“If this is about that matter, you don’t need to put yourself in a difficult position. I’ll explain everything clearly to my parents.”
“Oh.”
Shu Yao responded.
“I’m not in a difficult position. I’ve already explained everything clearly to the Old Master.”
She did not like old cadres.
Lu Dingyuan truly laughed this time.
“We’re here, Uncle Lu. Thank you for bringing me back.”
The vehicle drove past the entrance to Liuya'er Hutong. Shu Yao gripped the handle and waited for it to stop.
“Shu Yao.”
Lu Dingyuan called out to her.
“May I ask you something?”
Shu Yao raised her chin slightly, indicating that he could ask.
“Do you look very much like your father?”
The Old Madam’s father?
A trace of confusion flashed through Shu Yao’s eyes.
“I’ve never met him. He passed away before I was born.”
As for Shu Yao herself, she did not actually resemble father, nor did she look much like Gao Xiu. Everyone said she had won the genetic lottery, combining the best of both parents as though she had been optimized.
“I’m sorry.”
Lu Dingyuan apologized instinctively.
He knew that Shu Yao’s parents were both dead, but he had not expected her father to have passed away before she was born.
“It’s all right.”
Shu Yao nodded and opened the car door.
Lu Dingyuan moved faster than she did, walked around the front of the vehicle, and took Shen Huaiyu from her arms so that she could get out.
“Aren’t you curious why I asked that?”
“Not curious.”
Shu Yao answered with astonishing bluntness, leaving all of Lu Dingyuan’s next words stuck in his throat.
The courtyard gate slammed shut in front of Lu Dingyuan with a sharp snap.
Lu Dingyuan stood there for quite a while before smiling and shaking his head.
“That temperament of hers, truly…”
The Shen Family had been in Shuzhuang Brigade for four days. The family of seven had been assigned to an abandoned livestock shed in the Production Brigade Area.
The conditions inside were crude; there was not even a bed. Fortunately, it was summer, so they could sleep on grass spread beneath them. The wooden shed leaked wind from every direction, but the Shen Family had reformed it, simply dividing it into three spaces.
“Smack!”
Qin Shu slapped a mosquito whose belly was swollen from feeding and killed it, leaving her hand covered in blood.
The sound of Su Zhiyun killing mosquitoes also continued without pause.
The father and three sons, on the other hand, had rough, thick skin, and the mosquitoes could not be bothered to bite them.
“We clearly already burned mugwort to drive them away. Why are there still so many mosquitoes?”
Qin Shu complained as she swatted at them.
“Put some of this on.”
Shen Jianghai handed his wife the Fengyou Essential Balm beside his head.
“I’m not putting it on. The smell of Fengyou Essential Balm is too strong. I applied some last night, and several people made pointed remarks about it, openly or otherwise, when I went to work today.”
Su Zhiyun had only dabbed a little on the two children as well; no matter what, she refused to apply any to herself.
Because of their identity as reform offenders, they were already being discriminated against by the villagers. Su Zhiyun was afraid that one careless mistake would implicate the entire family.
Shen Zhongheng spoke gloomily.
“I’ll get up earlier tomorrow and fetch water from the well by the village entrance. If I wipe myself down with water, the smell will disappear.”
No river passed through Shuzhuang Brigade, but there were still quite a few wells. A dozen or so households shared one well, whose cover was kept locked. Now that the educated youth and the Shen Family had arrived, there were more people competing for the water resources.
Because of the water-fetching matter, the villagers often quarreled with the educated youth. They were even less polite toward the Shen Family.
Usually, by the time it was their turn, the well water had already run dry.
Su Zhiyun was somewhat tempted—not because she could apply Fengyou Essential Balm, but because after coming here for so many days, she still had not been able to wash herself properly.
The water they fetched each day was barely enough for eating and drinking.
“Forget it.”
Su Zhiyun shook her head.
“Don’t quarrel with them over this.”
They were already beneath everyone else and had to keep their tails between their legs.
“But we can’t go on like this forever.”
Shen Jianghai spoke.
“We sweat every day at work. We need to wash ourselves, and our clothes need rinsing too.”
“Tomorrow I’ll talk to the Brigade Leader. I don’t think Captain Shu is an unreasonable person.”
“Dad, I’ll go with you.”
Shen Zhongyue, who had not spoken all this time, finally opened his mouth.
Beside his pillow lay two things: one was Shen Huaiyu’s little cloth pouch, and the other was the handkerchief Shu Yao had used to hide money for them.
Qin Shu felt that her Younger son was becoming increasingly silent. These days, she did not even dare mention Yaoyao or the child in front of him.
At seven o’clock on Saturday morning, Shu Yao got off work. Because she had been working the night shift, she had finished all her shifts for the week.
For once, the moment she got off work, she wanted to go to the nursery and bring Shen Huaiyu home.
Passing the public notice board, Shu Yao saw many people gathered there. It seemed that a new announcement had been posted.
“Our Food Factory has to support the factories below?”
“What places are these? I’ve never even heard of them.”
“How many years will we be gone? My wife and child are both in Capital City.”
“There’s an assignment from above. Every workshop in our factory has to send at least one person.”
“Ah, wouldn’t that basically be equivalent to being sent down…”
“Shh!”
Shu Yao ignored them. With factory director Guo in charge, there was a high chance she would not be selected.
“Comrade Shu is here?”
Upon seeing Shu Yao, comrade Huang, the nursery attendant who had just arrived to take over the shift, greeted her with a smile.
Zhu Hong heard the voice inside, hurriedly set down the bowl, and ran out.
“Huang Ting, you’re here. I have to go home and make breakfast for my son. As for that capitalist’s Little Brat, you…”
When she saw Shu Yao, the rest of her words instantly caught in her throat, like a screaming chicken whose neck had been seized.
If Shu Yao had not initially connected “capitalist’s Little Brat” with Shen Huaiyu, then seeing Zhu Hong’s attitude now left nothing unclear.
Just then, Shen Huaiyu’s wailing suddenly came from inside. It sounded heart-rending, and Shu Yao’s heart clenched at once.
The Little Brat was usually very well-behaved. Aside from being somewhat fussy during the first few days after leaving Qin Shu and Shen Zhongyue, he had never cried like this.
Shu Yao glared fiercely at Zhu Hong and, without caring about anything else, strode toward the room.
“Wait…”
Zhu Hong hurriedly tried to stop her, but Shu Yao shoved her aside.
Shen Huaiyu lay on the wooden bed, tiny and helpless, his hands and feet all moving as tears streamed down his face one after another. He looked utterly pitiful.
The child had always been clever, like a little adult. Whenever he needed something, he would let out two soft cries, and tears were rarely seen, let alone such uncontrollable sobbing.
When he saw Shu Yao, he seemed even more wronged. As he cried, his mouth made a sound resembling “yao.”
Shu Yao scooped him up and immediately noticed that something was wrong. The child’s diaper was wet, cold to the touch, and clearly had not just been soiled.
Shu Yao closed her eyes briefly, pulled off the diaper, and turned her head to see Zhu Hong reaching for the bowl of milk on the chest of drawers. Her furtive, guilty expression made it impossible for Shu Yao not to notice.
“Stop!”
While Zhu Hong was stunned, Shu Yao snatched it up first.
The milk inside was so thin and watery that the color of the spoon could be seen through it.
“This is what you give the child to drink?”
She abruptly pulled open the top drawer of the chest of drawers. The bag of milk powder delivered just yesterday was already half gone.
“This is what you meant when you said his appetite had grown and that he needed more milk powder every day?”
“I think this nursery has raised nothing but a stinking rat that steals grain!”
“Come with me to the security section!”
“If the security section won’t give me justice, I’ll go to the factory director.”
“If the factory director won’t handle it, we’ll go see the Public Security Bureau!”
“Why go to the security section? I’m helping you reform the capitalist’s Little Brat!”
Zhu Hong was afraid inside, but remained stubbornly defiant.
“Does he deserve to eat so well? Milk powder at every meal? Even the children of our great worker-peasant class don’t eat like that!”
“When other families’ children have no mother’s milk, they drink rice gruel. Who feeds a brat like this?”
“All this was obtained by exploitation of our poor peasant class and working class!”
The more Zhu Hong spoke, the more confident she became.
“You’re just an ordinary female worker. Where did you get so much money to buy milk powder? And where did you get so many milk powder coupons?”
“One bag of milk powder costs four yuan and requires two milk powder coupons. This brat drinks a whole bag in one week, which means sixteen yuan and eight milk powder coupons a month. Do the math!”
By now, more people had come to pick up and drop off their children. After hearing Zhu Hong’s words, they all looked at Shu Yao with suspicions.