With that grip, Shen Jiaqi’s little hands never let go again.
Even after the people had gone far off, Shen Jiaqi was still holding his waist, her palms following those smooth lines, feeling and feeling again, unable to resist a pinch.
Lu Zheng’s waist was very lean, but not thin at all, on the contrary it was full of muscle, rock-hard and especially powerful.
Whoever became his woman would truly be too “sex”-blessed.
Shen Jiaqi was quietly “measuring” his waist for him, and her fingers were restlessly about to move toward the small of his back when someone seized her wrist.
“Have you touched enough?” Lu Zheng’s face was cold, but his earlobes were red enough to drip blood.
This woman put her hands all over him every time they met, not the least bit ashamed!
Caught red-handed, two suspicious patches of red spread over Shen Jiaqi’s cheeks. “I did not… wasn’t I just… wasn’t I afraid you’d be spotted? I was pulling you further in.”
Lu Zheng gave a cold laugh. “They went far off long ago.”
“Did they?” Shen Jiaqi laughed awkwardly. “Care keeps the boat afloat ten thousand years. What if they doubled back?”
Lu Zheng’s lips moved, but in the end he didn’t argue.
The two of them held that position, standing face to face for several minutes, and once he was sure the market inspectors and security men wouldn’t come back, Lu Zheng stepped back. His tensed body finally relaxed, and he was already soaked in sweat all over.
Shen Jiaqi wasn’t much better off, a shoeful of dust and her legs numb from standing.
“Lu Zheng, thank you…” Shen Jiaqi rubbed her stiff calves.
If she hadn’t run into him today, she reckoned she’d have been in real trouble.
Lu Zheng sat on a pile of collapsed red bricks, his face very dark, clearly in low spirits.
Although they had only had contact a few times and couldn’t be called familiar, Shen Jiaqi could clearly sense the shifts of cloud and sun in his heart.
Compared to last night, he was excessively silent today, his lips pressed into a line.
Could it be because she had hugged him just now?
Shen Jiaqi pulled off her headscarf and smiled with a red face. “Sorry, I really wasn’t groping you on purpose. Don’t be unhappy.”
“It isn’t you.” Lu Zheng answered fast this time.
Not her, then could it be because of Ye Zhaozhao…
Shen Jiaqi sat sideways on the bricks opposite, her big watery eyes full of sympathy.
“You saw everything just now, didn’t you?”
Lu Zheng didn’t make a sound, but his face grew darker.
You couldn’t blame him for the foul face. Which man’s face would look good with his fiancée cheating on him?
As someone who had been through it, Shen Jiaqi felt she could talk him around a bit, as repayment for his saving her life today.
“Comrade Lu, if you want to get by in life, you have to have a bit of green on your head.” Shen Jiaqi’s very first line earned her a sharp knife of a glare from a certain person.
“What are you looking at me for? That’s a wise man’s famous saying.” Shen Jiaqi glared back at him irritably.
“Actually, in this business we’re both victims. But everything has two sides, so let’s look at the problem from another angle.”
“For example, heaven does favor us. We were only deceived for a few years, not deceived for a lifetime.”
“While we haven’t married or registered yet, there’s still room to turn things around.”
“If we’d married and then divorced, it wouldn’t be so easy, I’m afraid.”
“You’re so fine, you’re handsome, and your build isn’t bad either. What girl couldn’t you find? Why hang yourself on one tree?”
“As the saying goes, sand you can’t hold on to is better scattered… look at me, I said break it off and broke it off, no dragging mud and water…”
At these words, Lu Zheng’s gaze swept over her so suddenly that her heart trembled.
Lu Zheng said in a low voice, “You… aren’t heartbroken?”
Heartbroken?
What a colossal joke!
Only that foolish girl, the original owner, would be heartbroken over a scumbag and seek death.
“Rather than being heartbroken and upset, better to let those two be locked together and eat the bitter fruit themselves.”
Just like today: every time she saw Jiang Shiyan she’d beat him. He was the male lead of the book anyway, he wouldn’t die easily.
As for him and that Ye Zhaozhao…
Those two were badgers of the same hill, there’d be plenty of trouble between them ahead.
Shen Jiaqi clenched her fist and muttered fiercely, “Today they were lucky. Next time they dare provoke me, I’ll definitely make them understand why the flowers are so red!”
The moment she said it, she realized Lu Zheng was Ye Zhaozhao’s fiancé.
Speaking ill of his future wife right in front of the man’s face, he wouldn’t be angry, would he?
She glanced weakly at that iceberg face across from her, she couldn’t read any expression on it, and the uncertainty made her a little uneasy.
Still, even if he was angry, her attitude absolutely wouldn’t change.
“Ding. The system has detected the host’s favorability +50!”
Shen Jiaqi nearly choked to death on her own spit.
Was this… Lu Zheng’s favorability toward her?
What was going on?
Shen Jiaqi looked at Lu Zheng with a face full of expression.
This man gave nothing away, calm to the point of numbness, and yet quietly in his heart his favor toward her had doubled.
She’d just attacked his fiancée, so shouldn’t Lu Zheng detest her?
How had she gained points instead?
Shen Jiaqi secretly pinched her thigh. Hiss… that hurt!
This wasn’t a dream, it was all real…
Shen Jiaqi frowned, her mind nearly unable to keep up, and completely failed to notice that because of what she’d just said to talk him around, Lu Zheng seemed to have made some decision, and the suppressed look in his brows and eyes eased in an instant.
“Let’s go!” Lu Zheng stood up first and, of his own accord, picked up the two sacks on the ground.
One of them was his, the other Shen Jiaqi’s.
Both sacks held the same thing, wild ginger.
The two of them were oddly of one mind.
“It’s all that Jiang Shiyan’s fault, otherwise my ginger would have sold long ago…”
Shen Jiaqi glanced at both lots of ginger. After a night, the mud on Lu Zheng’s ginger had dried, while hers was very fresh, as if just dug, still covered in wet mud.
Could it be…
She had a bold guess…
So she quickly looked down at the fish in her hand.
The blood on the fish was fresh too!
Looking closely, she could even see the flesh twitching faintly, clearly the state of something that had only just died.
Could it be that her space had a freshness-locking function?
That was wonderful!
From now on she could stockpile more supplies without fearing they’d spoil over time.
In a famine year she could store up more rice, flour, oil, meat and eggs, and could also stockpile mountain produce to take to the black market to sell.
She was calculating happily when a shout came from behind her. “Sister, sister up ahead, wait…”
Shen Jiaqi and Lu Zheng turned their heads at the same time.
A man of about thirty, thoroughly bookish, came panting after them and grabbed hold of the sack.
“Finally… finally I’ve found you…”
Lu Zheng and Shen Jiaqi exchanged a look. Could she really have called it, and the market inspectors had doubled back?
Lu Zheng reacted fastest, dropped the sack at once and pulled Shen Jiaqi into a run.
“Don’t go, I… I’ve come to buy ginger…” The man took out his work credentials. “I’m a staff member at the county agricultural science institute. Could you sell me the ginger you’ve got there?”
Hah!
A false alarm, it had frightened her to death.
So he was here to do business.
Seeing no one around, and after looking at his credentials with their red stamp, Shen Jiaqi immediately put on a smiling face. “Sell? Of course…”
“One look and I can tell you know your goods, big brother. This is local wild small yellow ginger, wonderfully fragrant…”
“No cheating young or old, four fen a catty. How many catties do you plan to buy?”
The man looked it over carefully, then broke off a piece and held it to his nose for a couple of sniffs, and at once showed a satisfied expression. “These two sacks of ginger, I’ll take them all!”
“All of it!!!”
Shen Jiaqi’s jaw nearly dropped off.