Meanwhile, on the other side of Qingshan Village…
“Yo, Lu Chenzhou, you’re still sitting here waiting?!”
A loud, malicious shriek echoed from outside the courtyard wall.
Squatting in the yard, Lu Chenzhou didn’t bother lifting his head or even flinching at the familiar voice.
Instead, he raised the heavy iron axe in his grip and swung it down with brutal force. Clack!
A log of hardwood as thick as a bowl snapped cleanly in two, sending chips of wood flying in all directions. seasonal loafers and cheap taunts—that was Zhao Ergou, the village slacker who had always held a grudge against Lu Chenzhou. Over the past few days, news that Jiang Wantang had cleaned out her savings and fled back to the city had spread throughout the entire Qingshan Brigade. Today, Zhao Ergou had finally found his chance to run over and gloat.
“I made a special trip to the youth dorms yesterday to ask,” Zhao Ergou taunted, doing everything he could to provoke Lu Chenzhou and catch a glimpse of him losing his mind in pain. “Miss Jiang really did head back to the city—she even pulled her official files!”
Lu Chenzhou still ignored him. Another swing of the axe, another log split.
“Word is she was dressed so finely when she left, didn’t even bother looking back once!”
Clack! Another log cleaved apart.
Leaning both hands on the woven fence, Zhao Ergou’s face twisted into a smirk.
“Chenzhou, my man, you’re not still dreaming here, thinking a dainty city girl is actually going to come back and marry you, are you? If you ask me, you’ve lost your mind. Why would a pampered city lady care about a penniless nobody like you? She only treated you nicely to get her hands on that urban relocation quota of yours! Did you really think you were something special?!”
The axe in Lu Chenzhou’s grip came to a sudden halt.
At twenty-five, he was tall and broad-shouldered, hardened by years of heavy labor with muscles as dense as iron. He had sharp, striking features—a strong brow and piercing eyes—but he hadn’t shaved in days. A rough stubble shadowed his jaw, his eyes were bloodshot, and a dark, suffocating gloom hung over him like an impending storm.
He slowly turned his head, his gaze cold enough to freeze blood.
“Are you done?”
A chill shot down Zhao Ergou’s spine under that dead-eyed glare, and he instinctively drew his neck back.
But seeing a few nosy villagers gathering around to watch the commotion, his courage flared back up. He stiffened his neck and yelled back stubbornly.
“What? You dare to do it, but you won’t let people talk about it?! If Jiang Wantang actually cared about you, would she have packed her bags and run off with the money overnight without saying a single word?! Tell me yourself—did she swipe all that thousand-plus yuan you saved up?!”
The moment those words were spoken, a dead silence fell over the yard. The onlookers exchanged stunned glances. If she really stole all his money, then that Miss Jiang was truly shameless!
Lu Chenzhou said nothing. He tossed the axe onto the ground with a dull thud, dusted off the sawdust on his hands, and walked step-by-step toward Zhao Ergou.
Zhao Ergou’s heart pounded wildly as he scrambled backward in panic.
“What… what are you doing?! You gonna hit me?!”
Lu Chenzhou stopped right in front of him, his towering frame casting an overwhelming sense of dread. His eyes were shot through with red, and his voice sounded raw, like sand scraping through his throat.
“Say what you just said. One more time.”
“I’ll say it! You think I’m scared of you?!” Driven into a corner and humiliated in front of the crowd, Zhao Ergou bellowed at the top of his lungs. “Jiang Wantang played you like a fool! She scammed you! She threw you away ages ago—”
BANG!
Before he could finish his sentence, Lu Chenzhou’s fist—the size of a heavy mallet—cut through the air with furious power and smashed straight into his big mouth!
Zhao Ergou shrieked as blood spurted from his nose, his body flying back like a snapped kite before crashing hard onto the dirt. The watching crowd instantly erupted in chaos!
“Ah! Hold him back! Hold him back!”
“Lu Chenzhou! Don’t kill him!”
Dazed and covered in blood, Zhao Ergou scrambled to his feet to fight back, but how could he possibly be a match for Lu Chenzhou? Lu Chenzhou was like a wild beast that had completely lost control. He pinned Zhao Ergou down in the mud, mounted him, and rained down punches like a hailstorm!
“She didn’t run!”
BANG!
“She promised me!”
Another punch landed with a sickening, heavy thud that made everyone’s teeth ache!
His face a bloody mess, Zhao Ergou sobbed and screamed for mercy, completely terrified.
“You lunatic! You’re out of your mind! She stole your money and ditched you, and you’re still defending her?!”
Ditched you!
Those two words felt like a poisoned blade plunging straight into Lu Chenzhou’s deepest wound. The agonizing pain halted his breath, freezing every movement in an instant.
When he was a boy… that woman had left the exact same way.
When he was eight years old, the woman who called herself his mother had patted his head and coaxed him softly.
“Chenzhou, be a good boy. Mommy is going to visit your grandmother. Wait for me at the village entrance, and I’ll come back to get you in a few days.”
He had stood under the big tree at the edge of the village for three days and three nights without eating or drinking. On the first day, his heart was full of hope. On the second day, he cried in terror.
On the third day, a torrential downpour hit. Soaked to the bone, the only news he received was that the woman had boarded a train with another man!
Later, his grandmother wept until her tears ran dry, hugging him as she cursed his foolishness.
“Stop waiting! She remarried some rich city man to live the good life! She doesn’t want you anymore!”
Sometime after that, his grandmother fell ill and passed away too. On her deathbed, she gripped his hand tightly, crying that she couldn’t bear to leave him, but in the end, she still left him all alone in this cold, heartless world.
From that day on, Lu Chenzhou swore he would never believe anyone’s sweet lies again!
Until Jiang Wantang appeared.
That delicate city girl who couldn’t even lift a bucket of water would cling to his back with a bright smile, wrap her arms around his waist to act spoiled, and lean in to kiss his cheek, whispering softly against his ear.
“Lu Chenzhou, once I go back to the city and settle things at home, I’ll come back to marry you, okay?”
He knew all too well that city women had a hundred scheming thoughts in their heads. He knew how desperately she wanted to go back. Yet he had been foolish enough to let his guard down once more, to open his heart and choose to trust her!
On the night before she left, she had snuggled in his arms with such honest, tender eyes.
“Wait for me. I’ll be back soon.”
And the result? She cleaned out his savings, his ration coupons, and even took the heirloom jade pendant, leaving nothing behind!
Lu Chenzhou slowly let go of Zhao Ergou’s collar and stood up, looking entirely drained of strength.
Everyone thought he had finally calmed down. But in the next second, a terrifying, destructive fury flared in his eyes. He kicked the heavy wooden table beside him, smashing it into splinters!
“GET OUT!! ALL OF YOU, GET THE HELL OUT!!”
The onlookers gasped in horror and scattered out of the yard, terrified of getting caught in his wrath. Supported by a few villagers, Zhao Ergou spat blood as he yelled back furiously.
“Lu Chenzhou! You deserve to get played by women! You’re cursed to be unwanted for the rest of your life!”
Silence finally reclaimed the yard. Alone, Lu Chenzhou walked numbly into the pitch-black house.
This room used to be full of noise. Jiang Wantang was delicate and demanding—one moment she’d whine, “Lu Chenzhou, I’m hungry,” the next she’d pout, “Lu Chenzhou, wash my clothes,” or complain, “Lu Chenzhou, your hair is poking me.”
He used to find her troublesome, but now the house was empty. Not a single trace of her scent remained, so quiet it felt like a mausoleum.
Walking over to the chest, Lu Chenzhou pulled open a drawer and retrieved a rusty tin box.
Inside lay a red hair tie she had dropped, a pink button that had fallen off her shirt, and a few scraps of paper with her casual scribbles.
Items he had secretly collected and treasured like priceless possessions.
Lu Chenzhou’s eyes burned red as he stared at the little box, a surge of overwhelming resentment and agonizing heartache crashing over him!
He seized the tin box and strode toward the doorway, raising his arm to throw it far into the muddy pit outside!
Yet with his hand frozen mid-air, he couldn’t bring himself to let go. His knuckles turned stark white, veins bulging on the back of his hand.
After a long pause, a low, choked rasp escaped his chest—hollow and desperate.
“Liar.”
Curse spoken, he sank back down like a broken man, cradling the tin box against his chest before tucking it back into the deepest corner of the cabinet.
Night fully enveloped the earth, leaving the room unlit. Lu Chenzhou sat motionless on the edge of the cold brick bed like a stone statue.
He felt utterly ridiculous. What was he still waiting for?
Jiang Wantang was probably back in the bustling city by now, sitting comfortably on a train, using his money to eat fine meals and acting like a spoiled daughter in her parents’ arms.
She was educated and beautiful; she would surely marry some wealthy, influential city official in the future. Why would she ever return to a dirt-cheap, muddy mountain village like this?
Why would she ever want a rough, foul-smelling blacksmith like him?
Lu Chenzhou squeezed his eyes shut and slammed his fist hard against the wall, splitting his knuckles and leaving a smear of fresh blood.
“Jiang Wantang… You’d better hide in that city for the rest of your life and never come back. Because if I ever catch you—”
He gritted his teeth, a hint of dark, obsessive madness flashing in his eyes.
Tap, tap, tap…
Suddenly, faint footsteps echoed outside the yard. They were light and hurried, rustling against dry leaves as they approached the broken house step-by-step.
Lu Chenzhou’s heart leaped into his throat! He thought he must be hallucinating, or that he had finally lost his mind entirely.
Until—the footsteps stopped right outside his door.
A soft, breathless, intimately familiar woman’s voice carried through the thin wooden door panel.
“Lu… Lu Chenzhou? Are you home?”
Lu Chenzhou froze on the spot, as if struck by lightning!