Back to 1984: Earning Money, Raising Kids, and Keeping the Household Busy

Chapter 52 Shameless

Li Lian gets angry whenever Lin Qin is mentioned, and the more she talks about it, the angrier she gets.

The old woman's face darkened, and her voice rose considerably. "What does your family's business have to do with me! What? Do I have to eavesdrop on what people are saying? What kind of person are you! Go away, go away, if you want to know, go ask yourself. Don't get in my way, I'm busy!"

Li Lian pouted in dissatisfaction, glaring resentfully at the old woman's retreating figure, and shouted, "Fine, don't talk about it then! Anyway, our village's land won't be given away to outsiders! Lin Yi's land will be mine sooner or later!"

The old woman watched Li Lian leave with a cold eye, then slammed the tablecloth onto the stove, yelling, "What is that! It's an eyesore!"

Unable to get any information from the old woman, Li Lian turned her attention to Lin Qingxiang's house.

Two days later, when she went to work in the fields, she found that Lin Qingxiang and his son had not gone to the fields, but Huang Yuzhen had gone to the fields with a hoe instead, and she immediately realized that something was wrong.

She didn't try to hide anything and bluntly asked, "Where are your husband and son? Why aren't they in the fields?"

Hearing Li Lian's loud voice, Huang Guihua and the others all looked at Huang Yuzhen.

Huang Yuzhen chuckled and feigned surprise as she put down her hoe. "Oh! You didn't know? I thought you knew more about something this big than we did!"

"What's the big deal?" Huang Guihua asked eagerly.

Her family and Huang Yuzhen's family were from the same village. The two were childhood playmates and had a much closer relationship than the average village woman. They didn't have to worry about what they said to each other.

Seeing that everyone was gossiping, Huang Yuzhen didn't keep them in suspense and said with a smile, "It's nothing, it's just that Lin Qin's husband bought a piece of land to build a house, and all the things were moved over there. My husband and son were invited over to help."

"Hiss!" The villagers who were working were shocked and put down their work to run over and find out what was going on.

Huang Guihua was shocked. "Didn't they say that Lin Qin's second husband was a Tanka person? Tanka people can afford to buy land?"

Huang Yuzhen raised her chin, glanced at Lin Zhi and his wife with a sneer, and said loudly, "What! The Tanka people didn't have money before, but now that we've reformed and opened up, they run boats to fetch passengers and fish, and their lives are no worse than ours! It's just that they live on the water and it's not easy for them to buy land. Look, Lin Qin's husband opened a door, and I heard that he even got it done through a leader in the Land Bureau!"
"Could you guys have that kind of ability?"

Everyone looked at each other and nodded repeatedly. Let alone buying land from the leaders of the Land and Resources Bureau, they even had a hard time getting approval for a plot of land in the village to build a house.

Huang Guihua looked on with envy, "Are these Tanka people really that rich?"

Huang Yuzhen shrugged, "I don't know about that! But I heard from my husband that Lin Qin's husband is very capable! Lin Yi is recuperating at his son-in-law's place. He's eating well and doesn't have to do any work. He's even gained a lot of weight!"

"Tsk tsk tsk. How come the two sons-in-law are so different! If you ask me, a blessed person doesn't enter a door without blessings. Lin Qin has finally reaped the rewards of her hardship and fallen into a blessed abode!"

"Impossible! How could a poor Tanka person buy land and build a house? Stop bragging!" Li Lian reacted very agitatedly, as if she was about to fight Huang Yuzhen to the death.

Huang Yuzhen shook her head in disgust, "Whether it's possible or not isn't up to you to decide! Everyone else is working hard, but you're just fixated on their little corner of the world. How disgusting!"

“Huang Yuzhen! Stop slandering me! This land originally belonged to my family!” Li Lian stood on Huang Yuzhen’s land.

Huang Yuzhen didn't argue with her. She turned her head to look for the brigade leader. "If you trample my crops, I'll make you pay ten times the price!" Li Lian immediately looked down at her feet, then stood still and didn't move.

Huang Yuzhen ignored her and turned back to continue working.

Huang Guihua asked curiously, "How much do your husband and son earn for a day's work?"

"One dollar and twenty cents per person, all-you-can-eat!"

Huang Guihua was even more envious. "Is Lin Qin hiring? My husband can do odd jobs too?"

Huang Yuzhen looked up and pondered, "We shouldn't be short of anything now. My Qingxiang and Shaojun are here, Lin Yi has almost recovered and can lend a hand, and there's also Lin Qin and her husband! Oh, right, the two kids can help out too, that's enough!"

Huang Guihua couldn't help but feel disappointed, and continued to ask, "How big is their house?"

"It's over 200 square meters! And they'll need to raise the foundation, but my husband says they're not planning on being particular about it!"

"My God! Over two hundred square meters! This land must cost three hundred square meters! Tsk tsk tsk."

Li Lian listened intently and then mocked Huang Guihua, "You believe this nonsense! If Chen Wenjun had the money to build a house, why would he be interested in a slut like Lin Qin? Don't be fooled! If you ask me, Lin Qin is just ungrateful! She has a perfectly good college graduate boyfriend, yet she goes and messes with him."

The Liu family will definitely not let her off the hook! Just wait and see! After Liu Yongming graduates and gets a job, he'll definitely settle accounts with her!

Huang Guihua looked Li Lian up and down with a strange expression. "Are you out of your mind? I get the feeling you're really hoping Lin Qin suffers. No wonder Lin Qin doesn't acknowledge your marriage!"

Li Lian choked, stubbornly insisting, "I didn't say anything wrong! Is it glorious for her to divorce and remarry? What a disgrace! To reject a college graduate and marry a Tanka man, what else could she be but mentally ill!"

Huang Yuzhen tugged at Huang Guihua's clothes, "Why are you arguing with her? I heard that the woman Liu Yongming remarried was an imposter who impersonated someone else to attend a junior college. She got arrested by the police. Liu Yongming used to intern at the Land and Resources Bureau, but I heard he resigned and went back to school. That family has had a lot of bad luck, and they even had trouble with job assignments after graduation! It's only thanks to the blessings of Liu's ancestors that they were able to graduate properly!"

"What? What is this? I've never heard of this before! Impersonating someone else to get into a junior college? This is a very serious matter!" Huang Guihua and the others surrounded her again, eagerly waiting for Huang Yuzhen to explain.

Huang Yuzhen started joking, "Actually, I don't know the specifics. I only know that Liu Yongming was still married but had an affair with that woman and got her pregnant. The Liu family always believed that the woman was carrying a son and was a college graduate, so naturally they looked down on Lin Qin and her daughter."

Otherwise, he wouldn't have schemed against Lin Qin, forcing her to divorce. She got her wish and got divorced, but the woman wasn't carrying a son; she was carrying a daughter. The police came knocking on her door and arrested her while she was giving birth. Now, everyone on their street knows about the Liu family's messy affairs.

Oh, by the way, I heard that woman is the daughter of the village head of Fangshan Village. This impersonation to go to university involves many people: the village head of Fangshan Village, school leaders and homeroom teachers, and leaders of the Municipal Education Bureau, and many, many more!
"If you want to know, go and ask around yourself. I only heard it from my husband; after all, he's close to Lin Yi, so his information network is better than his."

Everyone was stunned and subconsciously looked at Li Lian and Lin Zhi, only to find that the couple looked completely bewildered, clearly unaware of the situation.

Because Huang Yuzhen's story was so detailed and convincing, Li Lian felt uneasy. She didn't continue to refute it, but slunk back to her field, muttering to Lin Zhi in frustration, "Your good niece is really something! She keeps everything from us! She doesn't treat us like family at all!"

(End of this chapter)