Chapter 55: Chen Ming Goes to the Countryside
Father Sheng had no choice but to silently fill the washbasin with hot water, wearing a deeply aggrieved expression as he carried it back to their bedroom. Mother Sheng watched his darkened face, utterly confused.
What is wrong with this man?
When Sheng Wanyan woke up the next morning, she was surprised to find her father in an incredibly buoyant mood. He had even taken the initiative to cook breakfast for her.
Sheng Wanyan stared at him in bewilderment. How could a grown man’s mood swing so wildly overnight?
“Here, my dear daughter,” Father Sheng beamed, placing an extra boiled egg into her bowl. “Eat up! And make sure you bring that cotton back safely tonight!”
Hearing this, Sheng Wanyan nearly tripped on her way out the door. She suddenly understood exactly why her father had been acting so aggrieved the night before. He had actually been feeling left out, suspecting that his wife and daughter were hatching secret plots and abandoning him!
Sheng Wanyan genuinely didn’t know whether to laugh or sigh. Why did her father occasionally act so incredibly silly?
Terrified that his sheer foolishness might be contagious, she grabbed her canvas bag and hurried out of the apartment to get to work. Behind her, Father Sheng waved cheerfully, smiling as warmly as a spring breeze.
The moment Wanyan left, Grandpa and Grandma Sheng headed downstairs for their morning stroll to chat with the neighbors. With the apartment empty, Father Sheng immediately scurried back to the bedroom to wake his wife.
“Wife, wake up!” he urged cheerfully. “You’re going to be late for work!”
Hearing this, Mother Sheng had no choice but to groan and drag herself out of bed, shooting him a groggy, irritated glare. Father Sheng just smiled brightly and hurried over to fetch her shoes.
After clocking out of her factory shift, Sheng Wanyan met Wu Jiaxiu at their usual fork in the road to finalize the details regarding the pork and cotton.
“Sister Jiaxiu, I’ve officially reserved twenty kilograms of pork for you,” Wanyan began. “As for the cotton, my contact said they can spare up to fifty kilograms. Do you want that much?”
Wu Jiaxiu’s eyes widened, shining with excitement. “I’ll take it all!” she declared instantly.
Who in their right mind would complain about having too much cotton? Her household had many members; if she only secured a small amount, rationing it out would leave everyone shivering.
“I’ll bring you the full amount in cash tomorrow,” Wu Jiaxiu promised, her voice thick with gratitude. She truly felt blessed to have a colleague like Wanyan. Thank goodness she wasn’t as short-sighted and greedy as Niu Fangli, who only ever thought about taking advantage of people for free. If she had acted like that, she’d still be pacing her apartment worrying about how to secure meat and winter clothes.
“Alright,” Wanyan nodded. “The cotton will cost 2.50 yuan per kilogram, and the price for the pork remains the same as last time.”
“Done.”
Wu Jiaxiu was incredibly straightforward. As long as the black-market price was reasonable and the goods were high quality, she accepted the terms without a second thought.
“By the way, Sister Jiaxiu,” Wanyan added casually, “doesn’t your husband work at the state coal factory?”
Hearing the question, Wu Jiaxiu instantly understood what her friend was getting at. “Yes, he does. Are you looking to buy coal briquettes?”
“Exactly. My family’s current briquette ration won’t be enough to last the entire winter, so I’m hoping to buy some extra stock to store on the balcony.”
Wu Jiaxiu pondered the request for a moment. She wasn’t entirely certain she could secure extra bulk fuel through her husband’s internal channels, given the strict state quotas.
“I’ll ask him about it tonight and see if he can manage to set some aside for you.”
“Thank you. Just get whatever you safely can; there’s no need to force it if it’s too risky,” Wanyan assured her.
Wu Jiaxiu smiled. Communicating with someone who inherently understood the unspoken rules of the world was always a comfortable experience.
“Alright, I’ll give you a firm answer in a few days.”
“Sounds good.”
Sheng Wanyan mounted her bicycle and pedaled toward home. When she was just a few blocks away from the tube-shaped building, she veered into a deserted alleyway, checked her surroundings, and pulled exactly thirty-nine kilograms of raw cotton from her spatial dimension. She stuffed the fluffy material into two massive woven nylon sacks, compressed them tightly, and strapped them securely to the rear rack of her bicycle.
Once she ensured the load was perfectly balanced, she rode the rest of the way home. Coincidentally, Father Sheng was just returning from his own shift. The moment he spotted her struggling with the massive sacks, he hurried over to help haul them up the stairs.
“Girl, you really did a spectacular job!” he praised, hoisting a sack over his shoulder. He felt a deep sense of pride; his daughter was becoming sharper and more methodical by the day, entirely shedding the naive, easily manipulated persona of her past.
Sheng Wanyan: “…” Thank you so much.
Terrified that her father might suddenly launch into another episode of dramatic sentimentality, Sheng Wanyan quickly finished dinner and retreated to the safety of her bedroom to tackle her daily translation quota.
After completing her assigned articles, Wanyan sat back and tapped her pen against the desk. Since she officially had a boyfriend now, shouldn’t she write a letter and mail it to Gu Tingxiao?
It had been five days since he departed Chengdu; he should be arriving back at his military base right about now. It was the perfect time to write a letter so it would be in transit while he settled in.
Wanyan’s calculations were spot on. The moment Gu Tingxiao arrived at his base, he formally reported to his superiors, dropped his gear in his quarters, and immediately sat down to write a letter to Sheng Wanyan.
As he wrote, his mind raced with questions. Will she actually write back? What will she say in her letter?
He couldn’t help but worry about how his girl was faring back in the city. Chen Ming’s five-day detention was scheduled to end the following day, meaning the thug would be forcibly escorted home to pack before being shipped off to the countryside.
He sincerely hoped Wanyan wouldn’t cross paths with another hooligan like that. The thought of her being bullied or harassed while he was stationed hundreds of miles away gnawed at him. And beneath that protective instinct lay a deeper, more selfish fear: he was terrified some other man would swoop in and steal her away.
Unable to shake his anxiety, Gu Tingxiao pulled out a second sheet of stationery and drafted an urgent letter to his aunt, Gu Tong, in Chengdu. He practically begged her to keep a close, protective eye on the little girl and instructed her to send a telegram directly to his commanding officer if anything untoward happened.
Once he finished, he reviewed both letters meticulously, ensuring there were no errors or security breaches, before sealing them and handing them over to the base courier.
While she was being fiercely missed by a man hundreds of miles away, Sheng Wanyan was living a remarkably comfortable life. However, when she stepped out of her apartment the following morning, she walked right into a public spectacle: Chen Ming was being forcibly escorted back to the compound to pack his luggage.
The residents of the tube-shaped building were treating the scene like premium morning entertainment, clustering around the stairwells and gossiping with the same ravenous energy as village aunties gathered under a banyan tree.
Chen Ming had been locked in a detention cell for five days, and the experience had taken a brutal toll. He was so emaciated he was practically skin and bones, looking as though a strong gust of wind would blow him over.
When Mother Chen saw the state of her youngest son, she threw her arms around him and wailed in agony, venomously cursing the Sheng family for their perceived cruelty.
“My precious son!” she shrieked. “How did you become so thin?! Those wicked beasts!”
“It’s all the Sheng family’s fault! If they had just agreed to bail you out, my boy wouldn’t have to suffer like this!”
Mother Chen’s hatred for the Shengs had mutated into a blinding obsession; she fully convinced herself that the Sheng family was entirely responsible for her household’s current ruin.
The two stern police officers flanking Chen Ming stepped forward, forcibly separating the wailing mother from her son.
“Pack your belongings quickly!” one officer barked, checking his watch. “You have exactly ten minutes before we depart for the transport station!”
Hearing the harsh finality in the officer’s voice, Chen Ming felt his entire world collapse. He had been a proud, permanent state worker with a stable salary, yet his entire youth and future had been obliterated in a matter of days.
When Mother Chen heard the officers rush them, her eyes rolled back and she nearly fainted on the spot. Her two elder daughters-in-law had to hastily grab her arms and drag her up the stairs.
As Chen Ming was being hauled up the stairwell, he found himself face-to-face with Sheng Wanyan, who was calmly walking down to head to work. Chen Ming locked eyes with her, his gaze burning with a rabid, venomous hatred, staring at her as though she were his mortal enemy.
Sheng Wanyan couldn’t be bothered to entertain his tantrum. She didn’t even grant him a second glance, casually brushing past him. To her, this man was nothing more than a pathetic thug. She had better things to do—like going to work and making money—than to waste a single second of her life acknowledging his existence.
“You bitch! BITCH!” Chen Ming screamed after her, gnashing his teeth so violently it was terrifying to witness.
He watched Sheng Wanyan’s confident, energetic silhouette disappear out the front doors, his entire body trembling with impotent rage. Just a week ago, he had been a high-spirited, arrogant factory worker; now, he was a ruined convict being dragged to a wasteland.
Sheng Wanyan is a ruthless monster! he thought feverishly. I will never let her get away with this!
When he eventually found a way to claw his way back to the city, he swore he would make Sheng Wanyan kneel in the dirt and beg for his mercy!
“Hurry it up and move!” the escorting officer snapped impatiently, shoving him forward. The officer coldly reiterated that he had exactly ten minutes to pack and was strictly limited to a few basic sets of clothing.
Hearing that her son was forbidden from taking any of the heavy winter provisions or comforts she had prepared, Mother Chen let out a strangled gasp and fainted for real.
In the end, all the massive duffel bags Mother Chen had frantically packed went completely unused. Chen Ming was only permitted to carry away two simple sets of clothes before being marched out of the building and forced onto a transport truck bound for the most remote countryside.
Even if he wanted to run, he had absolutely nowhere to go.
To Sheng Wanyan, Chen Ming was nothing more than a brief, absurd farce in the grand tapestry of her life. As for his deranged vows of revenge?
Oh, please.
By the time he served his sentence and managed to crawl back to the city, it would likely be 1977—the year the national college entrance examinations were historically reinstated. And since Chen Ming now possessed a formal criminal record for hooliganism, he would be permanently barred from taking the exams or securing a decent future anyway.
