Plump, but agile with it.
“Who are you? What business do you have cursing at me?!”
Mu Ying had wanted to pull Gu Wenshan somewhere private, hoping he’d finally hear her out properly—this was her last chance!
Who could have known some unrelated troublemaker would come crashing down from the heavens like this.
You Xiu straightened her crooked cap and pointed at Mu Ying, bellowing at the top of her lungs: “Everybody, come take a look! This is none other than Comrade Mu Ying, star performer of the arts troupe! Here she is, giving up her perfectly good leading role to go play the other woman instead! Don’t stop drumming up the crowd back there, comrades—let her put on a real show for us, demonstrating exactly how a mistress goes about seducing another woman’s man!”
At her shouting, quite a few comrades who’d just gotten off the trucks gathered around eagerly. Catching a mistress in the act had always been a crowd-pleaser, since ancient times.
Few people ever dared point a finger and scold Mu Ying directly, and here was You Xiu doing it not only boldly, but with enough force in her voice to rally a whole crowd behind her.
“I am not the other woman, I just… I just wanted to say a few words.”
Surrounded on all sides, Mu Ying flushed red with humiliation, wishing she could disappear into a crack in the ground. But anyone in the crowd who recognized her couldn’t help whispering to their neighbor—so it really was true, she really did like Regiment Commander Gu!
You Xiu stood with her hands on her hips like a short, stout wall, blocking every path Mu Ying might have used to escape, snorting furiously through her nose.
Xiangzhi told her absolutely everything—she’d already had the full story firsthand!
Unlike Xiangzhi, who could barely hold her own in an argument, You Xiu had made it to her second year of girls’ high school, just one step from university, before her family’s political background got her sent down to some remote backwater. Back in the day, she’d once stood hands-on-hips and single-handedly turned back an entire Red Armband task force. Sent down to the countryside all alone, the only thing she’d ever really feared was bad food—nothing else scared her one bit.
In You Xiu’s eyes, Mu Ying was nothing more than an ant that had crawled willingly onto her fingernail. If Mu Ying wanted to fight dirty, You Xiu could fight dirtier—not that Mu Ying would even manage that much. If she wanted to trade literary references, You Xiu had far more education than she did. Simply put, however You Xiu wanted to handle her, it would be effortless.
What’s more, You Xiu considered herself Xiangzhi’s own family now, and speaking from the moral high ground, she went on and on until Mu Ying finally broke down, covering her face and sobbing: “There’s no place for me here, I understand that now… I’ll go put in a transfer request the moment I get back. Wherever I end up, I refuse to be humiliated here ever again!”
Hearing this, You Xiu stepped aside just slightly: “You’d better follow through on that. Show a little backbone, and don’t give everyone more reason to look down on you!”
Mu Ying, more afraid of being looked down on than almost anything else, felt like she wanted to hang herself after all this. Well, fine then—she’d leave, and that was final.
“Waaah, everyone, move aside! I’m leaving!”
She turned and fled through the crowd, and a few kind-hearted onlookers followed after her, worried she might do something rash in her state.
Having finished dealing with Mu Ying, You Xiu turned and fixed her glare on Gu Wenshan.
Gu Wenshan, having already guessed exactly who she was, swallowed hard and broke into his most amiable smile: “Comrade You Xiu, I’ve heard so much about you. Hello there.”
You Xiu switched to an entirely different tone now, saying with biting sarcasm: “What a charming Regiment Commander Gu you are. Made a woman cry over you—feeling pretty pleased with yourself?”
Gu Wenshan finally understood exactly where Xiangzhi’s own sharp tongue had come from.
Noticing the onlookers still gathered around them, he said, torn between laughing and wincing: “It’s not what you think. Could we step aside and talk?”
You Xiu’s lips curved into something like a smile, but her eyes stayed sharply narrowed—anyone with sense could see the sarcasm dripping from every word: “Not what I think? Then what exactly is it you think?”
Whether he’d invited it or not, if Xiangzhi ever found out about this, it would upset her terribly—this needed to be handled with the utmost seriousness.
For the first time in his life, Gu Wenshan found himself nervous in front of a woman who wasn’t Xiangzhi: “It’s not that either.”
Stone Zhibing, having finished roll call in the distance, hurried over at the commotion and immediately shooed the crowd of onlookers away, extending a polite hand: “Hello there, comrade. I’m Stone Zhibing, political commissar of the First Regiment here.”
You Xiu extended her own hand, her smile not reaching her eyes either: “Hello, Commissar Stone. I’m You Xiu, Comrade Xiangzhi’s oldest and closest family.”
Gu Wenshan covered his face with one large hand, sensing this had gotten seriously out of hand.
Stone Zhibing tried to smooth things over: “This was really just a misunderstanding just now. Old Gu was single before, and that woman pursued him for a while, but the truth is, there’s nothing between them at all.”
“Oh, quite the perfect team, you two. Handling work and personal life all in one go—he fires off the trouble, and you swoop in to cover for him?”
Stone Zhibing said quickly: “No, no, that’s not—ugh, the more I explain this, the more confusing it gets.”
Gu Wenshan pulled him back and murmured: “Say less.”
You Xiu narrowed her eyes, watching every move the two of them made. Gu Wenshan walked over and said: “Comrade You Xiu, I’ve already sent someone to fetch Xiangzhi. I have some urgent business to attend to—”
“You’re not going anywhere. Not until she gets here!”
You Xiu had thought this through carefully. She’d already made enemies of everyone involved. Once Xiangzhi arrived, she planned to gracefully back down, pretending to apologize to them only because Xiangzhi asked her to—that way, Xiangzhi got to play the good cop, while she took on the role of the villain. Everything that needed saying had already been said, so there was nothing to lose either way.
Gu Wenshan thought it over and said, going along with it: “Fine. I’ll wait until she’s here.”
Clearly, this was someone fiercely protective of Xiangzhi, determined not to let her come to any harm here—ready to tear through anyone who tried.
The crowd gathering nearby had caught Old Zhou’s attention as he came down from a meeting in the office building.
He’d met this Comrade You Xiu once before, during a visit to Yanxia Village—an outstanding young sent-down youth, and Xiangzhi’s closest friend besides. Figuring he might be able to smooth things over, he ambled on over.
Old Zhou, cradling his tea mug, said amiably: “Young comrade, I actually know Mu Ying’s parents. Sometimes she really does get stuck in her own head about things—”
“Oh, it’s you? Xiangzhi’s supervisor? So you know Mu Ying too—are you two in on this together?”
Recognizing the senior official, You Xiu said, with rare politeness: “I recall you personally inspected the sent-down youth station where Xiangzhi was stationed. Did you happen to find whatever dirt you were looking for? Does it disappoint you terribly that Xiangzhi’s ended up staying here after all?”
She knew all too well how anxious Xiangzhi had been during that whole exam ordeal—the pressure had been so intense that Xiangzhi had cried in front of her over it. She’d also heard that some rival had tried pulling strings with a certain leader to have Xiangzhi forced out of the unit entirely.
You Xiu had hated herself back then for not being there by Xiangzhi’s side, and now, arriving today already fuming, only to run straight into Mu Ying on top of it, she felt ready to explode.
Such a pure, pretty, foolish little thing, with no parents and no one to lean on—anyone who dared bully her had to be utterly without conscience!
Old Zhou said: “…This isn’t quite what you think it is. Ah, ahem—Little Gu, why don’t you handle this.”
Having just been dressed down by a young woman, Old Zhou retreated, and Gu Wenshan, standing off to the side struggling not to laugh, caught You Xiu’s glare and quickly smoothed the corners of his mouth back down.
You Xiu glanced around. Dead silence everywhere.
A moment later, a voice full of hope rang out in the distance: “You Xiu!!”
That single shout was enough to make the tension drain right out of You Xiu’s stiff shoulders.
Xiangzhi came running up, out of breath, thrilled beyond words to hear You Xiu had arrived. Having caught wind of You Xiu apparently going on a rampage, she threw her arms around her at once and dragged her off to the side.
You Xiu, seeing Xiangzhi in front of her, was overcome with emotion, hugging her and bouncing on the spot for a good long while: “Surprise! I’m here—I came all this way just to see you!”
“Surprise, surprise, surprise!” Xiangzhi, noticing the sour looks on the group of men over there, asked You Xiu: “What did you say to them?”
You Xiu didn’t bother hiding anything, recounting the whole incident, then added: “Let me tell you, it’s a good thing I happened to be here today. What if I hadn’t been? You’re far too kind and naive—people will take advantage of that so easily. Anyone who dares bully you, I will absolutely never let it slide. I’ll make sure they know you’re not someone to be pushed around!”
Old Zhou, standing nearby and catching every word, couldn’t help but look the plump little girl over with newfound appreciation: “Well said. You’re a good kid. I feel much better knowing she has a friend like you.”
“What business is it of yours to feel better? Since when do you get a say? Hypocrite!” You Xiu rolled her eyes dramatically, in a move eerily similar to Xiangzhi’s own.
“You’ve got it wrong, he’s not Section Chief Chen.”
Xiangzhi tugged at her sleeve: “That… actually, he’s my father.”
“What did you just say?!”
“He’s my father.”
“…” You Xiu stood frozen in place for a full thirty seconds, like a fighter jet that had just cut its engine, needing time for her brain to process the sudden halt.
“You have a father now?”
Xiangzhi scratched her head, a little embarrassed: “It really was pretty sudden.”
You Xiu closed her eyes, swallowed hard, and turned toward Old Zhou with visible difficulty: “…Hello, sir.”
She retracted every prickle from her whole body at once, standing there sweetly in front of Old Zhou. Pulling her crooked cap off and wringing it in her hands, she said, awkward but polite: “Happy belated New Year, sir. Wishing you great fortune… and a long life like the southern mountains…”
Old Zhou, not one to hold a grudge, felt only relief that his little flower had a friend like this, and nodded: “Hello there. Wishing you good health too.”
While You Xiu and Old Zhou exchanged pleasantries, Gu Wenshan studied her closely.
His little flower spirit’s best friend—could this possibly be some kind of hedgehog spirit?
Unaware of what he was privately thinking, You Xiu smiled her awkward-but-polite smile, considerably less lethal than before.
Old Zhou patted her shoulder and remarked: “Sturdy as anything, this one.” Then, turning to Gu Wenshan: “So you’re here to hand in the marriage application?”
Gu Wenshan said, earnest: “Still needs your approval, sir.”
Knowing the two young women had plenty to catch up on, Old Zhou said to Gu Wenshan: “Come on, let’s go find Old Liu together. I’ve got plenty to tell you myself.”
Gu Wenshan fell into step at once, glancing back to shoot Xiangzhi a look.
This was clearly her future father-in-law wanting a word—and even though this particular cheap father of hers had come to her out of nowhere, he clearly put real thought into looking out for his daughter.
Xiangzhi looped her arm through You Xiu’s and waited until the two men had left before listening to You Xiu say: “Oh my goodness, that was mortifying. So he was in a rush to turn in his marriage application, and here I was not letting him leave. See what I mean, I really do act too rashly sometimes.”
Xiangzhi, delighted just to have her there, said sweetly: “So what if you yelled at them a little. If they really love me, they’ll understand you were just looking out for me, and they won’t actually hold it against you.”
You Xiu, broad-minded as ever, wasn’t the type to dwell on something so small—especially since, as the one doing the yelling, she had even less reason to dwell on it than anyone else.
“You should’ve told me sooner you were coming. If Big Brother Wu hadn’t called me, I wouldn’t have even known you’d arrived!”
Xiangzhi said this cheerfully, then glanced up to see Stone Zhibing still standing nearby and asked: “Commissar Stone, let me apologize on my sister’s behalf.”
“No need at all. I stayed behind just to let you both know—housing’s a bit tight right now, so if you two are close, I’ll go ahead and assign Comrade You Xiu’s lodging to your dorm directly. Once the larger dormitory opens up in a few days, we can move her over there.”
Xiangzhi was thrilled at that, of course—before coming to the 114th, the two of them had often shared a bed, whispering to each other late into the night before falling asleep.
“No need to move her at all,” Xiangzhi told Stone Zhibing. “She can just stay with me the whole time.”
Stone Zhibing said, smiling: “It has to be arranged properly—there’s the matter of building discipline and unified management too.”
“Fine.” Xiangzhi agreed, reluctant, and once Stone Zhibing had left, led You Xiu off to the bungalow to drop off her things.
The other comrades who’d arrived on the same truck as You Xiu, seeing how she seemed to know people here already, and with some apparent pull besides, couldn’t help but feel a little envious.
They also hadn’t forgotten how sharp her tongue had been with Mu Ying just now, and quietly resolved to watch their step around her during training going forward—better not to get on her bad side. Seeing her worn clothes and patched elbows at first, they’d assumed she was someone with no connections at all.
Who could have guessed she had both the sharp tongue and the connections to back it up—there was no getting the upper hand on her at all.
You Xiu, unconcerned with any of that, felt lighter than she had in ages now that everything had settled. With nothing left to lose, she wasn’t afraid of anyone.
“Big Brother Wu knew we were close, and figured you’d been thinking of us, so he specially put in the brigade’s one available slot for me.”
Once inside Xiangzhi’s little one-room bungalow, You Xiu found it kept spotlessly clean, carrying that same pleasant scent that always clung to Xiangzhi.
Though it was nearly March, the room still held a chill, wind slipping in through the gaps around the window.
Xiangzhi expertly got the stove going, carried it into the bedroom, then brought out dried apricots, preserved fruit, and calcium milk crackers to set beside the bed: “Let’s go eat in a bit—the small cafeteria’s got braised carp today, and Chef Chen makes it so well. It’s just slow to cook, so we shouldn’t rush over there.”
There was another reason not to rush, too—braised carp was expensive, and few people bought it.
The only reason it was even on the menu today was that some local officials had come to share a meal with the unit’s cadres.
“Maybe we should just eat something else,” You Xiu said. She knew this dish was a rare treat, and didn’t want Xiangzhi spending extra on her account.
Xiangzhi took her hand: “You’re forgetting—I’m a formal worker now, with a salary of thirty-six fifty.”
Watching Xiangzhi’s proud little expression, You Xiu couldn’t help but feel happy for her. She’d genuinely worried, back when that senior official had come to inspect the station, that something bad might come of it—who would have guessed he’d turn out to be Xiangzhi’s own father.
Talk about a flood sweeping into the Dragon King’s own temple.
You Xiu added: “I’ve got my sent-down youth allowance now too, plus I earn work points. Not as much as you make, of course, but it adds up to a bit of savings over the year. Now that your salary’s higher, you should be saving some of it too—there’ll be plenty to spend money on down the road.”
Xiangzhi asked her: “Like what?”
You Xiu thought about it, sat cross-legged, and grinned sheepishly: “That’s what my big sister told me, but I never actually asked her what she meant, haha.”
Xiangzhi burst out laughing along with her, and once they’d both laughed themselves out, clutching their stomachs, she shuffled over in her slippers to the camphor wood chest, pulled out a fine spring outfit, and handed it to You Xiu: “Now that you’re here, I won’t have to mail it to you—saves on postage too.”
You Xiu, who’d seen plenty of nice things in her time, ran her fingers over the fabric of the square-collared spring outfit, admiring the fine tailoring, then tossed it right back to Xiangzhi: “I do farm labor these days, I can’t wear something this expensive.”
Xiangzhi said, troubled: “But I bought this for you.”
You Xiu said: “What’s mine and yours got to do with anything. Worst case, once you’ve worn it a while, hand it down to me then—I won’t feel bad wearing hand-me-downs for farm work.”
Xiangzhi unfolded the outfit and pointed out the shoulders to her: “Look how wide the shoulders are, there’s no way I could even fit into this. And it wasn’t bought with Gu Wenshan’s money either—it’s from my own salary. Don’t hold back, just wear it.”
You Xiu hesitated, then said: “Alright then. I’ll save it for special occasions.”
Pleased, Xiangzhi grabbed a handful of sunflower seeds for her: “Didn’t you say before you were going back to the city? How’d you end up doing farm labor again?”
You Xiu hadn’t wanted to bring this up, but figured Xiangzhi would find out eventually anyway, and didn’t want to hide it from her: “Can’t go back after all. My family’s political background isn’t good enough, and my score wasn’t high enough for one of the return-to-city slots. But it’s fine, really—there’s plenty of room to make a difference out here, and wherever I am, I’m still building up our motherland.”
She had tried, and once she’d learned it truly wasn’t going to happen, and that her family was now scattered across the country… it was disappointing, sure, but she couldn’t spend her whole life wallowing in it. A person had to keep looking forward.
“You can’t go back?” Xiangzhi said. “Someone as good as you deserves it more than anyone. That’s not right—let me ask Gu Wenshan, he’s resourceful.”
You Xiu quickly stopped her: “Absolutely do not go to Regiment Commander Gu about this. You two just got together—if you go asking him for favors this early, he might start having thoughts about it.”
Xiangzhi said at once: “There’s no way he’d think anything like that, he’s not that kind of person.”
You Xiu tapped her on the nose: “Even if he’s not that kind of person, what about everyone around him—what would they say, what would they think? You know how it is these days, a single rumor can drown a person. Even if he’s not that kind of man, even if his whole family’s wonderful, some things just sit there quietly like a fuse, waiting for the day they suddenly go off. Not to mention, people talking behind his back over it wouldn’t do him any favors either.”
The very first thing You Xiu had done upon arriving at the unit was go on the offensive for her best friend’s sake—partly so everyone here would know Xiangzhi wasn’t someone to be trifled with.
You Xiu’s own older sister had always been the soft, kind-hearted type. She’d never “established her authority” before marrying, and with a poor family background on top of it, she’d spent years afterward being ground down by her husband’s family.
Learning from that, You Xiu was determined to make sure Gu Wenshan understood, right from the start, that Xiangzhi wasn’t someone to push around. Even without parents of her own, she at least had a fierce friend in her corner.
Though… she did have a father now, as it turned out.
“I’m your family. If you don’t understand how these things work, I need to be the one who does.”
You Xiu tugged at Xiangzhi’s loosely braided hair, sighed, and pulled her close to redo the braid properly, saying quietly: “I couldn’t live with myself if I pretended not to understand and used you on purpose like that. I’d lose all respect for myself.”