Chapter 35
Zeng Linlin turned around and said, "He served one year longer than you, for five years."
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Zeng Linlin turned around and said, "He served one year longer than you, for five years."
The next second, Bei Bitang said, "Ah, did he ever have a girlfriend when he was an educated youth?"
Zeng Linlin was somewhat surprised by Bei Bitang's abrupt change of subject, which was like a 180-degree turn.
She didn't expect the girl to ask that.
Zeng Linlin reacted, her face and eyes were cold, she asked angrily: "Why do you ask that?"
Bei Bitang touched her hair, looking somewhat bewildered as she said, "I just remembered a newspaper report about many educated youth who returned to the city and became unfaithful. After returning to the city, they even hid from their new partners that they had a partner while they were educated youth, and even got married and had children."
"Your boyfriend has been an educated youth for five years, so he should be neither too old nor too young. He's as outstanding as you say. How could there be no one pursuing him? Or is he pursuing someone else? I'm also an educated youth, so how could I not understand?"
Zeng Linlin could no longer gather the anger in her heart, and she fell silent.
After a while, she looked frustrated and said, "I haven't been married or had children. I've only dated one person."
Bei Bitang questioned, "So, did you break up?"
Zeng Linlin clenched her fists, then unclenched them. She took a deep breath and replied in a good-tempered manner, "We broke up."
Bei Bitang continued to ask, as if interrogating a prisoner: "How do you know?"
Zeng Linlin said: "He told me."
Bei Bitang glanced at Zeng Linlin with a look that you could believe.
Zeng Linlin refused to accept the news. She raised her voice and said, "We really did break up. We broke up before he got into university because our feelings faded. After entering university, he fell in love with me at first sight and chased me around for over two months before I agreed to be his girlfriend."
Bei Bitang also asked: "When did he tell you that he had a girlfriend but broke up?"
Zeng Linlin suddenly lost her temper for some reason. She said, "More than half a month ago."
As expected, Bei Bitang sneered in her heart. Xu Zeli was really good at hiding things. He was very flexible with his words. The statements on both sides were different. He would say whatever benefited him.
Bei Bitang suddenly sighed and said sadly, "Don't mind me asking this. I was actually speaking from my heart."
Zeng Linlin didn't say anything and shook her head perfunctorily.
Bei Bitang said angrily, "Actually, I was dating someone when I was an educated youth. He was very kind to me and cared about me a lot. He pursued me for a whole year, and I felt his sincerity and agreed to his pursuit. We dated happily for three years, and we didn't break up until he returned to Shanghai after his exam."
Bei Bitang paused, looked deeply at Zeng Linlin, and continued, "But gradually his letters became shorter and shorter, and I didn't think anything was wrong with our relationship. Not long after, I returned to Shanghai and went to his house to find him, only to discover that he was already cheating on me. He had been hiding from me the girl from college he met in Shanghai, and they were already engaged."
Bei Bitang said sadly, "The funny thing is, his parents both knew about my existence and that we hadn't broken up. As teachers, they condoned and supported their son's behavior, lying and hiding things from both sides."
"I confronted him directly, and when he realized he couldn't hide it from me anymore, he honestly confessed that he had let me down and had started dating someone else without breaking up with me. Because I wasn't around, and she was so attentive and caring towards him, he felt lonely and empty and couldn't help but accept that girl from the same class."
At this point, Bei Bitang looked at Zeng Linlin and said in a gloomy tone, "I just don't know what he said about me to that female classmate. Did he say the same thing about me as your fiancé said about his ex? Oh, by the way, I just found out yesterday that he's getting married to that female classmate next month."
Zeng Linlin lowered her head at some point, and her eyes drooped, so outsiders couldn't see her expression clearly.
After a long moment, Zeng Linlin raised her head, looked directly at Bei Bitang, and asked in an ambiguous tone, "Did you find the person you were looking for at East China Normal University?"
Zeng Linlin is not a stupid person.
Bei Bitang smiled and said calmly, "Found it."
Zeng Linlin murmured, "Oh, that's good."
Bei Bitang asked directly: "What would you do if your fiancé was the same type as my ex-boyfriend?"
Zeng Linlin didn't object immediately. She smiled broadly, looking nonchalant. She shrugged and said, "It doesn't matter. I truly love him. I couldn't bear to leave him, even if I were the female college classmate you mentioned. Although it's immoral, we truly broke up and aren't continuing to have any further contact with each other."
It turns out that there really isn't that much empathy in the world. Zeng Linlin, who is in love, wouldn't break up with Xu Zeli even if she knew what he had done. She probably wouldn't be angry for long. After all, it wasn't her who Xu Zeli betrayed, nor was it her who he felt sorry for.
Bei Bitang's heart turned cold. She asked Zeng Linlin, "Aren't you afraid that he will treat you the same way he treated his ex-girlfriend in the future?"
Zeng Linlin burst into laughter and said with great joy, "He loves me very much. He once said he would die for me. And he's marrying into a family above his station. Would he dare? I told him to go west, but he didn't dare go east. He treats my parents better than his own."
Zeng Linlin thinks she is special. Xu Zeli may let down other women but not her.
Bei Bitang suddenly felt a little bored. Facing such confident Zeng Linlin, she could only hope that Xu Zeli really loved her.
Bei Bitang said, "I'm leaving first."
Zeng Linlin didn't try to persuade him to stay. She smiled friendly and gentle and said, "Goodbye, it was nice chatting with you."
Zeng Linlin maintained her usual smile as she watched Bei Bitang walk out of the clothing store and towards the bus stop holding an umbrella.
Until the other person's figure disappeared in the heavy rain, Zeng Linlin's smile suddenly fell, her eyes were dim, and her lips were tightly pursed.
When Bei Bitang pretended to be sad and talked about her unfaithful lover, she knew that the other party was targeting her.
Bei Bitang threw the clothes in her hand onto the hanger and said there was no need to buy them.
She strode out of the store door and called her driver to pick her up.
Bei Bitang looked at the rain pouring down the car window. Her plan had failed, but she wasn't too sad. She only felt a slight resentment towards herself.
When she passed by Shen Dacheng, she even got out of the car and bought a double-brewed dumpling with a smile.
Filled with red bean paste, it was delicate, sweet, and glutinous. Bei Bitang sat under Shen Dacheng's eaves, watching the rain, and devoured the double-stuffed dumplings, each the size of a child's palm, in small bites.
Bei Bitang had a great appetite. After she finished a double-stuffed dumpling with red bean paste, she looked down at her stomach and felt it was not enough, so she went to the window and bought a serving of beef pot stickers.
Sit down and eat slowly, the bottom of the pot stickers is golden brown and crispy. The meat filling is rich and juicy, and it is juicy with just one bite.
Bei Bitang filled her stomach before getting on the bus again and slowly going home. She felt comfortable and peaceful.
Still want to spend money. Bei Bitang got off the car at the door of her house, but did not go into the Shikumen immediately.
She walked to the largest food store nearby, spent a lot of money to buy a pickled duck, and held it in her hand proudly.
Bei Bitang walked on the bluestone slabs in the alley and felt that her eyes were blurred. She couldn't see things clearly in front of her. She didn't think about it. She seemed to know what she was doing, but also seemed not to know, just like when she was staying up late to harvest in the dark in the northwest.
Before Bei Bitang even reached the downstairs of her house, someone patted her shoulder from behind.
She covered her chest, was startled, and turned around.
Feng Guangmei stood behind her, raised her hands, and said with an embarrassed look on her face, "I'm sorry, Bitang, I didn't expect you to react so strongly."
Bei Bitang's heart calmed down. She put her hand down, smiled nonchalantly, and said softly, "I was just thinking too hard."
Feng Guangmei asked, "What are you thinking about?"
Bei Bitang didn't answer, but asked, "Why are you at home?"
Feng Guangmei said, "A colleague has a happy family event and wants to switch shifts with me."
Bei Bitang said "Oh" listlessly.
Feng Guangmei frowned and asked with concern, "What's wrong with you? Why are you so listless?"
Hearing this, Bei Bitang immediately forced a smile and said, "I'm fine. I'm in a good mood. Look, I even bought some pickled duck to eat."
As she spoke, she lifted the marinated duck in her hand slightly and motioned for Feng Guangmei to look at it.
Feng Guangmei looked at the pickled duck and said with a smile, "The kids in your building are going to cry tonight because of the delicious food."
Bei Bitang was amused by Feng Guangmei's witty remarks and laughed out loud.
After a while, the smile on her face disappeared again. She lowered her head and murmured, "Guangmei, have you ever experienced a moment when you really hate someone but can't do anything about it?"
Feng Guangmei smiled brightly and said, "Of course not! When I was working in Chongming, there was a nephew of the local Party Secretary working there too. He took advantage of his power and molested the female educated youth. It really pissed me off."
Bei Bitang was captivated by what Feng Guangmei said. She asked in surprise, "Ah, so what happened to this man?"
As soon as she arrived in the northwest, she joined the Construction Corps. The management there was very strict, but she had never seen or heard of such a thing.
Feng Guangmei said angrily, "At first, we couldn't do anything about him. The higher-ups didn't care and just let him off lightly. Then, a group of us female educated youth united. Didn't he like to touch our faces and try to creep over the wall to watch us shower?"
"We set a trap for him and played a trick on him. He was walking on the street and not only did he step on manure, but he also stepped on empty space and twisted his ankle. He was bedridden for three months. We also hired a group of local children. When the man was showering, they would break open the door, take his clothes, and make up a nursery rhyme specifically to mock his size and the thing underneath."
Bei Bitang's eyes sparkled as she exclaimed, "You guys are amazing."
Feng Guangmei laughed at herself and said, "Later, he went to the Workers, Peasants and Soldiers University. But thinking that we, a group of female educated youth, have completely gotten rid of him is the only good thing about it, and it's also a kind of comfort."
The light in Bei Bitang's eyes dimmed. After a few seconds, she raised the corners of her mouth and told Feng Guangmei what she had heard from others in the northwest.
"Now that the college entrance exam has been reinstated, who cares about graduates from the Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' University anymore? Last year, the college entrance exam admitted 273,000 people, and he ranked behind hundreds of thousands of them. He won't even get a chance at a good unit. Those who join the same unit as him or join the unit after him will all have better academic credentials than him, and he can only watch helplessly as others advance and become his superiors."
After hearing Bei Bitang's words, Feng Guangmei's depression completely dissipated. She smiled and said, "Bitang, you're right. Besides, that guy went to Workers, Peasants and Soldiers University in the fall of 1977, and within a month or two the news of the resumption of the college entrance examination came out. He was really unlucky."
"It was difficult to drop out of the Workers, Peasants and Soldiers University. He had no cultural background. Even if he dropped out and took the college entrance examination, he wouldn't have passed. In college, compared to the class of 1977, he looked even less educated. Perhaps his teachers felt ashamed to have such a student with only elementary school education and bad behavior."
Bei Bitang nodded heavily and said, "That's right. If he had started school a few years earlier, he could have been assigned to a good unit and earned a few years of salary. Now, the serious college students in his school look down on him."
Bei Bitang spoke so excitedly that her face turned red, and the anger in her heart was also released.
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