As Wei Donglai walked along the road, he finally remembered who that pretty girl was.
Xu Qingqing.
Her father had been the principal of a nearby elementary school, and her mother had been a teacher there. Her family had been well-off, and she was exceptionally beautiful. In the past, the matchmakers who came to ask for her hand had reportedly gathered three layers deep inside and out.
But three years ago, her parents had died in an accident.
Afterward, she had raised her younger siblings on her own. As she insisted on bringing them with her, fewer and fewer people had come to ask for her hand.
Eventually, only a few crooked melons and cracked dates remained, and she didn't fancy them either, so things had dragged on like that.
But because of her looks, hoodlums and hooligans had harassed her from time to time over the years.
Before he started dating He Lijuan, he seemed to have done the same thing himself.
At that thought, Wei Donglai understood why her eyes had shown such disgust toward him just now.
Thinking about how warmly he had greeted her when he came out made him feel a little embarrassed.
From the village entrance, it was another five or six kilometers west to town, about an hour on foot.
Wei Donglai would have liked a ride, but there were no buses or minibuses between the village and town yet, so he could only give his legs some exercise.
Fortunately, the sun wasn't too strong at this hour. Walking along the country lane with a light breeze blowing was a different kind of pleasure.
"Rumble, rumble, rumble...!"
When a tractor came up behind him, Wei Donglai moved closer to the side of the road.
As a man of the twenty-first century, he still had to keep the basic traffic rules in mind.
"A Lai, where are you going?"
Wei Donglai looked up and saw a chubby young man in his twenties standing in the tractor's trailer, waving at him.
It was Li Changfeng, his playmate since childhood.
"I'm going to town to buy a few things."
"Hop on! My second uncle is going to town too, so he can give you a ride."
Only then did Wei Donglai notice that the man driving the tractor was Li Changfeng's second uncle, Li Guowang.
"Hello, Uncle Guowang!"
Wei Donglai greeted him politely. When Li Guowang nodded, he climbed aboard.
"A Lai, I heard you and He Lijuan split up?"
Good news never left the house, but bad news traveled a thousand miles.
Even Li Changfeng had heard about it, so it had probably spread through most of the village by now.
Wei Donglai didn't know which version of the story was circulating in the village, so he merely nodded and grunted in acknowledgment.
Li Changfeng thought his good brother had taken a blow. He put an arm around his shoulders and said, "Don't be so down. He Lijuan must have no eye for a good man if she dumped you. When I get the chance, I'll introduce you to my cousin. She's definitely a beauty."
"He Lijuan dumped me?"
"Yeah. Everyone in the village says you don't have a job and won't make a proper effort to earn money, and that there's no sign of you wanting to better yourself, so she chose to break up. If you ask me, she's just heartless, after you treated him so well."
"Damn it, that stinking woman sure knows how to put a nice shine on herself."
Li Changfeng keenly picked up the sneer in Wei Donglai's words and began to feel curious. "A Lai, is there more to this?"
"Forget it. It's in the past, so let's not bring it up again."
"Come on, you've got me curious now. Good brother, hurry up and tell me."
The tractor was already bouncing badly enough, and with Li Changfeng shaking him, his brains were nearly rattled out.
Even so, Wei Donglai didn't really want to talk about it.
"Don't tell me she put a green hat on you?"
Seeing Wei Donglai's expression, Li Changfeng knew he had guessed right.
"Damn, that He Lijuan is disgusting! How dare she put a green hat on you?"
Wei Donglai rolled his eyes at him. He didn't need another reminder.
"A Lai, don't worry. I'll make sure the truth gets out. She dared to treat you like that, so she can forget about having an easy time."
"What's there to clear up? It's not like you don't know what the villagers are like. My reputation is bad enough already. Once it passes through their mouths, it might just get messier and messier."
"So you're just going to leave it alone? That's not like you."
In his previous life, he had acted on impulse over this and spent three years in prison. That had been truly stupid. Not only had he wasted precious years, but the label of a reformed convict had also weighed on him for most of his life.
Now he only wanted to enjoy life, spend time with his parents, and make some money along the way. Everything else was just passing clouds.
"There's no rush. There'll be plenty of chances to deal with her later. The main thing for me now is to live my own life well."
"You've got your freedom back now. Isn't that good?"
"What's so good about that? Once I've made piles of money, built a new house, married a wife, and have healthy parents and both a son and a daughter, then I'll call it good."
Li Changfeng gave Wei Donglai a somewhat resentful look. That picture made even him a little envious.
"Are you sure you're not daydreaming?"
"Zhuang Zhou dreamed of being a butterfly, and the world is ever-changing. Who can say for sure? Daring to think about something is one thing, daring to do it is another. Failing to do it is one thing, and being unable to do it is another. The real fear is not even daring to think about it."
"A Lai, I've noticed you seem different. You couldn't have said things like that before."
"We're not so young anymore. It's time we changed."
"The way you put it, do you mean I should change too?"
"Of course. Can a person just keep treading water?"
Li Changfeng looked a little glum. "But I don't know how to change."
"Suppose you have something not so important to do today. When you get up in the morning, don't you think, 'It's still early, I'll do it later'? Then later comes, and you think, 'It's not noon yet, there's no rush.' At noon, you think about eating, and when you've put it off until the afternoon, you want a nap. Then evening comes, and you think, 'I won't finish it today. There's no rush anyway, there's still time tomorrow'..."
"You said yourself it wasn't important."
"Once it becomes a habit, it doesn't matter whether the thing is important or not."
Li Changfeng's eyes widened in surprise. He had wanted to argue, but Wei Donglai's words were like a sharp arrow that had pierced straight into his heart.
"So how exactly do I change?"
"Throw off your laziness and get rid of your habit of putting things off. Don't let things drag you along. Chase after them and get them done, just like you would when you see a pretty girl."
"You think it's like picking up girls?"
Wei Donglai looked at him intently. "That's the one thing you're most interested in."
Li Changfeng really wanted to say that if he picked up too many, his boat would eventually capsize.
The conversation ended there. Wei Donglai didn't want to say any more on the subject.
If he said too much, he was afraid Li Changfeng's brain wouldn't be able to hold it all.
The tractor bounced its way into town.
Wei Donglai didn't pay for the ride, but he bought a pack of cigarettes for Li Changfeng's second uncle.
Before they parted, Li Changfeng asked him to get together with He Dongliang after they returned, and Wei Donglai agreed.
The tractor continued on its way, and Li Guowang happily puffed out smoke. "A Feng, that friend of yours is a good one. You should spend more time with him."
"Second Uncle, you're not saying that just because he bought you cigarettes, are you?"
"Did you buy me cigarettes?"
Li Changfeng was struck speechless. Then he explained in a somewhat quiet voice, "I don't have any money on me, do I?"
"You have money when you play cards, don't you? Our words probably go in one ear and out the other, but you really should give some thought to what A Lai said just now."
"But didn't you all used to call us the three scourges of Moon Bay Village?"
"Now there might only be two scourges."
Li Changfeng was somewhat speechless. He thought his second uncle was awfully pragmatic.
But Wei Donglai's words echoed in his ears once again, and before he knew it, he fell into thought, his eyes showing a clear bewilderment.
Li Guowang said no more and left him to think for himself.