Translator: Lonelytree
The peanuts and soybeans were planted. The drunken men eventually got up and moved to the fields to help.
The last thing to do was plant the six Mu of vegetables. Xiao Lingyu didn’t build a shed for the vegetable fields. The vegetable farm was on her family land, and they were not at the same spot. There was five Fen here, another one Mu there. Other family’s lands were mixed in the middle, so in short, it was impossible to set up a shed.
Xiao Lingyu hired people to plant the vegetables for them too. Four Mu of land had been planted, so two Mu of land were left.
Xiao Lingyu and Liu Chunjiao worked at the peanut fields; Father Xiao and Xiao Mingyang were at the soybean field; Mother Xiao was at home cooking. No one was supervising the work at the vegetable fields.
The vegetable fields were different from the sand fields. The soil here was wet. Farmers had to take off their shoes or wear rainboots, or else it would be difficult to walk in the wetlands.
When they arrived at the vegetable fields, Xiao Lingyu told Xiao Lingye, “Little brother, you should take our guests to go play and rest.”
Xiao Lingye had no objections. The seven were already extremely tired from planting peanuts and soybeans. They had worked very hard. Furthermore, if they got down into the field, it would dirty their clothes. Their clothes were all branded and expensive. It would be a mess.
Gu Ziye knew that Xiao Lingyu planted her own vegetables. He assumed they were grown differently since they tasted so well. But now, he realized it was not so different. She was using ordinary methods too. He asked, “Lingyu, how many Mu of land did you plan for the vegetables?”
“Six!” Xiao Lingyu replied.
“Have you found a market channel for them?” Gu Ziye asked.
Xiao Lingyu shook her head and said, “Not yet.”
“Oh!” Gu Ziye did not ask further.
The men wanted to help, but the women in the field rejected them. One, they were afraid that the men’s expensive outfits would be ruined; Two, they had taken the money from the Xiao Family, it would be immoral for them to push their work to the outsiders; Three, they were worried that the men would cause trouble for them with their inexperience.
Planting vegetables was not as simple as planting soybeans and peanuts. Planting vegetables started with transplanting seedlings. This was a delicate job. If they were not careful, the seedlings might break.
The men stood on the ridge of the field for a while before leaving with Xiao Lingye. Ning Weiyi and his two friends had been to Taoyuan Village, but Gu Ziye and his gang had not.
Ning Weiyi and his two friends wandered to the other fields, taking in the beautiful view. The boys were curious about everything.
Xiao Lingye was a good tour guide to Gu Ziye’s group who hadn’t been to Taoyuan Village. He showed them many hidden natural groves. The men decided to follow Xiao Lingye and enjoy the treasures of nature.
After these people left, Xiao Lingyu took off her shoes, rolled up her pants, and waded into the vegetable fields. When the women saw Xiao Lingyu’s perfectly fair calves, they gasped. Someone joked, “Lingyu, you’re a standout even in the vegetable fields!”
Xiao Lingyu laughed, “Auntie Liu, why would you say that?”
“Look at your tender skin!” Auntie Liu joked. “Has it been around seven years since you last worked the fields?”
Xiao Lingyu thought about it, “I believe so!”
Xiao Lingyu didn’t come home much during her university days. Even during summer vacation, she had to work as a market vendor to enter her tuition. She would only come home during the winter vacation. Even so, it was only for a few days. When Xiao Lingyu was in university, she was only studying and working part-time to earn her tuition.
After her graduation, Xiao Lingyu found a job and didn’t have a chance to come back home. There were not that many work holidays. The longer one was the Lunar New Year holiday, but even that was only for a few days. It was precious for her to come back home, so naturally, her parents wouldn’t have her work the fields.
“It has been seven or eight years.” Some of the women sighed. “That’s why education is so important. Educated people don’t need to work so hard, but they can earn so much money. However, I can’t even get my child to pay attention in class.”
Everyone was envious of Xiao Zhengyang for raising a university student, and the changes this university student had brought to the Xiao Family were evident to everyone. The poorest family in the village became the richest over twenty years. They started to buy plow machines, contract lands, and so on.
Xiao Lingyu didn’t know what the other women were thinking, but she could make an educated guess. However, what they thought didn’t affect her. In a way, Xiao Lingyu was paying back the kindness shown to her. She hired the people who had lent her father money to send her to university to start her farm.
“Yu ‘Er, are those men your friends?” Chen Lan asked.
Xiao Lingyu chuckled, “Yes, they are my friends. They are also my brother’s classmates’ cousins and brothers.”
“Oh, I didn’t know that!” When the other women heard that, they nodded to themselves. Chen Lan smiled, “We thought they were your pursuers, and they’d chased you all the way to Taoyuan Village!”
“Yea, look at these men. They are handsome and young. I heard they drove here too. They must be from a good family.”
“Lingyu, you’ve already broken up from that Chen Family kid. Perhaps it’s time to find a new boyfriend.” Hu Lanying suggested, “These guys are not bad. You should pick one.”
Xiao Lingyu laughed. “Auntie Hu, do you think we’re at the livestock market? Can I pick one just like that? They are really just my friends. Plus, they are all from the county town, they’re rich. Why would they settle for a country girl like me?”
“What do you mean?” Auntie Hu countered, “Everyone knows that you have a promising future. You went to university and worked in a big city. You are not that different from them.”
“That’s right.” Another Auntie chimed in. “You’re not young anymore. It’s been a while since that breakup. You should find a good man to marry. Marriage is the responsibility of every woman.”
Xiao Lingyu didn’t know what to say as the aunties supplied her with endless relationship advice. In the end, she sighed, “Aunties, my heart is already broken by one man, and I am in no hurry to find another!” Even though that damage was from her previous life, she had to use that excuse to stop the Aunties from talking.
The Aunties were silent.
“The kid of the Chen Family is horrible.” Chen Lan said indignantly, “He had such a good girlfriend in Lingyu, but he’s still not satisfied. He deserved to be stabbed!”
“That’s right!” Auntie Hu concurred, “They’ve been together for ten years. How can he throw that away just like that?”
Xiao Lingyu said, “It’s human nature to go for the better choice. I can’t blame him for picking our boss’ daughter over me.”
The women were enraged. “What kind of human nature is that? He is just an ungrateful person. He chose the boss’ daughter for his future! What about you? He wasted ten years of your life! He’s a real bastard.”
At this point, Chen Lan recalled the rumors she heard when she went back to her maiden home at the Chen Family Village. She said, “Lingyu, I just came back from my mom’s place a few days ago. Guess what I heard.”
“What is it?” Xiao Lingyu asked.
After the incident with the Chen Family members, Xiao Lingyu had stopped paying attention to them.
However, based on her understanding of the Chen Family, she knew they would return to create trouble eventually. Of course, Xiao Lingyu was not afraid. After all, she was not the one in the wrong.
“Chen Lan, why did you hear? Quickly tell us!” Hu Lanying urged.
Chen Lan explained, “The kid was hospitalized, right? However, they couldn’t afford the hospital fees and were chased out. Chen Dahua and Lan Erying created fuss at the hospital entrance every day. They claimed that their son worked at a big company and he was a manager there. When he recovered, they would take revenge on the hospital.”
Auntie Hu spat. “As if the hospital will be threatened.”
The villagers knew what kind of person Chen Dahua and Lan Erying were.
All these years, since their son dated Xiao Lingyu and their son worked in the big city, they looked down on the people from Taoyuan Village. Whenever they were free, they would come to borrow money from Xiao Zhengyang, but they would never return the money.
At the time, Xiao Zhengyang and his wife didn’t want to trouble their daughter. Therefore, to appease the Chen Family, they would borrow the money every time. They didn’t tell Xiao Lingyu about this, and they didn’t once ask the Chen Family to return the borrowed money.
They detested the greedy nature of Chen Ran’s parents.
Chen Lan continued, “Of course, the hospital was not threatened. The Chen Family didn’t own the hospital, so what if the kid was the manager of a big company. Could he make the hospital go bankrupt?”
At this point, Chen Lan hesitated.
“Chen Lan, is there something else?” Auntie Hu noticed Chen Lan’s expression, and she asked.
Chen Lan thought about it and said, “I heard the kid is now paralyzed. He can’t leave the bed. If he doesn’t find the treatment soon, he might be paralyzed for the rest of his life!”
“What?” The women were surprised. Even Xiao Lingyu was shocked. A stab caused paralysis?
“Is it real or not?” Hu Lanying was suspicious.
Chen Lan shook her head. “I don’t know.. That’s the rumors I heard.”