“To hell with your father! Did you forget that I’m standing right here too?!”
A middle-aged woman in the crowd muttered angrily under her breath and grabbed the ear of the man who had just spoken.
“Ow!” The man only realized his ear hurt before remembering that he had come over with his Wife to watch the commotion. His heart instantly turned ice cold, and he hurriedly begged in a low voice: “Wife, spare me! I was wrong!”
The woman had no intention of letting him off so easily. Mercilessly tugging his ear, she dragged him down the hillside while scolding him.
“When it’s my turn to deal with you later, you’d better learn from Shen Yingying and see whether you can get me to spare you the way Xiao Xie spared Shen Yingying!”
Dragged along until he stumbled and rolled down the slope, the man cried out: “Wife! I was wrong! I’ll never talk nonsense again!”
This little incident between the two livened up the crowd for a short while. Once the excitement faded, however, everyone once again sighed in disappointment over Xie Fangzhu’s inability to stand up for himself.
Xiao Xie had always been extremely clever at the mine, and he handled everything decisively without hesitation. How had such a fine young man become so utterly helpless whenever Shen Yingying was involved?
Everyone understood that when a husband and Wife argued, if they reconciled before even getting out of bed, there was no way the quarrel could continue.
Given the situation between Xie Fangzhu and Shen Yingying today, let alone Xie Fangzhu laying another hand on her, they probably could not even bring themselves to argue anymore.
Moreover, things had already reached this point, and everyone felt too embarrassed to keep listening. One after another, they gradually dispersed.
In the end, only Liu Guizhen remained, the one who had suffered setbacks at the hands of both Shen Yingying and Xie Fangzhu.
She had failed to beat Shen Yingying today, and on top of that, Xie Fangzhu had publicly rebuked her, making her lose face in front of everyone. She was seething with resentment.
Originally, if Xie Fangzhu had given Shen Yingying a thorough beating, she would have felt somewhat better.
Instead, she had never expected Xie Fangzhu to be no match for that woman, Shen Yingying. A few simple words from Shen Yingying had completely defeated him.
The thought made her so furious that her liver seemed to ache. She wished she could rush inside and slap Shen Yingying across the face a couple of times.
But that was obviously impossible. Leaving aside the fact that the door had been bolted from the inside,
even if it had not been locked, just thinking about the expression Xie Fangzhu had worn moments ago frightened her. How could she possibly dare to charge inside?
Still, Liu Guizhen refused to give up. The nonsense Shen Yingying had spouted might fool an idiot like Xiao Xie, but she certainly did not believe a word of it.
How could someone like Shen Yingying possibly be innocent?
Sooner or later, Liu Guizhen would catch hold of her weakness and let everyone see exactly what a shameless woman Shen Yingying truly was!
…
Some people were exceptionally gifted at certain things, and Xie Fangzhu was one of them.
Although he had been written in the novel as a lunatic who had absolutely no desire for women, after personally experiencing things with him today, Shen Yingying felt that her horizons had been completely broadened.
He was simply incredible!
After one round, then another, and another, her waist ached, her back hurt, and her entire body felt as though it had fallen apart. Only after repeatedly begging for mercy had she finally escaped from his grasp before drifting into a dazed sleep.
When she woke again, she had no idea what time it was.
The moment she opened her eyes, she saw someone propping himself up on one arm while staring at her.
He gazed at her without blinking. His brows were slightly furrowed, his eyes filled with scrutiny, along with a chilling darkness.
The look startled Shen Yingying. Thinking he was about to go mad again, her mind, still groggy from sleep, was forced to race into action as she prepared to react.
Yet she suddenly saw the darkness in his eyes disappear. With his other hand, he casually pulled the thin blanket covering her a little higher before speaking softly.
“You’re awake?”
The man before her had a handsome face and bright eyes, as though the dark expression she had just seen had been nothing more than an illusion.
For a moment, she genuinely wondered whether she had imagined it.
However, she quickly regained her composure.
In the novel, Xie Fangzhu had been the best actor of them all, a ruthless and merciless old fox who excelled at schemes and manipulation.
That darkness had definitely not been her imagination. What was he plotting this time?
Although she was terrified inside, she still wore the drowsy expression of someone who had just awakened.
She nodded, and two faint blushes floated onto her fair face.
Then, looking shy, she snuggled closer into his arms and wrapped her arms around his lean waist.
Because of her movement, most of the thin blanket covering her slipped away, exposing a large area of skin.
Xie Fangzhu’s breathing caught. The expressionless look on his face instantly crumbled.
He hurriedly looked away and, using only the corner of his eye, pulled the blanket back over her, leaving only her head exposed.
Shen Yingying noticed his little movements and then realized that he had already gotten dressed, while she herself was only covered by the thin blanket. She could clearly feel that beneath it, she was completely naked.
Most likely, after she had fallen asleep, Xie Fangzhu had been too embarrassed to face her unclothed body, and even more embarrassed to dress her himself, so he had simply covered her with the blanket.
Thinking of this, she raised her eyes and looked at Xie Fangzhu.
Sure enough, his handsome face was noticeably flushed.
Shen Yingying was once again astonished. She had never expected Xie Fangzhu to be so innocent when it came to matters like this.
Still, this version of him was much more pleasing to the eye than the one whose gaze had been filled with darkness.
Her courage could not help growing a little, and she suddenly felt like teasing him.
Still hugging his waist, she slowly slid upward. Her two fair, lotus-like arms emerged from beneath the blanket and hooked around his neck as she spoke in a sweet, gentle voice: “My whole body hurts right now. You were far too rough. You don’t know how to be gentle with people at all…”
Her words were utterly blunt, yet there was not the slightest trace of anger in her tone. Instead, it sounded more like she was acting coquettishly.
Feeling the coolness of her bare arms, Xie Fangzhu reacted as though facing a formidable enemy. Flustered, he hurriedly pulled her arms down and tucked them back beneath the blanket.
His face burned hot as he muttered in a muffled voice: “I’ll be more careful next time… Hurry up and get dressed.”
Shen Yingying could not help laughing. Her eyes curved into crescents as she lifted her face, her sparkling eyes rippling like a pool of clear spring water.
“Alright.” She nodded and, clutching the blanket tightly around herself, sat up on the bed.
Seeing this, Xie Fangzhu quickly sat upright as well and immediately turned around, sitting with his back toward her without looking.
“Where are my clothes?”
“On your left.”
She looked to the side and saw that, against the wall, the clothes that had originally been scattered about had been neatly folded.
There was no need to guess who had folded them. It had obviously been Xie Fangzhu. She simply wondered what kind of state of mind he had been in while doing so.
She picked up the cotton cloth lying on top. Bras were not yet common in this era. Women generally wore either a cotton undershirt or a chest-binding cloth.
The original owner had used the latter, wrapping the binding cloth tightly around herself to conceal the curves of her body.
As someone from modern times, Shen Yingying had never worn such a thing before. She fumbled with it over and over before finally managing to put it on.
Immediately, her originally impressive curves became noticeably less pronounced. Moreover, the binding cloth was extremely tight, making it very uncomfortable.
After putting on her shirt and then her trousers, she was fastening the buttons when her eyes suddenly caught the striking patch of red on the checkered bedsheet.
Shen Yingying could not help letting out a sigh of relief. It seemed the original owner’s memories had been correct. Her body had indeed remained untouched.
Even so, the thought still left Shen Yingying unable to hide her astonishment.
Judging from the author’s descriptions in the novel, Shen Yingying had been portrayed as a promiscuous woman. Even before her former fiancé had broken off their engagement, she had often sneaked into the woods with him.
After marrying Xie Fangzhu, she had continued looking for someone better while keeping him as a fallback, secretly seeking opportunities to marry into a higher status behind his back.
For a woman like that, no ordinary person would have believed she was still chaste.
Yet after inheriting the original owner’s memories, Shen Yingying discovered that the truth was not entirely as it had seemed.