80s Transmigration: The Young Widow's Hustle to Riches-Chapter 30: I Am Very Loyal

Zou Zhonggui limped halfway back before realizing he had left his grass-cutting sickle in the bushes. He muttered, "Damn it! I tried to steal a chicken and ended up losing the bait!"

Seeing more and more people heading out to work, he picked a taro leaf to hide his face and walked back.

Once home, he went next door and had his nephew go to the team headquarters to request leave for him. He then went into his house and collapsed on the bed, his whole body wracked with pain.

After taking off his shirt and pants, he discovered his legs and arms were covered in bruises. He picked up a mirror and saw his face and the corners of his mouth were covered in scratches and fingernail marks.

"That she-devil, that stinking bitch... I curse you to be a widow in your next life, too." After a moment, he started cursing again. "Liu San, you son of a bitch, if you don’t compensate me for my losses, I’m not done with you."

After he finished cursing, he collapsed onto the bed and slept until dark. Then he found a hat, put it on, and went to wait outside Liu Jinbao’s house. He pursed his lips and called out, "CUCKOO, CUCKOO."

After a little while, Liu Jinbao came out of the house. "Old Gui, what’s up?"

"What’s up?" Zou Zhonggui strode forward and dragged him toward the rice paddies. "There was a huge fight at the foot of the mountain this morning. You didn’t hear it? I was almost beaten to death."

"Ah!" Liu Jinbao exclaimed, proclaiming his innocence. "You’ve got it all wrong, Old Gui! I slept in late today. I really don’t know anything about it!"

Zou Zhonggui moved closer and shone a flashlight on his own face. "Take a look. My face has been ruined by those two she-devils. You have to pay my medical bills."

Liu Jinbao stared at Zou Zhonggui’s face, covered in scratches and fingernail marks, and felt the skin on his own face tighten. "Old Gui, I, Liu Jinbao, am a loyal friend. The fifty yuan I gave you yesterday... you can just keep it. Use it to get your face treated; you’ll even have some left over."

"What did you say?" Old Gui grabbed him by the collar, his gaze sinister. "Let me tell you something. Not only did I get a beating, but I also had to pay that widow and her son twenty yuan. I didn’t dare go out all day. I just stayed home and slept, and my whole body still hurts.

You’re going to give me at least another fifty yuan. Otherwise, I’m going to the Lexing Team headquarters to find He Xianghua and report you for stealing and selling things from the storage room."

He had helped Liu Jinbao sell peanuts a few times, so he had some dirt on him.

Liu Jinbao took the brunt of his tirade. He worried that if Zou Zhonggui really went to He Xianghua and reported the theft from the storage room, it would be a complete disaster.

He would be arrested and sentenced, and his uncle would lose his position as team leader. After getting out of prison, he wouldn’t be able to succeed his uncle. His life would be over.

At this thought, he pulled the remaining fifty yuan from his pocket. "Here. Just my bad luck."

Zou Zhonggui took the money and stuffed it into his pocket. Seeing how easily Liu Jinbao had produced fifty yuan, he suddenly felt he had asked for too little.

"Liu San, I’m going to the city hospital tomorrow to get this checked out. If it heals up fine, I won’t bother you again. But if it doesn’t, I’ll be back for more."

Liu Jinbao’s face turned ashen. He pointed at him and said, "Old Gui, don’t push your luck. I’ve given you a hundred yuan in total!"

"A hundred yuan? Even a thousand can’t buy my face back." With that, Zou Zhonggui turned and walked away, his flashlight beam cutting through the dark.

Liu Jinbao watched him go, then stomped home in a fury. He slammed the door, went into his room, and flopped onto the bed, cursing under his breath, "Damn it, that bitch is a jinx. Ever since I provoked her, I’ve spent over a hundred yuan."

Sun Xiuhua saw him slam the door and went to the doorway to call out, "Liu San, your uncle wants to see you."

"Coming!" Liu Jinbao shuffled into his shoes and went to Liu Guozhi’s house, his face grim. "Uncle, you were looking for me?"

Liu Guozhi looked at him. "Did you go and cause trouble for that young widow again?"

Liu Jinbao forced himself to look calm. "Of course not! You told me to stay away, so I have."

Seeing him answer without even blinking, Liu Guozhi believed him. He said angrily, "This morning, He Xianghua came to the team headquarters. He said the widow and her mother-in-law caught a grass thief near Niu Bei Mountain while on their way to Team Two. The way he talked, he was implying you put the thief up to it."

Liu Jinbao looked indignant. "Uncle, that He guy is trying to trick you! I’ve been home all day, where would I find someone to steal grass? You know me. If I wanted to mess with the widow, I wouldn’t do something as petty as sending someone to steal grass!"

Liu Guozhi thought about it and figured that made sense. He warned him sternly, "You’d better behave yourself. The team leader election is at the end of the year. Don’t you dare cause any trouble for me, understand?"

Liu Jinbao nodded obediently. "Got it. If there’s nothing else, I’m going back to sleep."

Liu Guozhi waved his hand. "Go on."

Liu Jinbao shuffled out of the house. The more he thought about it, the angrier he became, and he muttered, "That damned woman..."

****

A few more days passed in a flash, and the team finished transplanting the rice seedlings. With the busy farming season over, the members were mostly idle at home, aside from taking turns flooding the paddies and pulling up weeds and tares.

Lin Lan was down to her last ten or so jin of fava beans, but she had bought another ten-plus jin of rapeseed oil and some spices. After that one record-breaking day of selling eighty bags of spiced fava beans, she had consistently sold forty to fifty bags a day.

After paying for the rapeseed oil and spices, and adding the twenty yuan in compensation from Zou Zhonggui and the ten yuan from Lin Guoliang, she had fifty or sixty yuan in her pocket.

The next morning, Wu Shufen said to Lin Lan, "Your brother and the others should be here today."

Lin Lan nodded and handed Wu Shufen ten yuan. "Mom, could you go to the commission store and buy a bottle of liquor and a few sodas? Also, buy a chicken from Third Grandaunt. We’ll invite them over for dinner tonight."

Wu Shufen took the money. "Getting some liquor is enough. Why buy soda?"

Lin Lan thought about it and agreed. "Then just get some fruit drops and mints for the kids."

Wu Shufen nodded. "Alright. You should hurry, or you’ll be late."

When Lin Lan got to the thatched shed, she saw Old Chen standing there looking radiant. "Uncle Chen, you look like you’ve heard some good news."

Old Chen beamed at her. "Little Lin, I might be leaving in a few days."

Lin Lan broke into a smile as well. "That’s wonderful! Uncle Chen, congratulations!"

Old Chen smiled. "I should thank you, actually."

"Oh, come on!" Lin Lan laughed. "You paid me for the two bowls of congee you had, so what is there to thank me for? I should be thanking you for helping me with that scoundrel! Let’s just stop thanking each other. I’m going to cut grass now."

Old Chen watched Lin Lan walk away briskly and chuckled. "What a refreshingly capable woman."

When Lin Lan finished her work and returned home, she saw Little Douzi squatting in the courtyard, playing with a little yellow puppy.

"Little Douzi, is your uncle here?"

"He is!" Little Douzi abandoned the puppy and ran over, his eyes sparkling. "Mom, Uncle brought this puppy. How about we call him Dahuang?"

Lin Lan glanced at the uniformly yellow puppy and teased him with a smile, "Son, he’s just a little yellow puppy. Why do you want to call him Dahuang?"

Little Douzi spread his arms wide to make a big circle. "I want him to grow this big so he can guard our house and bite bad guys."

"Oh!" Lin Lan beamed at him. "My son is so clever. We’ll call him Dahuang."

Lin Guoliang came out of the house. "Little Lan, you’re back!"

Lin Lan smiled and nodded. "Big Brother, you must have set off before dawn!"

"We did. We bought everything. The peas and fava beans are in the east room, and the rapeseed oil is in your room." Lin Guoliang chuckled. "Dad was both happy and worried when he heard you were making and selling spiced fava beans. Guoqiang didn’t believe it and insisted on coming to see for himself."

Guoqiang was the youngest in the family and couldn’t stand his lazy, gluttonous sister. The original Lin Lan, for her part, never yielded to him, so the two siblings were always at each other’s throats.