Chapter 47: Scammer Decides to Be a Good Person 22 – If You’re Awkward Long Enough, It Stops Feeling Awkward

Building bridges and paving roads were good deeds, the kind that benefited future generations and accumulated virtue. If the family had the means, Du Heng was naturally willing to do something that would benefit the villagers. Leaving everything else aside, he would not be able to come back often in the future, and having a proper road would make it much easier for the Du family to travel. He agreed with Shi Lan’s suggestion.

Road construction was no small project. With the savings the two of them currently had, it might not be enough. If they could not come up with the money yet still rushed to bring it up, it would only invite even more gossip.

Du Heng thought back for a moment. “I seem to remember that a team came to the village before. They said they were surveying the roads and wanted to build one, but for some reason it came to nothing in the end. How about this, I was planning to go to the village this afternoon anyway to get proof for my household registration transfer. We can ask around while we’re there.”

“I’ll go with you.”

When Du Heng told the family about transferring his household registration out, Father Du and Mother Du were delighted.

In Shi Lan’s era, there had been no shortage of agricultural support policies and welfare benefits. A rural household registration was a treasure, and unless there were special circumstances, no one would switch from rural to urban status. But things were different now. Being able to get an urban household registration meant the family’s descendants had really made something of themselves.

Before coming back, Du Heng had already reminded Shi Lan not to tell the family about his acting work. That job still was not stable enough, and it would be better to wait until it was. Besides, rural communities were closed-off, and some people thought actors were not respectable, about the same as the troublemakers hanging around dance halls. Saying it now would only cause more arguments.

In any case, when it came to what they told the Du family, Shi Lan followed his lead.

So the story they stuck to was that they both worked at a restaurant, while keeping the restaurant’s owner vague. The Du family simply assumed they were waitstaff there.

As for the house, Du Heng directly said it had once been part of Shi Lan’s dowry.

Du Heng said, “Second Brother’s one thing, but if Eldest Sister-in-law finds out the restaurant is yours, she’ll never let it go.”

And he had guessed exactly right. They had not even said Shi Lan was the owner, yet Eldest Sister-in-law still kept urging them to take Eldest Brother and her brother from her natal family along when they left, under the pretense that working together at the restaurant would let them look after one another.

Du Heng refused outright, saying the work at the restaurant was too detailed and too tiring, and Eldest Brother would not be able to handle it. Eldest Sister-in-law’s expression immediately turned ugly.

Father Du also stepped in to stop her. “Brothers may be born in the same year, but each one has to earn his own food and clothing. Dig the food in your own bowl yourself. Stop always thinking about having your brothers pull you along. Don’t you have any idea what you’re worth?”

Father Du’s words were a bit harsh, and the other two brothers would probably end up holding a grudge against Du Heng because of it. Still, Eldest Sister-in-law did indeed stop bringing it up. She just would not give Shi Lan and Du Heng so much as a proper look.

On the way to the village office, Shi Lan said to Du Heng, “It wouldn’t really be a problem if Eldest Brother went. It’d only be one more employee.”

“No. If we open that door, it will never end. If we’re going to help them, at the very least it should be after your business has grown a lot more.”

So that was the end of it.

It was called the village office, but in truth it was just a side room in the village secretary’s house. It was usually locked and only opened when there was business to handle.

They had come at a bad time. They were told the secretary had gone to dig sweet potatoes. They waited a while before he finally came back.

The procedure went smoothly. When they came back this time, they had brought a certificate of household registration acceptance from the neighborhood police station in the district. The village only needed to issue a letter of consent. Then they would take that to the town government for a stamp, get the transfer-out certificate, and with the household registration page plus a pile of other basic documents, they could complete the registration back at the neighborhood office.

Du Heng had not returned in years, and the secretary was happy to pull him into a longer conversation.

“It just goes to show, gold will shine no matter where it is. Even though you couldn’t go to college, you still found your own path.” His words were full of regret over Du Heng having to leave school.

The two of them chatted about all sorts of things. Mostly, the secretary wanted to know about developments outside the village, and Du Heng explained patiently. Only at the end did they get around to talking about the road. They did not mention wanting to help, only asked out of curiosity.

The secretary slapped his thigh, sending up a puff of yellow dust from his army-green pants covered in patches.

“This road, ah, it really was surveyed before. Back then they said every village was going to build tractor roads¹, but the state wasn’t providing money, so the village had to supply its own labor. Everyone waved their hoes and dug for a few days, but later no one from above followed up, so it ended up dying out halfway through. A few years ago they also said they wanted to build the road, following the route from the earlier survey. After the higher-ups assessed it, they said it would cost over ten thousand yuan just to build the road out from our village. Paving it with cement would cost even more, at least double. Forget the town, even the county couldn’t afford that, so nothing more came of it.”

Shi Lan did the math. Thirty thousand yuan, about the price of two cell phones. It was even cheaper than she had imagined. She could come up with that money right now.

Before buying the house, her shop had already been making tens of thousands in net profit each month. With more and more branches opening, a six-figure monthly income was only a matter of time. Paying for this stretch of road was no issue at all. She could even help pave the gravel road from the village to the town with cement too.

But for an infrastructure project like this, they could provide the money, yet they could not take the lead. It still had to be handled officially.

There were still plenty of complications involved, and not just the road surface costs. For example, if the road passed through farmland, how would compensation be handled? Would the villagers be willing to give up the land? If negotiations failed, then what? A new survey, a detour, and the cost would go up again.

Shi Lan felt they should prepare at least fifty thousand yuan just in case.

If they also paved the road from the village to the town with cement, then a little over a hundred thousand yuan should do it.

After getting a rough idea, neither of them said anything on the spot.

Shi Lan shared her thoughts, including extending the paved section all the way to town. After all, the road to town already existed, it only needed a layer of cement.

Du Heng agreed with the idea, but not with doing it now.

“Then let’s just wait a bit. Pulling out more than a hundred thousand yuan all at once would draw too much attention. And we can’t just repair one section now and the other one later. Construction has to be done in one push.”

“Wait?”

“Right, wait until my TV drama airs. Then we can bring it up naturally.” Du Heng sighed. “Otherwise, if you suddenly put out that much money, a good deed might end up turning into something bad. Besides, if we do it now, I won’t have contributed anything.” He smiled. “It’s my hometown. What kind of sense does it make for you to pay for everything?”

“Hehe, that works too. It’s your hometown, so you call the shots.”

Du Heng pinched her cheek. “How can you be so guileless? Aren’t you afraid I’m using your money to win a reputation for myself?”

Oh? Her little innocent one really had grown. He could actually say something like that now.

Honestly, if Du Heng really were scheming enough to manipulate and use her, she would not have to worry about him getting bullied when he went out.

Du Heng was helpless. Why did she always seem to think he was as soft and harmless as a lump of dough?

Then he brought up something else. “The sesame candy sticks at the village head’s house were pretty good. How come I didn’t see you eat any?”

Supplies in the village were scarce, so any food made with sugar counted as something good, the kind reserved for honored guests.

Uh…

Shi Lan nearly pulled a face. Could she say it was because she had gotten scared out of her wits when she went to the toilet this morning? The food was delicious, sure, but the dry latrine² was truly terrifying. She really did not want to crouch there shoulder to shoulder with someone else.

So she had not eaten much breakfast either, and only later filled her stomach with some Dried Sweet Potato, mainly because eating too little might give her low blood sugar. In any case, she had no intention of going to that toilet a second time. Better to eat less and hold it until they got back to the county town.

With just that indescribable look on her face, Du Heng somehow understood. It suddenly dawned on him, and he was annoyed at himself for not thinking of it earlier. He had simply been used to it since childhood.

“You can’t skip meals. Just eat, and I’ll take care of the rest.”

This whole thing was actually pretty awkward.

Besides, how exactly was he going to solve it? Was he going to build a temporary flush toilet on the spot? That was not realistic either.

“I have a way. Anyway, don’t go hungry, and don’t hold it in either. What if you make yourself sick?”

He could not help laughing helplessly. What kind of situation even was this?

Shi Lan agreed out loud, but secretly decided to do one thing and mean another.

Du Heng noticed. At lunch, he kept piling food into her bowl, and every dish he picked out was something she liked.

Shi Lan ate it all with tears in her eyes.

There were braised pig’s trotters with peanuts on the table today. It smelled so good she could not resist.

After the meal, Shi Lan hugged her stomach and tried to mentally prepare herself. If she needed to use the toilet, she’d just cover her eyes and pinch her nose. If she couldn’t see it or smell it, she could grit her teeth and get through it.

Du Heng came to find her. “Come on, I’ll take you up the mountain to have some fun.”

Shi Lan: Didn’t want to go.

But seeing how insistent he was, she reluctantly decided to go along with him. What was there to do on the mountain anyway?

Du Heng tugged the unwilling Shi Lan along, and as they passed the woodshed, he grabbed a hoe on the way.

Mother Du was washing clothes, so she asked him what he was taking the hoe for.

Du Heng said, “To see if we can find any mushrooms. Lanlan’s never picked mushrooms before.”

Mother Du said, “What mushrooms are there to find in autumn? It’ll just be heavy to carry around. Leave the hoe behind. You two can just take a walk and have some fun.”

Du Heng slung the hoe over his shoulder. “We’ll try our luck.”

It hadn’t rained today, so there wasn’t much mud on the path. Walking was much steadier.

Du Heng led her along without wandering around at all, as if he had a clear destination in mind.

They arrived at an open patch of ground beside a thicket.

Du Heng found a flat spot, lifted the hoe, and started digging.

Before long, he had dug a pit about the size of a cement brick, roughly twenty centimeters deep.

Setting the hoe down, he pulled a packet of tissues from his pocket and handed it to Shi Lan, then tilted his chin at her meaningfully.

Shi Lan suddenly understood what he meant. Amid her shock, her face turned bright red. She was both embarrassed and mortified.

And then this man actually said, “Hardly anyone comes here. There’s only this one path, and behind it is the mountain. It’s safe and well hidden. I’ll stand guard up ahead. When you’re done, call me, and I’ll come help you cover it up…”

Shi Lan kept her head down and didn’t even dare look at him. So this was the method he’d been talking about. How could he…? But this method really was simple and effective, and clean too.

She was wildly tempted.

But it was so embarrassing.

She really didn’t want to discuss this kind of thing with her boyfriend, much less have him help bury… that.

Du Heng said, “You don’t need to go right now?”

Red-faced, Shi Lan shoved him away toward the outside.

“Go farther away!”

Du Heng looked satisfied. “Then call me when you’re done.”

He was actually smiling!

With birdsong in her ears and the mountain breeze in her face, she had to admit it was actually pretty pleasant.

She finished as fast as she could, then used the hoe to fill the dirt back into the hole he’d dug earlier. After stomping on it twice, there wasn’t the slightest trace left behind.

Du Heng heard the noise and came over. “I’ll help you…”

Shi Lan thrust the hoe at him. “Go, go, go. You’re not allowed to say any more words about that. I’ve already taken care of it!”

Embarrassing as it was, it felt so relieving.

Du Heng led her around a bend and found a well. Then he took out half a bar of soap wrapped in a plastic bag from his pocket. “Here, wash your hands.”

She was… speechless.

She silently accepted it.

After enough embarrassment, your skin just naturally got thicker.

The well water came from underground, and it was very cold. Shi Lan washed her hands downstream, and the dirty water flowed straight into the field below.

“Can you drink this water?” she asked. It looked clear and clean.

Du Heng picked two tung tree leaves from nearby, rinsed them, folded them into an upside-down cone, and drew water up from deep in the well. “Drink from my hand. If you touch the leaves, they’ll fall apart.”

Shi Lan took a sip. It was cold and sweet. She drank all the water in the leaf cup.

Du Heng said, “The water quality here is good. Drinking it raw won’t upset your stomach. Back when I used to pass by here after school, I’d just lean over the well and drink straight from it.”

The mouth of the well was not only wide, but deep.

Shi Lan said, “Weren’t you afraid of falling in?”

Du Heng laughed. “That’s why the adults were always beating me for it.”

Talking about these things seemed to make the awkwardness from earlier fade away.

So from then on, Du Heng brought her here three times a day like clockwork so she could relieve herself. Shi Lan felt like one of those little dogs that had to be taken out on a schedule. Pet dogs only needed to be walked once or twice a day at most, morning and evening. She had to go even more often…

Once you got used to being embarrassed, it didn’t feel quite so embarrassing anymore.

Shi Lan actually felt that her relationship with Du Heng had grown a little closer. It was a very subtle feeling, like they had stepped into another stage, though it was hard to put into words.

If they could face even something like this together, then everything else seemed minor.

She knew Du Heng was on her side, very much on her side.

Shi Lan quietly told Du Heng that the bed was very cold.

“Why didn’t you say so earlier!” Du Heng looked a little angry.

With a grim expression, he followed her to the room prepared for her, felt the bed, then started rummaging through the cabinet for another quilt.

He even lectured her while he searched. “What if you catch a cold?”

It clearly wasn’t her fault, but after being questioned by him like that, she still felt a little guilty. “It’s not that serious. I covered myself with my clothes.”

“…”

Du Heng kept searching through the cabinet in the room, but then his expression turned strange.

Shi Lan went over to look. There was nothing strange in the cabinet, just normal clothes.

He closed the cabinet door, and his expression looked even worse than before.

“Stay here.” Throwing out that one sentence, he went downstairs.

Shi Lan had no idea what had happened, but it definitely wasn’t about the quilt.

Before long, though, she heard arguing coming from downstairs.

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Translator’s Notes

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1. tractor roads: Refers to ‘Jigengdao’, basic unpaved or gravel roads designed for agricultural machinery. These are often the first step in rural infrastructure before modern paved roads. ↩
2. dry latrine: A ‘Hance’, a traditional pit toilet without a flush system. In older rural areas, these often consisted of two planks over a pit, lacking privacy and hygiene by modern urban standards. ↩