NOVPUB
Chapter 295: Chapter 285 The Thing with Shallow Eyelids
Shen Yunfang placed the basin on the kang bed, lifted the lid off, took a quail egg, and handed it to Tingting.
"Tingting, eat this. You eat the egg inside and then feed the shell to Taxue," Yunfang said. Could she admit she was giving the quail egg to the little girl Tingting because she was fond of her own dog? She couldn’t say that in front of Tingting’s mother.
"Okay, Auntie. One for me, one for my little brother. We’ll share," little Tingting was very sensible.
"No need to share, just eat it yourself, your little brother is too small to eat this," Yunfang pushed the basin towards Tingting, then patted Taxue’s big head.
Tingting blinked her big eyes in confusion, eggs were so tasty; why couldn’t her brother eat them?
Yunfang ruffled her hair again, reminded her once more not to feed Pangpang, watched Tingting nod, and then returned to the kitchen to busy herself again.
The two adults outside chattered while they worked. It was almost ten o’clock, and the preparations were almost done. Yunfang, seeing the time was about right, started cooking. After all, there were dishes to stew and dishes to fry, and with only one big pot in the house, she had to stew the dishes first and fry them when it was time.
As they were busy at home, they were unaware that they were the topic of conversation in someone else’s home.
"I heard that Li Hongjun’s wife and kids from the third company have moved with the military, right? You’re closer to the third company; do you know about this?" a woman in her thirties, with dark skin looking smart and capable, asked the person in front of her.
She was the wife of the second battalion deputy commander of the first regiment, named Wang Guifen. She and Qiu Fengmei had similar temperaments, so they often sat together, gossiping about the affairs of other families.
"That’s old news, they’ve already moved here. I even went to Li Hongjun’s house the day they moved," Fengmei said, cracking sunflower seeds and filling her mouth with them.
"Is that so? Did you see them? What do you think? I heard she’s pretty," Guifen said. The family quarter wasn’t that big, and though it was winter and there weren’t many opportunities to chat outdoors, the news spread incredibly fast. Everyone knew about the new family’s arrival in the family quarter.
"Not bad," Fengmei replied, smoothing her own hair and thinking to herself that Yunfang looked all right, but she was not bad either.
"What’s she like?" Guifen asked while pulling her basket of sunflower seeds under the kang table. The person across wouldn’t go easy on them; they would eat as much as they could. "Don’t finish them, save some for my Dawei."
"Look at you being all stingy," Qiu Fengmei said and still reached out to grab another big handful of sunflower seeds from the basket. The ones she couldn’t hold in her hands went straight into her pockets to snack on later. "Li Hongjun’s wife from the countryside seems pretty nice, actually, all gentle and soft-spoken. Doesn’t really come across as someone who grew up farming in the countryside, more like that city wife in the front row."
Qiu Fengmei did have a conscience, though, since she remembered she still hadn’t returned that cabbage. It’s not that she didn’t want to give it back, it’s just that this time of the year, there was nowhere to buy cabbages, and even if there were occasional sales, the prices were ridiculously high. She just couldn’t bring herself to buy a cabbage at a high price to repay Shen Yunfang. She figured that since Shen Yunfang still had plenty of old cabbages at home, surely enough to last until the autumn when the cabbage prices came down, she could return it then as this cabbage was not likely to spoil.
"Really? No wonder, she must have picked up those city folks’ ways," Wang Guifen said, looking as if she had just had an epiphany.
"What do you mean, what did she do?" Qiu Fengmei sensed something and, without bothering to crack the seeds anymore, shoved them into her pocket and urged Wang Guifen to stop beating around the bush and spill the beans.
"Don’t you know? I heard Li Hongjun is having people over today, just the folks from the third company, saying it’s for a housewarming pot-scraping party. How could you not know this? Aren’t you close with them? How come they didn’t invite you over for the meal?" Wang Guifen of course knew that Qiu Fengmei hadn’t been invited; after all, they said they were inviting people from the third company, and Qiu Fengmei’s family was in the first company, so how could they invite her? If they invited one person from the first company, then they would have to invite all the others too, as the saying goes, better to offend a group than just one person—inviting some and not others was sure to create enemies.
Qiu Fengmei paused, then said nonchalantly, "Why would they invite me? Like you said, they were inviting people from the third company, so where does that leave me?"
"Heh, I just knew it. You’re such a straightforward person, not one to hold grudges, always wearing your heart on your sleeve for everyone. Let me tell you, being straightforward is fine with people like us who are close. I wouldn’t harm you, but with others, you better watch out. Don’t think everyone who gives you a smile and a few kind words is a good person," Wang Guifen said, looking askance at the simple-minded Qiu Fengmei while feigning a friendly tone.
"Who are you talking about? The Li Hongjun family?" Qiu Fengmei wasn’t good at dealing with these roundabout matters. She was always direct in everything she did, so she was a bit confused by all this talk. 𝚗o𝚟pub.𝚌𝚘𝚖
"Oh my, I didn’t say anything, no, not a word. What I mean is you helped out when the Li Hongjun family was moving in, right? Logically, if their family is hosting a meal, they can’t just not invite someone who helped out. Even if Li Hongjun says this time it’s just for the people from the third company, how could there not be room for just one more, you? They can invite so many others for the meal; how could they make do without you? You keep saying they’re good people, but I’m smelling something fishy here. You really have to judge a person’s character," Wang Guifen said, watching Qiu Fengmei’s face slowly light up with understanding before she finally felt satisfied.
Qiu Fengmei, who initially had no opinion on Li Hongjun’s situation, now felt a hint of dissatisfaction after hearing Wang Guifen’s words. Yeah, even though I didn’t do much when I went over, I did go, and I even chatted with them. Why wouldn’t they invite me to their meal? No way, if they wouldn’t invite me, I’d just have to show up myself, wouldn’t I lose out otherwise?
Once Qiu Fengmei figured it out, she slapped her thigh and got up from the kang, "Guifen, I’ve got something to do, I need to head home. I’ll catch up with you some other time when I’m free."
"Oh dear, slow down, what’s the hurry? We’re not done talking here. You lift your butt and off you go. Honestly, you..." Wang Guifen craned her neck to watch Qiu Fengmei leave her yard, then sat back down at the head of the kang, snorted through her nose, and muttered under her breath, "Such a shallow person."
Speaking of Qiu Fengmei, as soon as she left Wang Guifen’s house, she headed towards Shen Yunfang’s. However, halfway there, she suddenly stopped—how could she just go and eat? If she did, wouldn’t there be no one to cook at home midday? What would her man and kids eat? Qiu Fengmei’s eyes darted around as she turned and ran towards her own home. With such an opportunity, why not bring along her husband and children? Since Li Hongjun’s family could afford to invite so many guests, surely they wouldn’t mind four more.
