"Uncle Gui, no good deed should be belittled. Even if Auntie Lin donated only a single grain of rice, it would still represent good intentions." The person speaking was Gu Hongwei. He wore a gray jacket with several patches, a pair of old cloth shoes showing his toes through the hole. Despite his ragged clothes, he stood erect, a dignified sense of spirit emanating from his youthful, lean face.
All of these people were helping him. Regardless of their circumstances, they were not obliged to assist him. So, they would be in no wrong not to help. There was no reason to condemn them for a supposed lack of charity.
Li Guigen was counting on Gu Hongwei to remember the kindness of the five yuan and to care for him in his old age. He thus made no attempt to argue with Hongwei's words.
Si Boyi and Lin Fengying, too, knew that the money they had donated was indeed too small a sum. They didn't say much and were about to leave when they heard a clear voice.
"Mom, you guys finished donating so quickly?"
Everyone looked towards the voice and saw Tong Yao, with a white gauze over her head, walking towards them with a smile.
Most of the women in the village didn't like Yao. They found her to seem like a little temptress, up to no good. Especially when she smiled, it felt as if she were enticing everyone. Moreover, her delicate, willowy figure hardly seemed capable of hard labor. Nevertheless, they had to admit that her smile was indeed quite attractive, attracting the stares of some men.
Oh dear! Whatever happened to Si Chen? Such a beautiful wife at home and he hadn't touched her for more than a month.
"Yaoyao, how come you..."
Lin Fengying was a bit anxious. These people loved to gossip, and Yaoyao, having grown up in town, was not accustomed to their slanderous talks.
Tong Yao interrupted her with a smile, "Mom, I should have come along earlier with you. I got lost and wandered around for a while before I found this place."
Both Lin Fengying and Si Boyi were taken aback. What was going on?
Ignoring their surprise, Tong Yao took out a stack of neatly folded money from her pocket, "Village chief, this is the money Si Chen and I are donating. It's sixty-five yuan in total."
Sixty-five yuan?
Not only the village chief and Hongwei were taken aback, but the onlookers too.
Fancy that! The village couldn't make that much from selling the entire year's grain, and yet she just casually gave over sixty yuan.
"This is too much." Hongwei looked at Yao, whose head was still wrapped in gauze, with astonishment in his eyes. Everyone else was donating two or three yuan, and relatives were contributing ten. She was giving sixty-five. No matter how rich their family was, such a donation was excessive!
Tong Yao conversationally said: "If you feel guilty about it, consider this money a loan. Just pay us back when you can after you graduate from college and start earning."
The formerly hesitant Hongwei felt as if a heavy stone had pressed into his heart. He truly needed this money right now. So, he nodded silently, deeply bowing, "I will surely pay this money back."
"Fine." Tong Yao nodded briskly, entirely without pretense.
"You all are family. Why bring the money in two parts? I heard that you stole the money. Isn't that true?" The woman speaking was Chen Jinlan, a notorious gossip in the village. After Si Chen got into medical school, she'd been trying to get her daughter, Zhang Lijuan, married to him. But Yao had swooped in and married him instead.
Her daughter had cried for days because of this. Who else could she take out her frustrations on if not Yao?
Tong Yao turned to Chen Jinlan, "Madam, you're of a certain age now. I hope you know better than to speak recklessly. Si Chen and I are married, I manage his money for him, and the portion we are donating is ours. My mother doesn't have much money, but she handcrafted two pairs of shoes. They may not be valuable, but they reflect her sincerity."
"That's right." Si Boyi immediately echoed, standing taller. He no longer felt embarrassed.
Chen Jinlan, with a embarrassed appearance, found herself in the uncomfortable position of the busybody.
Hongwei looked at the slender figure of Yao and thought about how he had previously believed the village gossip: that Yao was a deceitful, pampered, petulant woman. His handsome face bore a trace of guilt. He, a well-educated man, how could he be so gullible so as to believe baseless rumors?
The Yao standing before him, aside from being excessively beautiful, was nothing like how the villagers described her.
On their way home, Lin Fengying several times started to say something but stopped herself. Yao knew what she wanted to ask and decided to address it head-on. "Mom, I'm sorry. I thought you guys were unwilling to donate, so I took it upon myself to use the money. Though, I must admit that I immediately regretted it."
"Were you planning on running away with Jia Qing?" The words slipped out of Lin Fengying mouth. Afraid Yao would get angry, she hurriedly explained, "I didn't mean…"
Surprisingly, Yao wasn't upset. Instead, she said openly, "Who would run away with him! It's all made up by other people. I may be naive, but I still understand and respect the basic principles of propriety."
In reality, the reason behind the original host's plan to elope with Jia Qing was, to some extent, to provoke Si Chen and her father, Tong Yaohui. This morning, when she was about to leave, she hesitated, dragging her feet, which resulted in being caught on the spot.
As the conversation reached this point, Boyi raised a question, "Then why did you take your clothes and leave early in the morning?"
Fengying, who had just accepted Yaoyao's explanation, suddenly felt confused again and looked at her with suspicion.
Tong Yao lowered her head and deliberately flushed her face, "It's been so long since we got married, and I have yet to see Si Chen. I wanted to find him in the city."
"..."
Lin Fengying and Si Boyi were speechless.
Indeed, being married for so long without seeing the groom wasn't fair to Yao. However, letting Yao go to the city alone worried Fengying, "I'll call Si Chen right away and ask him to pick you up in the city."
She wanted the newlyweds to be happily together and was looking forward to having a chubby grandson.
As they were chatting and reaching home, Si Xiaohui, who had heard the conversation, popped out of the house with indignation, "What's there to pick up? I've already called my brother. He's on his way home to get a divorce."
As she spoke, Xiaohui appeared slightly guilty.
"What?" Lin Fengying, in a fit of rage, slapped Xiaohui's arm. "Who told you to call your brother? Weren't you told not to?"
Her mom was actually hitting her because of an outsider. Xiaohui protested loudly, "She dared to steal money and men. Why can't I tell my brother? Is this how her family repays our kindness, by bringing us a daughter like her? Isn't this returning kindness with malice?"
"Shut up."
Lin Fengying swung her hand towards Xiaohui to hit her again, but Boyi stopped her, "Mom, let's talk this through." He also thought Xiaohui had gone too far, but since she was a girl, they couldn't always resort to violence whenever they disagreed with her.
Xiaohui lifted her face defiantly, "Go ahead and hit me! Hit me! Or better yet, kill me."
Lin Fengying was so angry she clutched her chest and couldn't speak.
Xiaohui stared at Yao resentfully. Everything was this woman's fault.
Tong Yao was not afraid. She planned to clear everything up. "I didn't steal any men, but I did steal money. A part of the stolen money I donated to help Hongwei go to college." She had to clean up the mess caused by the original host.