Chapter 10: Aunt Wei Hong

　　The group of old ladies including Xu Dazui were silent for a while, and then they laughed.

　　Xu Dazui laughed the loudest: "You are a grown-up girl, why are you listening to these things? Aren't you ashamed?"

　　Jiang Youtao sighed, "It's not like I have to listen to it. You guys are just talking and I just want to listen. Besides, you guys are not ashamed of what you say, so why should I be ashamed of listening to you?"

　　Xu Dazui looked at the group of old ladies and felt that although Jiang Youtao looked thin, weak and pretty, she was surprisingly to their liking.

　　It's not like there were no educated youth who came to their group before, but when they heard them say these things, their faces turned red like monkey butts, and they stayed away from them when they worked afterwards, as if they had some kind of illness. They thought it was quite boring.

　　Jiang Youtao is the first person to ask about the follow-up.

　　Xu Dazui and the others laughed at their own will, but Jiang Youtao remained calm.

　　Xu Dazui laughed enough and then said, "What else could happen next? The young wife's husband caught her in the act, and she got beaten up, and her father-in-law got beaten up too, and the two families separated."

　　Jiang Youtao raised her eyebrows: "Not divorced?"

　　Xu Dazui said, "You city people are just playboys. Why do you want to get a divorce? We don't have divorce in Gada. It's so hard to find a wife these days. Just make do with what you can get by. Besides, we already have children. Who knows what it will be like if we marry another one."

　　As soon as Xu Dazui finished speaking, the woman next to her, Aunt Jiang Si, said, "That's right. By the way, whose children are those two children born to the young wife?"

　　As soon as these words were spoken, four or five women looked at each other and burst into laughter again.

　　After laughing, Xu Dazui asked, "What's your name?"

　　The captain had asked them to introduce themselves, but Xu Dazui and the other women didn't bother to remember. After a while, they would know each other's names, right? Why bother?

　　"Jiang Youtao."

　　Xu Dazui clapped her hands and said, "Your name is really weird, with the meaning 'once again' (Yòu) and 'peach' (Táo). It's so hard to pronounce. We might as well call you nectarine (Yóu Táo)."

　　"You can call me whatever you want." Jiang Youtao felt nothing about this. In her previous life, everyone who had a good relationship with her called her Yóu Táo (nectarine), and she was used to it.

　　Fourth Aunt Jiang said, "You have a good temper, I like you. Just work with us in the future. With us sisters, you will definitely be satisfied."

　　Although Xu Dazui and her group were talkative, they were quite fast at working. In just a short while, they had already moved quite far away.

　　Jiang Youtao followed closely in order to listen to the gossip, and now her hands no longer belonged to her.

　　Jiang Youtao sighed in her heart that she had paid too much just to eat the melon.

　　"Then I'll have to trouble the aunts to take care of me in the future." Jiang Youtao didn't expect them to take care of her, but what if they really did take care of her? Right?

　　Xu Dazui and her friends started talking about other people's affairs again, and this time they talked about what Jiang Youtao wanted to hear.

　　"It is said that the boy from the Lin family has been discharged from the army and will be returning home next month." If Jiang Youtao was right about the boy from the Lin family that Fourth Aunt Jiang mentioned, then he must be Gu Nianwei's man, Lin Jianzhong.

　　"Didn't he say he was doing well in the army? Why did he want to retire? A few days ago, Zhao Chunhua and I went to the back mountain to collect firewood, and she told me how outstanding her son was."

　　Zhao Chunhua is Lin Jianzhong's mother.

　　"It must be because of his kids. Ever since Lin Jianzhong's wife passed away the year before last, you all know how she treated her grandchildren. If I were Lin Jianzhong, I would have come back too."

　　Zhao Chunhua is also a well-known figure in Liushugou. She is famous for her partiality. Even though she praises her son Lin Jianzhong a lot in public, she still cares about her youngest son Lin Jianhua.

　　Since Lin Jianzhong's wife Wang Lili passed away, Lin Jianzhong's three sons have been treated like weeds in front of her. Compared to when Wang Lili was around, they were well-dressed, clean, white and plump; now they are dark and thin, so pitiful.

　　In the past, who didn't like the two older sons of Lin Jianzhong's family when they walked around the village? Now, they are annoying to look at. But it's not a big deal about the youngest one, after all, he is only two years old and can't even speak complete sentences.

　　Compared with the three children in Lin Jianzhong's family, the children in Lin Jianhua's family have gained weight visibly.

　　Although these people in the village don't say anything, they all know it clearly in their hearts.

　　Xu Dazui said: "That's true. If my child is treated like this, I will crawl out of my grave even if I die."

　　The three children of Lin Jianzhong's family not only had poor food and clothing, but were also often beaten. The eldest and second child were twins, and when they were only seven years old, they had already gone to work in the fields with the children who were more than ten years old. They earned two or three work points every day.

　　As long as the people in the village can make a living, they will not let such young children work.

　　Jiang Youtao didn't say anything, but the woman next to Aunt Jiang, Aunt Zhang, spoke up: "I heard from my husband that Wei Hong is planning to find another wife for Lin Jianzhong and is already looking for one."

　　The man Zhang Ershou married was from the Lin family in the village. According to seniority, Lin Jianzhong should call her Ershou. The Wei Hong she mentioned was Lin Jianzhong's aunt, who also married in the same village. Her husband was a brother of the team leader.

　　Lin Weihong is very good to her nephew Lin Jianzhong. If it weren't for her support in the past two years, it is not certain whether the three children could survive.

　　Fourth Aunt Jiang lowered her voice and said, "I heard that too. I also heard that she has her eyes on an educated youth from our village, the one with the surname Gu. It's true that Lin Weihong has good taste. The educated youth Gu is not bad at work, and she is extremely beautiful."

　　There are no secrets in the village. Lin Weihong's secret plan had already been known by these idle women.

　　But the educated youth were not close to the villagers. They believed that it was better to keep their distance and avoid getting into trouble or just watching the fun, so they did not go out of their way to remind Gu Nianwei.

　　They are all villagers, and they know the Lin family very well, but outsiders don't know. What if the Gu family agrees? Wouldn't it be annoying if they gossip about them in front of her?

　　Besides, Lin Jianzhong was a deputy battalion commander in the army. After his retirement, his unit would not be bad. He was not bad looking either. Although he had three sons, they were not very old. If she raised them well, wouldn't they be almost like her own sons?

　　On the surface, it's more or less a good marriage.

　　They didn't do it behind Jiang Youtao's back, nor were they afraid that Jiang Youtao would tell Gu Nianwei. Even if Lin Weihong confronted them, they wouldn't be afraid. Was Lin Weihong afraid of others knowing that she had such an idea?

　　In the blink of an eye, it was noon. When Xu Dazui and others heard the sound of the gong, they threw away the grass in their hands, stood up and walked home.

　　That was how it was during the collective era. When the gong was struck, it was time to go to get off from work, and no one would do any more work.

　　Jiang Youtao watched them leave and followed them. Just as she came out of the soybean field, she saw Gu Nianwei waiting for her on the roadside. Jiang Youtao walked a few steps faster.

　　Gu Nianwei asked Jiang Youtao, "How do you feel about your first day on the job?"

　　When Gu Nianwei traveled through time, her body had already gone to the countryside, but when it was her first time working, she still felt exhausted.

　　It was not spring yet, and she not only had to dig out winter manure but also play hemp. It was cold and freezing. If she hadn't had frostbite cream in her space, she would probably have lost her hands.

　　"It's very tiring. Look, my hands are all red." The land in the Northeast is fertile, crops grow well, and grass grows fast.

　　The grasses that we pulled out today grew wildly after the rain a few days ago. There were only two or three species that Jiang Youtao could name, including joint grass, mugwort, and dandelion. There were several other species that she couldn't name.

　　Gu Nianwei looked down and saw that Jiang Youtao's slender white hands did have several marks. She said, "I have a pair of unused gloves. You can use them first. When you have a day off, you can buy some from the supply and marketing cooperative and return them to me."

　　There are countless labor protection supplies in Gu Nianwei's space. Giving one to Jiang Youtao is nothing, but sisters should settle accounts clearly. What should be paid back must be paid back. Otherwise, if you are too nice to someone for a long time, great kindness will turn into great hatred.

　　Jiang Youtao originally planned to go back and get some free money from the system, but after Gu Nianwei said that, she thought about it for a while and agreed generously: "Okay, thank you in advance, I'll return it to you when I've bought one at the supply and marketing cooperative."

　　Gu Nianwei smiled and nodded, and the two of them walked towards the educated youth point together.

　　When entering the village, two children who looked exactly the same were running towards them. One of them didn't run steadily, tripped over his left foot and fell to the ground with a thud, right in front of Gu Nianwei.

　　Gu Nianwei cried out, and quickly squatted down to help him up: "Are you Lin Wen'an or Lin Wenping? Why are you running so fast? Did you fall?"

　　Jiang Youtao was stunned by Gu Nianwei's familiar attitude towards the child, and then she remembered.

　　In order to make everything more reasonable and logical, the author of the book set up that Gu Nianwei has liked children since she was a child, and she studied early childhood education in college, but because her family was not short of money, she did not go to work after graduation and became a rent collector at home.

　　In the book, before Lin Jianzhong and Gu Nianwei went on a blind date, she had met Lin Jianzhong's three sons and had great sympathy for them.

　　The reason why she agreed to go on a blind date with Lin Jianzhong was because she couldn't let go of his three children, and she also agreed after seeing how much Lin Jianzhong loved his three children.

　　After marriage, she treated Lin Jianzhong's three children as her own and educated them very well. She even gave up her own children for their sake and aborted the baby on her own after finding out she was pregnant.

　　Lin Jianzhong was furious when he found out about this, and this became a very sentimental scene in the book, adding further obstacles to the love between the two.

　　Jiang Youtao really couldn't help but look at Gu Nianwei a few more times. After spending a few days together, she really couldn't see that there was anything wrong with Gu Nianwei's brain.

　　Or maybe the hole in Gu Nianwei's head is too secretive and it won't come out until she meets Lin Jianzhong?

　　Just as Jiang Youtao was thinking, Lin Jianzhong's two sons had already run away. Gu Nianwei stood up and walked to Jiang Youtao: "What are you daydreaming about?"

　　Jiang Youtao shook her head: "It's okay."

　　As soon as the voice fell, a middle-aged woman wearing a orchid cloth dress and no headscarf waved at Gu Nianwei from a distance: "Xiao Gu, Xiao Gu."

　　Gu Nianwei turned her head and looked at the person, then shouted, "Aunt Wei Hong."

　　She said to Jiang Youtao, "You go back first. I'll go see what Aunt Wei Hong wants to say. I'll catch up with you in a while."

　　"Okay." When Jiang Youtao left, she took one more look at the person called Aunt Wei Hong. She felt that the woman who smiled so warmly and gently had the word cunning written all over her body.

　　Who would introduce a knowledgeable, educated, and not-poor-looking young woman of the right age to a man whose wife has died and whose family is in a mess with three sons?