While picking out fish bones, Rong Zhaonan said nonchalantly, “After the autumn harvest celebration ended last night, some Red Armbands brought over wine and buns. They said it was to share in the collective honor and watched me eat them.”
Ning Yuan froze.
Those Red Armbands were responsible for inspecting the ideological reform and study progress of people like him who had been sent down.
So, Rong Zhaonan hadn’t refused…
“What if the things they sent had rat poison in them? Would you have eaten them anyway?” Ning Yuan’s feelings were complicated.
A cold arc formed on Rong Zhaonan’s lips. “They wouldn’t dare.”
The dark look in his eyes behind his lenses made Ning Yuan involuntarily shiver. “…”
They wouldn’t dare? But hadn’t someone dared to send wine and buns laced with drugs meant to put livestock in heat…
She averted her gaze and didn’t ask any more questions, continuing to eat her grilled shrimp, grilled fish, and sweet potato congee.
For some reason, she instinctively felt that Rong Zhaonan would definitely not let go of the person who dared to plot against him.
Forget it. Don’t talk while eating fish, lest you choke on a bone!
Some things were not for an ordinary person like her to know.
…
After tonight’s meal, her stomach was about eighty or ninety percent full. Ning Yuan put down her lunchbox with great satisfaction.
Food was scarce now. Back at the Educated Youth Spot, Tang Zhenzhen always took more than her share, so the remaining female Educated Youth were lucky to be seventy percent full.
Seeing her turn to leave, Rong Zhaonan raised an eyebrow. “Hold on. Aren’t you going to clean up the bowls, chopsticks, and pot here?”
Ning Yuan looked at Rong Zhaonan and smiled. “I cook, you wash the dishes and scrub the pot. This is just a revolutionary division of labor. Comrade Rong Zhaonan, I’ll leave this to you.”
With that, she gave a wave and turned to go straight back to the small hut next to the Cowshed.
She did want to win over Rong Dalao, but not by becoming his personal nanny. She had never seen any successful person feel grateful to their domestic helper.
In her previous life, she had nearly lived as her husband’s second mother, taking care of the man’s every need. But what was the result?
What man wanted to sleep with his own mother or a waitress?
When the bride becomes the mother, isn’t it natural for the husband to lose sexual interest in his wife? He’d have no choice but to go out and sleep with prostitutes or a mistress.
In this life, she had to live differently, starting with Rong Dalao, who was currently a tiger stranded on a plain—
They weren’t a real couple, but they were in the same boat for now. Everyone had to contribute to building their “little home” in the Cowshed!
Rong Zhaonan watched her leave with a flick of her bottom, a sly smile in her eyes. He let out a derisive laugh.
Heh, she was a bit of a lazy little spy. Shouldn’t she be showing solicitous concern, taking the opportunity to get closer and extract information?
Despite this thought, Rong Zhaonan stood up and went to clean up the messy aftermath of their meal.
Ning Yuan, on the other hand, went to rummage through the usable junk they had picked up from the yard.
After washing the dishes, Rong Zhaonan also came over to help. The two of them dismantled and sorted through the broken tables, chairs, and door panels they had dragged back.
They reassembled them into several usable pieces.
Covered in sweat, Ning Yuan looked with satisfaction at the few pieces of “new” furniture placed in the room.
“Alright, at least we have two tables in our room now. We can separate them for eating, studying, and putting things on.”
Not only was there an extra desk for storage, but there were also two modified cabinets that could hold a lot of things. The bed had also been widened, lengthened, and reinforced.
Rong Zhaonan looked at his own wide “new bed,” his gaze somewhat inscrutable as he looked at her. “You’re insisting on sleeping with me…”
Ning Yuan’s face immediately flushed red, and she quickly raised her voice. “Don’t talk nonsense! Who’s insisting on sleeping with you? Isn’t it because we have no choice for now!”
She had originally wanted to make another bed, but she found there weren’t enough door panels to use as bed boards, so she could only widen and lengthen the original one.
She had lived a whole lifetime longer than him. How could she possibly be interested in a young man like him?
“I don’t care about sleeping in your bed either. In a few days, I’ll go find a way to get some wooden planks to make a new bed!” Ning Yuan muttered irritably.
His original bed, made of broken door panels, looked like it would fall apart with a single move.
Did he possess some kind of Little Dragon Girl skill of sleeping on a rope? How did he manage to sleep on that for so long? It made her waste a lot of materials reinforcing the bed.
Rong Zhaonan watched coldly as she tidied up the room. In a short while, she had made the room much neater and more comfortable.
She was also nearly collapsing from exhaustion. She picked up a bucket to go take a bath.
Late autumn in the southeastern countryside wasn’t too cold, and there was no shortage of water.
After dinner, Ning Yuan had boiled water. She took a bath and washed her hair in the outhouse.
The Cowshed didn’t have a toilet, so Rong Zhaonan had built a simple one for himself.
Only he used it, and he kept it cleaner than the communal toilet at the Educated Youth Spot, making it more like a simple washroom.
With her hair down, she sat by the window humming a song and drying her hair. The warm light of the candle in the main room cast a warm glow on everything around.
“Creaak!” The room door was pushed open.
A tall figure walked in, carrying a bucket. He was bare-chested, with a towel draped over his shoulder.
The candlelight seemed to coat his well-defined, fair-skinned body—with its broad shoulders and narrow waist—in a layer of liquid gold.
The man had also washed his hair. Ning Yuan watched as water droplets slid from the ends of his hair, down his collarbones and chest, and trickled all the way down his narrow waist and abs. She couldn’t help but stare, dazed.
Rong Zhaonan noticed her gaze, but this time, he didn’t scowl like he had last night.
He just glanced at her faintly and casually pushed his wet bangs, which were covering his eyes, back from his forehead, just as he had yesterday, revealing a face with features so exquisite they were sharp.
Seeing the full view of this face again, combined with that body that looked thin in clothes but was muscular without, delivered a huge visual impact to Ning Yuan.
Ning Yuan’s face instantly grew hot, and she stammered in a fluster, “You… why are you… not wearing a shirt…”
When this person wore clothes, they hung loosely on him, making him look malnourished.
How was it that once he took his shirt off, he looked as if he’d been eating and drinking well, his physique exuding explosive power?
The man let out a soft, derisive laugh. “Who wears clothes to bathe? You?”
Seeing him walk toward the bed with his sexy upper body exposed, Ning Yuan instantly grew a little tense.
She furrowed her delicate brows. “I mean, why didn’t you put on a shirt after you finished bathing?”
Rong Zhaonan sat down casually beside her.
“I’m used to sleeping without a shirt at night anyway.”
The ends of his hair and his sideburns were also damp, and his whole body seemed to be shrouded in a bewitching layer of moisture.
Forced back by his pale presence, Ning Yuan shrank to the side. “You’re being too careless about your influence! There’s a female comrade in the room now!”
He was clearly exposed to the wind and sun, worked in the fields, swept the Cowshed, shoveled manure, and made compost—he had to do all sorts of hard and tiring labor.
How could this person be so fair, not tanned at all?
But it seemed he had many old scars on his body… Ning Yuan’s face turned crimson, and she didn’t dare to look closely.
Rong Zhaonan raised an eyebrow, as if mocking the absurdity of her words. “You, a female comrade, are about to sleep in the same bed with a ‘bad element’ like me. What influence is there to be concerned about?”
Ning Yuan shot him a glare and simply stood up and walked toward the table. “We’re not a real couple. You sleep on the inside, I’ll sleep on the outside. You go to sleep first, I’m going to dry my hair!”
This person really didn’t speak pleasantly. No wonder he was being persecuted!
Rong Zhaonan casually dried his hair, watching her fleeing back with a deep gaze, his thoughts unknown.
By the time Ning Yuan had completely dried her hair outside and returned to the room, Rong Zhaonan was already on the bed with his back to her, sleeping quietly under a thin blanket.
He was wearing an old, thin white tank top, revealing his long, powerful arms and back.
Ning Yuan finally relaxed completely, muttering as she put away her books, “What was that about? He clearly doesn’t have a habit of sleeping shirtless.”
She rubbed her wrists, rinsed her mouth simply, and then got into bed as well.
The bed had been widened a lot. Ning Yuan lay down on the very edge, also with her back to Rong Zhaonan.
She pulled up her own blanket but could still feel the warm, oppressive presence of an unfamiliar male beside her. She couldn’t help but shrink her body a little more.
This was also why she had requested to sleep on the outer side—so she could get out of bed at any time.
Although she did trust Rong Zhaonan’s character and his cautious, calm personality enough to know he would never touch her.
Still, she was quite unused to it.
In her previous life, her young and conservative self would never have been able to do something so bold.
Countless thoughts flashed through Ning Yuan’s hazy mind.
She had been running around all day, dealing with an endless stream of various matters. Her nerves had been taut all day, and now fatigue washed over her like a tide.
She slowly drifted off to sleep, her breathing becoming even and light.
Behind her, the quiet, slender body turned over. The man opened his eyes, exceptionally clear and devoid of any sleepiness.
He sized up the graceful curves undulating beneath the blanket so close to him, and couldn’t help but narrow his eyes.
It seemed this little spy was very patient. She was planning to play the long game, slowly luring him in to extract information.
Rong Zhaonan placed his hands behind his head and lay flat, looking at the faint stars visible through the yet-unrepaired roof.
The clean scent unique to a girl’s hair and body, intertwined with the fresh fragrance of soap, lingered at the tip of his nose.
He closed his eyes without any expression.
Why does the little spy always make herself smell so nice? Sugar-coated bullets are useless against me.