Chapter 477

The next day’s schedule was very full.

After waking up in the morning, Shi Wuwei and Dai Yucan’s neighbors found excuses to come to visit, one by one, standing outside the garden railing, while saying “good morning”, while inquiring whether the guests at home were Dai Yucan’s sister and brother-in-law.

Shi Wuwei and Dai Yuchan hurriedly said yes, yes, yes.

Neighbor: Did they come yesterday? I saw the carriage.

Neighbor: Yes, yes, yes, I picked them up from the train station yesterday.

Neighbor: Merry Christmas to you all. Do you have any plans for today?

Shi Wuwei: To visit the priest first.

The neighbor left satisfied, and it was obvious that they would meet a lot of people at the priest’s place.

This is the social need in a village with a priest.

If Zhu Yuyan lived in a village with a priest and so many neighbors, socializing would be something she could not avoid – unless there was a very good reason, such as the loss of her husband.

It is recognized that widows do not have to socialize.

Rather, widows who love to socialize are looked upon with disdain by their neighbors.

In the morning, the four of them hurriedly ate breakfast and changed into decent clothes – clean and tidy with no patches.

The fake collar Zhu Yuyan bought came in handy!

You know that you can’t even buy soap nowadays, and no one can wash their shirts white!

Fake collars are better.

She also brought ten pairs each for Dai Yucan and his wife, who had to socialize more in the village and needed fake collars more often.

Standing in front of the mirror and putting on the fake collars, Dai Yucan rolled his eyes and said, “Thank goodness you brought me so many, I’ve had enough of those women teaching me how to wash clothes.”

Zhu Yuyan: “Just tell me you don’t wash at all.”

That’s what she said when she was in a social rage in late London, she doesn’t cook, she doesn’t do housework, she doesn’t know how to do laundry, and that’s what she said to everyone.

And yes, she doesn’t have children.

Although rumors about the couple were flying around during that time, this kind of social outburst was really cool!

Dai Yu Cicada complexly said, “Sometimes I really envy your character.”

Zhu Yuyan: “Zhang Ma said all the older ones are like you, and all the younger ones are like me.”

Dai Yuchan sighed, “I miss them so much.”

Zhu Yu Yan fell silent.

Sisters two hand in hand out, outside the gentlemen are also cleaned up, neat and tidy, can see people.

The two couples each held hands, elegantly to the church.

When they crossed the ridge, they saw many people trying to rush to the church before them, and there were also people pretending to greet them.

Zhu Yuyan: “This village is so peaceful.”

Shi Wuwei then twisted his head and said, “If you move here, you can also experience this peace.”

Zhu Yuyan grunted, “No need.”

She had experienced it in London.

Writing to socialize, reading to gossip.

Listening to other people’s gossip was great, but being the center of the gossip was uncomfortable.

These people were just trying to experience a new kind of gossip from her and Su Chunjun.

This village was too peaceful and people were too familiar with each other.

Before she and Su Chunjun appeared, the center of gossip in this village was Shi Wuwei and Dai Yucan, and Miss Julie.

Then the priest stepped in and told everyone not to disturb Miss Julie’s peaceful life.

So Miss Julie escaped, and Shi Wuwei and Dai Yucan are still suffering.

In her letter, she wrote that she suspected that someone was hiding under her bedroom window and listening. Later, they did catch them, but not only did they catch men eavesdropping, they also caught women eavesdropping.

This made Dai Yuchan and Shi Wuwei very skeptical of the social climate.

Later Zhu Yuyan also encountered it when she moved to the countryside.

She also began to suspect.

Later, the peeping men were beaten away, but the neighbors who were eavesdropping and peeping could not be beaten away.

Shi Wuwei and Dai Yuchan couldn’t do anything about them.

But Zhu Yuyan felt that this passively promoted these two social terrorists to come out from the other side, which was also a little bit beneficial.

Now Shi Wuwei and Dai Yuchan didn’t look like outsiders at all over here, they were just two locals.

This was a good thing for them.

After arriving at the church, of course they had to listen to the priest’s sermon first.

Seeing that quite a lot of people had come today, the priest improvised two short stories from the bible without dragging it out too long, and then announced that it was time to socialize.

He first came up to greet Shi Wuwei and Dai Yucan, then Shi Wuwei and Dai Yucan introduced him to Su Chunjun and Zhu Yuyan respectively, the men introducing the men and the women introducing the women.

Then the priest started with the weather and divine grace, and both Su Chunjun and Zhu Yuyan said that the weather was good, that they were basking in divine grace, and that God was just as great as he was yesterday, and by the way, he wished the Queen well.

Then again, the priest asked them if their work and life were going well as usual and if they were in good health.

Both said that work was going well, life was peaceful, the couple was in good health, and both were in good health.

The priest then completed the social indicators and said one last thing may God bless you and may you both have a good time here.

After the priest moves aside, the two men look at each other and helplessly walk towards each gender that belongs to them.

Men and women are socialized separately here.

Zhu Yu Yan and Dai Yu Cicada held hands and walked towards the group of ladies.

The ladies were sitting outside in the courtyard, some were talking, some were doing some needlework, helping the church with some holy scarves and such.

Zhu Yuyan belonged to the group that didn’t work for nothing, dragging Dai Yucan towards the talking group.

Early death, early life, anyway, there is this time.

Dai Yucan had a look of despair on her face, she could already predict what would be talked about. Seriously, ever since she came to this village, she had to listen to it almost every week, so many times that even she had the urge to blow up the village, so she couldn’t blame Yan Yan for having a bad temper right?

But fortunately these women had seen Zhu Yuyan’s temper last time, and seeing her come over they were not very daring to start a war right away.

So they first pretended to make a bit of small talk about the weather and God, followed by the miserable dinner table of each family. But all of them were bragging, and more than one housewife was bragging that she had a stew on her table every day, and that her children and husband were happy, but the truth of the matter was that they were considered rich if they could eat potatoes every day.

The only two sisters who actually eat meat every day don’t dare to brag about it.

Zhu Yuyan: “I eat stewed potatoes with onions every day at home, with the occasional carrot.”

Dai Yuchan: “I don’t even have any onions left at home, and I’m almost out of salt, and I don’t know where to buy sugar.”

Zhu Yuyan said sincerely, “I really wish I could buy sugar bricks or sugar towers at the grocery store.” A compressed sugar brick or sugar tower would last a long time, and then their family would be able to eat more delicious dishes.

Then someone warmly invited them to their home for dinner.

Once Dai Yu Cicada had fallen for this trick, but when she actually brought Shi Wuwei to the door carrying the gift, God knows how embarrassing that moment was.

The neighboring family was embarrassed, and Dai Yucan was even more embarrassed. She and Shi Wuwei practically threw down the gifts and found a reason to flee.

The empty dining table in the neighbor’s house was like a nightmare.

Dai Yuchan’s kindness led her to quietly send a few potatoes and onions to the neighbor’s house.

But after the peeping happened, she never sent anything again.

Now she wouldn’t fall for that anymore, so both she and Zhu Yuyan refused.

After all the nonsense, one of them couldn’t help but bring up the subject of “children”.

You know, if even the women in the city don’t have the habit of using contraception, the countryside is even less likely to have such a strange thing as contraception. All the women got pregnant right after they got married, and all of them kept giving birth to children, but not all of them survived, and not all of them were healthy. Miscarriages were common, and the death of wives was also common, and there were a few widowers in every village.

The reason why this village wasn’t swamped with children was because not all men could find wives.

There is such a thing as productivity loss in any village. Even if the population of this village was a bit larger, there still weren’t enough young men; there were less than four young men in the entire village, and none of them had managed to get married by now. Most of the men from the previous generation were drafted away, and not many of them came back alive.

Dai Yuchan and Shi Wuwei were the only couple in their age group.

So how normal it was for them to receive the attention of the whole village.

And how gossipy it was that the couple didn’t have any children after several years of marriage – the people in the village had always assumed that Shi Wuwei was the one with the problem.

When Su Chunjun and Zhu Yuyan arrived, the villagers realized that they also had no children – the problem became the sisters Dai Yucan and Zhu Yuyan.

Every time they see Zhu Yuyan and Su Chunjun, the villagers are curious to know if they have any children this year.

Zhu Yuyan: “No.”

The village ladies exchanged gossipy glances – sure enough, no!

A lady wipes her tears, “God will bless you, I’m sure if you pray sincerely, he will grant you a child.”

Zhu Yuyan: “Thank you, I won’t bother God.”

Another lady: “I’m sure your life will become difficult, but as long as you endure, you will surely be rewarded.”

Zhu Yuyan: “My husband won’t beat me up for not having a child, thank you.”

Dai Yuchan kept holding her hand tightly, afraid that she would open her mouth like last year.

Zhu Yuyan was also far more composed than last year, and she endured until the end.

The other side was similar.

Shi Wuwei had experienced this many times, and now looking at what happened to Su Chunjun it was hard not to sympathize a little.

Su Chunjun smiled and said, “I don’t need to think about the heir, I decided to spend all the money I earned before I die, and not leave a single dime behind, so no one can get my inheritance.”

Compared to the villagers, Su Chunjun and Zhu Yuyan, who came two or three times a year and brought many gifts each time, did seem to have a little money.

There was also an attempt to introduce Su Chunjun to a mistress.

Su Chunjun: “If I really needed to, I wouldn’t have chosen your daughter, sir, she looks like she hasn’t had a full meal since she was born.”