Chapter 14

Mei Qing cared about saving face, so she naturally would not lose her temper on the spot. Smiling faintly, she said: “It’s nothing, just a simple letter. I’ll check later to see who dropped it and return it to her. Here, this is your sickle, hold it properly.”

After she finished distributing the sickles, Mei Ling had already gone down into the fields to work. Not long after, a figure slipped into the cornfield. Mei Ling stood up to see who it was, only to find Mei Qing standing right in front of her.

“Jie, what’s wrong?”

Mei Qing’s eyes were blazing with anger, her usual gentle demeanor completely gone. She raised her hand and gave Mei Ling a slap.

“Lingzi, haven’t I treated you well usually? How could you do something like this? Let me tell you, Educated Youth Lin is impossible for you! Even if you write a hundred letters, it’s impossible! You’d better give up that thought early, or don’t blame me for turning against you!”

She threw the letter onto Mei Ling’s face and turned around to leave.

Having taken a slap for nothing, Mei Ling was furious. She flung down her sickle and shouted: “Gu Yinyin hit me, now you hit me too! Why does everyone get to hit me?”

When she picked up the letter to look, she froze. The handwriting was indeed hers, but she had never written that letter! How could she possibly have feelings for Educated Youth Lin?

Years later, when compared to Shen Guo’an, Educated Youth Lin would not even come close!

But the letter was right there, and no matter how she explained, Mei Qing would never believe her.

That was not the end of it. That very afternoon, someone else in the village found another letter somewhere else. It was also supposedly written by Mei Ling to Educated Youth Lin, the handwriting exactly the same. Inside, it expressed Mei Ling’s deep affection for Educated Youth Lin, making readers blush. In no time, the entire village was buzzing, saying that Mei Ling liked Educated Youth Lin terribly, and there were letters as proof…

Everyone was puzzled. Wasn’t it Mei Qing who was rumored to be entangled with Educated Youth Lin? How did the younger sister Mei Ling end up stepping in as well?

Gossip spread everywhere, completely drowning out the matter of Gu Yinyin sneaking into the cornfield. After all, there was no evidence for that, just hearsay!

When Gu Yinyin saw so many people discussing it, she thought to herself that it was good for Mei Ling to also experience how vicious gossip could be.

That day’s autumn harvest was unbearably hot. She had only cut down a few corn stalks before she really could not stand it. The autumn harvest was simply inhuman work. After standing only a short while, she felt dizzy and faint. There was no “experience” to be had at all! She returned the sickle, claimed she had a stomachache, and went home to lie down.

Because of that, the sickle never had the chance to malfunction and injure her.

In the evening, after work ended, the villagers sat under the old locust tree at the village entrance to cool off. Educated Youth Lin was there too, helping the production team repair bicycles.

Someone asked: “Educated Youth Lin, today I heard Mei Ling wrote you a letter, and people saw it. That little girl is shy, and she wrote so clearly in the letter about her feelings for you. Don’t you think you should give her some kind of response?”

Educated Youth Lin had also heard about this. To be honest, when people previously spread rumors about him and Mei Qing, he had denied it, but the effect was poor. Later, when they said he was involved with Gu Yinyin, he was shocked, thinking he had accidentally revealed something. He took the chance to deny it, but who knew that the more he denied, the fiercer the gossip became. He was afraid of hurting Gu Yinyin, so he simply kept silent.

But now they were dragging him together with Mei Ling as well. Even with all his patience, he could not endure it any longer. He stopped working with the wrench in his hand and said sternly: “I don’t care what other people say, but you really must not keep making these jokes. I came to Hongxing Village to help everyone build here, not to fall in love. I don’t have the time for romance. Whether it’s Mei Qing or Mei Ling, or any Mei at all, I treat all of them only as friends.”

After saying that, he paused for a moment and continued: “If everyone has misunderstood, then I will just stay away from the Mei sisters in the future. I really hope you will stop making such jokes.”

Since he had spoken so seriously, no one dared to joke about it anymore.

Just then, the postman from the county town arrived at Hongxing Village. Standing at the village entrance, he shouted: “Shen Guo’an’s family! Shen Guo’an’s family!”

Back then, communication in the countryside depended entirely on shouting. The postman had long since trained himself a loud voice. After he shouted several times, those who had parcels sent to them came running over. At first, Gu Yinyin did not react, and only when Da Wa reminded her did she hurry over to collect the package.

But who would have thought Li Ailian would also come out? She ran even faster than Gu Yinyin and snatched the parcel right out of the postman’s hands. “Something my Guo’an sent back? Ah, wonderful! The family just happened to run out of rice for cooking!”

Li Ailian always did this. Every time her eldest son sent something home, she was the first to grab it, and Gu Yinyin could never even touch it.

After seizing the parcel, Li Ailian ran off. The postman shook his head, and Gu Yinyin spat in frustration before sprinting after her.

But Li Ailian was older now—how could she possibly outrun Gu Yinyin, no matter how fast she tried?

In no time, Gu Yinyin blocked her path and grabbed the parcel. “Give it back to me!”

“What give it back to you? This is something my son sent home, why should I give it to you? He’s my son, I gave birth to him!”

Gu Yinyin sneered. “If you gave birth to him, then why did you marry him off? Why don’t you spend the rest of your life with him? You take every parcel for yourself—am I dead to you? Are his two children dead to you?”

No matter what, this parcel could not be left for Li Ailian to hog all to herself.

Li Ailian cursed viciously. “Bullshit! Get lost quickly, don’t even think about getting this parcel!”

Gu Yinyin looked behind her and said: “Captain, you’re here? Look, my mother is snatching away the parcel Guo’an sent home…”

Li Ailian’s heart lurched in shock. Her grip immediately loosened, and Gu Yinyin seized the chance to snatch back the parcel and leave.

She carried the parcel home, bolted the door, while outside Li Ailian was screaming and cursing loud enough to shake the skies. Her eldest son’s parcels had always been under her control—she decided who to give things to, and never had there been any reason to secretly hand them to Gu Yinyin. Today she swore she had to take this parcel back.

But Gu Yinyin never opened the door. Hiding inside, she opened the parcel and found inside a sack of rice, a small packet of fruit candies, and a piece of cloth.

They were not particularly good things, not worth Li Ailian fighting so hard for. But whether they were valuable or not, she was not about to give them to Li Ailian.

Shen Guo’an was away from home all year, and the two children were hungry and poorly clothed. They had suffered endlessly under Li Ailian’s hand. No matter what method it took, she had to seize back a little something for them.

But Li Ailian’s curses outside grew too vile. Gu Yinyin finally grabbed a handful of rice, flung open the door, and scattered it across the ground outside.

“You want it, don’t you? Then go pick it up! Pick it up and feed it to your precious Tieshuan! How many times have Da Wa and Xiao Wa eaten anything their father sent back? What face do you have, standing here cursing and shouting? If you keep making a fuss, I’ll dump this entire sack of rice straight into the cesspit! No one will get to eat it!”

After the last incident when Gu Yinyin overturned the food table, Li Ailian was in fact a little intimidated. If Gu Yinyin really poured that rice into the cesspit, then what would be left to eat? No one would get a grain.

She immediately shut her mouth, not daring to speak further, though in her heart she was already plotting—if she could not snatch it, she would find a way to steal the parcel later.

Only when it grew quiet outside did Gu Yinyin finally feel relieved.

She hid the things away, already planning for the future. Once she left, the two children would have no one else to rely on. Shen Guo’an’s true temperament was still uncertain. Whatever she could save now, she had to save as much as possible. When the time for divorce came, she could leave these for the children, which would be good.

Just as she finished hiding the things, Da Wa and Xiao Wa came home. As soon as they entered, Da Wa bolted the door and handed her a thin envelope.

“Dad sent this.”

Gu Yinyin was taken aback. “Your dad sent it? How did it end up here?”

“Mom, did you forget? Every time Dad sends something home, he sends two copies. One gets snatched by Grandma, and the other he secretly tells the postman to hand to me, and then I bring it to you.”

Gu Yinyin slapped her forehead. Thinking back quickly, that was indeed true—she had actually forgotten!

She tore open the letter and instantly her eyes widened.

The handwriting on the paper was all too familiar. She had once, unintentionally, seen Guo’an’s exam papers. The characters had been bold, vigorous, flowing like dragons and dancing like phoenixes—her heart had been instantly captured.

Now, the words in this letter bore seventy to eighty percent resemblance to that handwriting, but carried a more mature air, slightly careless yet even more charming.

Her heart pounded rapidly as she read word by word.

“Yinyin:

Keep the money safe, and try not to give anything to anyone. This time I did not send you parcels—you should just buy whatever you like or need. Don’t worry about me; I am fine out here and will return as soon as possible. Every single day, I am thinking of you and the children.

Shen Guo’an

Autumn, 1981”

The letter had already been written, but at the very end he added another line:

“It’s not that I don’t want to return, but that I truly want to earn more money. Please don’t overthink. Don’t listen to the nonsense the villagers say.”

Gu Yinyin opened the check inside. The number written was fifty yuan—a very large sum.

Compared to the rice and cloth that Li Ailian had almost stolen, fifty yuan was the real treasure.

When Da Wa and Xiao Wa saw the check, they both felt happy. “Dad is really clever. Every time he sends things home, he always sends two sets—one for Grandma, one for us. But… Mom, are you going to lend this money to Aunt Mei again?”

Every time their father sent money or goods back, within a few days Aunt Mei would always find a way to take those things away.

Gu Yinyin shook her head. “Why would I lend it to her? Who does she think she is?”

Even as she spoke, her heart suddenly grew a little emotional.

From the looks of it, Shen Guo’an was actually not so bad. At the very least, he thought of their little family and made arrangements for them. He just spent most of the year away, rarely caring for the household. Judging from the way he was written in the book’s character setting, he was not a man who liked to fool around outside. Everything was simply because Mei Ling had come between them.

No wonder Mei Ling used every trick she could to squeeze her way into the Shen family.

But Gu Yinyin would never let Mei Ling have her wish. Even if she divorced Shen Guo’an, she would not allow Mei Ling the chance!

While Gu Yinyin was thinking about Mei Ling, Mei Ling was also thinking about Gu Yinyin.

She had originally planned to use Educated Youth Lin’s pants to frame Gu Yinyin, but after the matter with the letters, Mei Qing directly took the pants away, leaving her no chance at all.

Everyone misunderstood her attitude toward Educated Youth Lin, even her own mother gave her a warning.

“Educated Youth Lin will return to the city in the future. Only someone like your sister is worthy of him. Lingzi, you must always know your place. Besides, your sister already has a good relationship with Educated Youth Lin. You must not harbor any wrongful thoughts, or people will laugh at you.”

Although Mei Ling did not have any real feelings for Educated Youth Lin, those words still made her feel bitter.

She started a cold war with Mei Qing, not speaking a word to her when they met. At the same time, she was also thinking about how she could gain Gu Yinyin’s trust—or simply make Gu Yinyin disappear altogether.

The more she thought of the strange looks from the people around her, the more Mei Ling wanted to seize Shen Guo’an.

One day, when she married Shen Guo’an and lived a superior life, she wanted to see whether those snobbish people would feel their own faces burning in shame!