“Yueyue…”
Seeing Lin Qingyue’s unusually serious little face, Auntie Liu also sensed that something was wrong.
“Is something the matter?”
“These past two days, I’ve been having the same dream over and over. In the dream, I gave birth to a daughter, but Gu Niancheng and the others swapped her with Yao Hongyan’s sickly child.”
“I’m afraid something unexpected might happen, worried that they might swap the babies.”
“What? How dare Gu Niancheng?” Gu Xiaoyu rolled up her sleeves, ready to go out and pick a fight with someone.
But Auntie Liu grabbed the hot-tempered girl firmly:
“You behave yourself.”
“Yueyue, what you’re saying really might happen. Now I finally understand why they’ve been trying so hard to make you give birth early.”
Damn it, those people from the Gu family actually wanted to swap children!
“Don’t worry, Xiaoyu and I will never let the child out of our sight.”
Only then did Lin Qingyue feel somewhat reassured. With only a few days left until delivery, accidents were inevitable in the village. She wanted to go to town and wait there.
Or better yet, go straight to the hospital? After all, she had money in hand now.
After finishing their meal, Lin Qingyue shared her plan.
Auntie Liu didn’t quite agree: “Yueyue, I know you’re doing this for the child’s sake, but isn’t your due date still a ways off? Everything costs money in town, and what you have in hand won’t be enough.”
“Besides, after you give birth, you won’t be able to work in the fields either. There’ll be plenty of places needing money then.”
A hundred yuan might seem like a lot, but if you had to buy everything, it wouldn’t last long.
Lin Qingyue thought about it and realized that made sense: “Then tomorrow I’ll go check the mountains.”
Auntie Liu and Gu Xiaoyu glanced at Lin Qingyue’s big belly: “Forget it. Look how big your belly is already.”
Lin Qingyue lowered her head guiltily. It really was a bit difficult to manage, wasn’t it?
Still, even if she couldn’t work in the fields for now, she still needed to make money.
Also, the college entrance exam results were about to come out. If nothing unexpected happened, she had gotten into university.
In her previous life, that scumbag Gu Niancheng had sold her admission spot for money. In this life…
He’d better not even think about it. Otherwise, she would definitely make him… regret it beyond measure!
After Gu Yunyun was brought home, she saw the terrible state of her face and nearly fainted.
She wanted to go to the hospital, but Mother Gu irritably grabbed some plant ash from the kitchen stove:
“What hospital? Do we still have money in this family? Just use this.”
“Mom, using plant ash will leave scars on my face.”
The villagers were all tough and hardy. When injured, they’d smear on some plant ash, and it would quickly stop the bleeding.
But the color—pitch black—would take a long time to fade.
If it were on her body, that would be one thing, but she was a young woman in the prime of her youth!
“Where would we find spare money in this family?”
Mother Gu glared at her daughter with irritation: “Honestly, you always end up at a disadvantage, and after getting burned, you still go back to provoke her.”
As she spoke, Mother Gu grabbed a broom from behind the door and swung it at Gu Yunyun.
“Mom, why are you hitting me?” Gu Yunyun dodged while screaming!
“I’m hitting you because you’re useless! You get yourself hurt and then have the nerve to come home and make a fuss!”
Gu Yunyun’s aggrieved tears streamed down her face. In the end, she could only stand in front of the mirror and sprinkle plant ash over the wounds on her face.
As she sprinkled it, the pain made her gasp sharply.
It hurt terribly. After she finished, her already pitifully disfigured face became even more gray and grimy—ugly beyond words!
There was nothing she could do. The family had no other medicine for wounds; this was the best they had.
She wondered where her eldest brother had gone. He hadn’t gone back to the Young Widow’s place again, had he?
It’s all big brother’s fault!
If it weren’t for him, how could there not be a single cent in the house? Then she would have had the money to get medicine.
And at this moment, the big brother that Gu Yunyun was thinking of was sneaking into Yao Hongyan’s room.
The little one was still whimpering weakly, and Gu Niancheng felt extremely distressed watching him.
“Hongyan, let him have some milk!”
Gu Niancheng coaxed softly; the child looked too pitiful.
Yao Hongyan shot him a glare. “I can’t even eat properly, with no oil or grease at all. How am I supposed to have milk to feed him?”
“Gu Niancheng, didn’t you say you’d make her give birth early? Hurry up and swap the child over!”
Yao Hongyan snorted in annoyance, her hand rubbing her belly. During those two times she went out, she felt a heavy, dragging pain in her lower abdomen.
It was all this man’s uselessness, dragging her down so she couldn’t even rest properly after childbirth.
“I’d love to, but who knows what’s gotten into that woman—she suddenly got smart. She’s dodged me several times!”
“Isn’t it just that you didn’t try hard enough?” Yao Hongyan shot Gu Niancheng a sidelong glance. “You’re not reluctant to part with her child, are you?”
“A girl—what’s there to be reluctant about!”
Gu Niancheng curled his lips in disdain and gently picked up the child. “He still needs milk!”
“I’ll think of something!”
“If you want me to feed him, you’d better find me some oil and grease. Or go buy two catties of meat, or kill an old hen!”
At the mention of eating meat, Yao Hongyan couldn’t help swallowing several mouthfuls of saliva. She hadn’t had meat in a long time.
Gu Niancheng’s face darkened. “I don’t have any money on me right now!”
There were still debts owed outside, the chickens and pigs at home had been sold, and his parents were full of complaints about him too.
“Then can’t you go figure out a way to get some?”
Yao Hongyan’s eyes rolled around a few times, and another idea struck her. “Niancheng, remember during review sessions, Lin Qingyue knew more than either of us? You think this time around, she’ll definitely pass the college entrance exam, right?”
At that, Gu Niancheng’s face grew even darker.
After the college entrance exam was reinstated, for sent-down youths with no connections to return to the city, going to university became their only way out.
One by one, they stopped putting effort into farm work, spending most of their time with their noses buried in books.
The same went for the young people in the village who had attended high school before.
He and Yao Hongyan were no exception, but they had studied longer and still couldn’t match Lin Qingyue.
Lin Qingyue still went to the fields to work and came back to busy herself at home, yet she knew more than all of them.
Of the three, the one most likely to get into university was Lin Qingyue.
“Why are you bringing that up?”
“She’s about to give birth any moment now, and no one’s even helping her watch the child. She still thinks she can go to university?”
Yao Hongyan tugged at Gu Niancheng’s sleeve. “Niancheng, how could I possibly be willing to let her go to university? Don’t forget, our son still depends on her to raise him!”
“I’ve heard that some people pay top dollar just to buy admission letters. What do you think about whether we could…”
Gu Niancheng’s face darkened. “You mean sell her admission letter?”
Yao Hongyan nodded. “Exactly. Once the results come out, let’s see. If we both pass, then we’ll sell her results!”
“Then the money from the sale can fund both of us to go to school!”
“And if by some chance I don’t pass, I’ll use her results to get into university.”
With a smack, Gu Niancheng planted a kiss on Yao Hongyan’s cheek. “Hongyan, you’re so clever! Let’s do it your way!”
“In a couple of days, I’ll head to town and see if there are any wealthy folks looking to buy grades. But right now, the most important thing is the child!”
Haven’t they swapped the child yet? Given Lin Qingyue’s temperament, she definitely wouldn’t be willing to raise an extra child!
“Our Congcong is too thin and small, too different from a full-term baby. We still need to find a way to make her born early!”
Yao Hongyan’s eyes darkened. She had no intention of staying in this small mountain village for the sake of a sickly child. She was going to college, to step onto a bigger stage.