First, she was terrified of this shameless Bai Jiu, and second, she was afraid her daughter-in-law would actually be the death of her. After all, the things the family had done truly wronged the third son’s family.
"Severing ties is fine, but there’s no way you’re getting any money!" Song Caihua still tried to put up a stubborn front.
But Old Man Gao wasn’t about to coddle her. He marched right up and slapped her twice. "This is all because of you, you wasteful hag! Look at what you’ve reduced this family to! Hmph, give it to her. Just treat it as paying off an evil spirit to leave us in peace!"
With that, Old Man Gao turned and retreated into his room. Once he lost his temper, no one dared to speak up and invite his wrath.
Left with no choice, Song Caihua went to get the money and followed Bai Jiu to the production team captain’s house.
The captain had barely stepped through his front door when the Gao family arrived right on his heels. He was so irritated he almost kicked them out. Fortunately, they weren’t there to argue. After learning the ins and outs of the situation, the captain readily helped them draft the severance agreement and stamped it with the production team’s official red seal. Not only that, but he also promised to take it to the county the next day to get it officially stamped there as well, ensuring that neither side could ever back out of the agreement.
Bai Jiu naturally had no objections.
After the severance agreement was officially stamped, Song Caihua handed over the one hundred yuan to Bai Jiu. Song Caihua was absolutely miserable about it. Once they left the captain’s house, she trailed behind Bai Jiu, constantly spitting in disdain and muttering a stream of filthy curses.
"If you dare say one more word, I wouldn’t mind giving you a good thrashing. We aren’t related anymore anyway," Bai Jiu warned. Beating people was rather addictive; she was actually starting to fall in love with the feeling of slapping someone.
"You—hmph, just you wait, you little tramp!"
When Bai Jiu returned home, she ran into Aunt Peng. "You’re back! Is everything alright?"
Aunt Peng had heard from Aiguo about what happened in the village and came over to check on her out of concern.
"Aunt Peng, why did you come all this way? The roads are terrible right now." Although the snow wasn’t thick, the paths were incredibly slippery. Bai Jiu was quite worried about Aunt Peng making the trip alone.
"It’s fine, Aiguo came with me." Seeing Bai Jiu return in one piece, Aunt Peng finally let out a sigh of relief.
Hearing that Aiguo had come as well, Bai Jiu glanced behind the older woman. "Where is he?"
Aunt Peng took Bai Jiu’s hand and led her inside the house. "He took Zhengyang and Xiuxiu to the foot of the mountain to gather some firewood. You’re running low here."
Bai Jiu looked helpless. "I’m really troubling Aiguo too much. He’s been helping me non-stop these past two days. Aunt Peng, you came at the perfect time. I prepared some dough this morning and was planning to make dumplings later. I can’t handle it all by myself, so stay and help me wrap them."
She had prepared enough for Aunt Peng’s family anyway.
"What’s there to be too busy with? I wouldn’t be much help anyway. Now that you’re back safely, it’s time for me to head home." Aunt Peng knew Bai Jiu was intentionally trying to make her stay, but white flour was a luxury item, incredibly precious. She couldn’t possibly impose.
How could Bai Jiu let her leave? She exhausted every excuse in the book to finally convince the older woman to stay. This interaction also gave Bai Jiu a deeper understanding of Aunt Peng—she was definitely someone worth befriending.
"Alright, alright, stop pulling! Any more tugging and you’ll tear my clothes right off. I’ll help you, okay?" Aunt Peng said, her face full of resignation. She never expected Bai Jiu to change so drastically—so much so that she could barely handle it.
"If you had just agreed earlier, we wouldn’t have had this problem! But don’t worry, if your clothes tear, I have plenty of fabric here. You’ll just have to go through the trouble of sewing a new piece yourself," Bai Jiu teased with a laugh.
Aunt Peng shook her head affectionately. "You... I don’t know what to say to you. Hurry up and bring out the dough."
With the two of them working together, the process was significantly faster. Bai Jiu made two types of dumpling fillings. One was pork and cabbage, and the other was a mixture of dried mushrooms, dried tofu, and fatty pork. It was safe to say she was incredibly generous with the ingredients for both. An ordinary family wouldn’t dare to eat like this; only she had the capital to be so lavish.
"You’re really willing to splurge. But you still need to be a bit more frugal with your money. Just think about it, Xiuxiu and Zhengyang are still young, and there’s no news from Zhijun. If you lose your source of income in the future, what will you do?"
The government subsidies wouldn’t last forever. Right now, Gao Zhijun was listed as missing in action, which was why the state still issued a monthly allowance. If he was officially confirmed dead, there would only be a one-time compensation payout, and nothing more after that. Times were tough everywhere, even for the government, so they couldn’t afford to support a family indefinitely.
How could Bai Jiu not understand this reasoning? It was just that she had her own secret backing.
"Don’t worry, Aunt Peng, I understand all of that. Let me tell you a secret." Bai Jiu decided it was okay to leak a little information about her black market dealings to Aunt Peng. That way, the older woman wouldn’t constantly worry about her spending money so recklessly. She was afraid she might actually give Aunt Peng a heart attack from stress.
"What is it?" Hearing this, Aunt Peng’s heart skipped a beat, and her hands paused their work.
"Don’t be nervous, it’s nothing bad." Seeing her reaction, Bai Jiu immediately knew Aunt Peng was thinking the worst.
"Then tell me, what is it? Don’t tell me you want to remarry?" As a family member of a special serviceman herself, Aunt Peng understood the bitterness and exhaustion of this life all too well.
Bai Jiu was left speechless. She almost shrieked when she heard Aunt Peng’s guess. "What nonsense are you talking about? Am I that kind of person?" Aunt Peng really let her imagination run wild.
"It’s nothing like that. I have Xiuxiu and Zhengyang for the rest of my life, and that’s enough. Remarrying? Forget it. No matter who I marry, my life wouldn’t be as good as it is now."
Remarry? She wasn’t about to go work like a horse or toil like an ox for another family out of the goodness of her heart. Raising the children on her own right now was incredibly easy. The two kids were exceptionally sensible. All she had to do every day was take care of their three meals; she didn’t have to worry about them for anything else. Whose children could possibly compare to hers?
"I’m talking about running the black market in the county town," Bai Jiu whispered into Aunt Peng’s ear.
Aunt Peng froze for a moment, but quickly relaxed. Seeing this, Bai Jiu was a bit dumbfounded. Wasn’t this reaction a bit too calm?
"Aunt Peng, you’re not going to try and talk me out of it?" Bai Jiu asked in surprise.
"Talk you out of what?" Aunt Peng looked up at Bai Jiu, her eyes filled with nothing but gratification. "Talk you into staying home and starving? Or talk you into going back to your in-laws to continue being abused? In this day and age, surviving is more important than anything else. Just be careful in your day-to-day life, that’s all."
When people could barely survive, what was so shocking about the black market? Seeing the confusion on Bai Jiu’s face, Aunt Peng leaned close to her ear. "Aiguo also takes things to the black market to trade."
Having said that, Aunt Peng dropped the subject.
Bai Jiu understood. It seemed she had been a bit naive.
"Then I definitely need to learn a thing or two from Aiguo." How old was Aiguo, anyway? But looking at how he normally behaved, he really did seem like someone used to hustling out in the world.
"Alright, it’s not exactly something glorious. Just mentioning it privately is enough. But you can’t keep doing it forever."
Was Aunt Peng worried? Of course she was. But before worrying, the family had to survive. People had to live.
"I know."
Bai Jiu thought that if Aiguo was also running the black market route, she might actually be able to team up with him. Moreover, she could make use of Uncle Wu from last time. Granny Wu was quite easy to talk to, but she wasn’t sure about Uncle Wu yet. Based on their first meeting, he certainly seemed like an honest man.
Just as the last of the dumplings were wrapped and thrown into the boiling pot, the children returned with Aiguo. All three of them were carrying substantial bundles of firewood on their backs. Some of the wood was dry, which meant they must have ventured quite far to find it.