What Wu Xiaoxia cared about most was Xie Fangzhu, so Shen Yingying was determined to use Xie Fangzhu to provoke her. It would be best if she could anger Wu Xiaoxia until her heart broke!
When Shen Yingying had first transmigrated into the novel, she had nearly had her legs broken by that lunatic, Xie Fangzhu.
In the end, it had all stemmed from Wu Xiaoxia’s impure motives. She had encouraged the original owner to get acquainted with the “Factory Director.” an outsider, which had led the original owner to impulsively elope in a moment of hot-headedness.
If the original owner had not eloped, perhaps she would never have transmigrated into this novel.
She had ended up in this dreadful place where there were no mobile phones, no WiFi, no air conditioning, and none of life’s little pleasures. On top of that, she had to shamelessly flatter Puppy Xie, who would go crazy from time to time.
Was her life easy?!
Considering how difficult things had been for her, merely making Wu Xiaoxia feel miserable and shed a few tears was already incredibly magnanimous!
While she was inwardly praising her own generosity, Xie Fangzhu had already pushed his bicycle to the doorway.
He kicked down the kickstand to prop up the bicycle, then turned his gaze toward her.
“Let’s go. Time to eat.”
After saying that, he walked straight toward the small room.
Shen Yingying collected her thoughts and craned her neck to peek inside. “You’re not going to help me?”
Xie Fangzhu came back out carrying a solid wooden folding table. As he emerged, he glanced at her again, his handsome brows knitting together.
“You really can’t walk?”
Shen Yingying: “…”
She had thought her act was quite convincing, yet this sly fox had seen through her from the very beginning.
Since she had already been exposed, Shen Yingying stopped pretending, stood up, and followed behind him.
“I just wanted to get your attention.”
Xie Fangzhu glanced back at her. Seeing that she was neither blushing nor flustered, and instead looked completely justified, he could not help shaking his head. He unfolded the table beneath the large tree beside the wooden cabin, then took the food out of the bicycle basket and placed it on the table.
He opened the small burlap sack containing the meal, took out one of the aluminum lunch boxes, and pushed it in front of Shen Yingying.
There were no plastic lunch boxes in those days. Whenever people packed food from the canteen, they used their own lunch boxes.
Shen Yingying opened the lunch box, and the aroma of the food immediately wafted toward her. On top were the string beans and eggplant she had asked Xie Fangzhu to order.
Normally, Shen Yingying was an extremely picky eater. She was never accustomed to food cooked in the canteen’s large communal pots.
But she had not eaten anything all day. After fleeing for her life and being tossed around in every possible way, she was now starving, her stomach practically sticking to her back. Everything looked delicious.
The soft eggplant, thoroughly soaked in savory sauce, tasted more delicious than any delicacy she had ever eaten.
Just as she was savoring it to her heart’s content, she suddenly heard a sentence from across the table.
“You’ve fallen out with her?”
Although he had not mentioned anyone by name, Shen Yingying immediately understood who “her” referred to.
She thought to herself that he was rather nosy and quite perceptive. She could not help setting down her chopsticks. “You want to know?”
Xie Fangzhu reached out and opened his lunch box, speaking in a calm voice. “It’s fine if you don’t want to say.”
His expression was just as indifferent as his tone, without the slightest ripple. He completely lacked the enthusiasm one would normally have when asking about gossip, as though he had no interest in it at all.
If it had been anyone else, Shen Yingying would not even have bothered responding to such an attitude.
But the man sitting opposite her was the lunatic who held control over both her legs and her freedom. That was different. She had to spoil him.
“I realized she seems to like you.” Shen Yingying said. “But you’re mine, you’re my man. How could I possibly let a ticking bomb stay by my side? So I had no choice but to choose my man over my friend.”
At those words, Xie Fangzhu’s movements paused. He raised his eyes to look at the person sitting across from him.
Seeing him look over, Shen Yingying’s eyes curved into crescents as she flashed him a bright, sweet smile. “You’re my man. Unless you’re the one who decides you don’t want me anymore, no one else will ever take you away.”
Although she was smiling, the seriousness in her eyes was impossible to ignore.
Xie Fangzhu’s heart unexpectedly skipped a violent beat. His expression, which had been as steady as a mountain, finally cracked, revealing bewilderment for the first time in his life.
He had never imagined Shen Yingying would say something so outrageously bold. For a moment, he found himself completely speechless. In the end, he could only clear his throat awkwardly.
“Let’s eat.”
His voice unexpectedly carried a trace of embarrassment.
Shen Yingying noticed every subtle change in his expression. Knowing her goal had already been achieved, she lowered her head in complete satisfaction and continued eating.
Meanwhile, Xie Fangzhu had still not recovered his composure. He could not help glancing at Shen Yingying again. After hesitating for a moment, he picked up the braised pork resting on top of his lunch box and placed it into her bowl.
The moment she saw the braised pork suddenly appear in her bowl, Shen Yingying abruptly remembered that the original owner had loved braised pork. She could not help freezing in the middle of eating.
Just that morning, Puppy Xie had wanted to break her legs. Yet now, he had not only bought her a meal, he had even taken the initiative to give her “her” favorite food.
Although it was only a trivial gesture, it was still progress. It was the result of all her desperate efforts!
Even though she personally did not like braised pork, it did not stop her from being so moved by the fruits of her own hard work that she nearly burst into tears.
It gave her tremendous confidence, prompting her to redouble her efforts and shower him with the most sincere compliments imaginable.
“Xie Fangzhu, you’re so good to me! At home, my parents always saved the meat for my older brothers. You’re the only one who always thinks of me. I’m really so touched! Meeting you must be the blessing I accumulated over eight lifetimes!”
A faint redness appeared around her eyes, and her dark eyes glistened with tears, as though she had truly been overwhelmed with emotion.
“I cared about you before too, but I went about it the wrong way. I treated you so fiercely and made you suffer so many grievances. The more I think about it now, the more I realize how foolish I was! From now on, I’ll definitely pay attention to how I do things. I’ll definitely treat you incredibly, incredibly well.”
As she said this, she blinked through her misty, tear-filled eyes, stood up, leaned across the table, tilted her head, and quickly kissed him on the cheek.
In an instant, Xie Fangzhu’s heart, which had only skipped a single beat before, now seemed to skip seven or eight beats in succession. Even the tips of his ears turned red.
When his heartbeat finally returned to normal, waves of tenderness and sweetness welled up inside him. His entire body felt light and floaty, completely beyond his control.
His head grew hot on impulse. He almost wanted to dump every single dish from his lunch box into Shen Yingying’s bowl. All he wanted was to see her happy smile.
But Shen Yingying was not about to give him that chance.
After sitting back down, she picked up one piece of braised pork from her bowl, placed it back into his, lowered her eyes, and looked thoroughly bashful, as though she were too embarrassed to meet his gaze.
“I stay home all day without doing anything, so I don’t need to eat that much meat. But you work so hard down in the mine every day. You should eat more. Otherwise, I’ll feel heartbroken.”
Looking at the piece of braised pork she had returned, and feeling as though the softness of her kiss still lingered upon his cheek, Xie Fangzhu only felt warmth filling his heart. A man who had never lacked for words suddenly found himself speechless.
All he could feel was an unprecedented sense of fulfillment surrounding his heart, as though he were lying upon a cloud, light and weightless. It left him utterly intoxicated.
That intoxicating feeling had remarkable staying power. It lasted until that evening, when Shen Yingying coquettishly told him that she had become accustomed to sleeping alone and was not yet used to sharing a bed with another person. She wanted a little more time to adjust.
Xie Fangzhu stared at her sweet smiling face. In a moment of impulsiveness, he agreed.
By the time he returned to the small room and came back to his senses, he was immediately filled with regret. It was not because they had not slept together. After all, he was not some beast driven by lust.
What he regretted was that after only a single day, she had already led him around by the nose. Was he even a man anymore?
No, tomorrow he absolutely had to pull himself together. He could not let her walk all over him!