10: Peeing on the hand
Not long after dinner, seeing it was already dark, Lu Guoguo was about to close the courtyard gate when she noticed someone approaching their house carrying an oil lamp. A bit nervous, Lu Guoguo called out for her mother, fearing it might be someone from Lu Laoda’s family.
“What’s wrong?”
Sun Zhaodi happened to be coming from the chicken coop. Hearing her daughter’s tense call, and being very familiar with the courtyard layout, she didn’t even need a lamp. In a few quick steps, she reached Lu Guoguo’s side.
“Look, who is that?”
Lu Guoguo tugged at her clothes, gesturing toward the approaching figure.
Sun Zhaodi squinted, studying the person’s silhouette for a moment, then turned her head to reassure Lu Guoguo. “It’s not from that old bastard’s family.”
The “old bastard” referred to Lu Laoda.
“Eighth Sister-in-Law, is Eighth Brother home?”
The person came closer. Under the dim light of the oil lamp they carried, the visitor’s appearance became clear to both mother and daughter.
The person had a long, dark face, triangular eyebrows, and bulbous eyes. He was quite unkempt—even in the dim lamplight, Lu Guoguo could see the eye discharge clinging to the corners of his eyes. She immediately lowered her gaze.
The original owner had no memory of this person. Not knowing how to address him, Lu Guoguo turned her head toward the outhouse and called out, “Uncle, someone’s looking for you!”
“Come inside and sit,” Sun Zhaodi’s tone was very cool.
“Alright, alright,” the person said, carrying the oil lamp into the main room.
Sun Zhaodi then whispered to Lu Guoguo, “This man is your uncle’s cousin, the third son in his family. You can call him Third Uncle.”
Lu Guoguo nodded.
Lu Zaiyang emerged from the small side room; he had been bathing. “Who’s here?”
“Third Uncle,” Lu Guoguo replied.
Hearing this, Lu Zaiyang’s brow furrowed, clearly not having a favorable impression of this Third Uncle. Curious about the purpose of his visit, Lu Guoguo took advantage of Lu Laoba entering the main room to speak with him and obediently sat in a corner, openly eavesdropping.
The oil lamp Third Uncle carried had been blown out as soon as he entered the main room. Now, only one lamp in their house was lit. Sun Zhaodi and Lu Laoba sat on two adjacent long benches, with Third Uncle sitting opposite them.
Lu Zaiyang sat near Lu Guoguo, head bowed as he wove straw sandals.
“Out with it, what’s the matter.”
While Third Uncle rambled, Lu Laoba motioned for him to get to the point without beating around the bush.
Hearing this, Third Uncle grinned, revealing teeth blackened from smoking tobacco. “Eighth Brother, when you went to Xiao Shi’s house this morning, you mentioned something about a marriage arrangement. Could you tell me the details?”
Hearing this, Lu Guoguo pursed her lips. She looked up at Third Uncle’s eager face.
“What are you up to now?”
Lu Laoba glared. “You only have two daughters. You’ve already ruined one, and now you want to harm the younger one too?!”
“Exactly! And you’re their biological father!”
Sun Zhaodi was also visibly indignant, almost ready to point at his nose and curse.
“I’m just asking around,” Third Uncle had thick skin and didn’t mind their attitude at all. “If it’s just that his health is a bit poor, but his family can provide enough to eat and warm clothes, isn’t that a good place?”
Lu Laoba and his wife directly cursed him out the door. The courtyard gate slammed shut in Third Uncle’s face. He rubbed his nose and still shouted outside, “Eighth Brother! At least let me light my lamp! What am I supposed to do, go back in the dark?”
Taking advantage of Sun Zhaodi and Lu Laoba being in the courtyard, Lu Guoguo curiously asked Lu Zaiyang beside her, “Brother, what happened to Third Uncle’s eldest daughter?”
“He married her off to a man two years older than himself, all for thirty yuan in bride price. Knowing about this morning’s incident, he probably wants to get a better price for his younger daughter.”
Lu Zaiyang said coldly.
Hearing this, Lu Guoguo felt a bit nauseous. She tossed and turned for a while before finally falling asleep.
The next morning, she kept yawning, catching Sun Zhaodi’s attention. “Didn’t sleep well last night?”
Lu Guoguo nodded. “That Third Uncle is too much. I even dreamed that he married off his younger daughter.”
Sun Zhaodi snorted coldly. “He’ll get his retribution sooner or later!”
“Definitely!”
Lu Guoguo nodded vigorously, agreeing wholeheartedly.
After breakfast, Lu Guoguo followed them to work. Today she wasn’t feeding pigs; she was assigned to hoe weeds on the slope opposite the big locust tree bamboo grove.
She worked diligently. Though her movements weren’t as fast as those beside her, she didn’t slack off either.
The system hadn’t issued a task today. Lu Guoguo was a bit disappointed, but she had noticed over these days that the thing seemed to have a newbie period, which she had passed. Tasks no longer appeared daily.
Lu Guoguo, having lost her chance to save money, secretly sighed during her break.
“I heard our production team is getting more educated youths soon!”
Eavesdropping on the conversation beside her, Lu Guoguo perked up her ears.
“I wonder if they’ll be male or female educated youths.”
“Male educated youths aren’t good at labor, let alone female ones. It’d be best if our production team didn’t get any assigned at all. The current ones are already enough.”
“Though they’re not as strong as us at labor, they’re smart. And they’re better-looking than people in our production team too.”
“Does being good-looking put food on the table?”
Lu Guoguo listened, her thoughts drifting. The female lead should be arriving soon, right?
Need to find a chance to cling to her thigh.
As long as I don’t offend the one in this family, I’ll be fine. Once the female lead arrives, I’ll latch onto her. Life will definitely be sweet then!
Even as a paper-thin character, she should still live well.
After resting enough, Lu Guoguo picked up her hoe and started working again, huffing and puffing.
The few people beside her, who had wanted to sit a bit longer while chatting, noticed her actions. They exchanged glances, then lowered their voices.
“Did something happen to her recently? Did she really become hardworking?”
“Maybe she’s about to be arranged a marriage.”
“Probably. If she’s diligent, matchmakers are more willing to say good things about her.”
“Stop talking. Remember how her mother cursed last time? Let’s just work.”
Lu Guoguo focused entirely on working and didn’t hear what they chattered about afterward.
Thinking there was no task today, Lu Guoguo found the task panel had refreshed after lunch. She took a closer look.
[Today’s Task: Catch a snake. Task Reward: Two carp, each weighing 2.8 jin.]
Lu Guoguo, who was afraid of snakes but had just started liking snake dishes: You’re really trying to challenge me!
As the weather got warmer, more snakes came out to sunbathe. But because they were often caught by humans for food, fewer snakes appeared in the fields. You had to go into the woods or bamboo groves and have a bit of luck to encounter one.
Lu Guoguo, assigned to work on the hillside, hadn’t seen a single snake—not even an earthworm!
She pursed her lips and went out with her family to work.
Out of the corner of his eye, Lu Zaiyang noticed Lu Guoguo suddenly looking troubled. He thought back—she had been perfectly happy during lunch. Why had her expression changed so quickly?
His work was much more labor-intensive than Lu Guoguo’s, of course, but it also earned more work points—usually nine, sometimes ten. This was the kind of work for able-bodied young men.
Li Shan, who got along well with Lu Zaiyang, came over to him and started complaining about his younger sister.
“Her temper is so strange. One wrong word and she sulks, and I don’t even know which word offended her.”
Li Shan’s words made Lu Zaiyang suddenly understand. But after thinking carefully, he realized he hadn’t said anything. He concluded that his father or the others must have said something to make the girl sulk.
“What’s that expression? Don’t tell me your sister is like that too?”
Li Shan asked curiously.
“Sort of,” Lu Zaiyang replied vaguely.
“Sigh, if I had a choice, I’d rather be the younger brother.”
Li Shan sighed.
Lu Zaiyang’s lips twitched. “You do have a younger brother. Is his life easier?”
Thinking of how his own little brother was often bossed around by his older sisters, Li Shan blinked his peach-blossom eyes a few times, then looked relieved. “Then my current position is still better.”
Lu Zaiyang moved a bit away from him, somewhat disdainful.
Li Shan was oblivious and continued chattering away.
During her break, Lu Guoguo ran over to the bamboo grove twice and didn’t spot a single snake tail. Just as she thought the task was impossible to complete and went home after work to pick vegetables in the garden for dinner, as soon as she grabbed a cabbage, her eyes met a patternless rat snake coiled at the base.
Lu Guoguo’s hand trembled violently, goosebumps rising all over her body instantly!
The snake didn’t move, staying coiled around the cabbage root.
Lu Guoguo had no idea how she swallowed her scream. She withdrew her trembling hand and slowly backed away on legs that felt like jelly.
Sensing her movement, the snake slightly turned its head toward her.
Lu Guoguo was terrified, but this was indeed a good opportunity—it wasn’t a venomous snake.
She took a deep breath. “Don’t be scared, don’t be scared. Two carp, 2.8 jin each, that’s 5.6 jin total, enough for our family of four to eat for two days…”
The cracklings at home had been finished off a few days ago. Even with lard, they didn’t cook with it every meal. To be honest, Lu Guoguo was indeed a bit craving meat.
Seeing the snake retract its head and continue coiling under the cabbage, Lu Guoguo first ran home, then soon found a forked branch from the woodshed. She took a chopping knife and quickly modified the branch, then marched back to the vegetable garden with a bold and determined air.
That patternless rat snake was still obediently coiled there.
This snake didn’t seem very bright.
Lu Guoguo looked for an opportunity to act while internally critiquing.
The next moment, the fork pinned the snake’s head. Lu Guoguo used all her strength. Finding that the snake struggled for a while but couldn’t free itself from the fork, Lu Guoguo kept one hand steady on the fork while the other, fighting disgust, grabbed the snake’s tail.
[Task completed. Please confirm where to deliver the task reward.]
Lu Guoguo mentally directed it to her space. Feeling the thing in her hand move slightly, she let go of the fork, and her whole body jumped far away like a rabbit. Since her fork had only pinned the snake’s head to the ground without piercing it, when she let go and jumped away, that not-very-bright rat snake escaped at the fastest speed of its snake life.
Lu Zaiyang was the second to return home. As soon as he entered the courtyard gate, he saw Lu Guoguo vigorously scrubbing her hands in a wooden tub by the water vat. Her hands were already red, but she seemed to feel they still weren’t clean. After watching her rinse them several times back and forth, Lu Zaiyang walked over with a peculiar expression.
Seeing Lu Guoguo about to pour out the water and wash again, Lu Zaiyang hesitated, then asked, “Did you pee on your hands?”
Hearing this, Lu Guoguo’s face contorted dramatically: …Are you insane?!
**