Making Inquiries

The sky was just beginning to brighten when Bai Yao woke early and realized it was going to be another scorching day.

Honestly, at temperatures like these, without air conditioning or a fan, sleeping in was a luxury he could only dream of.

Of course, he could still sleep, but in his dreams he might plunge into a sea of fire one moment and dive into the Eight Trigrams Furnace the next.

And forget about "a tranquil heart keeps you naturally cool." Bai Yao didn't know whether that worked for anyone else, but he couldn't keep his heart tranquil.

Especially!

Not with Kong Wu there to disturb his Dao heart.

How could he possibly find peace of mind under those circumstances? Unless he were dead.

He got up and stepped outside, where he saw Kong Wu preparing breakfast.

They had steamed quite a lot of buns the night before, so breakfast didn't take much effort. They only had to heat a few and mix up a bowl of malted milk powder.

Since it was such a simple breakfast, Bai Yao didn't compete with Kong Wu to make it.

Instead, he fetched a basin of water and went to wash up.

The icy well water also delivered Bai Yao from the torment of the heat.

A little while later, the work call sounded, and the two of them were already eating breakfast.

After breakfast, Bai Yao didn't rush out that day. He stayed home a little longer before leaving.

Less than two minutes after they reached the brigade headquarters, they began collecting their tools and heading off to work.

The work was the same as yesterday. Bai Yao and Kong Wu were still pulling weeds, but today they were the only two doing it.

Because Hu Yang was injured, Jiang Rou had gone to cut grass.

With only two people pulling weeds, Bai Yao and Kong Wu had been assigned less work as well.

They only had one mu of land. Although it had rather more weeds, the job was still worth ten work points.

A closer look revealed that most of the weeds in that mu were actually wild greens. It was clear the village chief and the others were looking out for them.

After all, weeding had one benefit: they could take whatever they pulled home. Wild greens in particular were free, so who wouldn't treasure them?

Just like yesterday, Bai Yao slacked off on the sly while Kong Wu worked hard.

Once the weeds had been cleared from more than half a mu, Bai Yao called Kong Wu over for a break.

This time, though, they didn't rest as long as they had yesterday. They had a drink of water, rested for five minutes, and went back to work.

With the day so hot, Bai Yao thought it would be better to finish early and head home.

Kong Wu had no problem with it. The heat didn't affect him anyway.

But since Bai Yao had said so, Kong Wu went back to work, while Bai Yao sorted through the wild greens. Some of the old leaves needed to be picked off.

It was troublesome, but these greens were the fruit of Kong Wu's hard work. They couldn't just let them go to waste.

While he was sorting them, a middle-aged woman came over to his side.

"Educated Youth Bai, sorting wild greens, are you? That's quite a lot of them. You can't eat them all in one meal, so you can dry the rest and save them for later."

Bai Yao looked up at her words, and the first thing he noticed was the visitor's most distinctive feature: her inverted triangle eyes. So even though she spoke politely, Bai Yao still had the feeling she was no pushover.

He didn't know what she wanted with him, but she had spoken so politely that he couldn't very well ignore her. So he followed her lead and continued the conversation.

"Thank you, Auntie. I really didn't know you could dry them to store them. I was thinking of making them all into buns." Bai Yao kept working as he spoke.

The middle-aged woman hadn't expected that answer. Steamed buns required white flour, after all, and that was refined grain—precious stuff.

Besides, for wild greens buns to taste good, they needed animal fat. Without plenty of it, they had no flavor at all.

Wasting so much on a few wild greens wasn't how village families lived.

All she could say was that these educated youths really had money.

With that thought, the middle-aged woman was even more tempted by the idea in her heart.

"Educated Youth Bai, Auntie came to ask you something." As she spoke, she squatted down to help Bai Yao sort the wild greens.

Bai Yao's hands paused for a moment at the sight, then resumed working. Smiling, he said, "Go ahead and ask, Auntie. If I know, I'll tell you."

"Educated Youth Bai, did you know that Educated Youth Jiang, who came here with you, bought a bicycle too? She rode it back last night. Brand-new, it was." Her eyes were full of envy as she spoke.

Bai Yao looked surprised. "I didn't know."

As he spoke, he moved a pile of unsorted wild greens from beside him to the middle-aged woman's side and said:

"Auntie, surely you didn't come to ask about the bicycle? It's nothing, really. Look, I bought one myself. It's not a big deal."

"No, that's not what I wanted to talk about. Educated Youth Bai, you must know Educated Youth Jiang pretty well, right?"

Out of the corner of his eye, Bai Yao saw that Auntie hadn't slowed her work while she talked, so he answered with a smile:

"Well enough, I suppose."

"Then do you know what her family's situation is?"

"No, I don't."

"Educated Youth Bai, don't lie to Auntie. Didn't you just say you knew her pretty well?"

"I didn't say that. I only said well enough. I just know a little about her." As Bai Yao spoke, he handed Auntie another pile of unsorted wild greens.

When it came to sorting wild greens, the village aunties were far better at it than he was.

"A little, is it? Then tell Auntie about her."

"What do you want to know? Her family members, her family background, or what her family does for work?"

"Any of it, any of it." The middle-aged woman grew excited. That was exactly what she wanted to know.

Bai Yao said, "I don't know. All I know is that she's from West City."

At those words, the middle-aged woman flew into a rage. She sprang to her feet and glared at him with her inverted triangle eyes. "Educated Youth Bai, are you messing with me? You—"

Before she could finish, Bai Yao cut her off. "I know Educated Youth Jiang has quite a lot of money."

With that one sentence, the middle-aged woman squatted back down. She resumed working and put on an ingratiating smile. "Educated Youth Bai, why did you have to pause so long before saying that? See, that's just the sort of thing Auntie wants to know."

Then she waited for Bai Yao to go on.

Bai Yao fell silent for a while. Just as she was about to lose her temper again, he finally spoke at a leisurely pace. "I only know she has quite a lot of money. Didn't you say she bought a bicycle? That costs over a hundred yuan."

When he saw her stop working, Bai Yao promptly moved the wild greens Kong Wu had brought over in front of her, then fell silent again.

How could the middle-aged woman fail to understand what was happening? Though angry, she swallowed it and continued working.

Only when she got back to work did Bai Yao speak again.

"Auntie, you're asking about Educated Youth Jiang. Has someone taken a fancy to her?"

"Mm, my youngest son has taken a fancy to her, so I'm asking around about her." She stopped beating around the bush now. She could see that Bai Yao wasn't easy to fool.

Seeing that she hadn't slowed down, Bai Yao smiled and said, "Then your youngest son has a good eye. Our Educated Youth Jiang has looks, money, and ability. If he marries her, she'll definitely keep the household in perfect order."