I Went Rural Seven Years for Husband, He Secretly Remarried

01

The day my husband, Bob Stephens, got his notice for the rural labor assignment, he vanished.

My mother-in-law and I searched every street and alley in the city, and still there was no word of him.

In the end, I had no choice but to go in his place, seven years at remote Millstone Village.

In those seven years, I suffered more hardship than I can count.

Harassed by dirty old men. Bullied by the other assigned workers.

But on the day I came home, I saw Bob with a stylish woman on his arm, her hair done up in curls, smiling and waving to the neighbors.

Only then did I understand that he had married me for one reason only, to dodge the assignment.

I didn't cry and I didn't make a scene. I turned and went straight to the police station.

I slapped the crumpled marriage certificate down on the desk. "Officer, I'm here to report my husband. He's committed a misconduct charge!"

1

I was an orphan, raised on the charity of whoever would feed me.

The day I married Bob Stephens, I thought I'd stumbled into the greatest luck of my life.

He was a city family's son, fair-skinned and educated.

And unlike the other city people, he didn't look down on me.

But the day his notice for the rural labor assignment came, he disappeared.

My mother-in-law and I searched the city end to end.

We went to the chess club he liked, to his friends' homes, even down to the riverbank outside town.

We never found a trace of him.

I knew he'd been pampered his whole life and couldn't stomach the hardship of the assignment.

His sudden disappearance had to be his way of ducking it.

So when the district office came knocking, I took on the task that should have been his.

I picked up a cloth bundle and went off to the remote Millstone Village.

That was seven years ago.

In those seven years, I suffered more than I can count.

I gnawed on tree bark. I was harassed by the old bachelor in the village.

But I gritted my teeth and got through all of it.

Because I held on to one belief.

Bob hadn't minded that I was an orphan. He'd been willing to marry me.

Everything I gave up for him was worth it.

But I never imagined...

The day I came home with my return notice in hand, I saw the one thing that killed every hope I had.