Chapter 48: Chapter 48: The Autumn Yellow Sweater

As for the third son, she was already making plans in her heart.

He was twenty-one this year. Because he spent a few extra years in high school, most of his peers in the village had already gotten married. They had delayed things because they wanted to find him a good match. Lately, he’d been asking her for money all the time to go into the county, saying he was seeing an old female classmate and things were getting serious. She figured there’d be good news soon.

Having learned her lesson from bragging too much before, this time she kept her mouth shut, afraid of ending up with nothing to show for it.

Everyone offered Liu Guifang a few words of congratulations.

The women quickly moved on to a new topic, chattering away as if there was never an end to their conversation.

Soon, the threshing ground was full of people.

They split into little groups: the educated youth stood together, and the commune members stood together.

Gu Qinghuan glanced around absentmindedly and immediately spotted Lin Xiaomeng, who looked just as out of place in the crowd as she did.

Like herself, Lin Xiaomeng was technically an educated youth, but not quite anymore. She stood off to the side, ignored by everyone.

The two of them were considered the oddballs of Xujiatun.

Looking closely, Gu Qinghuan noticed that the fortune progress bar behind Lin Xiaomeng was still stuck at thirty percent. It seemed she hadn’t had a chance to make a move on Qian Caihua yet.

For now, she couldn’t think of a good solution either—she’d just have to take things one step at a time.

The brigade leader arrived right on time to assign the day’s work.

All the educated youth were assigned to dig sweet potatoes today, including Gu Qinghuan and Lin Xiaomeng.

Because they were sisters-in-law and lived close by, the two of them—unfortunately—were put in the same group. Both shot the other a look of annoyance but said nothing.

Since the educated youth weren’t very skilled at farm work, and digging sweet potatoes required some experience and judgment, the brigade leader decided to assign an experienced worker to each group.

Lin Xiaomeng silently prayed: Qian Caihua, Qian Caihua, please let Qian Caihua be assigned to us.

She’d been trying to find a way to get close to Qian Caihua these past few days, but she couldn’t just go up and offer her water for no reason—that would be too obvious and might cause problems.

So she’d been delayed until now.

When the brigade leader got to their group, he’d originally planned to assign Liu Guifang to them—since the three of them were mother-in-law and daughters-in-law, and Liu Guifang could teach them. But for some reason, when he read out the names, he slipped up and said Qian Caihua instead.

Once the words were out, there was no taking them back. Qian Caihua it was.

Lin Xiaomeng got exactly what she wanted.

With her current fortune value, she could only influence small outcomes—like getting Qian Caihua assigned to her group, or maybe running into a rabbit or pheasant in the mountains, or finding a wild duck egg while washing clothes by the river.

That wild ginseng from last time had just been a lucky fluke.

Gu Qinghuan saw Qian Caihua assigned to their group and immediately understood—Lin Xiaomeng was about to make her move.

Everyone crowded over to the tool shed to get their equipment, then slowly made their way to their assigned fields.

Qian Caihua grumbled to herself about her bad luck. Of all people, she’d been grouped with these two—no way she’d earn full work points today.

She hefted her hoe and walked at the front, scowling.

Gu Qinghuan and Lin Xiaomeng followed behind with their baskets, making their way to the sweet potato field assigned to the three of them.

“These three rows of sweet potatoes are our job for today. If we finish, we all get full work points. If not—well, just wait and see! I’m telling you two, you’d better work hard today and not drag me down!” Qian Caihua shouted.

Lin Xiaomeng walked over with a bright smile. “Don’t worry, Aunt Caihua, I’ll work hard! You’re the expert here, so you’ll have to teach me more!”

Gu Qinghuan couldn’t help but shiver at the sight, feeling a chill run through her.

Anyone who didn’t know better would think Lin Xiaomeng really liked Qian Caihua. In reality, she was already plotting to steal her luck, yet she still managed to look so harmless—more ruthless than Pan Jinlian herself.

There’s nothing more poisonous than a woman’s heart—so true.

Qian Caihua saw how agreeable Lin Xiaomeng was being, and her expression softened a little.

Then she noticed Gu Qinghuan still standing at the edge of the field and shouted, “Huai’an’s wife, what are you daydreaming about? Get down here and start working! Or do you want me to invite you personally?”

Gu Qinghuan snapped out of it and hurried down to work.

Their division of labor was: Qian Caihua would dig up the sweet potatoes, while Gu Qinghuan and Lin Xiaomeng would clean the dirt off them, load them into baskets, and carry them over to the scorer.

It didn’t seem fair—Gu Qinghuan and Lin Xiaomeng were doing all the heavy lifting.

But letting them use hoes to dig sweet potatoes was out of the question.

Only seasoned hands could judge where the sweet potatoes grew underground. If you dug blindly, you’d end up with a pile of broken sweet potatoes and wouldn’t be able to turn in your quota.

This was how all the educated youth groups were organized.

Once everything was assigned, they got to work.

Gu Qinghuan and Lin Xiaomeng, as if by agreement, both pulled out a pair of work gloves from their pockets and put them on.

A woman’s hands are her second face—they couldn’t let them get ruined.

Qian Caihua muttered, “What, are your hands made of gold? What’s the point of being so fussy? These nice cotton gloves are just going to get ruined in the dirt. You’d be better off unraveling them and knitting a sweater—at least that’d keep you warm.”

Gu Qinghuan turned her gloves over and over. “How do you knit a sweater from gloves?”

Lin Xiaomeng looked at her curiously too.

“Don’t look down on me just because I’m old and rough now. When I was young, I liked to look nice too. Back then, I loved knitting, but supplies were tight and we couldn’t afford crochet hooks, so I’d use a broken toothbrush handle with a hook on the end as a substitute. We couldn’t afford yarn either, so I’d save up the white cotton thread from work gloves, unravel them, roll them into balls, and knit sweaters out of that.

But white sweaters weren’t considered lucky, so I taught myself to dye them with pomegranate peels. I’d dry the peels, break them into pieces, boil them in water, soak the sweater in there and dye it as it cooked. In the end, I got an autumn yellow sweater.

That year, I wore that autumn yellow sweater to a matchmaking meeting—and Old Xu took one look at me and decided I was the one.”

Qian Caihua was lost in her fond memories, and the air seemed to turn gentle and romantic.

Whether forty or seventy, everyone was once young.

Time may smooth out our rough edges, but it can never take away those beautiful moments we once had."