“Did your aunt say anything when you went to her place today?”
After seeing Ji Xiangtian off, Yun Su’s mother followed her daughter inside and asked.
Yun Su shook her head: “I didn’t even set foot inside her house. I had Xiangtian with me, so I wasn’t going to go in. You know what her stepdaughter is like…”
At the mention of her sister-in-law’s stepdaughter, Yun Su’s mother felt a pang of annoyance. Only her sister-in-law would willingly marry into a family to be a stepmother.
“Good thing you didn’t go in. I forgot to mention that to you beforehand. But… does Xiao Ji know about your aunt’s situation? Did he say anything?”
A fishing village girl marrying the director of a big city factory—given the vast gap between them, it was clear the marriage had its imperfections.
Yun Su’s mother also worried that her future son-in-law might think their family was the type to chase after wealth and status. Heaven knew that neither she nor her husband had approved of the match back then. But her sister-in-law was strong-willed, and the grandparents couldn’t control her.
“He wouldn’t care about that. He’s dating me, not my aunt. But, Mom—how exactly did Aunt end up marrying that uncle in Guangzhou back then?”
Her mother sighed at the question: “Don’t go prying into the affairs of your elders. Just know that your aunt isn’t someone who lets herself be pushed around—that’s enough.”
Beyond that, those were her sister-in-law’s private matters.
“Oh, by the way, Mom. Aunt said she’ll come back to the village when she has time.”
Yun Su’s mother, who had been about to head back to her room to sleep, frowned at this. But she didn’t say anything. She just waved at her daughter and went inside.
Inside the room, Yun Su’s father saw his wife come back and asked quietly, “Nothing happened, did it?”
His wife shook her head: “Your daughter’s too clever. She didn’t even go inside—just handed over the things at the door and left with Xiao Ji.”
Yun Su’s father chuckled at this: “Su Su’s always been sharp. No matter how well my youngest sister married, that’s her business. We don’t need to leech off her success, and we don’t need to suffer for it either.”
—
Early the next morning, Yun Su had breakfast and headed to the distribution outlet to open up.
She’d spent the whole day in Guangzhou yesterday, and her limbs were a bit sore. Fortunately, there wasn’t much to do at the outlet—she could laze around all day.
But Yun Su was soon proven wrong.
Not ten minutes after opening the door, Hu Chunhua walked in with a woman Yun Su didn’t recognize.
The woman looked to be in her twenties. The skin on her exposed arms seemed quite youthful, but her face looked a bit weathered.
“Yun Su, you’re open so early!”
Yun Su ignored Hu Chunhua’s pleasantries and just sat there seriously, saying nothing.
Hu Chunhua’s expression turned sour for a moment.
Yun Su wondered if she would lose her temper right away. After all, since coming back, Hu Chunhua had been operating on a whole new level—completely different from before. Just the whole episode of hiring witch doctors to exorcise Yun Feng showed that Hu Chunhua’s approach had changed.
But Yun Su’s expectations fell flat.
Because the young woman who had come with Hu Chunhua reached over and patted Hu Chunhua’s hand. Then she smiled warmly at Yun Su.
“Comrade Yun Su, right? Hello! My name is Li Hong. I’m Chunhua’s friend and I’ll be living in the village. We came to buy a thermos, but it seems like this place…”
She looked around the outlet as she spoke. Yun Su nodded: “That’s right, we don’t sell them here. If you want one, you’ll have to go to the town supply and marketing cooperative.”
“Oh, I see. Thank you so much. We’ll go check out the town first…”
The two had come inexplicably and left even more inexplicably.
Yun Su didn’t believe for a second that they had really come to buy a thermos.
You could see the entire outlet at a single glance. When Hu Chunhua came to buy brown sugar last time, she’d have seen everything there was to see.
—
But today was clearly not going to be peaceful.
Sure enough, no sooner had Hu Chunhua and Li Hong left than Yun Feng walked in.
Yun Su couldn’t help but complain: working at the distribution outlet had its downsides too—namely, people could find you very easily when they wanted to.
“Su Su, are you going to visit your boyfriend at the military compound tomorrow?”
The overly familiar address made Yun Su’s skin crawl.
“Yun Feng, don’t call me that from now on. You were the one who egged Hu Chunhua into pushing me into the sea. I haven’t come to your door to make trouble, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to pretend we’re still close.”
Yun Feng was stunned speechless by her resolute tone.
“I… what happened back then wasn’t how Hu Chunhua told it… I…”
“Don’t ‘I I I’ me. From now on, let’s just be strangers. Are you going to buy something or not? If not, leave. Don’t stand here being an eyesore.”
Yun Feng looked like she was about to cry. She gazed at Yun Su soulfully for a long while. Seeing that Yun Su truly wasn’t playing along, she stomped her foot and left.
Once she was gone, Yun Su wondered why Yun Feng suddenly wanted to go to the military compound.
She had heard from Liu Zhaodi that Gu Zhengrong was out on a mission. So if Yun Feng wanted to go to the military compound now, could it be that she was going to see Gu Zhengrong’s mother?
That made some sense. After yesterday’s exorcism spectacle, with the village being such a gossip mill and fishing boats going to the purchasing station every day, Yun Feng could very well become famous across the entire island by today.
Sooner or later, Gu Zhengrong’s mother would hear at least some version of the story.
What her reaction would be—that was anyone’s guess.
In fact, Yun Su’s guess was spot on. Even though the Four Olds had been abolished and feudal superstition wasn’t allowed, Yun Feng was worried that Gu Zhengrong’s mother might use this incident as an excuse to get rid of her. That was why she wanted to go to the military compound. But going alone would draw too much attention, so she tried to coax Yun Su into going with her.
Unfortunately, Yun Su wouldn’t give her the time of day.
—
Just as Yun Su was about to pick up her book again, more people arrived at the distribution outlet.
This time, nearly a dozen older women and aunties came in. The moment they entered, they packed the tiny outlet to the brim.
Yun Su had completely lost her patience.
What kind of day was this? Why had every kind of person imaginable been showing up since early morning?
The aunties had come to comfort her. They started talking about her falling into the sea, telling her not to dwell on it. Some also advised her not to believe Hu Chunhua’s words. After all, Yun Feng had been a good child since she was little—she would never do something so heartless. Hu Chunhua, on the other hand, had always been lazy and dishonest. Her words couldn’t be trusted.
They also said that she and Yun Feng were cousins and shouldn’t hold grudges. She should get along well with her, blah blah blah.
Yun Su really didn’t want to hear this kind of talk. She immediately changed the subject: “Has anyone here had any dealings with a woman named Li Hong?”
The name Li Hong was unfamiliar in Yunjia’ao.
More than half of Yunjia’ao was surnamed Yun. The number of outsiders was very small. As soon as Yun Su asked about an unfamiliar name, the aunties’ attention shifted immediately.
“Who’s this Li Hong?”
“Never heard of her. Where’s she from?”
“Oh wait, I don’t know any Li Hong either, but Hu Chunhua did bring a woman called Sister Hong to live at her house.” The person who said this lived near the Hu family.
Another auntie upon hearing this, let out an “Oh!”: “You mean that woman staying at the Hu house? I know her. I heard she’s Hu Chunhua’s future sister-in-law. She’s just visiting the Hu family.”
“No, no, that’s not what I heard. I heard that woman is planning to marry Hu Daqiang. Why else would the old Hu couple let her stay in their house?”
About the same person, everyone said something different. Now the aunties were completely hooked. They had forgotten why they’d come in the first place. They huddled together and started whispering.
Even more explosive—probably because they were getting too carried away—the first auntie who had claimed to know Li Hong suddenly muttered, “Hu Daqiang is useless now. There’s no way he’s getting married.”
The others immediately fell silent and stared wide-eyed at this auntie.
This auntie loved to gossip, but this was the first time she’d been the center of so much attention. She steeled herself, covered her mouth with one hand, and lowered her voice: “Hu Daqiang had an accident with… you know, his manhood. I’m the one who introduced him to that quack doctor!”
Everyone present, except Yun Su, was married. They often talked about such matters when they got together. Now, hearing that a young man like Hu Daqiang had had an accident and become “useless,” they got all worked up.
They could no longer bear to stay at the distribution outlet. They swarmed out and headed straight for the Hu family’s house. They were clearly off to gossip.
Yun Su finally breathed a sigh of relief. She’d managed to get rid of them. But thanks to these aunties, she’d also picked up some useful information.
Now she’d have to wait and see what news they could dig up from the Hu family.
The truth was, Yun Su was genuinely curious about this suddenly appearing Li Hong—just who was she?
And the aunties did not disappoint Yun Su.
The next day, when she came to open the distribution outlet, she heard the latest developments.
—
It turned out that Li Hong was both Hu Chunhua’s future sister-in-law and her future sister-in-law on the other side.
The Li and Hu families were doing a bride exchange.
As the aunties said this, they wore looks of lament.
Their area might not be wealthy, but they weren’t so poor that they had to resort to bride exchanges. This wasn’t some remote mountain hollow with no way out. With the sea right there, no one in their village had ever starved to death. They might be looked down upon by city folk as “fishermen,” but there were plenty of places poorer than theirs!
So the fact that the Hu family was doing a bride exchange really shocked everyone.
“Anyway, it’s really not a dignified way to do things.”
“Well, Hu Daqiang is useless now. If they don’t do a bride exchange, what good girl would marry him?”
“Hu Chunhua is so foolish!”
Just as the aunties were gossiping away, someone pushed a cart past the entrance of the distribution outlet.
The cart was piled high with all sorts of pots, pans, bowls, jars, tables, and chairs. It looked like someone was moving. Pushing the cart was a big, burly man.
“Hey, where are you off to?”
Whenever strangers came around, the aunties immediately started shouting.
The man looked over at them. His gaze was a bit unsettling. Still, he answered: “Going to the Hu house at the end of the village.”
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