The backyard was quiet and cool, usually used for drying laundry. Standing there now, Yun Su put her hands on her hips and finally burst into loud laughter.
Ji Xiangtian watched her joyful display and laughed along, showing a full set of white teeth.
He had truly been very busy these past few days. The main reason was that the military region had many missions recently, which meant no shortage of injured personnel. As an orthopedist, he had been so busy his feet barely touched the ground. It was only now, with fewer patients, that he could take time off to be with Su Su.
“Am I amazing?”
After laughing up at the sky, Yun Su turned to look at the handsome man before her, whose emotions were written all over his face. Hmm, he had been so busy at work lately that there were dark circles under his eyes. He probably needed some nourishment.
Ji Xiangtian had no idea Yun Su was already planning how to help him recover. He just nodded vigorously, his eyes filled with laughter. “Absolutely amazing!”
Yun Su chuckled again. She didn’t really care much about praise from others. But this man’s affirmation made her feel a special sense of accomplishment.
“I’ll be selling goods at the distribution point from now on. And when inspiration strikes, I’ll write some articles for the newspaper to earn writer’s fees.”
Earning writer’s fees had been Yun Su’s plan from the start—she wanted to save money to buy a house later. The selling job was an unexpected bonus. It wouldn’t be too tiring, certainly easier than working at the drying yard.
So Yun Su felt she was truly very lucky.
“That’s great. No sun, no rain, no hard labor.” Ji Xiangtian praised her enthusiastically. In truth, he wanted to tell Yun Su that she didn’t need to work—he could earn money. But he also felt that having something they enjoyed doing was better for a girl than staying at home.
Besides, neither writing articles nor selling things at the distribution point would be too exhausting. If it were too tiring, Ji Xiangtian felt he would surely hate to see her suffer.
——
Having earned her boyfriend’s praise, Yun Su grew even happier.
She walked over to him, sat down beside him, and rested her head on his solid shoulder. Whispering in his ear, she said, “If we get married in the future, I’ll have my mother take over this job. That way, she won’t have to work at the drying yard anymore.”
Yun Su’s mother worked as a record-keeper at the drying yard. That might not sound too hard, but the fish, shrimp, crabs, and various sea vegetables brought to the yard were all fresh from the sea.
That meant they needed to be cleaned, gutted, and properly arranged before drying. The one good thing about seafood was that it didn’t require salt for drying—sun-drying was the main method. But even so, drying large quantities of seafood was extremely tiring.
Working under the blazing sun—who could say that wasn’t exhausting?
Whenever a fresh batch of seafood arrived, everyone at the drying yard had to drop everything and work on it. And they couldn’t drag it out too long, or the seafood would spoil and attract insects.
Ji Xiangtian, coming from a family of doctors, had no idea that a simple drying yard involved so much work. Hearing this, he felt that the villagers really had it hard. It made him think of those people at the supply and marketing cooperative—making life difficult for such hardworking villagers was truly despicable.
“Then when you go to the cooperative to pick up inventory, let me know in advance. I’ll take you there.”
Yun Su knew he was worried she might be mistreated.
“Don’t worry, just focus on your work. I’ll have my brother take me. Besides, I’m the one who wrote that article. The people at the town cooperative wouldn’t dare do anything to me. In fact, I hope they try something. That would give me even more material for my next article.”
Ji Xiangtian nodded and didn’t say anything more. Listening to Su Su’s soft murmuring in his ear, he secretly resolved to pull some strings. His family was in the military medical system in the south. His northern connections were too far away to be useful. But in Yangcheng, he had classmates whose families were in the supply and marketing system. He would first thoroughly investigate the family causing all the trouble.
Yun Su had no idea how thoughtful her man was. She had been talking for a while now, receiving occasional responses from him. Leaning on his shoulder, looking up occasionally at his profile—still so handsome.
She smiled, lifted her head, and gently kissed his cheek.
Ji Xiangtian, who had just been responding with “mm-hmm,” instantly froze. Then his neck and ears turned bright red.
Seeing this, Yun Su reached out and pinched his thick earlobe. It was hot to the touch. She couldn’t help but chuckle.
Seeing this, Ji Xiangtian sighed affectionately. He set aside all his troublesome thoughts for now, focusing on building a good relationship with his girlfriend.
——
Immersed in their sweet atmosphere, the young couple didn’t notice someone watching them from a distance.
The backyard of Yun Su’s house faced a banana grove. The grove was wild, about five or six meters away from the yard. This area usually saw few people passing by.
But at that moment, someone was standing in the banana grove, having witnessed the young couple’s interaction.
“The way they’re acting is not acceptable…” Yun Feng stamped her foot and whispered to the man beside her.
Gu Zhengrong also saw the couple leaning against each other across the way, but he didn’t see anything wrong with it. A little intimacy between young lovers was normal. And this was hardly very intimate. There had been no news about it on the Yunjia’ao side yet, but at the family compound, he had heard that Xiao Ji’s parents had already started exchanging ration tickets with people, preparing for their son’s wedding.
Such actions showed that the relationship had already progressed to the point where marriage was possible.
But Yun Feng, as a young woman, might find this sort of thing embarrassing.
So Gu Zhengrong said good-naturedly, “If you really feel this is inappropriate, you could mention it privately to your younger cousin.”
Yun Feng put on a disapproving expression but nodded as if she would do it for her cousin’s sake. Inwardly, she sneered. No wonder Ji Xiangtian, a doctor from such a good family background, had gotten together with Yun Su so quickly. So she was throwing herself at him and being intimate.
So shameless!
Gu Zhengrong, unaware of Yun Feng’s thoughts, continued, “I really can’t intervene in the town cooperative matter. Now that your village’s distribution point is set up, you don’t need to worry about this anymore.”
Yun Feng had come to him about this issue several times. But he had also looked into what happened afterward. In his heart, he quite admired Yun Feng’s younger cousin. Her solution was indeed good—she hadn’t offended anyone and had even secured a distribution point for the village.
Although Yun Feng was capable and smart, she was sometimes too impulsive. Gu Zhengrong had also been present when she offended the supply and marketing cooperative people. At the time, he didn’t know Yun Feng well, so it wasn’t his place to say anything. But now that they were a couple, Gu Zhengrong felt it would be good to talk to her about how to navigate social relationships.
So, Yun Feng was forced to listen to some lectures she didn’t want to hear. In truth, she had anticipated such consequences back at the cooperative. But at the time, in order to get Gu Zhengrong’s attention, she had resorted to such a clumsy method.
Now that he was criticizing her, she could only endure it.
But while listening to Gu Zhengrong’s lecture and watching Yun Su being all sweet with her boyfriend across the way, Yun Feng felt particularly irritated.
——
What irritated her even more was that after parting with Gu Zhengrong and returning home, she immediately heard the news that Yun Su would be working at the distribution point.
“How can the village do this?”
Yun Feng stood up excitedly before realizing her reaction was inappropriate.
Grandma Yun, who had told her the news, didn’t notice her eldest granddaughter’s expression and continued happily, “The distribution point came about because of Yun Su’s article. Having her sell the goods is something the villagers will accept. That child is truly blessed.”
Liu Zhaodi was picking vegetables nearby and curled her lip at her mother-in-law’s words. “Blessed,” her foot. That lazy good-for-nothing just got lucky. When you got down to it, the distribution point was established because the town cooperative had caused trouble. And the reason they caused trouble was that her own daughter had offended them.
So, from that perspective, her own daughter deserved some of the credit for this job. What a shameless way of putting it. Liu Zhaodi didn’t dare say this outright, just muttered to herself.
As for Second Uncle Yun, looking at the can of malted milk powder Yun Feng had brought back, he asked, “Why didn’t Xiao Gu stay for dinner? He just dropped off the malted milk powder and left?”
Yun Feng nodded. “He had to go get medicine from Old Hu. He said his mother’s angina has been acting up again.”
Second Uncle Yun put on a worried expression, but inwardly he was quite pleased.
Better that old hag die sooner rather than later. That way, Yun Feng could take charge when she married into the family.
“You should show more concern for her in the future. When people get old, they have all kinds of ailments. By the way, Yun Su has gotten this good job. After you finish your meal, go over and have a heart-to-heart with her. You two sisters were so close before! Why have you grown so distant lately? As the older sister, you should make more effort to stay in touch.”
Yun Su’s boyfriend’s prospects were even better than Yun Feng’s. Second Uncle Yun coveted this but knew it was impossible to snatch him away. However, Yun Su was still his niece. Staying close now would pay off in the future.
Not like their youngest sister, who had married a factory director and become the director’s wife but hadn’t let him get a single benefit. In the end, she just looked down on him, her second brother, for being a failure.
Yun Feng curled her lip at these words. But after lunch, she did go across the way to find Yun Su. Unfortunately, Yun Su had already gone with Ji Xiangtian to the mangrove forest to be lovey-dovey.
——
Early the next morning, Yun Su went to the brigade headquarters for a meeting. The meeting was relatively simple—just going over the work rules for the distribution point. When to open, when to close. Where to store the goods, who would be responsible for them, etc.
The work details were quite thorough. Yun Su offered her opinions on each point. Together with the brigade cadres, they finalized the work rules for this small distribution point.
Then, the next morning, she pocketed all the various documents issued by the brigade, along with the distribution point’s certification papers, took money and ration tickets, and called on her older brother to go with her to the town cooperative.
Her brother was in charge of driving the oxcart on the way there. Once again, the oxcart was empty. No one wanted to go to the town cooperative anymore. Everyone was waiting for the distribution point to open so they could shop there.
“Brother, Mom said we should buy you some fabric too. She said you’re twenty now and need a nice outfit to prepare for a blind date. Otherwise, if your younger sister gets married first, you’ll lose face.”
“What face is there to lose? My sister finding a good boyfriend is her good fortune. Hey, wait a minute. When are you getting married? I didn’t know about this! That brat Xiao Ji hasn’t said anything about marriage!”
Hearing her brother’s tone suddenly turn anxious, Yun Su quickly explained, “We haven’t discussed marriage yet. Things feel pretty good as they are now. If we do get married, it won’t be until the end of the year.”
Yun Su had considered the marriage question. It was July now, and by the end of the year she would have spent several months with him. Such a long timeline was rare in this era. But the two had already discussed this issue. If things were too rushed, they might not have everything arranged properly.
Also, to be honest, Yun Su wasn’t ready to leave her family. Everyone in her family treated her very well. From her parents to her brother and younger brother, their bonds were strong. With such a wonderful family, she couldn’t bear to leave them. She really wanted to keep living at home with Ji Xiangtian after marriage.
Ji Xiangtian had noticed her reluctance. So the two had agreed to postpone any discussion of marriage until the end of the year.
——
As for her older brother, he was twenty this year. While not exceptionally handsome, he was a dark-skinned good-looking guy. His obvious shortcoming was that his family was from a fishing village and didn’t have much in the way of savings. His advantages were that his family was harmonious, he was good-looking, and he was smart. In a few years, when the market opened up, someone as daring and hardworking as her brother would surely make something of himself.
But in 1974, her brother didn’t have many advantages on the marriage market.
“Not marrying isn’t good either. If you date too long, people will start gossiping again.”
After saying this, Yun Huaimin himself felt torn. Whether his sister married or not, he found it hard to accept.
“Brother, let’s not talk about that first. We were just discussing you. Mom said to buy you some fabric for clothes. Pick something you like. Once autumn comes and the fishing season slows down, we’ll find you a match. Then you’ll have time to spend with her…”
Yun Su found her brother’s furrowed brow quite amusing. As for her brother’s matchmaking prospects, if a suitable person came along, good; if not, by the time the market opened up, her brother would be twenty-four—still young!
The brother and sister chatted along the way and soon arrived at the supply and marketing cooperative.
….
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