Wang Fengqin wanted nothing more than to tear Ye Jin into pieces, but on the surface she still forced out a smile.
“Of course not. Mom cares about you so much. I would never speak ill of you.”
“Then why did I just hear Mom yelling about some ‘stupid wretch’ and digging out corneas? Mom, you’re not still thinking about my corneas, are you?”
Ye Jin stepped back in feigned fear. Wang Fengqin quickly waved her hands.
“No, no, absolutely not. I went to buy meat this afternoon but couldn’t find any, so I planned to borrow some from Liu Jinhua’s house. She not only refused but also insulted me badly. I just couldn’t take it.”
To make her story more convincing, Wang Fengqin even ground her teeth.
Ye Jin looked at her with half belief and half suspicion before slowly leaving. Wang Fengqin immediately started sweeping the floor, shaking all over from fear.
If she had not been quick minded, the prey in her grasp would have slipped away.
After cleaning up, she opened the cupboard and saw there were hardly any bowls left. If she did not go down the mountain to buy more tomorrow, they would probably have to eat with their hands.
Early the next morning, Wang Fengqin resigned herself to making thin porridge.
Ye Jin got up early, washed up, and quietly added something into Zhang Duo’s bowl, then slowly ate her own.
Wang Fengqin was already exhausted from housework, and her daughter was not cooperating at all. No matter how much she coaxed, Zhang Duo refused to eat.
“I won’t eat! I won’t! Who knows if you spat in the porridge!”
Thinking of yesterday’s steamed egg incident, Zhang Duo’s stomach churned again.
Even though she knew her mother was not a good person, she never expected her to tamper with food like this.
If Ye Jin had eaten it, she would have been happy. But now that she might have to eat it herself, she felt nothing but disgust.
“My little ancestor, that was just an accident yesterday. You’re my only precious daughter. How could I ever do something like that?”
After half an hour of persuasion, Zhang Duo finally overcame her psychological resistance, mostly because she was too hungry. She slowly began drinking the porridge.
At first, she was very cautious. But halfway through, she relaxed. The moment she opened her mouth and bit down, something alive suddenly struggled wildly inside.
“Spit it out! Spit it out!”
Zhang Duo did not know what it was, but she kept gagging. Once she started, she could not stop, and she vomited everything she had just eaten.
Wang Fengqin stared in shock at the worm writhing in the vomit. The association in her mind immediately made her imagine that the entire pot of porridge might be full of worms.
She could not care about comforting her daughter anymore and rushed to the table to vomit as well.
Ye Jin had already quietly stepped aside, watching the two of them turn pale and retch with a faint cold smile.
“This is only the appetizer. You can’t even handle this. There’s plenty more to come.”
Seeing the mess on the ground, she frowned slightly, then slipped out of the house while they were distracted.
She had agreed to meet Ye Xiaoli in the reeds on the back hill at nine in the morning.
She deliberately said nine o’clock, but arrived at eight thirty, bringing a burlap sack full of radishes.
Lying in the grass, she looked up at the sky. The blue was clear and pure, white clouds drifted slowly, and a gentle wind passed through the reeds. With a straw in her mouth, the anxiety she had felt after her rebirth gradually calmed.
Playing Wang Fengqin and Zhang Duo like this was not as satisfying as she had imagined. She had not asked about her younger sister’s whereabouts, not because she did not care, but because she could not afford to alert the enemy.
Right now, she was still prey in someone else’s eyes. Wang Fengqin was tolerating her only because Zhang Duo’s condition was not suitable for cornea transplantation.
The day Zhang Duo’s eyes recovered would be the day Wang Fengqin stopped pretending.
Lost in thought, she almost fell asleep until she heard soft footsteps in the grass. She suddenly opened her eyes.
Ye Xiaoli had approached quietly, afraid of disturbing her. She did not expect Ye Jin to wake up.
The two looked at each other.
Ye Xiaoli took out a handful of money from her pocket and squatted beside her excitedly.
“Jinjin, I earned money. I really earned money!”
“I told you you could do it. Didn’t I say so?” Ye Jin smiled and took the money, then pulled out two ten yuan notes and stuffed them back into Ye Xiaoli’s hand.
“What are you doing? I don’t want this much. I didn’t really do anything. Two yuan is enough!”
The highest denomination in the 1980s was ten yuan, also called a “Great Unity.”
A man working a full day could only earn about 1.5 yuan. In just a few hours, earning two yuan was already very good.
“What do you mean you did nothing? You carried the radishes down the mountain, sold them, and dealt with the risk of being followed and gossiped about.
You endured so much just to sell those radishes. Why shouldn’t you take twenty yuan? Besides, if your father forces you too hard and you have no money to prove your worth, are you waiting to be sold off cheaply to some old bachelor?”
Ye Xiaoli’s resistance weakened after hearing this. She kept clenching her fists, so Ye Jin simply stuffed the money into her pocket.
“Take it. We grew up together. There’s no need to be so clear about everything.
I will often have radishes to sell in the future. I can’t show up myself, so everything will pass through you. If you refuse this money today, how will I feel comfortable asking you to help me later?”
Tears filled Ye Xiaoli’s eyes as she nodded.
“Jinjin, you are so good to me! I, Ye Xiaoli, swear that whatever you tell me to do, I will do it. East or west, I will follow you!”
“Don’t say things like that. It sounds too distant.”
“Today I’ve prepared another hundred jin of radishes. I’ll need your help selling them.”
Ye Xiaoli cried even harder.
“Jinjin, just tell me anything in the future. I will do everything I can, even if I have to think of a way to do what I can’t.”
“Alright, stop crying. Your eyes will swell. People will think I bullied you.”
Ye Xiaoli lifted the burlap sack and left the back hill.
Ye Jin happily counted the money. After deducting expenses for her grandmother’s eggs and pork, and Ye Xiaoli’s share, she was left with sixty two yuan.
Just as she was about to leave, she noticed a man and a woman sneaking into another side of the reeds.
The man moved too fast for her to see clearly, but the woman’s face was unmistakable.
It was none other than that gossiping woman, Aunt Wang.