Many villagers, upon seeing Luo Qiao, asked whether it was true, and Luo Qiao felt that since everyone already knew, there was no point in hiding it anymore. This wasn't anything scandalous, so she simply admitted it.
Now the village folks started gossiping again.
Some said, "That girl Luo Qiao surely has ambition."
"What's the need for a girl to read so many books?"
"Her family has many relatives of status and could well afford her education, and now there are quite a few girls studying in the commune."
Li Xiulan was anxious at this point, fearing that if Luo Qiao went to high school, she would lose the prospective daughter-in-law, so one day she invited a matchmaker and ostentatiously made her way to Luo Qiao's home with gifts.
These days, since the fertilizer application in the cornfields was finished, the commune members had some leisure time.
On the way, someone asked, "Xiulan, where are you off to with such fanfare?"
