Wang Guihua strode forward, stood tall and protectively in front of Ling Huanwu, and immediately began to hurl insults.
"Xu A-mei, you eat ten sweet potatoes for every three meals a day at home. Do you know how wasteful you are?"
"And Gao Huimei, you poop three times a day and you still eat so much and waste money, does your husband know?"
"Why do you say my wife is a spendthrift? Are you gossiping about her, or are you saying all the lumps on her body are mosquito bites from your gossip?"
Wang Guihua's mouth sprayed non-stop like a machine gun, making the faces of the women in the family compound turn from blue to red.
"Mom, why are you so protective of her? We didn't say anything!"
Song Yaoyao stepped forward, touching her not-so-protruding belly, and began to criticize her mother-in-law, "We are all daughters-in-law, why are you biased towards her? We're just here to collect the money, after all, she lost the bet with us last time. Come on, go and call Xiaoqin over, let's divide the money!"
"Yes, let's divide the money!"
"Are you trying to renege on your debt?"
Just then, Lin Xiaoqin came running over in a flurry, braiding her hair as she ran.
"What's the rush? There's still one day left. Are you going to run away?"
Lin Xiaoqin also stood on the same side as Ling Huanwu and the others.
But the women in the residential compound wouldn't listen to her; they immediately tried to snatch the money from her.
"If it was going to sprout, it would have sprouted long ago. What, if it's a day late, does it think it'll grow into a golden nugget?"
"Yes, let's divide the money quickly. We're waiting for this money to go to town to buy things next time!"
"Turn up this pile of mud as soon as possible, and stop occupying public land!"
Amidst the jostling and pushing, Lin Xiaoqin clutched the money in her pocket, refusing to let them take it from her.
Ling Huanwu and her mother-in-law rushed forward to protect her. In the shoving and pushing, Ling Huanwu stumbled and fell into the ridge of the field, hitting her head on a stone.
My knee stung from scraping against the gravel.
Fingers covered in grass clippings instinctively reached out to protect the vegetable patch, but suddenly stopped when they touched the damp soil...
Beneath the soil she had pressed down, tiny mounds of earth began to rise!
A muffled clap of thunder sounded from the horizon.
Unexpectedly, raindrops began to fall in a steady drizzle.
A thunderous shout cleaved through the noise.
"Stop it, all of you!"
The women who were still pushing and shoving each other stopped immediately.
Zhou Jiuzhen's military boots shattered the sunlight on the ground, his unbuttoned uniform fluttering in the wind. With a swift movement, he scooped up his wife from the field and held her behind him, his sharp gaze sweeping over the crowd: "Who pushed my wife?"
Ling Huanwu seemed rooted to the spot, her trembling fingertips brushing away the damp, loose soil.
Tender buds, still wrapped in soil, sprout out; pale yellow leaves, though curled up, stubbornly unfurl in the sea breeze.
"It's sprouted...it's really sprouted!"
Her voice trembled as she pulled Zhou Jiuzhen's hand and pressed it against the vegetable patch. "Feel it, it's alive!"
"I did it!"
"The children finally have vegetables to eat!"
Zhou Jiuzhen's hand trembled slightly as he gently stroked the tender bud tip, his eyes welling up with tears.
The women who had just been scrambling for the sprouts were all shocked and bent down to examine the tender shoots in the field.
Seeds actually sprouted from the soil that Ling Huanwu had just compacted.
Given time, those tiny specks of green will bring boundless vitality to this island that has been trapped by salinity for so long.
The news spread like wildfire throughout the village.
The uncles and elders who went to the production team, and the aunties who went to the breeding farm, all crowded into the family compound to check on the tiny green shoots emerging from the fields.
Some villagers even cried.
The local villagers were very excited and surrounded Ling Huanwu, praising her as a blessed woman and saying she was a fairy descended from heaven.
Ling Huanwu waved her hand somewhat embarrassedly and explained to them that she had used some acidic fertilizers to change the salinity of the soil.
The villagers became even more excited upon hearing this.
"Does that mean we can grow vegetables too? Will we have vegetables to eat every day from now on?"
"Comrade Ling, please teach us how to fertilize and grow vegetables quickly! We don't want to eat those awful sweet potato leaves for even a day longer!"
So, a large group of uncles, aunts and cousins surrounded Ling Huanwu, asking her all sorts of questions about how to fertilize.
Zhou Jiuzhen, who had been protecting Ling Huanwu, was also pushed out by the crowd.
Song Yaoyao and the other women from the family compound who had made the bet were all frozen in place, muttering to themselves.
"What are we going to do with our money? Are we just going to lose it all like this?"
"My God, that's thirty yuan! That's our monthly living expenses! My husband will definitely kill me!"
Lin Xiaoqin, who had just been pushed and shoved by the group of aunties and had her clothes pulled, raised her eyebrows as she watched their humiliated expressions. She pulled out a wad of cash from her pocket and patted it smugly in her palm. "Hey, aunties, does your face hurt? You all said that Comrade Xiaozi would cry in Commander Zhou's arms, but now you're probably the ones crying your eyes out under your men's shoes!"
Lin Xiaoqin's provocation made the aunts' faces darken even more.
They all turned their heads and began to vent their anger on Song Yaoyao.
Among them, the most furious were Xu Amei and Gao Huimei, who had just been singled out and scolded by Wang Guihua. They completely lost their usual close friendship and started cursing at Song Yaoyao.
"It's all your fault! If you hadn't encouraged us, would we have put money into this bet? You have to give us our money back!"
"Yes, you have to pay us back the money we lost!"
The group then shoved Song Yaoyao to vent their anger.
Song Yaoyao protected her stomach and retreated repeatedly, still in a state of extreme resentment. "Impossible, impossible, there's no way vegetables can grow on this island!"
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