Liu Dong called out to stop Li Wenjing.
Wang Fen, standing nearby, let out a derisive laugh. “What’s the matter, Liu Dong? Trying to play the good guy, or do you think she’s pretty and want to chase after her? You should at least consider whether she’d even be interested in you!”
Liu Dong flushed as she shot back at him. “You… You’re completely unreasonable! If anything happens to Educated Youth Li, you’ll be responsible!”
Everyone simply watched Li Wenjing disappear from the Educated Youth Compound. No one tried to stop her again or went after her to see what was going on.
Wang Fen glared viciously at Li Wenjing’s retreating figure, thinking spitefully, “In weather this cold in the Northeast, she’ll freeze to death!”
After only a glance, she turned and went back inside.
Yao Lili furrowed her brow but said nothing.
Dong Xia was rather pleased at the prospect. She would be delighted if something happened to Li Wenjing; only then could she vent the anger she’d been holding inside.
Carrying her luggage, Li Wenjing left the Educated Youth Compound and headed in the direction they had come from.
She didn’t know where her birth parents lived, let alone what they looked like, but fortunately she knew their names.
She had been walking for about five minutes when she came across two children. The older one looked about seven or eight, and the younger one five or six.
Li Wenjing quickly approached them and asked, “Hello, little brother. Do you know which house Li Shuhua lives in?”
The child tugged at the companion beside him. “Bingzi, this person even knows your dad’s name! And she’s so pretty—she’s obviously from the city. Didn’t your sister say she’d been switched at birth? Could this be your real older sister?”
Everyone in Qingshan Brigade knew that Li Wenjing, the daughter the Li family had raised for sixteen years, wasn’t their own, and that she had now gone back to the city to find her birth parents. No one was unaware of it.
Everyone knew, from the eighty-year-old elders down to three-year-old children.
The seven- or eight-year-old had somewhat dark skin and wore an old padded jacket that was clearly too big for him. His cotton shoes didn’t fit, either, but his eyes were especially bright. He looked Li Wenjing up and down, then asked, “Did you come from the capital?”
“Yes.”
“Then come with me.”
This little fellow must be her biological younger brother.
She followed him along a winding route to a house. He pushed open the door and went inside.
“Mom, someone from the capital is here!”
Li Wenjing looked around the courtyard. There were five rooms, and everything was very clean. A well stood in the yard, and the houses were all made of packed earth. The family didn’t look especially poor.
A woman around forty, about five foot five, with rough, dark-reddish skin, hurried out of the house.
“Are you Jingjing?”
Li Wenjing nodded. “Yes, it’s me.”
This must be Li Wenjing’s birth mother, Xia Yulan.
Xia Yulan picked up Li Wenjing’s luggage with one hand and took her hand with the other, leading her inside.
The hand holding hers was rough, yet it gave Li Wenjing a deep sense of comfort.
She didn’t pull away. In her memories, Wang Jinju had never once held her hand so affectionately. Was this what the bond of blood felt like?
At that moment, Li Wenjing thought she could understand how Wang Jinju had felt back then.
The west room was simply furnished: a large kang, big enough for two or three people to sleep on, with a cabinet beside it for storage.
There were cabinets for clothes and shoes in the corner. The walls had been freshly covered with newspaper, and the bedsheet was pink with peonies while the quilt cover was blue with tiny flowers. It was obvious they were new.
The whole room looked neat and orderly. Clearly, someone had taken care to prepare it.
Xia Yulan noticed Li Wenjing looking around. “Jingjing, the Chen family even gave us this newspaper. We were short on time, so this is all we could manage for now. If you find you need anything else, we’ll get it for you later.”
Get more things…
In her previous life, Li Wenjing had never met her birth parents. According to Li Yuerong, Li Wenhua and Xia Yulan had been terribly biased in favor of their sons. Li Wenjing had never once had a full meal growing up. Starting at six, she had to wash everyone’s clothes and cook for the whole family. She had even had to beg on her knees for ages to be allowed to go to school, and in the end she could only attend because the village Party secretary intervened. In short, she had suffered terribly.
Of course, those stories had reached Li Wenjing too. That was why she had fought with all her might not to return here—and why things had ultimately ended so tragically for her.
Looking back now, she realized that everything in her previous life had gone so badly because she had been too foolish.
But seeing and experiencing things for herself now, she felt that her birth mother was actually quite nice—not at all as bad as Li Yuerong had claimed.
“There’s no need to get anything else. What you’ve prepared is very nice.”
And it really was nice.
If she hadn’t come here and had stayed at the Educated Youth Compound, she never would have received this kind of treatment.
This place was so much better than the Educated Youth Compound, and, most importantly, there wasn’t nearly as much trouble.
Hearing Li Wenjing say that, Xia Yulan’s anxious heart finally eased.
She had originally thought that her biological daughter, who had grown up in comfort, would look down on their home.
Xia Yulan hesitated for a moment, then spoke cautiously. “Jingjing, there’s something I need to tell you. Whatever you do, don’t get upset.”
Li Wenjing: ???
What could possibly make her upset? She decided to hear what her mother had to say.
“All right. Go ahead.”
“You should be prepared. The Chen family may come to our house to break off the engagement.”
Break off the engagement??
Whose engagement?
And who were the Chen family?
She didn’t think she knew them.
Li Wenjing was utterly confused.
Seeing her birth daughter’s bewildered expression, Xia Yulan gently rubbed her head with her rough hand.
Then, afraid Li Wenjing might dislike it, she quickly withdrew her hand and continued explaining.
Only then did she remember that her biological daughter had just come home and had no idea who the Chen family were.
“Yueyue was engaged to Chen Yibin, the eldest son of the Chen family in our village. They were supposed to get married on the fifteenth of this month, but now that Yueyue has left, I hear the Chen family wants to break off the engagement.”
What was that supposed to mean? Li Yuerong had a fiancé?
She didn’t remember hearing about this in her previous life!
“Let me be frank with you first, so you’re prepared. The Chen family’s eldest son is in the army and is an officer. The Chen family is one of the best-off families in our village, too. But, Jingjing, if you want to marry him and join the Chen family, I’ll swallow my pride and do whatever it takes to keep the engagement for you. I’ll make that Chen boy marry you!”
Having Li Yuerong’s fiancé marry her? No, thank you. If he could like a woman like Li Yuerong, what sort of decent family could he possibly come from?
Besides, why should she take what Li Yuerong didn’t want?
She wasn’t a scavenger.
Chen Yibin: How did I end up being garbage??
“Let’s just break it off. The person he wants to marry is Li Yuerong, not me, Li Wenjing!”