Transmigration: I Have Storage Space in the Apocalypse
Chapter 121 - 119: Just Collecting It Out Of Kindness

Chapter 121: Chapter 119: Just Collecting It Out Of Kindness

——————

Zhang Shan Ni hooked up the corners of her mouth with a hint of sarcasm as she showed it to Wang Xiuzhen, catching a glimpse from the corner of her eye that Wang Xiuzhen’s pretty little round face was about to twist and distort, she felt secretly thrilled.

Hmph, trying to compete with me, kiddo!

From the moment Xiao Liu mentioned Wang Guicai, the barefoot doctor, in a low voice, she roughly understood that Dr. Wang’s family didn’t have a good reputation in Qingfeng Village.

Just think about it, even a child who’s only five or six years old knows the pain of losing meat; those parents’ hearts have an even sharper scale, just waiting to see Dr. Wang’s family’s embarrassment!

"Kicking someone when they’re down" is always a passerby’s nature.

When it’s none of their business, they hang it high and don’t get involved.

But when something evolves that might harm their own interests, everyone will avoid misfortune and seek good fortune, eliminating the risks at the end of the day.

Having lived through the apocalypse, her abilities might not be enough, but she had paid a hefty tuition in understanding human nature.

Look at that—without her having to say or do much, many villagers who felt threatened were unanimously denouncing Wang Xiuzhen for her "unintentional" forgetfulness, seriously demanding that she take responsibility for her own mistake!

And there was Wang Xiuzhen, still foolishly insisting that she acted with good intentions, good heart.

Ha, who could stand such well-intentioned gestures?

Xie Jingqiang glanced at his old uncle Xie Tiesheng and saw that he had no objections to Jingchen’s wife’s words. Then, after briefly thinking about the unscrupulous nature of Wang Guicai’s family, he gestured to the crowd, signaling the villagers to quiet down.

Since Xie Jingqiang took over his father’s position as the village head, he had been doing practical work and winning the hearts of the people. With old accountant Xie Tiesheng by his side, people were still willing to give face to the Old Xie Family, and gradually, the surrounding noise subsided.

At this moment, the postman was also nervously looking at Xie Jingqiang; after all, he was negligent regarding this matter. If people were to make a big deal out of it, he would also get punished by his workplace.

"Cough, Wang Xiuzhen colleague, you said you collected it with good intentions, where’s the letter?" The first point still is to find the letter, that’s the proper business.

Luckily, Wang Xiuzhen wasn’t completely foolish; she really had placed the letter in the office. Upon hearing the village head’s question, she finally came to her senses, immediately nodded, "Uncle Qiangzi, I’ll go find it for you right away!"

She turned and hurriedly ran into the village committee, followed by the onlooking crowd.

Wang Xiuzhen had signed her name and found an unnoticed moment to secretly place the letter in the office, and where she placed it, not to be disturbed for months to come.

That was where the village kept documents, and seeing the layer of dust there, she realized that these documents were rarely sorted.

The Xie Family members following behind her were all shrewd, and the other village executives were no vegetarian either. In an instant, they felt that Dr. Wang’s daughter, while not lacking in schemes, only showed her hand because of a lack of experience.

Like father, like daughter—as the saying goes, the offspring of a mouse naturally knows how to burrow!

Wang Xiuzhen, unaware that others saw her direct search as underlining her scheming ways, felt relieved that the letter hadn’t been taken. She quickly pulled it out and handed it to the village head, saying:

"Uncle Qiangzi, the letter is here, I really only collected it with good intentions." As for signing Zhou Xiuhua’s name, of course, it’s because in the Qingfeng Village cadre, she was the only one with a female household head, right?!

Xie Jingqiang stared at the young girl in front of him, silently took the letter, and handed it to the postman to check whether it had been opened or not.

The postman didn’t question and directly took it, glanced at Wang Xiuzhen who wore an innocent expression, and his previous fondness of her dissipated, now eager to find a point of doubt on her to exonerate himself.

However, due to Wang Xiuzhen’s subconscious respect for Xie Jingchen in her dream, she truly hadn’t secretly opened the letter. She did this also to leave a way out for herself.

And now, she really has her sensibility to thank for it.

The postman comrade meticulously examined the small envelope for over ten minutes, and under Wang Xiuzhen’s impatient expression, he had no choice but to honestly tell Xie Jingqiang, "Comrade Village Chief, this envelope doesn’t show any signs of being opened."

"Thank you. This is where we village officials have not done our job well. You needn’t be nervous; now that there’s no issue with the letter, comrade, could you go get busy with your other tasks?"

The postman comrade’s eyes lit up upon hearing this, and he hurriedly nodded, "Yes, yes, I still have to deliver letters to other households. I won’t trouble you folks anymore. Comrades, goodbye." With a bow, he finished his words and hurriedly grabbed his bicycle to make a quick escape.

As for the existence of the postman comrade, the villagers didn’t care; instead, all eyes were now uniformly on Wang Xiuzhen.

It’s a pity, however, that although Wang Guicai had provoked most of the villagers, there were still a few close friends within his small circle. Upon hearing that his daughter stood out, Wang Guicai, who was gathering herbs on the mountain, quickly shouldered his basket and hurried to the village committee.

Along the way, he also came to understand the situation.

As everyone was waiting for Xie Jingqiang’s punishment, Wang Guicai arrived just in time.

"Wait a minute!" Wang Guicai, a stingy and mean-spirited man, but excessively doting on his children, shouted from afar upon hearing the village chief was going to punish his daughter.

Zhang Shan Ni slightly squinted her almond-shaped eyes, her delicate brows knitted in concentration then relaxed, glancing at the pleased expression on Wang Xiuzhen’s face, and seeing the entranced excitement of finding back-up, she felt uncomfortable.

If she felt uncomfortable, even if she couldn’t completely take down the opponent, she would find other ways to seek comfort and ease her displeasure!

Therefore, before Wang Guicai could come closer, she softly interrupted and said:

"Village Chief, this matter is neither big nor small, but since the letter has been found, and we are all fellow villagers, we don’t need to make things difficult for the young girl. After all, we have to give Dr. Wang some face, lest his heart... becomes too distressed."

As Zhang Shan Ni spoke, she used her spiritual power to observe the reactions of those around her, noticing that everyone, indeed, changed their expressions as she expected; especially several timid ones, were already retreating to the outskirts.

Her words sounded unproblematic at first listen, but anyone with a sharp mind would understand the implication. Even the simple-minded would feel a subconscious guilt when they hear words like "make things difficult" and "distressed."

After all, everyone had a part in troubling this ’young girl’ when they learned that Wang Xiuzhen was behind it!

Would Wang Guicai feel distressed or not? Given his usual excessive favoritism towards his children, he would definitely be heartbroken!

Heartbroken for his daughter implies making things difficult for these very poor villagers!

After all, Wang Guicai’s reputation has always been questionable, whether it’s a serious or minor ailment, his intervention invariably costs at least twenty eggs.

This is the late seventies and eighties when life is somewhat better; had it been in the sixties, twenty eggs for impoverished families could mean going without for an entire year!

Meat is a luxury at this time; only during the proper New Year celebration can people indulge in a good meal. Otherwise, the food could only satisfy half the hunger.

In this era, even something as ordinary as tofu and eggs are considered ’meat dishes’ by the rural folks!

Normally, it would be old rice and sweet potato porridge, and if it was slightly better, half-dry rice, with main dishes being either pickles or dried radish...

One can’t possibly imagine, without having lived through it, the joy of the people of this era over having an egg to eat, as if it was ’dragon meat.’

It’s the plight caused by poverty.

But at the same time, it also highlights how Wang Guicai’s behavior subtly ’threatened’ the livelihood of the villagers.