Su Laoguai took a puff of his pipe and glanced at him lightly, "What nonsense are you talking? Ye Cheng is perfectly fine. If you dare to curse him, I won’t let you off."
"No, it’s Su Changgeng who said it. He mentioned overhearing your older sister-in-law talking, saying something about Dr. Ye not being around anymore. Just now, Xiaofeng didn’t refute it either. I’m just concerned about Xiaofeng, so I asked, right?"
"You listen to whatever someone says, brain or no brain. I used to think you were smarter than me. Now it seems you’re just brainless. Go do your work." How long the matter of Ye Cheng not being around could be kept secret remained to be seen.
Spreading this news wasn’t good for Xiaofeng at all.
After marrying Ye Cheng with her son and daughter, something happened to Ye Cheng.
If such words were to spread in the village, people would definitely talk ugly.
Su Guisheng hadn’t expected his honest older brother to scold him. But his brother had a point, Su Changgeng and his wife weren’t good people anyway; they might just be making up stories.
Because the twins were now in the city, Xiaofeng stayed in the village for an afternoon and then went back.
Once she left, everyone started talking, "Hu Xiulan is now going around saying that Dr. Ye is no longer with us. Do you think it’s true?"
"It should be false, right? Dr. Ye is so young and handsome, comes from a good family; how could he be gone just like that? It’s definitely false."
"But it’s also not good for us to ask outright." The Xiaofeng family is not what it used to be, not the kind to be laughed at lightly by others.
"If Dr. Ye really is dead, Xiaofeng’s luck is too, well..." Everyone originally thought Xiaofeng was a lucky girl. If Dr. Ye really was no more, it meant Xiaofeng’s luck wasn’t as good.
Such a good man, gone at such a young age, what could people say.
"Exactly. But, to speak frankly, this doesn’t concern us much as long as the factory is still running and everyone’s salary is paid. Let’s not pry into these personal affairs."
"Right." Speaking of Xiaofeng inevitably brought up Taozi. "No matter what, she’s better off than Taozi. Look at that crazy appearance of hers; oh dear, she’ll probably stay this way for life. She was such a nice girl before she got married, then she turned into a madwoman."
"Exactly, it’s like wasting decades raising such a daughter, and now she’s a burden on her parental home. Her brother getting a wife in the future will surely be a big problem. No decent family would want to have a crazy sister-in-law around."
"Zhiyuan will definitely be talented in the future. Maybe he won’t stay in our small village and will marry into a wealthy family from a big city."
"No matter what, Taozi’s current situation will somewhat impact Zhiyuan’s marriage prospects. If Zhiyuan does nothing, it will only be up to Hu Xiulan and her husband to care for her in her old age."
"Such a pity, she used to be such a good girl."
Listening to the villagers’ idle chatter, Su Zhiyuan, who had just returned from the county town, turned pale and then flushed.
Because of his sister’s mental illness, the villagers gossiped and sneered behind his back, and he didn’t even want to return to the village, feeling disgraced.
Su Zhiyuan, carrying his schoolbag, entered the house to see his younger brother Su Xiaotao excitedly rushing out of the room: "Zhiyuan, Zhiyuan, you’re back. Can you take me to the market? I want to buy a lot of new clothes."
Su Xiaotao smelled and had many bumps on her body. Seeing her approaching, Su Zhiyuan yelled, "Stay away from me."
It was all her fault; if not for her, he wouldn’t be so embarrassed now.
Just as Su Changgeng heard his son’s yell when he walked into the house, he snorted coldly, "Why are you yelling at your sister? Let me tell you, you better achieve something in the future, so we can show the villagers that we don’t need a woman to run our lives."
The next morning, Su Wenqing called, saying the factory’s water reservoir had been vandalized, not just the reservoir, the drying yard had been smashed up too.
There was no one on the night shift last night; essentially, they locked up the factory doors after work and all went home. This morning, Su Wenqing came to open the door and discovered that the water reservoir had been smashed and the yard was full of smashed stones. The drying yard had also been wrecked.
Considering what happened, Su Wenqing was obviously shocked. It was clearly done on purpose, just by the look of it.
Just as Xiaofeng was about to head back to Lihua Village, Zhao Xi called her, mentioning that a guest had collapsed in Gourmet City after dining, and had now been taken to the hospital.