Chapter 99 - 90: Mo Xiaofeng Is Back
Chapter 99: Chapter 90: Mo Xiaofeng Is Back
Aunt Jiang sold the remaining green vegetables for about thirty yuan. Xiao Man and Grandpa rushed to till their vegetable patch and sow new seeds. Noticing they didn’t have any chives, Aunt Jiang dug up some seedlings from her own backyard and planted a small patch for them. By next spring, they would have tender chives to eat.
After planting the winter vegetables, the weather turned sunny again.
Although Aunt Jiang had generously offered to supply sweet potato vines for the piglets, after a few days, Grandpa and Grandma began to feel embarrassed. Uncle Jiang and Aunt Jiang had only been living on their own for a few years, raising four children and a flock of chickens, ducks, pigs, and geese. The couple was diligent and hardworking, and building up their household hadn’t been easy. Unwilling to keep taking advantage of their kindness, Grandpa and Grandma told Xiao Man to start gathering pig feed after school.
Xiao Man couldn’t have been happier. For two little piglets, one bamboo basket of wild vegetables was enough to feed them for two days. Since she already had permission to go out and help with chores after school, she decided to take on chopping firewood and cutting grass as well. That way, she could keep the same schedule as Guan Ailan, Mo Shuixia, and Mo Linghui, giving them all more time to hang out, talk, and gossip.
Guan Ailan, Mo Shuixia, and Mo Linghui were all twelve years old, a year older than Xiao Man. They had to help their mothers with laundry and cutting grass for firewood. But critically, they all had younger sisters or nieces to share the housework, so they didn’t have to do things like gathering pig feed.
This was unlike Xiao Man’s old life at Liu Fengying’s house, where she had to do all the housework. Mo Xiaofeng and Mo Xiao Zhi had been spoiled by Liu Fengying since they were young, and following their parents’ example, they treated Xiao Man like a servant girl. They pushed all the chores onto her while they went off to play, at most taking Mo Xiaohua along. Even Mo Xiaoqiang and Xiao Neng would only go up the mountain to chop a token piece of firewood when they were in the mood or when there was a crowd to join. Xiao Man could never order around those "younger siblings," who acted like little masters. She could only race against time to get everything done herself; otherwise, she’d be the one getting beaten and cursed at when the adults came home.
Being forced to work was drudgery, but working voluntarily with a cheerful heart was a joy. Especially when she was with her friends, chatting while they worked, she didn’t feel tired at all.
Don’t underestimate the gossip of little girls; it’s packed with information. For example, which boy and which girl were seeing each other, which families had arranged an engagement, which couple fought until midnight the day before, whose grandma was bedridden and possibly near death, and whose dad had hunted a wild boar, caught an eagle, and even captured a monkey in the mountains...
In this era, no one had heard of animal protection laws. People really would capture a monkey and bring it home—not to kill and eat it, but just to chain it up to guard the door. After a while, they’d release it back into the mountains. In any case, a monkey didn’t eat much. A few sweet potatoes or ears of corn were enough to get by.
They also talked about their own lives. For instance, Mo Linghui’s older sister was getting married, and she openly told them all about the betrothal gifts she’d received and the dowry she was preparing, holding nothing back.
The sunny days continued, one after another, the weather warm and dry. Every day after school, Xiao Man and her friends gathered and chopped enough firewood to create a small mountain. With Sunday just two days away, the girls came over to Xiao Man’s house to play in the evening. They took the opportunity to swarm Grandpa with pleas, and he had no choice but to agree: if the production team didn’t assign any work on Sunday, he would lead them back to that place from before to forage for mountain goods!
Guan Ailan shot her friends a knowing look. Her dad was the production team leader; how hard could it be to pull a few strings?
But Mo Shuixia had news for them. "This afternoon, Mo Xiaofeng came home from the hospital. Around dinnertime, the Mo Family Courtyard was in such an uproar that Secretary Mo had to bring people over to sort it out." The cause? It started with the children arguing. Mo Xiaosu had jeered, "This courtyard is so unlucky! One old blind person just left, and now a young blind one has moved in!"
Hearing this, Mo Xiao Zhi immediately cursed back, even teaching Mo Xiaohua to point at Mo Xiaosu and yell, "Gap-toothed old hag!" Mo Xiaosu’s two front teeth hadn’t actually fallen out—they were just loose—but she couldn’t stand the insult and burst into tears. Second Aunt Mo, fiercely protective of her daughter, rushed out to hit and curse Mo Xiao Zhi and Mo Xiaohua. And how could Liu Fengying tolerate her own children being hit? She rolled up her sleeves and lunged. The two women started tearing at each other’s clothes and pulling hair. When their husbands saw what was happening, they jumped in to help their own wives, escalating it into a four-person brawl. Eventually, they grabbed clubs. The women backed away, leaving the two brothers to beat each other until both were bloodied and bruised.
Mo Shuixia told Xiao Man, "Liu Fengying is vicious. Second Aunt Mo is a big woman, but Liu Fengying still throttled her so hard the whites of her eyes were showing. Now that she’s back, you have to be careful not to let her get near you! And another thing, Mo Xiaosu is a real troublemaker. She’s suspended from school right now, and I don’t know what trick she pulled, but Teacher Yu has already visited her twice. Mo Xiaosu will definitely bad-mouth you to Teacher Yu! I’ve also seen her hooligan cousin, Huang Baoshan, at her house a lot. With Huang Baoshan backing her, even Mo Xiaoqiang doesn’t dare to mess with Mo Xiaosu. You need to watch out!"
Guan Ailan patted Xiao Man on the back comfortingly. "Don’t be scared. We’re all together at school, and we walk home in a group. What’s he going to do in broad daylight? Just make sure you call us whenever you go out, and try not to walk alone!"
Xiao Man smiled and nodded to show she understood, but inwardly, she couldn’t wait for Huang Baoshan and Mo Xiaoqiang to come looking for her. ’They still owe me a beating!’
Mo Shuixia’s warning proved to be spot-on. The very next day, trouble came knocking.
On Saturday, the school only had a half day of classes. As Xiao Man was walking home along the road with Qiu Xiaohu, Jiang Xuehua, and a few other children, she heard miserable wails coming from her courtyard gate before she even reached it.
The children hurried over to see what was happening. It was Mo Xiaofeng. She was sitting on the stone slab in front of the closed courtyard gate, her head thrown back as she wailed. After so long in the hospital, the gauze on her face had been removed, but the scar near the corner of her eye and her ruined eyeball were a gruesome sight. With her face covered in tears and snot, even Qiu Xiaohu and Jiang Xuehua frowned and instinctively backed away.
Xiao Man thought of the Mo Xiaofeng from her past life. Just like in this one, she had never once called her "Big Sis." As a child, she was always scowling and yelling at Xiao Man. When she grew up, she perfectly mimicked Liu Fengying’s arrogance, grabbing a stick or a broom to beat Xiao Man whenever she pleased. Because she always received fashionable clothes from the city, Mo Xiaofeng was the best-dressed girl in the village. She was a failure at school but an expert at flirting, capable of stringing several men along at once without giving any of them a straight answer. She even stole other girls’ boyfriends. When the wronged party came to confront her, she would assume a haughty expression and so brazenly curse them out that they would leave in tears.
Xiao Man still remembered Mo Xiaofeng dressed in a set of brand-name denim that made her waist look sharp and slender. With her arms crossed, she had stood before her family’s new red-brick house, looking down contemptuously at the girl whose boyfriend she’d stolen. "Do I even need to seduce him?" she had said. "Take a look at me, then take a look at yourself. What do I look like, and what do you look like? Your waist is as thick as a bucket, your skin is rougher than tree bark, and you dress worse than an old woman who’s popped out three or four kids! He chose me because he has good taste. If he dumped you, that’s your problem. You can’t blame anyone else!"
’That arrogant, insufferable Mo Xiaofeng... ruined in this lifetime. And at the hands of her own mother!’