As soon as the official appointment was announced, Zhou Cang undoubtedly immediately became the most talked-about person in the Village.
Ordinary families were envious, but also sympathetic; a half-grown boy had to earn his own living, with no parents to take care of him, which was quite pitiful.
However, some people didn't see it that way, especially in Fugui's second uncle Zhang Deben's house, where Zhang Deben had recently been driven almost mad by his wife's nagging.
Nowadays, everyone was generally in a state of not having enough to eat; every family was poor, so no one laughed at anyone else.
But only Zhang Fugui was different; not only could he go into the mountains to hunt and get meat, but he also got a Forest Ranger job, eight yuan a month!
The salary was the small part; the big part was that the hunted game could be exchanged for money and goods!
A silly boy who had lost his parents actually had a turn of luck!
That little hussy Zhang Yue even wore a new floral padded jacket!
Liu Guixiang's eyes were practically red with jealousy!
Eighteen or nineteen-year-old lads from other families in the Village could only work in the fields to earn work points, and being considered a full-fledged laborer was already impressive. What kind of dog shit luck did this Fugui run into?
"You good-for-nothing!" Liu Guixiang pointed at Zhang Deben's nose and cursed,
"I told you to go find Director Li, but you kept putting it off, from today to tomorrow, and tomorrow to the day after!"
"How did I end up with such a useless wretch like you!"
Zhang Deben, angered by the scolding, retorted, "Get the hell out of here, what do you women know? Could I go empty-handed?"
"Don't you need to bring something decent when you ask someone for a favor?"
"If you hadn't instigated me to withhold his relief grain before, would I have offended him?"
Zhang Deben sat on the edge of the kang, silently puffing on his pipe, only briefly sitting upright when he wanted to retort, and then hunching back again after speaking.
"Offend what offend? You're his biological uncle! There's no overnight grudge, understand?" Liu Guixiang poked Zhang Deben's forehead,
"Go to Fugui's house again in a bit, and talk to him nicely. I heard he caught a lot of fish these past two days!"
Zhang Deben twisted his butt towards the wall, turning his back on his wife, "I'm not going, I was kicked out last time. Fugui doesn't acknowledge me!"
He still shivered inside when he thought of the scene from last time. That kid Fugui, the ruthlessness in his eyes, he didn't treat him like an uncle at all.
"Coward! You're not going, are you? I'll go!"
With that, Liu Guixiang gave Zhang Deben's calf a hard kick, right on his shinbone. Zhang Deben let out an 'ow' and exclaimed, "Ow, damn it!"
With his hands tucked into his sleeves, he strode with his two long, thin legs, and in a short while, he arrived at Zhou Cang's house gate.
By this time, Zhou Cang had also long been home. He checked the newly issued gun and bullets, put them away, and placed them behind the kang cabinet.
On the large kang in Northeast rural areas, the side near the stove is called the kang head, and the other side is called the kang tail.
Usually, two cabinets are placed at the kang tail for storing things, and neatly folded quilts are placed on top during the day.
It was almost noon after returning from the Production Team meeting, so he didn't plan to go into the mountains today.
So Zhou Cang and Zhang Yue re-sorted and bagged the fish they had caught these past few days according to size.
They had a bountiful harvest these past few days. Among all the fish they brought back, the largest weighed seven or eight jin. Zhou Cang never expected that a seemingly insignificant Paizi could yield such large wild fish.
They kept some of each variety and size of fish for their own consumption, and the rest were sorted by size into different gunny sacks.
Finally, some small, crushed miscellaneous fish were also put into a separate bag.
This was prepared to be ground up for noob and mixed with cornmeal.
"After all, you can't feed a fox big fish and meat every day. This is still better than it starving nine meals out of three days in the wild!"
These were Zhou Cang's original words, completely disregarding noob's resentful gaze.
Liu Guixiang stood at the main gate of Zhou Cang's house, craning her neck to peer inside. She saw bags and bags of fish, and she knew she had to swallow her pride and get some back today!
"I even carried Fugui when he was a child!" Liu Guixiang thought to herself, then pushed open the courtyard gate and walked in.
"Oh, Fugui, so many fish!"
"?"
Zhou Cang looked back at her, didn't recognize who she was, and then searched Fugui's memories in his mind.
"Uh... Second Aunt, is something wrong?" Zhou Cang asked.
"Ah, nothing much, I just happened to pass by your house, so I dropped in to see you!" Liu Guixiang quickly said.
Fugui's memory had no information about this woman, only that she was his second uncle Zhang Deben's wife.
To Zhou Cang, she was just an ordinary villager with no particular connection.
If there was any connection, it was the kind that would subtract points, even worse than other villagers.
So he didn't show much enthusiasm.
As for Zhang Yue, she simply ignored her, only focusing on quickly bagging the fish.
As if she was afraid this woman would snatch them.
Zhou Cang smiled, watching Zhang Yue's quickening movements, and said,
"I'm doing well, thank you for your concern, Second Aunt!"
Liu Guixiang was a bit uncomfortable with his lukewarm, polite attitude, and she even forgot the speech she had prepared.
Fugui wasn't like this before, was he? Wasn't Fugui a bit simple-minded? How did he seem like a shrewd and cunning person now?
"Fugui, Second Aunt wants to ask you for a favor!"
Being tough definitely wouldn't work, so she might as well try being soft. Anyway, there were no outsiders here.
"What favor, Second Aunt, just say it!" Zhou Cang had already started moving the gunny sacks to the storeroom.
The fish were frozen solid, and the Cylinder could no longer hold them. He planned to hang the gunny sacks from the storeroom rafters to prevent mice from stealing them.
"These fish, could you give Second Aunt two to try?" Liu Guixiang said with a shameless grin. Asking for things from a junior, a normal person would certainly feel embarrassed.
But in her view, eating it was what mattered, and only those who had been hungry understood this point.
"This matter," Zhou Cang thought for a moment. Although he didn't want to give any, it seemed difficult to refuse a senior woman begging in such a low posture.
After all, they still had to live in the same Village.
So he picked up a small bag and said, "If you don't mind, inside are some broken ones and..."
"Oh, I don't mind, thank you, Fugui!" Without waiting for Zhou Cang to finish, Liu Guixiang snatched the bag and ran off like a shot.
Zhou Cang stared at her retreating figure, a bit stunned. This Second Aunt ran quite fast.
He turned around and saw Zhang Yue and noob pouting at him.
"Brother Fugui, why did you give away the crushed fish guts that were left for noob?"
"Chirp chirp!"
"Uh, it's okay, anyway, I'll go hunting again tomorrow, there's plenty of fish!"
Liu Guixiang carried the bag. She couldn't bear to eat these fish herself; she had to make her husband take them to Director Li at the Steel Factory in the County.
She absolutely had to get their son into the factory as a worker!
When that time came, with a worker in the family, which family in the Village wouldn't look up to her, Liu Guixiang!
In a few years, she could leave this desolate Village with its poor mountains and harsh waters and go live in the County town!
Thinking of this, Liu Guixiang ran home as if her feet had wings!