Zhang Fenglan scooped the meatballs and poached eggs out of the pot, dividing them into two bowls.
She placed one bowl on the table for Lin Anning and carried the other bowl to the door.
"Take this to the old lady!"
At the door, Su Shuixian took the bowl and immediately noticed Lin Anning sitting at the table.
Under the dim light, the female comrade's skin was glowing, looking unreasonably beautiful.
Her heart gave a thump, and with a forced smile, she asked.
"Auntie, do you have a guest? Why haven't I seen her before?"
As she spoke, she tried to peer inside the house.
"A new educated youth."
Zhang Fenglan didn't give Su Shuixian a chance to enter and slammed the door shut.
Soup splashed from the bowl in Su Shuixian's hand, scalding her and making her shiver, but she was reluctant to waste the delicious meatballs soup, so with a stomp of her foot, she turned and left.
Turning back, Zhang Fenglan noticed Lin Anning hadn't eaten and her brows furrowed deeply.
"What's wrong, doesn't it taste good?"
Lin Anning hurriedly waved her hands and said with embarrassment.
"Can I, can I take this to the educated youth spot to eat?"
Zhang Fenglan didn't give a reply, just opened the door directly.
Lin Anning breathed a sigh of relief, picked up the bowl, and walked out.
"Thank you, I'll bring the bowl back to you tomorrow."
Zhang Fenglan closed the door and turned to find something under the table.
Picking it up, she saw it contained brown sugar and some nourishments, frowning slightly.
She took the items to the back room, carefully wrapped them up, and hid them under the bed.
Just as Lin Anning arrived at the educated youth spot, she saw the educated youth returning in twos and threes.
Huo Tiantian was standing at the door, hands on hips, fuming.
"Wang Jing, Li Fen, you didn't leave any food for us?"
Li Fen looked embarrassed and didn't dare to look at Huo Tiantian.
"We, we thought you two weren't coming back to eat! So..."
"What do you mean, not coming back to eat? Whenever you didn't come back, I always saved food for you."
Li Fen seemed to remember this and stood up to make amends.
"I still have a piece of cornbread here. Eat this!"
Wang Jing grabbed her, glanced sideways at the distant Lin Anning, and said.
"Huo Tiantian, I'll tell you the truth, it's not that we forgot to keep food for you, we deliberately didn't leave any for you."
"You contribute the rice and oil for one person but eat for two, taking advantage of everyone else."
"We've discussed it, either you give us another ten pounds of rice and half a pound of oil, or, just don't eat."
Looking at Wang Jing's shameless face, Huo Tiantian clenched her teeth in anger.
"Little Anning didn't manage to buy rice these past few days, so she shared a meal with me."
"We two just combined our portions into one, saving from my share. There's no taking advantage of you. Alright, now you're settling scores with me? What about before, when you were happily eating the meat I bought, oil dripping from your mouths? Didn't hear any complaints then."
"So this means, you want to break away from me?"
The other educated youths gathered around, some feeling uneasy, wanting to explain.
"It's not like that..."
Wang Jing slammed her hand on the table and declared loudly.
"Yes, that's exactly what we mean."
"Didn't you hear what Lin Anning said? If she has tuberculosis, all of us who eat together can't escape it; hmph, you might want to die, but the rest of us don't."
"I've been sick of you for a long time, always acting like a capitalist, unable to endure hardship, always wanting to eat meat."
"Do you think we want to eat meat? Weren't we forced by you to eat it?"
Huo Tiantian looked at the silent educated youths, feeling a chill in her heart.
"I forced you to eat? You all discussed this without me?"
A few male educated youths seemed a bit embarrassed but indeed were afraid of getting sick from eating with Lin Anning, so they kept silent.
Zhou Jianshe really couldn't stand it anymore and rubbed the back of his head.
"Why don't we forget it? I don't think Comrade Lin looks sick! Besides, we've eaten the meat Comrade Huo Tiantian bought before; we can't just kick her while she's down."
"Are you a doctor? Can you tell at a glance whether someone is sick?"
"Exactly, if there really is an illness, are you responsible?"
"What, you've eaten a few pieces of her meat, so you should risk your health for her?"
"Who knows, maybe that meat was from a diseased pig. If I get sick, I'll have to bother Huo Tiantian about it!"
The crowd was babbling, and Huo Tiantian's eyes reddened with anger.
Lin Anning put the bowl of meatball soup back in the room, took out a medical report, walked up to Huo Tiantian, and gently patted her.
"Just so happens, I had a check-up at the hospital before coming down to the countryside; here's the medical report. I believe you all can read, take a look for yourselves."
Zhou Jianshe took the medical report and looked it over carefully.
"Apart from anemia, there's no contagious disease."
"I don't believe it."
Wang Jing snatched the checkup report and started to read each word carefully.
The other educated youths also crowded over to take a look, and indeed, there was no problem.
"Seen enough? Can you give it back to me now?"
Wang Jing rolled her eyes and reluctantly returned the report to Lin Anning.
"There's no problem, then no problem, just, just as if I never said anything. But, you need to give another portion of rice and oil."
Lin Anning glanced at Wang Jing and let out a light laugh.
"As if there were no problems? You slander me for being sick, and you isolate me and Comrade Huo Tiantian."
"Driving a wedge between the team of educated youths, wanting to create division, and you think we can just let this go?"
"I will go to the village chief and make a complaint, and also write a letter of accusation accusing all of you here."
"What?"
Everyone present was terrified, originally thinking that Lin Anning looked frail, not expecting her to be so tough.
It was said that the upper echelons had already loosened up, and it wouldn't be long until they would allow us to return to the city.
If they received a letter of accusation at this time, it could affect their job prospects.
For a moment, everyone was annoyed and looked towards the ringleader, Wang Jing.
"It's all your fault, stirring up trouble for no reason, insisting that Lin Anning had tuberculosis, making us all listen to you."
"It was clearly you fabricating things out of thin air. Hmph, let's go to the village chief together and say it was Wang Jing who instigated it."
"Yes, it's not our business, we were deceived too."
Seeing that the educated youths were about to leave, Wang Jing became anxious.
"It's not like you refused either!"
Seeing that the others were relentless, she bit her lip and rushed over to Lin Anning.
"Yes, it was my fault, can we call it even if I apologize to you?"
"Just a light admission of fault and it's settled? What if I didn't have evidence just now, how would I live from now on?"
"What do you want then? Surely you can't expect me to kneel down to you?"
"Little Anning, maybe..."
Huo Tiantian wanted to say let it go, but Lin Anning pinched her fingertips, reassuring her.
"Write a proper self-criticism, and have everyone present to sign it, then read it out loud on the levee."
"Otherwise, I will certainly pursue this to the very end."
Wang Jing was naturally unwilling, the levee was crowded with people coming and going, reading the self-criticism there, the whole village would hear about it, how would she face people after that?
"Why should I be the only one to read it?"
"Because the whole thing was started by you. Of course, if you can get them to read with you, that's fine too."
Lin Anning cast a light glance at the other educated youths, and everyone snapped back to reality.
"Wait a minute, Wang Jing, this was your provocation, where do you get the gall to drag others down with you?"
"We all got implicated by you, if you don't read it, we'll all go to the village chief."
"To read or not to read? If you don't, it won't be easy for you either."
The fire was started by Wang Jing, and now it was burning her. She was close to tears.
"I'll read!"
Hearing this, Lin Anning smiled faintly.
That smile dazzled all those present.
And they all forgot how Lin Anning had just angrily taught them a lesson.
"Well, from now on, let's eat together!"
Lin Anning withdrew her smile and hummed lightly.
"Hmph, dream on! Let's split up."
Back in the room, Lin Anning divided the meatball soup, giving most of it to Huo Tiantian.
Huo Tiantian ate the fragrant meatball soup, with a tear rolling down.
"Little Anning, today Sister Tiantian was upset. If they dare to talk about you like this again, watch how I beat them."
Lin Anning smiled sweetly and stroked Huo Tiantian's head.
"It's fine, I have grown up, from now on I can protect Sister Tiantian."
"Don't be upset, eat up!"
Huo Tiantian looked at Lin Anning's sweet smile and felt warmth in her heart.
"Wow, delicious, Little Anning, you're so kind!"
After finishing the meatball soup, Huo Tiantian moved her bedding and belongings into Lin Anning's room.
At night, Lin Anning lay in the warm bedding and finally had a good night's sleep.
Wang Jing wrote the self-criticism overnight, had it signed by everyone at the educated youth spot, and left the house before it was light.
Hmph, Lin Anning only said to read it once at the levee.
She didn't say when to read it? She took advantage of the time when everyone was not around and read it first.
As for whether anyone heard, it wasn't her problem.