, the fourth elder handed over to the boss, in addition to the mother, there is also a "house sale consent form" that he and the second brother have prepared in advance, and he wants the eldest brother to sign the consent form to sell the old house under the mother's name.
How does this work? The boss took out the look of the boss, before everyone said ok, the house belongs to the fifth old, why not abide by the contract? He was adamantly opposed to signature. At that time, the second elder was also present, and the second elder was a violent temper, so he came up on the ground and moved his hands on the boss.
The second hand was not light or heavy, and directly beat the boss to lie down.
The boss was admitted to the hospital. Now things are in trouble. Because he took over his mother on the next shift, as soon as he entered the hospital, her mother was suspended. The eldest daughter-in-law did not want to care, and the second brother felt that there was no turn for him, and he was unwilling to take it. As a result, the village committee intervened to mediate: and so on, and the second elder picked it up.
Originally, the second eldest beat the boss to the hospital, and he was in a loss, and since the village committee came forward, he did not shirk it any longer and took his mother away.
Three months later, on March 14, 2009, the second class was full and the third was picked up. Something went wrong. Because the second and third brothers are not in harmony - their four brothers are basically the second and fourth camps, they advocate the redistribution of the old house; the eldest and the third camp, advocate maintaining the original agreement. Therefore, the second brother did not want to notify the third elder of the handover (of course, the third did not take the initiative to hand over the mother), but let the village committee notify the third elder.
However, the village committee did not notify the third elder on time this time. It is also said that the notice arrived, and the third did not go to hand over. The reason is that the third elder believes that the second brother beat the boss into the hospital, and he actually replaced the boss in the past 3 months, so the next 3 months should still be the second brother taking care of the mother. In other words, the boss was discharged from the hospital, and the boss should make up for his class, and should not hand over himself anyway. The third did not go to pick up his mother.
But on the second side, he thought that his task was completed, and he couldn't wait for the third elder to hand over, so he left his mother directly in the old mansion, locked the door, and flashed. At that time, the old fifth daughter-in-law was not at home, and may have returned to her mother's house with her children (or it may be the intention of remarrying, which is not much to say), and there is no one in the family.
After the poor old lady was sent to the old house, she was alone and unattended, she had limited mobility, her eyes could not see, and there was nothing to eat in the house, so something went wrong.
(5) Mother and child are imprisoned
After 25 days. On April 9, 2009, Xiao Cheng (Chai Yuji's youngest grandson) came to the old mansion to see if the old house leaked rain and whether there was any need to repair it. When he entered the door, he found Grandma asleep. Strangely, chai yuji was not in bed at that time, and Xiao Cheng found her grandmother lying under the bed, with a mattress under her and a quilt on her body. When he called Grandma, Chai Yuji did not answer. It turned out that she had long since lost her breath!
Xiao Cheng was frightened and rushed to inform his family. When the four brothers arrived, they did not know how their mother died, so they sent her body to the autopsy.
April 16, 2009. When the four Cheng brothers were waiting in front of the forensic autopsy room, the forensic doctor suddenly rushed out and shouted, "Your mother is starving to death!" ”
The four brothers were horrified!
The autopsy reported that Chai Yuji had not seen any fatal disease, which should have been the result of severe malnutrition leading to multi-organ failure. Because the body had already been found to have decomposed, my mother had starved to death more than half a month earlier.
The forensic doctor said that when the old man Chai Yuji died, the stomach wall was as thin as paper, which was the consequence of the massive secretion of stomach acid when he was hungry, that is, it was certain that the old man was starved to death.
In fact, when the four brothers of the Cheng family rushed to their mother's house that day, they found that the house was very messy, there was no electricity in the room, there were some candle marks on the table, and there were a lot of toilet paper thrown on the floor. Apparently, Chai Yuji had struggled before he died. There was no food in the house, she was old and dizzy, looking for food everywhere, and finally did not find it, and was starved to death!
The news of Chai Yuji's starvation soon spread throughout the village, and everyone sighed. Some villagers said that in mid-March, he heard Chai Yuji shouting bitterly at home: "Oh wife! You're gone, no one cares about me!" But at that time, he didn't care too much, thinking that Chai Yuji had four sons, maybe the old man was nagging or something.
What is even more poignant is that when Chai Yuji's body was found, there was a group photo of the whole family next to her, and before she died, she may still be holding the whole family and crying...
The death of the old man Chai Yuji caused public indignation among the villagers, and everyone sued the four Cheng brothers in court. In 2010, the Tongzhou District People's Procuratorate in Beijing indicted several of the elderly's sons.
On April 24, the court handed down a verdict against the Cheng brothers. The court held that the elderly, two and three elders were responsible for the starvation of their mother, and they all constituted the crime of abandonment against the elderly. But the elder Cheng Yitian (62 years old) was the most responsible, and they did not wait for the handover to succeed, so they abandoned their mother and were sentenced to three years in prison.
The elder Cheng Yimin (64 years old) recovered in his health two months after he was beaten, and he should bear the responsibility of supporting his mother, but he ignored his mother after three months of supporting his mother. As the boss, he could not escape the blame, which also constituted the crime of abandonment, and was sentenced to two and a half years in prison.
The elder Sancheng Yiping (60 years old) ignored the matter of the handover of maintenance, neglected to perform the maintenance obligation, and was sentenced to two years' imprisonment.
The fourth elder was not held responsible because there was no turn for the fourth elder to take over at the time of the crime, and the court held that the mother's starvation death was not directly related to the fourth elder.
The three brothers disagreed with the verdict, arguing that it was unfair. The eldest and the third camp, they believe that the death of the mother, the second and fourth elders are more responsible, and vice versa. They all appealed. On July 6, 2010, the court dismissed the appeal and the three brothers went to jail.
(6) Death is not blind
However, incredibly, the sons went to prison, and the old man Chai Yuji was still dead.
Chai Yuji has not been buried, and her body has been left alone in the Tongzhou Funeral Home without cremation. Because the third son, Cheng Yiping, never signed the cremation book of his mother's body. He suspected that his mother was not starved to death, but was murdered by the conspiracy of the second and fourth elders. If cremated, no evidence will be found.
By the time the three brothers were released from prison, Chai Yuji had been dead for more than four years. On September 9, 2013, the eldest and the third elder filed a complaint with the court, saying that the fourth elder should also be legally responsible for his mother's death.
Before the trial, the village committee tried to mediate the contradictions between the brothers, but the three brothers quarreled incessantly, and the eldest and the third accused the fourth elder of harming his mother; the fourth elder was not convinced, saying that the elder third came to make trouble because he was not mentally unbalanced in prison. The three bayonets were red, and I saw them in court.
In the end, the court rejected the complaints of the eldest and third elders on the grounds that there was "insufficient evidence". So all the dust settled, and the third elder finally signed the cremation book of his mother's body. It took 4 and a half years after the poor old man's death to finally close his eyes and settle down.
It is said that there are many children and many blessings, raising children and preventing old age, it seems that it is not necessarily reliable. May everyone take this as a warning, be grateful to your parents, and accumulate some blessings for yourself. Everyone will be old. If you do not honor your parents now, your children will certainly not honor you in the future. Because the power of example is infinite, how you treat your elderly and your children will treat you in the future.
(Text/Woman Who Told History, Mao Xue)