“Who is it?”
Sheng Xia called out, raising her voice.
She hurriedly packed away the items Jiang Han had brought, shoved the bags behind her quilt, and covered them up with her clothes.
Only then did she go to open the door.
“Who do you think it is?”
The person standing outside wore a sullen expression. She was dressed in a patched plaid shirt paired with black trousers, and wore a pair of equally patched black cloth shoes. With her hair cut short just above the ears, she looked thoroughly dusted with the grit of someone who had clearly just returned from a long day of hard labor.
Glaring angrily at Sheng Xia, she began to scold: “Figures she’s a delicate, pampered young miss of a wealthy family! It’s been two whole months and you still haven’t remembered my voice. Am I so full of free time that I’d just show up to check on you for no reason?!”
With that, she shoved past Sheng Xia and slammed the bowl she was holding heavily onto the table.
As she did, her eyes fell upon the bowl of food brought over by Zhou Zexi.
It was a steaming bowl of fragrant white noodles.
It looked infinitely better than her own coarse cornmeal buns.
A lump of indignation caught instantly in her throat.
“No wonder you pretended not to recognize me! So it turns out someone already had herself some good food lined up. Here I was, acting like a busybody sticking her nose into other people’s business!”
Only then did Sheng Xia recall who this was.
“Li Zhaodi?”
Li Zhaodi let out a cold laugh, her tone dripping with heavy sarcasm: “Oh, the young miss of a wealthy family has finally remembered me? I’m truly honored! Do I need to bow and say thank you, too?”
Sheng Xia gave an awkward, apologetic chuckle, caught between politeness and embarrassment.
She had just transmigrated, after all, and wasn’t fully adjusted yet—her system had practically lagged and crashed for a moment!
Ever since she arrived in Wang Village, the original host had done nothing but hound Zhou Zexi.
Combined with her striking beauty, delicate demeanor, and slender, fair fingers, she looked every bit the pampered young miss who had never lifted a finger.
While the other villagers envied and resented her, they also looked down on the original host.
So what if she was pretty?
Wasn’t she still down here doing manual labor just like the rest of them, sent to the countryside to join the youth queue?
On top of that, she was all looks and no brains.
She refused to do any work from morning till night, spending all her time whining and acting coquettishly behind men.
Tui!
Shameless!
Only Li Zhaodi felt that Sheng Xia was just silly and utterly devoid of malice.
She believed whatever anyone told her, possessing a simple mind that never once overthought anything.
In reality, many of those rumors weren’t even true; people simply loved to gossip.
And so, with every telling, a story passed through ten people, and then a hundred.
In a mere two months, Sheng Xia’s reputation had been completely ruined.
Li Zhaodi had taken pity on her precisely because she was so foolish.
She didn’t want to join the others in mocking and toying with her.
Besides, Sheng Xia was simply too breathtakingly gorgeous.
She had never in her life laid eyes on anyone so pretty.
Moreover, when Sheng Xia spoke, her voice was soft, gentle, and adorable.
Li Zhaodi felt that just being looked at by Sheng Xia made her cheeks flush with heat.
And Sheng Xia never put on airs, treating everyone with easy generosity.
Having previously accepted a few White Rabbit milk candies and a handful of red dates from Sheng Xia—not to mention various small pastries—Li Zhaodi had naturally grown much more protective of her over time.
It was just that she had a sharp tongue paired with a soft heart.
Externally, she always acted fierce and mean, but her heart was softer than anyone’s.
Hearing that Sheng Xia had fallen ill, she had rushed back the moment work ended, hurriedly steaming some cornmeal buns and tossing together a cold side dish to bring over.
She had been worried sick about whether Sheng Xia’s illness was serious and whether she needed to go to the medical station.
After all, Sheng Xia was a delicate young miss, completely different from low-born girls like them who were treated as good-for-nothing burdens.
What if something actually went wrong?
Yet she never expected Sheng Xia to act like she didn’t even recognize her.
In that instant, Li Zhaodi felt like a fool whose kindness had been entirely unappreciated.
Stepping forward, Sheng Xia gently took Li Zhaodi’s hand, shook it lightly, and smiled warmly: “I know you’re the best to me. Thank you so much, Zhaodi.”
“Bah! Who’s being good to you? I just didn’t want anyone else dropping dead at the educated youth point!”
Despite her words, her ears turned bright red.
Sheng Xia’s hand felt unimaginably soft…
And she was actually acting coquettishly toward her!
Li Zhaodi’s anger evaporated in a split second.
“Here, take this. Eat your meal and then take your medicine.”
Li Zhaodi shoved two paper-wrapped tablets of Analgin into Sheng Xia’s hand, letting out a huff. “I had to ask someone to buy these for me the last time I got sick!”
They had cost a fortune.
She hadn’t even been willing to take them herself, and now she was giving them all to Sheng Xia.
A wave of genuine warmth washed over Sheng Xia.
Fair is fair: the original host and Li Zhaodi had only known each other for two months.
In this era of extreme material scarcity, the moment Li Zhaodi heard she was sick, she had rushed over with food and medicine—she was truly a good girl.
“Thank you!”
Unable to admit that her illness was entirely faked, Sheng Xia accepted the medicine, climbed onto the kang, fished a package of brown sugar out of the bag, and handed it to Li Zhaodi.
“Take this brown sugar.”
“I don’t want it! Sheng Xia, what kind of person do you take me for? I brought you food and medicine because I care, not because I was looking for a handout!” Li Zhaodi’s face flushed red with indignation.
“But…”
“Who wants your charity!”
Li Zhaodi stamped her foot and turned to leave.
Left with no choice, Sheng Xia set the brown sugar down on the spot.
“Then do me a favor.”
“What favor?”
“Eat that bowl of noodles for me, and then help me return the bowl to Zhou Zexi, okay?”
Li Zhaodi froze for a couple of seconds before the realization hit her, prompting her to whisper in absolute disbelief: “You’re saying Zhou Zexi brought you these noodles?”
“Keep your voice down! Don’t let anyone hear you!” Sheng Xia quickly clapped a hand over her mouth.
“Wait…”
Li Zhaodi felt her head spinning.
“Why on earth would Zhou Zexi bring you food? Zhou Zexi actually brought you food! No wait—since he’s finally showing concern for you and kindly brought you a meal, why are you giving it to me?”
Shouldn’t she be jumping for joy and running around showing it off to everyone?
Sheng Xia figured that if she were the original host, she probably would have done exactly that.
Unfortunately, she wasn’t.
“Just do me this one favor, alright? I really don’t want to eat his food.”
Sheng Xia knew this approach wasn’t ideal.
She had plenty of better ways to handle it, such as accepting the meal, sneaking it back to Zhou Zexi later, and making things clear with him.
However, Sheng Xia didn’t want to complicate things unnecessarily.
More importantly, she couldn’t accept Zhou Zexi’s goodwill with a clear conscience on behalf of the original host.
That was completely different from Li Zhaodi showing genuine concern for her.
“Anyway, I’m completely done with Zhou Zexi. I don’t want people seeing us and spreading gossip behind my back, which is why I’m begging you to help me out.”
“But…”
“I know what you want to ask. When I have some free time later, I’ll explain everything to you slowly, okay?”
Li Zhaodi hesitated, remaining silent.
Sheng Xia pressed her palms together pleadingly: “Oh, come on, just help me out! Please, please!”
Li Zhaodi’s face flushed pink. “Alright, alright, speak properly! I’m not a man, what good is acting all coquettish with me!”
Yet her hands were honest enough as she took the bowl of noodles.
Seizing the moment, Sheng Xia stuffed a handful of White Rabbit milk candies right into her pocket.
Seeing that Li Zhaodi was about to object, Sheng Xia quickly cut her off: “You’ve done me such a huge favor. If you refuse this, I’m not going to be friends with you anymore!”
True to form, Li Zhaodi was instantly intimidated.
She muttered under her breath: “Who wants to be friends with you anyway? In your dreams!”
Yet her feet moved with impressive speed as she scurried away, terrified that Sheng Xia might actually follow through.
Watching Li Zhaodi’s retreating figure, Sheng Xia couldn’t help laughing out loud.
Having grown up an orphan and spent her life surrounded by every shade of fake, hypocritical affection, stumbling upon such a simple, kind-hearted girl filled her with a comforting warmth.
Sheng Xia figured her luck wasn’t entirely terrible after all.
At least Jiang Han and Li Zhaodi, the two people she had encountered so far, were both wonderful people.
Of course, she owed all of this to the original host.
Thinking of Jiang Han, Sheng Xia let out a soft sigh.
With him spending money so lavishly, she was starting to feel rather embarrassed.
Didn’t rumors say Jiang Han’s family conditions were extremely poor?
If so, where on earth did he get the money to buy all these high-end goods?