80s Transmigration: The Young Widow's Hustle to Riches-Chapter 14: The Mighty Old Madam

The old lady walked up to Liu Guozhi and looked at him with a cold expression. "Captain Liu, yesterday when I was taking Little Douzi home, I saw Liu Jinbao and two hoodlums running out of Yang Lao Yao’s yard...,

Kicking down a widow’s door... For someone to do something so rotten to the core, and nobody does anything about it? Since when did the Lexing Team become a playground for hoodlums?

And another thing! I find it very strange. Which eye did Sun Xiuhua use to see my Ding Bang get in through the back door? If you don’t make this clear, don’t blame an old woman for going to town to cry injustice!"

Liu Guozhi looked at the old lady and forced a smile. "Aunt Yang, I’m sorry. When Ding Bang gets back, I’ll be sure to come to your home and apologize. You’re a bigger person than her, so please don’t lower yourself to her level. When my second brother gets back, I’ll have him teach her a lesson."

"Hmph!" The old lady snorted. "Some people are young and get to watch the storage room, yet they work whenever they feel like it and still get high work points. Lin Lan asked for two days off for a cold, and you refuse to let her work. The Lexing Team wants to drive a widow to her death and help raise Yang Lao Yao’s son? We’ll see if the Yang family agrees to that!"

Liu Guozhi clenched his jaw and said with a sincere look, "That’s absolutely not the case. I’ve already criticized Zhang Jun. With Yang Lao Yao gone, the team has considered that Lin Lan is raising a child alone and should be given appropriate care. We held a meeting and decided to assign her to cut cattle fodder."

The crowd sneered inwardly. ’It’s obvious you just made that decision yourself.’

The old lady gave him a cool glance. "What work you arrange for her is your business. But if I hear anyone else out there saying my Ding Bang got in through the back door and is undermining our collective efforts, don’t blame an old woman for being unreasonable!"

Liu Guozhi readily agreed. "Aunt Yang, don’t you worry. From now on, I guarantee no one will dare to spread rumors and stir up trouble."

"Good. I believe you." The old lady turned back to look at Lin Lan. "Douzi’s mother, the Captain found you some lighter work. Make sure you do a good job from now on."

Lin Lan’s eyes were red. "Great-Aunt, Liu Jinbao said he’s going to hurt Little Douzi."

The old lady turned her head to look at Liu Guozhi. "Don’t you worry. Captain Liu won’t let Liu Jinbao do such a wicked thing."

Liu Guozhi nodded repeatedly. "That’s right. I’ll go back and deal with him. Besides, Jinbao is all talk. He wouldn’t actually do something like that."

The old lady looked at Captain Liu. "Surely the Captain can keep his own nephew in line, can’t he?"

Liu Guozhi promised, "If he dares to do anything of the sort, I’ll break his legs!"

The old lady turned back to Lin Lan. "See? Now you can rest easy. I’m heading back. I left Little Douzi with Sister-in-law Wang."

Lin Lan nodded. "Take care."

The old lady nodded and turned to leave.

Liu Guozhi scanned the onlookers and waved a large hand. "It’s over. Everyone get back to work."

"Time to work!" The crowd dispersed.

Yang Meihua grinned at Lin Lan. "Lin Lan, that’s how you should stand up for yourself!"

Lin Lan gratefully thanked the women. "Thank you, Sister Meihua, Third Sister. Thank you to all the aunties and sisters-in-law."

"We’re all family, no need to be so formal!" The women chuckled and headed toward the seedling fields.

Liu Guozhi shot Lin Lan a sideways glance. "Aren’t you going to get to work?"

Lin Lan looked at him. "Captain, are you really letting me go cut grass?"

Liu Guozhi glared at her. "What, are you deaf?" With that, he walked straight away.

Lin Lan rolled her eyes at his back and turned to head home.

In the seedling fields, Yang Liying and Yang Lihua were pulling up seedlings in a plot. "Sister Meihua, were you the one who went to get Great-Aunt?"

Yang Meihua lowered her voice. "Xiang Hua went to get the urea fertilizer. I saw Zhang Jun run to the team headquarters to get Liu Guozhi, and I was worried Lin Lan would be at a disadvantage, so I went and got Great-Aunt."

She paused for a moment. "Liying, I feel like Lin Lan is a completely different person today."

Yang Liying nodded. "I think so too. She used to just make unreasonable scenes and throw tantrums. Today, the way she shot back at Zhang Jun was so articulate, even more impressive than him."

"Hee hee!" Yang Meihua giggled, remembering how red in the face Zhang Jun had gotten.

"I heard she had two years of middle school, so she’s not uneducated. Before, Yang Lao Yao might have been a rogue, but with a man around, she had someone to back her up. Now she’s on her own. If she keeps making scenes, no one’s going to put up with it."

Yang Liying sighed. "She’s like Lao Yao—not a bad person at heart, just spoiled rotten by her parents. It’s good that she’s changed. If she stayed like she was before, I was worried about what would happen to Little Douzi in the future."

Yang Meihua nodded and said with a hint of schadenfreude, "Liu Guozhi really hit a wall today. He never dreamed Lin Lan would blow the issue up like this. In the past, if they didn’t let her pull seedlings, she would have just turned and left."

Yang Liying stifled a laugh. "Yeah! I thought she was going to leave too! And that lackey Zhang Jun got played hard by Liu Guozhi today."

An auntie pulling seedlings nearby laughed. "Do you think Lin Lan has finally decided to turn over a new leaf?"

"Little Douzi is already four. It’s about time she changed," Yang Liying remarked.

Yang Meihua nodded. "Exactly! If not for herself, she has to do it for Little Douzi. Boys need to maintain their dignity when they grow up. With a mother who has a bad reputation, it’s hard to even find a wife."

"You’re right. I hope she’s really changed for good." Yang Liying thought about going back to her parents’ house after work to check in and ask Little Douzi about it.

* * *

Back home, Lin Lan ladled some more fava beans to soak in a basin before grabbing a back-basket and a sickle, then headed out toward the mountain opposite them, called Niu Bei Mountain.

The Lexing area was a flat plain, so people had nowhere to cut firewood. After the harvest, the rice straw, wheat stalks, and rapeseed stalks from the fields were divided among the households to be used as fuel.

The only mountain, Niu Bei Mountain, was only about one story high. It was covered in sweet potatoes and gourds, and at its foot was oat grass planted by the team. Cattle loved oat grass, and after it was cut, a little fertilizer would make it grow back again.

Lin Lan walked for nearly half an hour before she got close, where she saw a few fish ponds and a thatched hut at the base of the mountain.

As she passed the hut, she heard a pained groan from inside. She remembered that an old man named Chen, who had been sent to the countryside for "re-education," lived there. ’He’s in so much pain,’ she thought. ’Could something have happened?’

She recalled that these people were all highly capable individuals. ’It would be such a shame for someone like that to just die here.’

Lin Lan stopped. Seeing no one around, she peeked inside the hut. "What’s wrong? Do you need help?"

There was no answer. Lin Lan went inside and saw that the hut contained only a narrow wooden plank bed and a stove made of mud bricks. Old Chen, his hair graying, was unconscious on the floor. His thin face was flushed red, and his glasses had fallen to one side.

She went over and placed her hand on his forehead. "Oh no! You have a fever! Sir, sir, wake up! You have a fever."

Old Chen groggily opened his eyes, looked at Lin Lan, and murmured, "Thank you! Don’t worry about me."

Lin Lan turned and took a few steps away, but when she looked back and saw him curled up in pain, she couldn’t bear to leave and went back. "Sir, you can’t lie on the ground like this. Let me help you onto the bed."

Old Chen said in a low voice, "Thank you! Thank you!"

Lin Lan helped him up, settled him onto the bed, and handed him his glasses. "Sir, tell me where it hurts. I’ll go buy you some medicine."

Old Chen took a ragged breath. "I got caught in the rain the day before yesterday. My head started hurting yesterday afternoon, and today I started running a fever. My whole body aches."