“Lu Chenzhou! There are so many people here, are you really trying to hit someone?!”
“I’m hitting you, damn it!”
Lu Chenzhou grabbed him by the collar. Just as his fist was raised—someone suddenly wrapped their arms around his wrist.
“Lu Chenzhou!” Jiang Wantang was practically hanging off his arm with her whole body weight.
Jiang Wantang: “Let go!”
Lu Chenzhou: “No!”
Jiang Wantang: “If you dare lay a finger on him today, I’m never finishing this with you!”
Lu Chenzhou snapped his head around, his eyes filled with unrestrainable violence. “Didn’t you hear him insulting you?”
“Getting cursed at won’t make me lose a piece of flesh!” Jiang Wantang clung onto his arm for dear life.
Man, this guy was unbelievably strong! Even using both hands, she could barely pull him back.
“If you beat him up and something goes wrong, wouldn’t you have to pay compensation? If it gets serious, you’ll even get disciplined by the commune! Do you just have too much money burning a hole in your pocket?”
Lu Chenzhou gritted his teeth. “I don’t care.”
“Well, I care!”
The three words tumbled out of her mouth, and Lu Chenzhou’s movements abruptly halted.
Taking advantage of the moment, Jiang Wantang yanked his hand down. “You just stand right there. I’ll handle this myself.”
Lu Chenzhou stared at her fixedly, staying put.
Seeing that Lu Chenzhou had actually stopped, Zhao Ergou regained a bit of the courage he had just lost. “What? Did I say something wrong?”
Jiang Wantang turned around and smiled. “You didn’t say anything wrong.”
Zhao Ergou froze, the surrounding crowd froze, and Lu Chenzhou’s face darkened instantly. Yet Jiang Wantang casually continued, “I really was a piece of work in the past. Lu Chenzhou treated me well, and taking advantage of his feelings for me, I bullied him a lot. Before going back to the city, my head was completely scrambled, and I took his money and stuff. I own up to that.”
The surroundings went dead quiet. No one expected Jiang Wantang to admit it so openly in front of so many people! Even Zhao Ergou stood there with his mouth agape.
“You…”
“What about me?” Jiang Wantang looked at him. “I did wrong, so I came back on my own to admit my mistake and pay back the money. What does that have to do with Lu Chenzhou? What did he do wrong from start to finish? Is it a crime to like someone?”
Stumped by her questions, Zhao Ergou choked up. “But weren’t you…”
“Wasn’t I what?” Jiang Wantang’s voice suddenly shot up. “Who did you say dumped me just now? People in the city? Which city folk? What’s their name? Where do they live? Did you see me get dumped with your own eyes?”
Four rapid-fire questions left Zhao Ergou completely tongue-tied.
“I… that’s what everyone is saying!”
“Who is ‘everyone’?” Jiang Wantang glanced around. The people who had been gossiping the loudest a moment ago immediately lowered their heads to eat, no one daring to pipe up.
Jiang Wantang almost laughed out of sheer annoyance. “So after all that fuss, it was all just made up by your big fat mouth?”
Laughter immediately broke out in the crowd, and Zhao Ergou’s face turned bright red.
“Then if you were doing so well, why did you come back?”
“Because I felt like it!” Jiang Wantang answered with absolute confidence. “Even if the city is great, can’t I just not want to stay there? Even if Qingshan Production Brigade is poor, can’t I choose to come back? Besides—”
She paused, suddenly reaching out to grab Lu Chenzhou’s arm!
Lu Chenzhou’s body went instantly rigid, as if he had been struck by lightning.
Jiang Wantang didn’t loosen her grip in the slightest; instead, she held on even tighter.
“Who told you I only came back because nobody wanted me? I came back to find him. Did you hear that loud and clear?“
Boom— The crowd instantly exploded!
“What?! Came back to find Lu Chenzhou?”
“Oh, my goodness! Did Youth Jiang really say that?”
“Then why did she even go back to the city in the first place?”
A chaotic chatter rang out all at once.
Yet Lu Chenzhou couldn’t hear any of it. He looked down, staring intently at the hand looped around his arm, his mind echoing with just one phrase: I came back to find him.
Even though Jiang Wantang had already said last night that she came back for him and wanted to live a life together, that was inside the house with just the two of them. Who knew if she was just coaxing him again?
Now it was different. The whole Qingshan Production Brigade was right here, and right in front of everyone, she declared that she had come back for him.
Lu Chenzhou’s Adam’s apple bobbed heavily. His chest felt as though it had been struck by something—stuffy, yet burning hot.
Unwilling to give up, Zhao Ergou pressed on, “You say you came back for him, so that makes it true? Who knows if it’s just because you had nowhere else to go and you’re using Lu Chenzhou as a…”
“Zhao Ergou.” The smile vanished completely from Jiang Wantang’s face. “Are you incapable of understanding human speech? I said I came back to find Lu Chenzhou, not that Lu Chenzhou picked me up.”
Word by word, she made herself crystal clear: “Also, you said just now that he picked up a woman nobody else wanted? You’re wrong.”
Jiang Wantang looked up at the man beside her. Lu Chenzhou was staring back at her too, his usually gloomy eyes looking somewhat dazed at this moment.
Jiang Wantang suddenly smiled. “I was blind in the past, throwing away such a good man just to go back to the city. Now my eyes are cured.”
Bursts of laughter erupted around them, with someone even slapping their thigh in amusement.
“Youth Jiang’s tongue is as sharp as ever!”
“Isn’t that the truth! That kid Chenzhou sure is lucky!”
Zhao Ergou was green with envy and rage. “Lu Chenzhou is a good man? A guy whose father is dead, mother ran off, and who’s dirt-poor…”
Before he could finish, Jiang Wantang’s face turned icy cold. “Shut up!”
This time, even Lu Chenzhou was stunned.
Jiang Wantang took a step forward. “So what if he’s poor? Did he eat your family’s rice? Lu Chenzhou has working hands and feet, earning his ten work points a day all the same. Hunting, woodworking, fixing things—which of those aren’t better than you?”
Jiang Wantang scanned Zhao Ergou up and down. “Just yesterday you had half a tooth knocked out, and today you’ve already forgotten the pain once the scar healed.”
Someone in the crowd couldn’t hold it in: “Pfft!”
Following that, a roar of laughter went around. “Hahaha! Exactly! Ergou, the corner of your mouth is still purple! Just say less!”
Zhao Ergou instinctively covered his mouth, his face flushing the color of a pig’s liver. “Jiang Wantang!”
“What are you shouting at your grandma for?”
“You—”
“You what, you?” Jiang Wantang rolled her eyes. “Keep Lu Chenzhou’s name out of your mouth from now on. How I bullied him before is between the two of us, and I’ll make up for it myself. It’s not your place to use his scars as a joke!”
As her final sentence fell, Lu Chenzhou froze completely.
He looked at Jiang Wantang standing in front of him. The woman was clearly a head shorter than him, with narrow shoulders—in a real fight, he could lift her up with one hand.
Yet at this moment, she stood in front of him just like that. For the first time, someone told everyone—not to make a joke out of his scars.
Lu Chenzhou suddenly felt a heavy tightness in his chest. He didn’t like this feeling; it was too unfamiliar, and far too dangerous. Because he was actually starting to want to believe her again.
“Let’s go,” Lu Chenzhou suddenly spoke, his voice raspier than usual.
Jiang Wantang turned around. “Where to?”
“Didn’t you want to fetch your stuff?”
“Oh, right!” She almost forgot her main task. She turned and snorted at Zhao Ergou. “Keep your mouth clean from now on.”
With that, she grabbed Lu Chenzhou and walked away. After taking quite a few steps, Jiang Wantang realized something was off. Looking down, she was still holding onto his arm! Looking up, Lu Chenzhou was looking down at her.
The two stared at each other for three seconds before Jiang Wantang pulled her hand back as if shocked by electricity.
“What are you looking at?”
The corner of Lu Chenzhou’s mouth twitched slightly. “Jiang Wantang.”
“What?”
“Who did you say was a good man just now?”
Jiang Wantang paused in her tracks. Damn it, why does this guy only remember things like this?!
“Did I say that?”
“You did.”
“You misheard.”
“I’m not deaf.”
“Then maybe I went crazy.”
Lu Chenzhou: “…”
Jiang Wantang quickened her pace. “Hurry up! We’re going to be late for work!”
Lu Chenzhou followed behind her. Watching her hurry along with ever-faster steps, for the very first time, he couldn’t help himself—the corners of his mouth curled up into a genuine smile.