They originally thought that since the third son’s wife wasn’t around, they could take her share of the meat home to eat. They hadn’t expected her to come back.
Old Man Gao was playing the peacemaker again.
Bai Jiu rolled her eyes at him. The whole family was truly shameless.
"Why should we leave? We still need to buy some meat later," Old Mrs. Song said, unwilling to go back.
She only got to eat meat once a year; she couldn’t possibly miss this chance.
It would have been fine in the past when she could just cook a special meal whenever she craved it. But now, money was tight, and she simply had no extra cash to buy meat.
"I said, go back," Old Man Gao snapped.
Once Old Man Gao lost his temper, Old Mrs. Song didn’t dare stick around. She could only carry their distributed portion of meat and follow him away.
As they left, Gao Zhiguo cast another glance at Bai Jiu. Bai Jiu rewarded him with a massive eye-roll.
The Gao family left, but the crowd’s discussions didn’t stop. Bai Jiu had no desire to continue gossiping with them, so she headed home with Aunt Peng.
On the way, Aunt Peng stared at Bai Jiu with a face full of worry.
"Oh, Auntie, just say what’s on your mind. Looking at me like that makes me uneasy," Bai Jiu said, pushing her bicycle. She stopped walking and turned to look at Aunt Peng.
Aunt Peng had sighed countless times along the way. Seeing her stop, she sighed once more.
"Why did you have to offend him? Don’t you know what kind of person Gao Laoer is? I’m just afraid you’ll have a lot of trouble ahead."
Aunt Peng was genuinely worried about her. Bai Jiu had finally ushered in good days; it would be disastrous if she was targeted by someone like him now.
"Do you think I’m afraid of him?" Bai Jiu didn’t take Gao Zhiguo to heart at all. She could handle a person like that without breaking a sweat. She truly wasn’t afraid of him causing trouble; she’d rather he did than didn’t.
"Auntie, just rest assured. I know what I’m doing. I know exactly what kind of person he is better than anyone else. I just didn’t expect to run into him when I came back this time."
She had originally just wanted to spend a quiet New Year.
It seemed she would have to delay her departure for a few days. Later, she would go to the village office to borrow the phone and tell her family that she might be a few days late going back. Anyway, there were still a few days left before the New Year.
"Sigh."
"Alright, stop sighing. If you keep sighing, you’ll sigh all your good fortune away," Bai Jiu comforted Aunt Peng with a light chuckle.
"You..."
Along the way, Bai Jiu listened to Aunt Peng recount the recent happenings in the village. Nothing particularly special had occurred, except for the couple from Zhou Qing’s family. They had actually helped stockpile firewood for her house, which was definitely unexpected. It was no big deal, though; she would just bring some gifts to their door tomorrow to thank them properly.
"Auntie, hurry inside. The wind and snow are heavy out here."
"Come to my house for dinner tonight. Don’t bother starting a fire," Aunt Peng said, still worried.
"No need, I can just make something simple for myself. Besides, I brought a lot of things back with me." Cooking for one wasn’t a hassle; going to Aunt Peng’s house would actually be more troublesome.
"Auntie, I’m not just being polite. No one has lived in the house for quite a few days, so I have to tidy it up anyway. It’s not like I’m leaving right away."
Even though she had initially planned to head back that very night.
"Alright, I can’t out-talk you. There’s dry firewood in the kitchen, so at least you won’t starve." Aunt Peng didn’t argue with her; it didn’t matter much for this brief moment.
"Then hurry inside. I’m heading back too."
As soon as she returned to her dilapidated yard, the noise Bai Jiu made immediately attracted someone’s gaze.
"You’re finally back. Is everything alright with your maiden family?" Seeing her return, the person who had been hiding aside listening to the sounds stepped out from the shadows.
"Uncle Wu, why are you here? It’s freezing outside." Seeing who it was, Bai Jiu’s heart warmed.
"During the day, your Uncle Li and I came by from time to time to check on the place," Uncle Wu said with a smile. Seeing that there was no one else around, he dared to step a little closer to Bai Jiu.
"Did you go to the village for the meat distribution?" They knew very well what day today was.
"I did. I got two pounds of meat." Since it was distributed according to work points, it was considered quite good for her to get two pounds just on her own points alone. If a family had many members, getting over ten pounds of meat was very easy.
"That’s quite a lot," Uncle Wu chuckled.
"Uncle Wu, you head back first. I’ll come over in a bit." It was freezing outside, and standing in the yard talking wasn’t ideal.
Uncle Wu naturally had no objections. "Alright, we’ll talk later."
Mr. Wu was actually quite happy that Bai Jiu had returned. Although they hadn’t known each other for long, this girl was very likable.
"Okay," she replied.
Opening the door, Bai Jiu saw that the house was exactly as she had left it. She knew in her heart that it had definitely been well-cared for by others; otherwise, the greedy rats of the Gao family would have broken the door down long ago.
Bai Jiu spent the entire afternoon cleaning up the house. Although she didn’t have a solid job lined up yet, she was confident she could leave the village. If Gao Zhijun were still alive, leaving wouldn’t have been easy. But now that he was gone, and she had fallen out with her in-laws while taking her children, the world was her oyster. She could go wherever she pleased.
She stored everything useful into her spatial dimension. She had left in a hurry last time, and with people around, it was inconvenient to act, so she had left quite a few things behind. Now, of course, she wasn’t going to let anyone else benefit from them.
This time, she planned to get a letter of introduction valid for three months—plenty of time for her to find a job outside.
After tidying up and cooking some food, she finished her meal and headed next door, carrying the things she had brought for the older folks.
"I told you this girl would definitely eat before coming, but you guys didn’t believe me." As soon as she arrived, she was met with Old Sir Zhang’s verbal attack.
Mainly, he was just hungry. He had said there was no need to wait for her, but they insisted on waiting. Mr. Zhang didn’t mean anything bad by it; he was just anxious seeing his wife go hungry.
Bai Jiu looked confused as she glanced at everyone. "What’s wrong?" she asked in bewilderment.
Zhou Lan patted her husband. "Alright, it’s only right to wait for the girl." Though she knew her husband was just worried about her, she was also afraid Bai Jiu might overthink it.
Uncle Li smilingly explained the situation in a teasing tone. Upon hearing it, Bai Jiu didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
"I just saw I still had some leftover vegetables at home, so I made a simple bowl of noodles. If I had known you guys were waiting to eat with me, I wouldn’t have bothered cooking!"
Seeing that she wasn’t angry, Zhou Lan breathed a sigh of relief. She felt utterly helpless regarding her husband’s sharp-tongued but soft-hearted nature.
"By the way, I won’t be staying for many days this time. I plan to find a job in the city, so there probably won’t be as many chances for me to come back in the future. But don’t worry, I’ll find opportunities to sneak back at night and deliver some grain to you all."
They couldn’t store too much grain here; if outsiders found out, they’d be done for.
"Don’t worry about us. We’ve survived all these years without you. Just focus on your own affairs." Hearing her words, Mr. Wu felt a sudden emptiness in his heart, but he quickly recovered.
"Exactly, girl, don’t worry about us," Zhou Lan also smiled nonchalantly. They had survived through the most bitter times; they really weren’t short on time.
Once the New Year passed, it would be ’76. In this coming year, people like them might actually have a chance to go back.
Judging from the money and ration coupons Elder Wu had given her last time, he was likely someone with connections.
So Bai Jiu lowered her voice and whispered something among them.
"Is this true?"
"I heard there are some stirrings. If you have connections, you should pull some strings." They weren’t getting any younger; if they could leave, they should leave as early as possible.
"Girl, if the news you brought is true, you’ve really done us a massive favor," Li Gao Yi said, unable to hide the smile on his face.
"I’m just glad I could help." Bai Jiu had never asked about their past identities; she simply treated them as ordinary people.