Facing the furious, questioning stares from everyone, Su Wanyin remained completely calm and said with a serious expression,
“Auntie Su, I was helping my sister.”
“Helping me?” Su Baoli laughed in anger. “Are you crazy?”
Su Wanyin ignored her and instead looked solemnly at Mother Su’s puzzled face.
“My sister was bullied, of course I had to help her seek justice.”
As she spoke, she deliberately glanced at Su Baoli’s neckline, which she had forgotten to pull closed, and muttered to herself,
“No wonder my sister suddenly changed who she was engaged to.”
Following her gaze, Mother Su looked down. The moment she saw it, her face turned livid. At last, she finally understood the reason behind her daughter’s recent strange behavior.
Meeting her mother’s ugly expression, Su Baoli’s heart trembled. She quickly pulled her collar closed and hurriedly explained,
“Mom, it’s not what that bitch said, I—”
Before she could finish, Mother Su shoved her aside and glared furiously at Cheng Jiawen and his mother.
“You shameless bastard! How dare you bully my daughter!”
No wonder, she thought, her daughter had suddenly given up such a good marriage with the Fu family to marry into the Cheng family instead.
The moment she finished speaking, she rushed forward and started punching and kicking Cheng Jiawen.
His nose was still bleeding, and he had to keep it covered with a rough cloth, leaving him unable to block her attacks.
Seeing someone beating her precious son without caring about right or wrong, Cheng’s mother also went crazy and started fighting with Mother Su.
“You dare hit my son, you crazy woman!”
“Your son’s no good, and neither are you!”
…
The scene instantly descended into chaos, alarming the Cheng family relatives outside as well as Father Su.
A crowd rushed in to stop the fight.
But once women got worked up in a fight, they weren’t so easy to restrain.
Before long, even the people trying to break it up accidentally took a few hits. Growing angry themselves, they joined the battle too.
Su Wanyin watched with great interest for a while, noticing that both Su Baoli and Cheng Jiawen had already been beaten until their hair was a mess and their faces bruised black and blue.
Adding fuel to the fire, she grabbed a handful of the stinky fermented beans drying by her window and tossed them into the crowd before picking up her cloth bag and walking out.
“What’s that smell?! It stinks!”
Listening to the horrified screams behind her, Su Wanyin didn’t stop walking. The corners of her lips curved into a dazzling smile.
…
Fu Shimo stood outside the fence. Thanks to his height, the one-meter-tall fence did nothing to block his view.
He had witnessed everything the girl did from beginning to end. In the end, his gaze settled on her youthful face and that seemingly innocent smile, sending a chill through his heart.
The ancients really were right: “Women and petty men are the hardest to deal with.”
When the girl was almost close enough to reach him, Fu Shimo quickly turned and returned to the corner by the wall.
Halfway there, however, he overheard two old women gossiping.
One gray-haired woman cracked sunflower seeds as she walked and said,
“Oh my, that eldest daughter of the Su family is really something. I heard she dumped Cheng Jiawen and is marrying a military officer now!”
The younger woman beside her looked confused.
“Wasn’t her younger sister the one marrying Cheng Jiawen?”
“Between those two marriages, which one do you think any normal person would choose?” the older woman said sarcastically.
“You mean the eldest Su girl stole the marriage back again?”
“Exactly. Poor Baoli. When they were children, she nearly died saving her sister’s life, and now even the marriage they promised as compensation is gone.”
Fu Shimo’s face darkened, and he finally interrupted.
“Excuse me, ma’am. Is the eldest daughter of the Su family you’re talking about Su Wanyin?”
“That’s right.” The two women stopped and curiously sized him up, secretly making guesses.
After a brief silence, Fu Shimo suddenly asked,
“But wasn’t this marriage originally arranged for her?”
The younger woman looked at him in surprise, not expecting him to know even that much.
Before she could think further, the older woman eagerly recounted the story about how Su Wanyin had fallen into the river as a child and been rescued by her younger sister after great difficulty.
After finishing, the old woman muttered as if seeking agreement,
“See? That eldest Su girl is really heartless. Such a bad person.”
Fu Shimo frowned tightly, his long curled eyelashes hiding the emotions in his eyes.
Seeing him stay silent, the old woman sighed to herself.
“Poor younger sister. The bad one gets to go enjoy life instead.”
Suddenly, Fu Shimo lifted his gaze. His sharp, icy eyes landed on the old woman, making her shiver involuntarily.
Just as she was about to break under the pressure, he casually looked away and asked lightly,
“How old was she when she fell into the water? And how old was her sister?”
The old woman instantly relaxed and answered reflexively,
“She was nine, and her sister was probably six.”
“Can a six-year-old child really pull someone five or six pounds heavier than herself out of a rapid river?”
Fu Shimo sounded like he was sincerely asking a question, yet the two women were immediately speechless, both looking awkward.
The older woman, embarrassed by being challenged by a younger man, stubbornly muttered,
“Kids wouldn’t lie.”
“Liars come in all ages, whether young or old,” Fu Shimo replied seriously, his expression upright and his gaze clear.
That final sentence left both women flushed with embarrassment, and they quickly slipped away awkwardly.
Fu Shimo glanced indifferently at their retreating backs before slowly withdrawing his gaze, only to accidentally meet a pair of clear, watery eyes. He froze slightly.
Noticing that he had discovered her, Su Wanyin suppressed the bitterness in her heart. She carefully wiped away the tears lingering at the corners of her eyes before walking over.
“The village ox cart won’t leave for a while yet. Let’s wait over there first.”
She raised her hand and pointed in a direction.
But Fu Shimo didn’t look where she pointed. His gaze remained fixed on her reddened eyes, surprise flashing through his own.
“The wind’s too strong.” Su Wanyin glared at him with narrowed fox-like eyes. “What are you staring at?”
“…”
Fu Shimo silently withdrew the thought in his mind that she was “just a little girl who cries after all” and walked in the direction she pointed.
Watching his tall figure ahead of her, Su Wanyin raised a hand to touch her eyes again. Only after confirming everything was fine did she follow after him.
At that moment, many people were already riding the vehicle.
Su Wanyin was squeezed into a tiny corner. The pungent smell of diesel filled her nose as her small body swayed violently with the tractor. Pale-faced, she tightly covered her mouth.
Suddenly, a pair of large, well-defined hands pulled her over.
She was feeling too dizzy to react. Her head landed against a broad, firm shoulder, while an arm loosely circled behind her.
Whenever her body swayed from side to side, he would steady her immediately. But once she regained balance, he instantly released her again without lingering against her at all.
After finally catching her breath, Su Wanyin slightly lifted her head. Her pale face happened to meet the man’s sharply sculpted, indifferent profile. Something flickered in those deep black eyes.
Though Su Wanyin knew that in this era it was inappropriate to be this close to a man she had only met twice, she felt far too miserable to care.
Weakly moving her lips, she whispered,
“Tha…”
Fu Shimo lowered his eyes to look at her pale little face. Even those dazzling fox-like eyes had lost their brightness. He saw her lips move, but couldn’t hear what she said.
His expression paused slightly. Then he suddenly leaned closer.
But the moment he did, her eyes changed abruptly, and her fan-like eyelashes began trembling rapidly.