Mu Qinqin seemed to understand.
She smiled sweetly and casually leaned closer to the man as if she were just watching the commotion, her hand brushing against his arm by accident.
And then…
She discovered that not only was the man stiff, he was also burning hot.
But she pretended not to notice, leaning toward Tang Erya and saying in a light tone, “Comrade Tang, are you pretending to be unconscious? Comrade Si just accidentally touched you with his wooden stick, and you had such a big reaction?”
Just a little “accidentally touched,” “such a big reaction”?
Tang Erya’s face twisted in anger.
She didn’t even know what was going on.
If it had only been a light hit, it shouldn’t have hurt that much—but for some reason, it felt like the stick had smashed heavily into her shoulder.
She opened her mouth, then swallowed her grievance.
She knew even if she explained, no one would believe her.
The man in front of her was blind. He wasn’t doing it on purpose, and he was from the village—everyone would naturally side with him.
Tang Erya was fuming inside.
She had originally tried to pretend to faint to avoid working for Mu Qinqin, but halfway through, this blind man had appeared and ruined everything.
“I just happened to wake up,” she forced a smile, even though she was cursing Mu Qinqin in her heart. “How can you say that about me?”
She tried to put on her usual pitiful expression.
But Mu Qinqin didn’t indulge her at all.
“Oh,” she said, as if realizing something. “I thought you were pretending to faint so you wouldn’t help me work. After all, you already ate most of my grain. I figured you weren’t the type to just take food for nothing, so I’ll leave the field work to you then.”
Tang Erya’s face turned green and white.
She was definitely doing it on purpose—speaking so loudly!
At first, only the people in the educated youth group knew about it.
But now, villagers had gathered around to watch the excitement.
Even an aunt nearby asked in surprise, “Girl, you gave her your grain?”
The question was directed at Mu Qinqin.
Mu Qinqin smiled. “Yes, Auntie. She said she couldn’t get enough food, her work points were low, and she couldn’t exchange for much grain. She didn’t bring much money from home either. She said we were friends, so good things should be shared. So during meals, she took food directly from my grain bag.”
“Mu Qinqin!”
Tang Erya panicked.
In their dorm, only a few people knew about this.
Those who saw it didn’t care much, and only one girl, Qi Yue, would criticize her—but no one believed Qi Yue because of her background.
But Mu Qinqin was different.
Since coming down to the countryside, Mu Qinqin had worked diligently, greeted village elders politely, and was seen as a well-behaved educated youth.
On the other hand, many villagers had seen Tang Erya slacking off in the fields and earning very few work points.
Now Mu Qinqin looked so gentle and innocent, even sweetly calling the woman “Auntie.”
The aunt immediately slapped her thigh. “Oh my, girl, you’ve been tricked!”
She glared fiercely at Tang Erya.
Tang Erya glared back—but how could she out-stare her?
Aunt Liu was famously fierce in the village.
Instead, Tang Erya’s glare only made her look more guilty, and Aunt Liu grabbed Mu Qinqin’s hand, patting it gently.
“Girl, listen to auntie. That one on the ground is no good. Keep an eye on your grain bag—half a bag of grain, do you know how long that lasts? Has she been eating your grain since she arrived?”
Mu Qinqin nodded obediently.
“Heartless thing,” Aunt Liu scolded. “Everyone’s starving these days. No wonder you look so thin like a little monkey.”
Then she glared at Tang Erya again. “So that’s why you’re so fat—you’ve been stealing food from others in the educated youth group!”
Tang Erya looked utterly wronged.
She wasn’t even fat.
But compared to Mu Qinqin, she looked heavier, and her darker skin and round face made it worse.
She finally experienced what it meant to have no way to defend herself.
Si Chengchen, standing nearby, looked at the slender figure beside Aunt Liu and pressed his lips together, something strange flickering in his eyes.
So this was how she was treated in the educated youth group.
And the person bullying her… was this girl in front of him.
So—
He bent down and picked up the wooden stick from the ground.
Just as he stood up again,
his hand slipped.
The stick directly hit Tang Erya’s head.
Tang Erya: “……”
Mu Qinqin: Pfft!
Her shoulders trembled, and she almost burst out laughing, barely managing to suppress it by thinking of all the saddest things in her life.
When others saw her trembling shoulders and lowered eyes, they thought she was silently enduring grievance while forcing Tang Erya to do labor to repay food debts.
In this era, grain was life.
Tang Erya was basically taking lives!
The situation completely flipped.
Mu Qinqin went from a bullying educated youth to a pitiful girl whose grain was stolen and who could only weakly ask Tang Erya to work.
While Tang Erya became the villain who stole food and acted arrogantly.
Tang Erya was completely stunned.
She didn’t understand how just trying to slack off had turned into something so serious.
Mu Qinqin said she didn’t know either.
She had just met a kind aunt.
She blinked her eyes, holding back laughter, and said pitifully, “Thank you, Auntie, thank you everyone. I’m fine. I’ll keep better track of my grain in the future and work hard to earn work points to eat enough. I only asked Comrade Tang to help me this morning because I hadn’t eaten enough and was too weak—I almost fainted.”
She spoke slowly so everyone could hear clearly.
Mu Qinqin looked innocent.
As for what others thought, she couldn’t control that.
And as expected—
Aunt Liu shot Tang Erya another glare. “You wicked girl! You even stole her breakfast!”
Tang Erya was dragged up by the collar before she could react.
She quickly defended herself: “I didn’t! I didn’t eat it! She didn’t give it to me!”
Aunt Liu paused, then immediately understood. “So you tried to steal it but failed!”
Tang Erya: “……”
At this moment, Mu Qinqin calmly added fuel to the fire:
“Luckily the field was clean, no clods of soil, so Comrade Tang didn’t get injured when she fainted. Otherwise I’d really feel guilty.”
The crowd found it strange.
Fields usually had plenty of soil clods.
How come this patch didn’t?
Someone with sharp eyes noticed the pile of stones and soil clumps in the distance.
“They’re over there! Someone piled them up!”
Mu Qinqin turned into a pure, innocent white lotus and said, “Who piled them up? Good thing they had foresight, otherwise Comrade Tang would’ve been hurt.”
She turned and smiled at Tang Erya, whose face had turned the color of wilted vegetables:
“Right?”