"This is indeed quite an awful thing to say," Hu Li’s face had turned livid, and Wang Dali’s mother, as expected, spat out words no one else would dare utter. Describing how the two were caught doing the deed in the field, stark naked with their buttocks exposed.
The entire village came forward to listen, and everyone was in complete shock, gossipping, "This is way too liberal, isn’t it?" It turns out Qin Guohua surely had a taste for this; indeed, home flowers do not compare to the wild ones. Looking at Qin Guohua, one would think he appeared decent, but his actions were worse than a pig or dog.
The two families were in an uproar, cursing from the houses to the fields, from the east end of the village to the west, endlessly exchanging increasingly vulgar insults.
Finally, the Village Chief couldn’t bear it anymore. He mentioned that officials from the town were coming for an inspection, and if the higher-ups saw what was happening, he questioned whether the village roads would still be fixed, whether their vegetables would still be sellable, and whether the villagers could continue living their lives. In the end, it was the Village Chief who stepped in to resolve the issue.
Hu Li returned three hundred yuan to the Wang Family and even compensated them with an additional fifty yuan. When money could be used to settle matters, then there really wasn’t an issue.
The Wang Family took back the money reluctantly. After so much quarreling, Wang Dali’s mother felt she got her revenge, but Wang Dali disagreed. He didn’t want the money; he wanted a bride, and now he was set on Qin Xiangmei. Wang Dali’s mother, foaming at the mouth, fiercely warned him that if he dared marry Qin Xiangmei, she would break his legs.
Hu Li just sneered, deriding a man worse than pigs and dogs who still aspired to marry her daughter.
Later on, Wang Dali’s mother arranged another bride for him, from a neighboring village, very poor and frankly, just selling their daughter. The family had many daughters, all just seen as a means to make money. This girl had never been to school and was an honest soul, but Wang Dali was not satisfied. She was very ordinary looking, thin and gaunt, not as beautiful as Qin Xiangnuan, nor did she have the curves of Qin Xiangmei’s chest. He didn’t care before, but now, having lost a succulent piece of meat at his lips, being handed dry, oil-less scraps, it was no wonder he was disgruntled.
But, he knew what kind of person he was—better to have a wife than none.
And all of this, Qin Xiangyang had relayed over the phone to Qin Xiangnuan.
Qin Xiangnuan clutched the phone, unsure of her feelings.
She had escaped the fate with Wang Dali’s family, but another girl ended up suffering in her place, leading that same despicable life.
Life at the Wang Family was not easy, she knew. Given the chance, she thought, she would help that unknown girl who had taken the path she once traveled, as if aiding herself.
She hung up the phone and took out some fabric to enter into the system, where the time disparity really benefitted her without wasting any outside time.
A few days ago, she observed that the shoes Mr. Sun wore seemed ill-fitting, as if his circulation was getting poor with age and causing his feet to swell. The shoes bought from outside were uncomfortable now; the thousand-layer sole shoes she learned to make from Granny Lu were much better and very suitable for the elderly.
Like Granny Lu, who always wore the shoes she made herself, which fit well and were comfortable.
She had bought a few decent fabrics from the cloth store, planning to make a pair of thousand-layer sole shoes for Mr. Sun and also a piece of clothing, as it seemed the elder was about to celebrate his eightieth birthday.