RIRW – Chapter 27

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In the afternoon, Zuo Chengcai didn’t go to work and decided to sleep at home. Grandmother Zuo chased him with a broom, causing a scene as he dodged and ran into the house, locking the door. Unable to see him, Grandmother Zuo had no choice but to stand outside and curse for a few moments before giving up. “You little bastard, what kind of sin have I committed, living with this little brat? If I starve to death one day, no one will care.”

These words were intentionally aimed at her other two sons. She wanted them to hear it and feel guilty for not caring for her after splitting the family. “You brothers are unreliable, if I depend on you, I’ll starve to death.” To be specific, this was aimed at her eldest son, Zuo Hongjun. After the second son split his family, he still sent her food now and then. But the eldest son showed no such consideration. The division had been so complete that, if it weren’t for them living in the same courtyard and seeing each other daily, she would have thought her eldest son had died.

She intentionally looked toward her eldest son’s direction, only to see Xu Fengxia and Zuo Hongjun coming out of the house. Xu Fengxia had changed into a clean set of clothes and was carrying a basket. It didn’t look like she was going to work, but more like she was heading back to her parents’ house. Grandmother Zuo, sharp-eyed as always, noticed through a gap in the cloth covering the basket that there seemed to be something that looked like pork inside.

Her face immediately darkened. She hadn’t been given any meat, but it seemed like Xu Fengxia was taking it back to her family. What an unfilial daughter-in-law.

If they hadn’t split the family, she would definitely have taught her a lesson.

Once again feeling the disadvantage of the family split, Grandmother Zuo coldly snorted at Zuo Hongjun and, grinding her teeth, entered the house.

Xu Fengxia, noticing the cold attitude from the old lady, felt frustrated. Looking back at Zuo Dan, who was smiling cheerfully, she secretly resented, “I’ll make sure to marry you off, you troublemaker.”

Zuo Dan winked at her, then smiled and followed Zuo Dacheng and his wife to work.

Now, with the old lady dealing with Xu Fengxia, she didn’t need to worry about her. The important thing now was making money. Soon, the entire commune would begin collecting grain, and she was worried that other communes might hear the news, making it harder to collect the grain. She had to act quickly.

In the afternoon, Zuo Dan began digging trenches with the others. They were shallow ditches, so it wasn’t hard work.

During a break, Zuo Dan arranged to meet Li Chenliang after work.

In the distance, Shen Yiming and Xu Dapeng were working together. From time to time, they would mutter something to each other. Xu Dapeng, irritated, said, “I’m telling you, Yiming, that girl is always with Li Chenliang. Why are you letting him teach her accounting? That’s aiding the enemy. You didn’t know, but while you were gone these past few days, they’ve gotten closer. Li Chenliang is even being overly attentive to her. When they work together, he’s always trying so hard. I’m telling you, something’s going on between them.”

Shen Yiming rubbed his hands together, continued with his work, and glanced at Zuo Dan and Li Chenliang.

Zuo Dan was looking around, then said something to Li Chenliang, her posture looking like a small animal wary of a hunter.

“You see, they’re talking again,” Xu Dapeng said, looking at Shen Yiming with dissatisfaction.

“Yiming, I’m telling you, you better wake up. Don’t let your mind wander.” He spoke seriously.

He couldn’t help but be serious. Shen Yiming usually kept a distance from the female workers. Even Li Hongbing, who chased him around, never made him feel anything special. But now, Shen Yiming had specifically named Zuo Dan to learn accounting, and Xu Dapeng felt something was off.

They, the educated youth, couldn’t marry these countryside girls. If they did, they’d be considered rural people themselves. Xu Dapeng didn’t want Shen Yiming to make a foolish decision.

Shen Yiming smiled. “Come on, what does it matter what they’re talking about? Don’t interfere.”

“I’m just looking out for you,” Xu Dapeng said. “And you’re teaching her accounting? She’s so close to Li Chenliang.”

Shen Yiming said, “You’re overthinking it. Someone smart is always better to teach than a fool. I just think she’s got a good head on her shoulders.”

“Really?” Xu Dapeng asked, skeptical.

“Mm.” Shen Yiming responded, lowering his head and working hard. He was determined to go back and knew exactly what he needed to do.

After work, Zuo Dan and Li Chenliang went to collect firewood again.

Zuo Dan handed Li Chenliang a note from the post office, confirming that the first batch of grain had arrived. “When will you arrange the second batch?”

Li Chenliang hesitated. Although he usually didn’t handle the details, he understood that the grain needed to be inspected. He hadn’t been involved in the grain collection this time, so he wasn’t sure if the grain was up to standard. He was waiting for news from his second aunt, who worked at the post office, before making a decision.

Zuo Dan pursed her lips. “If you’re going to collect the grain, you better decide quickly. You heard what Shen Yiming said today. The entire commune is getting busy collecting grain. From what I’ve heard, the villagers are ready to swap all their fine grain. After this, you won’t be able to get fine grain for the rest of the year.”

Hearing Zuo Dan’s words, Li Chenliang suddenly remembered. “This Shen Yiming!” he muttered, frustrated. “The grain you’re collecting, is it all good?”

“What do you mean by that?” Zuo Dan’s face immediately turned angry, and her eyes glared fiercely. “If you don’t want the grain, just say so. Don’t doubt my integrity. I, Zuo Dan, never deceive anyone, young or old. Fine, if you don’t want it, I won’t bother with it. If I hadn’t heard you say before that you wanted as much as possible, I wouldn’t have bothered with this.”

Li Chenliang didn’t expect Zuo Dan to react so strongly and instinctively realized he shouldn’t have said that. “Alright, alright, I misspoke.”

Li Chenliang had never encountered such a fierce girl before. Not only was she hot-tempered, but she could also argue back.

When Zuo Dan heard Li Chenliang admit his mistake, her face immediately softened. “I’m not a petty person. Let’s forget about that just now. But in the future, don’t do that again. You have to understand, this is really a thankless job. Think about the risk I’m taking. Now the commune is collecting grain, and if they give one or two extra, the price of grain will go up…”

“…” Li Chenliang’s scalp tingled when he heard about the price increase. How come the price of grain was never fixed and kept rising…

Seeing that he wasn’t happy, Zuo Dan furrowed her brows in anger. “It’s all Shen Yiming’s fault for causing such trouble. I’m starting to suspect that he’s deliberately trying to stop us from collecting grain. He must think that by doing this, you won’t be able to collect any grain. I hope you haven’t let this slip to anyone.”

Zuo Dan glared at him. “Don’t drag me down with you.”

“How could I!” Li Chenliang widened his eyes and stared back. “Am I that stupid?” He then frowned and said, “Who cares what he does? I don’t believe we won’t be able to collect the grain. If the commune gives one or two more, we’ll give them two more! If he dares, let him get the commune to give three more!”

“Good, you’ve got some guts. If you’re determined, we won’t have any problem collecting the grain. Don’t worry, I’ll still say the same thing: you want as much as you want. But it has to be fast. I’m really worried that something else will go wrong.”

So, Li Chenliang took out a hundred yuan and handed it to Zuo Dan. To avoid any further issues, he decided to collect more this time, especially since he wasn’t short on money. His mother had said that aside from giving some to relatives, they would also need some for New Year’s gifts. It was worth spending the money. Thinking about how even his father, who always looked down on him, would need the grain he collected made Li Chenliang feel it was all worthwhile.

Seeing the stack of money, Zuo Dan’s eyes flickered. This guy really had money!

Because of the large quantity, transportation costs had to be added, and extra payment for hard work was necessary. Zuo Dan suggested ten yuan for transportation and labor costs, leaving ninety yuan for the grain collection. Due to the price increase, only 400 jin (about 200 kilograms) of grain could be collected this time.

Li Chenliang had never dealt with such matters before, but hearing Zuo Dan’s detailed calculations, he had no objections. He just asked that she save some for him, as he needed fine grain.

When Zuo Dan returned home with the firewood, Li Hui was still cooking. Now that no one else was available to cook, she had to do it after work every day.

Seeing Zuo Dan put the firewood next to the stove, Li Hui frowned, looking like she wanted to say something but hesitated.

“Dandan, why are you back so late?” Li Hui asked cautiously.

Zuo Dan replied, “We didn’t have enough firewood at home, so I brought back some more.”

Li Hui glanced at the firewood beside her and hesitated. “I heard that you were with a young male educated youth…”

“Oh, I just happened to run into him,” Zuo Dan wasn’t flustered and said casually. “They saw us, but as long as they didn’t overhear what we were saying, it’s fine.”

Li Hui said, “Dandan, I’m not trying to control you. But we shouldn’t be getting involved with the educated youth. We need someone reliable to live with, not those people who we can’t trust.”

Zuo Dan looked surprised. “Mom, what are you thinking? When did I ever get involved with them? That’s not true. Besides, I’m only seventeen; I’m not thinking about those things. Don’t worry.” She definitely wasn’t planning on dating any of the educated youths.

Look at those educated youths—either bookworms, or foolish, or not suitable at all. Who would consider dating them?

Li Hui looked at her daughter’s honest expression and felt relieved.

“I’m going to visit my third uncle. I’ll talk to him and ask him not to run around so much and worry the old lady.” Zuo Dan then went to find Zuo Chengcai to chat.

In the room, Zuo Chengcai woke up, attracted by the smell of money.

He opened his eyes groggily and saw a stack of money in front of him, thinking he was dreaming. He reached out to grab it, but the money seemed to fly away.

“Uncle, don’t sleep. There’s work to be done,” Zuo Dan said, putting the money into her pocket while watching her uncle in a dazed state.

“Dandan?” Zuo Chengcai rubbed his eyes. “I thought I was dreaming. I just saw a big pile of money.” He even asked if it was real.

“What dream? It’s real. Big business is coming.” Zuo Dan took out the money and handed him sixty-five yuan. “Uncle, collect four hundred jin of grain this time. Don’t collect it in our commune, go to another one.”

“How much are we making this time?” Zuo Chengcai’s eyes lit up. He had never seen so much money before.

Zuo Dan said, “Fixed income of fifteen yuan. If you do well, there’ll be a bonus later.”

Zuo Chengcai immediately jumped out of bed. “Alright, I’ll go wash my face and be ready to go in a bit.”

In just two or three days, he could earn more than twenty yuan, which was about half the salary of a worker in the city for half a month. He didn’t need to envy the city workers anymore. Were their wages higher than his?

After dinner that evening, Zuo Chengcai ran out again. This time, the old lady even threw her cane and yelled, “Go out and don’t come back!”

Zuo Dan, who was inside the house, felt sorry for him.

Zuo Chengcai rushed to another commune to collect grain, and Zuojiatun also began to busy itself with grain collection.

In these days, Zuo Dan didn’t need to go to the fields anymore. While others went to work without breakfast, she had her breakfast before heading to the warehouse to learn account-keeping from Shen Yiming. When everyone came in the afternoon to exchange their grain, she was ready to help. As she stepped outside, Zuo Huan came out of the house and stopped her in the yard.

“Take me with you.” Zuo Huan puffed her cheeks. After Xu Fengxia stopped working, she also stayed at home and didn’t go to work. Now, Zuo Hongjun didn’t care about these things anymore, and Zuo Qing couldn’t do much about it.

Zuo Dan glanced at her, not understanding where she got the nerve to ask like that. “If you want to go, ask Uncle Shuisheng. Why are you asking me?”

Zuo Huan raised her brows and said, “Didn’t he ask you to go? Take me with you. Dandan, I’m doing this for your own good. You’re about to get married, you should keep your distance from Comrade Shen Yiming. Only then will my brother treat you well.”

“What did you say?” Zuo Dan looked at her like she was crazy. “You want to get married first, not me. And anyway, whether your brother is good to me or not is none of my business. If you like Shen Yiming, go after him yourself, and don’t stop me from working.” With her kind of mind, if she went after Shen Yiming, it would be like a lamb walking into the tiger’s den. She’d be devoured completely. Since Zuo Huan and she weren’t close, she didn’t bother warning her.

Moreover, even if she did, Zuo Huan would probably think she was just trying to scare her.

Seeing Zuo Dan’s attitude, Zuo Huan snorted. “Dandan, I’ll tell you, my mother went back to her parents’ home yesterday to set you up for a marriage. This is definitely going to happen.”

Zuo Dan furrowed her brows. “You’re saying your mother went back to her parents’ house just for this?”

“Of course! Someone like you, who could marry my brother, it’s your fortune,” Zuo Huan said proudly.

Zuo Dan laughed. “Is that so? Since your brother is so good, you should keep him for yourself. Cousins are a good match. I need to go and work with Shen Yiming now.”

Hearing Zuo Dan calling Shen Yiming’s name so intimately, Zuo Huan felt a pang of jealousy. “Zuo Dan, just wait until you get married!”

“Zuo Dan, why haven’t you gone yet? I’ve been waiting for you,” came Shen Yiming’s voice from outside the door.

Zuo Huan’s face immediately turned red upon hearing Shen Yiming’s voice. Just a moment ago, she had been furious, but now she was all flustered and at a loss.

Zuo Dan looked at her, thinking, is it really that dramatic? She only heard his voice, and she hasn’t even seen him yet. How come I didn’t realize Shen Yiming had such a charm that it made people act like this?

“Huahuan, I’ll go with Comrade Shen Yiming now. You’d better hurry and get to work, or Uncle Shuisheng will have to send you to the farm to make up for your work points.”

Zuo Dan smiled at her, deliberately twisting her waist before straightening up and walking out.

Outside, Shen Yiming was standing at the door, wearing a patched grey jacket and holding a thick notebook, waiting for her.

Zuo Dan glanced at him. They both had two eyes, one nose, and one mouth. There was nothing special about him.