Chapter 74: Chapter 74: Bickering

Today is Xu Meiling’s wedding day—a day of great joy.

Some are happy, some are not.

The Xu family home is plastered with red double-happiness characters; “festooned with lanterns and streamers” wouldn’t be an exaggeration.

Ten banquet tables are set up in the large courtyard.

At first, they thought a few tables would suffice, but when they actually planned it out, they realized: just one or two people from each household in the village would fill six or seven tables. Add a table for the educated youth from the commune, one for the immediate family, and one for relatives, and it came to ten tables altogether.

For the past couple of days, no one in the Xu family has gone to work; everyone’s been busy preparing for the wedding. Even Xu Huaizhi took an extra day off.

The vegetarian dishes were all ready to go—it was just meat they were short on.

Luckily, Xu Huaizhi had a bucket of fish he’d caught, plus a wild pheasant Xu Huaian brought over, and over a jin of fatty pork.

Still, it wasn’t quite enough. In the end, Xu Mingshan gritted his teeth and agreed to slaughter their two big hens for the banquet.

After all, he’s the Party Secretary—he couldn’t let his daughter’s wedding look too shabby. There was no dowry to begin with, which was embarrassing enough, but since the groom’s family background was so good, it was worth it, even if it meant losing face.

Xu Meiling was so happy she hugged her father for ages.

Early in the morning, the village aunties came over to help, as had been arranged beforehand. That’s just how things are done—families with good relations pitch in together for big events.

Lin Xiaomeng was the head chef—her cooking skills are well known!

Gu Qinghuan didn’t get up until the sun was high in the sky. Xu Huaian had already made cornmeal porridge.

Ever since Xu Huaian recovered, she’d finally been living the life of her dreams.

She didn’t even have to look after the two kids—they were independent and didn’t need to be carried or fussed over.

After a quick wash and a hot bowl of porridge, she dawdled around the house a bit longer.

Then the two of them got ready to head out with the kids.

Today was another day of eating and drinking at someone else’s expense. They’d already contributed a wild pheasant as a gift, which was more than generous, so they went empty-handed.

When they reached the door, Xu Huaiyu was there recording the gift list. Most villagers gave just a few coins; only those especially close would give one or two yuan.

“Second Brother, Second Sister-in-law, you’re here? How much are you giving? Meiling’s wedding, Second Brother, you’d better be generous!” Xu Huaiyu said loudly on purpose.

He figured Xu Huaian would be embarrassed into giving at least a few coins.

He didn’t expect Xu Huaian to be completely shameless now.

“Money? I remember I already gave my gift, didn’t I? Or do you think it’s not enough? If so, I’ll just take it back.” Xu Huaian made as if to head for the kitchen.

He’d given a wild pheasant, after all—if people found out the Party Secretary was the first to poach from collective resources, that would be awkward.

Xu Huaiyu quickly backed down. “Oh, right, I forgot. Go on in, everyone’s busy inside.”

Gu Qinghuan made a show of wandering through the kitchen before heading out.

While she was there, she overheard quite a spectacle.

A few aunties were whispering:

“That Huaian’s wife really isn’t much. Even if they’ve split off from the family, her husband’s sister is getting married—she should at least come help, but she’s left it all to the eldest sister-in-law.”

“Exactly. And who knows what she did to that lunatic—he suddenly got better. Liu Guifang must be furious. She thought she’d gotten rid of a burden, but ended up losing a strong worker. Huaian used to be one of the best hands in the village.”

“Gu Qinghuan’s just lucky. She was at the end of her rope, and then out of nowhere, she marries the best man in the whole village,” someone said sourly.

This particular aunty, surnamed Yang, had once wanted her own daughter to marry Xu Huaian. She’d spoken well of him to Liu Guifang, but when Xu Huaian suddenly went mad, she quickly married her daughter off elsewhere.

Who would have thought the young man would recover? What a miscalculation.

Gu Qinghuan hid in the corner, listening to gossip about herself, but she wasn’t angry at all.

In fact, she almost wanted to laugh.

If you had to work yourself to the bone and put up with everything like the heroine in a story just to win people’s approval, she’d rather be “no good.”

Why should she make herself miserable just to please others?

But she didn’t agree with what Yang Fengmei said. The reason she was doing well wasn’t because of Xu Huaian—it was because she was already good enough on her own.

She was about to step out and say something when someone else spoke up for her.

“Yang Fengmei, that’s not fair! Back then, it was Liu Guifang who agreed to marry your Chunhua to Huaian. But as soon as Huaian went mad, you married Chunhua off in no time. Now that he’s better, you’re here making sour remarks? Gu Qinghuan’s just lucky, that’s all. She married Huaian and he got better—must be fate.”

The speaker was none other than Erdan’s mother, the brigade leader’s wife, Chen Fengqin.

She was also the women’s director of the village.

Her job was to look out for the women and protect their rights.

She’d come to help today, and hadn’t planned to say anything, but as the gossip got nastier, she felt she had to step in.

Her impression of Gu Qinghuan had always been that she was a gentle but strong girl, but lately, she’d become more and more impressive.

Just yesterday, Gu Qinghuan and Dabao had brought her several bars of soap—homemade, apparently. That’s the benefit of being educated—even soap can be made by hand.

They smelled nice, worked well, and were better than pig-fat soap.

She was too embarrassed to ask for the recipe, but secretly decided she’d buy more when these ran out; her kids loved them.

Gu Qinghuan hadn’t expected Chen Fengqin, whom she’d only met once, to speak up for her. She thought she was pretty decent.

Erdan was a good kid, too—fair and sensible, which probably had a lot to do with Chen Fengqin’s upbringing.

“Chen Fengqin, what’s that supposed to mean? Are you saying Gu Qinghuan is lucky and my Chunhua isn’t? You’d better explain yourself! Others might be afraid of you as women’s director, but I’m not!” Yang Fengmei, feeling exposed, bristled like a hen.

Everyone gathered around to watch the show, and it looked like the two women were about to come to blows.

Gu Qinghuan knew she couldn’t just hide and watch anymore.

“Director Chen is right! I am lucky. Whoever I marry will have a good life! No use being jealous. Some people looked down on others before, short-sighted as they were, and now they regret it and make sour remarks—don’t you think that’s a bit much?”

Yang Fengmei’s face turned red—she hadn’t expected the subject of the gossip to show up, but she wasn’t about to back down.

“Who’s jealous? Who regrets anything? My Chunhua’s doing great! Your crazy husband still has two kids from before, and you act like you’re some prize!”

Yang Fengmei blustered, but only she knew the truth.

Gu Qinghuan didn’t bother arguing—she slapped her right across the face, not holding back in the slightest."