Li Hao’s eyes widened in shock.
“What are you talking about?”
“I pushed her into the river?”
That was murder. He could be executed for it. There was no way he would admit to such a thing.
Li Hao struggled to get up and defend himself, but Shen Jiandang held him firmly to the ground.
The villagers who had rushed over also heard the exchange between Shen Hehua and Li Hao.
Looking at Shen Hehua, who was soaked from head to toe, then at the unconscious young woman lying by the riverbank, and recalling what they had seen from afar, everyone immediately began putting the pieces together.
Before long, they were exchanging theories and adding details to each other’s speculation.
From Wu Laidi accidentally falling into the river…
To Li Hao supposedly wanting to rescue her so he could gain himself a wife…
To him resenting Shen Jiandang for suddenly appearing…
To all kinds of imagined secrets between Wu Laidi and Li Hao…
The team leader’s face grew darker and darker as he listened. His head buzzed with anger.
Finally, he roared,
“Enough! Shut up!”
Every day they loved gossip more than work.
They never worked hard, but when it came to talking about other people’s business, they were experts.
He glared at the crowd in disappointment, paying special attention to the village’s biggest gossipers.
The crowd finally quieted down.
The team leader turned to several older women nearby.
“You ladies go check on the woman who was rescued. I’ll find out what really happened.”
With that, he strode toward the grassy area.
Without hesitation, the Shen family followed behind him.
Most of the other villagers who had come to watch also followed.
After all, the unconscious woman wasn’t going anywhere.
Li Hao, who was facing the approaching team leader and the long line of villagers behind him, felt his vision darken.
He absolutely could not be framed like this.
If the siblings kept talking, everyone would believe he had pushed Wu Laidi into the river.
Before anyone else could speak, he hurriedly cried out to the team leader.
“Team Leader! Team Leader! Please help me! I really didn’t push Wu Laidi into the river! I swear!”
Shen Hehua turned around and met her mother’s dark expression.
Before she could say a word—
Smack!
Her mother slapped her hard across the back.
Seeing her daughter soaked to the skin, Meng Chunxing was both furious and heartbroken.
She lowered her voice.
“Just wait until we get home. You’ll see how I deal with you.”
The girl had really gotten bold.
She actually dared to jump into the river to save someone.
Didn’t she know that even good swimmers could drown?
Feeling her mother’s familiar threat, Shen Hehua was filled with a strange mixture of sadness, happiness, grievance, and guilt.
She lowered her head, trying hard to suppress her emotions.
Meng Chunxing immediately sensed something was wrong.
Normally, after rescuing someone, her daughter would be puffing out her chest in pride and arguing back.
Why was she so quiet today?
Something about her mood felt different.
“What’s wrong? Did you get hurt somewhere?”
As she spoke, she immediately began checking Shen Hehua over.
By now, Shen Hehua had already calmed herself.
Fortunately, the system had helped suppress her emotions earlier.
She took a deep breath, pushed away her mother’s hands, looked up, and flashed her usual smug, mischievous grin.
“Mom, what are you talking about? I’m a hero for saving someone. How can you threaten a hero? Even if I don’t mind because you’re my mother, would the team leader agree?”
She turned toward the team leader, who was questioning Li Hao.
“Right, Second Uncle?”
Liu Changsheng, the team leader of Xiangyang Production Team, shot Shen Hehua a glare.
He completely agreed with her mother about teaching this little troublemaker a lesson.
The reckless girl had actually jumped into the river herself.
Didn’t she know to call for the adults in the village first?
What if something had happened to her?
“So what exactly happened?” Liu Changsheng asked. “Your third brother says Educated Youth Li Hao pushed Educated Youth Wu Laidi into the river. Li Hao says you’re framing him. Tell me everything from beginning to end. Don’t leave anything out.”
Shen Hehua pouted.
“What else could have happened? Third Brother promised to bring me something tasty today. I slept a lot this afternoon, so after I woke up, I happily came to meet him.”
“But from far away, I saw Educated Youth Li Hao hiding in the grass. I immediately felt something was off. At first I thought he was waiting to ambush my third brother, so I hurried over.”
“Then Third Brother suddenly stopped walking and headed toward the river. Since I had gotten closer, I finally noticed someone in the river calling for help.”
“And it was a woman.”
Shen Hehua pointed at Shen Jiandang and Li Hao.
“There was a man hiding on shore who refused to come out, while there was a woman struggling in the water. What would you have thought?”
“Besides, if my third brother jumped in, it could damage the woman’s reputation.”
“If I stayed on shore, I couldn’t possibly fight a grown man.”
“So I took the initiative to rescue her while my third brother stayed on shore in case something unexpected happened.”
“Everything happened so quickly that I didn’t explain anything before jumping in.”
“Only after I got back to shore did I tell my third brother about the person hiding in the grass. That’s why he subdued Li Hao.”
Liu Changsheng nodded before turning to Shen Jiandang.
“Is that what happened?”
Shen Jiandang nodded.
“More or less.”
“When I got here, I heard someone crying for help and was about to rescue them. I didn’t notice Educated Youth Li Hao at all.”
“My sister jumped into the water herself and wouldn’t let me go in.”
“At first I didn’t understand why.”
“It wasn’t until she brought the victim to the shallows and signaled that someone was hiding in the grass that I stepped in.”
Then he deliberately emphasized Shen Hehua’s suspicion.
“Second Uncle, I think my sister’s reasoning makes sense.”
“If Li Hao had no ill intentions, why was he hiding in the grass?”
“Even if there had been some reason at first, once my sister and I arrived, he should have come out to help.”
“His behavior is really…”
He left the sentence unfinished.
Shen Hehua glanced at her third brother.
Not bad.
She had learned something.
Her third brother knew exactly how to plant suspicion by leaving things unsaid.
As soon as he finished speaking, nearly everyone leaned toward believing Shen Hehua’s version.
From beginning to end, Shen Hehua had never portrayed Wu Laidi as the villain.
Nor had she revealed the scheme between Wu Laidi and Li Hao.
She intended to pin everything on Li Hao first, forcing him to drag Wu Laidi down with him by exposing their plan himself.
So Shen Hehua added more fuel to the fire.
“That’s right, Team Leader. If that’s really what happened, then this is attempted murder. We should report it to the Public Security Bureau.”
The villagers had never been particularly fond of the educated youths.
To them, villagers were villagers, and educated youths were educated youths.
Whenever an educated youth caused trouble, most people wanted them sent away.
One less person meant one less mouth to feed.
More importantly, one rotten apple could spoil the whole barrel.
Everyone in every production team understood that.
So whenever an educated youth had the chance to return to the city or leave, no production team ever tried to keep them.
When educated youths caused problems elsewhere, other teams only sympathized with the affected village.
No one blamed the villagers themselves.
Although the higher authorities would still criticize the team or reduce their chances of earning honors.
Among the educated youths remaining in Xiangyang Production Team, aside from the two elementary school teachers, almost none had good reputations.
The team leader had wanted to get rid of them for a long time.
His eyes shifted.
He glanced back at the villagers.
Having all grown up in the same village, a single look was enough.
Everyone understood immediately.
They all began criticizing Li Hao at once.
“Educated Youth Li Hao is really vicious. I always thought he was just lazy. Who would’ve guessed he’d actually dare to kill someone?”
“Exactly! As the saying goes, you can know a person’s face but never their heart.”
“We’d better all be more careful around him from now on. Especially those of us who’ve called him lazy before.”
“Shen Hehua, you and your brother should be careful too. You may have ruined his plans today.”
…
The more Li Hao listened, the darker his expression became.
“No! That’s not true! I really didn’t push Wu Laidi!”
“It was Wu Laidi who jumped into the river herself to trap Shen Jiandang!”
“She gave me grain and asked me to be her witness!”
“If you don’t believe me, search my belongings at the educated youth dormitory!”
“You all know how lazy I am.”
“You know how much grain I earned, how much I’ve eaten, and whether I’ve bought any.”
“You can calculate exactly how much I should have left.”
“Where would I have gotten so much extra grain?”
Wu Laidi had just regained consciousness.
The first thing she heard was Li Hao shouting those words.
She became so furious that her head tilted to one side—
And she fainted again.
Everyone: “…”
What a shocking turn of events!