She looked at the odd, strange foursome. “What’s the matter?”
All four waved their hands at once. “Nothing… nothing…”
“Little sister, you must be worn out. Let’s go home…”
All four of them scrambled to carry Shen Jiaqi, but the fourth brother was quickest, and got half-squatting in front of his little sister first.
“Little sister, quick, get on fourth brother’s back… You saved fourth brother today, and fourth brother must thank you properly!”
“Then I won’t stand on ceremony.” Shen Jiaqi climbed on without hesitation and hooked her arms around his long neck.
This left the other brothers thoroughly jealous.
Resting her head against her fourth brother’s back, she lowered her voice. “Fourth brother, about today’s business, I don’t think it was Jiang Shiyan’s idea alone. He must have an accomplice. In any case, you must be careful. However he provokes you, absolutely don’t raise a hand against him, watch out for falling into his trap!”
“Don’t worry… I was only caught off guard just now, that’s why I nearly walked into it. Now that I know his scheme, there’s no way I’ll be taken in. There’ll be plenty of chances to deal with him later…”
Shen Jiaqi’s brow lifted slightly.
In the original book, the fourth brother, Shen Huaiqing, wasn’t the sort of obedient, honest person at all. Could it be that he was deliberately fobbing her off?
So he wanted to play it dirty?
Thinking of the fourth brother’s methods for dealing with people, she shivered abruptly.
It seemed Jiang Shiyan might be in for bad luck…
But whatever the case, the fact that the fourth brother hadn’t hit anyone today was the one blessing in a bad situation!
The fourth brother’s trouble was resolved for now, but instinct told her this wasn’t over. Rather than staying on guard, it would be better to think of a way to settle it once and for all…
A gloomy little alley.
Jiang Shiyan crept along like a tortoise, legs squeezed together, one hand on the wall.
Every step he took was like torture on a knife’s edge.
That short stretch of road nearly took his little life.
Ye Zhaozhao hid in the shadows, and only when she saw no one around did she dare stick her head out. She glanced at his crotch. “Brother Shiyan, are you all right?”
Jiang Shiyan turned aside in embarrassment, forcing down the piercing pain. “It’s nothing, just a small injury. It’s only a shame, Shen the fourth was just about to raise his hand and Shen Jiaqi blocked him. That tigress, she actually dared kick me…”
Ye Zhaozhao was very galled too.
If Shen Jiaqi hadn’t cut in, that recommendation slot would have been Jiang Shiyan’s.
She clenched her fist in resentment. “That’s right. This Shen Jiaqi today wasn’t quite like usual, it was as if she’d become a different person.”
Normally Shen Jiaqi stuck to Jiang Shiyan like a dog, if Jiang Shiyan said east, she dared not go west.
And today she actually dared hit someone!
“Her? It must be the shock of throwing herself in the river. You’d better believe that within two days she’ll come crying to the educated youth quarters and beg me to forgive her…”
Thinking of Shen Jiaqi’s unreasonable persistence gave Jiang Shiyan a headache.
Unlike Jiang Shiyan, the reborn Ye Zhaozhao didn’t regard Shen Jiaqi as anything at all. A stupid, wicked sack of straw, what did she have to fight her with?
“Brother Yan, I have my own ways of dealing with her, so don’t you worry. Better to think of a way to build up your reputation first, so that when the slot comes down next month you’ll have popular support behind you!”
“My dad says our Daxing Village applied for years and finally got one slot this year. What a rare opportunity this is, and everyone’s first recommendation is Shen family’s fourth.”
“He does work well, and he’s practiced at winning people over, but in my eyes he can’t compare to one of your toes!”
“You came from the city and you’re a high-school graduate. In what way aren’t you better than Shen the fourth? Such a fine opportunity, why should it go to him? Would he even be able to understand the studies?”
Under her flattery, the space between Jiang Shiyan’s legs seemed not to hurt so much anymore, and he slowly straightened his back.
“Don’t worry, I’m determined to have this slot. There’s still some time before it comes down, and I don’t believe Shen the fourth will be that lucky every single time. Sooner or later he’ll be on his own…”
Ye Zhaozhao nodded. “Brother Yan, it all rests on you…”
Jiang Shiyan looked at the delicately moving woman before him. Her face was indeed considerably inferior to Shen Jiaqi’s, her skin not as fair and tender as Shen Jiaqi’s, and as for her figure… it didn’t have Shen Jiaqi’s curves either.
But she was the village Party secretary’s daughter, able to give him inside information no one else knew and to fight for the worker-peasant-soldier university slot on his behalf.
Besides, Ye Zhaozhao had been to high school and had plenty of common ground with him, unlike that Shen Jiaqi…
All she had was an alluring shell, but she was a lazy, greedy sack of straw. Apart from giving him a little money and goods, she couldn’t help with anything.
He took Ye Zhaozhao’s hand with deep affection. “Zhaozhao, I’ve already broken off the engagement with the Shen family, and it’s come to this. When are you going to break off the marriage with that mud-legged fellow…”
Ye Zhaozhao’s gaze wandered, deliberately hiding something, and she put on her delicate little white lotus [1]white lotus (bai lian hua, 白蓮花) Metaphor, a woman who acts sweet and innocent while secretly being scheming or cruel jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3285823_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3285823_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); manner. “I’ve been working on it. The main thing is that this match was arranged by my grandfather. That Lu Zheng is three generations of poor peasants, being able to marry up into my Ye family, he’ll certainly not let go so easily. I’m afraid that if I break it off suddenly, he’ll retaliate against me…”
At the thought of that man covered in muscle, at the thought of his fierce, cold eyes, Jiang Shiyan shuddered.
“Then let’s take it slowly. Mainly it’s… I don’t want to keep sneaking around like this.”
He gathered Ye Zhaozhao into his arms, and was just puckering up to steal a kiss on her cheek when there was a clatter behind them.
“Who’s there?”
In his alarm Jiang Shiyan took too large a step, accidentally pulled at his injury, and with a yelp of pain fell straight to the ground.
By the time he got up again, there wasn’t a soul at the corner, only half a fallen stick of firewood, and those broad man’s footprints on the ground…
“Achoo, achoo…”
Slumped on her fourth brother’s back, Shen Jiaqi sneezed several times in a row, and her nose was stuffed up too.
It was June weather, and though it was rather hot outside, the river water was icy.
She’d jumped in the river today and gone out with her hair still wet and caught a chill, even a body of iron couldn’t take that, and now the symptoms of a cold were gradually showing.
She could already foresee what was coming: little knives scraping her throat, cotton stuffed up her nose, a sledgehammer pounding her head.
This little body was far too weak, far too useless!
Back in the modern world, a small cold like this was easily handled!
But this was the seventies, short of doctors and short of medicine, and a cold could very well take her little life.
Shen Jiaqi had just escaped death, and she had a family who doted on her, she treasured her life very much indeed.
“Little sister, you haven’t caught a cold, have you!” The third brother reached out and felt her forehead.
“Not bad, her temperature’s normal, no fever.”
“Even without a fever, coughing like this she has to be taken to the hospital for a look. Don’t let it drag on and get serious.” Without further discussion the fourth brother changed direction and headed for the village entrance.
The second brother patted his empty pocket. “We don’t have a single cent between us, how do we take little sister to see a doctor? Wait here, I’ll go home and ask Mom for money.”
Watching her brothers bustling about, Shen Jiaqi croaked out in her hoarse, cracked voice, “Don’t go, I’m fine, I really am fine…”
The family was already so poor they couldn’t lift the lid off the pot.
Today they’d taken money again to get Xiaobao treated, there really was no spare money left for her.
The chief culprit behind all of it was the original owner!
The original owner had given the family’s money and coupons, all of it in bits and pieces, to Jiang Shiyan.
To win Jiang Shiyan’s favor, she’d given not the slightest thought to whether she or her family lived or died!
Thinking of the original owner’s rotten deeds made Shen Jiaqi cough until her heart, liver, spleen, lungs and kidneys ached.
“Little sister, you’re coughing like this. If you don’t take medicine it’ll get worse…” The fourth brother’s face was full of worry.
Just then the eldest brother suddenly thought of something and spoke with effort. “Just… just now your sister-in-law said the do-do-doctor prescribed anti-anti-inflammatory medicine and lic… licorice tablets for Xiaobao. I, I’ll go get some for you right now…”
He was just about to set off when Shen Jiaqi grabbed him forcibly. “Wait! Don’t go…”
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