RKCFE -Chapter 8 The Gossip Squad

Song Wei slapped her thigh, looking both aggrieved and indignant.

“Aunt Xiu, just look at this mess! I only slipped and fell into the river, but somehow people started spreading all kinds of nonsense. I used to like Luo Yecheng, sure—but why would I jump into the river to kill myself over him? Even if I died, it wouldn’t affect him one bit. He’d still marry Jiang Xiaowan, and I’d be left with such an awful reputation. What would I possibly gain from that? Wouldn’t that just be a huge loss for me? Besides, everyone here in Ping’an Brigade is so warm and welcoming, and the food is so good. Why would I ever want to kill myself?”

Hearing her praise the people of Ping’an Brigade as warm and kind, all the villagers who had been secretly eavesdropping couldn’t help but beam with pride.

“Exactly! The folks in Ping’an Brigade are the friendliest around.”

Song Wei smiled brightly.

“See? I’ve only been here a short while, but everyone’s already helped me so much.”

She looked at the corn in front of them.

“Aunt Xiu, are there any tricks to shelling corn?”

“Of course there are!” Aunt Xiu immediately became enthusiastic. “Don’t just use your hands—that’ll ruin them. Once you’ve got a bare cob, hold it in one hand and use it like this…”

She demonstrated, gripping an unshelled ear of corn in one hand while rubbing it against an empty cob held in the other.

“See? It strips off loads of kernels at once.”

Shelling corn wasn’t difficult, but after a while your hands would start to ache.

Using a corn cob as a tool solved that problem.

“If you’ve got a pair of Liberation shoes at home, even better. Bring a sturdy bench, wedge the shoe against the leg, then scrape the corn over the sole. It’ll take the kernels right off.”

The soles of Liberation shoes had deep ridged patterns that were perfect for stripping kernels.

Unfortunately, those shoes were precious these days. Nobody wanted to wear them out shelling corn.

Song Wei didn’t own a pair.

Fortunately, she had plenty of strength.

Using the corn cob as a tool, she quickly got the hang of it. After only a few tries, she was shelling an entire ear in barely ten seconds.

“Educated Youth Song, you’re pretty quick with your hands.”

The older women nearby all looked at her approvingly.

I’m just trying to finish early so I can head into the mountains, Song Wei thought.

She actually liked this job.

It wasn’t tiring, and she got to sit around listening to the aunties gossip all day.

Since the main subject of this morning’s gossip—Song Wei herself—was sitting right there, everyone only asked her a couple of questions before tactfully moving on to juicier topics.

Soon, they were gossiping about other villagers instead.

Ping’an Brigade was made up of four neighbouring villages. Song Wei’s village had originally been called Old Jujube Gully, but today they were talking about people from the neighbouring village.

And Song Wei blended into the conversation without the slightest sense of awkwardness.

“Widow Hu never thought much of her husband when he was alive. Now that he’s dead, people from the next village have seen several men sneaking into her house. Wonder whose husbands they are. If their wives find out, there’ll be a proper fight.”

“Forget the next village. Let me tell you something—there are men from our village sneaking over there too.”

“Who?”

Song Wei and everyone else immediately leaned closer, their eyes sparkling with curiosity.

The old woman who knew the story looked immensely pleased with herself.

“My son saw it last night. Guifen’s husband! My son had business in the next village and saw him coming out of Widow Hu’s house with his own eyes.”

“Ohhh…”

Song Wei gasped right along with everyone else, her eyes lighting up.

She actually knew these people.

“Do you mean Old Lady Niu’s daughter-in-law?”

“That’s the one.”

Aunt Xiu shot her a knowing look.

“Guifen’s husband is a complete good-for-nothing. Doesn’t work all day, yet Old Lady Niu treats him like he’s a treasure. If Guifen finds out about this, who knows how much trouble there’ll be.”

The old woman who had shared the gossip rolled her eyes thoughtfully.

“What if I went and told Guifen?”

She and Old Lady Niu couldn’t stand each other. She would love to see that family thrown into chaos.

“You really shouldn’t.”

Song Wei quickly stopped her.

“Think about it, Aunt Wang. Your son is the only one who saw it, right? If their family starts fighting and Old Lady Niu investigates where the rumour came from, she’ll know it was you. Then she’ll accuse you of making things up because you have a grudge against them. And if her son flatly denies it, you won’t have any proof. Wouldn’t you just be causing trouble for yourself?”

Only then did Aunt Wang realise the problem.

Aunt Xiu nodded in agreement.

“Educated Youth Song is right. Even if your son testified, people might not believe him.”

Aunt Wang grabbed Song Wei’s hand gratefully.

“Thank goodness you reminded me. Otherwise Old Lady Niu would’ve been pestering my family forever.”

“What are you all huddled together for? Are you going to work or not?”

The production team leader strode over with a stern face after spotting the cluster of chatting old women.

The Gossip Squad scattered instantly.

“Why’re you making such a fuss?” Aunt Wang shot back. “We’re working, aren’t we? Old ladies are just slower. It’s not like we’re refusing to work.”

Aunt Xiu suddenly grinned mischievously.

“Dalin, I heard you went drinking with the old hunter last night? Your wife said you kept her awake until late, and she barely has any energy today.”

Song Wei nearly choked on her own saliva.

They’ll really say anything!

Team Leader Jiang Dalin’s face turned alternately green and red. He stammered for a long time without managing to say a word.

Aunt Wang let out a rather suggestive chuckle.

“Hehehe… No wonder Cuilan looked so worn out today. Those dark circles under her eyes!”

The team leader barked a couple of harsh orders for everyone to focus on their work before fleeing in embarrassment.

Watching his retreating back, it almost looked as though some terrifying beast was chasing him.

As he walked away, he grumbled under his breath, “That foolish woman… she tells everyone everything!”

I’ve lost all my face!

“A bunch of old women talking nonsense… There’s still a young girl here!”

Song Wei: …

So someone finally remembered I exist?

But she wasn’t embarrassed in the slightest.

“Well… Educated Youth Song, we forgot you were here. Hehe…”

Song Wei straightened her expression.

“It’s alright.”

Watching the team leader flee so miserably had been rather entertaining.

“My goodness, Educated Youth Song! You’re really fast! You’ve already finished so much!”

Even while enthusiastically joining in the gossip, Song Wei’s hands had never stopped moving. She consistently maintained the pace of shelling one ear of corn every ten seconds or so.

The enormous pile of corn beside her had already been reduced by half.

She would finish everything before noon.

The old women looked at her differently now.

This young educated youth had been hiding her true abilities.

Song Wei grinned.

“I just want to finish early so I can go into the mountains and gather some firewood. I heard winters here are freezing.”

“You’ve heard right,” Aunt Wang said.

“You’d better collect as much firewood as you can. Winter here is so cold nobody wants to leave the house. We all stay indoors the whole season. Without a warm kang bed, city kids like you educated youths won’t survive the winter.”

Aunt Xiu nodded.

“Speaking of which, this is exactly the season when the mountains are full of good things. It’s the perfect time to gather supplies. You newly arrived educated youths haven’t earned enough work points yet. You won’t be allocated much grain at all.”

Without enough grain from the brigade, the only way to survive the long winter would be to buy food from the production team.