The next morning, a peaceful dawn was shattered by the mixed sounds of arguing, crowing roosters, and barking dogs.
It was quite noisy for a while.
"You with the foul mouth, it's your daughter who fools around, your whole family fools around."
"It's your whole family that fools around. We all know what kind of woman your daughter is, tangled up with Zhang Dong. Who knows what they did?"
"Pah, you with the foul mouth, Zhang Dong looks so lousy. Does my daughter care for him?"
"Oh, your daughter is just a widow, an unworthy woman, and she looks down on Zhang Dong? I bet she's begging him to marry her."
"Damn your mother, even as a widow, my daughter is better than you, you old and ugly wild boar grass."
"You're the wild boar grass. Your whole family is wild boar grass. You, the old wild boar grass."
"Oh, oh, oh, losing the argument and now copying me. How shameful."
Lin Qiao was awakened by the noise, standing at the door tidying her hair while listening with interest. The scene of the quarrel was quite amusing indeed.
They had loud voices and lots of energy.
At that moment, Song Tingfan came back carrying two buckets of water. Seeing her standing in the courtyard, he hesitated, then lowered his head and said, "Sister-in-law, you're not like that."
Lin Qiao didn't understand what he was saying and looked at him in confusion, "Not like what?"
Song Tingfan poured the water into the tank with a "whoosh," and said timidly, "Not like how she said."
Lin Qiao: "..."
She had been listening all morning, and it turned out they were talking about her.
Fooling around?
Who did she fool around with?
There's no such scene in the dream?
"..."
She seemed to understand now, the dream only revolved around the male and female leads. Except for important supporting roles, others were not really involved.
So did she have only half the script?
Summing up her situation now: groping blindly, improvising freely, disregarding life and death.
"..."
At this moment, a voice came from the door, "Tingfan, let's go."
In sight were two people, a middle-aged man in brown short clothes, and a fourteen or fifteen-year-old boy in gray short clothes. They clearly looked like father and son.
This was Song Tingfan's uncle Song An and his uncle's eldest son Song Hao. Both of them saw Lin Qiao but did not greet her, and there was even a bit of dislike in their eyes.
Both of these people died later, drafted into the court to fight in war, and died on the battlefield.
The last bit of warmth for Song Tingfan was completely gone.
Lin Qiao pretended not to see it, smiling and trying to connect, "Uncle, cousin."
As the saying goes, even a hard-hearted person can't resist a smiling face. Seeing her friendly and courteous manner, Song An, as a senior, couldn't be too harsh, "Hmm."
He quickly added, "Tingfan, we'll wait for you up ahead."
"Okay."
Song Tingfan went back to the house to get his bow and, when leaving the courtyard, he glanced at Lin Qiao, who was using a stick to hit jujubes. She had one in her mouth.
His sister-in-law had said she didn't like jujubes, too astringent and dry.
He hesitated for a moment, walked over, jumped up to grab a low-hanging branch, and quickly picked more than a dozen of them.
He held them in his hands, cautiously offering them to Lin Qiao, "Sister-in-law, do you want some?"
He seemed afraid she wouldn't take them.
"Little uncle, you're amazing." Lin Qiao praised him, then accepted them with both hands, eating one.
She was really hungry, having only eaten half a bowl of watery rice since yesterday.
Praised by his sister-in-law, Song Tingfan felt a bit embarrassed and scratched his head, "Sister-in-law, I'm leaving now."
"Okay." Lin Qiao thought of something and gave him some more jujubes, "Eat something to fill your stomach, there'll be food when you return."
"Little uncle, be careful on the mountain, stay close to uncle and cousin."
It was the first time she'd said so much. Song Tingfan looked at her, and his cautious expression was more warm, "Okay."
Watching his back, Lin Qiao put another jujube in her mouth. This antagonist was indeed simple now.
A few jujubes could make him happy.
If you gave him a few candies, he might just chase that person endlessly.
After eating more than a dozen jujubes, her mouth was full of astringency. She drank half a ladle of water to get rid of it.
Last night, she smelled mold in the quilt while sleeping, so when the sun was good, she took all the quilts out to dry, including Song Tingfan's.
Along with the already blackened dead grass mat.
After doing this, she was drenched in sweat. After resting for a while, she took some money and went to solve the livelihood problem.
Buying rice.
The village was small, with only over a dozen families in total.
On the road, people always looked at her with disdain, contempt, or lewdness, but never any friendly glances.
Lin Qiao had a bad reputation in the village, living up to the saying "widows attract gossip," especially as Lin Qiao was known as the prettiest widow within ten miles.
If there had been a man in the family, it wouldn't have been so bad, but she was a widow without a man.
What does being a widow mean?
It means any man feels they can tease her.
Lin Qiao pretended not to see this and walked for about fifteen minutes before arriving at the home of the grain landlord on the other side of the river.
The grain landlord's was the only family with their own brick house; a small room was built to the left of the courtyard wall with a sign.
Rice for sale, ten cents a pound.
It wasn't just rice being sold but other things like needles, thread, and scissors.
At the moment, someone was weighing rice. Seeing her coming, the gray-haired woman twisted her mouth and provocatively sneered, "Widow Song also came to buy rice? Didn't you go back to your mother's house to scrounge?"
In her past life, Lin Qiao was someone without any love history, no cohabitation, no marriage, an "oddity" in the entertainment circle.
Now she had directly become a widow.
That's an advancement, straight to the point.
No, going back to the mother's house to scrounge? What was this scene about?
She gave a fake smile and replied, "Fat Aunt is here to buy rice too?"
Lin Qiao's mouth never suffered losses.
Mrs. Zhou Zhao was wide-bodied and hated being called fat, her face looked unpleasant, and she cursed, "You damned widow, don't come near me, I don't want to catch your misfortune."
The Song family had a series of deaths, all after Lin Qiao married in. The villagers said she was a jinx, bringing misfortune to her husband and in-laws.
In the production crew, Lin Qiao was known for her "bad" temper, or rather, people got nothing but honesty from her.
She avenged any grievance on the spot.
She replied, "I don't know about misfortune, but I do know you've got quite a smell on you."
Country folks, men and women, all had to work, and with the summer heat, many had a smell.
Mrs. Zhou Zhao was so angry she cursed, "Even if I smell, it's better than your wild allure, seducing one and then another. If I were your mother, I'd tie you with a stone and drown you in the river."
Lin Qiao leaned toward the window, "Auntie, I'll buy four pounds of rice."
Then she turned to look at Mrs. Zhou Zhao, crossing her arms, "Don't be jealous, Fat Aunt. If you slim down, you can too."
She paused, examining the person opposite, and added, "No, maybe not. With your dark skin, small eyes, and garlic bulb nose."
She shook her head, "But auntie doesn't need to tie a stone."
Another jab at Mrs. Zhou Zhao's weight.
The grain-selling woman watching the fun couldn't help but laugh. Mrs. Zhou Zhao, embarrassed and angry, made to hit her, "You with the foul mouth, I'll beat you to death."
Lin Qiao didn't dodge, "Go on. But let me tell you, if you touch me and you die the next day, it's none of my business."
Hearing this, Mrs. Zhou Zhao was spooked. This Widow Song did have some ominous reputation. She spat, picked up the rice, and scornfully said, "Pah, I wouldn't dirty my hands."
"You miserable widow without a man."