Chapter 18: The Eyes of the Public Are Sharp

She just didn’t understand—how could Feng Feng be such a contradictory person?

People said he was a good father, a good husband, but he wasn’t.

But if you said he was bad, he wasn’t completely bad either.

To Lu Lan and her daughter, he was someone who hurt them over and over again, and then healed them over and over again, a repeated cycle with no end in sight.

Being around a person like that, sooner or later, anyone would be driven crazy.

…

The New Year was approaching. Next door, Lu Lan was steaming some steamed buns to prepare for the holiday and had Feng Rongrong bring over two buns for Feng Mian.

Feng Mian remembered the day they counted their work credits—Feng Feng had taken a lot of their family’s grain and money to his mother-in-law’s house, leaving only just over a hundred jin for their family of three.

A hundred jin for three people? It was nowhere near enough to eat.

Now having received two buns from them, Feng Mian wanted to steam some herself.

Make some buns, and some steamed stuffed buns too.

Send some as gifts to her grandparents.

No sooner said than done.

She ordered flour, yeast, and baking powder.

It was so cold that the dough wouldn’t rise outside, so she put it near the stove to warm.

She also washed a big pot and took out the bamboo steamers from home for steaming buns and stuffed buns, boiled a big pot of water to clean them thoroughly.

Yesterday she had drawn a whole bucket of water, and now with steaming buns and washing up, the water was almost all used up.

After the buns steamed and the fire in the stove was dying down, she put out the flame, leaving the charcoal inside to keep warm a little longer.

Putting on her non-slip rubber shoes, she carried the bucket to the village entrance to get more water.

The village chief, Grandpa Feng Si, and his wife were nearby washing pickled cabbage; people of Feng Mian’s generation called her Granny Si.

Seeing Feng Mian fetching water, they curiously asked:

“Mian Mian, did you really find a young man willing to marry in?”

“Yes.”

“Where is he from?”

“From Gujia Village.”

“Oh, also from Gujia Village? Isn’t that the same village as Gu Xiaoliu?”

Feng Mian nodded and said, “Yes, same village. Aunt Xu said the matchmaking was a mistake, she was quite embarrassed and insisted on introducing me to someone else.”

“That’s right,” Granny Si said, “A mistake? Who would believe that? Mistake for a day or two, okay, but for half a year?”

Feng Mian smiled faintly, saying, “The eyes of the public are sharp, I guess.”

If it was a mistake, only a fool would believe it.

“You and that Gu Xiaoliu thing, it’s been six months, right?”

“Yeah, about six months.”

“Tsk tsk, that family really is shameless.” Granny Si opened up and pulled Feng Mian to sit beside her.

Feng Mian thought, oh no, sitting down means trouble. Granny Si was known in the village as a gossip queen, a chatterbox who could go on for hours without getting tired.

She quickly waved her hand, “Granny Si, I won’t sit. My pot is still steaming buns. If it dries out, I’ll have to go back to fetch more water.”

Granny Si looked a little disappointed but kept talking even as Feng Mian fetched water.

“Hey, is it true that Xiao Mei and Gu Xiaoliu secretly like each other?”

Feng Mian twitched her mouth, “How would I know?”

“Sure they do, otherwise why would he marry her and not you?”

Feng Mian smiled faintly, said nothing, and threw an empty bucket into the well.

“I heard that young man is the son of the Gu family’s team leader and the team’s scorekeeper. His family’s quite well off. How did they come to fancy you in the first place?”

Feng Mian put her hand to her forehead, “They didn’t fancy me. It was a mistake—they fancied my older female cousin.”

“Oh dear, what can’t you tell Granny Si? How could that be mistaken? It’s impossible.”

“Well, they got something wrong, but later they realized it and came to cancel the engagement.”

By then, Feng Mian had filled the other bucket with water.

Granny Si beside her nodded, suddenly enlightened. “That’s very likely. Otherwise, it just doesn’t add up.”

Feng Mian smiled at her, “Well then, Granny Si, I’ll be going now.”

“Oh, wait, take your time.”

Feng Mian rested the carrying pole on her shoulder to test the weight. It was pretty heavy, and the road was rough—she really worried she wouldn’t be able to carry it back.

Carefully and unsteadily, she finally carried the load of water back home.

She poured it into the water tank, filling it halfway.

Feng Mian hesitated about whether to carry some more. She checked the weather forecast: no snow today, and none tomorrow or the day after. The day after tomorrow was expected to snow.

Snow would make it colder, and the roads even worse.

Thinking it over, she decided to carry more now.

If she didn’t do it today, she’d have to do it tomorrow anyway. A real pain.

Luckily, Granny Si had already left the village entrance this time—otherwise, Feng Mian was really afraid that old lady would drag her into another long chat.

After carrying two loads of water, on the way back, a familiar figure blocked her path.

She flicked aside her troublesome bangs and looked at him in confusion as he reached out to take the carrying pole from her.

“What are you doing coming to our village?”

Before she could finish speaking, the load was already on Gu Yuelin’s shoulder.

“I came to see you.”

“To see me?”

“Yeah, aren’t you planning to make a bed?”

Make a bed?

No, she planned to buy one ready-made from Bao’er.

“I saw a lot of wooden boards in your room last night. That old elm wood is really heavy, I’m guessing you can’t move it.”

This…

Feng Mian didn’t know what to say, just said, “Then you should make a bed for yourself.”

“Okay.”

She poured this load of water into the tank, filling it all the way. No more water fetching for now.

Setting down the empty bucket, Gu Yuelin took a snakeskin bag from the door—inside were woodworking tools.

He really came to work; he had even brought the tools.

Taking out the tools, he started working.

Feng Mian stood at the kitchen door and said, “Don’t rush to work yet. I steamed some buns; eat two before you start.”

“I ate before I came, not hungry.”

Huh? So today he came after eating.

“Anything you need me to help with?”

“No, I can do it alone.” He looked around again and asked, “Why no bed frame? Only boards. You can only make the bed surface.”

Feng Mian smiled, “Actually, I wasn’t planning to use them to make a bed. I originally planned to use them to make a wall.”

“A wall?”

Gu Yuelin looked at the pile of boards and imagined the house split by a wooden wall. But there’s only one bed—she sleeps on the bed, and he would sleep on the floor on the other side of the wooden wall?

“To make a wall, just boards aren’t enough. It’s more complicated than a brick wall. Might as well weave a screen from bamboo.”

“Oh, I didn’t think that far at the time. Later I realized the same. With so many boards, why don’t you first make a few into a bed, and use the rest for the floor?”

“The floor?”

“Yeah, this dirt floor is okay on sunny days, but when it rains it’s all muddy.”

Gu Yuelin thought for a moment and said, “If you want to make a floor, just boards aren’t enough. You’d have to build a wooden joist frame under it to prevent moisture, and also add some padding.”

Feng Mian scratched her head. “Do whatever you think is best. Tell me if you need anything.”

“Do you have wood at home?”

“Yes, the woodshed behind my kitchen is full of wood.”

She took him to see the woodshed. The wood left from the collective farm days was plenty.

Gu Yuelin said with that wood, making a wooden floor wouldn’t be a problem, and the bed could be made too.