The next morning, Lin Miaoyin woke up feeling very uncomfortable. The bed was made of straw underneath, with cotton padding and old clothes spread on top. Sleeping on it had made her whole body ache, and her skin felt terribly itchy.
On top of that, the bed was very small, while Meng Yuanzheng was a big man. The two of them had to squeeze together, and every time one of them turned over, the bed creaked. It was really difficult to sleep well.
When she opened her eyes, she saw that it was still gloomy outside. Since it was raining today, they did not have to go to work. Otherwise, she would never have been able to sleep this late.
Meng Yuanzheng had already gotten up sometime earlier. Lin Miaoyin found an outer jacket and put it on, slipped on her cloth shoes, then took a comb and went outside under the roof.
There was no mirror in the house. The original Lin Miaoyin was not someone who knew how to dress herself up. Surprisingly, Meng Yuanzheng had brought a shaving kit from the city. It contained razor blades and a small mirror.
Since they did not have to work today, Lin Miaoyin was too lazy to braid her hair. She simply combed it smooth, tied it up with a hair tie, and called it done. She put down the comb and found her not-so-clean face towel.
The towel had already turned slightly black, and the fabric was very rough. She had also just noticed that the original Lin Miaoyin did not even have any basic skincare products.
No wonder Meng Yuanzheng thought she looked so plain and unrefined.
But in this era, most village girls looked like this. Only educated youths who came from the cities knew how to dress themselves a little better.
Things were scarce at the time. Even buying a bar of soap required a ration coupon, let alone other rare goods.
Fortunately, Meng Yuanzheng was from the city and was relatively clean. He even kept soap at home. Lin Miaoyin secretly took his soap and used it to wash her face towel.
She went into the kitchen and lifted the lid of the pot. To her surprise, there was half a pot of hot water underneath, with a bamboo steamer on top. Two cooked sweet potatoes were sitting inside.
What was this…?
She held the pot lid and frowned.
Could Meng Yuanzheng have left breakfast for her?
Where was he?
Yesterday, her father had said that Meng Yuanzheng could no longer return to school to work as a teacher. That meant he could only work in the fields. Since there was no work today, where had he gone?
Could he have gone to look for Zhang Hui?
Zhang Hui was currently being held at the police station. According to the original story, although she had been given a disciplinary record, her family had connections and had managed to get her out of jail.
After she was released, she still stayed at Niutouwan Brigade. However, she could no longer work as a teacher and was instead assigned to raise pigs.
The person who replaced her was one of the new group of educated youths who had just arrived.
That person was the female lead of the original story.
When Zhang Hui saw Meng Yuanzheng trying to please the female lead, and remembered her own situation, she could not help but make things difficult for the female lead in various ways.
But Zhang Hui’s ending was tragic.
She was raped by a local hooligan. Afraid of losing face, she kept it a secret. In the end, she became pregnant and had no choice but to marry that man.
Even after the educated youths were allowed to return to the cities, she still could not leave. She stayed there for the rest of her life.
Lin Miaoyin felt a little sorry for Zhang Hui’s fate.
After all, in the original story, Zhang Hui had not really done anything terrible. Even her ambiguous relationship with Meng Yuanzheng had been initiated by him.
Later, when she finally had the chance to return to the city, she chose to stay because she could not bear to leave her child.
In short, she was a supporting character whose fate was even more tragic than the original Lin Miaoyin’s.
But thinking about it this way, Meng Yuanzheng should actually be eager to distance himself from Zhang Hui. There was no way he would go looking for her.
Besides, Lin Miaoyin still could not figure out what had happened last night.
Meng Yuanzheng had said that he had forgotten everything about his past.
That had never been mentioned in the original story.
Could her transmigration into the novel have caused a butterfly effect?
She took the sweet potatoes out and put them in a bowl. Then she hung up the bamboo steamer, scooped up some hot water, and washed the face towel thoroughly.
After washing her face and brushing her teeth, she began eating the sweet potatoes.
These sweet potatoes were nothing like the sweet ones she knew from the future. They were white inside, slightly hard, not very sweet, and quite dry and difficult to swallow.
But in this era, even having enough food to survive was a problem.
If she were not the daughter of the production brigade captain, the two lazy people—her original self and Meng Yuanzheng—probably would not even have sweet potatoes to eat.
Halfway through her breakfast, she heard some noise outside the courtyard.
She looked up and saw Meng Yuanzheng coming in. He was carrying a bamboo ladder on his shoulder and holding several things in his hands.
His appearance today was quite different.
He usually dressed in a flashy way, wearing a shirt with leather shoes and combing his hair into a slicked-back style.
Today, however, he was wearing old clothes and straw sandals, looking just like an ordinary village man.
Lin Miaoyin was stunned.
She watched him put the bamboo ladder against the wall. Then he squatted down and stirred something inside a bucket.
After that, he pulled out some dry rice straw and said to her,
“Miaoyin, help me hold the ladder.”
Confused, Lin Miaoyin walked over. She held the ladder firmly with her hands and pressed her foot against the bottom so it would not slide.
“Are you going to repair the roof?” she asked.
“It’s going to keep raining these next few days. If we don’t fix it, the house will become very damp.”
As he spoke, he took off his outer jacket and placed it on a stool.
His arms were not muscular, but they were surprisingly fair and smooth. He climbed up onto the roof.
Lin Miaoyin could not help staring at his fair skin.
No wonder he’s from the city, she thought. His skin is much smoother than the rough skin of someone like the original owner, who had worked in the fields since childhood.
“Pass me the straw and the bucket, please,” Meng Yuanzheng said from the roof.
She quickly handed him the straw, then looked at the small bucket. It contained mud and some tools for plastering the walls.
As she passed them to him, she asked, “Where did you get the ladder and all this stuff?”
“I borrowed them from the Party Secretary.”
Meng Yuanzheng took the things from her and carefully laid the straw over the places where the roof was leaking. He then spread the mud over it, covering the gaps. He also patched up the other areas that looked like they might leak.
Lin Miaoyin stood below and watched him work.
She was surprised.
This man actually looked quite capable when he worked.
“I thought you couldn’t do anything before. When you first came to the brigade, one of the educated youths who shared a room with you said you even cried at night. How come you know how to repair a house now?”
She laughed at him without holding back.
Back then, one of the educated youths who shared a room with Meng Yuanzheng had been a big gossip.
He had spread the story about how Meng Yuanzheng had fallen while carrying manure and then cried in the middle of the night.
Meng Yuanzheng had even gotten into a fight with him because of it.
Of course, Meng Yuanzheng was a weak-looking scholar. How could he beat a male educated youth who had already spent several years working in the countryside?
He had been beaten until his face was badly bruised, and afterward, he even had to wear a hat whenever he went outside.
Meng Yuanzheng’s expression did not change at all. It was almost as if he had really forgotten those things.
“This isn’t difficult,” he said calmly.
He handed the bucket to Lin Miaoyin, climbed down the ladder, then carried the ladder and bucket