Chapter 61: Comrade Huang Guixiang, the Professional Scapegoat
The two sisters-in-law fell silent the moment they heard the commotion.
Zhang Hongqi smiled as he looked at him. “Dad, what’s actually going on with Wanwan? Did Auntie Huang say anything?”
Zhang Aimin said flatly, “She didn’t say.”
“Just said she needs to stay in the hospital for a few days.”
Zhang Hongjun hurriedly added, “Dad, then how about letting Hongmei come to deliver meals to Wanwan for these few days?”
“I’ll figure out a way to go to the black market to buy a chicken…”
Zhang Aimin: “No need. You all have work, don’t let it be delayed!”
“People from Wanwan’s unit will come to take care of her, and they will also handle Wanwan’s meals.”
When these two sons and their wives were gossiping about him, they hadn’t said a word. Now they were suddenly all eager to curry favor. It was all because Lin Wan’s partner had excellent conditions, Guixiang now had a job, and his own rank, salary, and benefits were also top-notch. Zhang Aimin felt stifled and miserable inside.
Inside the hospital room.
Zhang Hongqiang, who was loitering and refusing to leave, had already started gnawing on a chicken leg. Huang Guixiang tapped Lin Wan’s forehead. “You just keep spoiling him!”
Lin Wan chuckled, “He’s my own younger brother, if I don’t spoil him, who will?” This little kid was basically her fanboy. Wherever she told him to charge, he would charge; surely he deserved a bit of sweetness! Hearing this, Zhang Hongqiang, mouth covered in grease, cracked a wide grin and started giggling foolishly.
It was truly an eyesore.
“Just shut your trap and eat. You’ll choke if you’re not careful, and then the chicken leg will go to waste!”
This chicken soup was a finished product Lin Wan had pulled from her space while Huang Guixiang was busy fetching medication. Ginkgo nut stewed chicken. The ingredients were simple, but it was exceptionally delicious.
After Zhang Hongqiang finished gnawing on it, Huang Guixiang sent him to the restroom to wash his hands and mouth. He even used soap to scrub them. His sister despised anyone who wasn’t clean; if he were dirty, his sister wouldn’t even speak to him.
“Sis, look, is my washing white enough?” Zhang Hongqiang stretched out his sun-darkened paws for Lin Wan’s inspection.
Lin Wan truly couldn’t utter words that went against her conscience. “Your teeth are quite white!”
Skin was black. It made his teeth look whiter.
Lin Wan stuffed a whole bag of sunflower seeds and candies into his pockets. “Go out for a stroll, be sweet with your mouth, and inadvertently let slip the news that Mom is anxious about wanting a house.”
“Just say Mom is a stepmother, her life at home is tough, her stepsons are already married, and they’re constantly guarding against her everywhere…”
“Say that Mom often sighs, wishing she had an independent small courtyard, and she’d be willing to do anything if she had one…”
“Be clever about it. Don’t say it proactively; if someone probes you with questions, speak about it inadvertently, understand?”
“Anyway, since our older brothers and sisters-in-law just left, they’re bound to be asking about our relationships, so that’s the perfect time to bring it up!”
Zhang Hongqiang patted his chest, guaranteeing, “Sis, I catch your drift!”
“Just you wait and see!”
“Task completion guaranteed!”
Lin Wan encouraged him, “Go on then, go for a stroll!”
See? Chicken legs served a purpose! They weren’t fed to him in vain! This fellow usually loved to act, imitating movie characters, and he even loved leading the neighborhood kids in skits—how else did he become the neighborhood’s king of children?
Lin Wan said to Huang Guixiang, “Mom, if we genuinely manage to secure a house, register it under your name.”
“After all, you were the one at the forefront from start to finish. I’m just a patient, I don’t know a thing!”
Huang Guixiang didn’t believe the matter would succeed, although a small courtyard might not necessarily be worth a thousand yuan. But money was easy to ask for; houses, however, were difficult. Every unit was currently short on housing. Many workers had five or six, even seven or eight people squeezed into thirty square meters.
Calculating it, the Zhang family’s living environment was considered relatively spacious. Even so, that was still 13 people squeezed into fifty square meters. With Zhang Qin gone, there were still 13 people. Plenty of married couples still lived in single dorms, having to rack their brains for ways to be intimate.
“Fine, Mom will listen to you!”
Huang Guixiang didn’t find it the slightest bit awkward to take the fall for her daughter. If she didn’t take the blame for her daughter, who would? Her daughter still had to maintain her reputation at her unit! She absolutely couldn’t involve the comrades at her own unit.
Zhang Hongqiang went out for a stroll and didn’t return for over an hour. That was only because Huang Guixiang noticed the late hour and went out to fetch him back. He was quite capable; he’d gathered a whole group of aunties and grandmothers in the regular ward, chatting and cracking sunflower seeds with them.
“What? The grandpa in Bed 12 was beaten by his daughter-in-law?”
“And his son didn’t dare say a word?”
“The grandpa in Bed 12 is truly pitiful. Isn’t this just raising a useless piece of trash!”
“When I marry a wife in the future, I must keep my eyes open. I need to find someone gentle, who can do housework, and will serve my mother and sister!” Zhang Hongqiang spoke with exaggerated expression. A middle-aged auntie teased him, “With your conditions, you won’t be able to find a partner!”
He didn’t take it to heart, waving his little hand dismissively. “Just increase the bride price a bit, that’s all!”
“Take Liu Yishou’s family in our compound, for example. He took a bride price of two hundred and married his youngest daughter off to a fifty-year-old geezer!”
Huang Guixiang: “…”
“Zhang Hongqiang!”
As this voice suppressed with fury rang out, Zhang Hongqiang shuddered instinctively, immediately stood up, and fled. “Goodbye, aunties and sisters-in-law! I’ll come back to chat with you tomorrow!”
Huang Guixiang twisted his ear and scolded him, “I’ll teach you to go outside and spout nonsense!”
“Is this old woman not packing you up enough?!”
“Demanding high bride prices? Do you have money? Daring to brag like that!”
“I think your skin is itching for a beating!”
The little monkey yelped in pain. “Hey, hey, hey, it hurts, hurts, hurts… Mom, Mom, Mom… be gentle… I was wrong… I’ll never spout nonsense again!” His demeanor drew a roar of laughter from the grandmothers and aunties.
Back in the ward, the moment the door was shut, Huang Guixiang reprimanded him: “I sent you to do serious business, what were you rambling on about?”
Zhang Hongqiang: “Mom, I finished the serious business already. Truly! The aunties all know it’s not easy being a stepmother like you, and that you want to find a house to move out!”
Huang Guixiang was half-convinced. However, she let him off at Lin Wan’s urging. How could a little boy be so fond of wagging his tongue? What exactly had she given birth to? It must be Old Zhang’s bad seeds! Her fertile soil was giving birth to twisted melons and split dates! Anyway, she could blame Heaven and Earth, but never herself, Huang Guixiang!
Lin Wan slept beautifully.
The next morning, Comrade Huang Guixiang dragged Zhang Hongqiang away early.
When Big Sister Gao arrived, Lin Wan was leaning against the head of the bed reading the Quotations. It was mandatory reading; she had to read it over and over. She had to be able to recite it backward. But honestly, the more one read and contemplated the Quotations, the more mellow they became, and the more profound they seemed. They truly contained endless power, capable of guiding the direction of one’s thoughts and behaviors.
“Little Lin, are you feeling better?” Big Sister Gao was also shocked. Comrade Lin Wan had actually secured a stay in a cadres’ ward!!! Even Section Chief Tang wasn’t qualified to stay here!
Lin Wan said with a smile, “Much better, Big Sister, hurry and have a seat!”
Big Sister Gao looked at the clean, spacious environment and asked, “I heard from the nurse that your husband helped arrange your transfer to this ward?”
Of course. Even if Section Chief Tang had told her to stay here, she wouldn’t have dared. She was afraid of being slapped with the label of capitalist hedonism. What did this signify? It signified that the power backing Lin Wan’s husband was immense, and he feared absolutely nothing.
Lin Wan said apologetically, “Yes, he was just worried that I’d get dizzy and feel unwell from walking back and forth to the restroom, and in a cadres’ ward, you don’t have to run back and forth.”
“By the way, my mom brought the milk powder you asked for.”
“It’s right inside the bedside cabinet, Big Sister Gao, help yourself. Each can is two jin. This is internal-use milk powder; department stores don’t sell this!”
It was some domestically produced zero-stage infant formula she had opened and transferred into the tins. It cost over forty yuan per bag; calculating at fifty, it totaled one hundred yuan.
Big Sister Gao hurriedly opened the bedside cabinet to retrieve the mesh bag containing the milk powder, then handed Lin Wan two “Great Unity” bills. The price had been agreed upon the previous day. Black market milk powder cost ten yuan per bag, and each bag was half a jin. Lin Wan’s two-jin can was equivalent to four bags. This price was truly conscientious!
Big Sister Gao was incredibly grateful!
Lin Wan actually made a decent profit, too. The purchasing power of money in the 1960s was at least ten times, maybe even a hundred times, that of modern times. Looking at wages: the lowest-tier workers in this era earned thirty-four yuan a month, while the lowest-tier wage slaves in the modern era earned three to four thousand. People in this era could save a significant portion of their thirty-four yuan. How many modern people earning three to four thousand could save anything? In other words, accounting for a tenfold inflation in currency, Lin Wan was making a fifty-percent profit on this can of milk powder.
“Wanwan, can you spare me a jin each of brown sugar, white sugar, and silver ear mushrooms?”
Lin Wan nodded. “Sure! I’ll tell my mom tonight to bring them home for you!”
A knock rang out at the door. Director Xu’s voice drifted in from outside.
Lin Wan hurriedly lay down and said to Big Sister Gao, “Big Sister Gao, just tell them I’ve just fallen asleep, and if there’s any business, tell them to go find my mom.”
“Say my head is dizzy right now, and the doctor strictly ordered absolute rest and no cognitive strain.”
