Section 3

Gu Jinshui handed Shanhu and Douzi cigarettes. "We're not doing business today. We're going to ask around about something."

Neither Shanhu nor Douzi said a word.

Plenty of people had been sent to the countryside alongside Chen Shiwen. Gu Jinshui had already asked around and learned of several educated youths who had been sent to Yunnan with him.

Those educated youths lived around Dongdan, so the three of them took a bus over.

They tracked down several people to ask, but each one either clammed up or stammered evasively.

"Are you going to talk or not?"

Shanhu hoisted a scrawny man off the ground. The man went pale but forced himself to say, "I really don't know anything. If you've got the guts, kill me. Otherwise, I'll report you to the police, and you'll all end up locked up!"

"You're asking for it!" Shanhu's face and neck flushed with rage, and his huge fist was about to come down.

The man squeezed his eyes shut in fear.

"Shanhu." Gu Jinshui, who was standing by the wall, stopped him. He glanced down the street and, seeing no Public Security officers, walked over. "Put him down."

Thud.

The man landed hard on his backside, his face changing colors like a dye shop.

Gu Jinshui crouched, braced his hands on his knees, and looked down at him. "Zhou Kangyong, right? You're an educated man. You know it's better to offend a gentleman than a petty man, don't you? My buddies and I are troublemakers, hoodlums. We're no good, anyway. You can report us and try to get us locked up, but you'll need evidence. If we don't hit you or curse at you and just follow you around every day, what can the police do?"

Large beads of sweat broke out on Zhou Kangyong's forehead.

He had had no idea Chen Shiwen's girlfriend had a family like this. His lips trembled for a long time. "Chen Shiwen has something on me too. All I can tell you is that your sister shouldn't marry him."

"You're still holding out!" Shanhu clenched his fist in anger.

"Shanhu, forget it. Let him go." Gu Jinshui had a fair idea what was going on. One person refusing to talk might have been a coincidence, but when none of them would talk, it meant Chen Shiwen had made arrangements in advance.

After letting Zhou Kangyong go, the three of them went into a state-run restaurant and ordered steamed buns.

Gu Jinshui put down his chopsticks after eating five buns. Douzi looked up at him. "Boss, if we keep digging, it won't be easy. We don't know anyone in Yunnan."

"Just eat. I know what I'm doing." Gu Jinshui took a drink of water. He figured he would have to start with his daughter and see if he could find any more clues.

At noon.

Gu Yinxing had just finished giving a patient an injection and was heading to lunch when she stepped out and found Chen Shiwen standing outside the office.

He was holding an aluminum lunch box wrapped in cotton cloth.

"Yin Xing."

Hearing her footsteps, Chen Shiwen turned around with a gentle smile.

"Yin Xing, did your boyfriend bring you lunch?" Several nurses came out of the office and teased her.

Gu Yinxing managed a thin smile, then glared at Chen Shiwen. "Let's talk outside."

Everyone at the hospital knew her. She had no desire to put on a show for them.

After they left Friendship Hospital and walked a short distance, the surroundings grew much quieter.

Gu Yinxing tucked her hands into her pockets. "Why are you still coming to see me? Aren't we through?"

"Through? No, we're not." Chen Shiwen grabbed her hand anxiously. "Yin Xing, my mother was wrong yesterday. I honestly knew nothing about the bride price. I apologize for her."

"Let go!" Gu Yinxing glared at him. "Are you going to let go or not?"

"No!" Her coldness sent Chen Shiwen into a panic. He really did care for her. "Yin Xing, how can you be so heartless? Are you throwing away everything between us over what happened yesterday?"

If he had kept quiet about it, that would have been one thing. Bringing it up made Gu Yinxing want to smash his head in with a brick.

Gu Yinxing had cared about her dignity since she was little. She was pretty enough to carry off her pride, too. But if people learned that, after being so choosy, she had picked a man like him, she would be so ashamed she could throw herself into the Beiding River!

"Get lost, Chen Shiwen. Don't try that on me. If you really cared, your mother wouldn't have said those things yesterday." The more Gu Yinxing thought about it, the angrier she grew, until her cheeks burned red. "We're done!"

"No, Yin Xing!"

Chen Shiwen panicked.

He dropped the lunch box and lunged at her, aiming a kiss at her cheek.

Gu Yinxing froze for an instant, partly from anger and partly because she had never imagined Chen Shiwen could be so shameless.

"What do you think you're doing? Trying to assault her?"

A steady male voice rang out. Before Chen Shiwen could react, someone gripped his shoulder and slammed him to the ground. It was the dead of winter, and the ground was covered in grit. He yelped in pain.

"Comrade, are you all right?"

Yan Ren held Chen Shiwen down before looking over at Gu Yinxing.

Gu Yinxing blinked twice. Then she came to her senses, furious, and punched Chen Shiwen several times in the face. "You bastard! You tried to take advantage of me? Have you got a death wish, you rotten scoundrel?"

Yan Ren: "..."

He had spotted the young woman from a distance and taken her for a pushover. He had not expected her to have such sharp spines.

Once Gu Yinxing had vented enough, Yan Ren coughed. "That's about enough, comrade. If you draw blood, things could get troublesome."

His words brought Gu Yinxing up short.

She pulled back her hand, gave Chen Shiwen a kick, then smoothed her hair and took a proper look at her rescuer.

When she saw what Yan Ren looked like, a flicker of regret crossed her mind.

The soldier was tall, with a close-cropped haircut, broad shoulders, long legs, strong brows, and bright eyes. He was better-looking than any movie star.

But she quickly set that regret aside. Nothing felt better than having let out her anger.

"Thank you, comrade."

Gu Yinxing thanked him.

"You're welcome. What do you want to do with him? Take him to Public Security, or...?" Yan Ren did not make the decision for her. From what he had seen, the two clearly knew each other. Matters between men and women were always complicated, and taking it upon himself to decide would only make things difficult for her.

"Yin Xing, you... you can't report me to the police."

Chen Shiwen looked up at Gu Yinxing with pleading, swollen eyes.

Gu Yinxing looked at him and curled her lip. "Will you ever try that again?"

She knew she could not let the matter blow up. For one thing, Chen Shiwen had only tried to kiss her and failed; the police would not be able to charge him with much. For another, plenty of people resented her. If word got out, there was no telling how ugly the rumors would become.

"No. I'll never do it again," Chen Shiwen said quickly.

Gu Yinxing looked at Yan Ren, a little embarrassed. He understood and released Chen Shiwen. "Then we'll leave it at that."

He checked his watch. "I have something to do at the hospital. You..."

His gaze fell on Gu Yinxing's blue nurse's uniform. She quickly said, "I'll go with you."

Toward evening.

Gu Yinxing rode her Forever bicycle into the Compound Courtyard.

As she parked at the entrance, she caught sight of a little girl poking her head out of the East Wing Room before quickly ducking back inside.

Gu Yinxing curled her lip, lifted the curtain, and went in. After taking a drink of water, she said to He Chunlian, who had long since returned from work, "Mom, what's with the granddaughter next door? She's only a few years old, and she's already learned to spy on people?"

The little girl was Song Chaohua, Huang Xirong's granddaughter.

Gu Yinxing had never paid the child much attention. She remembered Song Chaohua's younger brother, Song Dabao, far better. After Huang Xirong got her grandson Da Bao, she would have shouted to the entire Compound Courtyard about how high he could pee if she could.

"I feel sorry for that child. I just saw her washing diapers outside," Liang Ying said as she came out of the room. Being a mother herself, she could not help feeling for the girl. "She's only four, and they already make her work. Her family's too harsh."

"She is pitiful," He Chunlian said. "But every time I see her, I feel uneasy. Something about her isn't right."

Little did they know that Song Chaohua also felt that something was not right.

Song Chaohua had been reborn at the start of the year.

Her previous life had been hard. Her parents favored sons over daughters and had little ability to provide for the family. Her aunt had married Chen Shiwen, an abusive man who made her life so miserable that she came home crying every few days. As soon as Song Chaohua was old enough, her family married her off to an aging bachelor for the bride price.

One day, when she returned to her parents' home, she saw their old neighbors, Old Gu's family, moving out of the Compound Courtyard and into a Courtyard House. Gu Yousi, a few years younger than her, ran out of the courtyard smiling, dressed in the trendiest dress and leather shoes from the department store.

Song Chaohua had been consumed by envy.

She could not understand why her family had to suffer so much, or why, when they were both girls, Gu Yousi could live in comfort with loving parents.

So the first thing she had done after her rebirth was stop her aunt from pursuing Chen Shiwen and steer him toward a blind date with Gu Yinxing instead.

Everything had gone smoothly at first, but just as success seemed within reach, something appeared to have gone wrong.

Song Chaohua bit her lip.

Ever since her rebirth, she had had a nagging premonition that her family's fortunes were tied to the Gu Family's. If the Gu Family prospered, hers would suffer. Only if the Gu Family suffered could hers prosper!

The Fourth Day of Being Overheard

Gu Jinshui did not return until after eight. The lights were still on at home.

He took off his hat, sat down, and tucked into the noodles his family had saved for him. Liang Ying came out holding Gu Yousi, and He Chunlian and her daughter came out too.

"Slow down," He Chunlian said. "Look at you. Didn't you eat anything while you were out?"

"I did. I digested it ages ago."

Gu Jinshui slurped down the rest of his noodles before setting his chopsticks aside.

He looked at them. "I went to ask around about Chen Shiwen today. There's something off about that kid, but none of the educated youths would talk."

"Of course they wouldn't. Chen Shiwen set them up to steal the steamed buns made with white flour that he'd brought along. How would they dare talk?"

Gu Yousi grumbled inwardly.

It worked!

Gu Jinshui and Liang Ying exchanged a glance.

"What do we do, then?" Liang Ying asked. "If we break off the engagement over the bride price, people will laugh at us."

"Brother, there's no way I'm marrying that bastard. He even came to the hospital to harass me today!"

Gu Yinxing clenched her fists, her teeth grinding together.

"He did? Did he do anything to you?" Gu Jinshui's face darkened, and he clenched his fists.

"No. He tried to force himself on me, but a soldier caught him. I gave him a beating!" Gu Yinxing still felt pleased whenever she thought about it.

He Chunlian, Gu Jinshui, and the others breathed a sigh of relief. Seeing that Gu Yinxing was not shaken and even looked delighted, they could only shake their heads.

"Jin Shui, we need to decide what to do about this soon. If we have to call off the engagement, so be it," He Chunlian said. "We can just say I don't like that Chen boy."

"Ask Chen Shiwen's uncle! He borrowed a sum of money, and his wife doesn't know a thing about it!"

Gu Yousi grew more anxious the longer she listened. She made a few babbling sounds, but she simply could not get the words out.

Liang Ying's and the others' eyes lit up.

Gu Jinshui kept his expression steady. "Mom, don't worry. Tomorrow I'll ask his relatives what's really going on with the family. One of those educated youths did let something slip: my sister shouldn't marry him. Yin Xing is my only sister. I'll make sure I know the full story before she marries anyone."

"Keep your eyes open, then."

Only then did He Chunlian relax.

Gu Jinshui took a wad of small-denomination bills from his pocket. "This is what I earned today, Mom. Keep it for household expenses."

It was no small wad of bills—at least twenty or thirty yuan.

The money immediately caught Gu Yinxing's attention. "Brother, can you really make that much selling scrap?"

Gu Jinshui scoffed. "Depends on who's doing it. With your head for business, don't even think about it. Just stick to nursing."

He gave Gu Yinxing two yuan to get rid of her.

Back in their room, Gu Jinshui pulled a jar of cold cream from his pocket and handed it to Liang Ying. "Put some on before your night shift. They say it keeps your face from stinging in the cold."

Liang Ying gave him a look. When she saw their daughter staring, she smiled, opened the jar, and dabbed some on Gu Yousi's cheeks. "Don't go wasting money on me. If you've got money, buy yourself something good to eat while you're out instead of coming home with nothing but wind in your stomach."

"I knew my wife cared about me."

Gu Jinshui slipped an arm around Liang Ying's waist, and his hand began wandering upward.

Seeing Gu Yousi watching, he cleared his throat, picked her up, and carried her to He Chunlian's room.

The next day.

Liang Ying worked her night shift until