Witty Wife, Better Life

Chapter 213: Chapter 206 Working Group

Lao Zhou seemed to really admire military personnel, striking up a conversation with Shen Yunfang right in the middle of the street.

As a leader, Shen Yunfang couldn’t just dismiss him, so she had no choice but to stand there and chat along.

However, no matter what Lao Zhou said or asked, Shen Yunfang always appeared to be an open book, perfectly playing the part of the naïve little woman to a tee.

As they spoke, Lao Zhou suddenly shifted the conversation to raising chickens and ducks, and before long, he made a request to stop by Shen Yunfang’s place for a drink of water.

If Shen Yunfang couldn’t see that he had come specifically for her, or rather, for her chickens, she would have been living under a rock.

After some thought, she figured it was better to be open and let everyone see for themselves rather than skulk around, causing even wilder speculation and gossip. Besides, most of her chickens had already been moved; only about forty were left, and she might as well let them see exactly how many ’a whole lot’ was.

So, Shen Yunfang readily agreed.

Upon opening the front door, she invited the visitor into her house, but Lao Zhou got all prudish, saying that it wouldn’t be proper for a man and woman alone together. He insisted on just sitting in the courtyard and not entering the house.

Shen Yunfang nodded with a smile, praising him for being a leader who considered all angles. She mentioned she was going into the house to boil water and told him to make himself comfortable. The moment she turned around to boil water, her face was so dark you could almost drip ink from it.

’For fuck’s sake, you’re pushing fifty, old enough to be her grandfather, and you’re still on about not being alone with her? If you were really that honorable, you wouldn’t have even stepped foot in the yard. This is as pointless as taking off your pants just to fart.’

When she finished boiling the water and brought out bowls from her own kitchen, Lao Zhou was nowhere to be seen in the courtyard. She knew right away he must be in the backyard.

When Shen Yunfang went around to the backyard, there was Lao Zhou, peering into the pigpen.

"Comrade Zhou, come have some water," she offered, passing him the two large bowls she carried.

Lao Zhou thanked her and took the bowls, taking a small sip before smiling and saying, "Little sister-in-law, you really are capable. Looking at your yard, with pigs and sheep, and that big chicken coop, you certainly haven’t raised just a few..." Sensing the compliment, Shen Yunfang cheerfully replied, "Not too many, just several dozen." Her words were ambiguous; a couple of dozen could be several dozen, and so could almost a hundred.

Lao Zhou’s brows raised at her words, "Oh, that’s quite a lot. Can you manage all of them by yourself? Those old chickens must eat a fair bit."

"It’s manageable. It’s hard work, but I don’t have the strength for farming, so I depend on raising chickens to save up some money." Shen Yunfang then went on to chatter about the hardships of raising chickens, truly embodying the incessant natter of a rural housewife.

Lao Zhou listened and nodded along.

As Shen Yunfang talked, she picked up the iron pot in the chicken coop, opened the backyard door, and, right in front of Lao Zhou, began calling her chickens home.

After several clanging sounds, there came a commotion of barking from outside the backyard, followed by hens fluttering their wings and scurrying into the yard.

Shen Yunfang waited until Taxue made it through the gate before closing the backyard door.

Watching these old hens, Lao Zhou’s eyes nearly popped out as he tried to count them. The hens darted back and forth, causing his vision to blur after a while, so despite several counts, he couldn’t get an accurate number, roughly estimating around forty or so.

At this point, Lao Zhou felt that the rumors had indeed been exaggerated—talk of ’a whole lot,’ ’the yard is full,’ ’there’s not enough room for them all,’—rural old women just had no sense of scale. Just a few chickens had spawned such outrageous rumors. Displeased, he grumbled to himself.

However, if one were not misled by those rumors, at a casual glance, there really were quite a few chickens.

Old Zhou looked at the chicken coop with a somewhat intriguing gaze.

Afterwards, he inquired indirectly about the other livestock in Shen Yunfang’s family, such as why there was only one goat in the goat pen when she was said to have raised several of them herself.

Of course, they were all sent to the hillside, Shen Yunfang thought, but she said it was because her husband’s comrade was in difficulty. Just a few days ago, he had asked her for money in a letter. She had no choice but to support her husband’s cause, so she quietly sold the valuable goats from home and added her own savings to send to her husband.

The only reason one was left was that she was expecting a child and feared that she wouldn’t have milk after the birth. This was her backup plan, saving some milk for her own child to eat.

When Old Zhou heard her mention her husband, he asked about her husband’s situation.

Shen Yunfang answered truthfully, emphasizing the difficulties during her last visit, how she had to change vehicles several times, and it was only with great hardship that she had made it there.

Old Zhou nodded in understanding; so her husband was a company commander in some remote mountain area, nothing to worry about.

The two talked about this and that for quite some time until Shen Yunfang noticed it was getting late and started to prepare dinner, inviting Comrade Zhou to stay and eat. But when Comrade Zhou saw the coarse-grain pancake and two cucumbers she took out, he insisted on leaving, saying they, the working group, couldn’t take even a needle or a thread from the common people, let alone a meal.

So Shen Yunfang escorted Old Zhou out of the yard and watched until he was out of sight before she closed the gate. The smile on her face vanished in an instant. Ah well, it’s no use worrying now. In the worst case, she would just have to face it when the time came.

The next morning, Shen Yunfang’s uncle, with his hands behind his back and brow furrowed, arrived at Shen Yunfang’s doorstep, wondering how on earth to open this conversation. He paced back and forth in front of the door several times and finally, having no other choice, he knocked.

Shen Yunfang was quite surprised to see it was her uncle at the door; she had thought it was Old Zhou returning.

"Yunfang, have you eaten yet?" Shen Yunfang’s uncle asked after seeing his niece, stuttering a bit before landing on that question.

"I have, was just about to go up the mountain to gather some firewood. Is there something you needed, Uncle?" As the head of the production team, the uncle was always busy, and especially now during the critical time of harvest, so it was unlikely that he would simply drop by for a visit.

"Ha-ha, it’s nothing serious," her uncle said instinctively before realizing he misspoke and quickly added, "Actually, there is a small matter I want to discuss with you."

"If there’s something you need, just say it, Uncle. We’re all family, what’s there to hesitate about?" Shen Yunfang could tell her uncle was struggling to broach a subject, and it was about her.

Shen Yunfang’s uncle licked his dry lips; he had been feeling the heat since the night before, "Here’s the thing, the comrade from the working group, Zhou, he came by your place yesterday, right?"

Shen Yunfang nodded, "He did, what about it?"

"Nothing much, it’s just that after he went back, he mentioned that your breeding business is going well, that you have quite a few chickens, enough to be a model in our village," her uncle said dryly.

"Oh no, not at all, what I’m doing is nothing. I definitely don’t want to be any model," Shen Yunfang quickly waved her hand in dismissal. She’d rather everyone forgot about her entirely; how could she afford to be put in the spotlight?

"It’s not about that, we’ll talk about that later. It’s just that Zhou kept mentioning your chickens over and over last night..." he couldn’t continue.

Shen Yunfang also understood; Old Zhou was probably craving chicken and was hinting at her uncle.