Chapter 25

She fed Niuniu a bowl of corn porridge mixed with a beaten egg, then picked up the basket of rice and dishes and headed out.
“Third Aunt, don’t worry. I’ll take good care of Niuniu and Little Brother.”
Bai Xinmei nodded. Da Ya really was a good kid. She patted at her own pocket, wanting to fish out a piece of candy for her.
Right. There was nothing. She was daydreaming.
Only after Qin Yuanzheng died did she fully realize that back when he was alive, they’d actually lived quite well: eggs and milk to drink, new clothes to wear, milk candies to suck on.
Now she could barely get a bite of meat. She admitted it, these days if she saw pork, her eyes went green, too.
Especially after Second Brother Qin had taken another bad spill half a year ago. She couldn’t very well watch him lose his leg, so she’d emptied out all the private savings and belongings that Qin Yuanzheng had left her.
Feeling awkward, she wiped her hands on the hem of her clothes to cover the fact she’d been “looking” for candy.
Looking at the two little girls in front of her, both a bit undernourished, Bai Xinmei suddenly felt a surge of fierce ambition. She had to conquer Song Jinping.
According to the storyline data the system had transmitted to her, Song Jinping’s family sent him huge packages of food every time, jerky, imported chocolate, more candies than he could count, and stacks of grain and meat coupons.
In her eyes now, Song Jinping was not just the male lead whose route she needed to clear, he was a walking granary. The last two years had absolutely schooled her about “real life”.
On the path to the fields, she ran into Liu Mazi again.
Liu Mazi’s real name was Liu Tiangui. He’d originally been a peddler from another village. As a child, he’d contracted smallpox and been left with a face full of pockmarks, so people called him Liu Mazi. He used to shoulder his pole and walk through the villages selling goods, and eventually drifted into Lotus Village.
Back then, his business had still counted as honest work, but he was lazy. Work one day, laze around for half a year. He also had a habit of beating his wife.
Eventually, he discovered that even if he stopped working altogether, he wouldn’t starve to death. That’s when he really let himself go, tricking food wherever he could and harassing every young maiden and little widow he came across.
“Little Sister-in-law, what a coincidence. We really are fated, huh. Met you yesterday, and here we are again today.”
He watched Bai Xinmei taking small, quick steps, her waist swaying just so, eyes bright and moist, her skin as white as snow, and swallowed hard. His hands rubbed together, eyes gleaming.
Bai Xinmei stared straight ahead, not deigning to look at him.
“Hey, don’t go! Say a few words to your Brother, huh?”
He reached out, wanting to grab her arm.
Bai Xinmei stopped and turned, her expression suddenly stern, like one of those disciplinarian heads of studies from school.
“Liu Mazi, do you know what the biggest difference is between us human beings and the livestock we raise at home?”
“What is it?”
Liu Mazi had been gearing up to spew more nonsense and tease her, but she’d actually stopped to ask him a serious question. For a moment, he genuinely didn’t know how to react.
“Humans are higher, upright, intelligent animals. Our brains are highly developed and capable of complex functions. Livestock is different. Take the chickens, ducks, and geese at home, look at how tiny their heads are, right?
So the biggest difference between humans and livestock is that humans have self-awareness. We know what we’re doing. Livestock doesn’t. All they do is eat and poop every day, and in the end, we humans slaughter them and turn them into food.
Such a simple truth, how do you not understand it? When you’re out there peddling, can you even explain things this clearly? Go home and self-reflect.”
Liu Mazi was so stunned by her little impromptu biology lecture that he actually started thinking it over.
After all, Bai Xinmei was once a well-educated capitalist miss; she definitely knew things the villagers didn’t.
By the time he’d finished digesting all that, she was already far down the road. That was when he finally realized,
This damned widow was calling him brainless and a toad trying to eat swan meat.
Bai Xinmei patted her chest. Luckily he’d been thrown off long enough. There had been no one on that stretch of road just now; she had been scared out of her wits.
“Stinking widow! You stop right there!”
Bai Xinmei took off running.
“Why’re you running? Huh? What are you running for?”
As a former peddler, Liu Mazi’s legs were much faster than hers.
“Liu Mazi, can you just get lost? You’re harassing a woman. Believe it or not, I’ll go report you to the commune and have you charged with hooliganism!”
Just when panic was starting to creep in, the brigade leader came along driving a bullock cart, with three men and one woman sitting in the back, well-dressed and clearly not from the village.
“Brigadier, Liu Mazi’s been harassing me on the road!”
Bai Xinmei immediately ran over and complained.
When he saw it was the brigade leader, Liu Mazi panicked a bit. If he was really nailed for “molesting a woman,” he’d be in serious trouble.
“Brigadier, you’re wronging me! I wasn’t. I was educating this problematic capitalist miss. She even jinxed her man to death, isn’t that right…”
Once again, he tried to drag out her “class background” for a beating.
So angry she could barely see straight, Bai Xinmei hurled the food basket at his face. Broth splashed all over him, making him look ridiculous, slippery, and pathetic.
The brigade leader knew exactly what kind of creature Liu Mazi was. Naturally, he sided with Bai Xinmei.
“What capitalist miss? She’s a martyr’s widow. She’s worked herself to the bone raising her daughter alone and never remarried. The Premier said it himself, this kind of woman is glorious and great.”
Being praised so righteously made Bai Xinmei feel a little sheepish. That was… a bit too much.
“Go on back. Your food’s all over the ground, you’ll have to cook another pot.”
Before she left, she took the chance while picking up the basket to deliberately step on Liu Mazi twice.
“Argh! Damn widow, jinxed her man and now she’s stepping on-”
“Liu Mazi, this is a new era. Feudal superstition is not allowed. If you keep talking like that, your fish ration this year is getting cut by two.”
Liu Mazi slunk off cursing under his breath, his mouth still filthy. He said Bai Xinmei had probably gone rolling around in the corn with the brigade leader, that’s why he always took her side.
[Beautifully done, streamer! Scum like that needs to be stomped, , gift: Nine Roses for the streamer]
[Ugh, why not just punch his lights out!]
[If they can’t have you, they’ll smear you. Man’s innate talent]
[Bro, just watch the stream. Why drag in some men vs. women nonsense? Go eat crap]
[Bootlicker, stop yapping. Get up off your knees before you talk to me.]
…
“Captain Qi, who was that female comrade just now? Her husband passed away?”
Sitting in the ox cart, the group had barely entered Lotus Village when they ran into this whole scene. The spectacle at least cheered them up a little.
“Yeah. Her man was an officer in the army and rarely came home. Later he became a martyr. She’s been raising the child alone and never remarried,” Qi Lianshan explained.
“A child? She already has a child? She looks so young… doesn’t seem like someone who’s given birth.”
Then the speaker thought better of it. Rural women often married and had kids very early.
Qi Lianshan felt these city-bred educated youths had far too many questions. What did it matter to them how old someone was when they had kids…
“Her Niuniu is already three,” he added.
He could only hope these educated youths would be as quick with their hands in the fields as they were with their mouths. Otherwise, having to carve their grain rations out of the villagers’ shares would really be a disaster.
“Couldn’t tell,” someone murmured.
“It’s pitiful, though. So young and already a widow.”
As the only female educated youth in this batch, Ming Xiaoxiao had originally been wrinkling her nose at the smell of the ox cart. After that little show on the road, however, her attention was completely diverted.
She and the male educated youth beside her started discussing Bai Xinmei.
The reason was simple: this woman was very different from the other village wives they’d seen along the way.
She wore coarse homespun clothes and two simple braids, yet her beauty was striking. Her voice was soft and gentle, like a feather brushing against the heart, nothing like those country women who shouted loud enough to be heard on the next mountain over.
Add to that the pockmarked man’s comments about her having a “bad class background”…
Ming Xiaoxiao’s curiosity only grew. She sneaked a glance at the man beside her, a handsome, refined figure in a navy Zhongshan suit.
“Comrade Song, don’t you think that female comrade must have some kind of story? Everyone’s talking, you know. If you just sit there in silence, it gets boring. Chatting will make the road feel shorter.”
She was, of course, trying to probe Song Jinping’s thoughts about Bai Xinmei, especially since she knew she herself was no great beauty, only slightly above average and relying more on “temperament” than looks.
Ming Xiaoxiao hoped that this Educated Youth Song liked women with grace and refinement, unlike those shallow men who only cared about looks.
She had asked around before, this Educated Youth Song seemed to have been sent down from the capital, and judging by his appearance, his background was anything but simple. She had no idea why someone like him would be sent to the countryside as an educated youth.
This time going down to the countryside, she didn’t know when she would ever be able to return. Her family background was nothing special, just an ordinary working-class family in the city.
She had a younger sister and a younger brother. The whole family relied on her father’s job at the paper mill. When their household was assigned a quota for going down to the countryside, she had no choice but to come.
If she really had to stay in this godforsaken place for several years, she’d be nearly thirty by the time she went back. By then, she wouldn’t be able to marry into any decent family. She might as well choose someone with a better background from among the educated youths.
As for those rough village farmers, she felt that if she married one of them and spent her entire life stuck in the countryside, she’d rather just die.
Still, she’d heard that quite a few female educated youths ended up marrying directly in the villages where they were stationed. Sigh…
Song Jinping had no interest whatsoever in the other three people’s conversation. The reason he had come here was to look after an old friend of his grandfather’s, an old revolutionary who had been labeled a “bad element” and beaten down by political movements.
He adjusted the gold-rimmed glasses perched on his high nose bridge and spoke gently:
“Educated Youth Ming, the other two educated youths and I are all male comrades. If the three of us gather together to discuss women from the village, people might think we’re acting like hooligans.”
The other two male educated youths turned pale at once. In this era, the crime of hooliganism was no joke, best case, you’d end up in detention; worst case, you’d get shot.
Ming Xiaoxiao was frightened too. “I, I, I didn’t mean it, I was just curious…”
“It’s fine. We’ll all be stationed in Lotus Village from now on. From here on out, we’re revolutionary comrades. Just be more mindful in the future.”
Educated Youth Song really was gentle, considerate, and good at calming people, Ming Xiaoxiao thought to herself.
She had no idea what Song Jinping was actually thinking. In truth, he felt that she was nothing more than a somewhat good-looking widow, he didn’t see what was so worth gossiping about. It was noisy and irritating.
But given his usual conduct, he naturally wouldn’t vent his displeasure openly and let others see it.
The rest of the journey was very quiet, especially those two male educated youths who had just been discussing Bai Xinmei with Ming Xiaoxiao. They were scared stiff, like quails, terrified someone might accuse them of hooliganism.
Sure enough, the silence was much more pleasant. Song Jinping gazed at the golden waves of wheat under the sun, lost in thought.
The information he had obtained showed that Old Master Zhao had been sent down to roughly this area. As for the specifics, he would have to inquire further.
With the current tense atmosphere in the capital, where everyone was on edge, he couldn’t afford to act rashly.