Ning Yuan thought she would sleep restlessly, but that night, she slept until she woke up naturally.
It wasn’t until the sunlight streamed through the leaky roof and fell on her eyes that she groggily turned over and opened them.
The next moment, she saw that the spot beside her on the bed was empty, with only a neatly folded thin blanket.
Rong Zhaonan, who had slept on the edge, was nowhere to be found.
Ning Yuan was instantly wide awake. She subconsciously sat up and checked herself over.
Hmm, everything was fine. No problems.
She rubbed her small, round face. Sigh, what am I thinking?
They had agreed. She believed Rong Zhaonan was a man of honor, and besides, Rong Dalao truly was that kind of person.
His background and family were first-rate. Moreover, in this era, being a hooligan was a capital offense.
However, by the time she later understood that some men who appeared very gentlemanly were actually “sanctimonious hypocrites” and “wolves in sheep’s clothing,” it was already too late.
Ning Yuan got out of bed but found that Rong Zhaonan wasn’t in the Cowshed either. He had disappeared somewhere early in the morning.
“Strange…” she muttered to herself as she began to tidy up herself and the room.
Ning Yuan was a person who loved cleanliness and order. In the past, she had taken on most of the chores at the Educated Youth Spot.
After tidying up, she took out the biscuits for breakfast.
Ning Yuan wasn’t sure if Rong Zhaonan had eaten breakfast. She ate a few pieces herself and left four or five on the table for him.
After two days of eating from it, there wasn’t much left of the mostly intact packet of Wan Nianqing Biscuits.
Ning Yuan didn’t feel it was a pity at all. Good things should be used on oneself and on people who were worth it, which was far better than feeding someone like Tang Zhenzhen.
When she had gathered her documents and was heading out, she saw Rong Zhaonan coming down a small path with a basket of grass on his back.
He was still wearing his black-framed glasses and loose, patched-up worker’s clothes, which obscured most of his handsome face.
When their eyes met, he nodded. “You’re up?”
Ning Yuan felt a little awkward. She cleared her throat. “Ahem, Doctor Rong… Um, Zhao… Zhaonan, you’re up quite early.”
Although she was so embarrassed her toes were curling, she had to get used to calling him by his name so intimately now.
The thought that in a few years, not just anyone would be able to call this big shot in front of her by his name gave her a floating sense of unreality.
Hearing her stammer his name, Rong Zhaonan asked faintly, “Have you had breakfast? Are you heading out?”
Ning Yuan smiled. “Yes, didn’t we agree yesterday? I’m going to the county town to get our certificate today. Hua Zi Ge will get it on your behalf. The village team has already prepared the Letter of Introduction and documents.”
Getting a marriage certificate was a casual affair in those days.
Rong Zhaonan adjusted the glasses on his nose and asked, as if just as casually, “When will you be back?”
Perhaps her rendezvous point with her contact isn’t in the village, but in the county town?
Ning Yuan shook her head. “I’m not sure. I might need to buy a few things to bring back.”
Rong Zhaonan raised an eyebrow. “With the ill-gotten gains you acquired yesterday?”
Ning Yuan huffed lightly. “That’s right, I’m going to use my ill-gotten gains from yesterday to buy things. We’re husband and wife. If I use ill-gotten gains, it’s the same as you using them!”
With that, she swung her braid and walked away.
Perhaps because she had been reborn, her mentality had become much younger, and she was quicker with her retorts, no longer willing to be as overthinking and cautious as she was in her previous life.
Watching Ning Yuan’s slender and delicate back, Rong Zhaonan fell silent, his eyes clear, cold, and dark.
Husband and wife… huh?
He really hadn’t expected to suddenly have a little spy as a wife.
It could be considered… “interesting” in this silent, boundless, and bleak life.
…
As agreed, Ning Yuan went directly to the Old Branch Secretary’s house and knocked on the door.
Someone answered from the courtyard.
A moment later, the Old Branch Secretary came out with a man of about thirty who had an honest face. “Hua Zi, you drive the tractor and take Ning Zhiqing to the county town to pick up pesticides. Be careful on the road.”
Hua Zi was the village’s tractor driver. The Old Branch Secretary was quite confident in his son’s ability to handle things.
Hua Zi nodded honestly. “Dad, don’t worry, I’ll get it done right.”
It was just picking up pesticides and, on the side, helping get a marriage certificate for Ning Zhiqing’s partner.
Ning Yuan smiled sweetly. “Hua Zi Ge, thank you for your trouble.”
Seeing Ning Yuan’s smiling, crescent-shaped eyes, Hua Zi felt that this girl was quite nice. Why did she have to marry Rong Zhaonan, that sent-down element who swept the Cowshed?
But he was an introverted person and didn’t like to gossip, so he just nodded. “It’s no trouble. I’ll go get the tractor.”
Hua Zi took Ning Yuan to the county town on the chugging tractor. The villagers who saw them were a little puzzled but didn’t ask much.
Ning Yuan sat on the tractor, a late autumn pastoral scene unfolding on both sides of the road.
It wasn’t cold in the south during early autumn. The mountains were still green and the waters clear, and a warm breeze carrying the scent of the fields rushed to meet her.
It was humid and gentle.
The wind seemed to blow away much of the suffocating dust from her previous life that had settled in her heart. She once again clearly realized—
This was not a dream. It was so good to be reborn!
Listening to the tractor chugging forward, she closed her eyes, let the wind blow on her face, and smiled faintly with a touch of emotion.
After more than an hour, they arrived at the county town. Hua Zi remembered his father’s instructions and first took Ning Yuan to the marriage registration office to get the certificate.
The woman at the counter took a sip from her enamel mug. Seeing that the documents were all in order, she glanced sideways at Ning Yuan and Hua Zi. “What are your names?”
This was the first time Ning Yuan had ever done something so deceptive. She subconsciously clutched her green cloth bag. “Ning Yuan.”
Hua Zi also said dryly, “Rong… Rong… Zhaonan.”
The woman at the counter looked at the identification documents and discovered that this rustic-looking “Rong Zhaonan” before her was actually a sent-down element from Jingcheng.
She immediately frowned in disgust and slammed her hand on the table. “You’re a sent-down element. Instead of properly reforming your thinking, how can you be dating an Educated Youth? How is this acceptable?”
Hua Zi started to sweat, flustered. “…”
I don’t know either!
Ning Yuan caught sight of a propaganda poster on the wall, and an idea struck her.
She suddenly put one hand on her hip and the other on her chest in a fist, declaring righteously—
“As an Educated Youth responding to the call to support the construction of our vast countryside, I must, of course, lead by example and earnestly motivate this backward, sent-down element to actively reform his thinking! This is adding a brick and a tile to the construction of our nation. Is there anything wrong with that?”
The woman at the counter: “…Well, you’re quite a good person then.”
Hua Zi: “…” Yeah, that sounds like she’s quite a good person.
Ning Yuan pressed both hands on the desk, leaned halfway across it, and stared straight at the woman, as if she would report her if she said a single wrong word—
“I am responding to the call, sacrificing myself for others, and personally reforming a backward element. Tell me, is this spirit of sacrifice and dedication wrong?!”
The woman at the counter was so unnerved by her stare that goosebumps broke out all over her skin.
Ah… can “sacrificing oneself for others” be used like this?