84. 084 (This last part is a slang term, not a direct translation, but can be left as is.)
Yu Anxiu had to get injections to reduce her fever during the day for four consecutive days, only to have it return at night. She lost weight from all the suffering and expense, and yet someone still came to call her to do the laundry.
After enjoying a period of carefree life, Da Ni suddenly stopped visiting her home. A pile of clothes fell on her head again, smelly and hard to wash. She rubbed her own clothes off and went to her grandmother to speak kindly, affectionately pulling the old lady's arm to walk towards her home.
"Let go." Yu Anxiu coldly slapped the girl's hand away. "You're so lazy! You're such a big girl, and you act like it's your life to ask me to wash your clothes. You're even pushing this old woman onto me. Get out of here and don't come into my room."
Da Ni was taken aback and pouted, saying, "You're as lazy as a worm yourself, yet you have the nerve to criticize me. I learned all this from you. In the future, I'll also have three, four, five, six, seven, or eight daughters to do my laundry, cook for me, and help me earn work points in the fields."
Yu Anxiu gritted her teeth and glared at her, then picked up her cane to hit her. Da Ni walked away angrily, and even greeted Old Man Su with a grin when she reached the door.
That noon, Da Ni probably complained to her mother. Mei Danan stood by the wall all afternoon, making veiled accusations. Old Man Su didn't say a word, just watched the old woman's face like a spectator, clicking his tongue and saying, "If you keep trying to get close to them, you deserve to suffer. You're just sticking your face out to them and then grabbing their arm to slap you because you're afraid they won't hit you."
"I will definitely never set foot in his house again," she said, embarrassed and annoyed.
"Then I'll wait and see. Next time the four girls sit together, I'll tell everyone that if I die and you end up with Rongbing again, I won't let you be buried with me. I think you're foolish."
Yu Anxiu looked at him in shock and said, "You don't need to threaten me or doubt me. I definitely won't have anything to do with his family anymore." But she was startled. It was common for couples to have their graves merged into one after they died. If she were buried separately, people passing by would laugh.
"I still have doubts about you. I need to have a backup plan." Old Man Su shook his head. If the old woman didn't figure things out, the girls would have one more day of trouble as long as she lived.
The old lady's illness was eventually kept secret by Old Man Su. Everyone in the village knew that Yu Anxiu was sick, and they also knew that Su Yu and her three sisters had given money for medical treatment. When they talked about the Su family in private, they all praised the four sisters for their filial piety. However, the four sisters who were praised did not find out about this until the beginning of summer. It was only after Old Man Su returned from Jincheng that Su Min took the old couple to stay at her house for a few days and learned about it from the villagers.
"Dad is truly worthy of being the village chief; he has such a silver tongue. The villagers praise us to the skies, and we don't even know a thing or two about it." Su Min sat in the yard, chatting and laughing with Su Yu. "Mom can't keep a secret. Whenever she suffers a little or gets a single complaint, she starts groaning and complaining, turning one hardship into ten. I don't know what Dad said this time, but she didn't mention it to my face. Did she say it to you?"
"No, I had no idea the old lady was sick. According to the timeline you mentioned, my father came to my house that day and said without batting an eye that the old lady was eating at Rongbing's house." He left the old lady at home to eat porridge and pickled vegetables while he came to town to eat meat. Su Yu found it funny to think about it.
“Dad is an interesting person,” Su Yu said.
“Interesting. He was even more interesting when he was young. These past few years, the matter of being a veteran has made him too ashamed to talk about it in public.” Su Min shook her head and sighed, “It’s good that he’s come to terms with it. If he hadn’t, he would have been furious. People with thick skin still get to eat and drink well.”
Su Min is almost fifty years old, and her grandson can already run around. Thinking of her younger sisters, she can't help but feel disappointed. "If I had known he would turn out like this, I would have preferred him to have died young. It would have been easier for the family if there were only girls, and they would have suffered less."
Su Yu nodded perfunctorily. She only had memories, and it was difficult for her to empathize with the grievances suffered by the original owner. Moreover, the era was too far back. It was like watching a movie. While watching, one could inevitably feel sadness and anger, but after sleeping, the emotions would have faded considerably.
"Do you resent your mother? The second child probably does, she doesn't come back to her parents' home very often." Su Min couldn't figure out what the youngest child was thinking. If she resented her, she would always treat her mother to good food and drink whenever she came. If she didn't resent her, she would always refer to her as "old lady" and rarely call her "Mom".
"What's there to complain about? She's just a confused person. Arguing with her will only make you angry." She usually just eats and drinks, and she doesn't need to worry about her share. With the old man keeping an eye on her, she can't cause any trouble. Besides, she's the kind of person who doesn't talk much as long as she's well-fed and watered. Su Yu has talked to her more than he has to to the old man over the years. She doesn't have the energy to complain about this or that.
Su Min suddenly realized, yes, her mother never understood life. She was physically fortunate, never had to work in the fields or work hard, had no mother-in-law to torment her, and had money at home, but she had no opinions of her own. She could be her mother, or any old lady in the village, or even her grandmother or ancestor. Her thoughts were always the same, and anyone with a clear head could see through her.
But this same person also spoiled one person and harmed several others.
"Dad was too clever for his own good; he was defeated by his old-fashioned thinking," Su Min concluded.
Su Yu didn't want to listen to these trivial family matters, and she was too lazy to talk about even her own family's affairs. It was like an old piece of cotton wool; no matter how you pulled it, there were always other bits and pieces. And the reason why the cotton wool was old could you say it was just because of dust or stains? It was hard for anyone to be blamed, and everyone had their own grievances to share.
"Big sister, have dinner at my house tonight. After dinner, you can ride your bicycle back home and come back tomorrow." Su Yu got up and went to the vegetable patch to pick vegetables.
"I'll eat at home, don't cook for me." Su Min put the peaches on the stool into a cloth bag, got up and went home. She came mainly because her eldest granddaughter wanted to eat peaches, and talking about her maternal family with her youngest granddaughter was just a casual mention.
After Su Min left, Su Yu sat on a stool and picked garlic shoots.
"Mom, open the door."
Su Yu went to open the door and let the two boys carrying firewood in.
"It's so hot! Mom, is there any cooled boiled water? I'm so thirsty!" Ping An started yelling as soon as he walked in; there's never a quiet place with him around.
"It's dried in the main room, inside your kettles."
"Mom, are the fruits on the grafted branches ripe yet? Have they been picked?" Xiao Yuan pulled up his shirt to wipe the sweat from his face. These past few days, the school has been busy harvesting wheat, so he hasn't had time to go to the orchard.
"They're almost ripe. Go visit whenever you have time." Su Yu got excited when talking about the orchard. In the spring, she grafted nectarine branches she bought from the south onto local peach trees, and she succeeded on her first try. Now, two kinds of fruit are growing on one tree, which makes everyone very happy. People come to see the rare fruit every day and guard those few trees so that no one can touch them.
The tangerine tree grafted with orange branches was fenced off by Qiu Fuli, who was waiting for the spectacle of one tree bearing two kinds of fruit. Su Yu received a bonus of seventy yuan for this and was entrusted with the task of going to the south in winter or next spring to buy several more fruit trees, hoping that one tree would bear seven or eight kinds of fruit.
The next day, Su Yu went to the orchard but was immediately called away by Yu Yuan'an for a lesson. Su Yu was caught off guard by the questioning and had no choice but to turn to Shu Manpo for help. People in this era had a very strong thirst for knowledge. Perhaps due to limited access to information, if someone was interested in a subject, they would have endless energy to specialize in it. Yu Yuan'an was such a person.
"How do I tell if grafting trees is suitable or not? You said that orange and tangerine trees both belong to the Rutaceae family, how do I tell them apart? What family do peach and pear trees belong to? How can I make a choice from the beginning?" Yu Yuan'an asked in distress, he didn't know how to classify them.
“I figured it out myself by trying and taking notes. Last year, I even grafted peach branches onto orange trees and fruit trees onto miscellaneous trees, and they all died,” Su Yu said, forcing herself to speak. She had let slip earlier that she had misrepresented the family and genus of orange and tangerine trees.
Fortunately, Yu Yuan'an didn't notice this. He rubbed the dirt and begged, "Sister Su, next time there's something interesting, you have to call me. I'm very free and don't mind doing free work."
"Okay, I'll definitely take you next time." Su Yu nodded.
When Su Yu went to work in the afternoon, she noticed that Liu Quan was not there. She asked several people and they all said they had not seen him. When she saw Qiu Fuli, she joked, "Is it hot? Did Liu Quan go home to find shade? He knows how to enjoy life."
"He didn't come? Maybe something happened at home." Qiu Fuli wasn't too concerned. It was normal for technicians to be absent without notice; he was used to not seeing them for a day or two at a time.
When Su Yu didn't see Xiao Yuan around 5 PM, she knew he wasn't coming. Last night, when he asked about the orchard, she thought he was going to find a way to come over. He's so honest. If it were her, she would have pushed half the work onto Ping An and run away halfway through.
The trees planted along the roadside had grown taller. Su Yu rode her bike in the shade, but when she suddenly walked onto a section of road overgrown with weeds, she felt uneasy, as if a pair of eyes were watching her from the grass.
She strained her ears and glanced at both sides of the road out of the corner of her eye. She rode her bicycle towards the middle of the road, pedaling so hard she felt like she was flying. She only relaxed after she had passed that section of road. She gripped the brakes and looked back, as if she saw someone squatting down again.
Good heavens, Su Yu broke out in a cold sweat in broad daylight.
The first thing she did when she got home was to search the house. All she found were two chipped sickles. There were no sharp tools, so Su Yu had no choice but to make do. She took out a whetstone from the kitchen and began to sharpen the sickle blades.
"Mom, why are you sharpening your sickle? You don't need to be too sharp when cutting grass, or you might accidentally cut your leg." Xiao Yuan asked as he came into the house.
Su Yu thought for a moment. Ping An was already fifteen years old, and Xiao Yuan would be fourteen soon. They were both taller than her and were almost young men, so she didn't hide it from them.
“Your dad isn’t home, so I can only tell you two about this. On my way home today, I felt like someone was hiding in the bushes trying to ambush me, so I’m carrying a sickle with me for courage.”
Upon hearing his mother's words, Xiao Yuan nervously grasped her wrist and said, "Mom, I'll pick you up tonight..."
"Yes, we'll take you there by bike in the morning, and then we'll pick you up again in the evening. The three of us will go together and scare that son of a bitch to death." Ping An was furious, clenching his fists as if he wanted to start a fight right now.
Su Yu had thought that way from the beginning, but now that she heard them say that, she was afraid that they would be alone and vulnerable when they came back, and if something really happened, it would be too late for her to regret it.
"Maybe I saw it wrong. You two should focus on your studies." But that fleeting figure was still in her mind. She wasn't afraid of someone having malicious intentions, but she was afraid of someone plotting something before acting.
"We'll pick you up and drop you off."
The next morning, Xiao Yuan and Ping An got up at six o'clock. They told Er Ya not to wait for them to go to school. After eating, they pushed their bicycles out and went out with Su Yu. When they arrived at the orchard, Xiao Yuan even rode his mother's bicycle away, afraid that she would go home early in the afternoon.
"What's going on? Did I come with you just to ride the bike away?" Qiu Fuli was dumbfounded by this series of actions.
“Yes, we all want to ride our own bikes. It’s faster to ride a bike alone.” Su Yu glanced at Liu Quan as she said this. He was talking to Yu Yuan’an and seemed completely uninterested in what was going on here. But when it came down to it, she seemed to have a bit of a grudge against him.
For several days in a row, she didn't have that feeling again. If she didn't find a patch of thatch in the road where she had felt uneasy the day before, she would really think that she was seeing things and that it was the direction in which she saw the figure.
Fortunately, Ning Jin came back. She held his hand and told him what had happened. She didn't even know who the other person was. The feeling that someone was secretly observing and speculating about her made her shudder.
"I've been cutting all the weeds along the road these past few days. Ping An and Xiao Yuan, you two go to school properly. I'll pick up and drop off your mom." He came up with this idea for the time being: cut the grass and burn it down, leaving no place for even a dog to hide.
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