When Shu Yong heard what his father said, he clicked his tongue and replied, “Since we’ve already beaten him up, we might as well vent our anger. Last time, when he went after An’an, we couldn’t find any evidence.”
“But this time, he doesn’t have any evidence that we did it either. If we can’t take out the leg in the middle, then we’ll take out his other leg.”
“No one saw you, right?”
“No, Dad. Don’t worry. I know what I’m doing.”
Hearing this, Shu Huairen secretly nodded in approval. It seemed this boy was still quick-witted. When he thought of the father and son, Fu Zhengyi and Fu Zhengyi’s son, a cold glint flashed in his eyes.
Their family had worked at the machinery factory since his father’s generation. His father, in particular, had been one of the few master craftsmen back then. One-third of the factory’s master forging workers had been trained by him.
Now, in the third generation, although Shu An was a girl, she was still the smartest among all the siblings.
Originally, they had planned to get this girl into the factory. Who would have thought that just then, he had been competing for the position of deputy factory director and had been openly and secretly criticized by Fu Zhengyi. Fu Zhengyi had accused their family of never sending any educated youths to the countryside and therefore lacking ideological awareness.
Their own children had never responded to the call to go to the countryside and join the rural re-education program. They had completely failed to comply with national policies, and their outlook and political stance were problematic. Because of this, he had lost the position of deputy factory director.
Now it was even harder to get this girl into the factory. Thinking of this, he reminded Shu Yong, “Next time you go see An’an, bring her some things and ask her if there’s anything she needs.”
“Don’t worry, Dad. I will.”
Shu An walked out of her eldest aunt’s house with a completely stuffed belly, accompanied by Zhao Ming.
Shu Huaiying was worried about her niece going back alone, so she urged Zhao Ming to take his younger sister back to the village.
On the way, Zhao Ming rode his bicycle with Shu An sitting behind him and said, “An’an, when you get there, ask your maternal uncle if he can find a bicycle ticket somehow. You should buy a bicycle. Otherwise, walking into town all the time is exhausting.”
“And since you’re a woman and often go into town to collect money, I’m worried someone might notice and start keeping an eye on you.”
“Mm. Next time I go into town, I’ll send a telegram to Jiang He and tell him about it. I’ll also ask my parents and my eldest uncle if they have any way to get one,” Shu An said. She also felt that she really needed a bicycle. Otherwise, walking everywhere was simply too tiring.
But she didn’t have much hope for her parents either. Bicycle tickets were extremely difficult to obtain.
Their family had only two bicycles in total. One was used by her parents, and the other belonged to her eldest brother.
When Jiang He married her, he had originally wanted to get her a bicycle as well. But the incident had happened so suddenly that he hadn’t had time to prepare one. Since it was difficult to obtain a bicycle ticket at short notice, he had replaced it with money and given that to her instead.
For ordinary workers, getting a bicycle ticket depended on their years of service. They had to be recognized as advanced workers or model workers, or win some other form of commendation, before they could receive a ticket.
For cadres, however, it was relatively easier. Of course, it was also possible to buy one on the black market, but the black-market price was outrageously high. A single ticket could cost the equivalent of half a year’s wages for an ordinary worker.
Her eldest brother’s bicycle had been awarded by the factory after he represented it in a competition that year and won first place.
It had to be said that because of that bicycle, matchmakers introducing potential wives to her eldest brother had practically worn down their doorstep.
Zhao Ming took Shu An to the entrance of the village. He watched until she entered the village before turning around and heading back the way they had come.
As soon as Shu An entered the village, the group of gossipers sitting beneath the big tree immediately greeted her.
“Oh, Educated Youth Shu, you went into town again? I saw someone just drop you off. Who was that?”
“Oh, my cousin,” Shu An replied casually twice, then ignored them and turned around to leave.
“Look at her. She goes into town every few days. She must be going back to her parents’ home.”
“She’s a girl. So what if she goes back to her parents’ home? Her family has good conditions. If it were me, I’d be happy to go back too.”
“But the money that Jiang Er’s second son sends home is all handled by her. Who knows if she’s taking the money back to her parents’ family?”
“That can’t be. Didn’t you see how many valuable things her family gave her when she got married? Do you really think they’d care about this little bit of money?”
“That’s hard to say.”
“All right, all right. You people do nothing but gossip all day long. Don’t you have any work to do?”
Song Chunmei happened to be passing by on her way home to fetch water. When she heard the group gossiping about her nephew’s wife again for no reason, she immediately spoke up.
“Oh, Chunmei, we were just saying it casually, just casually.”
“Look, your Jiang Er’s family was lucky enough to marry such a daughter-in-law. Who in the village isn’t envious? But she’s married into this family now. She can’t keep running back to her parents’ home all the time, can she?”
“What does that have to do with you? You’re all meddling in things that have nothing to do with you. Instead of wasting your time worrying about this, you’d better keep an eye on your own children. Didn’t you notice that your Ergouzi is over there picking up chicken droppings and eating them?”
“Oh, my grandson!”
The moment the woman heard this, she immediately looked toward her grandson. Sure enough, little Ergouzi was squatting there with his butt sticking up, picking up chicken droppings and eating them.
Shu An had no idea that these people were gossiping about her behind her back. After returning home, she first put away the money in her bag, took out the amount she needed to give the family for this month’s living expenses, and hid the rest carefully.
She looked at the remaining money in the tin can and counted it. She had enough money to buy a bicycle, but getting the ticket was the real problem.
Forget it. She would think about that later.
After putting the money away, she began thinking about getting into the machinery factory. If she could get a job at the factory, that would be ideal.
These next few years would be difficult, but afterward, she would be able to enjoy the dividends of the changing times. She didn’t have any great ambitions. With her abilities, becoming a master craftsman should still be achievable.
Then she could comfortably work until retirement. If she had spare money in her hands, she could buy a few shops and houses, rent them out, and live off the rental income.
Just thinking about it was perfect.
In her previous life, she had worked herself to the bone. In this life, she absolutely refused to get caught up in the rat race.
By the time Feng Aidi and the others returned from work, they had just stepped through the door when they saw Shu An lying in a rocking chair in the courtyard, munching on a cucumber. Every now and then, she would spit out the cucumber peel with a “ptui.”
The chickens beside her immediately rushed over to snatch the cucumber peels.
“Oh my goodness, look at you! Who eats a cucumber like that? Can’t you eat the peel? What a waste!” Feng Aidi couldn’t help nagging when she saw her second daughter-in-law picking and eating the cucumbers she had grown, eating only the cucumber flesh and throwing away the peels.
Shu An ignored her and instead said to Chen Hong, “Sister-in-law, let’s have rice noodles tonight. I’ve already soaked them. It’s so hot in summer. How about we make some smashed cucumber to go with the noodles?”
To be honest, her sister-in-law’s cooking really was pretty good. They were just ordinary home-cooked dishes, but somehow, everything her sister-in-law cooked tasted better than what her mother-in-law made.
As for Shu An herself, she could cook too, but her cooking wasn’t particularly good. It was edible, at least.
“All right. Since you’ve already soaked them, I’ll make them later,” Chen Hong replied with a smile. She then put down her tools, fetched some water, and washed her face first.
Jiang Erzhu walked in last. Hearing what Shu An had said, he immediately started muttering again.
“Such a lazy person, always thinking about eating and drinking. You’re good at eating, but when it comes to work, I never see you.”
“Every day it’s this and that you want to eat. What can’t you eat? You went to collect money and didn’t come back for the whole afternoon. You were probably eating by yourself outside. You don’t even know enough to think about whether your parents at home have eaten.”
Shu An treated everything he said as if it were nothing but hot air and didn’t bother responding.
Jiang Erzhu felt as though he were punching a wad of cotton. His anger only grew, so he turned to Feng Aidi and said, “Look at you. You’re still her mother-in-law, aren’t you? Why don’t you say a few words to her?”
Feng Aidi glanced at him. “You can’t even get the better of her when you talk to her. Do you think I can? What if she starts cursing me along with you?”
“You—you! Can’t you at least act like a mother-in-law?”
“Well, I’d have to be capable of acting like one first. I can’t do anything to her. If you’re so capable, you go deal with her yourself. You can’t handle her either, yet you want to drag me into it and make me the one to stick my neck out? I’m not doing that.”
Feng Aidi understood the situation perfectly. Her second daughter-in-law had gone into town to collect money today, so normally, she would definitely have bought some other things and brought them home.
If she sided with the old man now, there definitely wouldn’t be anything left for her later.