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

Chapter 120, Episode 0124: Recuperating and Enjoying the Show (Part 2)
No one refuted Aunt Lu's words, because they all shared the same opinion.

The behavior and thoughts of those educated youth, especially some of the female educated youth, were difficult for these uneducated rural old ladies to understand.

Could it be true, as the older generation says, that the more you know, the more likely you are to have wild thoughts?
It's generally agreed that the educated youth who went to the countryside had a tough time. Even if they didn't help each other, they should at least avoid making things difficult for each other.

Take the case of Wang Zhiqing as an example. Even the Fourth Brigade of their Red Star Brigade, which was most fond of criticizing this and that, mostly maintained a sympathetic and non-deceiving attitude towards Wang Zhiqing's situation. A large portion of the minority, and more than half, adopted a neutral and evasive attitude.

However, after Wang arrived at the educated youth settlement, he was isolated by all the other educated youth except for Li Bin and Qian Duoduo. Li Bin and others who occasionally helped Wang were also ostracized. Some even went to the brigade leader to apply for a wall to be built in the middle of the educated youth settlement to separate them.

What's going on here? What's the point of all this?

In short, they all look down on them, and I don't know what those people are so smug about.

Aunt Wu said, "In the past, the female educated youth were still under the supervision of Yu, and although they each had their own ways of doing things, they were still able to maintain appearances. But recently, if Yu hadn't been bedridden to take care of her pregnancy, the others wouldn't have been able to keep things under control."

Aunt Feng curiously peeked out again: "Is the educated youth settlement now divided into two groups?"

"No, that's not it. Many of them were divided into two or three groups, but when they dealt with Xiao Qian and his group of educated youth, they looked like a team."

Aunt Wu slowly uttered two words: "Jealousy."

At first, everyone was confused and looked bewildered for a moment before they realized, "Well, it's just jealousy."

Li Bin and his friends were upright, methodical, hardworking, and organized, so they lived better than other educated youth. Eating eggs and meat was not frequent but not unusual either.

But the other educated youth were different. Whether there were many or few people, they were not having a good life. The largest group of educated youth did not even have enough firewood for the winter. A few days ago, the educated youth settlement caught a thief stealing firewood.

Compared to them, Li Bin and his group, who are right under our noses, are quite an eyesore. If we can suppress others' envy, it will outweigh their jealousy. If we can't suppress it, then all that's left is jealousy.

Aunt Wu and the others had plenty of gossip to share. Bored during the winter, they would definitely have a good chat whenever they had the chance to get together. Lin Yuexi deliberately kept a low profile, and they didn't even notice her presence as she darted from one melon patch to another.

The lively conversation at the educated youth settlement hadn't even ended when the topic shifted from Yu Mengmeng's pregnancy to another pregnant woman in the village.

"Speaking of Yu Zhiqing's pregnancy, I'm reminded of Uncle Dazhu's wife, Wu Gen. Do you think she'll be able to give birth this time?"

Seeing that there weren't many snacks left on the fruit plate, Lin Yuexi took out a white bag from the cabinet, opened it, and took out the sorted snacks to put on the fruit plate.

None of it was anything special. Apart from a small plate of White Rabbit candy, the mixed platter consisted of things that were available on the mountain.

Her movement finally caught the attention of the older women, but they didn't find it abrupt at all. They simply stopped talking and started helping her.

Some were clearing away the fruit shells on the kang table, while others were helping to put peanuts and chestnuts onto a mixed platter. They had come to Lin Yuexi's place to chat a few times before and already knew her personality. She wasn't like some educated youth or city people who were stingy or looked down on them while pretending to be kind. Lin Yuexi didn't treat them like outsiders and even loved eating melons just like them.

Of course, the most important thing is that every time they come, Lin Yuexi serves them nothing rare or unusual, which makes them feel comfortable, rather than making them feel distant just because of a single serving.

These people were all skilled workers who had done most of their lives, and after only a minute, they were all sitting up on the kang again, their feet tucked under the covers.

Because Lin Yuexi made a brief appearance, everyone noticed her, someone who wasn't familiar with the village, and started explaining Dazhu's family situation to her, one after another.

It turns out that Li Dazhu was not the child of Li Erzhu and Li Sanzhu's parents. He was the orphan of Old Man Li's elder brother and Old Man Li's nephew.

They didn't know much about the older generation's affairs. They only knew that before Old Man Li got married, he had already adopted Li Dazhu into his own family, and on the very day he adopted the child, he separated from his parents. He was left alone with the child, and he had nothing at all.

Six months later, Old Man Li and Old Woman Li, who had fled famine with Li Erzhu (no one knows what Li Erzhu's mother's surname was), started living together.

In other words, Li Sanzhu is the only biological son of the couple in their family.

Thinking about it this way, isn't it only reasonable for Li Sanzhu's family to stand up and say that the old house issue is unfair?
"Li Dazhu and his wife both preferred boys. Of their two daughters, one was abandoned on the mountain by Old Woman Hua, and the other was abandoned by Li Dazhu himself."

As she spoke, Aunt Feng sighed, "My husband saw Li Dazhu go to throw away the baby. He was carrying a small basket when he went out. The midwife had just left. My husband saw him carrying a basket and laughed at him, saying, 'You're not the first one to have a baby, why are you so happy?'"

To be honest, there are almost no rural areas nowadays that don't favor sons over daughters, because boys are the labor force.

But they wouldn't be too biased. Although they treated their children unfairly, they never thought of denying their daughter a chance to live.

So her husband never even considered that possibility. Who knew that there could be a father in the world who would do something like abandoning his newborn daughter to the mountains to fend for herself?
Aunt Feng's house was right next to Li Dazhu's house, separated only by a wall. Usually, the two families didn't need to open the door to talk; they could just peek over the wall and know what was going on across the street.

So, knowing that the neighbor had given birth, but not seeing any urine bags drying in the yard for several days, Aunt Feng and her husband felt something was wrong.

“At that time, we hadn’t yet thought about Li Dazhu. Old Mrs. Hua came over before Old Mrs. Hua gave birth. We thought Old Mrs. Hua had given birth to another girl. Then Old Mrs. Hua secretly took both babies away and threw them away in the middle of the night.”

Old Mrs. Hua had done something similar before. She secretly went into the mountains in the middle of the night and happened to run into the old hunter [who has passed away] who was checking the traps. She caught him red-handed, but unfortunately, the baby had already been suffocated.

Back then, the laws weren't strict on this matter. If Li Dazhu and his wife didn't report it to the police, no one else could do anything about it. If the people didn't complain, the officials wouldn't investigate, and the villagers couldn't do anything about the old woman.

Therefore, after seeing Old Woman Hua, not only Aunt Feng, but many people in the village still believe that Li Dazhu's third daughter was abandoned by Old Woman Hua.

Before anyone could ask, Aunt Feng spilled the secret she had kept for years: "When Wu Gen's wife gave birth to her second daughter, Da Ya came back to take care of her. I heard it from Da Ya and Wu Gen's wife."