When Zhao Jianguo rode his bicycle back from the commune, he happened to see the girl of his dreams walking up the field ridge with an angry pout. He quickly stopped his bike, stepped forward, and asked what was wrong.
Seeing a trusted friend, Jiang Hongmei immediately poured out her grievances about what had just happened. "Jianguo, what on earth is wrong with Gu Yu? Why won't he just listen to my advice?"
Zhao Jianguo's face darkened with a wave of irritation, feeling that Gu Yu was simply a nuisance. He raised his eyes, forced himself to offer a few words of comfort, and then said he would ride home, drop off his bike, and head over to the Educated Youth Point to help them fix the roof.
Only then did a hint of a smile appear on Jiang Hongmei's face, though it quickly fell again. "But I still want to try and persuade Gu Yu."
"Hah..."
Zhao Jianguo let out a soft sigh, couldn't help lowering his head to suck his teeth, and gripped the handlebars so hard he momentarily had the urge to slap the person in front of him. Yet in the blink of an eye, a wave of intense affection inexplicably welled up from the bottom of his heart, rapidly scattering his full-blown anger until it vanished without a trace.
His gaze flickered. He curled the corners of his lips, raised his head, and looked at her with sincere eyes. Softening his voice, he said, "Gu Yu has a stubborn personality and cares deeply about his pride. When you keep bringing up his family background in front of everyone, of course he gets upset. How about this? Once I ride home, put the bike away, and come back, I'll accompany you up the mountain to try talking to him again, how's that?"
"Really? Thank you, Jianguo."
The smile returned to Jiang Hongmei's face. She unconsciously twisted the two thick braids resting across her chest, gazing at him shyly. Her almond eyes flickered, dark and bright, looking utterly captivating.
Zhao Jianguo stared, dumbstruck and burning in his chest. "N-not at all!"
"Mhm!"
Jiang Hongmei nodded slightly. "Then... I'll go back to the Educated Youth Point and wait for you."
With that, she spun around and scampered off. Watching her retreating, graceful figure, Zhao Jianguo silently vowed that he had to get rid of this obstacle, Gu Yu, as quickly as possible. Otherwise, Jiang Hongmei would never completely give up and fall into his arms.
"Hmph!"
With a cold scoff, he rode his bicycle home. At that very moment, Gu Yu and Shen Jianan had just reached the pile of rubble.
"Brother Gu, while it's still early, you can take a detour to the ox pen and feed the ox. I'll head back first to make dinner, so it'll be ready when you get back."
"Alright!"
Gu Yu handed the hoe from his shoulder over to him. "Trouble you to carry this back for me."
"Okay!"
The boy took it effortlessly, hoisting it onto his other shoulder. With a hoe on each side, he turned and happily skipped up the mountain path. Seeing him hopping and bouncing along, Gu Yu couldn't help reminding him, "Slow down, watch you don't trip."
"Oh!"
Shen Jianan didn't turn back, merely giving a crisp acknowledgment before obediently slowing his pace. Only then did Gu Yu set off toward the ox pen with peace of mind.
The boy carried the hoes up the mountain and spotted the crude little courtyard from afar. At the end of the mountain trail was a half-man-high courtyard wall built from loose stones and clay.
Pushing open the courtyard gate and stepping inside, he saw two thatched huts built against the northern side—one for living, the one next to it for storage. Slightly further away from the huts, near the roadside, stood a semi-enclosed shed serving as a kitchen.
Directly opposite him, about a meter from the corner of the wall, was a natural spring. The water flowed continuously year-round, about the thickness of a finger. Sweet and refreshing, the spring water was their best remedy against the summer heat.
Further down, the spring water's perennial erosion had gradually carved out a water pit the size of a bath basin and about a meter deep.
Back when Gu Yu had been driven away to live here, he had used a pointed stone to carve a palm-wide drainage ditch behind the pit that sloped gradually deeper, extending all the way to the edge of the cliff. This way, wastewater could be dumped straight in and flow down the ditch into the weeds and rock piles at the foot of the mountain.
On the left side of the courtyard gate, a scattering of vegetable seeds had been sown along the base of the wall, sparsely sprouting a few green shoots. Since it was still the era of the collective economy and communal mess halls, aside from the tiny plots people grew right outside their own front and back doors, every blade of grass and tree everywhere else belonged to the public.
However, rations were scarce nowadays and people generally couldn't get enough to eat, so the village tacitly overlooked certain behaviors. Whether you went hunting on the mountain, picked wild fruit, or went down to the river to catch fish and pick up clams—as long as you had the skill to get them and voluntarily turned a portion over to the production brigade, nobody usually said a word. Of course, if you ran into some rigid stickler who didn't know how to play the game and went behind your back to report you, that was a different story.
Consequently, most villagers didn't casually go up the mountain or down to the river unless it was around the holidays organized by brigade secretary Zhao Qiancheng, or if they sneaked off secretly. But even then, fearing exposure, these people would sneak over to the Zhao family at night to drop off some gifts.
Depending on these tributes from the villagers, Zhao Qiancheng's family lived quite comfortably, while their appetite grew larger and larger by the day.
The boy set the hoes against the wall, stood up, dusted the dirt from his arms, and walked over to the spring to wash his hands. Only then did he enter the kitchen, reach up to pluck two chili peppers from the braided string hanging directly above the stove, and squat down to fish two potatoes and two sweet potatoes from the broken wicker basket in the corner. He tossed them straight into a basin, washed and chopped them, and set them aside.
Next, he scooped out a bowl of cornmeal and poured it into a chipped small winnowing basket. Noticing quite a few unground husks still mixed inside, Shen Jianan—fearing they would scratch his throat—carried it to the doorway and winnowed it against the wind to sift out the hulls.
Only when nothing was left in the basket except for golden-yellow cornmeal did he stop, turn around, carry it back into the shed, tip it into a small basin, add a little clean water, and stir it into a paste.
Then he lit the fire, poured three large ladles of water into the iron wok, and while the water was still cold, poured in the corn paste, stirring constantly with a spatula to prevent it from sticking to the bottom or clumping.
As the golden corn gruel began to bubble and churn, Shen Jianan quickly fished out the soaked, chopped sweet potato cubes, tossed them into the iron wok, and let them boil together.
Actually, he preferred eating pure corn gruel. But if he cooked it pure, not only would it fail to fill their stomachs, it would also waste a lot of cornmeal. Though he himself had meat coupons and grain coupons and wasn't lacking for food, he still had to consider Gu Yu's feelings.
The man was proud and never wanted to take advantage of anyone by even a fraction. Naturally, nobody else need ever hope to get the better of him either—with Jiang Hongmei being the sole exception.
Scooping the cooked corn gruel into a porcelain basin and covering it with a wicker cage, Shen Jianan set about washing the wok to stir-fry some vegetables. They only had a single iron wok, which had originally been used at the ox pen to boil pig feed. Because half of it had broken off and the brigade no longer had any use for it, he had brazenly begged for it.
Otherwise, before moving into the mid-mountain thatched hut, Gu Yu had simply used his drinking enamel mug to cook rice and stir-fry vegetables. That mug of his had been smoked pitch-black by firewood, something that had made Shen Jianan laugh for a long time.
After washing the iron wok, he mounted it on the stove, and the firewood instantly made the wok sizzle and crackle. Wiping it down quickly with a brush to sweep out the excess moisture, he picked up the spatula and reached for the oil to start cooking, only to remember that both his and the original owner's important valuables were kept inside the room.
He had no choice but to put down the spatula, turn, and run back into the house. Retrieving the aluminum lunchbox used for holding oil from the corner of the bed, he opened the lid as he walked back to the kitchen.
Seeing only a thin layer of lard left inside, he sighed softly, scooped out a pinky-sized dollop with a spoon, snapped the lid back on, and hurriedly dropped the oil into the already searing hot wok to melt.
*Sizzle————*
Seeing wisps of blue smoke rise from the wok, Shen Jianan quickly tossed in the chili peppers to fry until crispy, then immediately added the shredded potatoes to stir-fry a dozen times. He sprinkled in a pinch of salt for seasoning, tossed everything evenly, and a simple dish of stir-fried shredded potatoes in chili oil was ready.
Scooping the dish into a bowl and placing it under the wicker cover, Shen Jianan finally pulled the firewood out of the stove to save for tomorrow's fire. Nowadays, nothing could be stockpiled in large quantities out of fear of getting into trouble—especially with Gu Yu being closely watched—so no matter what supplies they had, they had to use them as sparingly as possible.
Stepping out of the kitchen, he saw that the sun had set and Gu Yu still hadn't returned. Figuring that idle hands made mischief, Shen Jianan picked up the wooden bucket from the corner and began watering the vegetables in the courtyard. But before he finished the chore, the boy heard Jiang Hongmei's dainty voice drifting up from the foot of the mountain.
He quickly put down the water scoop and bucket, walked briskly over to the courtyard wall, and crouched down to peer through. He saw that pair of public-road sweethearts walking up the path, all lovey-dovey.
Jiang Hongmei cast a bashful glance at Zhao Jianguo, her soft, sweet voice ringing out between them. "Jianguo, thanks for speaking up for me just now, otherwise I wouldn't have known what to do."
Zhao Jianguo instantly felt his limbs go weak from the charm, grinning foolishly as he looked at her, almost forgetting how to walk. "Don't mention it. They don't understand you; I understand you."
"Mhm!"
Seeing his doting gaze, Jiang Hongmei bit her lip shyly and lowered her head. "Y-you watch the road."
"Ah, right!"
Though Zhao Jianguo said that, his gaze didn't shift away by so much as a fraction. Finding the sight sickening, Shen Jianan couldn't help biting his finger as his brain spun rapidly. Then, struck by a sudden bright idea, he turned his head to look at the remaining half-bucket of water, grinned mischievously, and rushed over. He grabbed several handfuls of black dirt, tossed them into the bucket, and stirred it thoroughly.
Carrying it in one hand, he hid near the courtyard gate, patiently waiting for the two of them to arrive. Only, he hadn't expected that a mere five-to-six-minute walk would be dragged out by this pair of smitten fools to over ten minutes of clinging to each other.
Rolling his eyes in speechlessness, Shen Jianan thought to himself that he absolutely had to make this splash count and give these two nutcases a proper show to remember.
Finally, just as his patience was wearing thin, the two of them reached the mid-mountain level. Zhao Jianguo finally managed to tear his eyes away from the girl of his dreams and recovered a sliver of his reason. Glancing at the courtyard gate ahead, he spoke to her as they walked.
"Hongmei, you said all those nice things for Gu Yu at the Educated Youth Point, but he doesn't treat you like anything at all. I really think it's unfair to you."
He paused and glanced sideways at her. Seeing the aggrieved look on her face, he hurriedly softened his tone. "Hongmei, I hope you'll start thinking more about yourself in the future. Don't waste your tears on someone who doesn't know how to be grateful, and stop begging those educated youth to treat him equally. After all, he's a double-dealer, a &@￥#Б$..."
Hiding behind the courtyard wall and listening to this man endlessly disparaging Gu Yu, Shen Jianan felt a blazing fire ignite in his chest. As the two drew close, he swiftly hoisted the half-bucket of water, dashed out to the doorway, and deliberately shouted out a warning as he hurled the water viciously at them.
"Look out!"
*Splash————*
Before Jiang Hongmei and Zhao Jianguo could react to the warning, they were drenched head-to-toe in muddy water.
"Ahhhhhhh!"
Startled by the sudden turn of events, Jiang Hongmei squeezed her eyes shut and shrieked, while Zhao Jianguo stood frozen, staring blankly at the bucket-wielding boy before him, a mouthful of muddy water still trapped in his half-open mouth.
"Aiyayaya! My bad! I was moving too fast and couldn't stop in time! Are you guys alright?"
Shen Jianan apologized with a look of feigned remorse, though the schadenfreude in his eyes was impossible to conceal. Furious to the point of exploding, Zhao Jianguo felt rage surge up from the pit of his stomach. Spitting out a mouthful of water, he lunged forward and threw a punch at the boy. "Shen Jianan, I'm going to let you have it!"
"Hey, hey, hey! What do you think you're doing?"
Seeing the fist hurtling toward his face, Shen Jianan hurriedly retreated backward into the courtyard while raising the wooden bucket to block in front of him.
*Bang!*
The fist slammed into the wooden pail with a muffled thud, the impact driving Shen Jianan back a few paces and nearly sending him sprawling to the ground.
As for Zhao Jianguo, a searing, bone-deep pain shot straight through his knuckles, wringing a yelp out of him. "Ahhhhh! My hand————"
Shaking his fist, he stumbled backward several steps. Lifting his uninjured left hand to gently cup his dislocated right knuckles, he glared at the other boy with eyes full of bitter hatred. "Shen Jianan, how dare you ambush me?!"
"Aiyoh! Your talent for talking nonsense with your eyes wide open is getting more and more refined, isn't it?!"
Shen Jianan rolled his eyes dramatically at him, opening his mouth to fire back a retort, when he inadvertently caught the faint sound of voices drifting up from the foot of the mountain.
"The sun is so fierce today!"
"Tell me about it, my face is completely sunburned!"
"Why didn't you wear a straw hat?"
"Don't even mention it. Yesterday when I went to the latrine, I left my hat on the field ridge for just a second, and when I came back, some thieving bastard had stolen it."
"So shameless, stealing even a hat..."
Hearing this, the boy instantly recognized the latter voice as belonging to Niu Chunhua, the brigade's notorious gossip. A bright idea instantly flashed in his mind. Letting his face drop into a gloomy scowl, he glared unceremoniously at Zhao Jianguo.
"You two barged in here uninvited, hollering at the gate and even trying to attack me and rob my things! Then, when your own bad luck made you smash your hand against the wooden bucket and get hurt, you try to pin it on me. Shameless!"
"You're talking nonsense!"
Hearing herself and her friend slandered so outrageously, Jiang Hongmei grew angry enough to speak up in protest. "Shen Jianan, stop spouting garbage! Jiananguo and I clearly came to find Gu Yu..."
"I wasn't even talking to you yet!"
Shen Jianan abruptly raised his voice, glaring fiercely at her. Jiang Hongmei gave an involuntary shudder of fright, momentarily swallowing her retort. Before she could recover, she heard the boy start spinning wild rumors about her and Zhao Jianguo.
"The two of you went running all over the mountain getting covered in filth, and instead of going back to change your clothes, you came reeking to someone else's place! You have zero manners!"
"Shen Jianan! Cut the crap, Jianguo and I didn't do anything!"
Jiang Hongmei cried out in shamed fury, "It was obviously you who splashed a whole bucket of water on us..."
"Good lord, did you guys hear that? The branch secretary's eldest son was rolling in the hay with the Jiang educated youth."
Before she could finish her sentence, her train of thought was completely cut off by a rising wave of discussion from down the mountain.
"What's so surprising about that? Don't those two spend all their time making eyes at each other anyway?"
"Don't talk nonsense! Jiang Hongmei likes Gu Yu!"
"I think *you're* the blind one. Didn't you see that little bint treating Gu Yu like nothing more than a slave? The person she fancies is the branch secretary's powerful son!"
"You guys are too shortsighted! If you ask me, Jiang Hongmei hasn't set her sights on either of them; she's just trying to use those two fools to protect her so she can have an easier time of it. Once she gets through this period and returns to the city in the future, she'll kick them both to the curb like old shoes and marry a man with an iron rice bowl. Talk about living the high life."
"This is going too far! How can they slander people like this? I—I'm going down there to give them a piece of my mind!" Hearing the group's gossip, Jiang Hongmei felt a surge of panic and terror. After all, in the current social climate, unmarried men and women getting too close would draw pointing fingers—let alone the kind of scandalous accusations they were shouting about.
Although there was nothing actually going on between her and Zhao Jianguo, the two of them *were* indeed covered in mud, and coupled with Shen Jianan's ambiguous remarks, if they didn't clear things up, neither of them would likely come out of this with their reputations intact.
Shen Jianan was trying to ruin her! Gripped by a mix of fury and hatred, Jiang Hongmei resolved that she couldn't just let herself be falsely accused. Weeping, she spun around, ran out of the courtyard, stood on the mid-mountain path, and shouted back down the mountain at the group with an air of aggrieved indignation.
"You gossiping village hags, your minds are utterly filthy! Jiananguo and I are entirely innocent! We came up the mountain purely to find Gu Yu so he could help the Educated Youth Point fix the roof, yet you lot can let your minds wander into the gutter—you have zero upbringing! I'm going straight to Secretary Zhao to have a proper word with him and make him judge what kind of disciplinary action people deserve for slandering others at will?!"
"Pfft!"
Hearing what Jiang Hongmei was saying, Shen Jianan couldn't help pressing his lips together in a smirk. Normally, whether she was secretly meeting Gu Yu alone or following Zhao Jianguo to the lakeside after dark for romantic walks and heart-to-hearts, she had hardly ever bothered to avoid people.
Now that she was terrified of getting dragged into a scandal, she was making things worse with every word she added, and on top of that, she had just offended the bunch of gossips down below. She was definitely never going to hear the end of it!
He couldn't help reflecting internally that in the original plot, the author must have kept all the traffic lights green for Jiang Hongmei all the way through. Otherwise, given her level of intelligence, she probably would have been beaten to death by angry villagers long before she ever managed to hook up with Zhao Jianguo.