As soon as Wu Laidi finished speaking, Li Hao was stunned.
He was confused.
He was speechless.
He had always known Wu Laidi wasn’t a good person, but he never imagined she could make up lies so effortlessly.
One of the older women standing behind Wu Laidi had poor eyesight. She reached over and felt the swollen spot on the back of Wu Laidi’s neck, squeezing and pressing it.
It actually felt rather soft.
Kind of fun to poke.
“Hiss—”
Wu Laidi immediately forgot about plotting revenge against Shen Hehua and hurriedly pulled away from the older woman’s wandering hands.
“Auntie, that hurts!”
Only then did the woman awkwardly withdraw her hand.
Feeling guilty because she had accidentally confirmed the injury, she took the initiative to speak.
“It really is swollen.”
At once, everyone turned to look at Li Hao.
Their expressions clearly said:
Educated Youth Li Hao, what do you have to say about that?
Li Hao: “…”
What do I have to say?
I want to hit someone.
She was unbelievably good at turning the tables.
He knew that regardless of what the villagers thought or what Wu Laidi claimed, the final decision rested with the team leader.
He quickly looked at Liu Changsheng.
“I didn’t! I wasn’t! She really asked me to help her herself! It’s true! And I didn’t hit her! It was obviously…”
His eyes timidly drifted toward Shen Hehua…
It had obviously been Shen Hehua who hit her.
He had seen it with his own eyes.
But after glancing at the Shen family from the corner of his eye…
He suddenly didn’t dare say it.
Shen Hehua was equally surprised.
Wu Laidi clearly knew Shen Hehua had struck her while she was pretending to be unconscious.
Yet she had managed to turn that into evidence against Li Hao.
Her mind worked incredibly fast.
But Shen Hehua wasn’t about to let her succeed.
They were already enemies.
What difference did a little more hatred make?
Like an obedient student, Shen Hehua raised her hand.
“Team Leader, I’d like to say something.”
At a time like this, calling him “Second Uncle” didn’t seem appropriate, so she immediately changed the way she addressed him.
The team leader glanced at her.
“Go ahead.”
Shen Hehua shifted awkwardly.
“Well… I was the one who hit Educated Youth Wu on the back of the neck.”
Before anyone could ask why, she immediately explained.
“People who are drowning usually struggle desperately.”
“I was afraid that if she stayed conscious, I wouldn’t be able to save her and might get dragged under too.”
“Since there was also an unknown man hiding in the grass on shore, I simply knocked her unconscious first.”
“Later, I slapped her face a few times just to check whether she’d wake up.”
Because her face had been soaked in the river—or perhaps because of her complexion—it was only slightly red, not swollen.
Only Shen Jiandang and Li Hao, who had witnessed everything, knew how hard she had actually hit her.
But neither of them wanted to expose her now.
Instead, after Shen Hehua finished speaking and everyone turned toward them, both Shen Jiandang and Li Hao nodded in agreement.
Li Hao spoke with an aggrieved expression.
“See? I didn’t hit her at all.”
“She really jumped into the river herself.”
“Before Comrade Shen Jiandang arrived, she even swam around in the water.”
Suddenly, Li Hao thought of something.
His eyes lit up.
“Team Leader!”
“She says I knocked her unconscious and pushed her into the river.”
“But look at my pants and my shoes.”
“They’re completely dry.”
“Our river has at least one and a half meters of shallow water along the edge.”
“If what she said were true, then when Comrade Shen Jiandang and Comrade Shen Hehua rescued her, she should have been lying in the shallows.”
“But in reality…”
“She was floating in the middle of the river.”
The more Li Hao spoke, the more confident he became.
The river’s current was extremely gentle.
Even children wouldn’t be swept into the middle.
The crowd looked.
Sure enough…
His shoes and pant legs were completely dry.
Then everyone turned toward Shen Hehua and Shen Jiandang.
The siblings nodded in perfect unison.
Shen Jiandang spoke.
“That’s right.”
“When I first saw Educated Youth Wu, she was already in the middle of the river.”
“Shen Hehua also swam all the way to the middle before bringing her back.”
Now everyone looked at Wu Laidi.
So, Wu Laidi… what do you have to say?
At this point, most people already believed Li Hao’s version.
The only reason they still wanted Wu Laidi to speak…
Was because they were enjoying the drama.
The more twists and turns, the better.
Wu Laidi was almost unable to keep pretending to be weak.
She wanted nothing more than to jump up and slap Li Hao twice.
He was a grown man.
Couldn’t he shoulder a little more responsibility?
Besides, he had accepted her grain.
By saying all this, he had made it even harder for her to marry into the Shen family.
She looked toward Shen Jiandang.
Only to discover…
Shen Jiandang was looking at Zhao Xiaomei.
Sensing someone watching him, Shen Jiandang withdrew his gaze and looked over.
Their eyes met.
The disgusting expression in Wu Laidi’s eyes made him shudder.
The warmth in his own eyes instantly disappeared, replaced with open disgust.
He immediately looked away.
He didn’t even want to look at her.
Wu Laidi was deeply hurt by that expression.
He knew about her scheme.
He despised her.
She immediately understood exactly what Shen Jiandang was feeling.
The realization only made her angrier.
How dare he look down on me?
He was just a country bumpkin.
Even if he had become a factory worker, he still carried the smell of the countryside.
He didn’t own a house in the city.
He didn’t even own a bicycle.
He still lived in the village.
And he looked down on her?
Unlike her previous life, Wu Laidi decided then and there to give up on Shen Jiandang.
She wasn’t stupid.
This time, Shen Jiandang hadn’t rescued her.
There had been no physical contact between them.
He had also discovered her scheme.
Unless she used even more extreme methods, there was no chance of marrying him.
And even then, now that he was on guard, success was unlikely.
Even if she somehow managed to marry into the Shen family…
Her future wouldn’t be pleasant.
Why had she gone through all this?
Wasn’t it simply to live a better life?
If so…
Why keep chasing Shen Jiandang?
Change targets.
Find someone else.
In her previous life, Wu Laidi had clung to Shen Jiandang because the situation had escalated beyond repair.
She had no way out.
Over time, she had genuinely fallen for him.
Eventually, her feelings became an obsession.
But now…
She didn’t have even the slightest feelings for Shen Jiandang.
He had simply been one of several promising candidates.
Nothing more.
Without any obsession, she could abandon him the moment it became inconvenient.
Since she had already decided to give up…
And since everyone clearly believed Li Hao’s explanation…
It would become much harder for her to target someone else in the future.
Her intentions had already been exposed.
There was no way she would let Li Hao throw all the blame onto her while walking away clean.
No.
She wouldn’t allow it.
If she was going down…
He was coming with her.
She decided to stop dragging things out.
She would simply admit everything.
Since she no longer intended to marry Shen Jiandang…
It didn’t matter anymore.
The longer she argued…
The worse things would become.
If she admitted it now, then after enough time passed and she behaved herself, everyone would gradually forget.
She immediately dropped her pitiful act.
Looking at Li Hao, she sneered.
“Tch.”
“You act like you’re completely innocent.”
“That’s right.”
“I did think Brother Jiandang would make an excellent revolutionary partner.”
“I know my own circumstances.”
“I also know the Shen family would never allow me to marry into their family.”
“So I decided to take a gamble and set up this whole scheme.”
“And yes…”
“I really can swim.”
“But what kind of good person are you, Li Hao?”
Li Hao immediately became unhappy.
“What’s wrong with me?”
“I wasn’t trying to force anyone into marrying me.”
Wu Laidi had already decided to smash the pot since it was already broken.
“You weren’t?”
“Li Hao…”
“Have you forgotten why you agreed to help me?”
“Was it really just for a little grain?”
“You wanted me to get together with Brother Jiandang so he’d give up on Zhao Xiaomei.”
“That way, you’d have a chance to go after Zhao Xiaomei and make her support you after you got married.”
Everyone: “…”
Is this really something we’re supposed to hear?
Every head turned in perfect unison toward Shen Jiandang…
Then toward Zhao Xiaomei.
Shen Jiandang’s face instantly turned bright red.
Zhao Xiaomei: “…”
Wait…
Brother Shen Jiandang likes me?
Really?
She stared blankly at Shen Jiandang.
Only to see him blushing furiously, his head lowered…
Secretly stealing glances at her from the corner of his eye.
What was there left not to understand?
Everyone covered their mouths.
Oh my goodness…
The Shen family’s third son really likes the Zhao family’s daughter!
Every pair of eyes sparkled with excitement.
Shen Hehua pressed her lips together, trying desperately not to laugh.
Thank you, Wu Laidi.
Thank you, Li Hao.
Thank you both for your outstanding performance.
Thanks to the two of them, her third brother’s feelings for Zhao Xiaomei—and Zhao Xiaomei’s feelings in return—had been unexpectedly revealed…
At the most unexpected time…
In the most unexpected place…
Before the most unexpected audience.
After everything that had happened today, not only would it fail to damage their relationship…
Judging by the situation…
It might even speed up the development of their romance.
Hahaha…