Seeing Su Qiao standing there, dazed and overjoyed, not knowing what to do, the woman smiled proudly.
She reached out and touched Su Qiao’s little braids and said in a slightly affectionate tone, “My surname is Qian—Qian Guihua. You can just call me Auntie Qian. If you ever come and I’m not here, just tell people you’re a relative from my hometown visiting me.”
By the time Su Qiao had walked far out of the clothing factory, she felt like she was floating.
This kind of luck isn’t something you can get just whenever you want.
The frustration of not finding a single house all day vanished without a trace in that instant.
Holding her pile of treasures, she didn’t stop anywhere else and headed straight for the long-distance bus station.
After waiting over an hour, the bus finally arrived. Since she had come early, Su Qiao even managed to grab a seat once on board, which made her extremely happy.
Sitting there with the day’s haul in her arms, her heart was full of joy.
It wasn’t until the bus neared her town that she realized a big problem—
How was she going to carry all these packages home?
Thinking about the dirt road from the town to her home, Su Qiao silently patted her legs, tired and sore from walking all day, and made a quiet resolution—
She would work even harder to earn money!
Earn money to buy a bicycle, buy a house, and settle down in the city!
After getting off the bus, even though she knew it was impossible, Su Qiao instinctively glanced toward the entrance.
To her surprise, she saw Xiao Qifeng standing once again in his old spot.
Instantly, a wave of relief washed over her heart.
Su Qiao quickened her pace and stepped forward to greet him: “Brother Xiao, what are you doing here?”
“Xiao Shu is having fun at home with Xiao Lan and the others. I didn’t have anything else to do, so I came by. What did you buy? Why do you have so much?”
“Just some fabric,” Su Qiao replied.
She wiped the sweat from her forehead with a smile, her expression full of gratitude: “Thank you so much, Brother Xiao. If you hadn’t come today, I probably wouldn’t have been able to carry all this home even by tonight.”
Seeing that she didn’t see through his polite words, Xiao Qifeng relaxed a little.
He had indeed come because Xiao Shu was enjoying himself at Su Qiao’s home, and he wanted him to play a bit longer, so he hadn’t rushed back.
But he couldn’t quite explain it himself, by four o’clock he was already restless, and by five he had instinctively ridden out on his bike.
By the time he realized it, he was almost in town.
After glancing at the bamboo basket on Su Qiao’s back, Xiao Qifeng pulled out a coil of thin hemp rope from under his bicycle seat.
He bent down and threaded one end of the rope through the gaps in the basket, looping it back and forth several times over the top to make sure nothing would fall out, then tied the other end around the burlap sack.
Once he finished, his eyes landed on the bulky bag slung across Su Qiao’s body.
He didn’t know exactly what was inside, but just looking at it, it seemed heavy.
Thinking about how long she must have carried all that, his gaze darkened.
“Give me the bag,” he said.
“No, no, I can carry this myself,” Su Qiao quickly waved him off.
Xiao Qifeng looked at her, then patted the burlap bundle: “It’s leaning to one side and heavy. Give it here.”
Su Qiao: “……”
Xiao Qifeng tied all the items securely together and placed them on the front beam of the bicycle.
Then he got back on his bike and gestured to Su Qiao: “Hop on.”
Just as she agreed and was about to jump on, she heard a familiar voice calling from not far behind: “Xiao Qiao?”
The voice was full of surprise.
Su Qiao froze and turned around.
Then she saw, on the road directly across from them and slightly behind, a girl getting off a bicycle, her face unable to hide her shock.
The girl looked a little older than Su Qiao.
She had a fair complexion and a tall, slender build, dressed in a dark blue work uniform that people of this era admired, with a blue work cap on her head, her brows and eyes carrying a hint of arrogance.
When she saw Su Qiao turn around, she waved at her and called out loudly, “Xiao Qiao, come over here!”
Su Qiao stood where she was and didn’t move.
She quietly looked at the girl across the street, the one she had once believed to be the only kind person among all her relatives, her good elder cousin, Su Xiaona.
Over the past twenty years, whenever she occasionally thought back on those relatives in her hometown, Su Qiao’s heart was filled with disgust. Only toward Su Xiaona did she feel gratitude deep down.
Su Qiao had always believed that back then, Su Xiaona had risked being scolded by her mother to open the window for her, giving her a chance to escape that cage.
She had truly meant to help her.
Even later, when she came to bitterly regret returning to school because of that incident, she had never taken it out on Su Xiaona.
After all, what happened to her younger siblings had nothing to do with her.
So even though later on Su Qiao and her younger brother never went back to Xiaojin Village again, leaving the same day after paying respects to their parents at the cemetery, when she later heard that Su Xiaona was not doing well and had married the wrong man, she still quietly had money sent to her twice through others.
But she had never imagined that after being reborn, she would so quickly see another side of her “good” cousin.
It made her realize that she herself had once been blind, a complete fool who had been deceived with her eyes covered and yet had felt endless gratitude toward the deceiver.
Thinking of this, Su Qiao’s gaze grew even colder.
She completely ignored Su Xiaona’s gesture, turned back, and said to Xiao Qifeng, “Let’s go.”
Then she got on the bike.
“Hey, Xiao Qiao! What’s wrong with you? Wait a second!”
Seeing that her cousin, who would usually run over the moment she waved, was actually ignoring her and about to leave just like that, Su Xiaona immediately panicked.
She no longer cared about maintaining her usual composure and pushed her bike as she chased after them.
She blocked their bike with her own, then put on an act as if she had just noticed Xiao Qifeng and called out in surprise, “Brother Xiao?”
Then she deliberately paused, her gaze circling over the two of them, before asking, “Why are you two together?”
If it were the past Su Qiao, she might not have seen anything amiss.
But now, after so many years of experience, Su Xiaona’s affected, pretentious manner irritated Su Qiao from the bottom of her heart the moment she saw it.
She felt even more strongly that her younger self had truly been blind.
Su Qiao couldn’t be bothered to waste words on her and said flatly, “That’s none of your business.”
After saying that, she got onto Xiao Qifeng’s bike.
Su Xiaona had not expected that after being away from home for only a few days, her younger cousin would change like this.
Her mother had badly strained her waist and, after being sent to the town clinic that day, still hadn’t been discharged. For these past few days, aside from going to work, Su Xiaona had been staying at the hospital to take care of her.
So she had also heard about what happened that day.
She didn’t expect Su Lan to run into traffickers, nor had she expected the incident to make Su Qiao so furious that she completely cut ties with their family.
But none of that really mattered to Su Xiaona. After all, she now worked in town, and no matter how much money there was at home, she wouldn’t get a single cent of it anyway.
What she cared about most was Su Qiao’s marriage to Xiao Qifeng.
She had heard from her mother that Su Qiao had caused a huge scene and brought great embarrassment to the Xiao family.
Xiao Qifeng had been enraged and, in front of everyone, declared that his marriage to Su Qiao was off, even demanding the return of the bride price.
Su Xiaona had had to restrain herself with all her might not to smile in front of her mother.
Although running back and forth these past few days had been tiring, Su Xiaona’s mood had actually been quite good.
She had even been thinking that, when her mother was discharged in the next day or two, she would take the opportunity to return to the village as well.
Then she would find a way to coax her eldest brother into taking her along to meet Xiao Qifeng.
A grown man being publicly humiliated by a woman, no matter how well-mannered he was, he would still feel uncomfortable, wouldn’t he?
When the time came, if she acted gentle and considerate enough, Brother Xiao would surely see how different she was from Su Qiao…
Su Xiaona’s plan had been flawless in her mind, but she never imagined she would accidentally see the two of them together so intimately.
Seeing Xiao Qifeng get on his bike and steer around her as if he were about to leave, Su Xiaona panicked.
She didn’t even bother with her own bike, stretching out both hands to grab hold of Xiao Qifeng’s handlebars.
“Brother Xiao, didn’t you and Su Qiao already break off the engagement? You even took back the bride price, so why are the two of you still together?!”
She clutched the handlebars tightly, blocking the bike, and asked urgently.
So shocked that she had no time to mind her manners, her voice turned sharp and piercing, painful to the ears.
Xiao Qifeng frowned deeply.
He cast a cold glance at the hand Su Xiaona was gripping the handlebars with and asked flatly, “Who are you? Do I know you?”
That single sentence choked all the words Su Xiaona had wanted to say right in her throat, leaving her so embarrassed she couldn’t utter another word.
Su Qiao nearly burst out laughing.
She didn’t believe for a second that Xiao Qifeng truly didn’t recognize Su Xiaona, this was clearly him deliberately saying it after hearing what she’d said earlier that morning, just to help her vent her anger.
She jumped off the bike and briskly walked over to Xiao Qifeng’s side, slapping Su Xiaona’s hand off the handlebars.
Then she let out a snort of laughter and said, “Whether I break off my engagement or not is none of your business. Does it really warrant you getting this worked up? You don’t even care about saving face anymore, running over to stop a stranger’s bike? He doesn’t even know who you are!”
“You—!”
Su Xiaona didn’t expect that after only a few days apart, Su Qiao would become so sharp-tongued and target her at every turn.
She immediately put on an expression as though she had suffered a great injustice and cast a pitiful glance at Xiao Qifeng.
Then she explained, “Brother Xiao, I’m Su Xiaojun’s younger sister. We’ve met before, maybe you don’t remember. I’m sorry, I was too anxious and forgot to introduce myself properly.
I mainly saw my younger cousin with a man she doesn’t know well and got worried about her, so I acted rashly.”
After saying that, she even gave Xiao Qifeng an apologetic smile.
With this poised and composed explanation, she not only dissolved the earlier awkwardness but also subtly stepped on Su Qiao, if she said Xiao Qifeng and Su Qiao weren’t familiar with each other, then was Su Qiao claiming she herself was?
After hearing it all, even Su Qiao had to admit that this woman really did have a few tricks up her sleeve.
After finishing her sentence, Su Xiaona let her gaze fall on Su Qiao again, that look carrying a mix of tolerance and forbearance.
She sighed and said, “Xiao Qiao, don’t speak so harshly. You had a falling-out with my mother, but your sister here never provoked you. I rushed over in such a hurry because I was worried about you.”
At this point she deliberately paused, stole a glance at Xiao Qifeng, then lowered her voice, still loud enough for all three of them to hear, and said, “After all, you were so unwilling before, even threatening life and death, to marry Brother Xiao.”
As soon as she finished speaking, a flicker of smug satisfaction flashed quickly across her eyes.
What she didn’t expect, however, was that Su Qiao, after hearing this, nodded without the slightest hesitation.
“Yeah, I really didn’t want to marry before. Not just me, anyone, on hearing that the man they were being engaged to was old, disabled, and divorced, and that once married they’d have to be a stepmother, wouldn’t be willing either, right? Second Sister, if it were you, would you be willing?”
Su Xiaona choked, completely unable to respond.
Those words had indeed come from her.
But she had never imagined that Su Qiao would say them so bluntly, without the slightest concealment, right in front of Xiao Qifeng.