"What?!" Zhao Erdong cried out in surprise. The next second, she immediately covered her mouth.
Tears of pleasant surprise flashed in her eyes. Lowering her voice, she said, "This news... is it true? No, no, you wouldn’t know even if I asked you. Regardless, we have to prepare first..." She muttered to herself, standing up and pacing back and forth, overcome with joy.
"I’ll secretly pull some strings and get someone to bring back a few books." Zhao Erdong’s eyes sparkled. "The two of us will review the material first. If anyone asks, we’ll just say we believe the college entrance examination will be reinstated one day. Don’t let slip that we have inside information." Zhao Erdong didn’t want to investigate whether the news was true or not. In the midst of day-to-day labor, having something to look forward to was simply too important.
Deng Yuyuan blinked her left eye and whispered, "My aunt said she would send me a set." In truth, after the farm shop updated, it had stocked up on textbooks. The price was also incredibly cheap, costing only ten gold coins. However, there was a permanent purchase limit of ten sets, and reselling was strictly prohibited.
"Let’s share them!" she invited Zhao Erdong happily.
"Sure!"
When the educated youths returned from work today, Zhang Jiahua once again came to make his presence known. In his arms, he held a brand-new, warm scarf, along with a large bouquet of wildflowers.
"Yuanyuan, I’ve come to see you and the child," he called out loudly. Standing outside the door, he watched the educated youths go inside while he obediently stayed right where he was.
The village chief’s wife shoved Shi Tou into Zhang Ci Hao’s arms. "Take your nephew and the Jin Family’s three children back."
"The Jin Family will come pick them up after work," Zhang Ci Hao replied, then asked, "Mom, aren’t you leaving?"
The village chief’s wife cast a sidelong glance out the door and shook her head at him. Even if she had other thoughts in mind, since the people involved were here, she had to try and mediate first. Besides, with a crowd of onlookers gathered around, she needed to stay and observe the situation.
Zhang Ci Hao pursed his lips. Instead of looking at his close friend, Zhang Jiahua, his gaze immediately fell on Deng Yuyuan as she walked toward the door, a faint melancholy lingering between her brows. The bespectacled male educated youth’s gaze collided with Zhang Ci Hao’s in midair once again. The male youth nodded at him and, once more, unabashedly turned his eyes toward Deng Yuyuan.
Feeling the burning stares on her back, Deng Yuyuan simply assumed the gossiping crowd was working overtime. She looked at Zhang Jiahua with a hint of helplessness. "If you have so much free time, take a day off next week and let’s go get a divorce." She couldn’t scold him, couldn’t beat him, and couldn’t chase him away.
"Wife... Yuanyuan, this is the scarf and the flowers I got for you. Take a look." Zhang Jiahua attentively offered the items to Deng Yuyuan. "I... I noticed that your scarf was getting old, so I specially asked a neighbor to knit a new one for you. She even used a trendy pattern." Zhang Jiahua revealed a fawning smile. Even the shyest of men would boldly express himself after spending a month trying to win back his wife.
Deng Yuyuan looked at the scarf. It was visibly thick and had clearly taken a lot of effort to make. Moreover, even though the two items were held together in his arms, the flowers hadn’t snagged the yarn. She picked up the scarf and, under Zhang Jiahua’s uncontrollably excited gaze, wrapped it around his own neck. "It suits you very well," she replied perfunctorily. "Go back. Tuantuan got tired from playing today and has already fallen asleep, so it’s not convenient for you to see her."
"N-no, it’s for you." Zhang Jiahua tried to take it off.
Deng Yuyuan stopped him. "I don’t really want something covered in the stench of sweat."
"I... I’ll wash it clean. No, I’ll ask the neighbor to knit another one. Do you dislike the pattern or the color?" Zhang Jiahua coaxed her carefully.
Deng Yuyuan pondered for a moment. "Perhaps I just don’t like the person giving the scarf. After all, that scarf of mine didn’t just get old this year. Tell me, the scarf hasn’t even been waved in front of his eyes this entire month, so how did he suddenly notice it was old? Or perhaps," Deng Yuyuan said with a beaming smile—she always loved to wear a smile when making sarcastic jabs, "he noticed it a long time ago but never took it to heart. As a result, the prize he took for granted slipped right through his fingers—"
Zhang Jiahua’s face turned deathly pale. His lips trembled as he wanted to argue, but being clumsy with words, he could only cast a pleading glance at the village chief’s wife.
Zhang Ci Hao spread his hands helplessly. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to help his close friend, but his friend was truly just too incompetent.
Deng Yuyuan stood opposite him calmly, taking in all of his guilty conscience.
The crowd murmured in discussion. "This female educated youth has such a venomous tongue. Ah Hua has already begged her so much. Doesn’t she know the saying about quitting..."
"Quit while you’re ahead."
"Right, right. It’s fine to make a fuss when you’ve been wronged, but why drag it out for so long? Her temper is way too extreme. Even if she’s in the right, she’s going to make a fuss until she’s in the wrong."
An agile old woman pushed her way through the crowd and charged toward Deng Yuyuan. Deng Yuyuan took a few steps back to dodge her shoving hands. She shot a cold, sharp glare at the newcomer. It was none other than Granny Zhang.
Granny Zhang slapped her thighs and wailed, "How did I give birth to such an unfilial son who turns his back on his own family? He gets a wife and forgets his mother! Every day lately, he’s been stealing the good things from our house to give to this treacherous bitch!" Seeing the people from the Knowledge Youth Institute stepping up to protect Deng Yuyuan, she shifted her target to Zhang Jiahua. She snatched the scarf right off Zhang Jiahua and hung it around her own neck, then grabbed the bouquet of wildflowers and threw it to the ground.
"Such a good scarf, and instead of thinking of your mother, you think of this wild woman! Hurry up and ask for everything else you gave her back!" Granny Zhang reprimanded harshly. "Also, I will never agree to let this woman enter the Zhang Family’s door ever again!"
Zhang Jiahua’s younger brother and his wife had also arrived. Zhang Jia Shu squeezed through the crowd to his mother’s side and reached out to feel the scarf. "This is really good material. If Jiahua wasn’t making such a foolish mistake at his age, this would have been enough to buy Mom eggs for many days. Well, it’s already been made now, so we can’t let it go to waste. Why not give it to Xiaoqian? We can’t let the son in Xiaoqian’s belly catch a cold."
Zhang Jia Shu loved to slack off. He only treated Jiahua as a sucker to take advantage of, and he never spared a thought for Granny Zhang. However, he absolutely adored his wife. Ever since he got married, he went from demanding all the good things in the house for himself to giving them all to his wife.
Granny Zhang’s eyes darted around before landing on Wang Qian’s increasingly round belly. She took the scarf off her neck and shoved it into Zhang Jia Shu’s hands. "Take your wife back. There are a lot of people here, so be careful not to hurt the baby."
"Sure thing!" Zhang Jia Shu was also worried about his wife in his heart. If his wife hadn’t said she wanted to come watch the drama, he wouldn’t have come over at all. Getting such a nice scarf for free now wasn’t bad either.
"Mom!" Zhang Jiahua’s tone held a rare sense of anger and frustration. "Yuanyuan hasn’t taken a single thing from me this past month. The educated youths and the nearby villagers all know it. She doesn’t want my things, and she doesn’t want me anymore."
He said the last sentence very softly. Zhang Jiahua suddenly felt deeply disappointed in his family. In his most difficult time, his family was the knife that stabbed him the deepest.