Whatever the case, her coming to her senses was a good start!
As for whether it was real or not, wait a few days and see…
“Wonderful, I have to tell your mother this good news…” Shen Laogui sprang to his feet and strode nimbly into the kitchen.
Shen Jiaqi didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Dad was over fifty and still like a child, not the least bit mature or steady.
After all that talking, Shen Jiaqi’s throat was a bit dry, and she swallowed.
The third brother saw at a glance that his little sister was thirsty.
“You sit there nicely, third brother will go make you some sugar water.”
White sugar was such a scarce commodity in this era, she didn’t expect the third brother to be so extravagant as to actually make her sugar water.
Shen Jiaqi was about to refuse when the third brother walked over to the table with practiced ease, dug out half a spoon of white sugar and stirred it into water, and soon came over carrying a steaming enamel cup.
“Little sister, third brother tested it, this water isn’t hot anymore, the temperature is just right.”
“Thank you!” Shen Jiaqi took it with both hands. Drinking the sweet sugar water, her palms warm, the heat traveled all the way from her stomach into her heart.
The fear and unease of having just arrived were washed away bit by bit along with that sweetness.
It seemed… transmigrating into a book wasn’t so bad after all.
Poor as it was, she had a family who loved her, guarding her like the stars around the moon.
Not like in the modern world, where her parents divorced when she was very small and each started a new family, and she could hardly see them a few times a year.
Neither her father nor her mother wanted her, she grew up with her grandmother.
After her grandmother died, her world held nothing but money and the little house her grandmother left her…
So she had been very independent from a young age and relied on herself for everything.
When she grew up she worked hard, and after finally saving enough money she signed up for a ten-day luxury cruise.
She’d meant to reward herself, but before she’d enjoyed even a few days a storm came, and she was buried in the sea…
Pulling her thoughts back, Shen Jiaqi finished the last mouthful of sugar water. Seeing that the fourth brother still hadn’t come back, she felt uneasy.
“Third brother, I keep feeling a bit anxious. Could I trouble you to carry me over to the educated youth quarters to take a look?”
“Trouble… you actually said ‘trouble’ to third brother!” The third brother was so startled he nearly sat down on the ground.
“Little sister, did third brother do something wrong and upset you? Hit me, scold me, just… just don’t be so polite to me, it gives me chills.”
Shen Jiaqi smiled bitterly, helpless. Did the third brother have some masochistic streak?
Her being polite wouldn’t do, she had to boss him around before he’d feel comfortable?
Thinking of the original owner’s deeply ingrained image as a wicked woman, she put on a fierce voice and barked, “Third brother, come here and carry me to the educated youth quarters!”
The third brother felt instantly better, turned around cheerfully and squatted down, offering his broad back.
Sure enough, the original owner’s character was the useful one!
Shen Jiaqi didn’t stand on ceremony either. She jumped onto his solid back, and the two of them headed for the educated youth quarters.
They were only halfway there when they ran into the fourth brother and the others.
The fourth brother was like an enraged beast, veins bulging, teeth bared, lunging at Jiang Shiyan with hands and feet both, utterly unlike his usual refined, calm self.
The eldest and second brothers each held one side of him, and could barely restrain this “beast.”
“Jiang Shiyan, you damn well dare bully my sister, I’ll kill you…”
Facing the fourth brother stood a beanpole of a man in a white shirt and dacron trousers, dressed up to look the part.
The man’s features were quite delicate, and he wore a pair of gold-rimmed glasses, quiet and gentle, very much like the refined villain in a Hong Kong drama, only his build was far too frail, so thin his back was hunched, and one gust of wind could knock him over.
That showy outfit, that weakling physique, who else could it be but Jiang Shiyan?
And this was what had the original owner utterly bewitched.
Shen Jiaqi tsked twice, she could have slapped the original owner across the face.
What kind of eyesight did the original owner have? She should have gone and had her eyes treated…
Ordinarily, the moment Jiang Shiyan saw her brothers he’d have bolted long ago. Today he was completely out of character, absolutely arrogant, hollering at the top of his voice.
“Even if you beat me to death today, there’s no way I’ll make up with her!”
“That village girl Shen Jiaqi is stupid and dull and vicious-hearted. Only you lot treat her like a treasure.”
“I’m an intellectual, I’ll be going back to the city in future. How could I marry a coarse village woman who can’t read a character? If she hadn’t used tricks back then, would I ever have gotten engaged to her?”
Used tricks?
Shen Jiaqi was so angry she laughed. Truly a toad crawling over your foot, disgusting!
Who was it that put on airs of being above it all, ate well and shirked work and wouldn’t turn up for labor, and when he was nearly starving, brazenly came to hook up with the original owner?
He ate and took plenty, yet always struck that lofty, high-minded pose.
And now that he’d latched onto Ye Zhaozhao, the village Party secretary’s daughter, he’d turned his face and refused to know her, and was spewing filth to blacken the original owner’s name, saying she’d used tricks.
Fine then. Today Shen Jiaqi would show him what real “tricks” were!
Jiang Shiyan was a city man after all, he had a smoother tongue than they did.
In two or three sentences he’d left the brothers speechless, shaking all over with rage.
“You dare slander my little sister, I’ll kill you…!”
From somewhere the fourth brother found the strength to shake off both their hands.
He clenched his teeth, his eyes wide, all the fury in his chest gathered now in his fist, and swung it straight at Jiang Shiyan’s face.
At the critical instant, a small, slender figure cut in between them, forcing them apart.
“Little sister…”
The fourth brother pulled the punch back with all his strength, unable to believe his eyes.
Jiang Shiyan had already broken off the engagement and was ruining her name everywhere. Scum like this, and little sister still wanted to shield him?
Never mind the fourth brother, the other Shen brothers were also so angry their teeth itched, a mouthful of old blood stuck in their chests, more galling than losing a battle.
“Little sister, wake up. This kind of person isn’t worth shielding. Didn’t you hear how he was just talking about you?”
The fourth brother’s voice was low and hoarse, his knuckles cracking. “He said you’re stupid and dull and vicious-hearted. Look, this is the man you like…”
“That’s right. Why are you shielding a wolf-hearted, dog-lunged thing like this? What kind of bewitching brew did he pour down your throat?” The second brother clenched his fist, looking like he hated that iron wouldn’t become steel.
The third brother chimed in too, “Three-legged toads are hard to find, but two-legged men are everywhere. As long as you’re willing to dump him, third brother will find you a better, finer one. With your looks, even a university student is possible.”
The eldest brother stamped his feet in agitation off to the side, and after struggling a long while managed one sentence. “Ev-ev-everyone’s right, li… little sister, don’t be… be so stubbornly blind anymore!”
The fourth brother felt his fist was nearly beyond his control. “Enough talk, take little sister away now.”
“Wait, don’t be in such a hurry.” Shen Jiaqi turned her head and made faces at her four brothers. “I’ll just say a few words to him.”
At that, the Shen brothers all clutched their chests at once, so angry their hearts, livers, spleens, lungs and kidneys all ached.
Little sister was completely beyond saving.
She’d been dumped and run down as worthless, and little sister was still shamelessly clinging to Jiang Shiyan, getting him out of trouble.
Just wait and see, in a moment he’d crook a finger and little sister would go trotting after him.
What a sin…
Jiang Shiyan, already smug, now stuck out his neck even further, like a rooster that had won a fight.
He’d known it, Shen Jiaqi couldn’t bear to part with him in her heart, and would shield him however shamelessly she had to.
Staring at that pretty, alluring little face, Jiang Shiyan suddenly felt some reluctance.
Ah, but who could help it that she was a foolish beauty with looks and no brains?
By comparison, he still preferred Ye Zhaozhao, who had brains and connections.
“Shen Jiaqi, I’ve made myself perfectly clear to you. Even if you knelt and begged me, I would never… ahhhhh…”
An unbearable, piercing pain came through. Jiang Shiyan hurt so much his features twisted out of shape, both hands clutching his crotch.