Chapter 29

“Lan Hua, what are you planning to buy at the town’s supply and marketing cooperative?”
Hao Jianguo asked casually. Recently, Wang Lanhua’s attitude toward him seemed unchanged, still warm and flattering, but he felt something was different.
He couldn’t pinpoint it, but his intuition was always accurate. Growing up, it had helped him avoid many troubles.
His father was a director at the textile factory, his mother a women’s representative. He technically didn’t need to go down to the countryside, but… that woman had gotten pregnant behind his back, clearly trying to extort their family.
They had agreed to just date, no marriage. Yet she, a “black category” girl, wanted to marry into their family through the child, ridiculous.
Though she caused a near scandal, his father eventually settled it. To lay low, he came down to the countryside. His mother was from a poor rural background.
The village women were dark-skinned, strong, and masculine-looking, quite off-putting. Life was tough.
So when he saw Wang Lanhua, a hunter’s daughter, fair-skinned, delicate features, city-girl caliber, he was immediately interested. Her family had been poor farmers for three generations but of decent standing. Her brother worked in a meat factory. Not entirely matching him, but acceptable. That nasty woman had ruined his reputation, so a compatible match was hard to find.
Village girls had little worldly knowledge. He sent Wang Lanhua foreign chocolates and books to ensure she focused on him before he could bring her to the city.
Recently, she had changed. Maybe a fever had kept her in bed for two days, and now she was acting differently. He hadn’t done anything, not even medicine, he had to use connections to get it.
Could her brother Wang Shuisheng in the city have heard something…?
Hearing Hao Jianguo feign concern, Wang Lanhua lowered her eyes, hiding her fury. Sitting on the back of the bicycle, she held his sleeve, feigning shyness.
“I’m just going to the cooperative to buy some New Year goods. I could have walked, it’s just a few li.”
“Really trouble for you, Jianguo. You’re so good to Lan Hua,” she bit her lip.
Hao Jianguo thought: Since heaven gave me Wang Changlan a second chance, do you think you can live carefree like last time?
When Bai Xinmei and Li Zhaodi arrived at the cooperative, most of the good stuff was gone. Using the pastry coupons, they couldn’t get the peach cookies. They bought six pounds of pork, one pound of sugar, and six taels of sesame oil.
On the way back to Lotus Village, Li Zhaodi chattered, then did something that shocked Bai Xinmei.
She dipped a finger into the sugar jar, scooped some crystalline sugar, and popped it into her mouth, savoring it. Sweetness filled her heart.
Bai Xinmei: !!!
Seeing Bai Xinmei’s shocked eyes, Li Zhaodi thought she wanted some too. She dipped another finger in, signaling: I’m not hogging it.
Bai Xinmei, terrified, quickly refused, worried Li Zhaodi would shove the sugar-covered finger into her mouth. Li Zhaodi had just touched all the livestock’s rear ends that morning, without washing…
[Shocked. Gross, but in this era of scarcity, understandable…]
[The streamer is disgusted.]
[Sister-in-law’s actually pretty good.]
“Sister-in-law, why aren’t you eating?”
“Uh, this… I had too much this morning, not hungry.”
Bai Xinmei stepped back, hands raised to refuse.
“Who says? This is delicious! Once we get home, Mom will immediately lock it in the cabinet.”
Bai Xinmei resisted. Seeing Li Zhaodi about to bring her finger close, she grabbed her wrist seriously: “Sister-in-law, you eat. You’ve worked hard today.”
“I know you were once a wealthy lady, used to delicacies, naturally looking down on this sugar. But now Yuanzheng is gone, wanting good things isn’t so easy.”
After being turned down several times, Li Zhaodi’s mouth started working again, her tone turning sour and snarky.
That little episode had frightened Bai Xinmei enough to break out in a cold sweat. Before the Bai family fell, she’d been extremely particular about cleanliness. Even after coming to Lotus Village she’d already lowered her standards a lot, but she still couldn’t accept Eldest Sister-in-law’s kind of “goodwill.”
The evening breeze was gentle as the two sisters-in-law walked along the muddy road, chatting and laughing. It wasn’t quite so tiring or boring that way.
Near the fork in the road back to the village, Bai Xinmei ran into someone she knew,
Song Jinping, whom she hadn’t seen in quite a while.
He was carrying several parcels of all shapes and sizes, his arms full. It had to be a batch his family had mailed from home.
Bai Xinmei’s gaze fixed on those parcels. A spark lit up in her beautiful eyes as she thought of the plot summary, beef jerky, milk candy, chocolate, cured meats… Her mouth almost watered.
Heaven knew it wasn’t that she wasn’t greedy. Even someone raised on abalone and bear’s paw, if you made her eat thin gruel and pickles for three straight years, would start craving again.
With that thought, she decided to thicken her skin. Lifting her hand, she waved brightly at him.
“Song Jinping! What a coincidence!”
On his side, Song Jinping had just been agonising over how to haul this pile of things back and thinking maybe he really should buy a bicycle… when that familiar, pleasant female voice drifted over.
Again.
His first instinct was to turn and run.
He didn’t know what exactly he was trying to escape, only that, on some instinctive level, he felt he couldn’t just let things keep developing like this.
Bai Xinmei stuffed the two jin of pork she was carrying into Li Zhaodi’s arms and shot her a meaningful look. Though Eldest Sister-in-law’s brain usually lagged, at this moment she suddenly understood perfectly.
Little Sister wanted to see what benefits she could squeeze out of that Song Jinping with his arms full of parcels.
If little sister got something good, she’d definitely share. She’d been staring earlier and had clearly spotted it: one of those parcels was round and bulging. Definitely packed with food.
This little sister-in-law looked soft, delicate and spoiled, easy to bully, but over the years, Li Zhaodi had discovered that among everyone in the household and the village, she did the least work. Even Da Ya did more than she did.
But when it came time to divvy up food, everyone pitied that delicate body of hers, so the tastiest bits always got saved for her. She knew how to line her own pockets.
Li Zhaodi had tried to learn, but every time she tried, it somehow fell flat. She could never figure out why.
As for whether Little Sister was being fair to Third Brother or not, well, Third had been dead for years. There wasn’t even a corpse… With people about to starve to death, who still had the energy to worry about him?
If Little Sister shared some of the spoils later, she’d keep her mouth shut when they got home. If not… well, she’d use what she’d seen as leverage. As expected, she, Li Zhaodi, really was smart.
Bai Xinmei lifted her face in a bright springtime smile and bent down to pick up one of the parcels Song Jinping had dropped.
“Song Jinping, your parcel fell. You’ve got too many, you can’t carry them all, let me help you.”
Song Jinping shifted his grip and took the bundle she handed over. A fine sheen of sweat clung to his fair, handsome face. It was obvious he really was struggling a bit. The parcels weren’t exactly heavy, just too many, taking up too much space. After a while he had to stop and adjust his hold.
Before this, he’d already written home telling them not to send so much. Life in the countryside was hard, yes, but being close to the masses like this was the best way to learn what the people truly needed. Understanding conditions at the grassroots level would be a great help to his future career.
But the old lady at home worried he’d suffer out here. So she’d stuffed the boxes full and sent them off. When he picked them up he hadn’t even looked inside properly. He had no idea what they’d sent.
He didn’t need to know what was inside.
Bai Xinmei had already caught the scent of beef jerky and cured pork, laced with spice. In that instant, she felt like a beggar who’d been fleeing famine for years.
If circumstances allowed, she would’ve liked nothing better than to snatch the lot and run.
No, no, she corrected herself. She believed Song Jinping was surely a man who liked to share.
“This…”
Hearing her offer to carry some parcels, something warm flickered in Song Jinping’s chest. He couldn’t say why.
He should have refused her outright. The best thing would’ve been to avoid getting entangled with this widow at all. But faced with the hopeful light in her eyes and that bright, vivid face…
He hesitated.
He hesitated, there was hope.
The moment she saw it, Bai Xinmei pressed her advantage.
“We all live in the same village. We’re all comrades, like brothers and sisters. It’s only right we help each other out. Besides, Niuniu ate so many milk candies from you last time. I haven’t even properly thanked you yet.”
“I…”
“Are you worried people in the village will gossip? I know… I know I’m a widow…”
Her voice dropped a little. “I really just mean to help if I can. My eldest sister-in-law is right here too, see? No one’s going to think we’re sneaking around as some lone man and lonely woman.”
Seeing that he still wasn’t moving, she assumed he was looking down on her. The bright radiance on her face dimmed. Her eyes filled with aggrieved resignation, a kind of forced self-consolation, as if she’d grown used to being treated this way.
Something in Song Jinping softened.
He’d already behaved irrationally multiple times because of this widow. But when he thought about it, none of this was her fault. She hadn’t chosen to be born with a “bad class status.” She hadn’t chosen to have her husband die early. What did any of that have to do with her?
He, Song Jinping, wasn’t some bumpkin peasant who believed in superstitious nonsense about “husband-killing girl.”
If he sympathised with her and did a few things that went beyond common sense… that was understandable.
After talking himself around like this, his brain short-circuited again.
“Even if it is a lone man and a lonely woman, it doesn’t matter,” he said.
What did that mean?
Dragged back from her fantasies about beef jerky, Bai Xinmei blinked. “Ah?”
Realising what he’d just said, Song Jinping flushed for the first time in his life. He hurried to explain:
“I mean, I walk upright and sit straight. I don’t have to care about other people’s filthy thoughts or hurtful words. Comrade Bai, you’re just lending me a hand. Our relationship is perfectly proper and aboveboard.”
“Oh, I understand. I won’t misunderstand. Our relationship is perfectly proper and aboveboard, and if the villagers get the wrong idea, Eldest Sister-in-law can testify for us.”
She paused, then added softly, “I know I’m just a widow. Of course I’m not worthy of someone like Song Jinping.”
That made his ears ache.
Not worthy… because she’s a widow?
A widow, a widow, if only they’d met earlier…
Once again he felt his thoughts growing foggy. To keep his image intact, he could only smooth his expression and say coolly:
“Don’t belittle yourself.”
As she hugged the parcel to her chest, Bai Xinmei “casually” brought up how Niuniu had been crying and pestering her for more candy after the last time, but she really had nothing to give her.
She hadn’t even gotten to the teary part of her performance before,
Song Jinping offered, on his own, that once they got back to the village she should take some of the milk candies and jerky and cured meat home. As for these snacks, he said, a man like him wasn’t all that fond of them anyway.
A tall man and a petite woman, handsome and beautiful, walking side by side,
Watching their silhouettes from behind, Li Zhaodi had the sudden, bizarre thought: these two actually looked quite well matched.