"The ’manure throwing’ incident has been all the rage in the village for a whole week now, still spreading like wildfire."
Especially since Zhang Juyun ended up splashing manure on herself when she meant to throw it on someone else—she never expected she’d end up covered in it, even getting some in her mouth."
She’s been getting injections and IV drips for a week and still can’t bear to see anything yellow-green, let alone stand the smell."
When Bai Yanjiao returned to the village from the town for the weekend, she immediately heard everyone talking about it and couldn’t help but be a little curious."
It just happened that when Bai Xue came to pick her up and take her home, Bai Yanjiao took the opportunity to ask Bai Xue what exactly happened."
"Isn’t it all because of An Hao?" Bai Xue couldn’t help but get angry at the mention of An Hao, "That girl is nothing but trouble, a disaster star—anyone who hangs around her ends up unlucky! She used to be so close to Song Yueqin, like they were the same person, but who knows what happened later; she got into a fight with Song Yueqin at school. Song Yueqin ended up on the losing side, and of course her mom wasn’t going to have that, so she rallied her whole clan to confront An Hao. In the end, Song Yueqin’s dad found out and took Yueqin’s mom back home. I bet this time it was payback, they deliberately targeted her. And then there’s Zhang Juyun, who ended up being the one to suffer the consequences."
"Lucky she got the hell out. Otherwise, our home would be in constant chaos and we’d never have peace," Bai Yanjiao said, feeling a bit uneasy inside as she remembered the beating she took."
"Isn’t that the truth? You don’t know how much smoother things have been at home since that calamity star left; I’ve been feeling so much lighter," Bai Xue said with a joyful smile."
"As long as you’re happy," Bai Yanjiao said, linking arms with her mother as they walked. Passing by the supply and marketing co-op, she said, "Mom, I’ve earned some money; I’ll buy you something nice to eat."
"Sure. My daughter’s grown up, and it’s time for me to enjoy the fruits of her labor," Bai Xue beamed."
The mother and daughter entered the co-op, and coincidentally ran into An Hao, who was buying vegetable seeds."
"Sis, give me some bean and cucumber seeds, please."
"Okay." The co-op clerk took the seeds off the shelf and handed them to An Hao, "An Hao, are you planning another big business venture? That Snowflake Cream you bought last time really put the co-op on the map."
An Hao smiled, "What big business could it be? I’ve just moved, and we’ve got a spare patch of land in the yard. I’ll plant some seasonal vegetables so that when it’s time to eat, we’ll save on buying them, right?"
"It must be tough for you, studying and still worrying about these trivial things. I really feel for you, kid," the clerk said."
"What are you feeling sorry for!" Bai Yanjiao’s voice came from the doorway; she spoke with a contemptuous twist of her lips, "An Hao doesn’t think it’s hard. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have kicked up all that fuss to move out on her own."
"What? An Hao moved out by herself? I always thought..." The clerk’s sentence trailed off, but everyone deeply understood the implication of her words."
"You thought it was us who kicked An Hao out? As if we had the power to do that," Bai Yanjiao casually remarked, but even mentioning it was enough to bother her."
"What a coincidence, you all came to shop?" the co-op clerk inquired."
"Yeah. I’ll take a pound of pastries, and two tins of canned food. How much?" Bai Yanjiao asked, as she reached into her pocket for money."
"A pound of pastries is three yuan, and the two cans come to seven yuan in total." The clerk swiftly calculated the total with her abacus."