“Tell me if it hurts…”
Before she could respond, a scorching kiss fell on her.
Jiang Mian tensed all over.
“Ah, it hurts!”
“Hurts? Where does it hurt?”
A loud voice suddenly pulled Jiang Mian out of her dream.
Jiang Mian opened her eyes. In front of her was a noisy, dimly lit venue filled with hurried figures—not the warm, spring-like little clay house decorated with big red wedding characters from her dream.
Beneath her was a cold wooden bench made of nailed planks, not the heated brick bed that burned with warmth.
And sitting beside her was not that broad-shouldered, narrow-waisted, imposing man, but Xu Hongmei, who had come to the capital with her for a meeting.
“You’re practically drooling. What were you dreaming about this time?”
Jiang Mian steadied her racing heart and said weakly,
“I dreamed about my wedding night… I was consummating the marriage with my ex-husband.”
“…”
Xu Hongmei’s face flushed red. She glanced at Jiang Mian’s seven- to eight-month pregnant belly.
“Missing your ex-husband?”
“…Mm.”
Xu Hongmei choked on her words again.
“Missing him won’t help. You’ve been divorced for so long—he’s probably remarried by now. Even if you showed up at his door with that belly, begging him, he wouldn’t take you back.”
After all, Jiang Mian’s ex-husband was said to be a young, accomplished, and handsome professor.
A few years ago, that professor had been falsely accused and sent down to a farm for labor.
That’s where Jiang Mian picked him up.
No one knew what tricks this country girl used, but she managed to get a marriage certificate with the city-bred professor, officially becoming his wife.
But the good times didn’t last long.
Not long ago, the professor was cleared of all accusations and allowed to return to the city.
Before leaving, he divorced this uneducated rural wife.
Unexpectedly, after the divorce, Jiang Mian turned out to be pregnant.
Now she was alone, carrying a large belly.
To others, she claimed her ex-husband had died and that she was a widow.
That might fool some people, but not Xu Hongmei.
Xu Hongmei knew the truth.
Her ex-husband wasn’t dead—he just didn’t want her anymore. He had abandoned her.
And that wasn’t surprising.
A dignified professor from Huaqing University—how could he possibly want a village girl with only an elementary school education?
Even though Jiang Mian was beautiful.
She was known as “the most beautiful flower on the farm,” even prettier than those educated youths in the performance troupe.
But what use was beauty?
In scholarly families like his, when choosing a wife, what mattered most was education and cultural refinement.
They didn’t care about looks at all.
It was fortunate he divorced her.
Otherwise, if she had followed her husband back to the city and entered his family, wouldn’t she have been despised to death?
Speaking of which—
This Jiang Mian was actually a bit lucky.
After the divorce, she unexpectedly managed to grow strawberries in the harsh winter of minus thirty degrees.
As soon as the strawberries came out, they were featured in newspapers and shocked the entire country!
Because of this skill, Jiang Mian became an agricultural technician at the farm.
She even represented the farm by going to the capital for a conference, and won an “Agricultural Technology Breakthrough Award.”
Xu Hongmei’s brother, Xu Haibin, was also one of the participants in the winter strawberry project and went to the capital for the meeting as well.
Their father, as the farm director, also slipped Xu Hongmei’s name into the list, hoping she could share some of the credit, polish her credentials, and later secure a promotion to a management position.
…
“Please take your seats, the conference is about to begin…”
The meeting started.
The venue gradually fell silent.
Seven or eight leaders walked onto the stage.
Below, thousands of people raised their heads to look at the stage, admiring the presence of the leaders.
At a national scientific conference like this, those who could go on stage were all high-ranking officials and top scientists.
Being able to see them in person, even from afar, was already a great honor.
So no one wanted to miss this opportunity.
Only Jiang Mian sat there with her head drooping, still feeling drowsy.
She had no interest in looking at those high and mighty leaders and top scientists. At this moment, her mind was still immersed in the wedding night from her dream.
As soon as she closed her eyes—
Outside the window, the north wind howled, and heavy snow swirled.
Inside, the heated brick bed was warm, the embrace was warm, there were firm muscles, and her ex-husband’s low, husky voice asking—
“How does it feel…?”
How did it feel?
Was there even a need to ask?
It was just that, on that night, she had been too shy, burying her face in the man’s neck the whole time, never daring to open her eyes to look.
Ah, if she had known earlier…
“It’s starting, it’s starting—”
Xu Hongmei’s exclamation rang in her ears:
“There’s someone on stage—so young, so handsome!”
Not just Xu Hongmei, people in the back row were also whispering:
“That man in the Zhongshan suit on stage—he looks incredible!”
“Don’t be fooled by how young he is—he’s a professor!”
A young professor?
Jiang Mian finally became a bit more alert.
She forced her heavy eyelids open.
She wanted to see just how young and how handsome he was.
How did he compare to that male lead—her ex-husband?
She raised her head and looked toward the stage.
With just one glance, Jiang Mian was stunned…