Chapter 68: You can use it if you want, but you have to pay extra
Jiang Jianhua scooped up the soap from the water, squeezing the foam out of his palms. "We absolutely can't do this! Fu Yucheng is such a high-ranking official in the army. If people say his family is connected with capitalist relatives, his future will be affected! My mother will skin me alive!"
Xu Runli sneered and hung the washed shirts on the clothesline: "Are you scared now? When you were thinking about stealing the account book just now, why didn't you think about destroying Yun Tangyin?"
She tugged at the collar of her shirt, leaving a wet mark on the string. "Either you do as I say, or you continue to let her squeeze your monthly allowance. It's your choice."
Jiang Jianhua's fingers turned white as he held the soap, and the astringent smell of soapberries penetrated his nostrils.
My throat feels like it's clogged with a ball of cotton.
"Just... let it be a private affair, but we can't really let the army know about it." She gritted her teeth and gave in. "At most, I can just complain about it to a few of the older sisters-in-law in the yard, so that Mom will think she has bad intentions."
Xu Runli's eyes flashed with disdain, but she responded, "Okay, let's test the waters first. If Mom doesn't react, we'll think of another way."
She bent down to pack up the wooden basin. "Go to the supply and marketing cooperative tomorrow. Remember to ask Accountant Wang about Yun Tangyin. Don't worry about the rest."
Jiang Jianhua tossed and turned that night and couldn't sleep well. Late in the night, he heard some noise outside the window. He peeked through the crack and saw Xu Runli sneaking out of the yard, clutching an envelope.
Her heart skipped a beat and she followed him out quietly. She saw Xu Runli stuffing the envelope into the suggestion box in the military family compound. The box was specially used by the regiment headquarters to receive letters of denunciation.
Seeing this, Jiang Jianhua couldn't sleep anymore, got up and rushed out.
"You're crazy!" Jiang Jianhua grabbed her arm, his voice trembling. "All the letters in that box will be handed over to the political commissar!"
Xu Runli shook her hand off and patted the corner of the envelope. "I didn't write my name on it, so who would know it was us who put it there?" She lowered her voice. "When they go to investigate, even if they can't find anything, our reputation will be tarnished. Yun Tangyin won't be able to hold her head up in the family compound anymore."
Jiang Jianhua looked at the red-painted suggestion box, the night wind carrying a chill to his collar: "You are pushing the Fu family into the fire pit!"
"I'm helping you." Xu Runli straightened her wrinkled collar. "When Yun Tangyin falls, the account book will be yours. You can buy as many things as you want then."
These words were like a needle, piercing Jiang Jianhua's heart and making him ache.
She looked at Xu Runli's back as she turned and went back into the house, and suddenly felt that this person was colder than the icicles under the eaves. In order to step on others, she could even plot against her own man's relatives.
Jiang Jianhua said stubbornly: "It just won't work!"
As he said that, Jiang Jianhua came over with a gun and tore the envelope into pieces.
Xu Runli frowned as she looked at Jiang Jianhua. Her face instantly darkened. Looking at the envelope that had shattered into pieces on the ground, her voice turned cold. "Are you crazy? Is this something you can tear apart?"
Jiang Jianhua threw the scraps of paper in his hand into the wind, and the shreds were blown all over the place. "Is there anything that can't be torn? If you continue to make trouble, and the Fu family is punished by the army, Zhicheng will not forgive you! The Fu family will not let you go either!"
She pointed at Xu Runli's nose and said, "Don't think I don't know what you're up to. You just can't stand seeing Yun Tangyin having a good life, so you want to use the Fu family's affairs to stir up trouble! You didn't even think about helping me!"
Xu Runli clenched her fists, her knuckles turning white. "Why wouldn't I do this for you? Do you really think Yun Tangyin can tolerate you? Once she's established in the Fu family, she'll be the first one to push you out!"
"Whether or not I can squeeze out is none of your business as an outsider!" Jiang Jianhua took a half step back, putting some distance between them. "From now on, don't mention Yun Tangyin to me again. I won't take the account book anymore. She can manage the monthly salary if she wants. It's better than being dragged into this fire pit by you!"
Xu Runli looked at her resolute expression and suddenly laughed, her laughter particularly harsh in the night: "Do you think Yun Tangyin will remember your kindness if you do this? She might be secretly happy in the house right now. Do you know what this is called? Dog bites dog."
"At least I'm not so bad as to gamble with the Fu family's reputation." Jiang Jianhua turned and walked towards the courtyard. "You'd better take care of yourself. Don't wait for Zhicheng to come. You won't even be able to say a decent word to him."
Xu Runli watched her back disappear behind the courtyard gate, and the scraps of paper at her feet were blown by the wind and stuck to her shoes.
She bent down and picked up a piece of paper that had not been blown away. On it were still the three words "capitalist" she had written, and the ink had turned blue due to the dew.
"Okay, very good." She gritted her teeth and crumpled the paper scraps into a ball: "Jiang Jianhua, Yun Tangyin, you all wait for me!"
Xu Runli threw the paper ball to the ground and turned away.
When Jiang Jianhua returned to the room, he saw Fu Yuanshan sitting by the bed, smoking, a tiny red dot flickering in the darkness. "Where have you been?"
"I spoke to Xu Runli for a few words." Jiang Jianhua took off his shoes and went to bed, sighing, "How about we not get involved in Yun Tangyin's affairs in the future... I always feel that Xu Runli is unreliable. Yun Tangyin's mind is as clear as a mirror, and we can't beat her."
Fu Yuanshan flicked the ash from his cigarette and said, "I told you a long time ago, but you refused to listen and insisted on messing around with the new daughter-in-law of the Jiang family."
He glanced towards the window and said, "I heard you guys arguing outside the yard just now. Did she do anything to you?"
"No." Jiang Jianhua buried his face in the quilt. "I just feel ashamed. I've been waiting for so long, and this is what I got."
Fu Yuanshan finished his last puff of his cigarette and suddenly laughed without a clear beginning or end: "If you embarrass yourself, you'll learn your lesson..."
Jiang Jianhua didn't say anything, but the quilt shook quietly.
The next morning, Yun Tangyin had just put breakfast on the table when she saw Xu Runli coming back from outside with a basket filled with wild vegetables. Her trouser legs were still stained with mud. "I went to the back mountain to dig up some shepherd's purse. It's best used to make dumplings."
After saying that, Xu Runli stared at Yun Tangyin deliberately: "Sister, you shouldn't mind, right?"
Yun Tangyin smiled and said, "Why should I mind? If you want to eat buns, then eat them. I'm not taking advantage of you. But let me be frank, the refined white flour is charged separately."
Xu Runli's smile froze instantly, her knuckles turning white as she gripped the basket handle. "It's just a few buns, is there really any need to be so calculating? Besides, I'm digging wild vegetables for everyone to eat, so I can't just work for nothing, right?"
"Work is work, but food coupons are food coupons." Yun Tangyin pushed a bowl of corn porridge in front of her. "We just checked the food rations yesterday. There are only three pounds of refined white flour left this month. Mom said to save it for Fu Yucheng. If you want to use it, you can, but you have to pay extra."
These words left Xu Runli speechless.
She originally wanted to gain favor by digging wild vegetables and at the same time instigate Song Yushuang to think that Yun Tangyin was stingy, but she didn't expect the other party to directly bring up Fu Yucheng as an excuse.
Now Xu Runli is so frustrated... If she really uses this bread to make buns, it would mean she is ignorant.
But if she doesn’t make dumplings, what will she do with the shepherd’s purse she has worked so hard to dig?
What skills can she sell?
Yun Tangyin must have done this on purpose!
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