Chapter 5: What’s the Date Today?

After Mrs. Wu finished speaking, Du Li’s face flushed red and then turned pale, while everyone else burst into laughter.

After all, several years had passed since those times; social status and political struggles had long become history.

No one would drag her out for public humiliation just because of one comment from Du Li.

But in truth, ever since Du Li started working at the chemical plant, she considered herself part of the working class, no longer on the same level as the old farmers.

Moreover, she had married Li Peng thanks to her looks and figure.

According to her mother, Li Peng held a minor official position at school, so naturally, their daughter was an official’s wife—back in the day, she would have been a titled lady, very different from rural folk.

Unfortunately, this was something only she and her mother could boast about at home; no one else acknowledged it.

Li Qi, imitating Mrs. Wu’s clipped tone, said,

“Big brother, sister-in-law, you’re no longer farmers or peasants, but don’t you have any shame? No one says being working class means you can be shameless. When are you going to return the two thousand yuan mom left behind?”

Everyone turned sharply to glare at Li Peng and his wife. Li Peng, who did have some status, blushed unnaturally under their gaze, his face reddening all the way down his neck.

“What two thousand yuan? That’s nonsense. Honey, let’s go home...” he stammered, pulling Du Li away in a hurry.

If they didn’t leave now, who knew what other embarrassing things Du Li might say. Li Peng knew from this moment on, their reputation on this street was utterly ruined.

Li Hai and Tang Chunyan also left, and seeing no more excitement, the neighbors dispersed.

It was getting late, and Old Li Mantang was about to head out to cook noodles.

Mercifully, for three years since his wife passed, Old Li’s meals for his two grown sons had mostly been noodles mixed with soybean paste or plain rice soaked in soy sauce.

Occasionally, Tang Chunyan would bring over a few bags of pickled vegetables, mixed with dried tofu or kelp, which was a rare improvement.

On the table, the usual dish was a small plate of fried peanuts—Old Li’s favorite. Every night, he’d have a cup of old white liquor and a handful of peanuts, just to feel somewhat human.

Li Qi suddenly jumped up and stopped his father.

“Ancestor, take a break today. I’ll cook.”

He first steamed a pot of rice.

Then, he dug a piece of meat out from a snowdrift beneath the windowsill, sliced off a few pieces, and tucked it back into the snow to keep it fresh.

The saying “half-grown son eats his poor father out of house and home” rang true; Li Qi knew just how tough life was now. That fist-sized piece of meat had to last a whole week.

He also pulled out a bag of frozen tofu.

In those northeastern winters, with temperatures plummeting below minus twenty degrees Celsius, the outdoors served as a natural freezer.

Li Qi stir-fried the few slices of meat and stewed a pot of cabbage, vermicelli, and frozen tofu. He also prepared a bowl of garlic sauce and arranged a plate with Tang Chunyan’s pickled vegetables and spicy dried tofu.

They didn’t even have a large bowl for vegetables at home, so he laid a cloth on the kang table and placed the ladle directly on it. Dinner was served!

By the time the meal was ready, Li Zhe came out of the small room, paused at the sight of the different dishes on the table, but said nothing and picked up his bowl to eat.

Li Qi was too lazy to pay him any mind and poured a glass of liquor for Old Li Mantang.

The old man looked at him as if he were an alien.

This troublemaker usually didn’t even know how to steady a tipped-over oil bottle, yet today, he could cook!

What they didn’t know was that Li Qi, having drifted through life without even marrying, had been forced by hardship to learn a dozen different skills...

“Third son, you learned this cooking just for Liu Yuting, right? You two fool around okay, but if you’re really thinking of marrying, you better think twice. That woman, sigh...”

Hearing this, Li Zhe looked up and gave Li Qi a contemptuous glance.

“With his sorry state, it’d be a miracle if Liu Yuting even looked at him.”

Li Zhe knew Liu Yuting was notorious in town—a flirt who spent her days dolling up, dating one guy today and another tomorrow, always hanging around with some ruffians.

He couldn’t understand what was wrong with Li Qi, who trailed after Liu Yuting like a lovesick puppy, utterly infatuated.

Facing Li Zhe’s disdainful gaze, Li Qi froze.

A flood of memories rushed over him.

Liu Yuting stood 173 centimeters tall, weighed 52 kilograms, with a peach-shaped rear, D-cup bust, and a two-foot waist.

Her figure rated eight out of ten, and her looks could reach an astonishing 8.5.

They’d been elementary school classmates, but she dropped out in middle school to work with her mother in various small businesses—running a shop, an arcade, a billiard hall, even an ice-skating rink and karaoke lounge (the original kind, very different from today’s KTVs, with no private rooms, just one big hall where everyone sat together, picking songs from a book and singing for fifty cents a song).

A few years later, through her mother’s connections with the deputy town mayor, she got into selling tickets for cigarettes and alcohol, finally finding a way to make real money.

But at this time, Liu Yuting was still loitering on the streets, mingling with thugs.

Meanwhile, Li Qi was her loyal admirer, utterly captivated by this stunningly beautiful woman, obsessed with her to the point of madness, scratching at walls in the middle of the night for her.

Since failing to get into vocational school, Li Qi had been idling at home, earning some wild money through petty theft.

He stole coal by night—blocking the coal trucks’ path with wooden stakes so lumps of coal would fall off, which they’d collect and sell for a yuan a night.

But this only worked on state-owned mines.

There was a kid named Hu Chao who tried the same on private coal owners and got badly beaten.

He also stole iron, which was riskier and required contacts at the factory. Li Qi mostly helped with lookout duty, earning two yuan for three days of work.

Two yuan was a lot back then.

At that time, ice pops cost ten cents each, sugary twisted doughnuts twenty cents, small hard candies three cents, and gourd-shaped milk candies five cents.

Arcade tokens were four per yuan, enough for four rounds of Street Fighter.

That was the scene—just a simple hustle.

But Li Qi never spent a cent on himself; all his earnings went to Liu Yuting.

Yet he never got anything tangible in return. The best he got was once, after working for days to give her five yuan, she barely touched his hand.

Li Qi didn’t wash his hands for three days, not knowing what fragrant thing Liu Yuting had rubbed on his hand.

These painful memories overwhelmed Li Qi, filling him with shame and a desire to disappear.

How ridiculously melodramatic—to debase himself to dust for a woman.

The downside of his perfect memory was painfully clear now; he remembered everything as if it were yesterday.

Li Qi also recalled that Liu Yuting had heard about his kidney being worth twenty thousand yuan plus a job. For such a huge sum, she had done something remarkable.

Unfortunately, she was too late—Li Qi’s money had already been snatched away by his elder brother and sister-in-law.

Wait, what day is it today? Didn’t he remember that Liu Yuting’s plan was scheduled for tonight?