Chapter 5

In the end, Da Wa still did not say the two words “like.” Gu Yinyin did not hold it against him and took the two children out for a meal.

Liu Wenxiu had already set out the dishes, and the Shen family’s second son, Shen Guochang, and third son, Shen Guowei, came back carrying hoes from outside.

Ma Hongmei hurried forward with swollen eyelids to complain: “Children’s father, look at me—”

Shen Guowei, utterly exhausted and reeking of sweat, brushed her off with a wave: “Say less, where’s the food? I’m starving to death!”

The men had gone early in the morning to dig at the river construction site, and after eating, they still had to rush back there.

Ma Hongmei had no choice but to shut her mouth. A worn wooden table was set up in the courtyard, and more than ten members of the family gathered around it.

Li Ailian was still running a fever, sitting weakly at the head of the table, but she did not forget to glare fiercely at Gu Yinyin. Gu Yinyin could not be bothered to pay her any mind. She picked up two pieces of vegetable crust from the pot and handed them to Da Wa and Xiao Wa.

“Hurry up and eat while it’s hot.”

Li Ailian coughed, her voice hoarse and displeased, and said: “Gu Yinyin, you’re becoming more and more unruly! Yesterday you splashed water all over me, and today you’re snatching food. My Shen family cannot tolerate a daughter-in-law like you! You don’t need to eat anymore, get out right now, and from today onward you’ll have nothing to do with the Shen family!”

Gu Yinyin looked at her calmly. This old woman, she did not know where she got the audacity to speak so viciously.

Who would have thought, before Gu Yinyin could even reply, Da Wa suddenly said firmly: “Grandma, since my father hasn’t returned, no one has the right to divorce my mother on his behalf.”

Xiao Wa quickly followed: “No one has the right!”

Gu Yinyin smiled in satisfaction. “Exactly. What do you think this is, the old society? You can’t just dismiss whoever you want! This is the new socialist era. If people found out, you’d be dragged out for criticism! However, if it’s about dividing the household, I’d be more than willing. Da Wa, Xiao Wa, do you two want to split from the family?”

Da Wa and Xiao Wa’s eyes lit up, and they answered in unison: “Yes, we want to!”

Li Ailian was furious. “You—you wretched woman! You’re unfilial! Why can’t I make the decision to cast you out?”

Gu Yinyin deliberately wanted to anger her further and said: “Why should I be filial to you? You’re such a rotten, vicious old woman. You’re cruel even to your own grandchildren. The children of the second and third branches all get to study, but Da Wa studied only for half a semester before you forbade him. What kind of grandmother does that? You think you deserve anyone’s filial piety? Every time Da Wa’s father brought money home, you pocketed it all! When you took the money, did you ever consider how the eldest branch was supposed to live?”

Mentioning the eldest son’s contributions only made Li Ailian angrier. “You little tramp, aren’t you the one secretly hoarding so much? Otherwise where did you get things to give to Mei Ling? If I hadn’t been watching you, our whole family’s surname would have been Mei by now! Hand over that IOU, I’ll go to the Mei family and get the money back!”

On that point, Gu Yinyin had no way to argue, but seeing that Li Ailian was the type who never spoke reasonably, she simply turned unreasonable herself.

“Who are you calling a tramp? You sound so experienced! You’ve been poisoned by feudalism until you’re a walking corpse! At your age, all you do is spew filth! Let me tell you, our eldest branch owes you nothing, and I owe you even less! It’s you who owe us plenty! You take advantage of us and still pretend you’re being generous—did you think I’m easy to bully?”

She raised her hand, picked up the bowl of thin porridge in front of Li Ailian, and smashed it on the ground. “If you dare bully me, then let’s see who gets to eat today!”

Li Ailian was already suffering from a cold and fever, her whole body uncomfortable, even her fingers trembling. Gnashing her teeth, she ordered her sons and daughters: “Drive her out! Just looking at her makes me feel sick! What a sin!”

But which grown man dared to lay a hand on Gu Yinyin? She might look soft and weak, someone who would cry at just a harsh word, but none of them dared make the first move.

To tell the truth, in men’s eyes, a beautiful woman was the kind they could not bring themselves to bully.

Shen Guochang and Shen Guowei both lowered their heads in silence. Shen Meijuan and Ma Hongmei, holding back their anger, stepped forward and took away the bowls in front of Gu Yinyin and the two children. “Eldest Sister-in-law, if you don’t want to eat, then take the children and go wherever you like! Mother is sick, and the rest of us still want to eat.”

Especially Ma Hongmei, who swiftly lifted Gu Yinyin’s bowl of porridge and divided it into her husband’s and her children’s bowls. Smiling, she said: “Some people just don’t know how to cherish a good life. If they’re not messing around with educated youths, they’re bullying the elderly at home. I say, people like that don’t deserve to eat.”

Xiao Wa’s lips trembled as she was about to cry. “Mother, our food is gone…”

Looking at Ma Hongmei’s sharp, mean face that was downright laughable, Gu Yinyin picked up the full bowl of porridge that had been set before Ma Hongmei’s husband Shen Guowei, and poured it over Ma Hongmei’s head!

Although the porridge had been served a while ago, it was still hot. Ma Hongmei screamed and rushed forward to fight Gu Yinyin, but Da Wa secretly stretched out his leg, and Ma Hongmei tripped and fell flat on her face!

Her whole head and face were covered in porridge, sticky with mud and gruel, and she was so furious she wished she could kill Gu Yinyin.

Li Ailian leaned against the chair, gasping for breath. The second son, Shen Guochang, finally could not hold it back anymore. “Eldest Sister-in-law, big brother isn’t home. For his sake, can’t you stop making a scene? Look at what’s happened to a perfectly good meal! How are we supposed to live like this?”

Liu Wenxiu looked at her mother-in-law and Ma Hongmei, then at Gu Yinyin. She did not know what to say. She knew her mother-in-law had always treated Gu Yinyin and her two children badly, but the children were innocent. They still needed to eat.

“Eldest Sister-in-law, that’s right, the children still need to eat.” Liu Wenxiu said, distressed for her own children as she tried to persuade her.

Ma Hongmei’s husband Shen Guowei glared at Gu Yinyin in displeasure. “If you despise our family’s poor life, then go find Educated Youth Lin! Don’t act like you’re the only one with shame!”

Even though Gu Yinyin had explained herself on the spot the previous night, the villagers were still spreading rumors, insisting that she had an affair with Educated Youth Lin.

Gu Yinyin had not wanted to make a big fuss. Her two children from the eldest branch had already suffered countless grievances in the Shen family, and even their bowls of thin porridge at every meal were always the smallest. Yet these people still would not shut up. And now Shen Guowei, that shameless man, dared to accuse her of messing around with Educated Youth Lin?

Gu Yinyin slammed her fist down on the table so hard it almost collapsed.

She glared coldly at Shen Guowei. “You’re saying I had something with Educated Youth Lin?”

Shen Guowei pursed his lips. “If you dared to do it, then dare to admit it.”

Seeing her husband stand on her side against Gu Yinyin, Ma Hongmei also snapped: “You did something shameful yourself, and now you’re afraid of people talking about it!”

As soon as the words left her mouth, Gu Yinyin suddenly overturned the entire table!

All the dishes and bowls of porridge spilled onto the ground, completely inedible now. Everyone was stunned on the spot. Gu Yinyin pulled Da Wa and Xiao Wa by the hands, stepped back two paces, and shouted loudly: “All this food was earned by Da Wa’s father! The little money from the work points barely covers the second and third branches’ children’s schooling! I was kind enough to let you eat, but you came to bully me and Da Wa and Xiao Wa? Did you think I was dead? A cornered dog will leap over a wall! A cornered rabbit will bite! I’ll give you half a day to think it over—what you owe the eldest branch, pay it back! Whoever smeared my reputation, apologize! Otherwise, every time you sit down to eat, I’ll flip the table over!”

The two men of the Shen family were already angry, glaring at Gu Yinyin.

But she was not afraid. She sneered with contempt. “Don’t think that just because you outnumber me you can beat me to death! If anything happens to me, one letter from my brother back at my mother’s family will reach the county, and you’ll all be reported! This is the socialist era—we live by the law!”

After speaking, Gu Yinyin pulled the two children back into the room, gathered all the money, and hurried out of the house.

Li Ailian rolled her eyes and fainted in anger. The whole family busied themselves with taking care of her and had no time to bother with Gu Yinyin.

Once Li Ailian had been settled, Shen Guochang and Shen Guowei rushed off to work, Liu Wenxiu also shouldered her hoe and followed them quickly, but Ma Hongmei and Shen Meijuan lingered and did not go.

The two of them discussed it for a while. They had long disliked Gu Yinyin, so they pried open the door to the eldest branch’s room and replaced it with a new lock. From that day on, Gu Yinyin and the two children were forbidden from entering! They decided to treat them as dead, no longer belonging to the Shen family!

For the time being, Gu Yinyin had no thought of returning. She took the children on foot to the neighboring village, where she spent money to buy grain, and then carried the grain to town to exchange for ration tickets and supplementary coupons. Hongxing Village was a bit far from town, about a half-hour walk. Gu Yinyin was not used to walking, and before long she was exhausted.

Da Wa clutched the sack of grain tightly. “Let me carry it. I have the strength.”

He was only ten years old, still just a little boy, but his body was very thin and weak. Gu Yinyin thought he could not manage it.

But Da Wa insisted on carrying it. Just as they were at a standstill, a tractor passed by and gave the three of them a ride.

When they arrived in town, Gu Yinyin first exchanged ration tickets, then went to the black market to buy cloth coupons. By then it was already past nine o’clock, the sun high in the sky, and the three of them were hungry.

She went straight into a restaurant that sold breakfast. Da Wa and Xiao Wa stood at the doorway, wide-eyed, not daring to step inside.

The two of them had never been in a restaurant before!

In the end, Gu Yinyin forcibly dragged them in, ordered three large fried dough sticks, a basket of pork buns, and three bowls of egg soup.

Looking at the table full of steaming hot food, Da Wa and Xiao Wa swallowed hard.

Gu Yinyin, hungry herself, picked up a golden, crispy fried dough stick. “Eat, hurry and eat.”

In that era, although resources were scarce, the ingredients for food were very healthy and delicious. Gu Yinyin took a bite of the dough stick, and the fragrant taste was unlike anything she had ever experienced before—so tempting!

After the three of them finished breakfast, their bellies were full. Da Wa and Xiao Wa were both excited and satisfied, yet they did not dare ask questions or say much, simply following their mother obediently as she ran errands in town.

Gu Yinyin bought two pieces of new cloth, planning to make each of the children a new set of clothes. Xiao Wa caught sight of a shop selling hair ornaments, glanced quickly, then turned her head away.

Da Wa squeezed her hand in comfort. “Little sister, when brother has money, I’ll buy it for you.”

Hearing this, Gu Yinyin immediately pulled out fifty cents. “Come on, we’ll buy it now!”

After buying the hair ornament, she borrowed a comb from the shopkeeper and carefully braided Xiao Wa’s hair into two pigtails.

The little girl, with her fine eyebrows and bright eyes, looked delicate and lovely. Once her hair was combed neatly and decorated with a pink flower clip, she looked just like a girl from the city—so pretty that even the shopkeeper could not help but praise her.

Da Wa’s eyes lit up. His little sister really was the most beautiful girl in the world!

But Xiao Wa was not especially happy. She fiddled with her fingers and suddenly asked in a small voice: “Mother, are you going to leave?”

Gu Yinyin paused. “Why do you say that?”

Xiao Wa’s eyes filled with tears. “Before Auntie Xiaohua’s mother remarried, she also made her new clothes and bought her a hair flower. Mother, I don’t want new clothes, and I don’t want a hair flower. I want you…”

Indeed, Gu Yinyin was planning to leave—she just had not figured out how or when. Seeing Xiao Wa like this, she furrowed her brow.