Sheng Ning had nothing with her and squeezed into a small corner after getting on the bus. The people around her were all intentionally or unintentionally looking at her.
"Whose girl is this, so pretty!" an older woman exclaimed.
"Yo! Isn't this the girl from Sheng's third family?" someone from the same village as Sheng Ning recognized her at a glance. "Weren't you supposed to be in the General Union Dance Troupe? Why are you back? Don't tell me you got kicked out? Hmph... People like you deserve to be expelled."
Sheng Ning had her head down the entire time, not wanting to be recognized by her neighbors. Hearing the malicious words now, she turned her head to look at them, her eyes filled with anger.
"Auntie, this is slander!"
"What did you say? You called me auntie?" The speaker was a young woman who appeared to be around thirty. Probably not used to doing farm work, her skin was noticeably fairer than the average rural person.
"Isn't it? Calling you auntie isn't wrong, is it?" Sheng Ning turned her head, blinking her innocent big eyes at the people around her.
"Mm-hmm! That's right! Xiao Zhang, you're already thirty. A seventeen or eighteen-year-old girl calling you auntie is a sign of respect," the people around agreed.
"That's right, she didn't call you wrong!"
The young woman, feeling the most insulted when called old, got angry. Sheng Ning calling her auntie now was implying she was old and outdated. Seeing the people siding with Sheng Ning, she angrily rolled up her sleeves, ready to pull her hair.
"You shameless little bitch, you dare come back! See if I don't tear your mouth apart."
"Auntie, this is a public place, please mind your manners." Sheng Ning finally remembered, wasn't this young woman Mrs. Zhang who lived at the east end of the village?
A rural widow, who had not done farm work for years. The reason why could easily be guessed by anyone with a brain.
It was said that even the village chief eagerly helped her with farm work!
"Yes, Xiao Zhang, you can't hit her." After all, it was a public place. Mrs. Zhang hadn't even reached Sheng Ning yet when she was nearly thrown off balance by a lurch of the bus.
With so many people on the bus, Mrs. Zhang couldn't reach her and eventually had to give up, resorting only to taking verbal jabs.
"How dare you talk back, bitch? After half a year outside, you think you're tough. Someone like you is a disaster wherever you go..." Mrs. Zhang cursed non-stop, vividly recounting the slanders spread in the village. Accusing her of seducing men from a young age, not studying properly, sleeping with teachers, even having an abortion at fourteen!
In the conservative and traditional rural areas of the eighties, such gossip could drown a person.
The unfamiliar passengers on the bus looked at Sheng Ning with strange eyes.
Some whispered among themselves, their sharp words stabbing at Sheng Ning's heart like knives.
What did she ever do wrong? Just because her mother ran off with a man when she was young, did she have to bear such a vile reputation all her life?
"Hmph... Feeling guilty? Can't say anything back?" Seeing Sheng Ning stay quiet, Mrs. Zhang grew even more pleased with herself.
Sheng Ning suppressed the searing hatred in her chest, took a deep breath. After calming down, she looked at Mrs. Zhang with pity and said helplessly, "Auntie, you have the village chief and the Village Chief protecting you in our village, so I dare not say anything. But for what you've done, I believe one day the village chief's wife and the Village Chief's wife will find out."