Taking in this entire scene, Jiang He stood frozen, wide-eyed and dumbfounded.
After remaining dazed for a good few seconds, he turned on his heel and sprinted all the way back home.
The moment he lifted the lid off the pot, sure enough—half of the chicken soup and rabbit meat his sister had prepared was completely gone.
An idea suddenly struck him, and he ran toward the foot of the mountain in absolute disbelief.
He yelled as he ran: “Sister! Sister!”
“I know!”
“I know everything now!”
Jiang Yu, who was currently cutting pig grass, spotted her younger brother running toward her from a distance.
He had sprinted so fast he didn’t even realize one of his shoes had popped off.
She quickly took a few steps forward to meet him. “What on earth happened to get you so flustered?”
“Sister, I know! I know!”
Jiang He was so worked up he could barely coherent a sentence. “I know why Big Brother was so angry!”
Jiang Yu quickly pressed: “Why?”
Jiang He stole a glance in all directions. Seeing that everyone else was busy with their work and paying no attention to them, he finally lowered his voice.
“Big Brother got dumped yesterday!”
“What?” Jiang Yu thought her ears were playing tricks on her. “What did you just say?”
“Oh, come on!” Jiang He stamped his feet in frustration. “Let me ask you this: usually, when Big Brother brings back wild game, he leaves us one animal at most. But today, he kept every single bit of it, and even asked you to cook it early in the morning—didn’t you find that suspicious at all?”
Jiang Yu reasoned: “Big Brother naturally has his own plans.”
“Then do you have any idea who he gave the chicken soup and rabbit meat you cooked to?”
“Who did he give it to?”
“To a female educated youth in the village, of course!”
Jiang Yu’s eyes widened slightly, her gaze brimming with sheer astonishment. “This… how could that be?!”
By rights, given Jiang Han’s age, he should have married long ago.
It was just that the families in the village with good conditions looked down on him for having so many burdens at home and no elders to help out.
As for those who simply took a liking to him as a person, Jiang Han didn’t think much of them.
Jiang Yu had once asked her older brother what kind of partner he was looking for.
Her brother always maintained that there was no rush.
Furthermore, owing to the shadow of their family’s class background, her brother never spoke an extra word to any woman in the village, terrified that people might spread idle gossip.
When it came to the female educated youths at the west end of the village in particular, he stayed as far away as humanly possible, terrified of inviting trouble upon their heads.
Yet now Jiang He was claiming that their brother had sent meat to a female educated youth—how could that possibly be true?!
“I know you don’t believe it. If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have believed it either.”
Jiang He analyzed the situation with utter solemnity.
“I suspect Big Brother was already involved with her long ago, but kept us in the dark. The reason his face looked so terrible yesterday afternoon was definitely because they got into a fight, putting him in a foul mood! That’s why he went into the mountains last night to hunt game, and then ran over to the educated youth point without even stopping for breath to deliver the meat just to make her happy.”
Who knew who had caught his eye to make him bend his back so low just to coax her?
Hearing this whole deduction, Jiang Yu was left completely stunned.
She had never once heard of her brother being close to anyone.
Yet her younger brother would never lie about something like this.
“Are you sure?” Jiang Yu asked once more.
“I am absolute and 100% positive!” Jiang He was practically bursting with excitement. “Why don’t you ask Big Brother when he comes back for lunch?”
How was she supposed to ask that?
If her older brother wanted to share, he would have brought it up long ago.
Why would he wait until now?
“Don’t tell me you aren’t curious at all?” Jiang He let out a huff. “Matchmaker Huang comes to our house every single day trying to set Big Brother up on blind dates! If you don’t get to the bottom of this, what if Matchmaker Huang brings a girl home one day, and that female educated youth happens to see it and misunderstands Big Brother? When everything falls apart and we lose our future sister-in-law, let’s see what you do then!”
Jiang Yu found it both hilarious and helpless. “Where on earth do you get all these wild ideas from day in and day out? You haven’t even figured out what’s going on yet, and you’re already calling her ‘sister-in-law’ left and right. Be careful not to let anyone hear you and ruin the girl’s reputation.”
“That’s precisely why I’m telling you to ask Big Brother! Don’t you want to know who Big Brother picked to be our sister-in-law?”
Jiang Yu: “…”
To be completely honest, she really was quite curious.
“Fine, I’ll ask him at lunch. But let’s get one thing straight: you aren’t allowed to tell a soul about this. If word gets out, it’ll reflect poorly on the female educated youth.”
Jiang He slapped his chest. “Don’t worry, Sister! I know what’s at stake.”
…
Sheng Xia, who was busy picking bean pods in the field, suddenly let out a sneeze.
Seeing this, Li Zhaodi, who was paired up with her, let out a humph.
“I told you to drink that bowl of ginger tea, but you just wouldn’t listen.”
Sheng Xia smiled brightly. “I’m already completely fine.”
“If you’re so fine, why are you still sneezing?”
“Someone must be thinking about me.”
“You mean to say Zhou Zexi is missing you, right!”
The moment Sheng Xia finished speaking, Wang Qiuxia’s grating, shrill voice drifted over from nearby.
“How shameless! Throwing yourself relentlessly at Comrade Zhou like a shameless pest—I feel embarrassed on your behalf!”
Wang Qiuxia glared at Sheng Xia with pure resentment, wishing she could claw this bitch’s face off.
Because of what happened yesterday, everyone was looking at her with strange, judgmental eyes today.
Some had even called her a greedy, lying fraud straight to her face.
Wang Qiuxia was practically bursting with rage.
It was all because of this bitch Sheng Xia.
Sheng Xia raised her eyebrows slightly. “Looks like yesterday’s lesson wasn’t severe enough. You’ve already forgotten what you promised me so quickly?”
Wang Qiuxia remained stubborn: “Other people might not know what really went down yesterday, but could you possibly be ignorant? You were clearly framing me—I never took a single penny of your money!”
“Oh, really?” Sheng Xia smiled. “Are you sure?”
On the very first day the original host arrived in the countryside, Wang Qiuxia had set her eyes on her.
On one hand, she envied Sheng Xia’s stunning looks, and on the other, she lusted after all the high-end goods in Sheng Xia’s possession.
Knowing that Sheng Xia wasn’t used to doing farm work and didn’t know how to wash clothes or cook, Wang Qiuxia would lend a helping hand whenever she had free time.
Everyone praised Wang Qiuxia for being kind-hearted and helpful.
In reality, Sheng Xia had given Wang Qiuxia a mountain of perks.
Once, Wang Qiuxia gave Sheng Xia two coarse cornmeal buns and actually had the nerve to demand two yuan for them.
The original host was a foolish soul who felt pitiful toward Wang Qiuxia and didn’t want to owe her any favors; even knowing Wang Qiuxia was making an outrageous demand, she had handed the money over anyway.
Having tasted the sweetness of easy money, Wang Qiuxia had frequently hit Sheng Xia up for cash ever since.
Adding in all the nice things she had coaxed out of Sheng Xia previously, it totaled thirty to fifty yuan altogether.
That was why Sheng Xia had demanded twenty yuan from her yesterday.
Wang Qiuxia was instantly choked up.
Knowing she was in the wrong, she glared viciously at Sheng Xia.
“What are you looking so smug for? Zhou Zexi is never going to like you anyway—he belongs to Xiao Qiu, so you can just give up on those pipe dreams!”
Sheng Xia found it hilarious. “Whether he likes me or not—what does that have to do with you? Who gives a damn about him anyway! Besides, Song Zhiqiux hasn’t even said a word, yet you’re so eager to stick your head out. Could it be that you like Zhou Zexi, too?”
As soon as these words dropped, Wang Qiuxia’s face instantly flushed a burning crimson.
Her eyes panicked, and she shrieked in flustered embarrassment: “Sheng Xia, stop spouting nonsense! I do not!”
Yet her defense lacked even a shred of convincing power.
Sheng Xia curled her lips and spoke to Song Zhiqiux, who was standing right behind her: “Song Zhiqiux, did you hear all of that?”
Wang Qiuxia’s heart skipped a beat, and she hurriedly turned her head around.
Sure enough, she saw Song Zhiqiux standing behind her, though she had no idea when she had arrived.
“Xiao… Xiao Qiu? How… how did you get here?”
Wang Qiuxia stammered, her flushed face completely consumed by awkwardness and guilt.
Song Zhiqiux’s gaze toward Wang Qiuxia turned as cold as ice water for a split second before returning to normal.
She spoke in a gentle, considerate tone: “I saw that you were having a bit of a disagreement with Sheng Xia, and I was worried you’d get shortchanged, so I came over to check on you.”
Wang Qiuxia couldn’t help feeling moved. “Xiao Qiu, you’re so good to me!”
Song Zhiqiux smiled softly. “What silly talk is that? If I’m not good to you, who else will be?”