Sweet Nostalgia of the 80s

Chapter 476: Chapter 476: The Sneaky Woman

”That’s true.” Qin Fen laughed.

”Come on in. Have a seat inside!” Qin Jian beckoned his brother into the house, and several people started chatting about this and that.

After a while, a large group of people swarmed in to see Qin Jian and An Hao. Qin Fen sat for a bit, but since no one recognized him, he felt quite bored and quietly slipped out on his own.

He squatted by the courtyard wall at the gateway, smoking and watching the cooks busily stir-frying dishes.

The voices of the others’ conversation intermittently reached Qin Fen’s ears.

”That An family’s girl has a clever head on her shoulders. I heard this whole greenhouse vegetable thing was her idea, and now it’s selling like hotcakes. Not just folks from our village buy them, even people from neighboring villages and towns come here.”

”They must be making a fortune now.”

”Isn’t that the truth? Have you ever seen a girl’s return visit to her family celebrated as lavish as the An family’s doing? I heard after the New Year, they’re going to build a new house, and An Ping is getting to the age to take a wife. Quite a few families in our village have their sights set on An Ping.”

Listening to their chat, Qin Fen felt an inexplicable sense of irritation welling up inside him.

Once, the Qin family was the envy of the village. His eldest brother, Qin Jian, was a soldier and even a company commander, which was a matter of great pride in the village.

Though not like his brother, he would work away for a year and come back with large bundles of things he had bought, which made the villagers jealous and admiring, saying he was promising.

A couple of years ago, when he was younger, every time he returned, numerous families would come asking for his hand in marriage.

But this year, it seemed his return hadn’t caught much attention; everyone was talking about the An family and his eldest brother, Qin Jian.

Qin Jian seemed to have distanced himself from the Qin family.

He took deep drags from his cigarette. Dinner was about to start soon, and the steward called out in a loud voice. Steaming dishes of white-crowned meat soon began to be served at the tables.

Qin Fen did a round inside the house. All the seats were filled with people drinking and eating. Qin Jian and An Hao were busy tending to the guests and didn’t notice him. By the time Qin Jian found him, Qin Fen had already found a place to sit down and start his meal.

”Come on, eat inside with me. It’s too cold out here,” Qin Jian said.

”No need, big brother! You do your thing, I’m fine eating here. I actually quite like it,” Qin Fen replied.

”Alright. If you get cold, come inside.”

”Mhm.” Qin Fen lowered his head and started shoveling food into his mouth with fervor.

The atmosphere inside the courtyard was very lively, but outside the gate, it was deserted with hardly anyone around.

Qin Fen was not too far from the cooking pots and, having finished a bowl, found the flavor quite to his liking. He was about to get up to help himself to another bowl when he noticed a woman acting suspiciously at the doorway, glancing around.

The woman was wrapped up snugly, only her eyes showing. She stood behind an old locust tree, continually observing the situation here.

He was about to go and ask who that person was when, to his surprise, she saw him.

Immediately, she shrank back.

Was she up to no good?

Qin Fen put down his bowl and, while the woman was not looking, hid himself, aiming to catch her and find out what mischief she was up to.

Sure enough, after waiting for a while and seeing no one emerge, the woman hurried to the pot, took a paper packet out of her pocket.

Inside the packet was some white powder, and just as she was about to pour it into the pot, Qin Fen suddenly grabbed her wrist from behind.

”What are you doing? What are you trying to pour into the pot?”