"Oh." Seeing that her mother-in-law was unwilling to elaborate, Liu Zhaodi didn’t dare to ask anymore and could only hurry to finish the household chores.
"Mother, I’m going to the woolen mill to get some work." After finishing her tasks, she didn’t dare to rest for even a moment, immediately heading out to pick up her assignment.
The work from the woolen mill consisted of women taking yarn home to knit hats. They earned ten cents a hat, and a fast knitter could easily make a few extra dollars a month. There were several large factories in the surrounding area. One was the woolen mill, another was the meatpacking plant, and of course, there were others. However, only the workers from these two factories lived on this side of town.
Aside from Mother Bai, everyone else in the Bai Family worked: Father Bai at the meatpacking plant and Bai Xingguo at the woolen mill. Father Bai was a gatekeeper, while Bai Xingguo was a cargo sorter. The work wasn’t too grueling, but the pay wasn’t high.
Bai Xingguo had put in a lot of effort to secure this job. He used to work on the assembly line and had only transferred to his current post in the past two years. Although assembly line workers earned a bit more, the labor was truly grueling—not something an ordinary person could endure for long. Mother Bai had felt terrible seeing her son suffer, so she gave him the money needed to arrange a transfer. Only then was he saved from working himself into an early grave.
Just as Liu Zhaodi arrived at the woolen mill to look for her husband, she saw a man and a woman pulling at each other near the main gate. As she got closer, she recognized them both. One was her next-door neighbor, the eldest son of the Bai Family. The other was the precious daughter of the butcher at the meatpacking plant.
Driven by a sudden burst of curiosity, Liu Zhaodi stealthily crept closer to the pair.
"Brother Xingguo, I don’t mean anything else by this. Just take the meat. Your sister came back, so you have to give her something good to eat, right? Besides, doesn’t she also have two children?" Xiang Gaoli liked Bai Xingguo. She had had her eyes on him for two years now, but no matter how she expressed her feelings, he never reciprocated. He had even told her not to come looking for him anymore.
But she just liked him. It wasn’t that her family hadn’t arranged blind dates for her, but none of them had caught her eye. They weren’t as handsome as Bai Xingguo. They weren’t as tall and sturdy as Bai Xingguo. They just weren’t as lovable as him. Regardless of how she looked at them, they were all eyesores.
Bai Xingguo’s only flaw might be his family background, but her family didn’t mind it at all. She didn’t know why he was so hung up on it. Sometimes, Xiang Gaoli would get angry when he ignored her, but she always regretted it right after. She knew how much he struggled, yet she still threw tantrums at him.
So, upon hearing people mention that the Bai Family’s youngest daughter had arrived, she had immediately asked her dad to set aside some meat, planning to have Brother Bai take it home to entertain his sister.
"I don’t want it. Take it back." Looking at the sturdily built Xiang Gaoli, Bai Xingguo felt a wave of guilt. Her family was well-off, and she deserved better. He wasn’t worthy of her. Had this been yesterday, he might have accepted the meat for his sister’s sake and simply paid Xiang Gaoli back later. But now, he really couldn’t accept it. Jiu had brought back so much meat that the family had no shortage of it. Moreover, he didn’t want to drag Xiang Gaoli down with him.
As Bai Jiu approached, she spotted her eldest brother’s figure from afar. Not far from him, another woman was secretly watching them. She quietly walked up behind the eavesdropping Liu Zhaodi.
As soon as she got close, she heard the woman muttering to herself, "If you don’t want it, give it to me! Honestly, I don’t know what he’s acting so aloof for. He even turns his nose up at meat! If it weren’t for that handsome face of his, as if the Xiang Family’s daughter would ever give him a second look."
Bai Jiu hadn’t expected to stumble upon gossip about her own brother here. She asked softly, "What are we doing here?" Bai Jiu didn’t know Liu Zhaodi and assumed she was just a passerby.
"What else? A shameless woman is throwing herself at a man," Liu Zhaodi blurted out without thinking. As soon as the words left her mouth, she jumped in fright and immediately spun around. "Who are you? Don’t you know that scaring someone can kill them?"
Bai Jiu was speechless at how deeply engrossed the woman was in her spying. "No, I just mean, what are you doing here, ma’am?" Bai Jiu pointed at the two people ahead.
Setting aside her momentary displeasure, Liu Zhaodi’s womanly instinct for gossip instantly flared up. "Look, that girl is the daughter of Master Xiang, the butcher from the meatpacking plant. The other guy is up to no good; his family background is problematic."
Liu Zhaodi had huge grievances against the Bai Family. Perhaps influenced by her mother-in-law, she strongly disliked them. Especially upon seeing Brother Bai favored by the Xiang Family, she was filled with burning jealousy. After all, if the two families joined together, wouldn’t the Bai Family have meat to eat every day? In all her years of living, she had hardly ever had a proper meal of meat herself.
"I really don’t know what the Xiang Family is thinking, actually letting their daughter throw herself at a man like that. If she were from my family, I’d break her legs."
Listening to these sour remarks, Bai Jiu looked completely exasperated. Anyone who didn’t know better would think her brother had a blood feud with this woman.
"Good thing it’s not your family. But even if you wanted to throw yourself at a man, no one would take you. Just look at the state of you." Bai Jiu couldn’t be bothered to entertain the woman any further.
"How can you speak to me like that?" Hearing this, Liu Zhaodi immediately got worked up, baring her spikes at Bai Jiu like a defensive hedgehog.
Bai Jiu wasn’t going to coddle her. "That’s exactly how I’m speaking. What, do you have a problem with it? If you do, keep it to yourself. The nerve of you."
After saying that, Bai Jiu shouted loudly toward Bai Xingguo, "Xingguo!"
Bai Xingguo was in the middle of pushing the meat back toward Xiang Gaoli when he heard the familiar voice. He hurriedly looked her way. "Jiu."
Upon seeing her, Bai Xingguo took a few steps back, widening the distance between himself and Xiang Gaoli.
Bai Jiu sighed inwardly. She grabbed Liu Zhaodi and dragged her toward the pair. "Xingguo, this person was spying on you two. See if you recognize her."
It was best to clear up this kind of situation right then and there. It would prevent anyone from pulling petty tricks behind their backs. One look and she could tell this woman was up to no good.
Hearing this, Bai Xingguo immediately looked at the person beside Bai Jiu, a trace of disgust flashing across his face. Seeing his reaction, the answer was obvious: he definitely recognized her.
"She’s the daughter-in-law of Wang Pozi from next door." Bai Xingguo pulled his sister to his side. "Stay away from her." He didn’t like a single person from the Wang Family.
All of Liu Zhaodi’s attention was captivated by the meat dangling from Xiang Gaoli’s hand. "Oh my, you’re giving away meat! Brother Bai, what excellent meat this is! I could smell it from far away. We’re neighbors, so come on, let me help you carry it back." With that, she tried to step forward and snatch it.
Don’t be fooled by how gentle Xiang Gaoli was in front of Bai Xingguo. To outsiders, she fully lived up to her butcher father’s reputation.
"Who the hell do you think you are, daring to snatch my things?" Xiang Gaoli pulled the meat back, smoothly dodging her grasp. "Hmph, just try and snatch it."
She knew a thing or two about the Wang Family. Back then, her family had originally intended to propose a match with the Bai Family, but it was the old hag from this very household who ran her mouth, spouting nonsense and badmouthing the Bai Family near her home every day. That was what had initially caused her mother to harbor some dislike toward them. Had she not proven the Bai Family’s innocence herself, any chance between her and Brother Bai would have been utterly destroyed.
"I wasn’t snatching it! Neighbors are just supposed to help each other out, right? He has to work, so it’s on my way to help him carry it back." Liu Zhaodi didn’t dare offend the woman. If her mother-in-law found out she had, she would be in for a rough time once she got home.
No one should underestimate the Xiang Family’s influence. Although buying meat didn’t directly go through Master Xiang’s hands, who could manage to secure meat every single day? Sometimes, when people craved a good cut, they still had to secretly pull some strings through him.