In her heart, Bai Lan was very satisfied with Xu Jianbei. But she truly hadn’t thought about getting married right away. Of course, that was also because Xu Jianbei hadn’t made a move yet.
Thinking this, she shot a glare at Xu Jianbei.
Xu Jianbei, usually so sharp, put on an act of not understanding a thing, which made Bai Lan couldn’t help but smack him on the shoulder again.
Holding back a laugh, Xu Jianbei silently bore the weight of her hand. He thought to himself that once he had the household fully settled, he would give Bai Lan a big surprise.
Throughout the entire afternoon, no one from the Hu family stepped outside. If not for the occasional noise drifting out, everyone might have thought they had all gone out.
But because the door had been shut for so long, quite a few of the onlookers lost interest in gossiping and went back to their own homes.
Bai Lan tidied up her room as well, thinking that the Hu family’s drama was probably over for the day and nothing else would happen.
But then, as her family was eating dinner in the evening, Gao Qingqing barged in out of nowhere.
—
“Sister Bai, I’ve come to ask for help.”
Bai Lian looked at Gao Qingqing. Her limbs were fine, her face had no injuries, and her hair and clothes were neat and tidy. It didn’t look like the Hu family had abused her all day. Why had she suddenly run to their house asking for help?
Bai Lan didn’t have as much patience as her eldest sister. Seeing Gao Qingqing plead for help right off the bat, she knew this woman probably had no other options left.
Sure enough, the next words out of Gao Qingqing’s mouth were: “I don’t want to sleep with Hu Aimin.”
Bai Lian was speechless. At the Women’s Federation, she had seen all kinds of oddballs. But Gao Qingqing was truly the first of her kind. And besides, there were children in the house. Talking about “sleeping” so blatantly—Bai Lian had already lost any desire to engage with this person.
But bound by the professional ethics of a women’s worker, Bai Lian still stood up and said, “If you don’t want to sleep with him, then don’t sleep with him. That’s your freedom.”
“Then can I stay at your place for a few days?” Hearing Bai Lian’s words, Gao Qingqing looked at her with hopeful eyes. Clearly, she saw Bai Lian as her lifeline.
Bai Lian was stunned. Bai Lan was stunned. Everyone else in the Bai family was stunned.
Then, the Bai family shook their heads in unison.
“If you don’t want to be married to Hu Aimin, you can choose to get a divorce. Our family cannot take you in. If you need help, you can go to the street office.”
As Bai Lian spoke, Bai Lan had already gotten up to go find someone from the street office to come and take this person away.
None of them wanted to get involved in Gao Qingqing’s affairs. This girl was clearly the troublesome type. And even if they helped her, she’d probably turn around and bite them.
Seeing the Bai family refuse and Bai Lan looking like she was about to leave, Gao Qingqing immediately jumped up.
“Where are you going?”
Bai Lan: “Your situation needs the street office to take the lead. Our family is ordinary people. There’s no way we can help you resolve this.”
Hearing that she needed the street office to mediate, Gao Qingqing, for reasons unknown, went completely nuts and bolted straight outside.
Bai Lan threw up her hands. “Is she going to the street office for help?”
The Bai family was completely baffled by Gao Qingqing. How could they possibly understand what was going on in her head?
Meanwhile, Gao Qingqing, having run out of the Bai house, was now full of resentment toward the Bai family.
She had been locked in the Hu house all day. She was truly afraid that Widow Hu would make her potato-looking son force himself on her. Fortunately, since they lived in a shared courtyard with neighbors right outside, they hadn’t ended up doing that in the end. But they had spent all day pressuring and threatening her with one single goal: consummate the marriage with Hu Aimin, or get the hell out.
Get the hell out—that was the last resort. Gao Qingqing had come to the city and didn’t want to go back to the countryside. Going back would be too humiliating. Everyone in her village knew she had come to the city to live the good life.
But she still couldn’t accept actually sleeping with Hu Aimin.
She had thought she might find some hope at the Bai family’s, but all those women in the Bai family, and not one ounce of sympathy. No wonder their family had produced a divorced woman.
Running out of the courtyard, Gao Qingqing headed straight for the street office.
Since the Bai family wouldn’t help, she had no choice but to turn to the street office. She had heard that the people at the street office were very warm-hearted. Maybe they’d take pity on her and arrange a good job. With a job, she wouldn’t have to rely on the Hu family’s support anymore.
But then, as she was passing by the public restroom, she unexpectedly saw Qin Tang walking out. Without a second thought, Gao Qingqing charged straight at him.
Qin Tang had been humming a tune as he came out of the restroom. Half an hour ago, Widow Hu had brought Hu Aimin, along with a slab of pork and a five-hundred-word letter of apology, to his door to apologize.
He had naturally “forgiven” them, but he had also made it clear that he would have nothing to do with Hu Aimin from now on.
Anyway, he and his father had already landed a few good punches on Hu Aimin, so he had gotten his revenge and hadn’t lost out. As for being targeted by Gao Qingqing, Qin Tang felt that was totally unfair. Unfortunately, his family hadn’t yet figured out how to deal with this mess.
But overall, Qin Tang was happy to have cut ties with the Hu family. He had been humming all the way to the public restroom.
But he never expected that as soon as he stepped out and looked up, he would see Gao Qingqing charging at him like a madwoman. He was so startled he wanted to step back. But then a hand pulled him from diagonally behind.
Gao Qingqing rushed straight to where he had been standing.
With him out of the way, she shot past the entrance of the men’s restroom and charged right inside.
Keep in mind—he had just come out of the men’s restroom. He was out, but there were still quite a few men inside!
And then, a series of blood-curdling screams erupted from inside the restroom.
Immediately afterward, several men came scrambling out, clutching their pants.
It was pure chaos!
Even though Gao Qingqing had been charging at him, Qin Tang still found the whole scene hilarious.
Bai Lan, standing not far from the restroom at that moment, was also amused by the spectacle.
Heaven knows—she had just been on her way to the restroom when she saw Gao Qingqing go berserk and charge into the men’s side.
Watching Qin Tang doubled over with laughter at the restroom entrance, and Datou pulling him away toward the main road, Bai Lan thought Qin Yan’s decision to have Datou stick with Qin Tang was absolutely right.
Otherwise, Qin Tang might have been accosted by Gao Qingqing today.
Of course, Gao Qingqing didn’t succeed in ambushing Qin Tang. Instead, she scared the living daylights out of the men inside the restroom.
In the end, someone went to fetch Widow Hu, who dragged Gao Qingqing out of the men’s restroom.
And the story of Gao Qingqing’s bold charge into the men’s restroom spread throughout the alley in no time.
No one said it openly, but behind her back, everyone called Gao Qingqing a female hooligan.
That night, the Hu family was filled with the sound of Widow Hu roaring, wave after wave.
But when everyone got up the next morning, they noticed that Widow Hu actually had a bit of a smile on her face.
Bai Lan was puzzled, but then she was shocked speechless by Auntie Wan’s words.
“You want to know why? She’s happy that her son is finally no longer a virgin!”
Auntie Wan lived right next door to the Hu family. She had kept her ears wide open and heard every single thing that had happened at the Hu house the night before.
“Last night, Gao Qingqing got a vicious tongue-lashing at first. Widow Hu even said she was going to have her son divorce her and make Gao Qingqing return the bride price and all the gifts. Otherwise, she’d take her to court for marriage fraud. She even called her a female hooligan for looking down on her son but running into the men’s restroom to ogle some old geezers.”
Bai Lan listened quietly to Auntie Wan’s gossip, her face a mask of shock. Auntie Wan, thoroughly pleased with everyone’s reactions, continued chattering: “And Gao Qingqing isn’t any prize either. When she heard that, she actually tried to play hard to get. But Widow Hu couldn’t even wait one night—she wanted to go right then to get the street office people to come and witness. And then, guess what happened?”
At this point, Auntie Wan still wanted to build suspense, but no one was having it.
Seeing this, Auntie Wan looked all mysterious and said, “In the end, Gao Qingqing agreed to sleep with Hu Aimin!”
“So did they actually sleep together or not?”
Auntie Wan chuckled slyly. “They did. I heard the noises.”
Bai Lan quietly turned and walked away. She wasn’t interested in what came next. But the fact that Gao Qingqing had caved so quickly genuinely surprised her. She had thought the woman would hold out a while longer. And that when she couldn’t take it anymore, she would divorce Hu Aimin. She never expected it to end like this.
It was kind of ridiculous.
But that woman was practically obsessed with Qin Tang. Bai Lan felt that Qin Tang really shouldn’t come back to the courtyard unless he found a formidable partner—someone who could keep Gao Qingqing in check.
As for Qin Tang, he truly didn’t dare return to the courtyard either. On the rare occasions he did come back, he made sure Datou accompanied him. After all, Datou had pulled him out of the way back at the restroom and preserved his virtue.
Bai Lan thought this winter would bring only this one surprising incident. But then, on the day of the Winter Solstice, when everyone was storing their winter vegetables, Bai Ping showed up with Song Guoping, bringing the family a cart full of napa cabbage.
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