Chapter 52: Someone's gossiping

After Wu An set down his phone, Lao Jiang asked, "You planning to stay long at the old house?"

"Your dad still doesn't plan to let you go home?"

Wu An casually said, "No."

"It's me who plans to stay."

"I'm twenty now; I should start handling major life matters. For now I'll tidy the old house, later scrap the plan to build a new one."

Lao Jiang gave a thumbs-up: "Good, you've got ambition."

"You little rascal, you've made something of yourself."

"Once you fix up the old house and live a decent life, nobody will call you a good-for-nothing anymore."

"'Thanks for the kind words,' Wu An smiled, genuinely happy inside."

"Taking two packs of cigarettes, Lao Jiang also grinned, saying, 'I'll wrap them in plastic for you.'"

"After wrapping the cigarettes in plastic and putting them in his pocket, donning the snake-skin-bag raincoat, Lao Jiang watched Wu An run off into the wind and rain."

Lao Jiang muttered, "Indeed, tiger father, no dog son; just look at him and you see he's rotten to the core—this upright lad could suppress all the village's youth."

……

Wu An returned home and immediately called A Qing.

A Qing was bored at home; upon receiving the call, he said he'd come right over.

Wu An thought, then said, "Let's meet at my place."

"You go to the dock and buy some dead fish and rotten shrimp."

"I'll go home and ask my sister-in-law to lend a vehicle."

"We'll go to Zhen Dong Shuizha; on foot it'd take two hours, by vehicle just over half an hour."

After a quick tidy, he picked up his fishing gear and headed home.

On the way he ran into Mao Wang.

He had pretended not to see him, but Mao Wang reached out to stop him anyway.

Wu An snapped, "A good dog doesn't block the road."

Mao Wang said, "I heard you made a lot of money gathering seafood; give me some tips, or take me along."

"We're not on the same path," Wu An said, walking around him, "Go play elsewhere."

Mao Wang blocked him again, shouting, "I need to earn money for Shen Fang—you have to help me!"

"Get lost." Wu An shoved him impatiently, "Who you want to earn money for is your business; none of mine."

"To be frank."

After being reborn, he felt somewhat out of place with Shen Fang, Mao Wang, and the like.

"How did these people's brains even grow?"

"Their thought processes are way too weird."

Wu An couldn't be bothered to complain, and hurried home.

Mao Wang stomped his foot, angrily spat two lines, shouting, "What arrogance? It's just gathering seafood—you make money, I don't believe I can't."

"If one day doesn't work, I'll try two."

"For Shen Fang, I'm willing to soak in the sea every day."

"You'll never measure up to me!"

……

Wu An arrived home; his sister-in-law was picking vegetables at the door, neighbor Duan Dajie sat beside her, and they were chatting.

Mei Yueqin saw Wu An come, quickly stopped what she was doing, and said, "I saved you some rice; I'll go heat it up."

Wu An said he'd eaten, told her not to bother, glanced at Duan Dajie next to him, greeted her, and said, "Actually I came to borrow a vehicle."

"I plan to go to town for a bit."

Duan Dajie looked at Mei Yueqin; both then turned to Wu An and asked, "What are you doing going to town in this rain?"

Wu An patted his fishing gear and said, "I know a fishing buddy who says the fish are biting well at Zhen Dong Shuizha; I plan to go there to fish."

"Can that work?" Mei Yueqin said worriedly, "Never mind whether you can catch fish in this wind and rain; plus the roads are slippery and hard to travel."

"Sister-in-law, don't worry, just ride slowly." Wu An smiled and said, "Today's rain isn't heavy; actually it's pretty good for fishing."

"Yesterday I made a few thousand just from fishing."

"My fishing buddy says the bite is even better; I'll surely earn more—I don't want to just rest."

Mei Yueqin looked at Wu An, hesitated, then nodded and walked with her umbrella to Lao Meng's house.

Wu An followed along.

Lao Meng was at home.

"His two sons have started families elsewhere; he lives alone now. Though they don't come back all year, they still send living expenses each year."

Lao Meng just tends his small plot; his life is more comfortable than anyone's.

After hearing Wu An, Lao Meng frowned and asked, "Can that work?"

Wu An assured him repeatedly.

"Fine, take the tricycle." Lao Meng's house has both two- and three-wheeled motorbikes; he said, "This one's more stable."

Wu An thanked him.

Lao Meng waved a hand: "It's fine, don't be polite—learn well, and you can use this vehicle however you like later."

Wu An smiled, rode the vehicle out, and as he was about to leave, slipped a pack of cigarettes into Lao Meng's hand.

Lao Meng chuckled: "You're quite good at playing along."

Not long after, A Qing arrived, wearing a plastic-sheet raincoat; Wu An didn't even get off the vehicle, told him to load his gear, and rode the tricycle straight to Zhen Dong Shuizha.

Lao Meng was smoking a cigarette, smiling cheerfully, and said: "A An is doing well; even on rainy days he doesn't want to be idle. Not bad, not bad."

Mei Yueqin also wore a smile and said, "Yeah."

He said yesterday he was repairing Lao Wu, and later he still wants to tear down Lao Wu and build a new room.

Lao Meng nodded repeatedly.

To the side, Duan Dajie shook her head and said: "I think it's just pointless fussing."

"I've never seen anyone get rich from fishing."

"Fishing in the rain and even borrowing a car—really making a fool of himself."

"If others find out, they'll definitely laugh at him."

Actually, in the Village, Wu An really is a joke. Originally everyone envied him for getting into university, but not long after enrolling, he was expelled and embarrassingly rolled back to the Village.

Then Shen Fang broke up with him, he gave up on himself, and became a worthless good-for-nothing that everyone despised.

And now he still hopes to get rich by fishing.

"What a joke."

"Is fishing really that easy?"

"If fishing could make one rich, Lin Bin and Lin Hu, the two brothers, wouldn't be so disliked in the Village."

"Previously, Mei Yueqin wouldn't talk back, but today she couldn't help saying: 'What's there to laugh about? A An is going to make money; even if he catches no fish and earns nothing, there's nothing to laugh at.'"

"I think it's quite good."

"Being busy pointlessly is better than just eating and waiting to die."

Lao Meng also nodded: "That's the reasoning."

"Young people should get moving, stir things up a bit, and maybe they'll get ahead."

Duan Dajie didn't expect these two to oppose her so strongly; she snorted twice, shifted her tone, aimed at Mei Yueqin, and lectured: "You really indulge Wu An."

"I think, Wu An has ended up like this, you also bear responsibility."

"You should learn from your dad and be stricter with him."

Then he also said to Lao Meng: "Uncle Meng, your two sons are in the big Market, so of course you can talk easily without back pain, but messing around in the Village—how can you get ahead?"

"Truly capable people would have already gone out there."

"This is just a roundabout way of saying Wu An lacks ability."

Lao Meng listened, his brows furrowed; he even brought up his sons as examples, leaving him unable to speak either way—he could only mutter inwardly: "What status do you have to lecture others like this? Have you straightened out your own life? A divorced woman living at her parents' home—does that make her look good?"