Chapter 3: The Qualified Onlookers

“Oh, who is it? Isn’t this our family’s celebrity? You really brought honor to our Huang family. Now the entire Red Flag (Hongqi) Commune knows you, knows you were rejected because you can’t bear children. How capable are you!” Grandma said sarcastically when she saw Huang Yuelan.

Her voice was eight octaves higher than normal, as if afraid others wouldn’t hear that her granddaughter was rejected for being unable to bear children.

“I wouldn’t marry a man like that anyway. If it weren’t for you wanting the bride price, how could I have married him? It’s good that it’s over now!” Huang Yuelan retorted angrily.

The second aunt scoffed, “Oh, so ambitious now? For someone like you, it’s good enough to have someone want you. You’re so picky. But since even he doesn’t want you, who else will dare to marry you in the future? I don’t think any man in our Red Flag Commune will dare to marry you!”

Although Huang Yuelan was angry, she knew this wasn’t the main issue. Her father had died less than six months ago, a work-related death, resulting in a large sum of compensation money, but her grandmother had swallowed it all, not leaving a single cent for her and her siblings.

What belonged to them must be retrieved, especially since they needed the money now.

“Whether or not I have someone who wants me is none of your business. When are you going to return my father’s compensation money? It’s what my father paid for with his life. We three siblings can’t have nothing,” Huang Yuelan said.

Upon hearing this, Old Lady Fang was displeased, “You three are just mooching off us, and that’s money! You still want the compensation money? No way!”

“We’re not mooching! Our father sent money home every month, his wages were given to you. You didn’t let us eat good food, you only let us siblings eat bad stuff, don’t think we don’t know!” Huang Yuelan’s words caused the surrounding neighbors to gossip.

“Oh my god, that’s too cruel! No matter what, they are her own grandchildren!”

“That’s true, but food is so precious, you have to save every bit you can. It’s definitely more worthwhile to starve a few fatherless and motherless people who don’t work.”

“But you can’t not give them her father’s compensation money!”

“Hey, her father is dead, her mother is gone, who cares?!”

Seeing the neighbors gossiping, the guilty Old Lady Fang, Huang Yuelan’s grandmother, angrily said, “Get out! Get as far away as possible, don’t let me see you again!” After saying this, she slammed the door shut.

“Sister, what do we do now?” The two younger brothers looked at her helplessly.

Huang Yuelan thought for a moment, “Let’s go find the team leader together. If the team leader doesn’t help us, we’ll go directly to the chairman. We must get back our father’s compensation money.”

The neighbors felt pity for Huang Yuelan and her brothers, but pity wasn’t enough. They could only offer psychological comfort, not material help. After all, everyone was struggling, food was scarce, they could barely take care of themselves, let alone help others.

Moreover, this wasn’t just one person, but three children! Three children in their prime eating years, eating a lot, no one could afford to support them.

Huang Yuelan took her two younger brothers to the team leader’s house. Fan Ming was reviewing documents in the yard. Fan Ming was the team leader of the first production team of the Red Flag Commune, a high school dropout. He was called back to be the team leader when he was in his first year of high school.

High school wasn’t a high degree in later generations, especially as a dropout, but at that time, it was definitely considered a high achiever. In a village, there weren’t many who could finish junior high school, let alone those who could go to high school.

Team Leader Fan Ming’s actions also lived up to the reputation of a high achiever, his judgments were fair and clear, unbiased, and more than 90% of the people in the production team were satisfied with him.

Team Leader Fan Ming saw Huang Yuelan and her two younger brothers coming to him and understood their situation—fatherless and motherless, very pitiful. He asked, “Yuelan, what’s the matter with you coming to see me?”

“Team Leader, our grandmother kicked us out. That’s fine, we can find a way to survive, but our grandmother didn’t give us a single cent of our father’s compensation money, which he earned with his life. We beg the Team Leader to stand up for us three orphans without parents, otherwise, we three siblings will starve to death on the streets.” After saying this, Huang Yuelan knelt down with her two younger brothers.

Fan Ming knew the three children had a truly hard life, and now they were kicked out by their grandmother, how could they survive? He had to speak up for the three children.

Moreover, Old Lady Fang was quite famous in their village, but her fame was because of her bad reputation. She often quarreled with people and was unreasonable, with a very poor reputation.