Reborn before the famine, kicking away the scumbag's family and living a carefree life.

71. Idle talk

"Yes, An Rong's future is more important than mine."

Du Mei said angrily, "Qi Zhengyang, are you out of your mind? You can't even protect yourself, yet you pretend to be a good person, willing to sacrifice yourself to benefit others. How come I only just realized how noble you are?"

"Du Mei, don't speak so sarcastically. You're upset just because I said I'm Su Jinru's husband. This is just a temporary measure, nothing more than a few words. You can't be that petty!"

"Qi Zhengyang, you made a mistake, shouldn't you apologize to me? Why are you turning around and accusing me of being petty?"

“I did nothing wrong. It’s just a matter of saying one sentence that could change my nephew’s fate. Besides, I was indeed Su Jinru’s husband before. What’s wrong with saying that?”

Qi Zhengyang's self-righteous attitude further enraged Du Mei.

"Qi Zhengyang, get this straight. You said it was before. Now, you are my husband."

"Of course I know now, I am your husband. I explained to you that what I said that day was just a temporary measure. If you don't understand, it's because you're too stupid."

"We've only been together a short time and you're already complaining that I'm stupid, is that it? Before, you complained that Su Jinru was uneducated, and now you're complaining that I'm stupid. Don't you think you're stupid too? Don't you care about your own reputation?"

"Reputation? Do I even have a reputation now? I've long since become the laughingstock of Daben Village, don't you know that?"

"So, you've given up on yourself, don't care about your reputation, and don't want to be a teacher anymore."

“Become a teacher? Haven’t you heard what the villagers are saying? They say that someone like me doesn’t deserve to be a teacher, and I still dare to dream of becoming one.”

"If you don't become a teacher, what will I do in the future?"

"You won't starve to death, will you? Haven't you heard? The other production teams have already run out of food again. Only our production team's communal canteen is still providing meals. People have starved to death again. If you don't transfer your household registration here, you'll probably starve to death soon too! You don't have the time to listen to that person's gossip, and you don't have the energy to argue with me."

Du Mei no longer had the energy to argue with Qi Zhengyang.

These days are awful.

She lives on her dream of becoming a teacher in the future.

Now that she has discovered that Qi Zhengyang has given up on himself, the last bit of hope in her heart has been shattered.

Ever since their scandal, she knew that her chances of continuing as a teacher were slim, but as long as Qi Zhengyang remained in power, she still had hope.

Now that hope is becoming increasingly slim.

If Qi Zhengyang weren't a teacher, he would be utterly useless. He couldn't do housework, and he was all talk and no action. When there was work to be done in the team, many people would vie for the opportunity to earn work points, but he would always refuse. Before, his family had some grain, but after the team took it away, they were often hungry. He still thought that her coming to their production team was a huge benefit, as long as she wouldn't starve to death.

I heard that her original production team had been without food for more than ten days and people were starving to death. She was afraid that her children would starve to death, but she didn't have any extra food to give them.

She didn't dare to visit her two children.

The eldest daughter is Cheng Xiao's child, while the second daughter is Qi Zhengyang's child.

But she didn't dare to ask Erniu back. If Cheng Xiao found out that Erniu wasn't his child, he might very well beat her to death.

She dared not take that risk.

Qi Zhengyang didn't care at all; he probably didn't believe that Erniu was his child, including the poor little Bao who had passed away.

He cares about his two children who live with his ex-wife. Every time he goes to the cafeteria to get food, he goes to the two children and tries his best to please them.

Du Mei didn't believe he had deep feelings for the two children. She suspected he was just using the children to curry favor with Su Jinru. Unfortunately, every time Qi Zhengyang walked towards them, Su Jinru would step aside to let him talk to the children.

Jin Gui complained that Ding Xiang had spread the news that Su Jinru had found lost money and become acquainted with Minister Ye.

Ding Xiang said smugly, "I'd rather everyone know that Su Jinyu joined the army because Su Jinru knew the leaders of the Armed Forces Department, rather than because of the recommendation letter you, the county magistrate, wrote."

"You women, can't you live without gossiping? Look at Aru, she never gets involved in these trivial family matters."

Dingxiang: "I admit that I did spread this news. I know that you and Aru have nothing going on, but others don't know! I don't want people to misunderstand that you and her have something going on because of this. Such misunderstandings are not good for you, especially since she is a divorced single woman. People will make up stories for no reason. You even wrote a letter of recommendation for her sister, which was completely unnecessary."

“When I wrote the letter of recommendation, I didn’t know that Aru had such a relationship. My letter of recommendation was indeed a bit redundant, making you all bring up this matter and make all sorts of speculations.”

Jin Gui sighed, "I finally had a chance to help her, but instead it brought her so much gossip."

"So I changed the subject, and now people won't keep bringing up the recommendation letter."

"But Aru is still in the eye of the storm of public opinion."

"The hottest topic of discussion right now is Qi Zhengyang. He's despised by the whole village, and they all call him shameless. But actually, they're just jealous that his nephew got into the army."

"After these two incidents, one concerning his conduct and the other concerning his character, Qi Zhengyang's life is probably ruined."

"Let's not mention Qi Zhengyang, he's not worth mentioning. Let's talk about Aru."

"Why are you bringing her up again? I haven't seen her for almost two months since we bought the grain. I only ran into her by chance at the township government when I was writing the recommendation letter."

"You get nervous every time I mention her. What are you feeling guilty about?"

"Who's feeling guilty? It's you women who have nothing better to do than to overthink and talk nonsense all day long."

Dingxiang laughed heartily: "You're just full and have nothing better to do. How could that be? I haven't had a full meal since the famine."

"Didn't you want to talk about Aru? What happened to her?"

I want to introduce her to someone.

"I'm warning you, don't make a fool of yourself. She's already said that she's going to live her life like this and doesn't want to find a partner anymore."

"She's young and beautiful, and many people want to date her. They all come to me asking me to be their matchmaker!"

"Don't go looking for trouble and worrying unnecessarily. Aru lives a secluded life and doesn't like to interact with people. She has also made it clear many times that she doesn't want to find another stepfather for her child. She's so smart, she can see right through your little schemes. You can't blame others for your own embarrassment later."

Dingxiang, realizing her thoughts had been exposed, felt rather uninteresting and gave up her plan to act as a matchmaker for Su Jinru.