Chapter 538: Gossip-Eating Survival System (37)

"A person as concerned with appearances as Auntie Niu is, she's probably not going to be able to sleep for a few nights now."

Zheng Miaomiao had been stuffed with this piece of gossip for a few days, so she ran over to find Xie Yang to vent and digest it while she was home.

"I heard Wang Tao is going to take Lou Xuefang and move out to live; I don't know if it's true or not."

Xie Yang raised an eyebrow.

Lou Xuefang is moving out?

Then it's time to properly settle the accounts that should be settled.

The Police Station couldn't easily convict her without evidence, but the Main System had collected the curses of those three thugs from the Labor Reform Farm, confirming that Lou Xuefang was not innocent.

It was just that seeing she was pregnant, and since they lived in the same Dazayuan anyway, there would be plenty of opportunities later, so Xie Yang had let her off for the time being.

But now, the factor of concern had been cleared away by her sister-in-law, so Xie Yang wouldn't be polite anymore.

She spoke to the Main System through her consciousness: System, I'll trouble you!

【Easy, easy!】

The Main System was generous with its words, but crying on the inside.

It was all its energy and its private stash of points being spent! Waaah!

It hoped the Host would remember this favor and reward it a little once she saved up enough points.

"By the way, Sister Yang Yang, if you get married, will you still come back here to live?"

Zheng Miaomiao was gossiping about the Wang Family in the previous sentence, but in the next, she shifted the topic to Xie Yang.

And without needing Xie Yang to answer, she continued on her own: "Oh, I heard Grandma Xie say that the Gu family's place is right in Xifu Hutong; it only takes six or seven minutes to walk, and you won't even have to pedal the bike much to get there. So you have to come back often! Otherwise, I'll be bored."

Xie Yang smiled: "Don't worry, I'll definitely come back."

Aside from finding him agreeable, another important factor in her choosing Gu Yu'an was—his house was incredibly close to the Number 8 Compound.

Xifu Hutong and Dongfu Hutong had both once belonged to the grounds of a Prince's Mansion, which was later split into two, with a small alley separating them in the middle.

The Xifu Hutong side belonged to the Main Courtyard of the mansion, and the successive courtyards had now become a Dazayuan; the Dongfu Hutong side had once been the back garden and Small Side Courtyard of the mansion, but after the founding of the country, it was replanned, and rows of small, single-family Small Courtyard Houses were built.

It really was just a few steps away.

Someone with a loud voice could stand on this side and shout, and they might even be heard on the other.

So she had nothing to be anxious or worried about.

It was only if the Zheng family moved away in the future, or if Zheng Miaomiao reached the age to marry and moved out of the Number 8 Compound, that she would have to worry about how to stay closer to Zheng Miaomiao.

This problem was clearly even more troublesome than her own marriage.

Five days later, a group of people came to the Number 8 Compound.

Leading them was Lou Xuefang's sharp-tongued mother, followed by a group who looked like they were from the countryside, but every one of them had a stern face and a fierce, not-to-be-trifled-with look.

"You dead girl, get out here right now!"

Lou Mu stood in the Courtyard and cursed with her hands on her hips:

"I actually thought you were capable, getting the first batch of qualifications to enter the city, but it turns out you swindled the fellow villagers! Now they've come to your door asking you to pay back the money collected for fertilizer, get out here and explain yourself! I must have owed you in my past life, how did I give birth to such a brainless idiot! You cause trouble everywhere you go!"

Other residents of the Dazayuan who were home heard the commotion and opened their doors to watch the excitement, but unfortunately, Zheng Miaomiao, the most enthusiastic gossip-eater, had gone to school.

Chen Axiang stuffed a ball of yarn into her pocket and, while knitting, leaned toward the crowd and asked: "What's the situation? Isn't Old Wang's daughter-in-law an Educated Youth who got a Return to City Order?"

"What Return to City Order! If we're talking about qualifications, the first batch wouldn't have been her turn! She took the initiative to find the Brigade Leader, saying her parents had acquaintances at the fertilizer plant and could help us get fertilizer, which is how she got moved into the first batch of the return list. She even had us pool money for her train ticket and the fertilizer money, but as soon as she left, there was no news."

The villager in the lead was red-faced with anger and told the whole story from beginning to end.

The fellow villager accompanying him added:

"The Brigade Leader waited and waited, but when he didn't hear back from her, he worried if she hadn't managed to get the fertilizer and was afraid to tell the brigade. So after the busy farming season, he came to Beijing himself, thinking that if she really couldn't get the fertilizer, it would be fine if she just returned the pooled money to us. Who would have thought she left the brigade a fake address? We couldn't find anyone by that name when we checked the address, and the Brigade Leader was so angry he fell ill after returning. We still haven't fully recovered. It's thanks to a kind person who provided us with the correct address, otherwise the Brigade Leader would have kept blaming himself!"

"My god! She swindled the villagers' money to return to the city, and then left a fake address? I really couldn't tell that Little Lou was that kind of person!" Chen Axiang was so shocked she dropped a stitch in her knitting.

This news could be considered the most explosive in the history of the Number 8 Compound!

Even the First Uncle and Second Uncle were alarmed.

The First Uncle slumped in his wheelchair, his mouth twitching, his hands shaking so hard it looked like Parkinson's.

Disgraceful!

Truly disgraceful!

How could the Wang Family have married such a disgraceful daughter-in-law! It even caused them to lose all their old faces!

When it comes time to evaluate the progressive compound, will there even be a place for their Number 8 Compound?

"This is no small matter, we must report it to the police!"

Widow Guo had an intellectual daughter who worked at a Newspaper Office, and she knew this kind of thing was no longer a simple dispute, but clearly fraud, which meant going to jail.

Lou Xuefang was sitting through her postpartum recovery inside the room; hearing her mother's roar, she didn't want to get up to open the door and pretended she wasn't home, but she was dumbfounded by what she heard next.

How did the people from the countryside brigade chase her all the way home?

She clearly hadn't left a real address at the time, so how could they have found her door?

But where would she get the money to pay them back? Life after returning to the city required money everywhere, and plus, after suffering for so long in the countryside, now that she had finally returned, shouldn't she go to the State-run Restaurant to eat a few meals of braised pork and buy some cloth to make herself two new outfits? The little money she had was already spent.

What to do!

She didn't know how much money her mother-in-law still had... but she was still planning to move out and rent a place! Would what she gave the villagers be enough to pay the rent?

At this moment, hearing Widow Guo say she wanted to report it to the police, she couldn't lie still anymore.

She scrambled up, pulled open the door, and cursed at Widow Guo: "What business is it of yours, you old widow! You really are meddlesome!"

However, before Widow Guo could curse back, she was first grabbed by the hair by her shrewish mother, and two slaps "pop, pop" made her see stars.

Lou Xuefang let out an "ow" and wailed: "Mother, are you sick! Why are you hitting me instead of the person talking nonsense!"

"Nonsense? Is the nonsense you caused for me not enough? Who else should I hit if not you? You useless idiot!"

The mother and daughter tore at each other and cursed in front of everyone.

Widow Guo was furious; she had only meant to offer a suggestion, and whether or not to report it to the public security was a matter between the production brigade and Lou Xuefang, but now, she was truly determined to see this meddlesome business through to the end!

She stopped picking the vegetables, strode off, and headed straight for the Police Station.

When Zheng Miaomiao returned from school, she happened to see Lou Xuefang being taken away by people from the Police Station.

Her eyes lit up in surprise: "What happened? What's the situation?"

At this moment, she hated herself for not going home earlier after school; it wasn't her turn to be on duty today, so why did she have to wait for her deskmate to finish sweeping the floor before messing around and walking home together, missing out on such a shocking piece of gossip—she really couldn't even catch a fresh meal... ah, ptooey! Who's eating that!