MAC’60s Chapter 57.2

Out of all those men, she ends up marrying Tian Dazhu?

Doesn’t seem likely, right?

There had to be some compelling reason forcing the two to get married.

Wang Ying thought for a moment and said, “Tian Dazhu said himself he’s about to have a son… Could it be that the widow is pregnant?”

Old Lady Xu was shocked at first, then gave a meaningful look and said, “Well, that’s hard to say.”

Whether she meant it was hard to say about the marriage or about whose child it was—that was up for interpretation.

Wang Ying happily finished eating her sunflower seeds and sighed, “City folks may have deep schemes, but rural life is no simpler.”

These juicy stories were just like watching a grand drama.

And wasn’t it just like a play?

On one side, Tian Dazhu was getting married.

On the other, all kinds of things were happening among the educated youth.

Although recently Yang Hong had called a meeting with the educated youth and made it clear that besides Zhang Ping and Jiang Li, no one else could move into the Xu household—because the Xu family wasn’t willing, and the commune had already decided—some educated youth still tried to push boundaries.

And then there was the fight between Xu Zhiqing and Jiang Lei over Bai Ling that ended with both of them passing out. The drama among the educated youth was never-ending.

Everyone had their own opinions, but overall, the male educated youth didn’t think much of Bai Ling’s actions. Instead, they were mostly angry with Jiang Lei. The female educated youth, on the other hand, had deep grievances against Bai Ling. Even Yang Hong, who used to live with Bai Ling, didn’t want to talk to her anymore.

Bai Ling was fuming. She had lost Xu Zhiqing, her blood donor, and Jiang Lei alone wasn’t enough to keep her well-fed—he was more of a burden.

Jiang Lei had spent almost all his money and no longer brought meat from the state-run restaurant for her. Now that he also had to work in the fields—and since male and female educated youth were assigned different work—he couldn’t help her much anymore.

Bai Ling was extremely frustrated. Nothing seemed to go her way!

First, she failed to get a grip on Wang Ying. Then she lost Xu Zhiqing. Now she was left with the useless Jiang Lei, who was more trouble than help.

She couldn’t go on like this. The fallout from the Xu Zhiqing incident had already ruined her reputation among the educated youth, and living in Wu Guihua’s house meant Wu Guihua was constantly judging her. Even if Wu didn’t badmouth her publicly, she definitely complained about her in private. To people like Wang Ying, for example. That must be why Wang Ying treated her so coldly and harshly.

Everything she did now felt like a failure.

So Bai Ling reevaluated all the men around her and picked a new target:

Yu Pengcheng.

Thinking back on Yu Pengcheng’s behavior, she concluded that he must come from a wealthy background. Didn’t he wear a wristwatch when he first arrived?

And according to what Jiang Lei said—since he shared a room with Yu Pengcheng—Yu often went to the town or the city, even if it meant losing work points. He didn’t seem to care, as if he planned to pay money later to make up for the missed labor.

When Jiang Lei said this, he meant it as a criticism—that Yu Pengcheng was lazy and unwilling to work. But Bai Ling caught on to the details and realized how well-off Yu Pengcheng’s family must be.

He had a watch, money to buy work points, and access to better food in town.

His situation was better than she had expected.

So Bai Ling decided to invest her efforts into Yu Pengcheng. After all, her health wasn’t great, and she was desperate for good food and rest in the countryside.

Bai Ling glanced at her thin calves and decided that in a few days, when everyone else was working in the fields, she’d create an opportunity for Yu Pengcheng to “save the damsel in distress.”

And as for who would be the stepping stone?

Who else could it be?

Bai Ling had grown thoroughly disgusted with Jiang Lei. He was completely useless, only brought trouble, and she figured it would be better to crush him entirely—paving the way for her to approach Yu Pengcheng.

As the weather heated up, Wang Ying lost her appetite for hot food. She even felt too hot to sleep next to Xu Shuang at night and wanted to sleep separately.

“It’s too hot!”

The worst part? It wasn’t even the peak of summer yet—what would it be like during the dog days?

Xu Shuang disagreed. “Have you ever seen the mountains get unbearably hot in summer? And it’s really not that hot now.”

He found it strange. He felt fine—why was Wang Ying so hot?

Wang Ying didn’t believe him and took her own pulse, checking herself thoroughly but finding nothing unusual.

Then suddenly, she felt a warmth in her lower abdomen. She paused and quickly went to check.

When she came back, she wore a gloomy expression. “Oh, it’s because of me.”

Her period had started, and she was irritable, which made everything feel hot.

As soon as Xu Shuang saw her like that, he went over to hug her.

Wang Ying let him. Although her body was in better shape than before, her period was still irregular and painful, which made her irritable too.

Wang Ying sighed: “Sigh…”

Xu Shuang knew exactly why she sighed and quickly said, “Um, that thing you mentioned, the… the sanitary napkins—I’ve already asked Master for some foreign exchange coupons. Once he gets them together, I’ll go buy them for you.”

Wang Ying awkwardly turned over. Honestly…

She never expected that after transmigrating, the most annoying thing would turn out to be not having sanitary pads. At this time, sanitary pads were only available at Friendship Stores, and you couldn’t buy them without foreign exchange coupons. Most people didn’t even know such a thing existed and still used the old-fashioned menstrual belts.

“Alright, let’s sleep,” she said.

Xu Shuang kept talking: “How about I make you some red egg soup tomorrow? And maybe chicken noodle soup too?”

As soon as food was mentioned, Wang Ying perked up: “Let’s skip the chicken noodle soup. We only have those two chickens left at home. If we eat them, there won’t be any more eggs. How about… we send the pig to the commune?”

The wheat harvest was due next month, so it was just over half a month away. If they handed in the pig now, they could settle what they had promised to distribute earlier. She’d heard the commune would be giving out another round of pork during the double harvest season. Wang Ying was getting tempted—that kind of frequency didn’t sound bad.

It had been quite a while since they last had pork, and now seemed like the perfect time.

Xu Shuang had no reason to deny her. He readily agreed: “Alright, I’ll make stir-fried pork, minced pork with eggplant, and braised pork ribs…”

These were all dishes Wang Ying had been craving but couldn’t make without meat.

Wang Ying started to drool just thinking about it: “Great!”

The next day, Wang Ying began notifying the families who had said they wanted to exchange for pork, telling them that they were going to submit their pig and asking who wanted what part of the meat, so she could divide it accordingly once it was allocated.

Exchanging pork was a big deal. Some households didn’t give a definitive answer right away because the head of the family wasn’t home—they said they’d discuss it first and let Wang Ying know.

Wang Ying understood and gave a few reminders, asking them to decide quickly because they were taking the pig over in the afternoon.

But when she got back home, the first person to show up was someone unexpected.

Tian Dazhu hesitantly asked, “Doctor Wang Ying, I wanted to ask—can I reserve five pounds of pork?”

Then, with a hint of pride, he straightened his back and said, “I… I’m getting married. I’m about to have a son. I want to hold a proper ceremony—I can’t shortchange my son.”