The educated youths looked at one another in disbelief.
Educated Youth Niu couldn’t believe it and said with a shocked expression, “Was the police officer really talking about Jiang? She always seemed so neat and clean. How could she possibly crawl through a pigpen?”
Beside her, Zhu Pingjuan had already lost any favorable impression of the habitually dishonest Jiang Yue a few days earlier. She immediately said with a mocking look,
“Didn’t they say there was a social gathering at the pharmaceutical factory? If she was willing to crawl through a filthy pigpen, what else could she have been after besides finding a man?”
Everyone fell silent.
Educated Youth Niu pursed her lips and glanced at Wen Ranran’s neat and tidy bed.
A question suddenly occurred to her.
Wen Ranran had also been at the pharmaceutical factory that day. When Jiang Yue was mistaken for a pig thief, hadn’t Wen Ranran recognized her?
Of course Wen Ranran had recognized her.
Not only that, she was currently telling Lu Shi’an all about it, with plenty of embellishment regarding how Jiang Yue had previously tried to pressure her through favors and gratitude.
“…So when I saw her being mistaken for a thief, I couldn’t be bothered to talk about friendship among educated youths. Letting her suffer a few days in the Public Security Bureau was exactly what she deserved.”
The girl’s face was bright and beautiful, her expression proud and spirited. As she chattered away, Lu Shi’an stared into her eyes and barely heard most of what she said.
He only caught one key point:
That female educated youth surnamed Jiang had always bullied her.
Wen Ranran felt a little guilty.
“It wasn’t really bullying. I was just a bit foolish before. Once I saw her true colors, I completely fell out with her and even slapped her.”
Lu Shi’an nodded.
“You did the right thing. If anyone makes you unhappy in the future, don’t put up with it. No matter what happens, I’ll take responsibility.”
Wen Ranran smiled mischievously.
“What if you’re the one who makes me angry? Can I hit you too?”
“Yes.”
Lu Shi’an’s expression was completely serious.
“But I won’t make you angry. If there’s ever something I do wrong, just tell me. I’ll correct it immediately.”
Immediately?
Wen Ranran didn’t believe that for a second.
She had read plenty of novels in her previous life.
The male leads always promised to obey the heroine and listen to everything she said. Yet when it came to certain situations, they transformed into completely different people.
The heroine would say no, no, no, and the hero would simply pin down her hands and rasp, “Just one last time.”
With Lu Shi’an’s height and looks, he practically fit every requirement of a novel’s male lead.
Thinking about it, there was no way he could be much different from the others in that regard.
Wen Ranran suddenly froze.
Realizing her thoughts had once again wandered into inappropriate territory, she quickly shook her head and cleared away all those random fantasies.
She and Lu Shi’an had come out together to buy beef from a neighboring brigade.
On the way back earlier, they had run into an elderly woman from the neighboring brigade.
She told them that one of the brigade’s oxen had died from heat exhaustion that morning. The brigade leader had already butchered it and was planning to take the meat to the commune that afternoon to sell.
The moment Wen Ranran heard that, she became interested.
She hadn’t managed to buy any meat at the supply cooperative.
If she could buy some beef nearby without ration coupons, there were countless dishes she could make.
Beef hotpot.
Braised beef.
Spicy mixed beef offal.
Just thinking about it made her mouth water.
And if she got lucky, she might even snag some marrow bones. Beef bone soup with noodles sounded incredible.
As it turned out, Wen Ranran’s luck really was excellent.
When she and Lu Shi’an arrived, the neighboring brigade leader was supervising people loading beef onto a cart.
As soon as she explained what she wanted, the brigade leader cheerfully pulled out a knife.
“Comrade, how much beef do you want? I’ll cut it for you.”
Whether he sold it at the commune or sold it here made little difference. Selling some now would lighten the load.
Beef wasn’t particularly expensive in those days because it was mostly lean meat and not especially popular.
A jin cost less than sixty cents.
“Ten jin of beef,” Wen Ranran said. “And I’d like one whole beef stomach too.”
She had money.
Between what she had brought from home and what Lu Shi’an had given her, she had nearly three hundred yuan.
Even after today’s shopping, limiting herself to ten jin of beef was actually a restrained decision.
“Ten jin? Sure.”
The brigade leader gave her a surprised look, then glanced at the refined-looking young man standing behind her.
With a swift motion of his knife, he cut off ten jin of beef.
He punched a hole through the meat, threaded a straw rope through it, handed the beef and stomach to Lu Shi’an, and even threw in two beef bones.
“You bought a lot. These two bones are complimentary.”
“Thank you, Team Leader!”
In those days, many families bought meat by the liang rather than the jin.
For many households, meat only appeared on the dining table during the New Year.
As a result, news that Wen Ranran and Lu Shi’an had bought ten jin of beef quickly replaced Jiang Yue’s pig-thief incident as the hottest topic of gossip in Qingshui Brigade.
Most people were simply envious.
Who wouldn’t want enough money to buy meat?
Unfortunately, most families earned only a few dozen yuan a year and often couldn’t even fill their stomachs, let alone afford extra meat.
Some households with plenty of laborers were doing relatively well.
After hearing that Wen Ranran had bought beef from the neighboring brigade, they began discussing whether to buy some themselves.
The busy farming season was exactly when people needed nutrition. Even half a jin would allow everyone in the family to enjoy a small taste.
Meanwhile, Wang Dafen watched from afar as Wen Ranran and Lu Shi’an carried their beef back to the educated youth residence.
Jealousy nearly drove her mad.
“That little hussy only knows how to latch onto men. And that fool Lu is so stupid he’s completely wrapped around the finger of a shameless woman like her!”
She cursed Wen Ranran repeatedly, wishing disaster would befall her as soon as possible.
Then she turned to fetch water from the water vat to cook lunch.
But the moment she lifted the lid, she discovered that someone had dumped several handfuls of dirt into it.
The entire vat had become muddy water and was completely unusable.
Immediately, Wang Dafen began shouting at the top of her lungs.
“Which bastard without parents threw dirt into my water vat? If I find out who did it, I’ll chop their hands off!”
As she spewed obscenities, several suspects came to mind.
The first was Wen Ranran.
But after thinking about it, she dismissed the idea.
Although Wen Ranran was, in her opinion, a shameless flirt, she was still a city girl. Surely she wouldn’t do something so sneaky and childish.
That meant the culprit had to be Tian Jinbao, the brigade leader’s grandson.
Previously, Tian Jinbao had rammed into her stomach because of Wen Ranran.
Now he’d actually come to her house to cause trouble.
She absolutely had to demand an explanation from the brigade leader’s family.
Just because Tian Jinbao was the brigade leader’s grandson, did that mean he could do whatever he wanted?
Still cursing and calling Tian Jinbao every nasty name she could think of, Wang Dafen stormed toward the brigade leader’s house.
But before she even got there, the brigade leader’s wife intercepted her halfway.
Grabbing Wang Dafen by the hair, she slammed her against a wall.
“You old hag surnamed Wang! Who the hell are you cursing?”
“I let you off easy when you were hoping something bad would happen to Old Tian, but that doesn’t mean I’m some kind of saint!”
“You dare curse my grandson? If I don’t teach you a lesson today, you’ll never learn why flowers are red!”