I am chasing a rough man in the 80s
Chapter 650: Crazy Fire Arch

Chapter 650: Chapter 650: Crazy Fire Arch

Suizi felt sick to her stomach listening to these people talk about her mother in such a weird and sarcastic tone.

They were begging for favors, yet they acted as if doing so was a chore, as if it was an obligation for Chen Lijun to help, and a heinous crime not to.

Yu Jingting, picking up Suizi’s distress signal, immediately blended into the gossiping crowd.

"I remember holding Lijun in my arms when she was a child, and so many years have passed since then."

"Yes, she has held me too," Yu Jingting joined in.

"Now that she’s successful and well off, I wonder if she can still remember ordinary folks like us."

All this strange and sarcastic banter was full of hidden traps, baiting others into saying bad things about Chen Lijun. It allowed them to keep themselves clean, while enjoying the juicy gossip.

If they came across someone without much social experience, that person could easily be led into this narrative, thereby becoming cannon fodder for others.

Still, all the people in the room were shrewd foxes. No one was willing to step on this landmine. Even if they harbored extreme dislike towards Chen Lijun, no one was brave enough to be the first to openly criticize her.

"She has indeed become haughty, hasn’t she? She passes by my house but doesn’t come in. She used to hold me back in the days, but now she doesn’t even give me a second glance."

The one starting the trend was Yu Jingting. Everybody was delighted to see the fool who finally found the courage to speak out, then they noticed it was a young man with an unfamiliar face.

"Who’s child are you? How come I’ve never seen you?"

"I’m a relative of someone." Yu Jingting said his auntie’s name.

It wasn’t really a lie; he was indeed related, it just easily led to misunderstandings.

The reason he chose his auntie was that her family branch has always lived out of town, mainly studying music and quite aloof, rarely making contact with other families.

"Ah, so you’re from Jia Zhen’s family, are you her son-in-law?"

"Yeah, her grandson-in-law."

"Ohh, so you are closely related, is it then true that Lijun also despises you?"

Upon mentioning this, everyone’s interest was piqued. All ears, they eagerly anticipated hearing the anecdote about a wealthy lady looking down on her poorer relatives.

"Isn’t that the truth? She is so miserly, my wife fancied a painting of hers and asked for it, but she refused to give it."

Suizi nodded emphatically. Correct.

"Well, that’s a stingy act indeed." Everyone seemed satisfied, and just as they were about to further probe, Yu Jingting took charge and changed the conversation.

"She doesn’t treat you well either, right?"

"Hey, she is in a position of power, doesn’t she behave aloofly?" With Yu Jingting taking the lead in speaking ill of others, these old foxes finally couldn’t hold back and started cursing and venting.

This one here talking about Chen Lijun being aloof, that one there saying Chen Lijun was arrogant and demanding.

They hadn’t planned on saying so much, but Yu Jingting kept on egging them on. Whenever someone stopped speaking, he would enthusiastically pick up the conversation, enabling the chatter to continue even when others didn’t want to speak more.

Yu Jingting’s Social Bull Attribute was incredibly strong. He simply started to throw around wild claims, following his pattern of talking big under the big tree at the village entrance.

People often behave like this: when someone takes the lead, the herd mentality kicks in and causes people to believe in the illusion of safety in numbers. Once one person starts to gossip, others feel brave enough to join in.

In the end, they all thought, wouldn’t the blame fall on the young fellow who started it all?

A few were initially hesitant to speak out openly, but under Yu Jingting’s persuasion, they all expressed their dissatisfaction with Chen Lijun.

"By the way, doesn’t she have a daughter?" Yu Jingting asked casually.

This was indeed a topic that everyone seemed to enjoy.

"Yes, she does have a daughter, born in the village. I heard she’s horribly ugly and has been hidden away in shame."

"Oh really?" Yu Jingting glanced at Suizi, who had been listening with a dark expression on her face. He would bet that his wife, who had remained silent for so long, was surely silently memorizing everyone’s names to hold a grudge.

All the ones who had spoken ill of her mother-in-law were put on her blacklist, and Yu Jingting was collaborating quite well with her. He was conducting the investigation, asking who was saying what and from which family, while she was noting down every single person

"Just how ugly is her daughter? Is she as ugly as my wife?" Yu Jingting compared her to Suizi.

"Are you joking? Are you making fun of us? Where is your wife ugly? Just look at her, she looks like an actress. Why does she look so familiar?"

Right, she did look familiar. She looked exactly like Chen Lijun when she was young. Since Suizi hadn’t spoken until this moment, no one had really paid attention to her presence.

"So, how do you know that Chen Lijun’s daughter is an ugly monster, uglier than my wife?"

"Born to a farmer, how could she turn out well? Either she’s cross-eyed or buck-toothed, otherwise why would they keep hiding her and not dare to bring her out to meet us?"

"I heard that she’s busy studying and managed to get into Tsinghua University, surely she must be beautiful and smart, right?" Yu Jingting seized the opportunity to bat a few eyelashes for his wife and praised her profusely.

"How could a country girl get into Tsinghua? I heard she’s found a country bumpkin who’s also moved to the city. He works at the university, stoking the furnace. Lijun’s too embarrassed to admit it out of fear of losing face, so she keeps it all hidden."

"Old man, stoking the furnace?!" Suizi was a bit confused, but she was very shocked.

"Right, didn’t you know? It seems like Lijun doesn’t keep close ties with your family. Your grandmother made a whole set of clothes for her, only to be forgotten and betrayed; she even hides things from your family."

"Err, could you elaborate a bit more on the furnace-stoking thing? Since when did my husband become a furnace stoker? And why didn’t I know about it?"

Wouldn’t stoking the furnace under the current temperature roast someone to death?

"Apparently, the ugly girl took a big country-bumpkin man into the city. The man, old enough to be her father, now works in the cafeteria doling out food, while she stokes the furnace. Lijun, who cares about face, tells people outside that they got admitted to the university."

Amidst her shock, Suizi felt a peculiar sense of balance: he stoking the furnace and she doling out food in the cafeteria – they made quite a match.

The imagination of these people was truly incredibly vivid.

There was a middle-aged man among the crowd who had been silent all the while. He scrutinized Suizi a few more times when Yu Jingting asked about her attractiveness. Suddenly, he turned sour and started yelling.

"Have you all had enough?!"

"Chen He, what’s got into you?"

"What has Lijun done to deserve such slander from you all? You’re not only fabricating stories about her, but also attacking my niece and her husband. Gossiping about others, does it really benefit you all?" The man, known as Chen He, started to berate the others.

The scolding successfully drawn the attention of Suizi and her husband, but also made the gossiping troupe turn against him.

"We were just having a friendly chat, why are you taking things so seriously?"

"Anyway, stop discussing Lijun behind her back, as well as my niece and her husband!" After having said that, Chen He angrily stomped out of the room, ignoring the curses the crowd threw at his back.

"Who was that just now?" Yu Jingting inquired.

"That’s Chen Lijun’s older cousin from her second uncle’s family. He never holds a steady job, just dabbles in buying and selling odd stuff – nothing reputable. Speaking of which, we’ve been chatting for so long, young fellow, where do you work?"

"Me? I stoke furnaces." Yu Jingting replied with a big grin.

"What are you two doing here?!" A voice resounded from outside the door, Chen Lijun’s outrageously dogmatic father had arrived.

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