short series

Selling Condoms in the 70s: A Second Marriage to a Warm Man

share time: 2025-10-23 00:45:57

In a 1978 alley, Lin Xiaoman, a widow of three years, grit her teeth to take on the supply and marketing cooperative’s “untouchable” task—selling condoms—to save her terminally ill mother-in-law. In an era where “men and women must keep their distance” was etched into the walls, this was practically “ruining her own reputation.” As expected, she was splashed with rice-washing water on the first day, her mother-in-law’s medicine jar was smashed, and her son cried, “Classmates call my mom a bad woman.” But when she squatted at the alley entrance crying, Zhou Mingyuan, in an old military uniform, crouched down, wrapped his raincoat around her, and said, “I just came back from the army. I know this stuff saves women’s lives—you’re not bad; you’re brave enough to live.” From then on, Zhou Mingyuan became her “backbone”: helping her run production teams, standing up to gossipy aunts for her, and even exchanging three months of food stamps for a fruit candy on her birthday, saying, “I’ll stay with you to eat this every year from now on.” When everyone called her “immoral,” only this man hid her “hardships” in his arms and etched her “courage” into his heart—this second marriage, which no one favored, was determined to bloom the sweetest flower in the 1970s wind.

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