CH 8

Since Qin LingLing knew already knew the plot, plus the two didn’t have any feelings towards each other, so Qin LingLing continues her work without hesitation. Even the original owner had no affections for Gu Zheng because the couple married abruptly.

However, in the eyes of Fu XiaoYue and others, she did not appear to be like this. They believed the news had hit Qin LingLing too hard. She may appear to be unconcerned, yet her heart must be filled with bitterness. She was unable to cry and pretended to be strong.

Zhang HuiShan expected Qin LingLing to burst into tears after hearing it, but she didn’t. She didn’t even shed a tear, or care to show sad expressions.

She looked at Qin LingLing in disbelief, “Qin LingLing, your husband is dead, shouldn’t you be sad? From now on, you are a widow. I do not mean to offend you, but you’re young and might have done better than marrying some country bumpkin. But now isn’t it great, he’s dead. I am going to see how you plan on live your life from now on.” [T/S: But you are being offensive. ]

Qin LingLing did not respond to her and continued to plant seedlings with her head down.

Zhang HuiShan felt like she punches on cotton, and said angrily: “Hey, you are married and had to stay in the countryside for the rest of your life. But now you do not have a husband anymore. What are you going to do now if you are a widow?” Zhang HuiShan scolded her angrily.

An educated youth on the side noticed that what she had said out of her mouth was heartbreaking, so she swiftly persuaded: “Stop saying that, Educated Zhang; LingLing is already uncomfortable. Fill your mouth with virtues!”

The speaker is a female educated youth who has been married to a local and has now had given birth to a daughter. For her, her husband is her sky, and her life, she can imagine that without her husband, her sky would fall. For this, she sympathized with Qin LingLing very much.

Others also more or less persuaded Zhang HuiShan to stay moral, and comforted Qin LingLing with grief.

Zhang HuiShan watches as so many people were comforting Qin LingLing. Instead, she was attacked by others for not having virtues, so she stomped her feet and left.

But after returning to the dormitory, the more she thought about it, the angrier she became, and when Qin LingLing came back, she said frankly: “Qin LingLing, it is possible that you killed your own husband? Otherwise, how could it be possible that you just got married and your husband is dead?”

“I heard that your mother was killed by you too, and then your father married your stepmother, right? You are really a jinx!”

Wherever Qin LingLing go, and that’s where she will talk, as if it’s the only way to make herself feel better.

“Qin LingLing, wherever you go, people around you will always die, I think the most damn person should be you…”

“Pa!” A slap suddenly flung over, directly on Zhang HuiShan’s face. [T/S: Yasssssss]

With the crisp sound, Zhang HuiShan fills with shock, as she sees Qin LingLing, standing in front of her, looking at her coldly.

“Have you said enough?”

“Qin LingLing, you dare to hit me?” Zhang HuiShan covered her face in disbelief.

“It’s you who hit first.”

Zhang HuiShan’s heart trembled inexplicably when she saw Qin LingLing’s eyes. Obviously, her face is still the same, and her expression hasn’t changed much, but that pair of eyes, staring at her, seemed to know all her secrets, instilling fear deep to her core.

Looking at Zhang HuiShan’s scared face, Qin LingLing didn’t let her go, but moved closer to her step by step.

“You have to know, what kind of person are you talking about? My husband, he is a soldier, he sacrificed for the country and the people. With those few words you just said, I can write a report to report your slanders towards a revolutionary soldier who has just died, that you are disrespectful to the country and the people, that you are anti-nation and anti-social, do you understand? And don’t forget about your family. Who gave you the courage to slander a sacrificed soldier like that?” She shouted sternly, as if to beat Zhang HuiShan into the mud.

Zhang HuiShan backed up step by step, looking at Qin LingLing in horror. She was shocked by Qin LingLing’s drastic change in temperament, and even more shocked by the meaning of Qin LingLing’s last sentence.

Her family had a bleak history. Her father had to transferred to the farm in the early years. As a result, her mother had no choice but to separate herself from her biological father. Finally, she took a few of her siblings to remarry to her current stepfather’s house.

However, it was said that she was the daughter of an anti-right member and this issue persisted until her mother remarried and she was rejected by the stepfather as having a bad father.

Not only Zhang HuiShan was frightened by Qin LingLing’s remarks, but the others standing not far away also looked at them in disbelief.

The Qin LingLing in their memory, who usually speaks in a small voice, for fear of being heard, but now Qin LingLing is sternly warning Zhang HuiShan, and the two of them seem to have changed their cores.

However, it’s not surprising that Qin LingLing blew up. She just married her husband here, but her husband died in the flood. Furthermore, Zhang HuiShan kept claiming that Qin LingLing had killed her husband, and her lips was brimming with joy.

Qin LingLing was already sad, so when Zhang HuiShan came out like this, wasn’t she sprinkling salt on her wounds? It is said that rabbits bite people when they are anxious. No matter how weak Qin LingLing is, she will become strong when encountering such things.

“What’s going on here?” Director Liu walked over from a distance and asked loudly.

She heard from an educated youth who went to tell her about Qin LingLing and Zhang HuiShan’s fight, so she put aside her work and hurried over. Before she got close enough, she heard Qin LingLing berate Zhang HuiShan.

Needless to think about it, she already knows that Zhang HuiShan is talking nonsense with that sh*t talk again.

So as soon as she arrived, Director Liu directly scolded Zhang HuiShan, “Zhang HuiShan, what’s the matter with you? This is a major event in Qin LingLing’s family. How can you use such a vicious mind to speculate on others? If you do this, can you still consider as a good youth? I think you’ve read so many books in the city over the years that you’ve got them in the belly of a dog [1] .”

[1] 都读到狗肚子里去了 – It entails wasting time by reading a book without understanding it. Despite the fact that there is a lot of reading, it is all dead reading and useless.

Director Liu finished scolding Zhang HuiShan, and quickly comforted Qin LingLing, “LingLing, I heard about your family’s affairs, and I have decided to give you two days off to rest. You don’t need to be concerned about things over here; simply return home and take care of this matter properly.”

“No, I’m fine, thank you Director Liu.” Qin LingLing’s voice was not as sharp and aggressive as before but had a few more softness to it.

For her husband, Gu Zheng, she has never met him in person, and even the original owner has no feelings for him. They all got what they needed when they got married, and Qin LingLing was unaffected by the fact that he had died.

She would not have responded to her if Zhang HuiShan had not said too much. She did all of this out of respect for a soldier who had given his life for the country and the people, and to maintain his last dignity, which Zhang HuiShan could not easily stomp on.

She has read the original book, so it is clear that there are many people or things related to Qin LingLing’s blackened, including Zhang HuiShan.

Zhang HuiShan pretended in front of others as if she’s a very powerful youth in the city, but in fact, she knew that Zhang HuiShan family’s history is complicated. She knew that in this era, many people were delegated for policy reasons, and it does not mean that these people were bad. If Zhang HuiShan did not be too aggressive, she would not take her family status as an example.

Hearing her tone, Director Liu felt distressed for her. A good girl, who just got married, how can her husband have died? How will she live from now on?

Although Qin LingLing did not plan to return to her in-laws’ house, Director Liu still gave Qin LingLing two days off to let her take a good rest.

Qin LingLing didn’t say anything else, she answered yes, thanked Director Liu, and then returned to the house.

***

This episode caused Zhang HuiShan to stop for several days. She hated Qin LingLing, but she was concerned that if she confronted her directly, Qin LingLing would accuse her of disrespecting a revolutionary soldier and undermining the country. She didn’t dare to bear the brunt of such a heinous crime.

No one thought that among the three team of female educated youths, the first one to make Zhang HuiShan to stop her frivolous actions was actually the weak Qin LingLing.

Fu XiaoYue is worried that Qin LingLing will be sad, so after work she came to talk with her to relieve her boredom. Qin LingLing felt awkward and insisted she was alright, but Fu XiaoYue and the others didn’t trust her, thinking she was pretending to be strong.

Qin LingLing can hardly feel anything since she is not the original owner and has already accepted that her husband will die, therefore, she treats it as a stranger had dies, and leaving them to guess.

She was given two days off by Director Liu, but she had nowhere else to go. She has some free time once she finishes tidy up her quilt and garments and eventually went back to work in the field. Director Liu tried multiple times to persuade her, but she insisted that she was OK. Director Liu could not say anything when she saw this, so she just let her work.

***

A week later, she received another news about her husband Gu Zheng, the person who came to call her was a male accountant educated youth in the team, whose surname was Fan.

“Accountant Fan, what’s the matter?” Qin LingLing asked.

Accounting Fan pointed to the direction of the captain headquarters, “Team Leader Li is looking for you.”

“Did he say what it was about?”

The other party shook his head, “You’ll know when you go, I’m just here to inform.”

Qin LingLing noticed that the other party’s tone did not seem friendly, so she did not ask any questions, and arranged her clothes before going to the captain headquarters.

Seeing that she’s leaving, Fu XiaoYue hurriedly stepped forward, “Where are you going?”

“To the captain headquarter. Captain Li is looking for me.”

“Then I will go with you!” Fu XiaoYue said worriedly.

She hadn’t seen Qin LingLing cry in the past few days, but the more she didn’t, the more she felt that Qin LingLing must have a hard time holding it in her heart.

The people in the team were not easy to deal with. In addition, Team Leader Li had a bad intention for Qin LingLing before, so she worried that Qin LingLing, who became a widow soon after her wedding, would be bullied by Team Leader Li.

“I know about the relationship between Team Leader Li and Zhang HuiShan. If you go there alone, I’m afraid you will be bullied by him.”

Qin LingLing appreciated Fu XiaoYue’s concern, but she still refused: “Don’t worry, I’m just going to the captain’s headquarter, there will be a lot of people there, even if Team Leader Li likes Zhang HuiShan, he doesn’t dare to mess around.”

The original owner’s work points are not decided by Li JianYe only, a small captain, but also by another captain, and Director Liu, or the secretary of their team. She can surely say that he is just a small subordinate. As for the tiring work, he couldn’t arrange too much, as he wouldn’t dare to do anything with so many people watching.

Fu XiaoYue could not persuade her anymore, so she left. As Qin LingLing arrive at the headquarters, an accountant from the Team Leader headquarters said: “Team Leader Li is not here.”

“Then where did he go?”

The man impatiently retort, “I don’t know, why are you here?”

“I heard that my husband’s things have been taken to the captain’s headquarters. So, I came over to pick it up.”

The man glanced into the room and shook his head, “No, come back here again when Team Leader Li returns!” As the man said, he slammed shut the door and ignored her.

Qin LingLing could only return to work after seeing this. When she strode back, though, she was stopped halfway by someone.