Xia Yuhuan stepped forward to open the door.
As soon as the door opened, a sharp slap came flying toward her face.
Xia Yuhuan reacted swiftly and dodged the incoming hand.
Although she was a doctor primarily engaged in medical research, she placed great importance on exercise to maintain a healthy body that wouldn’t hinder her research progress.
While she hadn’t specifically trained in self-defense techniques and couldn’t claim any martial prowess, her reflexes were quick. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been able to successfully evade her pursuers yesterday.
After all, she adhered to the principle of running when she couldn’t win a fight, and her running speed was top-notch.
“Xia Jianyong, what’s wrong with you?” Xia Yuhuan scolded, her expression displeased.
Xia Jianyong glared at Xia Yuhuan furiously: “What did you do? Why did the Chi family come to say they’re canceling the wedding?”
Only then did Xia Yuhuan understand the reason for Xia Jianyong’s outburst.
So it was because Zhang Xianya had come to announce the cancellation of the wedding.
No wonder Xia Jianyong was reacting this way.
Xia Yuhuan said: “Chi Yanzhou is still unconscious. There’s no need to hold a wedding at all. Even if we did, it would just become a laughingstock.”
“You don’t know anything!” Xia Jianyong roared: “Go tell the Chi family right now that the wedding will proceed as scheduled and won’t be canceled.”
He was counting on using the wedding to network with the Chi family’s connections and pave the way for the Xia family.
Now, with Xia Yuhuan’s interference, his entire deployment and plans had been completely disrupted.
Seeing how Xia Jianyong looked ready to devour her, Xia Yuhuan laughed inwardly: this was exactly the effect she wanted.
“I’m not going. Go yourself if you want to.” As she spoke, Xia Yuhuan closed the door and headed downstairs.
“Xia Yuhuan, don’t make me hit you! I’m telling you, you’re going today whether you want to or not!” Xia Jianyong bellowed.
“Whether we hold the wedding or not isn’t up to me. Do you think I’m some kind of entity that can arbitrarily influence the Chi family’s decisions?” Xia Yuhuan retorted irritably.
“The fact that the Chi family agreed so readily to cancel the wedding shows they didn’t really want it in the first place. Was canceling the wedding my achievement? That was their own decision! I was just a catalyst.”
Hearing this, the anger on Xia Jianyong’s face faltered, and his eyes showed uncertainty.
Indeed, if the Chi family had truly wanted this wedding, why would they cancel it because of a few words from Xia Yuhuan?
The current situation could only mean that the Chi family themselves hadn’t wanted the wedding.
Realizing this, Xia Jianyong’s eyebrows knitted tightly together.
Seeing Xia Jianyong following her train of thought, Xia Yuhuan was secretly delighted.
It wasn’t that the Chi family was unwilling! Zhang Xianya felt terribly sorry that Chi Yanzhou was unconscious and couldn’t personally marry her, and wanted to compensate her with everything good. The one who truly didn’t want the wedding was her!
It was only because she made this request and repeatedly pleaded that Zhang Xianya reluctantly agreed.
Xia Yuhuan was destined to divorce Chi Yanzhou eventually. She didn’t want to start with a huge commotion that would make it difficult to end properly.
“There’s nothing I can do about the wedding matter. Let it be. As long as I marry Chi Yanzhou, the Xia and Chi families will be in-laws. You’ll still get what you want, so why fuss about it?”
Though resentful, Xia Jianyong had no choice but to swallow this mute loss.
After all, it was he who relied on the Chi family, not the Chi family who had any need of him. Their respective statuses determined the primary and secondary relationship between them.
After dinner, Xia Yuhuan wandered around the Xia family villa on her own.
Xia Zhuyu thought she was up to something and followed her every step of the way.
Xia Yuhuan didn’t mind being followed and continued wandering aimlessly.
After making a full round, Xia Yuhuan had digested her meal sufficiently and turned back to her room.
Xia Zhuyu had followed her all evening without discovering anything. Being led around in circles like a dog had left her utterly exasperated.
In the dead of night, Xia Yuhuan quietly slipped out of her room and tiptoed downstairs to the storage room to fetch a hoe and sickle.
She had scouted their location after dinner.
To cultivate the wasteland in her dimension for planting, she needed tools—she couldn’t possibly dig with her bare hands.
As for the tools, she would return them after use.
Xia Yuhuan spent most of the night digging in her dimension.
The work left her back aching and muscles sore.
But after a few sips of the Spiritual Spring Water, her fatigue vanished completely, and she felt revitalized.
Thus, Xia Yuhuan unlocked the second function of the Spiritual Spring Water: eliminating physical exhaustion.
In the middle of the night, she stealthily returned the tools and went back to her room to sleep.
Before dozing off, she vaguely thought that she ought to buy her own tools like hoes and sickles to keep in her dimension. That would make them more convenient to use and spare her this sneaking around.
Moreover, besides farming, these tools could also serve for self-defense.
Xia Yuhuan acted on her thoughts. The next day after breakfast, she went directly to the Supply and Marketing Cooperative.
Although she didn’t know many people in the capital, to avoid being spotted by Xia Zhuyu, she disguised herself thoroughly, covering up tightly before going to buy the farming tools.
While purchasing the items, the salesclerk kept staring at her because of her heavy disguise, worried she might be some dangerous element.
After buying the tools, Xia Yuhuan found a secluded, dark corner in an alley, stored the tools in her dimension, removed her disguise, and then left the alley, returning to the Supply and Marketing Cooperative.
She had been too nervous earlier to properly observe what the Supply and Marketing Cooperative of this era looked like or what it sold.
Now was the perfect time to take a good look around.
Xia Yuhuan didn’t have anything specific to buy, so she browsed casually, glancing here and there, and soon covered the entire cooperative.
The Supply and Marketing Cooperative was essentially a general store, selling almost everything. However, in this era of planned economy, all goods were rationed, productivity was backward, and overall, the variety was limited, with few high-quality items.
Everything available now would exist in the future, and even better.
What wasn’t available now would also exist in the future.
So, after wandering around, Xia Yuhuan lost interest.
Just as she was about to leave, she heard loud, chaotic sounds of an argument.
Xia Yuhuan couldn’t help but glance over and saw a salesclerk at one counter scowling and harshly scolding an elderly person standing before them.
The elderly person was so enraged that their face turned ashen, clutching their chest as if struggling to breathe.
“This is bad, something’s going to happen.” Seeing the elderly person’s complexion, Xia Yuhuan knew something was wrong and hurried toward the scene.
The saleswoman shouted angrily, “Don’t think pretending to be out of breath will make me let you off! I won’t be fooled by you, I…”
As she was speaking, the elderly woman suddenly collapsed limply toward the ground.
The saleswoman froze, eyes wide open, even forgetting to reach out and catch the elderly woman.
Xia Yuhuan arrived just in time at that moment, stretching out her arms to catch the elderly woman firmly.
“Ma’am, how are you? Can you hear me?” Xia Yuhuan called out loudly.
However, the elderly woman had already closed her eyes tightly, clearly having fallen into unconsciousness.
Seeing this, the saleswoman grew anxious and hurriedly tried to absolve herself of responsibility: “She fainted on her own! It has nothing to do with me! I didn’t cause this!”
The commotion was too loud, drawing other customers from the Supply and Marketing Cooperative to gather around.