New clothes!
To the villagers, this was something extremely precious. Everyone’s clothes were old. Even the city folk seldom had new clothes to wear.
Siblings handed their clothes down, from the older to the younger sibling, and then to the next youngest child. Otherwise, the clothes were converted into something else.
In fact, many of the children in the brigade did not have clothes!
But Zhang Xiaohui had bought new clothes for Gu Ruoqing? And she had bought them in town?
Gu Qingyao’s words divulged too much information. The more they heard, the more puzzled everyone felt!
When Old Madam Zhang heard that Zhang Xiaohui had bought new clothes for Gu Ruoqing, but not for the grandchildren in the family, or for her son, she lost her temper. “That heartless creature. She has money to buy new clothes, but doesn’t give it to me. Tell her to buy new clothes for me, her elder brother and Dabao!”
Gu Qingyao was shocked!
“Grandmother, Father didn’t give us much money before he left. We have no money and no cloth coupons! Mother has no money…”
“Shut up! If she has no money and no coupons, where did she get the new clothes from?”
Gu Qingyao was so frightened she hid behind Wen Ruyu and did not dare to speak anymore.
Old Madam Zhang was so fierce that many children were afraid of her. She was infamous in the brigade for being difficult to deal with, and it was normal for the children to be terrified of her.
In the past, Gu Qingyao had given the impression of being obedient and mature. She worked quietly without saying much, and was a shy young girl. Now that Old Madam Zhang shouted at her a few times, it was normal for her to be frightened into tears, and be too afraid to speak.
Gu Qingyao did not dare to say anymore. When Wen Ruyu saw that her precious granddaughter was so frightened, she tried to protect Gu Qingyao. She looked very angry, but did not dare to openly quarrel with Old Madam Zhang in front of so many others.
With her background, she had to be cautious. Quarreling with someone like Old Madam Zhang would only bring trouble to herself.
Wen Ruyu nudged her husband. Gu Conghua also thoroughly despised this fellow, so he hurriedly packed his things and left with Wen Ruyu and Gu Qingyao.
They left, but the surrounding crowd discussed Zhang Xiaohui even more fervently.
Where had she gotten the money?
Where had she gotten the cloth coupons?
Why did she go to town every day?
What was she doing there?
How could she afford it?
All these were inexplicable!
But Old Madam Zhang did not realize what was going on. Zhang Jianguo was screaming and crying terribly and her heart ached for her son. She continued to scold and curse Zhang Xiaohui for being unfilial, and so on.
This time, Zhang Jianguo’s incident caused the entire brigade to notice Zhang Xiaohui’s absence. Even the Southern Lake Brigade and several of the other neighboring brigades noticed.
Because Zhang Xiaohui left for three days.
Of course, she did not return. Gu Qingyao had secretly run off to town and allowed Wang Guozhu to pick up a hundred dollars. Then she had sought out Zhang Xiaohui, and allowed her to pick up fifty dollars, and some coupons. This guaranteed that Zhang Xiaohui would bring Gu Ruoqing to enjoy themselves in town for a while.
Wang Guozhu did not lack coupons, so giving him money was enough.
The two of them did not have any lofty moral principles. When they saw that someone had dropped something, they would not wait there for the owner to come looking for it. After they picked up the money, they immediately tucked it into their own pockets.
