After the frail beauty went to the countryside, she went crazy with scientific research.

Chapter 119, Episode 0123: Recuperating and Enjoying the Show (Part 1)

From that day on, Lin Yuexi resumed her life of recuperation.

Fortunately, Old Chen said that her health is much better than before, and at least she no longer has to worry about getting sick if she speaks loudly. Ren Yan and the others did not stop the village aunties and grandmas from coming to see her.

So, even though she was recuperating at home, she ate almost every melon in the village.

Look, now several older women are sitting around the kang (a heated brick bed) with her, chatting away.

Aunt Wu began mysteriously, "Did you know that there was another fight at the educated youth settlement last night?"

Aunt Feng, whose home was furthest from the educated youth settlement, immediately chimed in, "What's wrong with the educated youth settlement? In this freezing weather, what are they doing up at night? Don't they feel cold?"

Aunt Lu pursed her lips and said, "Don't talk nonsense. If this happened to you, you would make a bigger fuss."

Now Aunt Feng was even more curious. She stopped eating her melon seeds and stared intently at Aunt Wu, who was closest to the educated youth settlement and must have firsthand information.

Aunt Wu did not disappoint her. With a serious face, she straightened her collar and assumed the posture of giving a speech. Amidst the suppressed laughter of the other aunties, she recounted the whole story in detail.

Here's what happened.

Wang, the educated youth, is now receiving education, but he still has to carry manure every day.

Doing this kind of work inevitably results in you developing a body odor.

Although Wang Zhiqing received further education, the brigade leader did not lock her up in the cowshed; instead, he allowed her to live in the educated youth settlement as if she were still an educated youth.

“Wang, the educated youth, also had her own considerations. She chose the innermost room and usually didn’t go through the main entrance. She always went through the back door, so she basically didn’t run into the other educated youth.”

"Yesterday afternoon, when Wang, a educated youth, was going home after work, she ran into Wang, an educated youth, hugging a male comrade from Xiayang Brigade at the back gate of the educated youth settlement. Wang tried to avoid him, but she smelled bad, and the two of them noticed."

Aunt Feng raised her hand to stop her: "How do you know so much?"

Aunt Wu was a little hesitant, but thinking that everyone here was trustworthy, she boldly told the truth: "I just felt sorry for Wang Zhiqing and wanted to give her a few pounds of sweet potatoes."

The brigade leader was able to help keep Wang Zhiqing in the village, but he couldn't possibly take care of her life forever. At that time, Wang Zhiqing had nothing but the clothes she was wearing. The brigade leader took it upon himself to lend her a month's worth of food and also brought her an old quilt and a cotton-padded jacket that he had worn with Guihua from his home. This was already quite a lot.

Aunt Wu wasn't a saint. Her house was close to the educated youth settlement, and coincidentally, its side was near the back of the settlement. She also loved to eat melons, so she could often see Wang, the educated youth, by climbing over the side wall.

She gradually discovered that Wang Zhiqing was an exceptionally resilient person, hardworking and of good character. Most importantly, she found his occasional remarks particularly insightful.

Aunt Wu herself wasn't very educated, but she greatly admired and liked educated people, and Wang Zhiqing was one of those people she particularly admired.

So when she noticed that Wang, the educated youth, only ate one meal a day, and only drank a bowl of thin porridge, she couldn't help him much, but she felt uneasy if she didn't do something. So she went and got a few sweet potatoes and waited at the back door of the educated youth settlement, intending to give them to Wang.

Little did she know that by sheer coincidence, she would witness a grand spectacle.

Aunt Wu slapped her thigh and said, "When I was carrying sweet potatoes to the back door, Wang Qin was already stomping her feet back and forth there, and she kept looking towards the intersection. I saw that something was wrong, so I immediately hid behind a snowdrift by the roadside."

They're called snowdrifts, but inside are haystacks. Because they're covered in snow, they look like large snowdrifts two or three meters high, making it easy to hide someone there and be spotted. It's just cold.

Fortunately, a young man ran up to the intersection shortly after. Aunt Wu recognized him but didn't know his name or whose family he was from. She only knew that he was a young man from Xiayang Brigade.

"The two immediately embraced upon meeting, and then..."

Aunt Wu pouted and made a kissing gesture, which made the other aunties and grandmas look up and pat her, saying they were being indecent.

"The two were inseparable, like the Seven Fairies meeting Dong Lang. Then the young man started taking things out of his pocket. The kid wasn't afraid of being beaten by his family. He took out six eggs, and a bag that looked like rice and flour. He also took out two pieces of meat."

There was a collective gasp. These were all women who were in charge of their households, and upon hearing about these precious things, their hearts ached with longing.

"He probably stole something from home," the old woman said with absolute certainty.

Aunt Feng: "Definitely. If it were a serious relationship, why would they meet at the back door? If I remember correctly, Wang Qin lives near the front yard."

Wang Qin originally lived in the collective dormitory of the educated youth settlement, which was free. Later, because she caused a lot of trouble, the other people in the dormitory were not willing to live with her, so she chose a room near the front yard.

As for the claim that it's closer to come from the Xiayang Brigade by taking the back gate, that's even more impossible. The back gate of the educated youth settlement isn't close from any direction; you have to go around the entire front yard, there's only one road.

It's quite obvious that these two are deliberately avoiding people when they meet.

It's not hard to guess the source of the pile of things the young man produced; it certainly wasn't given to him by his family.

"Just then, Wang Zhiqing came back. She didn't even turn into the bend. I guess she saw the two of them and then turned back to the room she came from the front yard."

Everyone nodded in agreement with her guess. Otherwise, in such cold weather, and after Wang Zhiqing had been tired all day, why would she suddenly take a big detour and walk through the front yard?

Aunt Wu slapped her thigh again, "I thought that was the end of it, that Wang Zhiqing had already avoided it, hadn't he?"

There's an unspoken understanding among them: everything has to be discussed face-to-face. If someone chooses to avoid it, it means they'll pretend they don't see it and won't talk about it in the future.

“Last night, around 11 o’clock, I heard several shouts from the educated youth settlement. I got up and saw that Wang Qin had poured a bucket of boiling water on Liu, an educated youth.”

Oh ~
Ok?
Wait a minute, you kept mentioning Wang Zhiqing, but tonight it's Liu Zhiqing who's in trouble?
"However, several other female educated youths were also implicated at the time, but Liu was the most seriously injured, with almost the entire bucket of hot water soaking her."

The situation was that Wang Qin said her room was drafty and she needed to take a shower in the communal washroom at the educated youth settlement.

As for Wang, the educated youth, his house was notoriously drafty, and he had been using the communal washroom ever since he moved into the educated youth settlement.

Then Wang Zhiqing had a habit of taking a shower around 11 p.m. every night.

However, during the time when Wang Zhiqing was supposed to use the communal washroom last night, Liu Zhiqing suddenly wanted to use it, so Wang Zhiqing gave in and chose to use it after Liu Zhiqing.

"Tch, they just want to bully Wang Zhiqing because she's honest. What decent family would fight over a bathroom in the middle of the night? Don't they usually shower in their rooms?"