Xiao Mandong had heard most of it. She hadn't expected that Zhou Xiaomei, like herself, was also divorced, and she felt a sudden bond of shared experience.
The Brigade Leader changed the subject, bringing up the tractor running out of fuel. Shunzi cursed and grumbled for a long while, finally threatening to drive the tractor straight to the Red Star Brigade to demand an explanation. "They said they'd top up the tank when they were done—how can they do this?"
Xiao Mandong and the Brigade Leader got off the tractor at the village entrance. Just then, a postal worker pedaling a 28-inch bicycle caught up with them: "There's mail for the educated youth center in your village. Could the Brigade Leader take it back with you?"
The Brigade Leader glanced at it and handed it directly to Xiao Mandong: "You take it back. I need to go check on Old Zhou's place—if that girl gets taken back by her husband's family, her life won't be easy."
"Alright, Uncle Leader, go on and attend to your business."
Xiao Mandong spotted Wang Yuanyuan's name on one of the letters and was just wondering how to get her hands on it when the Brigade Leader passed it right to her.
Watching the Brigade Leader hurry away, Xiao Mandong wasted no time striding toward the clinic. She needed to get back to read Wang Yuanyuan's mail.
After all, being seen opening someone else's letter was hardly a good look.
Among the letters was one from Xiao Zhenyu addressed to her. Xiao Mandong felt a sour taste in her mouth at the sight of it. Her younger sister had said Xiao Zhenyu never once wrote to her—was it because he didn't know the address? Or more likely, because he figured Xiao Manxue had no money to give him.
She opened it—same as always, crying poverty and asking for money.
Xiao Mandong tore the letter to shreds. From now on, she wouldn't give him a single penny.
Wang Yuanyuan had received two letters. One was from her own mother's name. How ridiculous—her own daughter had been sent to the countryside and was ignored, yet she wrote to her niece instead. Xiao Mandong opened it: two full pages of scribbling, with a ten-yuan note folded inside.
The letter told Wang Yuanyuan to take care of herself, not to marry anyone in the village, and then launched into a tirade against Xiao Mandong and her sister, asking Wang Yuanyuan to look into Xiao Mandong's work situation—how had she gone to the countryside and where had her job gone? Had her in-laws tricked her out of it? What a useless fool, to give up such a good job and still end up sent to the countryside.
Xiao Mandong restored the letter to its original state. Of course, the money went into her own pocket.
The other letter was also from Wang Yuanyuan's mother, telling her daughter to gather some mountain goods for the family and send them back. If she needed money, she should ask her young aunt for it, and she reminded her again and again not to let anything slip about that matter.
Xiao Mandong recalled Wang Yuanyuan mentioning that Xiao Zhenyu wasn't her real brother. It seemed Wang Yuanyuan hadn't been lying after all.
Her uncle worked at the machinery factory and was even a small team leader. If she reported his affair with Wang Yuanyuan's mother, she wondered if he'd still have a job afterward.
As for her own mother, Xiao Mandong wasn't about to let her off easy either. She'd taken the Xiao family's money to support her own relatives, remarried her childhood sweetheart within half a year—Xiao Mandong knew the man. His first wife had died of illness, leaving behind a son and daughter, and he doted on them. They should be around the age for going to the countryside. Maybe she should lend a helping hand there as well.
She drafted two complaint letters, put them in her storage space, and planned to mail them in town tomorrow.
"Sis, are you back?" came Xiao Manxue's voice from outside.
Opening the door, Xiao Mandong saw Xiao Manxue with big dark circles under her eyes—clearly she hadn't slept well, probably worried about her all night.
Xiao Manxue had barely stepped inside when a strange woman appeared at the door. Xiao Mandong didn't recognize her—the village was large, and she'd only been there a few days, so it was perfectly normal not to know everyone.
"Comrade, what's bothering you?"
The woman didn't answer her question and instead asked, "So you're that Xiao Mandong?"
"Yes, what do you want?"
"You vile creature! My son is having his one-month celebration today, and yesterday you bought up all the meat. You even got the child's aunt demoted at work. How can you be so malicious?" The woman pointed at Xiao Mandong, practically jabbing her finger into her face.
Xiao Mandong understood now—this was a relative of the woman at the supply station from yesterday.
"Why didn't you buy the meat earlier if your son was having his celebration? That sharp-faced sister-in-law of yours opened her mouth and started falsely accusing the supply station staff of taking bribes. The police were called—are they wrong to do so?"
Xiao Mandong hadn't expected the punishment to be so severe, even demoting her position. She wondered how Lu Hong was doing at work herself—surely she wouldn't get to convert to a permanent position now.
"It's all your fault! If you'd just shared some of the meat, none of this would have happened!"
The woman was from another village. The child's aunt had returned to her parents' house early this morning, crying as soon as she walked in. She said that because of the fight over pork, her year-end evaluation was ruined, she'd been demoted two levels, and her monthly salary had dropped by four yuan. Even the five yuan she sent to her parents each month for their care had been cut to three. Her mother-in-law hadn't cared about the demotion, but when she heard that the care money had dropped by two yuan, she immediately started raising a fuss.
Today should have been a happy day—her son's one-month celebration—but the crying made her feel terribly uneasy. Her mother-in-law had also called her useless, demanding to know why she hadn't bought the meat herself, and told her to find some way to make Xiao Mandong go to the police station and clear everything up.
Through the child's aunt, she'd gotten in touch with Lu Hong's family. And since the Lu family had also been meaning to confront Xiao Mandong, they'd decided to come together.
At that moment, the Lu family's whole household arrived at the clinic's entrance. Before the woman could react, Xiao Mandong pulled her out of the room and immediately locked the clinic door from the outside. Medicine was in short supply, and she was afraid that if a fight broke out, the medicine would get damaged.
Quite a crowd had come—including Lu Jianguo and Wang Xiumei. Lu Hong charged at Xiao Mandong wanting to hit her: "Xiao Mandong, you poisonous wretch! You've cost me my job! I'm going to fight you today!"
But as soon as she got within reach, Xiao Mandong slapped her hard, sending her stumbling back.
"You dare hit me!" Lu Hong covered her face, eyes blazing red, ready to lunge again, but Lu's father grabbed her and held her back.
Lu's father adopted that same earnest, patient tone he always used, with a hint of weariness:
"Mandong, after all, you and Jianguo were husband and wife once. Lu Hong is his only sister. Are you really going to be so heartless as to take away Lu Hong's job? As the saying goes, a day as husband and wife is a hundred days of love. All you have to do is go to the police station and clarify—say it was you causing a fuss that day—and the whole matter might not be so serious. And since you have a good relationship with the director at the cotton mill, if you'd just put in a word, Lu Hong could keep her job."
The people gathered around heard Lu's father's words, and suddenly they were all looking at Xiao Mandong with strange, judging eyes.
"She made her own mistake—why should I have to clear it up? Am I so pathetic that your family can just trample all over me? She cursed me out in the supply station. Isn't she just getting what she deserves?"
By now, the villagers clustered around were starting to whisper:
"So this Xiao zhiqing is divorced? No wonder she volunteered to come to the countryside. A divorced woman serving as the village doctor—this has to be reported to the Party Secretary. What nonsense is this?"
"That's right—a divorced woman is a loose woman. How can we let a loose woman be our barefoot doctor in the village?"
