◎ Disgusting ◎

An Lin said, “Anyway, I will still speak ill of Xue Guoshu in the future, but my tone will be better… Truly, you can know a person’s face but not their heart.”

Erya asked, “What does it mean to know a person’s face but not their heart?”

An Lin briefly explained.

Erya understood and nodded in agreement, thinking Educated Youth An was right.

Qi Yuzhen always felt that An Lin was misusing phrases again. “Knowing a person’s face but not their heart” shouldn’t be used on Xue Guoshu or Cen Wei. These two were quite…well, consistent inside and out.

It didn’t seem difficult to understand their inner thoughts.

In Erya’s view, other than Tang Niu’s husband’s family, no one else deserved scolding. Some people even deserved praise.

Educated Youth Xue and Sister Yuzhen deserved praise, and she praised the two of them vigorously, saying all the words of praise she could think of in her lifetime.

“I didn’t do anything. It was Educated Youth Xue who risked his life to save someone. He deserves praise.” When Erya brought the topic to herself, Qi Yuzhen finally spoke.

She didn’t dare to take the credit and believed what she did was not worth mentioning.

An Lin had drunk brown sugar ginger tea and of course had to say a few words, “How can you say you didn’t do anything? You boiled brown sugar ginger tea for Tang Niu, that was a kind act. She didn’t even cry after being rescued last night. What does that mean? It means she wasn’t afraid when facing death. Her heart had already died. You gave her a bit of warmth, and her heart slowly came back to life.”

Erya said, “Educated Youth An is right.”

It was rare for Educated Youth An to speak in such a literary way. Everyone listened half-understanding, and like Erya, supported and praised her words as good and right.

An Lin was happy from the praise and said that at noon she would take Erya with her to the Women’s Team Leader’s house and give Tang Niu three pieces of candy.

She also wanted to deliver warmth.

Hearing that she would give out candy, everyone praised her again.

At this moment, no one envied Tang Niu for being able to eat candy. Tang Niu’s life was too bitter. They would rather not eat candy than go through everything Tang Niu had experienced.

It was almost time to make lunch, and everyone left one after another. After they were all gone, Qi Yulian helped her elder sister prepare lunch.

Qi Yulian said to her sister, “I suddenly feel we’re very fortunate. Mom and Dad treat us well. Even if we fight with our in-laws after getting married, we can still come back to our parents’ home to live.

Qiaogu can’t possibly keep Tang Niu forever. Eventually, Tang Niu will have to go back. Once she goes back, she’ll be beaten and scolded again. Then she’ll try to commit suicide again. It will go on endlessly. She can’t be saved every time.”

Qi Yuzhen said, “That’s right. No one can stop someone who truly wants to die from walking the path to death.”

She didn’t tell her younger sister what she really thought about Tang Niu jumping into the river. It was better to let her sister and everyone else believe that Tang Niu truly wanted to die.

Otherwise, no one would take the matter seriously anymore.

Qi Yulian said, “Fang Qiang’s whole family is just a bunch of scoundrels. I’ll remind Educated Youth An another day not to be too kind-hearted.”

Even a younger sister who hadn’t finished elementary school understood some truths. How could Educated Youth An not understand? Qi Yuzhen felt the need to say, “Educated Youth An is much shrewder than you. She doesn’t need reminding. She knows how to take care of herself. As long as something doesn’t involve her directly, she just watches it as entertainment.”

Qi Yulian said, “That’s true. Educated Youth An is really shrewd. Last night, we prepared brown sugar ginger tea for Educated Youth Xue, and she still had the nerve to ask for half a bowl of it. I won’t bother with her anymore.”

**

Five days later.

“Qi Yuzhen, don’t you think it’s disgusting?” An Lin came to Qi Yuzhen’s courtyard to work early after lunch.

By the time she arrived, Qi Yuzhen’s family had already finished lunch. Their parents had taken the two younger brothers out to work, leaving the two sisters at home.

The sisters didn’t idle at home either. After finishing the housework, they were doing work in the courtyard with a few other girls.

Her abrupt words made Qi Yulian guess what it was about, “Educated Youth An, are you talking about Fang Qiang?”

“Yes! I already heard about the divorce terms he proposed. He wants your sister to marry him. Where does he get such shameless confidence?” An Lin was extremely speechless.

It seemed this absurd confidence was rooted in the bones of most men. If only all women had this kind of confidence.

As long as they firmly believed that average men were not worthy of them, they wouldn’t be blind enough to pick trash from the garbage heap.

Tang Niu was unwilling to return to Fang’s house, saying she would die if she went back. The brigade discussed the result that Tang Niu and Fang Qiang should divorce and find her a stable place to live. Actually, the two had never officially registered their marriage, so divorce just meant separating. But Tang Niu had no natal family and no backing at all. If Fang Qiang came looking for trouble, neither she nor her two daughters could fight back. This made things a bit troublesome.

Regardless of what to do if Fang Qiang came to cause trouble later, the first step was to find a stable place to live.

After discussion among several brigade cadres, they decided to look for the few widowed elderly households in the team. These were all old women living alone who had lost their husbands and sons. They had little labor capacity and were considered five-guarantee households by the team. Usually, they only needed to do some light work, and their food was covered by the collective.

If Tang Niu must be given a home, it would be most suitable to place her with these widowed old women. It would be best if they were willing to help with the children. With someone helping to care for the kids, she could focus more on work.

Tang Niu and her two daughters didn’t qualify for the local five-guarantee household policy. They are not orphans, disabled people, or widowed elderly, so they didn’t fit any of those categories. For this reason, Qi Hongjun specially held a meeting to consult everyone on whether Tang Niu and her two daughters could be counted as a five-guarantee household.

He added that once Daqiu turned fifteen, as long as nothing happened to the three of them by then, they would be removed from the five-guarantee list.

Grandma Liu from the team was willing to let Tang Niu and her two daughters live in her home. She was a five-guarantee household, and Tang Niu being counted as a laborer wouldn’t change that in any way.

Work points could not be immediately exchanged for grain and money. Not to mention whether the points Tang Niu earned could support herself and her two daughters, just by the time they got to trade them for grain and money, the three of them would have starved to death. So it was necessary to give the mother and daughters some form of security.

The women’s team leader would also go to the Fang family on Tang Niu’s behalf to demand food. Regardless of whether she succeeded or not, she had to try.

The children weren’t just Tang Niu’s alone. Fang Qiang couldn’t be let off easily.

Fang Qiang refused to divorce and wouldn’t allow Tang Niu to live at Grandma Liu’s house. He declared that if he were to divorce, someone had to find him a new wife who could give birth to a son.

The candidate for a wife had already been chosen, Qi Yuzhen.

Qiaogu went to Fang Qiang’s house to persuade him to separate, to persuade him not to harass Tang Niu, and Fang Qiang just came out with those words. She could tell that Fang Qiang wasn’t making things difficult on purpose—he genuinely wanted to marry Yuzhen, who was more than ten years younger than him. At that moment, she lost all patience for talking and directly started scolding him.

Fang Qiang and his family really did have such intentions, so when Qiaogu asked them not to spread it around and said she would keep it a secret as well, the words still got out.

It was undoubtedly the doing of Fang Qiang’s whole family.

Truly disgusting.

Yuan Xiucai was working in the fields harvesting vegetables with the others when she heard the news. Upon hearing it, she was instantly furious and wanted to go find Fang Qiang and give him a few hard slaps, but was stopped by several women beside her, telling her to calm down and not get too worked up.

That family was just talking nonsense, let them eat shit!

It’s not worth it to harm her health over it.

After much persuasion, Yuan Xiucai finally calmed down. That afternoon, she returned home and told her eldest daughter not to take those rumors to heart. Even if her parents died, they would never let Fang Qiang succeed.

Qi Yulian had already cursed for quite a while and now felt somewhat relieved. “It is quite disgusting, but there have always been toads eyeing my sister. Even before Fang Qiang got married, he already had his eye on my sister. At that time, my sister was still a child, and I was even younger than her. I heard about this from some aunties. After my sister turned fifteen, every kind of man wanted to marry her. If it weren’t for our parents being capable, she would’ve been sold off long ago.”

Erya could attest to this. She confirmed that what Yulian said was true. Not to mention the production team, even the commune had quite a few young men with decent conditions who wanted to marry Yuzhen.

Yuzhen was very popular.

Qi Yuzhen said, “Erya, you’re exaggerating too much.”

Qi Yulian said, “I’m not exaggerating, not exaggerating at all. Sister, you really are that good.”

An Lin said, “Your sister’s temperament, appearance, and manner of speaking—she stands out in every way. Only Song Xunzhou can barely be considered a match for her.”

Before her younger sister could respond, Qi Yuzhen said, “I don’t stand out. I’m very ordinary. If I don’t speak loudly, people can’t even hear what I’m saying.”

Let’s skip over the Educated Youth Song. It didn’t matter if her sister said it, but hearing it come out of An Lin’s mouth was quite scary.

Erya said, “When I was little, I envied Yuzhen for having a mother like Aunt Xiucai. Now I envy her children for having a mother like Yuzhen. If my mom’s personality were half as good as hers, I don’t know how cheerful I’d be.”

An Lin said, “If it were me, I’d be cheerful too. My mom’s personality is loud and rash. She really gives me a headache.”

Erya said, “I think you’re already very cheerful, Educated Youth An.”

No need to be any more cheerful. If Educated Youth An became any more “cheerful,” she’d be terrifying.

“What about me is cheerful? Not even close.” An Lin stopped talking. She might’ve been a cheerful person before, but after coming to the countryside, she couldn’t be cheerful anymore.

After all, the place she was staying in now was Erya and the others’ hometown. Even if she were foolish, she understood there were some things that shouldn’t be said in front of them.

Qi Yuzhen just brushed the topic aside, and everyone continued working together.