Chapter 36

“Hahaha, I never thought there’d be a situation you couldn’t handle. Did your little brother come to ask you for money but was too embarrassed to say it?”

“He probably didn’t. He has money of his own, he doesn’t need to ask me. Maybe it’s just that his friends were curious.”

“That makes sense. If I had a friend with a brother or sister who was that good at studying, I’d be curious too. And didn’t your brother tell them about that time you picked up the centipede? Maybe they wanted to come thank you, but when they saw you, they got too shy to say anything.”

Seeing Zhao Baozhu animatedly guessing all sorts of reasons, Lin Yun could only smile helplessly. “You’ve really got an imagination. Why would they suddenly go quiet after seeing me?”

“Do you really not know?” Zhao Baozhu looked Lin Yun up and down. “When you’re not smiling, you give off this kind of cold aura like you’re keeping people at a distance. If I hadn’t grown up with you, I’d be too scared to talk to you too.”

“But you’ve never shut up around me.”

“That’s because I know you! I know that little Yun is the best.”

—-

Life in high school was starting to settle down, and Lin Yun gradually got used to it. Before she knew it, the end of September had arrived.

On the last day of September, the three siblings were sitting together eating.

“Jie, tomorrow’s Mid-Autumn Festival. Should we go into town before going home and buy something tasty? I haven’t had meat in so long. I can’t get it at school, and even when I go home, I don’t get to eat it.”

“Don’t think I don’t know! You guys always sneak out to buy food that doesn’t require ration tickets,” Lin Yumei quickly fired back.

“Jie! Do you even know how little food there is now that doesn’t require ration tickets? There’s barely anything! And we only sneak out at most once a week.”

“Once a week and you’re still complaining? What, you want to go out every day? If your teachers catch you one of these days, what will you do then?”

Seeing the two were about to argue again, Lin Yun quickly stepped in. “Alright, alright, stop it! We can buy some food for Mid-Autumn. Is there anything in particular you want to eat? I don’t have any more meat tickets, but I still have some pastry tickets left. We can buy some pastries to bring home.”

“No complaints from me. Things are already so much better now—I’m not picky,” said Lin Yumei.

“Same here. Jie, whatever you buy or cook, I’ll eat it,” Lin Yonggang chimed in.

The school didn’t give time off for Mid-Autumn Festival, but this year it overlapped with National Day, so they had a three-day holiday.

On October 1st, the three siblings went to the most bustling part of the county to buy some things, then headed home. Zhao Baozhu had already been picked up by her brother the night before.

What shocked Lin Yun, however, was that when they arrived home, Zhao Lanxiu was in the middle of an argument.

Looking closer, the person arguing with Zhao Lanxiu was Aunt Liu, who lived down the slope from their house. Lin Yun remembered her because most people in the village were fairly kind to her—maybe because of her academic achievements or because she was still seen as a child.

Aunt Liu was the exception. While she didn’t openly show dislike, her expressions were always unpleasant when she saw Lin Yun.

Later, Lin Yumei explained that Aunt Liu and Zhao Lanxiu didn’t get along. Lin Yun asked why.

Yumei wasn’t completely sure but said she’d heard gossip: back when Zhao Lanxiu was unmarried, she was on good terms with Aunt Liu’s now-husband. Many people thought the two of them would end up together.

Even after Aunt Liu married him, the rumors didn’t die down. So Aunt Liu had always been hostile toward Zhao Lanxiu.

Then Zhao Lanxiu got married—her husband was better off than Aunt Liu’s—and that made things worse. The two women did have a brief period of getting along after Zhao Lanxiu’s first husband died.

But that didn’t last long. Zhao Lanxiu remarried, this time to Lin Chuntian, who didn’t have a penny to his name. But it was clear to everyone that he treated Zhao Lanxiu very well. In a rural setting like theirs, a man like that was rare.

Plus, Zhao Lanxiu moved to a house on the slope above Aunt Liu’s. To Aunt Liu, it probably felt like Zhao Lanxiu was destined to always be above her.

With all that history, friction between the two became frequent.

“Your chicken flew into my garden today.”
“You hit my goat.”
“This patch of land was supposed to be for my pumpkins—you took it!”

Over time, the resentment just grew deeper.

Lin Yun listened carefully to their argument and could barely extract the key information through all the dialect and swearing.

Next to Lin Yun’s kitchen was a small garden plot. It had been assigned to Aunt Liu’s family. It was planting season, and when Zhao Lanxiu got home today to cook, she found part of the kitchen had collapsed. That corner had completely caved in.

Looking closely, Aunt Liu had already sown seeds in that spot and even added fertilizer. She was still working on the other side of the garden when Lanxiu noticed. Of course, Lanxiu couldn’t tolerate it and immediately started yelling.

Aunt Liu wasn’t one to back down, and they started yelling back and forth—resulting in the scene Lin Yun walked into.

Lin Yun knew that in a few decades, rural areas would be full of abandoned land with no one farming it. In many villages, there wouldn’t even be young people left. But now, with food still scarce, every inch of soil was precious. People even planted peas along the ridges of fields.

Lin Yun wanted to intervene, but realized she had no way to get a word in.

To her surprise, Lin Yumei and Lin Yonggang were completely unfazed.

“It’s fine, let’s go in. They’ll stop after a while,” they said. Their expressions made it seem like this was a normal occurrence. Lin Yun, half-doubting, followed them inside.

“Let’s start cooking. By the time we’re done, they’ll probably be finished too,” Lin Yumei said calmly.

“Okay. It’s a holiday today—Jie, make the meat dish too.”

The three of them moved quickly, and soon the smell of food filled the house. Just as Lin Yun was about to call for Zhao Lanxiu to come eat, she saw her step right through the door.

At the dinner table, Zhao Lanxiu handed out tasks while still cursing at Aunt Liu.

“After you three finish eating, go get some dirt and patch up that hole. I need to go out after this.”