Mu Qinqin was thinking about Si Chengchen when she was suddenly interrupted. She turned her head and looked at the greed in Tang Erya’s eyes, a faint smile curling her lips.
This was exactly how she had tricked the original owner before.
When the cook asked her for grain to make breakfast, she would say she wasn’t used to eating breakfast.
But once the meal was made, she would sit next to the original owner at the table and act pitiful, saying she had never eaten breakfast at home, that she was constantly sick because of it, and that all the food at home was given to her younger brother.
The original owner would immediately believe her.
Once or twice would have been fine.
But almost every day—whenever there was a meal—Tang Erya would cling to her side, repeating the same sob story. The original owner, soft-hearted, would often give her the food.
Even when she was starving, she would still split half of it with her.
This made Tang Erya increasingly greedy. Later, she simply stopped pretending and directly asked for food.
Mu Qinqin hadn’t even spoken yet when Qi Yue exploded in anger. She slammed her chopsticks down and snapped,
“Tang Erya, are you sick? Who isn’t hungry in the morning? Grain is so precious these days, and you’re too stingy to eat your own but keep coming to mooch off Mu Qinqin. Do you even have shame?”
“I didn’t! I don’t!” Tang Erya flinched at the sudden outburst. She hadn’t noticed Qi Yue earlier. “How can you say that about me?”
Whenever she asked Mu Qinqin for food before, she had deliberately avoided Qi Yue.
When she first arrived in the countryside, she had tried to cling to Qi Yue too. After all, Qi Yue used to be a rich young lady with good things, and even a little spillover from her would be valuable.
But Qi Yue had immediately seen through her intentions and verbally torn her apart.
After realizing she couldn’t take advantage of Qi Yue, Tang Erya shifted her target to Mu Qinqin.
Qi Yue had a fiery personality and a sharp tongue, and in the original story, she had offended quite a few people because of it.
Sure enough—
People naturally sympathized with the “weaker” side.
A few other educated youth stepped in to smooth things over:
“Qi Tongzhi, you can’t say it like that. We’re all educated youth—we should help each other.”
“Why are you speaking so harshly to a girl?”
“Maybe it’s because she used to be a young lady and is used to bossing people around.”
Seeing people speak up for her, Tang Erya immediately looked even more wronged.
“I just saw that Qinqin wasn’t eating much and was holding her bowl, and I thought grain is precious and shouldn’t be wasted, so I wanted to help her. Qinqin, isn’t that right?” She deliberately turned to Mu Qinqin, expecting her to back her up as she always had before.
The former Mu Qinqin had indeed been soft-hearted.
But the current Mu Qinqin was—
Buddha-slaughtering iron-hearted Mu Qinqin.
“That’s an interesting way to put it.”
With a sharp smack, she struck Tang Erya’s hand with her chopsticks just as she reached toward her bowl. The force was heavy, and a crisp pa rang out.
Tang Erya immediately let out a scream and pulled her hand back. Two bright red marks had already appeared on the back of her hand.
“Qinqin, why did you hit me?” Tang Erya’s eyes turned red, looking deeply wronged as she bit her lip.
If this were some CEO romance novel, that kind of lip-biting might look delicate and pitiful.
But Tang Erya, who grew up in the village, was poorly dressed, had a face full of freckles and blemishes, and was already far from pretty. Now with tears and snot mixing together, she looked even more unkempt and unpleasant.
At breakfast time, many of the other educated youth showed clear disgust and moved their bowls farther away.
“You were already reaching into my bowl,” Mu Qinqin said with a smile. “If I didn’t stop you, wouldn’t that be dirtying my food? Didn’t you say we should cherish grain?”
Then she added lightly, “Since you care so much about not wasting food, why don’t you take out your grain coupons too? I saw you’ve been saving quite a stack. If you’re not using them, isn’t that also a waste? Why don’t you share them with everyone and help solve your ‘troubles’?”
Qi Yue, who had been about to defend Mu Qinqin as soft-hearted again, was stunned—and immediately felt relieved.
The old educated youths even joked:
“Tang Zhiqing, if you really can’t use your grain coupons, why not give us a few?”
“A few?” Even one would be life-threatening for Tang Erya.
Her face instantly changed.
“My things—why should I give them to you?” she snapped, dropping the act.
The joking educated youths were instantly embarrassed, their expressions turning unpleasant.
At that moment, Mu Qinqin added calmly,
“Then how are you so comfortable asking for my things? Is it because… you have no shame?”
“You!”
Tang Erya’s face turned green with anger.
She didn’t understand what had changed in Mu Qinqin.
Ever since yesterday, something had been off.
Last night when she tried to take Mu Qinqin’s grain bag, she found the cabinet locked. In the end, she had to painfully use her own grain to cook a small bowl of coarse rice.
“Qinqin, are you sick?” Tang Erya asked again, unwilling to give up her “easy target.”
“Don’t disgust me,” Mu Qinqin said flatly.
She then leaned closer, grabbed Tang Erya’s arm, and spoke in a soft voice as if they were close friends—
But her words were chilling:
“Next time you call me ‘Qinqin,’ it won’t be your hand that gets hit.”
“It’ll be both your arms broken.”
The gentle tone made Tang Erya shiver violently, her face instantly turning pale.
Seeing her frightened expression, Mu Qinqin sneered and turned away.
She then looked at another female educated youth nearby.
“Comrade Zhou, I didn’t eat enough this morning. I heard you bought biscuits at the supply store a few days ago. Could you share a few with me?”
The girl’s expression changed immediately.
“Why should I give them to you? I bought them with my own money!”
“Didn’t you just say,” Mu Qinqin smiled faintly, “that we’re all educated youth and should help each other?”
That sentence hit like a boomerang.
The girl immediately fell silent, quickly picked up her bowl, and left in embarrassment.
Mu Qinqin then turned to another person.
“Comrade Sun, a few days ago you seemed to have argued with villagers and called someone an ‘old useless man,’ right?”
The male educated youth’s expression changed.
“What nonsense are you talking about!”
“I’m just saying… for a young woman, those words were a bit harsh,” she said lightly.
After taking down two people, Mu Qinqin finally looked at the last one in the crowd:
“Comrade Qi works in the fields every day. Comrade Wu, on the other hand, has taken four or five days off this month already. Isn’t that kind of avoiding collective labor… a bit like capitalist behavior?”