Lin Xiaoguai couldn’t help but want to laugh upon hearing this, as a somewhat blurry image of that classmate flashed in her mind. She hesitated to ask, "The day after, didn’t he also bring a raw egg for me?"
"Right." Jiang Xiaomei’s laughter, unable to contain her amusement, came through the phone, "He was afraid of postponing yet another day and not daring to give you anything, so he brought a raw egg that wouldn’t spoil."
Lin Xiaoguai’s memory started to clear up. Ah, so it was Chang Chunji.
Speaking of which, Lin Xiaoguai did not have a shallow memory of Chang Chunji. If it had been her previous life now, she definitely would have remembered him.
As a child, Lin Xiaoguai actually harbored some resentment towards the wealthy; although she didn’t show it, she truly detested the homes of the supposedly well-off peasants in the village. This was normal considering she had faced discrimination all her life due to her family’s poor "class status," and her father continually impressed upon her the importance of education. At the time, she felt that those peasant families, despite being the least useful, not bothering to study hard and get ahead, just content to live off their tiny plots of land without taking any risks, cowardly settling in a small corner, yet it had somehow become something to flaunt?
Everyone has their rebellious phase, and Lin Xiaoguai was no exception; she just expressed it more quietly than others.
Seeing her nephews and nieces struggling daily, eating sweet potatoes until they wanted to vomit, drooling at the sight of a captured sparrow, skinny as rail-thin skeletons. Meanwhile, her older brothers, burdened by their inferior family status, did the most physically demanding and heaviest work in the production team, yet only earned the same work points as everyone else.
How could Lin Xiaoguai not feel resentment? How could she not feel heartache?
Back then, Chang Chunji had just walked into the line of fire; his grandfather was the village Party secretary, and his family ate better than others.
She might have only found the spoiled bun story amusing now, but at the time, she was seething with rage, her heart filled with indignation: "My nephews and nieces are starving, yet you let your food just sit and spoil."
—Back then, Lin Xiaoguai had no idea that he actually fancied her.
And at that time, Chang Chunji frequently brought food for Lin Xiaoguai, which she... unabashedly accepted and then shared with her nephews, nieces, and the younger brothers.
Looking back, a lot of her happiness had come from Chang Chunji. Splitting the treats he brought among Xiao Bo, Hu, Xiao Niao, Chaochao, and herself—whether it was baked rolls, steamed buns, or rice balls—provided them with a tiny bite each, but it was still an occasion they looked forward to with joy.
Memories came flooding back, leaving Lin Xiaoguai with a strange expression. Looking at it now, she was quite... a bully?
Thinking about his warmth toward her today made Lin Xiaoguai even more conflicted.
If she had been a man, she would surely have been deemed the pretty face reliant on a woman’s support.
On Yang Xiaoli’s wedding day, the weather was clear, with not a cloud in sight. She wore the Qipao gown made by Lin Xiaoguai, her feet adorned with the red leather shoes gifted by Zhu Huixi. Her hair was skillfully coiffed into a bun by Lin Xiaoguai, with a red transparent hairband cleverly braiding a flower next to it. She also did a light nude makeup for her.
Yang Xiaoli was quite a beauty to begin with, and with such preparation, she became even more stunning.
When the bride stepped out, those outside gasped in admiration; though most spoke the local dialect of J province which Lin Xiaoguai and company could barely understand, they could guess it was nothing but praise.
Because Qi Sheng was not a native of J province, and though he had bought a house in the town, he did not have relatives or friends there, so the wedding feast was held at the Yang Family’s home.
Noticing a group of young ladies flocked around Yang Xiaoli, Zhu Huixi lamented, "Nowadays, we’re no longer maidens eligible to be bridesmaids anymore."
Zhu Huixi had been grieving over not being able to play the role of bridesmaid for her best friend for several days.
Lin Xiaoguai didn’t bother responding, just directly said, "Alright, stop griping, the groom has arrived."
And sure enough, Qi Sheng in a crisp black Sun Yat-sen suit walked in from outside.
"Who would have thought Qi Sheng could look quite dashing in a Sun Yat-sen suit," praised Zhu Huixi, while Lin Xiaoguai’s gaze sharpened.
Strange, was it her imagination? Qi Sheng in a Sun Yat-sen suit actually reminded her of something similar to Shen Chi—an air of... that’s it, the aura of a soldier.
But she did not dwell on it, as it would not have been odd if Qi Sheng had served as a conscript soldier.
As Yang Xiaoli had mentioned before, their wedding banquet was simple, lacking any of the extravagances of a modern affair. The dishes were plain, although there was more meat than usual.
Of course, the Yang Family’s kin came over to chat with them, but they spoke in the local dialect, and aside from Lin Xiaoguai who, thanks to similarities between J province’s dialect and her native Z province’s, could understand bits and pieces, the others were completely lost from beginning to end.