I Get a Share Too?

This program was produced by Tomato Listening. Episode 47: I Get a Share Too!

"Little sis, why'd you come so late?"

"Quick, stand up front!"

Fatty Li said, waggling his eyebrows at her.

Lin Yuzhu froze for a moment, then saw Fatty Li constantly shifting backward and forcibly squeezing out a spot for her.

Even though cutting in line was shameful, Lin Yuzhu shamelessly stepped over.

Then she heard Fatty Li mutter quietly, "Sis, I'm telling you, they only steamed two batches of these pork buns. If you stand at the back, you won't be able to buy any at all."

Lin Yuzhu looked enlightened. She nodded and muttered back, "Oh, thanks, Fatty Li!"

"Am... am I really that fat?"

"I've lost quite a bit of weight lately."

Looking at his plump face quivering with every movement, Lin Yuzhu smiled until her eyes curved. "You can't say you're a little fat. You can only say you're really fat." She still remembered him calling her short.

Hurts had to go both ways.

Fatty Li was struck hard by that. Lin Yuzhu quickly said with a grin, "Hehehe, I'm just teasing you, Fatty Li. You're not fat, not fat at all!"

Fatty Li was speechless. Would he still believe that?

"I heard that as long as someone has firm faith, they can succeed at anything."

"There was a fat girl on my street. After hearing that, she got up every morning, knelt beside her bed, and chanted, 'I'll definitely lose weight.' Guess what happened?"

Fatty Li was engrossed and asked, "What happened?"

"Well, she really did lose weight. She got as skinny as me. Really!"

Fatty Li's narrow, slitted eyes widened a little, and she cried out as if she actually believed it.

Lin Yuzhu had not expected people in this era to be so easy to fool. Fatty Li had not been this gullible when haggling at the Black Market that day. Why did she seem a little lacking in intelligence today?

Lin Yuzhu gave a light cough and said quite sincerely, "I really don't know whether she lost weight or not. Anyway, that fat girl said so herself."

"I think you can give it a try. It won't cost you a piece of flesh, and what if it really works? Don't you think?"

Lin Yuzhu continued to spout nonsense with a straight face.

That was right.

"The key is to have firm faith and believe in yourself."

Fatty Li blinked, pondering it over and over, then asked suspiciously.

"That girl really did slim down. She looked so much prettier after losing weight."

Lin Yuzhu nodded with a smile, then asked, "Fatty Li, your living conditions must be pretty good. I see you eating at this restaurant every day. What kind of job do you do to have so much money?"

After circling around for so long, Lin Yuzhu finally got to the point. Thinking it was just casual chat, Fatty Li said, "Sigh, I'm a clerk in Liang Village. My monthly wages are only enough to feed me. No one at home looks after me, so I have no choice but to buy food at restaurants."

"And I bring some for Jun too. Ever since he became a mailman, he's had even less time to eat. He doesn't have any family here either."

Halfway through, Fatty Li stopped talking, seeming to have some misgivings.

Lin Yuzhu pretended not to notice and continued chatting with a warm smile.

"From the sound of it, Fatty Li, your family doesn't look after you?"

She sounded somewhat sympathetic after saying that.

Perhaps because she had found someone who understood, Fatty Li felt even more pitiful. After a sigh, she said, "Sigh, my mother passed away, and my father remarried. My stepmother doesn't like me."

"Once I got a job, they kicked me out."

Lin Yuzhu was speechless. This stepmother was not very clever. Fatty Li could earn money now, yet she had still driven her out? That was pretty excessive. She had let her go without even plucking her feathers—what a waste of being a stepmother.

A clerk in Liang Village had an even more desirable position than a clerk at the Supply and Marketing Cooperative. The salary was not high, but they could buy grain without ration coupons. That made Fatty Li's Black Market dealings somewhat more understandable.

Lin Yuzhu was still very curious about the mailman and Fatty Li's ultimate purpose in following her that day. She had analyzed it afterward. They had likely followed her because she had not sold much of the goods in her hands, and that auntie's probing questions had made them want to know the source. If they wanted to know the source, that meant they liked the quality of the goods even more.

Yet the things they had said at the restaurant did not make them seem particularly invested.

Lin Yuzhu boldly guessed that they might also have their eyes on the source of the goods in the female lead's hands.

Following her had merely been incidental.

She had suspected at the time that the two were spies sent by Liang Zhan, but in the blink of an eye, one of them had become a mailman.

She had also been confused. Why had a perfectly good clerk become a mailman?

Thinking about it now, perhaps he had been filling in for Fatty Li that day. But why would a mailman and a grain station sales clerk be tracing the source of the female lead's grain?

Did they want to monopolize the source and resell the goods?

That was not impossible.

Lin Yuzhu could not figure it out no matter how much she thought about it.

Before Lin Yuzhu had sorted out her thoughts, Fatty Li said again, "I know what's going on. You asked so many questions because you actually wanted to find out about Jun. Sigh, but I can't say much about him. Once you two are really together, let him tell you himself."

Lin Yuzhu was full of question marks. Looking at Fatty Li's sly expression, she was utterly baffled. What did that mean?

Seeing her play dumb, Fatty Li wore an expression like she understood everything and said mysteriously, "You two obviously like each other. Why don't you just say it?"

"My brother too, and you too. If you like someone, just say it openly. Don't hide it until the end."

"Neither of you knows anything."

Lin Yuzhu was a little stunned. What had Fatty Li imagined? She asked in confusion, "Your brother likes me?"

Fatty Li looked around, then muttered in a low voice, "Yesterday, when you and your sister went back, Jun deliberately followed behind to protect you two. We didn't leave until we saw you enter the courtyard."

Lin Yuzhu's eyes widened. She had not even noticed someone following behind her.

Thinking back to yesterday's howling wind and pitch-black night, she had ridden home entirely by instinct and truly had not paid attention to what was behind her.

"Your brother really is a kindhearted person."

Lin Yuzhu said with a chuckle.

Eh? Why did her reaction not seem to be what Fatty Li had expected?

Fatty Li wondered to herself.

After the two had chatted for so long, the waitress standing beside the steamer finally lifted the lid and began selling.

It was time.

Lin Yuzhu was truly impressed. Before the appointed time, they would not start even half a minute early. Only then did the line begin to move.

By the time it was Lin Yuzhu's turn, only half a jin of pork buns remained. Seeing the long line behind her, how could she possibly have the nerve to buy them all? She asked for half a jin of buns. As usual, the waitress did not smile and lazily put three buns into oiled paper for her.

Lin Yuzhu took the hot meat buns and stepped out of the line. After waiting for Fatty Li to come out, and for everyone else to finish buying theirs, Lin Yuzhu said, "Fatty Li, when I talked to you today, I wasn't trying to pry."

"Mm, I think you misunderstood. We're not even familiar with each other."

Seeing how serious she was, Fatty Li wondered whether she had really misunderstood.

Fatty Li nodded, somewhat slow to react. "Then maybe I got the wrong idea."

"Sigh, maybe my brother is just pining after you alone."

Lin Yuzhu stared at Fatty Li for a long while, speechless.

Having a younger sister like this, it was fortunate Jun had not been angered to death.

"Who knows?"

Lin Yuzhu said with a dry laugh.

After the two parted ways for no apparent reason, Lin Yuzhu shook her head and ate her buns as she thought. Maybe Jun had truly just been kindhearted. Who fell in love after meeting only once? Although she was good-looking, she still needed some self-awareness.

Lin Yuzhu decided not to take Fatty Li's words to heart. How normal could someone be if they believed her nonsense?

When the Educated Youth gathered up, Lin Yuzhu still had half a basket of grain.

Zhang Yanqiu stared at that half basket of grain for quite a while before sighing faintly. "When you borrowed money before, you said you had no money. I was even worried about you. But now it seems you were merely making excuses because you didn't want to lend me any."

Some people were like that. They clearly knew what was going on, yet still insisted on asking for proof. In the end, other than losing face, what did they gain?

"After deducting the money I spent on grain, I really don't have any extra money to lend anyone!"

Lin Yuzhu looked at her aunt with a smile. Wasn't that normal?

Was she supposed to starve herself just to accommodate her?

Dong Tiantian now also knew that Zhang Yanqiu was interested in Li Xiangbei. Thinking of someone from an ordinary family, someone who did not even have money to buy grain, trying to climb the social ladder, how could she have the nerve?

Did she think she was a sparrow turning into a phoenix?

Dream on!

She despised people who overestimated themselves and could not see things clearly. She immediately mocked, "Sister Qiu, that's where you're wrong. How could someone starve herself for someone else? How important would that person have to be for someone to do that?"

Zhang Yanqiu's face instantly turned livid. Was Dong Tiantian calling her shameless?

Dong Tiantian covered her mouth and laughed beside them. Lin Yuzhu lowered her head without speaking. This had nothing to do with her.

Zhao Xianglan hurriedly played the peacemaker, smiling as she said, "All right, now that everyone's here, let's go. This pile of broken furniture is meant to be taken back, repaired, and used by us. Everyone, lend a hand and carry a little."

Looking at the pile of tables, chairs, and benches behind Zhao Xianglan, all missing arms and legs, Lin Yuzhu was utterly speechless. How much effort would it take to carry all that back?

Her eyes sparkling, she looked at Zhao Xianglan and asked.

"Do we get a share too?"

Lin Yuzhu's question nearly made Zhao Xianglan lose her composure. Even the smile on her lips became less natural.

"I figured your new home already has everything, so I didn't get a share for you and Sister Xiao Wan."

Lin Yuzhu nodded, then said excitedly, "Then should I help carry some?"

Zhao Xianglan had originally planned to do exactly that. Hadn't she gotten so much furniture because of Lin Yuzhu's meddling? If she did not make Lin Yuzhu put in some effort now, how could she vent the resentment in her heart?

But seeing Lin Yuzhu's eager expression, she hesitated. With Wang Xiaomei's temperament, what kind of good person could someone who stayed with her be?

The words at the tip of her tongue were swallowed back down.

"Uh, no need. There isn't much. We can carry it ourselves."

Hearing that, Li Xiangwan happily stood there without moving.

The Dong Sisters were unwilling to look at that pile of dirty, broken wood.

Dong Tiantian pouted and said unhappily.

"I can't."

Zhao Xianglan's expression became even more unnatural. She was angry inside, thinking that she had paid for all this. If they did not take it back, how could she ask them for money?

"These are all things we're taking back to use."

Zhao Xianglan said as though making a great concession.