Chapter 174 She smiled, he held it

"That serious!"

Seeing the little girl's vivid and excited expression, Fang Meng was very supportive, mirroring her every move, making sure the little girl didn't feel he was being perfunctory.

Thermos flasks and enamel basins weren't cheap; you needed coupons to buy them. But washing bedding or other bedding, or just dusting it off and airing it out, wasn't a big deal.

Mung bean cakes meant nothing to him and his little girl, but for Tao Lili, they were a precious treat she couldn't bear to eat.

He Xiangxiang and Tao Lili were sent to the countryside with him and You Jin in the same batch of educated youth. It had been more than half a year, and it was clear that the educated youth office would stop issuing subsidies in a few months. Tao Lili had finally managed to spend some money to buy some mung bean cakes, but now they were all gone, so she was naturally heartbroken.

Given the humiliation the two of them had suffered at their hands before, it was hard for them not to explode now.

"And then they started fighting?"

"Yes!" Bai Nuo nodded. "Those two female educated youths were protected by two Wang brothers. They were tough on you but not on the Liu family. They were all very tough."

He Xiangxiang and Tao Lili demanded compensation from the Liu family. Upon hearing that money was required, Old Mrs. Liu reacted as if her life was being taken, jumping up and down, trying to scratch He Xiangxiang and Tao Lili's faces. Wang Dagang and Wang Datie, of course, couldn't stand it and started fighting. Then, Hu and Guo, the educated youths, tried to break up the fight, but they were also caught in the crossfire.

Bai Nuo thought of her unfortunate captain uncle and couldn't help but laugh gleefully: "Our poor Uncle Wei was originally going to take the people to the brigade headquarters and hand them over to Secretary Lu, but then things got messed up again, and there are more and more people. I saw that the people watching the commotion outside the door started eating while they were watching."

Bai Nuo tilted his head in confusion as he said this: "It's strange, when the eldest, second, and third branches of the Liu family were fighting before, Liu Qingrong's wife stayed far away and looked disgusted. But just now, when she was fighting with the old educated youth, she ran up and started pulling He Xiangxiang and Tao Lili's hair, as if she wanted to tear their scalps off. I don't believe there isn't some deep-seated hatred between them."

“I do know a little about this!” Fang Meng said as he ladled the food out of the pot, revealing something only he had discovered.

Chao Xianhua, who was in charge of picking vegetables, heard this as soon as she finished her work and her eyes lit up as she ran over.

Sun Yuxi and Qin Xuehua were also following behind.

The four little girls gathered together happily eating melon seeds, looking at Fang Meng with excited expressions, just like kindergarten children sitting in a row waiting to get their share of fruit.

Fang Meng's lips twitched slightly, and he shook his head with amusement. He wasn't going to keep the girls in suspense. He didn't care about the other three, but if his little girl got impatient, he would be in trouble.

"This brings us to the love, hate, and grudges between those people behind the scenes!" Fang Meng, like a storyteller, began to tell his tale, coaxing his little brat with dramatic intonation.

“Once, when I was passing through the county town on my way back from the city, I saw Wang Dagang and Tian Youxi arguing in an alley. Tian Youxi was crying miserably, looking like she had been dumped, and Wang Dagang had injuries on his face. From what I heard, Tian Youxi wanted to divorce her husband and live with Wang Dagang, but Wang Dagang's demand was that he find her a job in the county and not go back to Qishui Brigade.”

Tian Youxi had no choice but to go back to her parents' home in the county to beg her father. However, it was clear that the Tian family did not agree. Judging from Wang Dagang's words at the time, the Tian family felt ashamed. They looked down on Liu Qingrong, but they also looked down on Wang Dagang. They refused to agree no matter what. The Tian brothers even beat up Wang Dagang and kicked the two of them out.

Wow~

"And then, and then what!"

"Is it that exciting?!"

"Holy crap, that's awesome!"

The four girls listened in astonishment, looking as if they had suddenly gained supernatural insight!

Fang Meng looked at the group with amusement and continued, "It seems that this matter has been dropped. Anyway, when I saw these two people again in the brigade, they acted as if they didn't recognize each other. I guess they had a falling out. As for whether Liu Qingrong knew about it or not, I don't know."

Another time, I went out in the afternoon and saw Tao Lili and Liu Qingrong hugging in the woods near the west end of the village. Not far away, Tian Youxi was hiding behind a big tree. When I came back, I heard that Tian Youxi had beaten He Xiangxiang, and she hadn't been able to get out of bed for three days.

Xie Weidong and Eugene, who had arrived at some unknown time, were both staring at Fang Meng with expressions of utter shock.

"The one hugging Liu Qingrong is Tao Lili, so why is He Xiangxiang the one getting beaten up?!"

Fang Meng was also full of questions: "I don't know either. I didn't pay attention to these things before. When I first heard about it, I thought that the people in the brigade had mixed up the names of the two female educated youths. When I returned to the educated youth compound, I found out that the one who was beaten was He Xiangxiang, and Tao Lili did not go to work. She stayed in the educated youth compound to take care of them for three days."

The group exchanged glances and began to imagine the scenario, finding it increasingly exciting!

I never expected that the Liu family's scandal would be so big!

"No wonder Diao Xiaoyan is trying so hard to separate the family. It seems that it's not just Old Madam Liu who favors the third branch of the family and is sucking the blood of the first and second branches to support Liu Qingrong. With the Liu family in such a mess, it will be really hard for Diao Xiaoyan's eldest daughter to find a husband in a couple of years."

Qin Xuehua shook her head with a sigh. She knew a little about Diao Xiaoyan. She would often run into her when she went to work in the fields, and occasionally she would hear Diao Xiaoyan chatting with others.

The Diao family has never favored sons over daughters; on the contrary, they sometimes treat their daughters better than their sons. This situation is actually quite common in Northeast China. However, there are also families that favor sons over daughters, such as the Liu family.

Diao Xiaoyan was always worried that Old Mrs. Liu would sell her eldest daughter for the bride price when she wasn't paying attention. In addition, neither of the three wives was honest, so she was even more determined to separate the family.

"Do you think Diao Xiaoyan will be able to successfully separate from the family?" Bai Nuo frowned slightly, suddenly wanting to go to the brigade headquarters to see what was going on.

"No, you don't want to!" Fang Meng seemed to live inside his little girl's head, and gently shook her head with his big hand. "Get up and serve the rice, it's time to eat."

“Yes, yes, you three should come back for dinner soon. We really can’t go to the brigade headquarters again tonight. If Uncle Wei catches us, he’ll really beat us up. If the topic of ‘young educated youths gathering to spy and being chased and beaten by a middle-aged man in his forties with a stick’ gets out, we’ll all become famous and have to go to the next brigade.”

The four girls exchanged glances, and couldn't help but shudder at the thought of what would happen.

Forget it, forget it, they just want to quietly enjoy the gossip, they don't want to become the gossipmongers themselves.