Zhao Qiancheng stared daggers at his wife, raising the pipe in his hand to point it at her through the air several times. Gritting his teeth, he warned her, "I am warning you—do not go doing anything that brings shame and disgrace upon us! I will never allow that Jiang Hongmei to step foot in our home. If you dare play any tricks behind my back, you can pack your bags and get out immediately. Did you hear me?"
"Yes, yes, I hear you!"
Seeing her husband had lost his temper, Qin Fengying immediately lowered her head like a quail, not daring to utter another word. Zhao Qiancheng shot her a stern look, and seeing that she had become much more behaved, he left it at that.
He then turned to his son to continue their conversation. "Tomorrow, I’ll head to town and ask your Uncle Manjiang to look into whether there are any suitable candidates at his workplace."
A flicker of hope ignited in Zhao Jianguo’s heart, and he quickly replied, "Understood!"
"Good." Zhao Qiancheng smiled and patted his son’s arm. "It’s getting late. Go back to your room and get some sleep; we have to work tomorrow."
"Understood!" Zhao Jianguo stood up on his own and added, "You and Mom should get some rest early as well."
With that, he returned to his own large bedroom. While the Zhao family had many members, they did not live like other villagers, with the whole family squeezed onto one kang, piled on top of each other and unable to even turn over. Aside from Zhao Qiancheng and his wife, everyone had their own room. Furthermore, they had a separate kitchen, a main hall, a storage room, and vacant pig and cattle pens.
All of this was thanks to Zhao Jianguo’s late grandparents and his uncle in town, Zhao Manjiang. Years ago, they had seized an opportunity to report several large landlords in town to the authorities, and in return, they unexpectedly received a gold bar and several bags of grain.
From then on, the Zhao family quietly struck it rich. The Zhao brothers, who had received an education, secretly handled the gold bar and leveraged it—along with their parents’ contributions and their own hard work—to secure positions as a production team leader and a textile factory worker, respectively.
Later, they even managed to put all seven children through school. Aside from the two elders and the brothers themselves, only Zhao Jianguo knew about this history.
The reason was simple: although Zhao Manjiang was the most successful member of the family, he had only produced four daughters, while Zhao Jianguo was the true eldest grandson of the Zhao line. Manjiang hoped that in the future, if Jianguo prospered, he would look after his sisters so they wouldn’t be left without a place to turn if they were wronged in their marriages, and he also feared that when his own time came, there would be no one to perform his funeral rites.
It was rather ironic—a man of culture in the new era still clinging to such feudal thoughts in his heart. If most people in the countryside hadn't been the same, his actions likely would have drawn criticism.
Regardless, from that point on, the Zhao family’s path was smooth sailing. A few years later, Zhao Manjiang married a salesclerk in town with family connections. With the help of her parents, he rose steadily, eventually becoming the director of the production workshop.
As for Zhao Qiancheng, although he only married a village girl from the next town, Qin Fengying, her brother was in the militia, and her entire family was united and, crucially, treated him with genuine devotion. The people in the area saw this and naturally gave him some respect, and the Qin family had also exerted considerable effort in helping him become the brigade secretary later on.
Plus, even though his older brother had moved to town and claimed he was keeping the old house for his retirement, he had actually given it to him. Furthermore, in Zhao Qiancheng’s immediate family, both he and his eldest son, Zhao Jianguo, could earn full work points, and even Qin Fengying and their eldest daughter, Zhao Xiufen, could earn seven or eight points each.
As for the younger son, Zhao Jiaming, he was thirteen this year and had started attending primary school in town last year. Zhao Qiancheng didn't expect him to earn work points; he only hoped the boy would study hard and secure a good job later on.
In any case, with both he and his wife working as cadres, there was no shortage of food or drink for the children. Therefore, the Zhao family’s living conditions were among the best in the vicinity.
This was also the reason Zhao Jianguo had always wanted to find a girl from a good family background. After all, the Zhao family had finally climbed their way up; they couldn't just keep marrying locals from the village. How many generations of effort would that require before they could truly get out?
He had been clear-headed about this before, but ever since Jiang Hongmei responded to the call and was sent down to Hongqi Commune, his mind had started to lose its cool. No matter how good the conditions of the girls Zhao Manjiang introduced to him were, he wouldn't even spare them a second glance.
Zhao Manjiang and Zhao Qiancheng had tried to persuade him several times to no avail. Thinking that the girl was from Beijing and, by the sound of things, had some connections in her family—which was in any case better than the old Zhao family—they had eventually compromised.
Who knew that she would cause such a scene today? But regardless, him coming to his senses was a good thing. After all, Jiang Hongmei was never the first choice for a daughter-in-law. Still, one wondered if he would go back on his decision now that he had sobered up?
Zhao Qiancheng glanced at his eldest son, who had already left, and then urged his youngest, Zhao Jiaming, to rest. "Hurry up, you have to get up early for school tomorrow!"
"Oh!"
Zhao Jiaming stood up and reached out a hand. "Dad, give me some money."
Hearing this, Zhao Qiancheng glared at him angrily. "Didn't I just give you two dimes a few days ago?"
However, scolding was scolding; he still pulled five small bills from his pocket and handed them over. "Get out of here, you spendthrift!"
Zhao Jiaming grinned, snatched the money, and ran off. Zhao Qiancheng turned to look at his eldest daughter; seeing the same greedy glint in her eyes, he felt helpless and had to hand her a dime. She pouted, but happily accepted it and left the main hall.
Zhao Qiancheng sighed, his heart aching as he pressed down on his wallet. This family—everyone spent money faster than the next.
***
As soon as Zhao Jianguo entered his room, his mind became chaotic. Jiang Hongmei’s tear-filled eyes kept surfacing, and his reluctance to let go surged once again.
A wave of irritation washed over him. He felt like he was acting pathetically. Today, in front of Niu Chunhua and the others, she had openly called Gu Yu her fiancé—what kind of man was he to still be clinging to her like this?!
But then again, asking him to just give up on someone he had loved for three whole years felt like too much to bear. Zhao Jianguo sat up abruptly, raking his hands through his messy short hair.
He truly couldn't understand it. He felt that Jiang Hongmei must be either blind or stupid. Otherwise, why would she pass up a promising, upwardly mobile young man like him only to tangle herself with a man undergoing "reform"?
Zhao Jianguo glared out the window with a vicious look. At that moment, he hated Gu Yu and the ungrateful Jiang Hongmei to the core, thinking to himself that he would surely make them regret the humiliation they had brought upon him today.
While he was plotting his revenge, the Educated Youth Point was equally rowdy. The group was arguing once again because of Jiang Hongmei.
"Forget it, forget it! Everyone is tired. Let’s just wash up and sleep! We have to work tomorrow!"
"Why should we just forget it? Huang Qimei, if you want to be a saint, don’t make us the scapegoats!"
The educated youth Song Yichen glared angrily at the short-haired girl who had spoken, then turned his gaze toward the red-eyed Jiang Hongmei and shouted, "It’s pitch black outside now, and nobody has even had dinner. Tell us, what should we do?"
"Exactly." Wang Wenwen, standing against the wall, raised her voice in disdain. "We all said we could fix the roof ourselves, but you insisted on finding Gu Yu to help. I just don't understand—can the roof Gu Yu fixed be eaten as dinner?"
Wang Wenwen was furious and confused. She genuinely couldn't understand why she found Jiang Hongmei so unpleasant today; she hadn't felt this much aversion toward her in the past.
"Who knows?" Lu Xiaoyue took over, casting a cold glance at the girl huddled in the corner crying in self-pity. She curled her lips in mockery. "The key point is, when Gu Yu didn't come, she wouldn't let it go; she had to drag Zhao Jianguo along to try and convince him one more time. And wouldn't you know it, once they left, they never came back. We finished fixing the roof, and we still haven't seen them. Everyone was tired and hungry, worried she might have gotten into trouble, searching everywhere for her. And what did we find? She was hiding by the river watching the stars! How cozy!"
Hearing her friend speak to her like that, Jiang Hongmei felt aggrieved and choked up. "I... I was just in a bad mood, so..."
"So because you were in a bad mood, we deserve to starve!?"
The hot-tempered Li Jiaojiao roared, "What kind of karma did we accumulate to be assigned to the same youth point as you? You don't do any real work, all you know how to do is flirt with men everywhere. That would be bad enough, but why should we suffer with you? Are you our mother or our father?"
Jiang Hongmei felt even more wronged. "How... how can you say that to me? I didn't do it on purpose. And besides, isn't it just making a meal? Since I didn't come back on time, you guys could have just cooked a meal first, couldn't you!? Why did you have to wait for me? Now look, you didn't get to eat, and you're blaming everything on me. What can I say? I suffered so much today trying to get someone to fix the roof for everyone—who am I supposed to complain to?"
The more she spoke, the sadder Jiang Hongmei became. She couldn't understand why, when everyone had been so reasonable before, they were all acting as if they were possessed, targeting her today.
She wanted to help Gu Yu, to let him blend in with the others so his life during his "reform" would be a bit easier. But not only was he ungrateful, he even allowed that Shen Jianan to bully her.
And that damn Zhao Jianguo! Whenever Jiang Hongmei thought about how he had dumped her halfway up the mountain earlier that day, left her to be bullied, and even called her a "pig-brained fool," she was furious. It seemed his previous tenderness and consideration were all an act. A country bumpkin is a country bumpkin; no matter how good the exterior, it couldn't hide the crudeness in his bones.
As for the people at the youth point, it was even more absurd! When she and Zhao Jianguo left, everyone knew and agreed. When they finished the roof and she hadn't returned, they should have assumed she was busy with something. They could have just made a meal themselves and she would have made it up to them later, right? But they were all so petty and calculating, insisting on waiting for her to cook. It was ridiculous—they weren't forced to go look for her at knife-point, were they?
Jiang Hongmei felt incredibly wronged, while the people at the youth point were almost driven insane by her. They didn't know how to describe the woman's selfishness. When she did something wrong, not only did she not repent, she actually turned the tables, claiming that everyone looking for her because they were worried was just an excuse to avoid cooking. What kind of logic was that? How could there be such a thick-skinned, shameless person in the world?
"If you think we're so bad and are bullying you, then let's go see the secretary tomorrow and have you assigned somewhere else, how about that?" Li Jiaojiao shouted, the veins on her forehead throbbing as if to highlight her rage. "Our temple is too small to accommodate a 'young lady' with such grand airs!"
With that, she didn't give Jiang Hongmei a chance to retort, grabbed Lu Xiaoyue and the others, and they all stormed out of the room, crowding into the two rooms next door to gnaw on raw sweet potatoes, leaving Jiang Hongmei sitting there alone, sobbing.
A long while later, someone walked by in the dark. Jiang Hongmei quickly stifled her cries, thinking the person had come to coax her, but she didn't expect that the person simply slammed the door shut and walked away.
Through the door panel, she faintly heard a voice say, "Finally stopped wailing. It's annoying as hell."
Hearing this, Jiang Hongmei’s mouth trembled, and she threw herself back into her quilt, sobbing uncontrollably until she fell into a deep sleep, hungry and exhausted.
***
When Gu Yu returned to the small courtyard at dusk, Shen Jianan was already lying on the earthen kang, snoring; judging by his state, he must have been exhausted from weeding all day.
Gu Yu smiled, leaning over to pull the quilt from the corner of the kang and gently covering the boy. Only then did he go to the courtyard to wash up. A moment later, he returned to the room in a sleeveless shirt, efficiently blew out the lamp, and climbed onto the kang.
The boy in his sleep felt the familiar presence and instinctively leaned closer. Gu Yu smiled helplessly, reached out to pull the soft little guy into his arms, and patted his slightly thin back before slowly closing his eyes to drift off to sleep with him.
The bright moonlight shone through the window, quietly covering the two of them, making them appear even more jade-like, cool, and handsome...
At daybreak, the work whistle blew. Shen Jianan kicked the quilt between his legs in annoyance and sat up on the kang, rubbing his eyes. Seeing no one nearby, he called out, "Brother Gu!"
Before his voice had even faded, a response came from outside. "I'm in the kitchen. Get up and wash up, we're leaving."
"Oh!"
Shen Jianan replied, quickly dressed, and ran out to brush his teeth and wash his face. Gu Yu had already taken two sweet potatoes out of the kitchen, washed them clean by the spring, and was standing by waiting for him.
"Right away!"
Shen Jianan scrubbed his face quickly, wrung out the towel, and hung it on the rack before taking the purple-skinned sweet potato handed to him. He took a bite—it was sweet and crunchy. Not bad!
The boy’s eyes curved into crescents. "Let's go, Brother Gu."
With that, he ran out while eating the fist-sized sweet potato, his slightly long hair swaying up and down with his movements, looking unexpectedly adorable.
"Slow down, we have plenty of time!" Gu Yu called out, following him quickly.
By the time they arrived, many villagers had already started working. Shen Jianan rummaged through his pockets, found four fruit candies, and while no one was looking, slipped two each to the brigade leader, Zhao Gang, and the recorder, Zhao Hongjun.
Then, amidst their shock, he smiled and said, "Something sweet for the kids at home."
After that, he pulled Gu Yu to the edge of the field and watched them expectantly. The two men were momentarily stunned—what was this kid up to? Gu Yu understood his little scheme and, feeling a bit awkward, glanced at his surroundings before whispering, "Brigade leader, recorder, it’s time to start work."
Zhao Hongjun and Zhao Gang then understood what the little educated youth was playing at. However, it wasn't a big deal, so after a brief thought, they assigned the two to the same spot. Shen Jianan’s face lit up with joy, and after thanking them several times, he grabbed their farming tools and ran off with Gu Yu.
However, when the two arrived at their assigned patch of land full of joy, they discovered that Lu Xiaoyue and Li Jiaojiao from the youth point were assigned to the upper ridge, and Jiang Hongmei was staring at them expectantly.
Shen Jianan’s face collapsed instantly, like the weather in March. Gu Yu patted his head amusedly. "Don't make a scene, get to work!"
With that, he walked toward the other side, distancing himself from the boy, and began hoeing the ground. Seeing this, Shen Jianan knew he didn't want to engage with her, so he didn't say anything more and followed a few steps behind, getting down to work efficiently.
It was just that while they didn't want any trouble, Jiang Hongmei didn't have that kind of awareness. Seeing Gu Yu now, she didn't even want to hoe; she only wanted to talk to him about what happened yesterday and get the pent-up frustration out of her chest.