After lunch, Sheng Ning tidied the house, and by the time she was done cleaning, it was already evening. Sheng An still hadn't returned since she left earlier, and Sheng Ning was beginning to feel nervous.
In the early 1980s, rural areas were relatively safe and secure, but that was still no guarantee that something bad couldn't happen. At the thought, she closed the front door behind her and went out to look for Sheng An.
Although she left home less than a year ago, she had actually been away for several decades. As she looked at the mud-brick houses all around, memories of the people who lived inside them slowly came to mind, along with a strange sense of familiarity.
She was at a loss for where she should look for Sheng An first. Along the road, she stopped a little boy who was playing without any pants on, and asked, "Hey kid, have you seen Sheng An?"
Sheng Ning was very pretty, and her skin was fair and supple. When the little boy saw Sheng Ning, his eyes sparkled, and he immediately took a liking to her. He pointed in the direction of the village head's home with one hand while wiping the snot off his nose with the other. "She went to the village head's home. Sheng An likes playing with Xiaohong there."
Sheng Ning was about to thank him, when she suddenly heard a sharp voice behind her. "Ignore her, Goudan." A woman rushed past her and pulled Goudan away.
She stared wearily at Sheng Ning. "Ignore her, Goudan. This is a bad woman. She'll bring bad luck."
"But she's very pretty," Goudan said in confusion as he sniffed his dribbling snot back into his nose.
The woman spanked Goudan on his bum. "You don't understand. She's a cunning vixen. She'd be a bad influence on you."
Sheng Ning watched everything unfold with expressionless eyes. She wanted to respond, but on account of the child, she chose to suppress the urge.
"Kid, if you ever meet a vixen like me in the future, run far away and hide, okay?" She smiled at Goudan, and her eyes were as fathomless as a galaxy.
Goudan looked up at her in a daze. His jaw was hanging opening, and saliva was drooling down his chin.
The woman grew mad with fury when she saw this. "Stop looking! Stop looking! You're so young, and yet you're already like your old man. If you don't stop looking, I'm going to hit you! I'm going to hit you!"
"Don't hit me, Mom." Goudan was very strong. He pried himself free from the woman's grasp and dashed off.
"How smart." Sheng Ning's mood improved.
"Sheng Ning, you're doing this on purpose, aren't you?"
"It's hard to say if I'm doing it on purpose or not. You, on the other hand, definitely did it on purpose." Sheng Ning cocked her head to the side. It had been a few decades, so she didn't recognize who she was speaking with. But she wasn't one to sit back and allow someone to bully and insult her without a fight. She was unwilling to say anything awful in front of the child, but now that Goudan had run off, she no longer had to take the woman's insults lying down.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Exactly what I said. You called me a vixen for no rhyme or reason. Did I ever seduce your man?"
"You… How dare you!" The woman was so furious she was tongue-tied. She was like a cat whose tail had just been stepped on. That d*mn husband of hers was already thoroughly mesmerized by Widow Zhang. If Sheng Ning also set her mind on seducing him, where would that leave her?
"Please don't tell me that you're lashing out at an innocent woman just because you're unable to keep your own husband in check!" She didn't expect her random statement to hit the woman exactly in her weak spot.
"Shut your mouth! How dare an unmarried woman like you say something like that!"
"You know I'm an unmarried woman? Then why didn't you consider if your words were appropriate when you insulted me just now?" Sheng Ning's expression didn't change, but her voice turned shrill.
The woman had been full of confidence when she insulted her, but now she had no choice but to return home in utter defeat with her tail between her legs.