[Warm, Simple, Hardworking Country Girl × Sickly, Cold, Depressed Runaway CEO]
[No Cheat Codes + Leisurely Farming + Healing Food + Slow Pace + Mutual Redemption]
[This story is a slow-paced, healing modern farming novel. If you like it, add it to your bookshelf~]
At 9:30 in the morning, at the Plum Blossom Breakfast Shop,
A man and a woman sat across from each other at the table by the door. The man was chattering on endlessly about something, while the girl kept her head down, eating her rice noodles.
On the surface, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but if you looked closely, you’d notice the hand gripping her chopsticks was white from the strain, and there was a hint of gritted teeth in the way she ate.
Li Suian shoved a big mouthful of rice noodles into her mouth, chewing with fury. This was the umpteenth time she’d considered hurling the bowl of chili-oil-slicked noodle soup at the man across from her.
“My mom said I’m twenty-six now, not getting any younger, and it’s time I had a kid. So you absolutely have to get pregnant this year. Lucky for us, it’s the Year of the Dragon—good zodiac sign for the baby.”
“My mom said women with big hips are good at bearing children, but you look way too skinny. She definitely wouldn’t approve, so we’ll skip the bride price at your place.”
“My mom said a woman needs to be capable. Besides being filial to her in-laws and taking care of her husband and kids, she should also have her own career. So after we get married, you should go find a job.”
“I work at a company right now, making three thousand a month. After we’re married, you can go work at a factory. I heard the pay there is good—six or seven thousand a month.”
“And if you get pregnant, no big deal. You can keep working at the factory and just take leave when it’s time to give birth. My mom said women shouldn’t be fussy about pregnancy. Back in her day, they all worked right up until the baby came…”
The last rice noodle snapped between her teeth. Li Suian had reached her limit. She slammed her chopsticks down on the table. She was usually an easygoing person, always greeting others with a smile, but right now she couldn’t help wanting to get physical—she really wanted to wring this momma’s boy’s neck!
The sudden bang startled the man across from her. Before he could even react, the girl’s mouth opened like a machine gun, firing off words in rapid succession.
“My mom said, my mom said—if your mom’s so great, why don’t you just marry her? Why bother coming out on blind dates at all!”
“Yeah, I’m skinny. Yeah, I’ve got a small butt. Yeah, I’m bad at bearing children. Well, your mom’s got a big butt and a round waist—she could pop out eight kids in one go. Why don’t you ask her to have them for you?”
“Oh, I get it now. Your mom could only produce a piece of garbage like you—a toad lusting after swan meat, someone who can’t see himself for what he’s worth, ugly and pimply, yet still dreaming every day that he’s some tall, rich, handsome catch!”
The girl, small and slender as she was, radiated a fury two stories tall, scaring the momma’s boy into sitting frozen in his chair, not daring to breathe.
Li Suian’s anger still hadn’t cooled when she saw the momma’s boy pucker his lips, his mouth trembling—and then he burst into tears with a wail.
“Waaah! Mom! This woman’s bullying me!”
Li Suian’s eyes nearly popped out of her head in disbelief. She thought she’d seen plenty of pieces of work in her time, but this one today truly shattered all her expectations.
If it weren’t for the matchmaker saying the guy was steady and hardworking, decent-looking, came from a good family, and was fairly tall—just shy of six feet—she wouldn’t have come at all.
But when she actually saw the guy, she realized what it meant when they said a matchmaker’s mouth could charm the dead back to life!
This man had a fat head and big ears, small eyes, a wide mouth, buck teeth, and was as round as a gas tank—and the matchmaker had called him “decent-looking”?
Sure, he was almost 1.8 meters tall—just short by about twenty centimeters!
She’d gotten up at the crack of dawn, fed the cows, fed the pigs, bustled around all morning, and even taken the time to doll herself up to come to town for this blind date. And this was what she got?
The more she thought about it, the more she felt she’d been shortchanged. So she decisively pulled out her phone and blocked the matchmaker.
The mama’s boy was still crying and calling for his mother—this woman was too fierce! He was going to go home and tattle to his mom, and once she married into his family, he’d have his mom lay down the law for her!
Li Suian was fed up with the noise. She slapped the table, sending the chopsticks bouncing onto the floor. Glaring at the mama’s boy with murder in her eyes, she snapped, “Cry one more time, and I’ll beat you so bad your own mother won’t recognize you!”
The mama’s boy shut his mouth immediately. The fury radiating off the woman before him could’ve set the sky on fire, and he had a feeling that when she said she’d hit him, she meant it.
He stood up shakily to leave, and Li Suian didn’t want to look at him a second longer either. She grabbed her canvas bag and headed for the door.
The shop owner, who’d been quietly watching the drama from by the stove, stopped them with a slightly embarrassed look. “Who’s going to pay?”
Li Suian only then remembered they hadn’t paid yet. She’d been so furious at that damn mama’s boy she’d completely lost her head.
That morning, the mama’s boy had invited her to this breakfast shop, and they’d each ordered a bowl of rice noodles.
He’d pulled out his phone and scanned the QR code, and Li Suian assumed he was paying, so she didn’t bother with fake protests. It was only seven or eight yuan a bowl anyway.
“WeChat payment received: seven yuan.”
The payment notification rang out in the shop. Li Suian looked at the mama’s boy, feeling her worldview get flipped upside down again. So he’d come to a blind date, not only treating his date to a seven-or-eight-yuan bowl of rice noodles, but not even paying for it?
The mama’s boy was a little scared of Li Suian, but he steeled himself and said, “My mom said we’re only on a blind date right now, so I can’t spend money on you. Besides, your braised beef rice noodles cost one yuan more than my minced pork one. My mom said a woman like you doesn’t know the first thing about being thrifty!”
Whoosh!
Li Suian’s little flame of anger shot up instantly, spreading like wildfire!
She walked back to the table, picked up her half-finished bowl of noodle soup, and hurled it straight at his clothes.
Watching the red chili oil splatter all over his gray-white jacket, her anger subsided considerably.
She pulled out her phone, scanned the QR code, paid the owner eight yuan, then walked out the door with her head held high and chest puffed out.
As she passed the mama’s boy, she shot him a look of contempt and said with a cold sneer, “I wish you and your mom a long and happy life together—may you two be locked together for eternity and never come out to ruin other people’s lives!”
The mama’s boy burst into tears again, stomping his little feet as he ran out of the shop, calling for his mom the whole way.
The shop owner watched the two go their separate ways, couldn’t help but spit in disgust, and complained to her husband, “Pah! Takes all kinds in this world. Good thing that girl had a temper, or she’d have been steamed to death. Even I, an outsider, am fuming just watching this!”
The boss quickly agreed. While the couple was grumbling, a man who had been quietly eating his breakfast in the farthest corner of the shop stood up, walked to the counter to pay—six yuan for a bowl of plain rice noodles in clear broth.
The man was very tall, probably around 1.85 meters, but extremely thin, as if he were nothing but a skeleton. Yet on this frame sat a strikingly handsome face.
His skin was pallid in a somewhat sickly way, yet smooth and fine. His eyes were cold and deep, like a still, frozen pool. His lashes were long and curled, his nose high and straight, with a small dark mole at the bridge that made him seem even more aloof. His thin lips were slightly pale, but their shape was beautiful.
The proprietress remembered this customer well—first, because he was handsome, and second, because he had come to their shop several times, always ordering a bowl of plain rice noodles in clear broth, with no seasonings at all. He didn’t even add salt.
She thought he was a bit odd—not just in what he ate, but in his demeanor too. He was cold and indifferent, saying nothing beyond placing his order. She also guessed he was from another province, because he spoke Mandarin.
In their little town tucked away in the mountains, everyone spoke in the local dialect; very few used Mandarin.
The man walked out of the shop, but the proprietress’s gaze lingered on him, which made the boss jealous: “Stop staring. No matter how handsome that young man is, he’s not yours. In this life, you’re stuck with this old geezer!”
She shot him a playful glare, scolded him with a laugh, and the two went back to tending the shop.