Chapter 13: Discussion

Tan Yanlu helped Jiang Pan Yu for two reasons. First, Jiang Pan Yu was “one of their own,” and shouldn’t they help their own rather than outsiders? Second, Jiang Pan Yu was so petite, while Shen Shilei was so aggressive. Shen Shilei didn’t dare to bully others, so she specifically targeted the weak.

Tan Yanlu couldn’t stand Shen Shilei’s bullying behavior, which is why she wanted to stand up for Jiang Pan Yu. Little did she know, appearances can be deceiving. Despite Jiang Pan Yu’s sweet and innocent looks, she turned out to be a black-hearted sesame filling, a personality Tan Yanlu admired!

The train ride was long, and the young Educated Youth didn’t just eat and sleep; they also had entertainment activities, such as singing red songs. This was an activity where even those who were tone-deaf could showcase their singing voices, as no one would laugh or scold them for singing poorly.

Of course, not everyone enjoyed singing. For example, Yang Guoying and Chen Lamei had no interest in singing; they preferred gossiping about various family matters.

Jiang Pan Yu didn’t join the singing group either. Bored, she started telling Tan Yanlu a little story. Thus, the gossip version of the poverty alleviation tool’s script emerged.

“There’s a sister near our welfare home who’s very beautiful. She’s the prettiest on our street. Unfortunately, she had a tough life and went mad at a young age!”

“Ah, why is that?” Duan Zheng asked. Although Tan Yanlu didn’t speak, her eyes were filled with curiosity.

“Yeah, why?” Yang Guiying and Chen Lamei also leaned in, pulling out a handful of peanuts from their pockets, peeling them while curiously asking.

Jiang Pan Yu sighed, “Well, her parents were terrible. They wanted to marry her off to an old man, and I heard the groom offered a hefty dowry. They even said if she bore a son, they’d try to find her a job. The old man was almost 60, and the sister didn’t want to marry him, so she ran away to the countryside. I heard she was deceived terribly there and went mad in the countryside.”

“Ah! What happened? Didn’t the Educated Youth Office intervene?” Tan Yanlu couldn’t help but ask.

“I heard that when she went to the countryside, she brought a lot of money with her and was very beautiful. Over time, someone took notice. It’s said that some hooligans kept harassing her, scaring her badly. Then someone stepped in to protect her, and in her panic, she ended up marrying someone in the countryside.”

“Who scared her? Why didn’t she seek help from the brigade? The Educated Youth Office would definitely have intervened. Why did she end up marrying someone?” Duan Zheng, full of curiosity, asked a series of questions.

Jiang Pan Yu lowered her voice and spoke in a mysterious tone, “I heard it was the man she married who sent people to scare her. He knew she had money and was beautiful. I heard his family was very poor, and he was the sole breadwinner, supporting not only his parents and sister but also two children. After she married him, all the money she had saved was spent on him and the children. Not only did she have to work in the fields, but she also had to endure the torment of her mother-in-law and sister-in-law when she returned home. And I heard the two children were very domineering and didn’t allow her to have children of her own.”

“And then the man actually agreed, not letting the sister have a child.”

“Ah, that’s too much. What happened later?” asked Shen Shilei, who had been listening for a while.

The three of them turned their gazes toward her, and Shen Shilei’s face instantly turned red. “I’m just asking, why are you looking at me like that? You can talk, but I can’t listen?”

The three of them turned their heads back, ignoring Shen Shilei.

Yang Guiying then asked Jiang Pan Yu, “Sister Jiang, where did your sister go to the countryside? How could they treat her like that? It’s so unreasonable!”

Exactly! Everyone unconsciously nodded in agreement.

Jiang Pan Yu continued, “Later, the man used the sister’s money to secure a worker’s position in the city.

He became a worker in the county, and then the whole family moved to the city.

But less than half a year into their good life, the man died.

After the man died, the sister discovered that all the valuable things in the house had been given to his mother and his two children.

The job the man left behind wasn’t given to the sister either; she didn’t get a single penny!

The sister was unwilling to accept this and wanted to sue the family, but do you know what happened? The sister was secretly sold by them.

It’s said she was sold to a remote mountain village, and by the time she was rescued, she had been driven mad and even lost her voice!

Later, the sister was sent back home, but in the middle of the night, she ran to the river in a fit of madness, fell in, and was gone.”

Tan Yanlu couldn’t help but say, “That’s so tragic. What happened to the man’s family?”

After taking a sip of water, Jiang Pan Yu slowly said, “The man’s family lived quite well. Because the sister hadn’t registered her marriage with the man, and there were no witnesses when she married into the family.

So when the man died, they didn’t acknowledge her as their daughter-in-law. Plus, it’s said that in their area, outsiders are often bullied, so the sister couldn’t seek justice!

There was also no evidence to prove that the man’s family had sold her, so the sister was ruined just like that.

When I left, the head of our welfare house repeatedly warned me not to casually marry someone in the countryside!”

This twisted version of a “poverty alleviation stepmother” gossip story was deliberately told by Jiang Pan Yu to subtly warn Tan Yanlu.

If it could raise her alertness, that would be good.

Even if Tan Yanlu didn’t take it to heart now, it would be beneficial if she could be more cautious when dealing with Gao Shaolin in the future.

After all, forcibly breaking the ill-fated bond between Tan Yanlu and Gao Shaolin wasn’t possible, but gradually influencing Tan Yanlu to change—Jiang Pan Yu believed that was achievable.

Tan Yanlu didn’t disappoint Jiang Pan Yu’s efforts in telling this story. She nodded in agreement, “You’re right. We’re still young; it’s not too late to marry in a few years.”

Jiang Pan Yu naturally nodded.

Even Shen Shilei, who had previously fallen out with them, nodded like a pecking chick.

Because Jiang Pan Yu told this little story, it brought the group closer, and in the end, Shen Shilei also managed to join their conversation.

They just weren’t as close as Jiang Pan Yu, Tan Yanlu, and Duan Zheng.

The four of them, along with two aunties, started discussing the sister Jiang Pan Yu had fabricated.

Yang Guiying said, “In my opinion, young girls just don’t have enough experience and are too timid. If they’re being bullied by hooligans, why don’t they go to the commune?

And then they foolishly get married without even understanding whether they should marry or not.”

“Indeed, that girl was quite foolish. The man’s family conditions were such that not even city girls, let alone rural girls, would want to marry into. She was so naive, getting scared and rushing into marriage.

It’s not that I look down on you city girls. You’re quite good at studying, but sometimes I feel like you’ve read too many books and it’s made you a bit foolish.

Your heads are filled with nothing but love and romance, and you get so easily swayed by a few sweets and flowers that you lose all sense of direction. But these things can’t feed you.” This was said by Chen Lamei, who seemed quite emotional, though it’s unclear whose story she was referring to.