15.015 Two people look at each other and then dislike each other (add 500 words)...
As soon as the two opened the door, Su Yu saw someone suddenly run past. She quickly took two steps and ran out to see what was going on. It turned out to be Er Ya from next door carrying a manure bucket. No wonder she would hide from people. Su Yu could clearly see the embarrassment on Er Ya's face when she turned around.
"How long until you come back this time?" Su Yu took two steps toward the door to block Ning Jin, and only stepped aside to follow him out after Er Ya walked out of the alley.
"It will take at least half a month to deliver goods to many places, and on the way back we will have to pick up saccharin." Ning Jin stopped and said, carrying a bag of clean clothes, "Go back, stop delivering, stay home and take good care of the two kids."
"Yes, drive carefully. If you get tired, let someone else drive. Driving while fatigued can easily cause an accident. I don't want to be a widow again. I can't live without you." Su Yu carefully instructed, as those who run transport are most afraid of accidents.
The man nodded in agreement and strode away, head down. Just as he was about to turn out of the alley, he suddenly turned back and jogged back. Su Yu noticed the unease on his face and felt a chill run down her spine. Was he going to give her a farewell kiss? Or was he going to say some tender, affectionate words? They didn't seem to have that much of a relationship, did they?
In her haste, Su Yu forced a shy smile and waited for the man to approach.
"Well, we only have five hundred yuan in our savings account. It looks like a lot, but it doesn't last long. Don't be too extravagant, use it carefully." Ning Jin's face flushed slightly, and she didn't dare to look at the expectant gaze of the woman opposite her.
Su Yu's smile gradually crumbled. She glared at him, turned around stiffly, and went inside, closing the door tightly without hesitation.
She's just being delusional again!
My imagination killed her!
Ning Jin heard the sound of the door being opened from inside the house, scratched his head, and said, "I'm leaving."
"He's really gone." He said again when there was no response.
There was still no sound, but he heard the creaking of a door opening next door, so he quickly turned and left.
When he arrived at the factory, the truck was already loaded with goods, and Old Wang was already waiting. Ning Jin threw his clothes behind the seat and asked him, "Do you want to drive first or should I go first?"
"I'll go first," Old Wang said.
Once they were out of town, there was no need to worry about someone suddenly running out on the road. Old Wang glanced at the man with the perpetually sullen face and asked, "What's wrong? Is there still trouble at home? Is your second wife still up to no good?"
"Why do you say that?" Ning Jin asked casually, wanting to know what people outside were saying about Su Yu.
"Everyone knows about your family's affairs." Old Wang glanced at him and said carefully, "I heard that your mother even beat her in the street, saying that she was unruly? After that, when you two were getting a divorce, your mother and sister-in-law never denied it. Ningjin, let me tell you something from the bottom of my heart. People like us who are out on the road all year round should not marry a beautiful wife. Otherwise, we might lose both our money and her."
"It's all rumors. My mom apologized to Su Yu after hitting her. That day, Su Yu just met with a former classmate and exchanged a few words. It's always the mother-in-law who tries to suppress the daughter-in-law. My mom was wrong to hit her. Besides, although Su Yu is pretty, she's honest and kind. I was her classmate in the second year of junior high, so I know her better than anyone. She's not the kind of person who flirts with other women." Ning Jin was anxious to explain for Su Yu and told him the reasons for wanting a divorce. To clear Su Yu's name, he also shared their private conversation from the night before: "Our family is doing very well. Ping An likes her too, and Su Yu has proactively suggested not having children for the next few years so as not to affect the two children."
"Rumors can be quite harmful." Old Wang coughed awkwardly twice, then said, "You're lucky, young man. You've married two wives in eight years, each one more beautiful than the last, and they can take care of their families and make money at the same time."
Ning Jin smiled but didn't reply. Was this a case of seeing the thief eating meat but not the thief getting beaten? No one seemed to envy the hardships of a widower raising his son alone for six years. He'd emptied his savings to treat Ping An's mother's illness, and now that she was gone, he had to raise his child and earn money again. He'd only managed to save a little money in the last two years driving long-haul trucks, but that money had been spent on repairing a house, getting married, and buying his wife a job. He was definitely the poorest driver in the factory; not only could he not save any money, but he also only had an empty house, without any big-ticket items like watches, fans, bicycles, or sewing machines.
On the other side, Su Yu didn't go back to sleep after Ning Jin left. She cracked two eggs, added two spoonfuls of flour, and then added cold water to make a thin batter. She made six egg pancakes, shredded potatoes, and cooked them in a pan. "Egg pancakes rolled with shredded potatoes, you can eat them however you like. Roll them yourself if you want," she said to the two boys who were circling around her.
"Mom, shall we have this again tomorrow morning?" Ping An asked.
"Xiao Yuan, do you want boiled eggs or egg pancakes?" Su Yu asked her son.
"Egg pancakes, boiled eggs have no flavor and they're hard to swallow." Ping An chimed in from the side, chewing on his egg pancake while staring longingly at Xu Yuan.
"Then let's have egg pancakes. We'll have boiled eggs for breakfast the day after tomorrow. I want them soft-boiled; soft-boiled eggs won't make your throat dry." Xu Yuan agreed to Ping An's request, but also made his own.
"Okay, if you two behave and don't cause trouble, I'll make it for you. I'm going to work later. You two play outside, but don't fight, and don't go into the water. The ponds in town are not like those in the village. If I fall in, my feet won't even touch the ground. If you fall in, you'll drown and never eat anything good again." Su Yu took the opportunity to emphasize the consequences of them going into the water.
Both of them nodded and said they knew, and then they told Su Yu about so-and-so in town who fell into the dam and drowned.
As she was heading out to the cafeteria, Du Xiaojuan from next door started kicking and yelling again, "Are you trying to scald me to death? How many times have I told you to get up early, cook the rice, and let it cool? You only listen for two days after I tell you once? You're such a damn good-for-nothing, you only move when you're whipped! I'm not eating anymore, you awful thing." Su Yu stood behind the door listening to her furiously slamming her bowl and chopsticks. Then, after Er Ya said something, Du Xiaojuan yelled again, "Are you planning to scald us so we can't eat, and then stuff the rest into your own stomach? Don't give any to me either. Da Bao, you keep an eye on Er Ya, she's not allowed to touch any of the porridge in her bowl."
Su Yu unlatched the door and watched as Du Xiaojuan, that parasite, swayed her big butt as she walked past. What kind of mother is this? She treats her daughter, whom she carried for ten months, like a beast of burden. Er Ya does more work than she does, and at her age, she's still growing. How can she expect her to get up before dawn every day to cook? Xiao Yuan and Ping An get up around seven, and they even take a nap at noon.
Su Yu glanced at the neighbor next door. If this were modern times, she could keep an eye on the neighbors and call the police if they hit the child. But if she intervened now, Er Ya's situation would be even worse.
Su Yu went to work feeling sullen. After finishing her work in the cafeteria, she left. She first browsed through the bookstore and bought an agricultural book. Then she spent half an hour rummaging through the scrap yard, finding two books on biology that Shu Manpo said were barely related. Considering that transmigrated women in novels always find good things at scrap yards, she searched for a long time and found nothing but some exquisite comic books. She only found fragments of vases and porcelain, and she couldn't even tell whether the furniture was made of pear wood or sandalwood. She couldn't even find the puzzle box that contained jewelry and medical books.
Considering Ning Jin's "earnest instructions" that morning, she clutched her pockets and didn't dare invest in the recycling station. Instead, she spent three cents to buy two books and a stack of newspapers by weight, along with a comic book mixed in with the newspapers.
As soon as she got home and put the book in the house, her father arrived with the village chief. As soon as they entered, they asked her why the sweet potatoes had rotted in the soil, as she had mentioned the night before.
“I bought a book at the junkyard, and while I was making a fire, I happened to flip to the part about sweet potato cultivation. It said that if the excess water in the sweet potato field isn’t drained in time, the sweet potatoes are prone to root rot. Another reason is that if the fertilizer isn’t fully decomposed before being piled up in the field, it can burn the roots, and insects will also grow in the soil. Yesterday, I saw that the sweet potato field in Beigang was in the bottom of a dry embankment, which is perfect for accumulating water, so I guess that might be the reason.” Su Yu quickly rattled off her made-up story.
"Did they say how to treat it?" the village chief asked eagerly, more interested in the cure than the cause of the illness.
"I didn't see it, but I figured the roots were rotten and there was no cure. I just shouldn't plant sweet potatoes in low-lying areas next year."
"Hey, let me see the book." Su Changguo reached out to his daughter.
"The match burned, and there was no cover, so I don't know what the book is called." Su Yu was worried that someone would come looking for the book, and she couldn't help but feel glad that her lie was so well-made that no one could catch her.
"You actually burned this? You're so brainless as to throw a book on farming into the stove and burn it?" Su Changguo couldn't believe his daughter was so stupid.
"What good books can be thrown into a junkyard?" Su Yu retorted.
"Nephew, let's go, there's nothing more to say." Su Changguo got up and walked out the door first.
"Dad, eldest cousin, please stay for dinner before you go back." Su Yu followed behind, trying to persuade the guests to stay.
"I can't afford that, I'm only fit to eat sweet potatoes," Old Man Su said irritably, without turning his head and walking away.
Five days later, at noon, the village chief Su Qingguo came to Su Yu with a basket and said, "Sister, these are lotus roots that were picked from the lotus pond in the village. They are very tender. I'll bring you some to try."
Su Yu glanced at her cousin, who was almost a fifth degree of kinship with her, and opened the door to let him in. "We're not strangers, brother. Just say what you need to say."
"Hey, just don't burn any more books on farming that you see in the future. No matter if they're good or bad, as long as they can increase crop yields, they're good books for us farmers." He squinted, smiled, and twirled his fingers, whispering, "Give them to me secretly. I won't forget you when I have something good."
“No problem.” Su Yu readily agreed; an opportunity to earn extra money had arrived. But she first gave him a heads-up: “Some things can’t be solved just by knowing them. Like these sweet potatoes, once they’re spoiled, you can’t fix them; you can only start preventing them from getting worse next year.”
"I know the sweet potatoes went bad this year. Now that I know why, I'll definitely not make the same mistake again."
The two whispered to each other at the gate, and Du Xiaojuan peeked into the house as she passed by, but no one noticed.
That afternoon, Su Yu saw two cleaned pork bones in the cafeteria, with the meat cut off and given to the leaders. Su Yu spoke kindly to the head chef and took the pork bones, which were originally intended for feeding the dogs, home.
After dinner, Su Yu wanted to chop the pork bones into smaller pieces, but even after making a cut in the cleaver, she couldn't chop them all. So she had to throw them into the pot in varying lengths and put them on a thick piece of wood to stew. Su Yu got up three times during the night, and the next morning she had half a pot of bone soup with oil floating on top.
"It smells so good." Xu Yuan ran into the kitchen with his eyes half-closed, without even washing his face.
"Call Ping An to wake up, quickly wash your face and brush your teeth. We'll have bone broth with buckwheat noodles for breakfast." Su Yu pushed him out, her hands busy chopping lotus root and potatoes. She also peeled the hard-boiled eggs in the pot, wrapping cinnamon, bay leaves, star anise, Sichuan peppercorns, and black pepper in a cloth that had been boiled in water.
First, scoop most of the bone broth into a basin, then put two handfuls of buckwheat flour into the bone broth in the pot and cook them. Sprinkle on some chopped green onions, and add two drops of fragrant vinegar to each bowl. This is breakfast for the morning. Crush the cooked bones with the back of a knife, and the three of them suck out the marrow oil from the bones. Then, they throw the empty shells to Xiao Hei to grind his teeth.
After the meal, Su Yu threw the spice packet into the bone broth to cook, and asked Ping An to add firewood for her. She ran to the tofu cooperative to buy two bundles of dried bean curd sheets. On her way back, the neighbors all asked, "What delicious food did you make so early in the morning?"
“There’s nothing good to eat. We just ran out of meat coupons, so we begged for two clean pork bones and made half a pot of soup so the two kids could have a taste of the meat fat,” Su Yu said.
"That's quite a hassle, but Ping An and Xiao Yuan were overjoyed. Our stomachs were rumbling from the aroma in the middle of the night, so it was all worth the trouble."
Some people asked, "Where did you get the bone? Did you pay for it? Staying up all night must be exhausting, right?"
"It's such a waste of firewood! I already told the two kids that I would make bone broth for them, and they would go and collect firewood during the day. But that's not the worst part. The bones are incredibly hard; I even chipped the blade of my cleaver while chopping them." Su Yu ignored the first two issues. If she said she got them from the cafeteria, what if some idiot went and asked for them too? Then she would offend the head chef.
Sure enough, after she said that, many people quieted down, except for Du Xiaojuan's two sons who kept pestering their mother for bone broth.
"Drinking nonsense, who knows when you'll drink yourself to death." Du Xiaojuan glanced at the vixen about to enter the house and said pointedly, "Only those who have done shady things would cook delicious food and drinks to win people over. They are shameless. They eat other people's food and drink other people's drinks, and they even lead thieves into other people's homes."
Su Yu had already walked in but then came back out, crossed her arms and stared at Du Xiaojuan. Seeing Du Xiaojuan's shifty eyes, she became even more certain that Du Xiaojuan was cursing her. "Du Xiaojuan, are you cursing me?" she asked directly.
"Oh, so people are even scrambling to sit in the latrine? She knows perfectly well who I'm insulting. People with guilty consciences will assume I'm insulting her just because someone is whispering to them." Du Xiaojuan didn't back down either. Instead of confronting her directly, she spoke in a vague and sarcastic tone.
Su Yu didn't bother with her teasing. She had never even considered getting along with such a fool who treated her daughter like a slave. Besides, Du Xiaojuan was wicked on the surface but not very cunning. So Su Yu directly provoked her: "You've been sitting on a pile of shit all this time, covered in your own filth and still talking about other people's jokes. Don't you realize how shameless you are? A perfectly healthy man in his thirties expects a skinny girl to serve you. It's like you're asking someone to wipe your ass when you poop."
“My daughter is meant to serve me. I’ve trained her so she won’t get beaten up in her husband’s family after she gets married, so she won’t be like you, so shameless. You got slapped by your mother-in-law and still brought a man into the house. You’re a leopard that can’t change its spots.” Du Xiaojuan didn’t expect Su Yu to have the audacity to insult her. She said to the neighbors who had gathered around with bowls of food, “I came back yesterday at noon and saw Su Yu bring a man into the house. The two of them couldn’t help themselves at the front door. They were pressed together, their heads touching. I still remember what the man looked like. You wait, I’m going to report you for your indecent behavior right now.”
Su Yu breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, she managed to trick Du Xiaojuan into coming out before she was reported. Otherwise, if the Revolutionary Committee members came, even if things were explained, her reputation would be ruined.
“Go ahead, if you don’t report me, I’ll report you.” Su Yu turned to the other neighbors and said, “The village chief from my mother’s village came to my house yesterday at noon. He’s my cousin with the same surname. We share the same ancestor. I also know Ning Jin, and we’ve even had a meal together.”
After saying that, she pulled Du Xiaojuan aside and said, "Come on, I'll take you to report me. I'll also ask you if your behavior of making Er Ya do laundry, cook, and collect firewood, but not doing anything and not letting her sit at the table to eat, is the style of a landlord's wife."
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