Chapter 7: The Zeng Family’s Scheming

Zeng Yan spent the entire afternoon reading netizens’ comments. Since there was no fight today, the camera wasn’t shaking, and nobody was scolding her. The comments were mainly focused on two aspects.

Most people still saw her videos as a period drama, unanimously praising the crew’s professionalism in costumes, props, and makeup.

“Oh my god, fine, old buildings aside, where did the crew find so many skeletal extras?”

“The extras’ old, rustic cloth jackets are so thin they’re almost like mosquito nets. And the patches on the clothes… you can tell they weren’t sewn on carelessly. What is craftsmanship? This is it.”

“No… I’m not mistaken, am I? Is that thing on the potato a maggot? Respect, the props team is insane!”

“Holy crap, it really is! Ugh. Blogger, you owe me a bubble tea.”

“This isn’t just gross. It’s realistic. For that alone, I’m a fan of this show!”

What followed was a meeting of “remembering past hardships and reflecting on current blessings.” The discussion was very heated, and one comment thread became quite long. Many comments had typos, a clear sign they were entered via voice by older people.

“Back in the day, it was completely normal for soybean paste and soy sauce to have maggots. Young people just haven’t seen much.”

“When I was young, I sold non-staple food at the supply and marketing cooperative. Every summer, when I’d open the soy sauce vat, there would be a layer of white stuff floating on top. They were all alive.”

The imagery was so strong that Zeng Yan felt physically ill.

“It’s good to have something to eat. In Xiangnan, we made our own soy sauce.”

“Life in this place looks good. At least they can afford white flour. I was born in ’68, and when I was a kid, I was often hungry during the lean season every year. I didn’t get to eat my fill until the mid-80s.”

“I broke three of my teeth eating cornmeal pancakes.”

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Zeng Yan happily opened her list of a hundred or so followers. She read the usernames and wanted to cry: Granny Qingqing, Old Yu from the Moscow Suburbs, Good People Live in Peace…

The average age of her followers was clearly over sixty. Was she now on an irreversible path of conning old people out of their money? Zeng Yan felt both happy and worried.

After two days of re-education, the three Zengs—Hu Sifeng, Fuzhen, and Yuejin—were half-dead. Now that order had been restored, the young Red Guards with armbands no longer hit people. Instead, they forced them to stand under the hot sun to reflect on their mistakes and didn’t give them any water. The three of them—one old, one young, and one lazy—who were not used to fieldwork or earning work points, couldn’t endure such suffering.

They were finally let go after the sun had completely set. The three were exhausted and hungry. By the time they walked back to the village, it was already past 8 PM, and everyone who had been out for a cool evening stroll was already home sleeping.

Hu Sifeng went straight to her second son, Zeng Fugui’s house. She woke up the whole family and, with many embellishments, recounted Zeng Yan’s actions. “My second son, you go to the hospital tomorrow and bring that dead girl back home. I’m going to skin her, pull out her tendons. If I don’t kill her, I’ll walk backward for the rest of my life.”

Zeng Fugui was skeptical. Did that girl from his family, who never fought back or talked back and just worked with her head down, really learn to stir up trouble? That’s absolutely impossible.

After the old woman finished scolding, her sister-in-law scolded, and then her nephew scolded. Zeng Fugui had no choice but to believe them. “Mom, calm down. When I bring her back, you can deal with her however you want.”

Hu Sifeng was still not satisfied. She raised her hand and slapped Sun Jiazhi hard. “This is the good daughter you raised! I said I should have killed her back then, but you wouldn’t let me. Now look at her, she’s grown wings and dares to take a crap on our heads! Are you happy now? How did our Zeng family end up with a jinx like you?”

Of all the people in the Zeng family, the old woman hated Sun Jiazhi and Zeng Yan the most. When Sun Jiazhi was pregnant with Zeng Yan, her health was poor. Zeng Fugui secretly took money from the family and took Sun Jiazhi to a big hospital in the provincial city to give birth. Not long after they left, Hu Sifeng’s youngest son fell seriously ill. They didn’t have the money to treat him. By the time they had borrowed enough, he had already died. Hu Sifeng didn’t hate her own son; she directed all her hatred toward her second daughter-in-law and granddaughter.

“Mom, what does this have to do with Jiazhi? She’s already a mother-in-law. If you keep hitting her like this, how can she hold her head up in front of the younger generation?” Zeng Fugui wasn’t a good father, but he was a good husband. He always stood up for Sun Jiazhi when she was being difficult.

Her falling hair hid Sun Jiazhi’s resentful gaze. When she spoke, there wasn’t a hint of hatred in her eyes, and her pitiful expression made Zeng Fugui feel even more sorry for her. If Zeng Yan were here, she would have given her the title of “Master of Disguise.”

“To nourish her body, I specifically went out and bought her milk powder. By the time I came back, the brigade leader was already gone. Could the brigade leader have said something to her? After all, Mom insisted on not treating her that day and demanded a thousand yuan…”

Sun Jiazhi’s attitude was neither soft nor hard, and she pushed the responsibility back onto Hu Sifeng. Hu Sifeng would never admit she was wrong. She gnashed her teeth and said, “She should have died right there. Zeng Fumao is a busybody. If I ever catch him in the wrong, I’ll make sure he pays for it.”

Sun Jiazhi sighed softly. “A grown daughter doesn’t listen to her mother anymore. Now that she has her own ideas, I don’t know who can control her in the future.”

She said this specifically for Hu Sifeng. The old hag didn’t disappoint her. “If she can’t be controlled, find her a man to do it. Don’t marry her off too far away. Doesn’t the pig butcher in the Fourth Brigade have a son? He offers a lot of bride price. I think he’s a good match.”

Including Zeng Yan’s three older brothers and their eldest sister-in-law, who had just married into the family, no one spoke out against it. No one even mentioned that the butcher’s son was mentally ill and would even hit his own mother when he went crazy.

“Second son, you bring her back tomorrow. Break her legs so she can’t leave the house. Tell everyone she’s at home recovering from her injuries, and then let her go on her wedding day. Once it’s a done deal, let’s see what she can do.”

Hu Sifeng was wary of Zeng Yan’s actions this time and wanted to find a way to cut off her connection to the outside world. People in the countryside got married early. Although it was rare for a girl to get married at fifteen, it wasn’t unheard of. Hu Sifeng had no face to lose; would she care what others said? As for whether it was illegal, they could just get a marriage certificate when she came of age. Some people didn’t even bother to get a certificate.

Zeng Yan had no idea her fate was being rewritten. She was especially happy tonight. She had found a treasure in the cabinet in her space: a free gift with the purchase of kitchenware—five gray kitchen towels. At that time, patterned towels weren’t popular. A small cotton square could be used as a handkerchief or a face towel. Zeng Yan claimed that a brigade leader had given her one and exchanged it with Li Haixia for a bar of sulfur soap.

She could finally take a proper shower. Although the body wash in the restroom didn’t have a strong scent, it was too high-end and long-lasting, which would easily give her away. For the past two days, Zeng Yan had only been able to rinse with water. If she didn’t wash properly, she would start growing maggots just like the soybean paste. She also borrowed a pair of scissors and cut her yellowed hair into a chin-length bob. Carefully avoiding her wound, she washed her hair thoroughly. She’d take good care of it, and the quality would improve once she got enough nutrition.

After leaving the space, she felt a sense of relief she had never felt before, and her head injury was no longer a big problem. Before going to bed, Zeng Yan decided she would stay at the hospital for one more day and then be discharged to return to the village the day after.