Chapter 003

The rumor that Servant Huai Ming not only didn’t die, but also became an officer spread fast among the villages and towns, and the rumor that Servant Huai Ming might divorce Zhen Zhen also reached the ears of people from all walks of life.

I don’t know who started it, but rumors don’t need to be substantiated, just catching the wind is enough.

Originally those who were still envious and jealous of Zhen Zhen, after hearing these rumors, when they saw Zhen Zhen again, there was always some sympathy in their expression.

Of course, underneath the sympathy is also hidden waiting for the rumors to come true expectations.

Zhen Zhen didn’t feel anxious because of this.

She was still as heartless as Hongmei had said, doing what she had to do every day.

Compared to the experience of the past five years, the current rumors really can’t affect her much.

So look at the heartless another few days, Zhen Zhen took a free day, went back to her mother’s home.

This time back to her mother’s home is also different from the past, her mother’s family everyone is extraordinarily enthusiastic about her.

There is no other reason for this, it is all because of the service Huai Ming has become a cadre.

But Zhen Zhen herself felt weak.

She told her family, “I don’t know what’s going on yet.”

Her older brother listened to her and asked, “Are those rumors true? Is Mr. Huai Ming divorcing you? Did he explicitly say so in his letter?”

This was not the case.

Zhen Zhen hurriedly shook her head, “He didn’t mention that in his letter.”

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, and her second brother added, “If Shui Huai Ming really mentioned divorce, then he is the Chen Shimei of the new society! Zhen Zhen, you’ve been married to him for five years, waited for him for five years, and he says he wants a divorce, on what grounds?”

Second Sister-in-law echoed, “That’s right! If he’s so prosperous, he can just leave? Zhen Zhen, even if Shui Huai Ming really wants to divorce you, you must not agree! You’ll have to rely on him for the rest of your life!”

Sister-in-law followed suit, “Zhen Zhen, your mother-in-law likes you, so let your mother-in-law back you up. As long as your mother-in-law is on your side, Squire Huai Ming won’t disobey his mother.”

“You’ll work harder to give him a few more sons, tie him down with children, and you’ll be secure in this life.”

……

Zhen Zhen’s father and mother were gone, and her mother’s family only had two sons, her elder brother and her second brother.

They gave Zhen Zhen a lot of ideas and taught her a lot of ways to catch Squire Huai Ming.

Zhen Zhen nodded while listening, but didn’t say anything out loud.

Everyone had something to do, and she didn’t stay at her mother’s house much after dinner.

On the way back, she blew the cold wind and lowered her head, her mind was filled with the words of her elder brother and second brother’s sister-in-law and second sister-in-law.

Thinking about it, she shook her head and threw all these words into the howling north wind.

After walking a little more than half the distance, Zhen Zhen bumped into Mr. Xue, a teacher from the same village.

Mr. Xue’s name is Xue Fan, a teacher at Baiyun Elementary School in Baiyun Brigade, two years younger than Zhen Zhen.

He was driving a donkey cart and greeted Zhen Zhen, calling out to her, “Sister-in-law, get on the cart and come, I’ll give you a ride.”

Zhen Zhen was not polite to him, she said thank you and sat down at the back of the donkey cart.

Xue Fan drove the donkey cart to talk to Zhen Zhen and asked her, “I heard that third brother wrote a letter and came back, and became a full regiment-level cadre.”

Zhen Zhen nodded and responded, “Yes.”

Xue Fan looked ahead, “Third brother has had many ideas since he was a child, different from others, I knew he would be a man of great deeds. If he wasn’t born in a small village like ours, he would have to be more successful.”

Thinking of the Servant Huai Ming in her memories, Zhen Zhen’s eyes colored a smile, “Well, third brother is different from others.”

He was especially unique and sparkling in her eyes.

Xue Fan glanced back at Zhen Zhen.

Thinking of the gossips he heard, he hesitated for a moment and added, “Third sister-in-law, don’t listen to the gossip that people outside say, what do they know, they don’t understand third brother at all. I’ve been playing with Third Brother since I was a child, and he’s not that kind of irresponsible person. Since he agreed to marry you in the first place, he wouldn’t just divorce.”

Zhen Zhen looked at Xue Fan and uttered a long time later, “Is that so?”

Xue Fan let out a hmm, “You believe me, it must be.”

Zhen Zhen lowered her head and pinched her fingers, not making another sound.

The donkey cart drove to the head of the village, Zhen Zhen got off the cart and Xue Fan said thank you again, turned around and went to the village.

When she reached the door of her house and pushed it open, she saw Zhong Minfen slicing radishes and preparing to pickle dried radishes.

Hearing the sound of the door opening, Zhong Minfen raised her head and looked at Zhen Zhen and said, “You’re back.”

Zhen Zhen walked next to her, “I happened to meet Mr. Xue on the road and rode his donkey cart back.”

Zhong Minfen lowered her head and asked again, “Is everything okay at home?”

Zhen Zhen smiled and returned, “Everything is fine.”

Today’s weather is very good, the sun shines warmly in the yard.

Zhen Zhen accompanied Zhong Minfen to pickle dried radish, and talked about common household gossip.

The picture of mother-in-law and daughter-in-law together is always exceptionally harmonious, even the curves of the smiles at the corners of their mouths are exactly the same.

***

It had rained a few times since the beginning of winter, and the temperature was lower than one day.

Although Serving Huai Ming’s matter in the Serving family and even the entire Baiyun brigade has stirred up a small ripple, but the specifics of everyone’s daily life did not change much because of this matter.

Now that there was no market, if there was something going on at home, Zhen Zhen would be busy with things at home.

If there was nothing going on at home, Zhen Zhen would follow Shui Huaizhong and Chen Qingmei to work in the production team.

Shui Danling and Shui Xingguo usually just went to school and occasionally did odd jobs in the production team to earn labor credits.

The weather was cold, and it was painful for the students to sit in the classroom.

Especially the very poor students at home, the serious cotton jacket can not wear, can only be hard to bite the teeth.

Hang on until the end of class jumped up, shrunken hands and head desperately stomping feet, run out into the sun.

When the school bell rang at noon, a large group of children rushed out of the classroom with their backpacks.

When Shui Danling picked up her backpack and left the classroom with the little girl at her desk, everyone else had pretty much run away.

She and the girl at her table did not run, walking slowly home.

The little girl at the same table asked Shui Danling with her pockets in her pockets, “Why isn’t your third uncle back yet?”

Since learning that Shui Danling’s third uncle had become a regimental commander, many children in the village wanted to see her third uncle.

Her third uncle has now become the idol in the hearts of many children in the village.

Shui Danling replied: “You say, that’s the army, the most disciplined place, which can be want to go home can go back? When you go out from our village, you still have to go to the brigade secretary to open a letter of introduction.”

The little girl at the same table thought about it and nodded, “That’s right.”

The two people talked and walked slowly towards home.

On the way to the postman, the little girl at the same table had a flash of insight, touched Shui Danling’s arm and said, “The letter carrier came to our brigade, could it be that your third uncle wrote back again?”

Serving Danling thought it was very likely.

Her father’s reply to her third uncle had been mailed out for some time.

She and the little girl at the same table exchanged glances, then tacitly held their fingers and ran off.

Four pigtails flopping in the wind, running wildly all the way to the front door of the house, Servant Danling didn’t even stabilize her breathing and pushed open the courtyard door and shouted, “Grandma, did Third Uncle write back?”

Zhong Minfen’s voice came from the main house, “Yes.”

Sure enough, Shi Danling’s eyes bristled with light, busy running towards the main house again.

The little girl at the same table followed behind Shi Danling and also followed along to the main house.

When she entered the main room, she saw an unwrapped parcel on the eight immortal table.

Serving Danling’s eyes became brighter and brighter, looking at Zhong Minfen with a wide-eyed look and asking, “Grandma, are these all from Uncle San?”

Zhong Minfen smiled and nodded, “The letter carrier just sent them over.”

There were not only parcels, but also letters, money, and tickets.

Servant Danling was overjoyed and reached out to pick through the parcels.

There were a lot of things in the parcel, most of which were food, all of which she hadn’t seen before.

And among these things, the most eye-catching was a large red sarong.

Looking at these things, the service Danling excited shocked all the time “wow”.

The little girl at the table next to her, her eyes full of envy, whispered “wow” along with her.

Zhong Minfen grabbed a few candies and gave them to the girl at the same table, telling her in a low voice: “Eat them secretly.”

The little girl at the same table was embarrassed and couldn’t help but be happy, nodding her head with a red face.

Zhong Minfen didn’t let Servant Danling take the food.

She put the package away, causing Servant Danling to have a look of gluttony.

As Servant Danling stretched her head to look inside, she sent the letter to Servant Danling and called out to her, “Lingling, quickly read it to me and see what your third uncle has written this time.”

Servant Danling swallowed the saliva in her mouth.

She took the letter and carefully tore it open, and carefully took out the letter paper inside.

Unfolding the neatly folded letter paper, she read word for word: “Dear Mother, Big Brother, Zhen Zhen ……”

Zhong Minfen’s perennially slightly dull eyes abruptly lit up and looked at Servant Danling, “This time we added Zhen Zhen!”

“Uh-huh!” Servant Danling smiled and nodded vigorously, then continued to read down.

Finished reading and summarized to Zhong Minfen, “Third Uncle said that he can’t come back for the New Year, so let’s not blame him, and when he has family leave, he will definitely come back to see us right away. And that red scarf, it’s for Auntie San.”

Zhong Minfen was so happy that she couldn’t stop smiling and said, “Good good good.”

After catching the letter that Servant Danling had loaded and handed over, she thought of something and suddenly went into the house again. When she came out, she held the bright red scarf in her hand, and the letter was sent to the hand of Servant Danling, saying, “You send it to your third aunt.”

“Roger!” Servant Danling did not ask much, took the scarf and the letter and immediately went to complete the task.

The little girl at the same table carried the candy with her to go out, to the courtyard door ran into just returned Shui Xingguo.

Serving Xingguo see Serving Danling excited, exit ask her: “Sister where are you going?”

Serving Danling did not make a sound to ignore him, pulling the table with the little girl and ran away.

***

On the riverbank, the members of the community are still baking sweet potatoes together.

Seeing that the end of the year is approaching, everyone gathered around the fire to talk about the New Year.

The other family’s business is naturally not as exciting as that of the Squire family. Hongmei asked Zhenzhen, “Hey, your family, Squire Huai Ming, are you coming back for New Year’s Eve?”

He hadn’t been back in five years, and even the neighbors were looking forward to his return.

Everyone wanted to see what Shui Huaiming looked like now that he had become the head of the regiment.

It took time for the letters to go back and forth.

Zhen Zhen shook her head and replied, “I haven’t heard back yet, I don’t know.”

Hongmei looked at Zhen Zhen and said, “If I say, it is better to come back later, this back if that …… is what it is, right?”

Zhen Zhen knew what she meant.

But it is to say that the service Huai Ming came back to divorce her.

A lot of people in the village are waiting to see her this drama, she is aware of it.

Before Zhen Zhen could speak again, she suddenly heard a familiar voice from the distance, “Third Auntie! Third Aunt!”

Turning her head to look over at the sound, she saw Shui Danling and another little girl from the village running over to the riverbank.

Just like last time, Shui Danling was holding a yellow envelope in her hand.

The others were also familiar with this scene, and one after another they all stood up.

Someone was speaking out, “It must be Huai Ming writing back again!”

Servant Huai Zhong and Zhen Zhen greeted Servant Danling together, while the others followed behind them to see what was going on.

When Shi Danling got close, Shui Huaizhong first asked, “Did your third uncle write again?”

Shi Danling nodded vigorously, gasping for breath, and sent the letter to Shi Huai Zhong.

Serving Huai Zhong still took the letter and turned around to look for Secretary Li, saying politely, “Please read it with the help of the Secretary.”

Secretary Li took the letter and read it.

At first, he froze for a moment when he read Zhen Zhen, and the others also froze for a moment and glanced at Zhen Zhen in tacit agreement.

Zhen Zhen also froze for a while, then her ears couldn’t help but heat up and her face burned.

Secretary Li continued to read the letter.

The content of the letter was unusual, but when she read the two sentences about the red scarf, Zhen Zhen’s face became even hotter.

Everyone else also looked towards Zhen Zhen, and the expression on everyone’s face was different.

Secretary Li finished reading the entire letter, and Servant Danling had just about caught her breath.

She pulled out the red sarong from her school bag and sent it to Zhen Zhen, saying, “Auntie San, this is the red sarong that Uncle San bought for you, put it on and look at it, it’s sure to be especially pretty.”

The red scarf attracted everyone’s attention as soon as it was pulled out.

The country people had never seen this kind of good thing before, and there was no one who didn’t think it was foreign and beautiful.

Zhen Zhen froze and blinked for a while, not daring to extend her hand to pick it up for fear that it would be broken if she touched it.

Chen Qingmei laughed at the side and rubbed her a little, whispered: “Zhen Zhen, you stupid?”

Zhen Zhen returned to her senses, only to feel two fires burning on her cheeks.

Yes, she was dumbfounded.

She didn’t even know how to react.

Much less know what to say.

After being dumbfounded for a while longer, she looked at Servant Danling and opened her mouth to say, “Auntie didn’t wash her hands, can you help auntie put it away first?”

“Okay.” Servant Danling smiled and carefully put the sarong back into her bag.

Mission accomplished, she collected the sarong and the letter, and followed the little girl at the same table to run home again.

The members of the community on the riverbank dispersed and sat back by the fire for another round of discussion.

Zhen Zhen sat by the fire eating sweet potatoes, only to feel that today’s sweet potatoes are particularly sweet and sticky, sweet to the heart, so much so that the smile in her eyes and at the corners of her mouth, how hard she tried could not be put away.

Obviously she didn’t want to be so happy, but she couldn’t suppress it at all.

This expression of hers made everyone else feel sweet, so Cuilan and Xiuzhu also laughed along with her.

Cuilan deliberately teased Hongmei next to her, touching Hongmei with her shoulder and saying, “See? I told you that Huai Ming is not that kind of person, it’s impossible that he won’t want Zhen Zhen once he becomes a cadre.”

Hongmei ate the sweet potato like it was a sour fruit.

She dragged out her voice, “The letter didn’t say anything, but it just brought back a scarf. In ancient times, people were pushed out to kill their heads, and then had to give people a good meal. People ah, can not be too pleased, happy over the general are not good.”

Hongmei used to pour cold water on people.

But today Zhen Zhen’s face and heart of the small flame were not splashed down by her.

She softly whispered: “Happy for a while is a while.”

Hongmei: “……”

There’s really enough heart to go around.

***

The phrase “Zhen Zhen” at the beginning of the letter, and a bright red scarf, made Zhen Zhen happy for half a day.

When she was buried in her work, her face and the bottom of her eyes were covered with a big smile.

When she talked to people, her voice was as clear as a yellow warbler.

In the evening, she returned home from work.

The sunlight was as colorful as a thin veil, draped over her body.

Folded over the fine curled eyelashes.

This day in the Squire’s house was again like a New Year’s Eve.

At dinner, Zhong Minfen added a fragrant canned beef to the table.

After dinner, she gave each member of the family three candies – two hard and one soft.

After handing out the candies, Zhong Minfen also said solemnly, “Huai Ming sent a lot of delicious food back, and I’ll put the rest away, so we’ll save it. If you want to eat more, no one is allowed to give their candy to others.”

This meant that Servant Huai Zhong, Chen Qingmei and Zhen Zhen were not allowed to save the candy for the two children to eat.

Adults are human beings, they have mouths too, and they need to eat candy too.

Originally, Shi Huai Zhong, Chen Qing Mei and Zhen Zhen were going to give the candy to Shi Dan Ling and Shi Xing Guo.

Zhong Minfen said so, Shi Danling and Shi Xingguo should be the loudest, Zhen Zhen three people also took the candy each.

The family of six sat together again to eat candy.

Peeling off the candy paper, the candy was carefully put into the mouth.

The sweet flavor spread on the tongue, a little sweet to the heart, sweet to the smile.

Exchanging eyes and smiles under the oil lamp, the sweetness seemed to be five or six times thicker on the tongue and in the heart.

The gray and narrow hut is filled with a sweet flavor.

***

After washing up and lying on the bed, Servant Danling was still reminiscing about the canned beef she ate tonight, and the taste of candy.

The canned beef and the fudge full of milky flavor were both the first time she had eaten them, and the taste was too wonderful.

After reminiscing for a while, she hugged Zhen Zhen’s arm and said, “Third Auntie, I feel so happy.”

Zhen Zhen laughed out and gently answered, “Well, it is so happy.”

Servant Danling rubs her arm with her face, “With third uncle around, you will be so happy in the future, right?”

Zhen Zhen looked at the beams of the room and slowly blinked her eyes, her speaking voice was still soft, “Well, it will be.”

Servant Danling was very contented, holding Zhen Zhen’s arm and quickly fell asleep.

And Zhen Zhen never had much sleepiness, her mind thinking about many things.

One moment she was happy, and the next moment she felt astringent.

Outside the window the night was deep and dewy.

Occasionally you can hear the sound of old hens flapping their wings in the chicken coop.

Zhen Zhen pulled her arm gently out of the service Danling’s arms, and gently moved to lift the quilt to get up.

Putting on her cotton jacket and helping Shui Danling cover up, she slipped on her shoes and touched a match, rubbing out the flame to light the oil lamp.

In the shallow glow of the oil lamp, Zhen Zhen went to her camphor wood box.

She opened the box and took out the bright red scarf from inside, sat down under the lamp, and held it in her hands, looking at it again and again.

Then she carefully put the scarf around her neck and looked into the mirror with the peony printed on it.

In the mirror, her face was covered with a light candlelight.

In such a hazy halo of light, she seemed like a beauty coming out of a painting.

The red scarf around her neck was particularly bright and eye-catching, making her whole person very bright and beautiful.

Her eyes reflected the flickering candlelight, and the light flickered.

Her Servant Third Brother, should have long forgotten what she looked like.

He never liked her look.