Chapter 38

In the end, with a face like thunder, Song Jinping walked out through the Qin family’s gate. He felt that if he stayed any longer, he might really lay all his cards on the table.
She actually… treated him like that. He felt an old mouthful of blood rise to his throat, then force it back, still faintly aggrieved. Was Wang Shuisheng really more important than he was?
Then he couldn’t help making excuses for her. Comrade Bai was just too gentle, too soft-hearted, unable to turn people down, that must be why she’d agreed to a blind date with Wang Shuisheng. And who said a blind date was guaranteed to succeed? He still had a chance.
Inside the main room, only Wang Shuisheng and Bai Xinmei were left.
Watching Song Jinping’s departing back, Bai Xinmei quietly let out a breath.
Looking at the peach crisps Wang Shuisheng had brought, Bai Xinmei felt a little uneasy. The man had shown up with a gift; she ought to treat him properly in return.
But the Qin family really didn’t have anything good to set out. Whatever they did have was locked away in Father Qin and Mother Qin’s old cabinet in their room. The fact that they were even willing to let her look for a good family to marry into again already meant they were very open-minded.
In plenty of households, if the son died and the daughter-in-law wanted to remarry, that was something she wasn’t even allowed to think about. They’d rather have her keep widowed for a lifetime, or else she’d be condemned as shameless and immoral, unless the family wanted to trade her for bride price and simply sell her off.
There were even cases of being married off as a ghost bride. Of course, there were good families too: if the daughter-in-law was a decent person and the son died, they’d treat her like a biological daughter, even take the initiative to find her a new home. The old Qin couple counted among the decent ones. They knew how hard Bai Xinmei had it and were grateful for the kindness the Bai family had once shown them. All these years, they’d never really let her suffer too much.
So when Bai Xinmei brought up remarrying, the old couple agreed on the spot without a single word of objection. They’d even given Aunt Wang a heads-up: told her their third daughter-in-law had had a hard life, and asked her to really put in the effort to find someone with solid character, steady and hard-working.
Under those circumstances, asking them to bring out their treasured goodies to entertain her blind date… was a bit hard to justify.
Besides, the Qin family members had all gone out specifically to give the two of them a quiet space to talk.
Right, Bai Xinmei suddenly remembered the parcels Comrade Song had given her last time. All those good things.
In the end she took out a jar of beef jerky and two boxes of chocolate and urged Wang Shuisheng to try them. It wasn’t just for the blind date, after all, Wang Shuisheng had saved her life.
Using things Song Jinping had given her to treat Wang Shuisheng, Bai Xinmei felt the whole situation was… just the tiniest bit bizarre.
When Wang Shuisheng saw what she’d brought out, a flicker of surprise passed through his eyes and quickly vanished. For a rural household to get their hands on things like this…
He couldn’t help thinking of that Comrade Song who had just been butting heads with him.
Could it be that he’d given them to Xinmei?
Wang Shuisheng wasn’t a fool. You could even say he was one of the most promising young men in all the nearby villages, one of the rare few who had actually attended high school. If they hadn’t suddenly stopped the college entrance exams, there was no telling; he might already be a university student.
So even with just a few tiny hints, he could infer a lot. But he wasn’t stupid enough to say anything out loud and embarrass her.
Xinmei… In truth, he wasn’t even sure what he ought to call her. He absolutely didn’t want to be like the others in the village, calling her “that Bai widow” or “Third Qin daughter-in-law.”
“Xin… Mei? Is it alright if I call you that?” he asked tentatively, afraid she might mind and think him presumptuous.
“I–it’s fine, brother Wang. However you want to call me is fine.”
As they chatted, Bai Xinmei twisted the hem of her clothes, a little nervous. She had never been on a blind date before. The first time Qin Yuanzheng came to the Bai family to fetch her, it had only been to get her out of danger.
If she thought about it carefully, it seemed she’d never really had that youthful, hazy passion with a young man.
And to think that now she already had a child, yet here she was on a blind date, she couldn’t help feeling a bit shy.
Sitting there prim and straight, delicate as a flower over still water and yet tinged with maidenly bashfulness, she stirred something heated in Wang Shuisheng’s chest, making this simple, honest rural youth open up.
After all, if the woman didn’t talk and the man didn’t start a conversation either, this match would probably be dead in the water.
Wang Shuisheng decided to properly introduce himself and officially start this blind date, so that Bai Xinmei could get to know him and understand that he had the ability to give her a good life.
Even if she wanted to live in the city someday, it wasn’t impossible. The meat-packing plant did have urban residency quotas for long-serving employees and their families.
Thinking of this, Wang Shuisheng gathered his courage.
“My name is Wang Shuisheng, registered in Shizi Gou. I’ve graduated from high school, so I should be able to communicate with you. Right now I work as an accountant at the meat-packing plant. My monthly salary is two big-unity notes, and on holidays the unit distributes grain coupons and meat coupons. For rural workers with five years of service, there’s a quota to transfer their household registration to the city, and they can bring their family members along. I have one younger sister who’s in junior high. My parents are both alive and have mild tempers. Our family has a bit of savings. If there’s anything else you want to know… you can ask me.”
This self-introduction left Bai Xinmei staring with wide eyes. My goodness, Wang Shuisheng’s personal conditions were that good! He even had a future city-entry quota. No wonder all the young ladies across ten li and eight villages wanted to marry him. And on top of that, he was very decent-looking. He didn’t have the refined, gentle handsomeness of Comrade Song, nor the sharp, heroic edges of that short-lived husband of hers.
His skin was a healthy wheat color, radiating simple rural sincerity; with thick brows and large eyes, he was sunny and straightforward.
His conditions really were excellent. No wonder that day, Wang Lanhua had told her not to set her sights on him. Right, Wang Lanhua, his younger sister; she clearly didn’t like her. A difficult future sister-in-law was trouble too, which left Bai Xinmei quietly tangled.
Before she could stew for too long, Wang Shuisheng seemed to remember something.
“Right, I’m one meter seventy-eight tall and weigh sixty-five kilos. As for looks, I suppose I’m not too handsome, but not too ugly either.”
Hearing that extra add-on, Bai Xinmei’s face flamed scarlet. Why was Wang Shuisheng saying that…
Had Aunt Wang gone through her entire list of demands one by one with him?!
A solid family background, preferably a worker; not too tall, not too short, not too fat, too skinny, too ugly, or too handsome; best if he was from the city…
He was clearly introducing himself line by line according to her “choosing an imperial concubine” standards.
!!! Bai Xinmei wanted to find a hole and scream into it. She’d told the matchmaker to look based on those requirements, but why did Aunt Wang have to just blurt them all out! Ahhh!
[I’m dying, this is so embarrassing. This is social death, capital S.]
[Host: “What a coincidence, I’ve almost dug out a three-bedroom apartment with how hard I’m scratching right now; once we move to the city it’ll be just right for us to live in.” Hahaha!]
[Feels like the host wants to silence everyone who knows about her requirements.]
[Pfft, bet that matchmaker goes to every house and recites all of the host’s criteria start to finish.]
Looking at the barrage flashing in the air, Bai Xinmei really felt like crying. Who knew what that matchmaker had been saying outside.
But Wang Shuisheng was still waiting for her answer.
“I, I’m Bai Xinmei, I mentioned it that day. I have a daughter, named Niuniu. As for the one from before, he’s been gone three and a half years now… And my class background is rather…”
Before she could finish, Wang Shuisheng cut her off.
“Class background isn’t a problem. I don’t believe this era will always be like this. Even if everything is judged by class, I don’t care. I truly fell for you at first sight and want to take care of you for the rest of my life. As for Niuniu, I’ll treat her like my own daughter. That, I can promise you.”
He spoke with absolute conviction.
He really was an excellent blind-date candidate. Aunt Wang clearly had put a lot of thought into this, Bai Xinmei thought.
She had no idea that ever since the day he’d pulled her out of danger, he’d fallen for her at first sight. A decisive young man, he’d made some inquiries, learned she was planning to remarry, thought it over, and then went straight to Aunt Wang.
If not for that, those “imperial-concubine-level” standards of hers would have given Aunt Wang a massive headache.
Seeing the hope shining in his eyes, Bai Xinmei’s mind suddenly flashed to that night, Song Jinping’s face gleaming in the moonlight.
And Qin Yuanzheng’s firm, serious gaze when he’d come to fetch her from the Bai family.
She shook her head, forcefully pressing those wild thoughts down.
“O-okay… then let’s… try getting to know each other first?”
“Alright! Thank you, Xinmei, for giving me this chance!”
Wang Shuisheng was overjoyed. He was like a kid who’d just been given candy; if he weren’t still in the Qin household, he’d probably have rushed outside to shout it to the skies.
The two of them chatted for a while longer, and when Aunt Wang came in to take a look, she decided it was promising and chuckled to herself for ages.
That night, Wang Shuisheng walked home with light, happy steps.
Seeing how ecstatic he was, Wang Lanhua couldn’t help being puzzled. “Brother, what’s got you so happy?”
He just hugged his head, grinning ear to ear as he paced circles around the courtyard.
Their mother, on the other hand, was less pleased. “All that over a blind date with a widow. You’re that happy? Foolish boy.”
But Wang Shuisheng’s father understood better. He was a man, after all, he knew exactly why his son was so delighted.
Who told Bai Xinmei to be that beautiful? Even compared to their own girl, she still came out ahead by a fair bit.
“What! A widow! Is it that widow from that night, the one named Bai Xinmei!?”
At the word “widow,” Wang Lanhua immediately felt something was off. In these last days, she’d been so busy dealing with Hao Jianguo she hadn’t even noticed when that widow had managed to sink her hooks into her brother.
Was her life really going to fall into the same rut all over again?
Her facial muscles trembled; she was so agitated the whole Wang family was stunned.
They were a bit bothered, sure, but not enough to get this worked up. What was wrong with this girl?
“Lanhua? What’s wrong with you?”
“I’m fine! Brother, she’s not a good woman, you have to believe me. She… she’s loose, and she’s greedy for money, lazy and gluttonous. How can a woman like that marry into our family? You know she’s at the Qin household and… she doesn’t even do any work!”
On the verge of a breakdown, Lanhua rattled off Bai Xinmei’s supposed sins, listing all of her “faults.”
She left Wang Shuisheng completely dumbfounded. He wasn’t some landlord lord looking for a maidservant; he wanted a wife to cherish. As long as he liked her, that was enough. Why were they measuring her by how much work she could do…
He and his father had always spoiled his mother and Lanhua. So why was Lanhua saying things that tore down another woman’s reputation like this? She used to be such a good girl. She’d changed, become extreme, quick-tempered.
It seemed to have started once she got more and more entangled with Hao Jianguo…
“In any case, I don’t approve of this match!”