NOVPUB
Chapter 335: 325
"Guifen, are you at home?"
"Yeah, I’m here, what’s up?" Wang Guifen lay on the kang bed inside her room and shouted out of the window.
She recognized Qiu Fengmei’s voice without even getting up, just lying there, knowing that the person outside would surely run right in.
Sure enough, before long, the door was pushed open, and Qiu Fengmei, seeing Wang Guifen still lying on the kang bed, exclaimed, "What’s going on with you, lying on the kang bed in the middle of the day?"
"Nothing much, just lying down because there’s nothing to do," Wang Guifen said, her voice filled with the annoyance she felt inside.
But Qiu Fengmei was a bit dense, failing to pick up on the tone, and continued cheerfully, "My goodness, you’re so lucky, getting all those quails for free. People should even be grateful to you. You’ve stumbled upon such good fortune." Qiu Fengmei’s flattery was heavy when she said these words.
Of course, she had wanted to take the opportunity to borrow some money from Qiu Shuping as well, hoping to get her hands on a couple of quails. But her pockets were even cleaner than her face, meaning she genuinely had no cash to lend, and so she missed the opportunity. This missed chance had made her so upset that she had spent days at home in reflection, resolving to be more careful with her spending in the future; the feeling of missing out on a bargain was too vexing.
Listening to Qiu Fengmei’s flattery, Wang Guifen would have usually gone along with it, but today she was in no mood, and instead felt more irritated the more she heard about it.
"Don’t give me that nonsense. I extended a helping hand because someone was in trouble, not because I was coveting someone’s things," she replied with less confidence than she intended.
"Ah? Yes, yes, of course, I know, I understand," Qiu Fengmei paused, then quickly nodded and smirked as if to say she understood everything without needing further explanation. n𝚘𝚟pub.𝚌o𝚖
Wang Guifen was thoroughly annoyed by her behavior but couldn’t say it out loud. Everyone knew what was going on, but no one was foolish enough to openly express their true feelings. After all, despite everyone’s grimy thoughts, they still needed to save face.
"Understand what? Ah, stop talking about it, it’s bothering me," she interrupted.
"What’s bothering you? The quails made it to your table, plus you gained a good reputation. What’s there to be bothered about?" Qiu Fengmei was somewhat puzzled.
Wang Guifen didn’t want to discuss it initially, but considering her current situation, she let out a sigh and selectively shared her worries.
"Ah, how can I not be bothered? I’ve got a house full of mouths waiting to be fed, and there are still several days to go before next month, with hardly a few pounds of grains left at home. How could I not worry?"
The Wang family had two sons, putting a significant strain on the household budget. Yet Wang Guifen was a clever woman who had never ended up without grain at the end of the month. Her complaint was merely an excuse.
As soon as Qiu Fengmei heard this, she became quiet; her family was also out of grain but had none to lend to others.
However, it then occurred to her that Wang Guifen’s family was wealthy. If they were out of grain, why not just buy some expensive grain from the city? So she clicked her tongue and said, "Guifen, I’m not trying to criticize you, but you have boys who are growing. You can’t starve them. Don’t be too stingy with your money; children are more important than anything."
Wang Guifen, upon hearing this person lecture her, was inwardly seething with anger. Just look at you, struggling to make ends meet, yet still daring to preach at me. Who do you think you are?
"As if I needed you to tell me that, if I had money to buy food, would I even be talking about this?" Wang Guifen rolled her eyes secretly.
Qiu Fengmei didn’t catch the sarcasm in her words and thought she was trying to hide the fact that she had money at home, "Oh, Guifen, everyone in our residential area knows you’ve got money. When it comes to lending, you dole out hundreds like it’s nothing..."
"Who has been spouting nonsense behind my back, not afraid their tongues will rot out of their heads. When has my family ever doled out money by the hundreds?" Wang Guifen flared up as soon as she heard this.
Qiu Fengmei was surprised by Wang Guifen’s sudden flare-up and stuttered, "Look at you, we’re just chatting here, why are you so worked up? Besides, these aren’t my words. Everyone’s saying it. Didn’t you also say that you lent Li Hongjun’s mother a hundred yuan?" Why was it that she could talk about it, but others couldn’t?
Wang Guifen’s face turned red with frustration, "I’ve only got that one hundred yuan to my name, and I’ve already lent it all out." It was just other people making stuff up, as if her family had countless hundreds to lend.
"Oh, is that so? Well, you’re truly kind-hearted then. I was just saying, you’ve been such a help to Li Hongjun’s old mother, Li Hongjun and his wife should be grateful to you for a lifetime." Qiu Fengmei sneered inwardly. Who would believe that? If it were anyone else, no one would lend out all their family’s money to someone unrelated. According to her claims, if Wang Guifen could lend Li Hongjun’s mother a hundred yuan, she must have at least another hundred in her pocket.
And that’s what everyone else in the residential area thought. Now they were all saying Wang Guifen always pretended to be poor when she actually had money, and some people, with too much time on their hands, even started calculating how much money she had and where it all came from.
At this point, Wang Guifen sighed with worry again, "Right now, I don’t need their gratitude, I just need them to repay the money I lent as soon as possible."
"What’s wrong? Hasn’t Shen Yunfang repaid you yet?" Qiu Fengmei’s eyes widened, for she had thought the debt was settled long ago.
"Repay what?" Wang Guifen was full of dismay.
"That’s not right. When Shen Yunfang came back, didn’t you go to collect it?" Qiu Fengmei remembered seeing her coming out from Shen Yunfang’s house at the time.
"I did go," Wang Guifen continued, "Li Hongjun’s family spoke very nicely, saying that as soon as Shen Yunfang had made inquiries, they would repay me. I figured that was acceptable. After all, I hadn’t lied, and everyone in our residential area knew I lent money to Li Hongjun’s mother—it was well-known, so I wasn’t afraid she would ask around. But I’ve been waiting for a week now and haven’t seen her come to repay me. At first, I thought she had forgotten, so I went to remind her again, and guess what happened?"
"What happened?" Qiu Fengmei asked, playing along.
"Li Hongjun’s family actually said they had written back to their hometown to ask about it. They would repay the money after receiving a reply. Can you believe that? Why do they need a grand council just to repay money? Even if they had one, it should be their family affair. They should at least repay what they owe me first. My family is running out of rice to cook," complained Wang Guifen. Ever since she had dealings with Shen Yunfang, she felt that if she didn’t get her money back quickly, it might become difficult to collect.
"Ah? They wrote back to the old home? Is it that complicated?" Qiu Fengmei was surprised. It really shouldn’t be this complicated to borrow and repay money.
"Exactly, could I be lying to her? There’s plenty of people here who could prove it for me," said Wang Guifen, vexed by the entire situation. She had lost her temper with Shen Yunfang, "That’s exactly what I told Li Hongjun’s family too, but they just smiled and insisted on confirming with their in-laws, as if nothing could get through to them. You have no idea, it infuriated me." Shen Yunfang didn’t refuse to repay, but Wang Guifen had no outlet for her anger.
