14
Cuihua’s father had carried Cuihua’s mother back in the pouring rain. Cuihua’s mother insisted on going home. She had gotten the injection, the doctor said she’d be fine as long as she took her medicine on time and rested for a few days, and she didn’t want to stay at the clinic any longer.
When she saw Cuihua return with the two eggs, Cuihua’s mother thought for a moment, then told her to go and inform other families that she was back.
Cuihua immediately understood her intention. “Mom, there’s no need for this.”
“What do you mean, no need? If each family gives one egg, and you go to every household in the production team, that’s dozens of eggs! Do you know how long dozens of eggs could feed our whole family? Do you know how much money they could fetch at the purchasing station? You don’t manage the household, so you don’t appreciate things. Hurry up and go!”
Cuihua’s mother’s face was still pale. Cuihua didn’t dare argue too strongly. She could only put down the eggs and do as she was told, visiting every household in the production team.
When she reached Eldest Uncle Lu’s house, Eldest Aunt Lu, seeing Cuihua still standing there after delivering the news and noticing the basket of eggs in her hand, immediately understood what was happening. She curled her lip, turned, and walked toward the main room. Her voice was just loud enough for Cuihua at the courtyard gate to hear.
“How can she be so thick-skinned? A young unmarried girl going around begging for eggs, shameless. A girl like that, who knows who would marry her.”
These words made Cuihua, who wasn’t particularly thick-skinned to begin with, tear up. She hung her head and quickly hurried home with the basket.
Once home, she cried uncontrollably, blaming her mother for making her lose face.
But seeing the full basket of eggs, Cuihua’s mother just snorted lightly. “Losing a bit of face in exchange for so many eggs isn’t bad.”
Cuihua cried even harder.
Next door, Lu Guoguo could hear the crying. “Crying so miserably… Could something have happened to Auntie?”
“No,” Lu Zaiyang shook his head, having just returned from checking the paddy fields and hearing a few comments.
Seeing that he seemed to know something, Lu Guoguo pressed him for details. Lu Zaiyang just hummed lightly and didn’t speak.
Lu Guoguo eagerly fetched his enamel mug. “Brother, you must be tired from going out just now. Have some water to soothe your throat.”
Lu Zaiyang took the mug, drank a sip, and quietly told her the reason.
After hearing it, even Lu Guoguo felt embarrassed for Cuihua.
That behavior was indeed a bit… much.
Sun Zhaodi rubbed her nose. “Come to think of it, did I start it?”
“What does it have to do with you?” Lu Laoba shook his head. “With her personality, even if you gave her a handful of vegetable shoots, she’d make Cuihua carry a basket around to collect more.”
This difference in values was one reason why, even though they were neighbors, Sun Zhaodi and Cuihua’s mother couldn’t get along.
Because of the incident that day, whenever Lu Guoguo encountered Cuihua while working later, she couldn’t help but glance at her.
Lu Guoguo wasn’t the only one looking at Cuihua. Many others not only looked but also gossiped about her family.
Cuihua didn’t even dare lift her head. It hurt even more when she noticed that friends who used to be close to her now avoided working alongside her, following their elders’ instructions.
In the end, however the assignments were arranged, the person working next to Cuihua became Lu Guoguo.
Lu Guoguo didn’t speak to Cuihua. Today’s task was to earn eight work-points, a significant undertaking for her. She needed to finish the work here quickly, then find the work-point recorder to get other tasks to make up the eight points. The reward was a 200-gram pack of white sugar!
Fully focused on her work, Lu Guoguo didn’t give Cuihua another glance. Seeing that even Lu Guoguo, whom she disliked the most, was ignoring her, Cuihua felt her social standing had plummeted. In the afternoon, she didn’t even go to work, just stayed home crying.
Cuihua’s mother scolded her, even hit her, but it was useless. In the end, she could only lie in bed sighing angrily.
“Before, they said Lu Guoguo next door was a lazy girl. Now it’s you. What sin did I commit?”
Cuihua cried, “If you hadn’t forced me to do that, why would they avoid me? How am I supposed to get married now?”
“Dazhuang’s mother did the same thing before. Didn’t stop Dazhuang from getting a wife,” Cuihua’s mother retorted, feeling no shame at all.
The mother-daughter argument was overheard by an elder passing by.
Soon, word spread through the production team that Cuihua was unfilial, actually scolding her bedridden mother for not working.
Lu Guoguo was stunned by the news.
She returned home, her hands weak and feet aching, and looked at the packet of white sugar stored in her space, feeling quite pleased.
After resting, she boiled water, poured it into a large porcelain basin, and secretly added two small spoons of white sugar. After the sugar dissolved, she scooped a little into a bowl to taste. It was sweet but not overpowering, so she added another spoonful.
When Lu Zaiyang and the others returned, Lu Guoguo invited them to the main room table to have some sugar water. “I used the sugar grains I bought last time. I hadn’t finished them, so I put them in the boiled water.”
That’s what she said.
After taking a sip, Sun Zhaodi felt it didn’t taste like the usual sugar grains. She looked at Lu Guoguo, who, seeing this, didn’t panic but secretly waved her hand.
Later, when Sun Zhaodi quietly asked her about it, Lu Guoguo put on a look of shame and said, “It was sugar I bought before. It was quite expensive, so I saved some and didn’t finish it. This time, I mixed it with water for everyone to drink together.”
Hearing this, Sun Zhaodi didn’t doubt it further. After all, her daughter used to often keep food to herself.
After Cuihua’s mother recovered, she actually came to their house.
Sitting in the main room, full of vigor, she took Sun Zhaodi’s hand and thanked her for the eggs. “What can I say? Given our relationship, you still sent eggs over for me to get better. Little Sister, I’ll remember this kindness. In the future, if you ever need anything, I definitely won’t forget!”
“Can you wish me well instead?” Sun Zhaodi twitched her mouth, pulling her hand back from the other woman’s grasp. “It’s getting late. Aren’t you going back to cook?”
“Yes, it’s time to cook,” Lu Laoba chimed in, seeing Sun Zhaodi didn’t want to engage with her.
“Cuihua’s at home,” Cuihua’s mother remained seated, pretending not to understand their hints.
Lu Zaiyang and Lu Guoguo exchanged a look. Lu Guoguo whispered, “Does she have something on her mind?”
“Duh.”
Lu Zaiyang looked at her as if she were a fool.
Angered, Lu Guoguo stepped on his foot. Seeing this, Lu Zaiyang lifted his foot, but Lu Guoguo had already run off.
Witnessing their playful tussle, Cuihua’s mother cleared her throat. “Come to think of it, Zaiyang is twenty this year, right? Still not settled on a marriage?”
Hearing this, Lu Zaiyang was startled. Before Sun Zhaodi or the others could speak, he said to Cuihua’s mother, “I’m only twenty, no rush.”
“Twenty is not young. I already had my eldest by the time I was twenty. What kind of girl do you like? Tell Auntie, and I’ll keep an eye out for you,” Cuihua’s mother asked with a smile.
“No need to trouble yourself, Auntie. My dad has his own plans. Auntie should focus more on your own children,” Lu Zaiyang replied rather bluntly.
Cuihua’s mother’s face stiffened.
Sun Zhaodi narrowed her eyes, sizing up Cuihua’s mother, then suddenly said, “Don’t tell me you’ve got your eye on our Zaiyang, wanting him as your son-in-law?”
“That absolutely won’t do!”
Lu Laoba shook his head directly.
Having her thoughts cut off before she could even voice them, Cuihua’s mother stood up. “No such thing, I was just asking casually. It’s getting late, I should go back and cook.”
With that, she strode away.
Sun Zhaodi quickly closed the courtyard gate. She looked at Lu Zaiyang. “What about you and Cuihua?”
“She’s just the neighbor’s younger sister,” Lu Zaiyang hurriedly said. “No other thoughts!”
“Cuihua’s personality shares some aspects with her mother. I wouldn’t want her as my daughter-in-law,” Lu Laoba stated.
“I’m not thinking about it!”
Lu Zaiyang gritted his teeth.
“Good that you’re not thinking about it,” Lu Laoba gently patted his chest. “That’s terrifying. I knew her coming here meant no good. Sure enough, she was up to no good.”
Sun Zhaodi was amused by the father and son’s reactions. When Lu Guoguo came out of the side room and saw Sun Zhaodi laughing at them, she curiously went over. “She’s gone?”
“Gone. She even wanted your brother to be her son-in-law, but before she could say it out loud, your uncle and I cut her off.”
“I don’t have any thoughts in that direction either,” Lu Zaiyang declared.
“Cuihua is actually a pretty good person,” Lu Guoguo coughed lightly, “but forget about her being my sister-in-law. Brother, you’ll meet someone better in the future!”
The female lead was so much better. You better not be a wild boar that can’t appreciate fine grain!
Lu Zaiyang glared at her. “I don’t need you to tell me!”
“Pah, wild boar!”
“What are you mumbling?”
Lu Zaiyang narrowed his eyes.
“I’m going to get the sugar water,” Lu Guoguo said after cursing, then ran into the kitchen. She had boiled more water and mixed more sugar water. Now, she carried the porcelain basin to the main room table and invited everyone to drink.
When Cuihua’s mother returned home, she muttered under her breath, cursing the Lu family for not knowing what was good for them. Only then did Cuihua realize what her mother had done next door. Her eyes instantly reddened with anger. “How am I supposed to face people after this?”
Cuihua’s father was also unhappy. “Why did you go rushing over there like that?”
“Isn’t it because I thought Laoba’s wife was all sharp tongue but soft heart? I figured someone like that as a mother-in-law wouldn’t treat our girl badly. And it’s close by; we’d see her every day,” Cuihua’s mother explained.
“But you can’t just do it like that,” Cuihua wailed loudly. Her older brother and younger brother exchanged glances, neither daring to speak.
“In a few days, I’ll go see Matchmaker Zhang. Your eldest brother and you are old enough; it’s time to discuss marriage,” Cuihua’s mother thought for a moment and said. “Don’t worry, I’ll definitely find a good family for you.”
Cuihua covered her ears, crying as she ran back to her room.
Over the next few days, whenever Lu Guoguo saw Cuihua, her eyes were always red and swollen. At the end of a workday, Cuihua, who had been thinking for a long time, stopped Lu Guoguo. “Lu Guoguo, could you pass a message to your brother?”
“Ah? Okay.”
Seeing she was on the verge of tears, Lu Guoguo nodded in confusion.
When she got home, she relayed the message to Lu Zaiyang.
“She said she wants to meet you tonight after dark under the big cypress tree between our two houses.”
While delivering the message, Lu Guoguo carefully recalled the original story, there really was no such plot and felt very puzzled.
Lu Zaiyang only felt a headache coming on. He pressed his fingers to his temples, closed his eyes, took a deep breath, then put his hands down and stared at Lu Guoguo. “You go see her.”
“Huh? But she wants to see you.”
“You’re the one who agreed to pass the message. I’m not going. Shouldn’t you go tell her the reason why I’m not going?”
Lu Guoguo thought his face looked quite dark. Unconsciously, she swallowed hard and subtly took half a step back. “She looked like she was about to cry earlier.”
Lu Zaiyang stared at her steadily for a moment, then raised his hand and clenched it into a fist. The sound of his knuckles cracking made Lu Guoguo’s molars clench.
“I won’t cry, but I’ll make you cry by beating you up!”
Lu Guoguo looked horrified. “A man who hits women isn’t a real man!”
“A big brother beating up a disobedient little sister a few times, what’s wrong with that?”
“……I’ll go after dark! Brother worked hard all day, of course you should be home sleeping soundly!”
**