Faced with the woman’s twisted and venomous expression, Zhang Wei’s mouth curved into a cold, stern sneer.
The woman before him was Liu Ting, an educated youth from the city who had come to the production brigade to experience rural labor.
In his past life, Zhang Wei had acted as her devoted, servile simp for ten full years—a whole decade. He had arranged the easiest tasks for her in the production team and bought her the newest study materials for the college entrance exams. He had even resorted to swindling and scraping together money just to support Liu Ting through university.
And what about Liu Ting? She calmly and guiltily accepted everything Zhang Wei provided while carrying on an ambiguous, murky relationship with a male educated youth in the brigade.
The two of them hid it from Zhang Wei for a full ten years. In the end, simply looking down on the paltry scraps Zhang Wei contributed, they unilaterally cut off all contact with him. In their eyes, those two were pillars of the nation with boundless futures, while he, Zhang Wei—a mere good-for-nothing loafer—wasn’t even worthy of carrying their shoes.
Thinking of the utter humiliation he suffered in his past life, Zhang Wei completely ripped off the facade, not leaving Liu Ting even a shred of dignity.
“Are you deaf? I already said the others are going to pick tea seeds—aren’t you one of the others? Not only are you deaf, but I think your brain is fried, too. Selecting seeds is an easy job, so of course I’m giving it to my wife. Who the hell are you? Are you a relative of mine, or are you my wife? You still have the nerve to brazenly come up and ask me for work, truly shameless. Everyone come and judge for yourselves, isn’t Liu Ting shameless?”
The so-called “everyone” referred to Zhang Wei’s fellow villagers and townsfolk. Being locals, would they possibly side with an outsider like Liu Ting? Previously, out of respect for Zhang Wei, people didn’t bother provoking Liu Ting. But now that Zhang Wei had started it, the crowd was naturally happy to kick someone while they were down.
“Oh my! Ah-Wei, you might not know this, but that flirty attitude she has when she’s with educated youth Wang—who in our brigade couldn’t see right through it?”
“In our brigade, educated youth Liu is the most shameless of all. She eats Ah-Wei’s food, takes Ah-Wei’s things, and makes Ah-Wei arrange easy work for her, only to turn right around and flirt with other men. Truly shameless! If you ask me, a cheap slut like that should be put in a pig cage and drowned!”
“Exactly, exactly! Educated youth Liu, if you aren’t going to date Ah-Wei, how do you even have the face to shamelessly ask him for favors? Is Ah-Wei your father or your grandfather?”
“Ah-Wei, just say the word. Auntie will strip educated youth Liu’s clothes off right now, let her expose that slutty flesh, and give you a real treat!”
“Haha! Educated youth Liu has such tender skin, she must be a real tease. Ah-Wei, say something already!”
Ever since Zhang Wei started kissing her feet and licking her boots, educated youth Liu had never suffered such humiliation; she felt like her lungs were about to explode with anger. Yet she didn’t dare to bicker with those old hags, so she could only vent all her fury entirely on Zhang Wei.
“Zhang Wei, have you lost your mind? Making me go pick tea seeds, and letting them mock me like this? Don’t you want to be with me anymore?”
Zhang Wei pulled Li Hui tightly into his arms.
“Heh~ Educated youth Liu, listen to yourself, how novel. Why on earth would I want to be with you? I’m a married man now, and I’ll be as good to my wife however I damn well please. Go pick your tea seeds. I just wonder if educated youth Liu’s tender skin can handle the sun, haha. Be careful not to tear your clothes while climbing trees and expose that loose flesh of yours. Educated youth Wang will be heartbroken if he finds out.”
Liu Ting was trembling all over with anger, but the thought of baking in the sun, climbing trees to pick tea seeds, and having to face all kinds of disgusting little bugs made her tone soften involuntarily.
“Zhang Wei, do you think finding some mute woman to piss me off is going to work? Matters of the heart can’t be rushed; they require a slow, steady flow. Everything you’ve done for me, I see it in my eyes and keep it in my heart. Right now, if you tell this damned mute to go pick tea seeds instead, we can still be friends…”
Zhang Wei couldn’t help but inwardly spit out a retort: “Tsk tsk, what a slow-to-warm-up little fairy. In my past life, I couldn’t warm you up in ten whole years. Yet at just a flick of educated youth Wang’s finger, you got so hot and bothered you couldn’t wait to strip off your clothes to cool down.”
At this thought, obvious disgust showed across Zhang Wei’s face.
“Shut your mouth, you bitch. Don’t you understand human speech? Who wants to be friends with you? Let me give you a kindly reminder: you haven’t even paid back the debts you owe the brigade. If you don’t go pick your tea seeds properly, the taste of a starving stomach won’t be pleasant. Get lost, don’t be an eyesore in front of me.”
With that, Zhang Wei flicked his hands a couple of times as if shooing away a fly and turned to walk away.
Liu Ting still wanted to pester Zhang Wei, but she was blocked by several older aunties.
“Are you going to crawl away on your own, or do you want me to help you roll?”
“You flirtatious hoof, I’ve had my eyes on you and disliked you for a long time.”
“An out-of-towner like you not keeping your tail tucked, and you still dare to flare up? You’ve completely lost your mind…”
The older aunties weren’t going to be polite to Liu Ting. One shoved her, another poked her finger directly against Liu Ting’s forehead, and another clawed at her clothes.
A delicate young girl like Liu Ting was no match for the older aunties. Not daring to utter a single word back, she scurried away in embarrassment. The old aunties weren’t going to coddle her either—if Liu Ting had dared to talk back even a little bit, a heavy slap across the face would have definitely come her way.
Back in the utility room, Zhang Wei tossed a small bag of soybeans onto the table in front of Li Hui.
Perhaps because he had just put Liu Ting in her place, Zhang Wei’s mood was exceptionally good, and his tone of voice had also softened considerably.
“Pick out the ones without bug holes, the plump grains with a good gloss. Judging by the look of you, you’ve done farm work before; I don’t need to teach you, do I?”
“There’s tea leaves in the cabinet, brew some yourself if you want to drink. Take the kettle to the mess hall for boiling water.”
“If you get tired of sorting, there’s a small cot behind the curtain, you can lie down for a bit…”
“If you want to eat something, go tell the mess hall. Aside from meat, they pretty much cover all the vegetarian stuff.”
Listening to Zhang Wei’s nonstop rambling, Li Hui’s worldview was utterly shattered.
Was this supposed to be coming here to do hard labor? This was clearly coming here to live the high life! No wonder everyone wanted to be a cadre; Zhang Wei was merely a cadre’s relative, yet he could casually arrange a good job for her that she wouldn’t even dare to dream of.
People outside all said that Zhang Wei was a good-for-nothing loafer who ate, drank, whored, and gambled without doing an honest day’s work, and that marrying him would bring endless suffering. Yet reality was the exact opposite: less than a day after marrying over, she had eaten a full meal the likes of which she hadn’t seen in years.
Thinking of the rich, savory aroma of that instant noodle broth from early this morning, Li Hui involuntarily swallowed another mouthful of saliva. If she could live like this every day, how was it any different from soaking in a honey jar?
If there was anything she was unsatisfied with, it was that Zhang Wei liked to drink. Thinking back to last night—how Zhang Wei, after drinking, beat up her mother-in-law and father-in-law and demanded two hundred yuan—Li Hui still felt a lingering fear. For a loafer like Zhang Wei, drinking and beating his wife was only natural and right.
Right now, Li Hui only hoped that Zhang Wei would drink a little less and not deal a fatal blow when he beat her.
Without realizing it, Li Hui’s mindset had quietly shifted. At the very least, she wasn’t thinking about letting Zhang Wei beat her to death; she still wanted to take a few more looks at this world.
So it turned out this world had such savory and fragrant food.
So it turned out the feeling of not having a starving stomach was this comfortable.
So it turned out one could earn work points in this world without having to face the yellow earth with their backs to the sky.
Suddenly, that voice—the one that made her both fearful and delighted—rang out:
“Are you deaf when I’m talking to you? Get this straight: next time that woman surnamed Liu calls you a mute, you slap her right across the face. Understand? If you’re going to be so useless that you can’t even beat her, then you can just get the hell out of here.”