CHAPTER 39: CHAPTER 39: THE CAUTIOUS FANG AIGUO

Lin Qin took the initiative to help them fish, "Look, they are all alive! At the supply and marketing cooperative, they’re one yuan six per jin, but we’ll do one yuan five, clean and pretty, the best for new mothers to produce milk!"

"Oh! One yuan five isn’t cheap! They’re so small, not big enough!" A few grannies started to pick on them.

Lin Qin explained nicely, "Grannies, these crucian carps don’t grow much bigger, if they were bigger we’d sell out in the city and wouldn’t come all the way here to sell, right?

You are more than an hour away from Nanxi! We came this far and sell for one yuan five per jin, we’re really not making much money!"

"How about a bit cheaper!" The granny who first asked about the price, seeing Lin Qin speak so sincerely, felt it hard to argue further, only wanting to bargain down the price more.

After several rounds of verbal battles, they finally closed the deal at one yuan four per jin.

The granny led Lin Qin and Chen Wenjun, helping them deliver the fish to her home.

On the way, Lin Qin casually asked, "Granny, what should we call you?"

"My maiden name is Huang, came to Fangshan Village in my teens! The roads in the village aren’t good, take it slow." Granny Huang said as she reminded Chen Wenjun to be careful not to shake the fish too much.

Lin Qin and Chen Wenjun indeed slowed their pace.

Passing a large courtyard of red brick and tile, Chen Wenjun curiously asked, "Granny, whose house is this? So grand!"

"This is our village chief’s house! Rich! Heard his daughter married far away, found a really good son-in-law, the first ten-thousand-yuan household in our village!" Granny Huang said proudly.

Lin Qin and Chen Wenjun exchanged a glance, looking inside.

Lin Qin pretended to be envious and asked, "Did the village chief’s daughter marry so well because she’s really pretty or highly educated?"

"What! She was just lucky! Her looks are just okay, education-wise she’s just average, didn’t do well in the college entrance exam, otherwise she wouldn’t have married so early. I say no matter how well a girl studies, it’s not as good as marrying well, after all, even if you study well you’ll eventually marry, what’s the use!"

"Granny, if you say so, do the girls in your village not go to college? They all marry early?" Lin Qin joked half-seriously.

Granny Huang earnestly nodded.

Lin Qin looked unconvinced.

Granny Huang, seeing this, got anxious, "I’m telling the truth! Girls in our village at most graduate high school, then all get married. And you guys don’t understand, with too much education, girls get big ideas, like a girl in our village, Fang Yin.

She didn’t get into college, her family wanted her to marry but she refused, later a matchmaker found her a suitor willing to give a decent bride price, but Fang Yin didn’t know how good she had it and ran away."

Lin Qin was so shocked her mouth gaped wide open, "No way! How could a girl just run off nowadays? Hopefully nothing happened to her outside!"

Granny Huang shook her head, "Who knows! Our village chief really was loyal and righteous, he was the one who introduced Fang Yin to her suitor, after she ran off, he was more worried than Fang Niufen’s family, getting the whole family to help search.

Unfortunately she still wasn’t found, everyone guessed Fang Yin was abducted, Fang Niufen and his wife, in their anger, publicly declared they consider her not their daughter anymore.

So, I say all that education for a girl is useless, look at Fang Niufen and his wife, raised her all those years, didn’t get anything in return, what’s the point?"

As they spoke, they arrived at Granny Huang’s house.

On the way, they also ran into the village chief, Fang Aiguo, heading home.

Fang Aiguo looked at Chen Wenjun and Lin Qin sharply, and asked leisurely, "Where are you from?"

Chen Wenjun grinned, "We’re from Nanxi, caught the fish ourselves, been selling them all morning and still haven’t sold them all, do you want some? We have a few left."

Granny Huang got anxious, quickly said, "I’m taking all the crucian carp, Chief, you can’t snatch them from me."

Fang Aiguo looked down, saw apart from the crucian carp there were only four or five ounces of carp in the bucket, too bony to enjoy! He frowned and walked away.

The group arrived at Granny Huang’s house, where Chen Wenjun asked her to bring a bag, scooped the crucian carp, weighed them — roughly three jin seven liang, totaling five yuan one mao eight. In the end, Granny Huang bargained down another mao eight, making just five yuan.

The two felt quite dispirited.

Granny Huang, however, grinned from ear to ear, seeing Chen Wenjun and Lin Qin continue hawking their fish, happily carried the bucket of fish to her kitchen.

Chen Wenjun and Lin Qin called out their fish again in the village, eventually dropping the price to one yuan two per jin to finally sell off the remaining carp.

The couple could finally head back home.

Unexpectedly, as they reached the village entrance, they ran into Fang Aiguo again.

Seeing him riding a bicycle, the two nodded at him and pushed their cart homeward.

Fang Aiguo kept a distance behind them, following all the way.

Lin Qin whispered, "The village chief definitely has something fishy going on!"

Chen Wenjun quickly said, "Don’t talk now, we’ll discuss when we get back."

And so they headed all the way back to their boat in Nanxi.

Even when they got on the boat, they could faintly see Fang Aiguo standing motionless on the riverbank.

Chen Wenjun used a bamboo pole to push their boat away from the shore, and took down the nets drying on the deck, preparing to reset them.

Lin Qin busied herself tidying up, one moment pouring water from a basin into the river, the next carrying a bucket back and forth.

Fang Aiguo stood for almost half an hour before leaving.

By then, Chen Wenjun was ready to reset the nets.

After he finished, he returned to the cabin, whispering to Lin Qin, "He’s gone."

Lin Qin clutched her pounding chest, plopping down on the floor, "Oh my gosh! That old man scared me to death! He’s way too cautious!"

Chen Wenjun’s expression was serious, "Though this trip was risky, it’s not without its gains, at least we know Fang Yin hasn’t gone back, and from the village chief’s reaction, there’s something off about him."

"So, should we keep monitoring?" Lin Qin still felt uneasy.

Chen Wenjun thought for a moment, hesitated, "We don’t need to go daily, but we should go occasionally. After all, we’re legitimately selling fish, he can’t do anything to us. Just hoping everything goes smoothly with Fang Yin, nothing goes wrong."

Meanwhile, Fang Yin, whom they placed their hopes on, was still lingering outside the provincial technical institute. Having been in the provincial capital for over a month, she came here daily waiting for the principal. In truth, she didn’t even know who the principal was, and the security at the entrance wouldn’t let her in, and she dared not reveal why she wanted to see the principal, so there they stalemated.

As a result, in this period, many faculty and students had become aware of Fang Yin’s presence.

Today coincided with a provincial leader’s inspection, and the head of security first thought of Fang Yin standing like a homeless person outside the gates for a month, ordered the guards to chase her away.

The two security guards, following orders, reluctantly approached Fang Yin, "Comrade, our leader instructed that you must leave; you can’t stay here any longer; it affects our school’s image."

Fang Yin burst into tears, "I want to see the principal, I want to see the principal! I beg of you!"

She knelt and kowtowed to the two security guards.

This thoroughly frightened the two of them.