Tian Baozhu felt unbearably hot and unbearably cold at the same time. Her hands unconsciously tightened their grip as she desperately clung to the pillow in her arms.
She couldn’t help but mutter complaints under her breath. Just how strong was the liquor my friend had me drinking today? It’s really going to my head!
Her hands tightened again, then she gave the pillow a feel.
Wow, why does this pillow in my arms feel different from the furry, dopey dog pillow on my bed?
It felt firm, almost muscular, and carried a hint of scalding heat!
…Huh?
Tian Baozhu tried to open her eyes to see if what she was holding was actually her pillow.
But her eyelids felt as heavy as if they were weighed down by a thousand pounds, and she simply couldn’t pry them open.
And then… there was no then. She drifted straight into darkness.
When she regained consciousness again, she heard a chattering sound near her ear.
Turning her head to look, she saw a round-faced girl with two little braids and another girl with a long, horse-like face and a short, ear-length bob. They were holding hands, excitedly chattering about something.
“Hey, Tian Baozhu, you’re awake?”
The round-faced girl with the two braids was facing Tian Baozhu.
Seeing Tian Baozhu’s eyes open, looking dazed and confused, she immediately asked.
Hearing this, the horse-faced girl beside her turned around. When she saw Tian Baozhu staring at them with open eyes, the smile that had been at the corners of her mouth immediately drooped. This made her already long face seem even longer, and her narrow eyes took on a malicious glint.
“Zhenzhen, why are you bothering with her?
Pah! What a shameless thing. She probably tried to drown herself in the river yesterday to blackmail Educated Youth Tan.
But who knew, fate had other plans. Educated Youth Tan didn’t even go near the river; he was with Baole at the time!
I wonder who pulled her out of the river last night. Probably some village loafer saved her. If that’s the case, even if she manages to pass the college entrance exam this time, she’s already a ‘broken flower, withered willow.’ The best she can do is stay in the village and get married, right?”
As she said this, the horse-faced girl’s originally grim expression finally broke into a look of gloating satisfaction.
At first, Tian Baozhu hadn’t clearly registered what the horse-faced girl was saying. But suddenly, her dazed pupils contracted sharply, as if she’d seen something unbelievable.
Then, upon hearing the last sentence, her unfocused eyes finally regained their gleam.
Before the horse-faced girl could say another word, she sprang up from the kang with a swift, tumbling motion.
With lightning speed, she stepped forward and delivered several resounding slaps — smack, smack, smack — across the horse-faced girl’s face.
The sharp crack of palm against cheek was deafening.
But even that sound couldn’t compare to the shock and astonishment caused by Tian Baozhu’s sudden outburst.
Liu Qiuhua clutched her stinging face. Her originally long, horse-like face, now marked with red, swollen handprints, actually seemed to look a bit rounder. Her eyes were filled with disbelief, which in an instant turned into seething anger, hot blood rushing to her head.
“You… you bitch! You hit me?”
“I hit you, so what? If you don’t know how to speak properly and spray nothing but shit from your mouth, I wouldn’t mind cutting your tongue out while I’m at it.”
Tian Baozhu’s usually round, soft little face, stripped of its usual shyness and timidity, was now set in a grim, menacing expression, as if she wanted to devour someone.
“B-Baozhu… how can you hit people?”
Ma Zhenzhen was so shocked by Tian Baozhu’s violent outburst that she stumbled back several steps. Only then did she stammer, “Why… why are you hitting people?”
“I hit her because of what you just heard, didn’t you?” Tian Baozhu shot Ma Zhenzhen a deep, meaningful look before casually looking away, her voice cold. “If she doesn’t know how to use her mouth to speak properly, she deserves a little hardship.”
Startled by Tian Baozhu’s sharp retort, a flash of humiliation crossed Ma Zhenzhen’s shocked face. She awkwardly fell silent.
Liu Qiuhua, however, felt like she was going mad with rage. She, of all people, had been hit by this soft, foolish pushover. She had initially counted on Ma Zhenzhen to stand up for her and make Tian Baozhu pay dearly for it.
But who would have thought Ma Zhenzhen would prove so useless this time?
A venomous glint flashed in her narrow, elongated eyes. She had been caught off guard earlier; otherwise, there was no way Tian Baozhu, with her short stature, could have landed a slap on her face.
Liu Qiuhua rolled up her sleeves and raised her hand, aiming to strike Tian Baozhu’s fair, delicate face. She was determined to ruin that bitch’s looks.
But before she could, Tian Baozhu moved in a blur. Stepping forward, she delivered another rhythmic volley of slaps — smack, smack, smack.
The blows left Liu Qiuhua’s ears ringing, her head spinning and heavy, as if she might faint at any moment.
“So, Liu Qiuhua, do you understand you were wrong?”
Tian Baozhu stopped after these few slaps, asking in a calm, indifferent tone.
If Liu Qiuhua had any venomous thoughts left in her head just moments ago, they were completely gone now.
Covering her face with both hands, she burst into a loud “Wah!” of tears, then, consumed by shame and anger, turned and rushed out the door.
“Hey… Sister Qiuhua! This… this… Baozhu, that was really out of line!”
Ma Zhenzhen called out after Liu Qiuhua’s retreating figure. Then, turning back with an expression of helpless reproach, she said to Tian Baozhu before running off after her.
Watching them leave, Tian Baozhu quickly stepped forward, slammed the door shut with a bang, and slid the bolt into place.
Then, silently uttering the word “enter,” she found herself in a familiar courtyard.
It was the most ordinary rural farmyard. Through the main entrance, there was a row with a room on each side and a living room in the middle.
To the left was another row containing a kitchen and a dining room; to the right, a bathroom, a shower room, and a woodshed.
A door at the back of the dining room led straight to the backyard, which housed a warehouse of about three hundred square feet. It was packed to the brim with bags of pig feed and various farm tools.
Pushing open the side door next to the warehouse, what met her eyes was, as expected, the familiar pig farm, occupying a good half-acre of land.
As for the other half-acre, unlike in her memory which was filled with various vegetables and melons, it was empty. Barren, with nothing at all.
Tian Baozhu walked towards the pig farm. Inside, long rows of pigsties lined both sides, but they too were empty now. There wasn’t a single pig in sight.
This… this is the pig farm where I stayed with my parents in the countryside when I was little?
Thinking this, Tian Baozhu couldn’t help but look towards the wall at the entrance of the pig farm. There, sure enough, were chalk markings on the wall.
Seeing this familiar sight, Tian Baozhu’s eyes suddenly welled up.
Yes. This was the pig farm she had stayed at with her parents when she was little.
The chalk marks on this wall were left by her father when he measured her height.
Reaching out to touch the marks, Tian Baozhu sniffled, holding back the tears welling in her eyes.