Back To The 80s-Chapter 483 - 494: Satire_1

Gu Xiaobei woke up early the next morning, feeling sore in her waist and back. She muttered to herself that this man certainly had an unusual way of treating insomnia. She didn’t sleep, she was practically gnawed into unconsciousness.

She rubbed her sore waist in bed, staring at the brightening sky outside. It seemed like the snow had finally stopped.

Lu Zhanguo came in and saw Gu Xiaobei grimacing in pain, rolling about in her bed. He went over to sit by the edge of the bed and volunteered to give her a massage, "Are you going to the courtyard or to the shop after breakfast?"

Gu Xiaobei looked at him in surprise, "Oh, you didn’t leave? I thought you had gone. I am going to the shop in a bit. With just over twenty days before the New Year, it’s a busy time at the shop."

Lu Zhanguo nodded, "I’ll go later. The porridge has been simmering and the steamed buns are hot. You should get up and eat."

"I’ll lie down a while longer, my back hurts, you almost broke me," Gu Xiaobei pouted playfully.

Lu Zhanguo was quiet for a moment, skillfully kneading her sore waist.

Fearful of holding Lu Zhanguo back from work, Gu Xiaobei lazily lingered in bed for a while longer before quickly getting up to freshen up and eat.

As they stepped out of the house together, Lu Zhanguo said, "The weather isn’t good today. If it starts snowing again this afternoon, you should head back to the courtyard early, okay?"

"Alright, I understand. The weather does look gloomy, I think it might snow again in the afternoon. If I don’t have anything pressing to attend to, I’ll head home right after lunch." Gu Xiaobei agreed as she waved goodbye.

Due to the heavy snowfall, the roads were difficult to navigate, and the gift boxes from the cardboard factory hadn’t been delivered yet, so there wasn’t much to do during the day. Gu Xiaobei inspected the newly arrived goods in the storeroom. Afraid that the room was too warm and might attract rats, she sent Zhou Tiezhu to buy some rat poison to spread around the walls.

Since there were no exposed food products, they didn’t need to worry about contamination from dead rats. She reminded Zhou Tiezhu to keep a close watch and remove any deceased rats as quickly as possible.

After checking the storeroom, she returned to the shop and was surprised to see Li Fengmei and Li Juan there.

"When did you guys arrive? Why didn’t you go to the storeroom to find me?" Gu Xiaobei said with joy.

Li Fengmei was sitting by the stove warming her hands and responded with a smile, "We just entered, we thought of warming ourselves a bit. We were about to go look for you."

Gu Xiaobei pulled over a stool to the stove and sat down, curiously asking, "What brings you two here together?"

Li Fengmei chuckled, "Nothing serious. The school is having exams soon so students aren’t coming out to shop much. Business isn’t very good so I invited Li Juan here for a chat."

Gu Xiaobei looked skeptically at Li Fengmei, "You didn’t close your shop even during the summer vacations when the students were away. Would you really leave your business to arrange a marriage? Come on, what’s up?"

Li Fengmei responded candidly, "You’re right, nothing can be hidden from you. I’m planning to arrange a match for Li Juan, although she doesn’t agree. So, I brought her here so we could discuss it together. Whether it works out or not, we need to know everyone’s thoughts."

Li Juan looked somewhat embarrassed and quickly dropped her head towards the fire.

Gu Xiaobei looked at the woman full of zeal, hesitated, and then asked, "Is it still that teacher?"

Li Fengmei waved her hand, "No, no. After you said what you did last time, I thought about it and you were right. If you’re a good stepmother, no one praises you, but if you’re bad, everyone points their finger at you. This time I’m thinking of the young man who runs the grain and oil shop next door. He’s the same age as Li Juan, never married, and doesn’t have any annoying relatives. Just a paralytic mother. The young man is diligent, and takes care of his mother well. His business isn’t too bad either; he earns more than me."

Gu Xiaobei frowned and looked at Li Juan, "What do you think? From what Fengmei has said, he seems alright. Why don’t you meet him?"

Li Juan said hesitantly, "I still have two elderly people to take care of here, my father-in-law’s health isn’t good. Do you think he’d be willing to take that on?"

Li Fengmei slapped her thigh and said, "You can figure it out when you see him. I’ve talked to the young man about it too. He said he admires you and thinks you’re a good woman."

But Li Juan was shaking her head, "Two people taking care of three elderly individuals, and then having a child in the future, that’s a heavy burden. If things aren’t going well a few years down the line, he’s going to blame me for bring my in-laws with me when we got married."

Gu Xiaobei thought that Li Juan had a point. It’s only through spending a long time with someone that you can tell if they’re right for you. For Li Juan, to marry into another family with her in-laws could initially seem fine, but over time, complaints would definitely arise. The fact is that when a couple is impoverished, the slightest setback feels like a tragedy. Not to mention when there are two extra burdens that aren’t related by blood.

Seeing Li Juan holding her ground, Li Fengmei didn’t insist, she changed the topic to the wedding feast they had the day before. She couldn’t help but laugh as she said, "Sister, you wouldn’t believe how lively the wedding ceremony was yesterday. My god, it was a real eye-opener."

Gu Xiaobei laughed at Li Fengmei’s sarcasm and asked, "Could the tent withstand the heavy snow yesterday?"

Li Fengmei replied with a laugh, "The tent did manage to hold up, but the cold wind was whooshing through. The food got cold the moment it was served on the table. For instance, the candied sweet potatoes became a clump of cold mess by the time they were served. Oh my, I felt cold all night after that meal."

Gu Xiaobei felt queasy just imagining the scene.

Li Fengmei continued, "That was still fine. You should’ve seen the bride Xiangyang had married. She wore some mosquito net like thing, one layer after the other. What did people call it?" She turned to ask Li Juan.

"A wedding dress."

Li Fengmei nodded, "Yes, a wedding dress. Her face was coated with so much makeup that she looked like a woman who had fallen face-first into a bag of flour. Her lips were blood red, and she was shivering in the cold. Someone in the crowd then said that the bride was dressed like she was mourning. The bride’s mother heard it and started cursing. When Xiangmin tried to intervene, she was cursed at as well. Finally, when they had managed to calm down, Xiangyang’s parents, who had also arrived, were completely ignored and placed in a corner. We’re not sure if it was on purpose or if they were simply forgotten. Xiangmin’s mother, who isn’t one to hold back, blew up, shouting at Xiangyang about marrying and forgetting his mother and marrying a divorced woman as if she was a treasure."

"Then the bride’s mother lost it too, pointed at Xiangyang and started shouting about him trying to ’marry up’ and how he should ’take a good look at himself before dreaming of marrying into her house’. The bride joined in the argument too but instead of calming her mother, she started arguing with her and demanded to split the house right there. Her mother was so furious that she nearly passed out from the anger. Imagine having a daughter like that. If it were me, I’d have strangled her in the cradle," said Li Fengmei, laughing in between her narration.