6: Gossiping
Lu Guoguo didn’t appear before Lu Zaiyang until after the snake meat had been added to the pot.
With his arms crossed, Lu Zaiyang stared at her.
Lu Guoguo quickly walked past him, but Lu Zaiyang didn’t stop her. He was just puzzled as to why she suddenly so afraid of snakes?
During the meal, Lu Zaiyang’s first move was to pick up several pieces of snake meat with his chopsticks and put them in Lu Guoguo’s bowl. “Snake meat is really tender, so eat up.”
“Yes, eat more.” Lu Laoba and Sun Zhaodi also added a few pieces to her bowl.
Looking at the snake meat piled up high in her bowl, Lu Guoguo felt a chill run down her spine.
Under Lu Zaiyang’s gaze, she forced a wide smile. “You all should eat too, don’t just give everything to me.”
I really want to stuff this snake meat into the male lead’s mouth!
“Eat up,” Lu Zaiyang urged, noticing she hadn’t touched her chopsticks.
Watching Lu Zaiyang eat a piece of snake meat in one bite, Lu Guoguo lowered her head and picked up the smallest piece.
Don’t be afraid, it’s already dead, the skin is removed. Just think of it as chicken.
Lu Guoguo quickly stuffed that piece of snake meat into her mouth, and in the next instant, she was stunned by how tender and fresh it was.
Watching her eat the snake meat faster and faster, Lu Zaiyang grew even more puzzled.
Why wasn’t she afraid of snakes anymore all of sudden?
Not only did Lu Guoguo eat the snake meat, but she also drank the snake broth. “It’s delicious, Brother. Next time, catch a few more snakes so we can try braising them and see how they taste.”
Lu Zaiyang: “…If I come across any, I’ll catch them.”
Feeling like she had won back some ground, Lu Guoguo was in a great mood. While washing her feet, she hummed something softly. Lu Zaiyang tilted his head to listen, it sounded surprisingly pleasant.
The next day, the first thing Lu Guoguo did after waking up was to check her task.
[Today’s Task: Follow Lu Zaiyang to the back hill top chop firewood and carry a bamboo basket of firewood back home.]
[Task Reward: Twenty cents.]
So, after breakfast. Lu Guoguo trailed behind Lu Zaiyang wherever he went. Lu Zaiyang picked up a chopping knife and placed it in the bamboo basket, then looked questioningly at Lu Guoguo, who was also holding a chopping knife and carrying a bamboo basket.
“Brother, I want to go chop firewood with you.”
Lu Guoguo smiled brightly as she said this.
Lu Zaiyang’s lips twitched. “I’m not going to have fun.”
“I know, chopping firewood. I can do it.”
Without waiting for him to respond, Lu Guoguo turned her head and called out to Su Zhaodi and Lu Laoba, who were tidying up in the kitchen. “Mom, Uncle, I’m going to the back hill with Brother to chop firewood!”
Hearing this, Sun Zhaodi and Lu Laoba shared a smile and responded in turn.
“Alright!”
“Take good care of your sister, Zaiyang!”
With their response, Lu Guoguo urged Lu Zaiyang. “Let’s go, Brother. If we leave any later, the sun will be up.
Lu Zaiyang: “…”
No one had asked for his opinion at all.
Whatever.
“If you’re coming with me, you can’t slack off. Otherwise, you might as well leave right away.” Lu Zaiyang said on the way up the mountain.
“Got it.”
Lu Guoguo struggle to keep up. Lu Zaiyang’s legs were long, and each of his steps was practically two of hers. Before they even reached halfway up the mountain, Lu Guoguo was already drenched in sweat.
Lu Zaiyang glanced sideways at her and, seeing her trudging along without a word, he didn’t say anything either, though his pace slowed down a bit.
Noticing this, Lu Guogou thought to herself that it seems even the male lead was getting tired.
There were quite a few people heading up the mountain to chop firewood that day, including not only members of their own production team but also some from the neighboring production team.
Since the neighboring production team didn’t have as much forested land as theirs, whenever they needed firewood, they would come to this area.
Lu Zaiyang led Lu Guoguo along the edge of the forest, walking to the left for about ten minutes. “Let’s stop here.”
He set down his bamboo basket, and Lu Guoguo followed suit.
This area was mostly pine trees, and several dried-out pines could be spotted at a glance. Their target was exactly this kind of dried pinewood, which could be used as firewood once taken home and left to air-dry for a bit.
Though she had farmed before, Lu Guoguo had never chopped firewood. After observing Lu Zaiyang’s posture and strength with the chopping knife, she went to find a smaller dried pine and got to work.
To ensure the completion of her task, she piled all the chopped pinewood to one side, then cut it into sections and packed them one by one into her bamboo basket.
With a good sense of self-awareness, Lu Guoguo filled her basket halfway and tested whether she could carry it. Feeling it was manageable, she went to help Lu Zaiyang chop more dried pine.
Lu Zaiyang didn’t refuse. Since she had come along to work, she might as well put in the effort.
Compared to Lu Guoguo’s modest basket of firewood, Lu Zaiyang’s ambition was much greater. He didn’t pack the firewood into the basket but instead used strips of green bamboo to bundle the wood into stacks. Each stack weighed about a hundred and fifty pounds, and he had five stacks in total.
“Wait here. I’ll take four stacks down first,” Lu Zaiyang told her to watch the firewood while he carried one stack down the mountain.
The forest belonged to the public, and if you weren’t careful, the firewood you chopped could easily be taken by someone else.
“Alright,” Lu Guoguo agreed. “Hurry back, Brother.”
Lu Zaiyang glanced at her. “Don’t wander off. There are big wild boars in this back hill—they could knock you into a pit so deep you’d never get out.”
After thoroughly frightening his usually poorly-behaved sister, Lu Zaiyang felt satisfied and walked off carrying the firewood.
Lu Guoguo: …
Not long after Lu Zaiyang left, someone else approached the area.
Lu Guoguo quickly sat on top of the bundled firewood, quietly asserting her claim.
The newcomer was a girl who looked about Lu Guoguo’s age. She had short black hair, slightly tanned skin, a bulbous nose, and full lips. To be honest, she couldn’t be called pretty, but she wasn’t exactly ugly either—her large, round eyes saved her looks somewhat.
“I heard people say you were following Brother Lu to chop firewood. I thought they must’ve mistaken someone else for you, but it really is you?”
Cuihua looked disdainfully at Lu Guoguo, who was sitting on the firewood. “You’re so lazy—what made you actually go out? Did Brother Lu promise you something?”
“What kind of question is that?” Lu Guoguo huffed, recognizing the girl from her memories. “Am I that kind of person? And why are you so nosy about our business?”
Cuihua’s face flushed slightly, but her voice remained full of scorn. “Aren’t you that kind of person? You’re famously lazy across several production teams!”
“Can’t I change? If you have something to say, say it. Otherwise, go away,” Lu Guoguo waved her off, mirroring the original owner’s dislike for Cuihua.
“Is this forest yours? Can’t I just pass through?” Cuihua stomped her foot in frustration. Seeing Lu Guoguo turn her head away and ignore her, Cuihua huffed again and walked back the way she came.
Once Cuihua was out of sight, Lu Guoguo raised a hand and thoughtfully stroked her chin. In the original story, Cuihua had a crush on the male lead, but he only ever saw her as a neighbor’s younger sister. In the end, Cuihua married a young man from her grandmother’s production team, and the two lived a decent life.
As for why the original owner and Cuihua didn’t get along, it was partly because the original owner vaguely sensed that Cuihua was her “love rival.”
Remembering that the female lead hadn’t even arrived in the countryside yet, Lu Guoguo felt that everything could still be changed.
As long as she didn’t antagonize the female lead and just lived her own life honestly, she definitely wouldn’t end up like the original owner!
Though she had become a paper-thin character, even paper-thin characters deserve their own happiness.
What Lu Guoguo regretted most was that her college life hadn’t even begun before she ended up here. She didn’t know if she’d ever have the chance to attend university again, especially since the college entrance exams hadn’t been reinstated yet. According to the author’s setting, they wouldn’t be restored until the summer of 1977, and it was only early February of 1975 now.
This era novel had so many private settings.
Lu Zaiyang didn’t return alone; Sun Zhaodi and her husband came with him. Lu Laoba and his son carried two more bundles of firewood down the mountain, while Sun Zhaodi took Lu Guoguo to forage for some wild celery around the forest.
Lu Guoguo quietly tattled, “That Cuihua just came by and called me lazy. She even said I’m famously lazy across several production teams. Even if it’s true, she shouldn’t say it right to my face. It’s hurtful.”
Hearing this, Sun Zhaodi’s lips twitched. “So, you know she’s telling the truth? Guoguo, if you don’t want people talking about you behind your back or to your face, you have to change slowly. If you’re lazy, you’ll always be talked about.”
“I’m already changing bit by bit,” Lu Guoguo raised a small hand and whispered.
“Mom knows. When you followed Zaiyang to chop firewood today, I knew you were changing,” Sun Zhaodi said happily. “We’re not saying you have to become super hardworking, but as people, we rely on our own hands to eat. As long as you’re willing to work, life will definitely get better and better.”
Sun Zhaodi said a lot, even giving examples of lazy people from other production teams who couldn’t find wives and ended up living miserable lives in their old age.
Listening to her, Lu Guoguo began to imagine what her own life would be like if she stayed lazy.
But hearing these words of care and concern didn’t annoy Lu Guoguo. Instead, she felt a sense of novelty and happiness.
“Hey, did you see it? Lu Laoba’s ‘cheap daughter’ actually went up the mountain with Lu Zaiyang to chop firewood this morning!”
A woman with slightly flushed cheeks tossed wild celery into her bamboo basket while chatting with the others beside her.
“I saw it,” the somewhat buck-toothed woman next to her nodded. “But she didn’t actually do much work—Lu Zaiyang was the one doing it. I guess she just went to guard the firewood.”
“That’s still better than doing nothing like before,” the first speaker scoffed. “I’ve never seen such a lazy girl. I have to keep my boys away from her. Marrying her would be worse than marrying a female educated youth—at least they know how to read and can teach the kids.”
“You’re dreaming! If Sun Zhaodi would marry her daughter off to your family, I’d eat shit!”
“Oh, well, go ahead and eat it! I just don’t want a lazy girl like her as a daughter-in-law. If she were actually hardworking, I’d even be willing to pay fifty yuan in bride price to marry her into the family!”
The buck-toothed woman lifted her chin, acting as though it wasn’t that she couldn’t marry Lu Guoguo off—it was that she didn’t want to.
“If you can’t stand her, we can’t either.”
“Exactly! I think she’s only fit for a beggar, and even a beggar would think she doesn’t beg enough and would definitely look down on her!”
“Hahaha, you’re right! Absolutely right!”
Hearing these words, Lu Guoguo gritted her teeth.
She was carrying the smallest load of firewood among them and walking in front, so she reached the mountainside before Lu Zaiyang and the others. Just as she propped her bamboo basket against a dirt ledge to rest for a moment, she overheard people in the nearby woods talking about her.
The original Lu Guoguo wasn’t known for being good-tempered, and Lu Guoguo herself was no pushover.
She raised her voice and shouted, “You wish! I, Lu Guoguo, wouldn’t even look twice at the boys in your families! A toad dreaming of eating swan meat! Save those words for when you’re going to sleep—then you can have a nice daydream! You’re decades old and still gossiping about a young girl behind her back? Aren’t you ashamed? Disgusting!”
The buck-toothed woman and the others hadn’t expected their gossip to be overheard by the very person they were talking about. Now, being scolded by someone younger, none of them dared to talk back.
The truth was, what they’d said earlier was pretty harsh. They all had sons and daughters, and if they argued back now, that fierce girl would surely spread what they’d said. Wouldn’t that affect their children’s marriage prospects?
So, the buck-toothed woman was the first to grab her bamboo basket and slip away. The others exchanged glances and quickly followed, not even taking the path but scrambling down the dirt slope instead.
“Where are you going? Keep talking! Let everyone hear how you gossip behind people’s backs! I wonder which unlucky girl or boy will end up marrying into your families or marrying your sons!”
Lu Zaiyang, carrying his firewood, walked over just in time to see Lu Guoguo energetically yelling at the nearby woods.
Seeing the women flee even faster, Lu Guoguo wanted to shout a few more insults, but she caught sight of Lu Zaiyang approaching with his load of firewood out of the corner of her eye. She immediately shut her mouth and looked at him innocently.
Lu Zaiyang: …
“Were they talking about you?”
After hearing the content of her scolding, Lu Zaiyang roughly understood what had happened.
“Yes, they said even a beggar wouldn’t marry me.”
Lu Guoguo nodded.
“Wishful thinking,” Lu Zaiyang said as he walked past her, still carrying the firewood. “As if you’d even consider a beggar? Let’s go.”
Lu Guoguo huffed softly. “Whether I’d consider a beggar or not is my business. People like them, who gossip behind others’ backs, are only good at spewing nasty words to make others feel bad.”
As she spoke, Lu Guoguo hoisted her bamboo basket onto her back and followed him at a distance.
“Knowing that, why are you still angry?”
Lu Guoguo replied loudly, “Anyone would be angry hearing that! I’m just angry—it’s already good that I didn’t grab a stick and go hit them.”
Hearing this, the corners of Lu Zaiyang’s lips curved into a slight smile.
Little did Lu Guoguo know that apart from them, there were a few other people in the woods. They had not only heard what the buck-toothed woman and her friends said but also caught every word of Lu Guoguo’s scolding.
That very day, the incident spread throughout the entire production team.
However, when spreading the story, they didn’t name the women who had gossiped about Lu Guoguo. They only said that Lu Guoguo had overheard someone bad-mouthing her and immediately fired back.
When Sun Zhaodi and her husband found out about this, they pulled Lu Guoguo aside and asked who had been talking behind her back.
Lu Guoguo scratched her chin. “I didn’t see their faces.”
“Those gossiping turtles, watch out or your sons will be born without anuses!”
Sun Zhaodi stood at their doorway and shouted insults for half an hour.
The family next door, Cuihua’s family, listened in stunned silence.
After storing away the twenty-cent reward from her daily task in her space, Lu Guoguo brought a small stool to the courtyard gate, sat down, and listened to her mother scolding, occasionally clapping her hands in agreement.
Lu Zaiyang looked at Lu Laoba sitting beside him. “Aunt Sun… has always been this… lively?”
Lu Laoba smiled and nodded. “When she was a girl, she could take on eight people in an argument all by herself.”
Lu Zaiyang: …
**