Chapter 26: You’ve Successfully Offended Me

Su Taotao couldn’t stand hearing the word “letter.” Every time she heard it, she thought of Chenchen’s annoying cheap father.

“Is Chenchen asking if mommy received a letter from daddy when she went to the county today?”

Chenchen shook his head, raising his little paw high: “Give~~ Daddy~~ Letter~~”

Su Taotao grabbed the little one’s paw and took a look, even bringing it to her nose to sniff: “What’s this?”

Chenchen tilted his little head: “Mud~~”

Zhou Linglan and Fu Yuanhang exchanged a look, knowing they couldn’t hide it anymore, and decided to tell the truth.

“Taotao, today I asked Ah Hang to write a letter to his older brother and get a clear answer, to see when he will return.”

Su Taotao froze for a moment, let go of the little one’s hand, and turned to go back to her room.

Zhou Linglan and Fu Yuanhang exchanged another look, both seeing the nervousness in the other’s eyes. What did this mean? Was she angry?

After a short while, Su Taotao returned with the letter and laid it out in front of them: “Don’t ask. This letter was received in the middle of the month. He said the return date is still uncertain.”

Zhou Linglan picked it up to take a look, confirming it was her eldest son’s handwriting. She then looked at Su Taotao’s face and, for the first time, put on a stern expression: “Taotao, don’t be angry. I’ll definitely talk to him when he comes back. He’s not even willing to write a few more words. What kind of personality does he have? I don’t know who he takes after.”

Fu Yuanhang looked at the two characters and almost wanted to defend his older brother, but what could he say? That his brother was always stingy with words and preferred to keep things brief? Or that he was so busy that he could only spare a few seconds to write a couple of words? Neither of those excuses held any water, so in the end, he just pinched his shirt corner and said nothing.

After such a long time, Su Taotao wasn’t angry anymore. Why be angry? Two people with no emotional foundation, what could they say? Moreover, they hadn’t even met each other, so why force the issue?

“It’s fine, Mom. No need to send the letter. We’ll talk when he comes back.” What Su Taotao actually wanted to say was that even if the letter were sent, it wouldn’t make a difference. At most, it would just be another short reply. What made her angry was that he knew Chenchen existed and still didn’t bother to ask about him. That made her upset for Chenchen.

After speaking, Su Taotao went to play with Chenchen again. Since others didn’t care for him, she would cherish him even more.

Zhou Linglan and Fu Yuanhang exchanged a worried glance.

In the end, the letter wasn’t sent, and Fu Zhentu fell back into his lost contact state.

The villagers saw Su Taotao going to the county every market day and became very curious. Not to mention the others, even Uncle A Niu was curious. But Su Taotao was always smiling. She’d give him a few pieces of candy today, some fruits tomorrow, and one time he even received a handful of fried dough twists from her.

The saying “If you eat someone’s food, you have to speak up for them” held true. When others gossiped about Su Taotao, Uncle A Niu would step forward to defend her, saying she used to go to the county often and wasn’t doing anything new.

The key point was that every time she came back from the county, the smell of food would waft out, making the neighbor’s children drool. That didn’t happen before. No matter how Uncle A Niu defended her, it didn’t matter.

There’s no wall that doesn’t have cracks. In these times, everyone ate a lot of grains and vegetables and rarely had meat. But the Fu family was different, eating stews every other day. And not to mention, the way Chenchen had gained weight so quickly was clear evidence.

Chenchen used to be dark and thin, but now he was chubby and fair, dressed in new, clean clothes. He had become the most handsome child in the village, and who wouldn’t take a second glance?

So, someone reported to the team leader, who was also Fu Zhentu’s elder uncle, saying that Su Taotao was living a capitalist lifestyle, going to the county every market day to enjoy meat, and everyone in her family was wearing new clothes with extravagant living habits.

Fu Dabe, unwillingly, came to Su Taotao’s house to investigate the situation.

At this moment, Su Taotao was still at a fellow villager’s house collecting dried goods.

The recipe she provided for the restaurant during the last market day was braised pig head bones with dried bamboo shoots.

This was a common dish from her grandmother’s hometown in her previous life. The meat in the pig’s head bones had a special fragrance, and when braised, it tasted better than lamb, but much cheaper. As a result, it sold out as soon as it was listed.

Chef Xu joked that she seemed to be planning to cook all the leftover parts of a pig—next time, would she make pig organs?

As a matter of fact, Chef Xu was right. Su Taotao was planning to make cold pig stomach next month, as she really liked cold dishes.

But that was for next month. As for the pig head bones, the side dish could be swapped out for something else. Su Taotao had a private reason for choosing bamboo shoots—Qinglian Commune, as the name suggested, specialized in producing agricultural products related to “lotus,” such as lotus seeds and lotus roots. However, these two things had a strong seasonal nature and were only available in the fall. For the recently passed spring, the freshest product was the newly dried spring bamboo shoots that every household had just put up.

The so-called “relying on the mountains to eat the mountains” refers to the special local products of the First Brigade, one of which is the bamboo and bamboo shoots that cover the mountains. From a distance, it’s a vast expanse of green.

Zhou Linglan had dried quite a bit, but aside from keeping some for her own family, she had sold the rest to Su Taotao.

“Granny, this is enough. The restaurant has no space to dry these. If you buy too much at once, it might mold. Keep the rest safe, take them out to sun every few days, and I’ll come back to collect them next time.”

Granny felt a bit regretful. The local dishes were very oil-intensive. Though members of nearby brigades would dry some every year, they hardly ever got to eat them. She hadn’t expected that something so common in every household would be bought by someone.

“Su Zhiqing, how did you find this job?” Granny asked her.

Su Taotao glanced at the little girl beside her, smiled, and said, “I’m small and thin, so I can’t earn much in the fields. But I’m at least a high school graduate. When I saw the national-run restaurant was hiring, I went to try, and that’s how I found this job.”

Su Taotao’s reputation was bad. Though it had improved recently, her image as someone who was idle and lazy was still deeply ingrained in people’s minds. Initially, Granny didn’t want to sell to her, worried that she might take it to the black market. But once Su Taotao showed her the procurement proof, Granny realized that she was helping a state-run restaurant with procurement.

Granny’s granddaughter, Xiao Meizi, was only nine years old, in second grade, and could recognize a few characters, enough to barely understand the procurement proof.

With that, Granny felt assured and sold her the dried bamboo shoots.

Su Taotao had already asked Zhou Linglan about it, and there were several families in the brigade who were struggling. Although every family wasn’t wealthy, families like Granny’s, where the grandmother raised her granddaughter alone, were even more difficult. Su Taotao prioritized buying from these families.

She gave Xiao Meizi the remaining few candies in her pocket and reminded her to study hard, saying that knowledge could change her destiny. Then, smiling, she carried a large sack of dried bamboo shoots back home.

Granny watched Su Taotao’s retreating figure for a long time, then gently patted her granddaughter’s head and said, “Studying is useful. A person like Su Zhiqing, who is lazy and eats a lot, can still find such a good job just because she can read and write.”

Xiao Meizi nodded, unwrapped a candy, and stuffed it into Granny’s mouth: “Grandma, eat some candy. Su Zhiqing is really good. I’ll study hard and buy you more candy in the future.”

Granny smiled sweetly as the candy melted in her mouth and stroked her granddaughter’s head: “You eat, Grandma doesn’t like candy.”

Everyone in the brigade said that Xiao Meizi was a foolish girl. They didn’t understand why, with her family in such a difficult situation, Granny still insisted on sending her to school. They thought she should just let her work in the fields for a few years, then marry and earn a bit of dowry. No matter how much education she received, it would ultimately be of no use, as it would benefit her husband’s family.

Granny never went to school, but she knew that education was the only way out of the mountains. Xiao Meizi didn’t have support from her maternal family, and after Granny passed, she wasn’t sure what would happen to her. The only way she could think of to make her granddaughter stand on her own was to let her study more than anyone else.

After meeting Su Taotao today, Granny became even more determined to at least support her granddaughter through high school, and the money left by her son should be enough for that.

Su Taotao returned home with the sack of bamboo shoots, where both Fu Yuanhang and Chenchen were already there. It seemed they had just returned from school. She was surprised to find that Fu Dabe, her elder uncle-in-law, was in her house. She set the sack down and asked Fu Dabe, who was staring at the sack, “Uncle, are you looking for me?”

If he was looking for Zhou Linglan, he shouldn’t have come at this time.

Fu Dabe’s gaze shifted from the sack in her hand to her face, his expression serious: “Looks like the person who reported you wasn’t mistaken. You really are engaging in black market trade? Be honest, what’s in this sack, and what are you planning to do with it?”

Su Taotao blinked. What? She was being reported? Who had nothing better to do?

Fu Yuanhang immediately stood up to defend Su Taotao: “Uncle, don’t listen to what others are saying. There’s nothing to it. My sister-in-law wouldn’t do something like that!”

It would have been fine if Fu Yuanhang had stayed quiet, but as soon as he spoke, Fu Dabe’s attention shifted from Su Taotao to him. He sneered and pointed at his clothes and shoes: “Nothing to it? Then tell me, why do you look like a beggar most of the time, but now you’re wearing new clothes and new shoes? Did they fall from the sky?”

Fu Dabe’s words, “You usually dress like a beggar,” struck Fu Yuanhang’s pride deeply. His head dropped, and his eyes instantly turned red.

Su Taotao narrowed her eyes. Very well, Fu Dabe, you’ve successfully offended me!