Song Wei slapped her thigh, her expression a mixture of grief and grievance: "Aunt Xiu, what a mess this is! I just accidentally slipped and fell into the water, and I don't know who spread the rumors.
I used to like Luo Yecheng, but how could I possibly commit suicide for him? Even if I did, it wouldn't affect him much; he still married Jiang Xiaowan. And I'd get such a bad reputation. What was I after?
I'd be at a huge loss, wouldn't I? Our villagers here are so warm and kind, and the food is so delicious, why would I be so despondent as to commit suicide?"
Hearing her say that the villagers of Ping'an Brigade were warm and kind, everyone around her, who had been eavesdropping, beamed with joy.
"Of course! The people in our Ping'an Brigade are incredibly enthusiastic,"
Song said with a smile. "Right? I haven't been here long, but everyone has already helped me a lot."
"Aunt Xiu, do you have any tips for threshing corn?"
"I know! Let me tell you, don't just use your hands, that can hurt them. The corncobs after the kernels are removed are rough. Holding them in your other hand, you can easily scoop out a lot..."
She demonstrated, holding the un-threshed corn in one hand and the corncob in the other as a threshing tool.
Threshing corn is easy, but it's tiring for the hands, and they hurt after a while.
But using the corncob solves that problem.
"If you have those old-fashioned canvas shoes at home, bring a large bench. Put the shoes on the bench legs, and you can scoop them out in a few seconds."
The canvas shoes have those uneven textured soles, and you can easily pull the corn off with a few scoops.
Unfortunately, these days everyone in the family cherishes their old-fashioned canvas shoes and wouldn't share them with the corn cobs.
Song Wei didn't have canvas shoes, but she was strong.
She handled the corncobs with surprising speed and dexterity. At first, she was a little clumsy, but after a few tries, she could clean a corncob in about ten seconds.
"Song, you're quite quick,"
the older women around her said admiringly.
Song Wei replied, "I just want to finish quickly so I can go up the mountain.
" She quite enjoyed the job; it wasn't tiring, and she could listen to the older women gossip.
Perhaps because she was there, they only asked a couple of questions at the beginning before they felt too embarrassed to continue gossiping about her, and instead started talking about other people in the brigade.
Ping'an Brigade consisted of four adjacent villages. Song Wei's village was originally called Laozaogou, but now they were talking about the gossip from the neighboring village.
And Song Wei joined in without any sense of incongruity.
"Widow Hu always looked down on her husband, and now that he's dead, people from the next village say they've seen several men running off to her house. I wonder which man is so unlucky; his wife will definitely fight him if she finds out."
"Don't even mention the next village, let me tell you, men from our village are running off to her house too."
"Who?"
Song Wei and the others crowded around, their eyes shining with gossip.
The old woman who knew the news was quite pleased: "My son saw him last night, Gui Fen's husband. My son went to the next village yesterday and saw him crawl out of Widow Hu's house."
"Oh my..."
Song Wei exclaimed, her eyes sparkling with excitement; this was someone she knew.
She quickly asked, "Is she Granny Niu's wife?"
"Of course."
Aunt Xiu gave her a knowing look. "Gui Fen's husband is a good-for-nothing. He does nothing all day, and Granny Niu treats him like a treasure. If Gui Fen finds out about this, who knows what kind of trouble she'll cause."
The old woman who had just been talking about melons rolled her eyes. "What do you think if I told Gui Fen about this?"
She and Granny Niu didn't get along, and she was hoping they'd cause a scene.
"That won't do,"
Song Wei advised her. "Aunt Wang, think about it. Only your son saw it, right? If they make a scene and Granny Niu finds out you spread the rumors, she'll definitely accuse you of spreading them because you didn't like them. If her son denies it, you won't have any evidence, and you'll just be making trouble for yourself."
Hearing Song Wei's words, Aunt Wang realized what she meant.
Aunt Xiu chimed in, "Song Zhiqing is right. Even if your son saw it, no one will believe him if he testifies."
Aunt Wang grabbed Song Wei's hand. "Thanks to Song Zhiqing's reminder, otherwise my family would definitely be entangled by Granny Niu."
"What are you all doing chatting like this? Aren't you going to work?"
The team leader, seeing the old women chatting together, immediately came over with a stern face.
The gossip squad immediately separated.
"What's all the fuss about? We're working right here."
Aunt Wang rolled her eyes at the team leader. "This old woman's not very quick, so we're working a little slower, but it's not like we haven't done anything."
Aunt Xiu's eyes darted around before she suddenly asked the team leader, "Dalin, did you go drink that kind of wine with the old hunter yesterday? Your wife said you kept her up until late last night, and she's not feeling well today."
Song Wei almost choked on her own saliva; how could she say such things?
Team leader Jiang Dalin's face turned green and red, and he stammered for a long time, unable to speak.
Aunt Wang chuckled lewdly, "Hehehe...no wonder Cuilan looked so pale today, with those dark circles under her eyes."
The team leader loudly reprimanded them for not working properly, then fled somewhat disheveled.
His retreating figure seemed to be chased by some ferocious beast.
As he walked, he cursed, "That tiger woman, she tells everyone everything!"
She's made him lose face in the mountains!
"A bunch of old women are talking nonsense, and there's a young girl here too."
Song Wei: ...Finally, someone noticed my presence?
But she wasn't shy at all!
"Hey, Song Zhiqing forgot about you, hehehe..."
Song Wei's expression turned serious: "It's okay."
She was quite amused to see the squad leader leave in such a disheveled state.
"Wow, Song Zhiqing, you're really fast! You've already done so much!"
Even while gossiping, Song Wei's hands didn't stop, maintaining a speed of threshing one ear of corn every ten seconds or so.
That huge pile of corn was now only half full.
She could finish it in one morning.
The old women looked at Song Wei with different eyes; this Song Zhiqing was hiding her true abilities.
Song Wei grinned, "I was just thinking of finishing up quickly so I could go to the mountains to collect some firewood. I heard it's really cold here in winter."
"That's for sure,"
said Aunt Wang. "You really need to gather a lot of firewood. It's so cold here in winter that nobody wants to go out. Everyone stays home to hibernate. Without a warm kang (heated brick bed), you city educated youths won't be able to get through the winter."
Aunt Xiu added, "Speaking of which, this season is when there's plenty of food in the mountains. It's good to bring back more. You new educated youths don't get enough work points to get any grain."
Without grain, they'd have to buy grain from the production team to survive the whole winter.