Lin Ruochu ran at lightning speed. Upon hearing that she was going to save someone, the crowd stepped aside. They couldn’t go into the water to save the person themselves, but they wouldn’t block Lin Ruochu’s path either.
There was only one person who acted differently: the educated youth, Yang Lang.
Lin Ruochu had known this person in her past life. Back then, it was because Yang Lang rescued Lin Xu that the two had physical contact, and Yang Lang began openly pursuing Lin Xu.
Given the social norms of the time, if Yang Lang saved Lin Xu from the water, he could have been brazen enough to go straight to her family to propose marriage. However, Yang Lang didn’t do that; instead, he chose a gradual pursuit.
Through Yang Lang’s persistent courtship, Lin Xu gradually fell in love with him. She thought it was a match made in heaven, but he turned out to be nothing more than a scoundrel.
Not long after Yang Lang and Lin Xu got married, national policies opened up, allowing people to take the college entrance exam and return to the city. Later, Yang Lang passed the exam.
In those years, too many educated youths abandoned their wives (or husbands) and children after passing the college entrance exam. The village chief was initially against letting Yang Lang take the exam.
However, Yang Lang repeatedly promised that he would never abandon Lin Xu, and with Lin Xu constantly putting in a good word for him, the village chief relented, and Yang Lang went off to take the exam.
What happened afterward was simple: once Yang Lang went to the city for college, he never returned. Refusing to believe that Yang Lang would abandon her, Lin Xu went to the city to find him.
As a result, what she saw was that Yang Lang already had a new lover and was in the middle of arranging a marriage.
Back then, many people simply held a wedding banquet to get married, and most lacked the awareness to obtain an official marriage certificate—including Lin Xu.
Therefore, it was effortless for Yang Lang to cast Lin Xu aside. Because there was no legal proof, Yang Lang even accused Lin Xu of slandering him. Later, Lin Xu got into a traffic accident in the city, and by the time the village chief brought her back, Lin Xu had already lost her mind.
Therefore, seeing that scoundrel and human-trash Yang Lang trying to jump into the water to save Lin Xu again, Lin Ruochu didn’t hesitate for a second. She gave Yang Lang a kick, sent him flying out of the way, and jumped into the water herself to rescue Lin Xu.
Fortunately, Lin Ruochu had learned how to swim in her later years during her past life; otherwise, she wouldn’t have been able to rescue Lin Xu so effortlessly today.
Everything happened so fast. Before Yang Lang could even crawl up from the ground, Lin Ruochu had already dragged Lin Xu back to shore.
Lin Xu was unconscious at the time. After Lin Ruochu administered first aid and helped her cough up the water, Lin Xu finally regained consciousness.
“Ruochu, was it you who saved me?” Lin Xu wanted to cry. She had been just a hair’s breadth away from dying, and she was still so young.
She was in such a state of shock that she couldn’t even bring herself to question when Lin Ruochu had learned how to swim.
“Yeah, I saved you. How did you end up falling in?”
After the panic subsided, held tightly in Lin Ruochu’s arms, Lin Xu calmed down. Recalling how she had fallen in, she said firmly, “Someone pushed me down, but I didn’t see clearly who it was.”
Hearing the second half of that sentence, Yang Lang unconsciously let out a sigh of relief, though he secretly resented that such a golden opportunity had been snatched away by Lin Ruochu.
Because no one had witnessed how the incident happened, it ultimately went unresolved.
Lin Ruochu was the one who escorted Lin Xu back home. When they arrived at the village chief’s house, the chief’s wife, Li Chunhua, took one look at Lin Xu’s drenched state and hurriedly pulled her in.
“You reckless girl, where were you messing around? You’re soaked through to the bone,” the village chief’s wife scolded, though she bustled to get both Lin Xu and Lin Ruochu into a room.
“You two, go change your clothes first. I’ll go boil some ginger soup for you.”
After changing into a clean set of dry clothes, Lin Xu finally felt the last of her fear melt away, prompting her to ask Lin Ruochu, “It’s a good thing you saved me, otherwise I wouldn’t have made it. When did you learn how to swim?”
Lin Ruochu naturally brushed it off with a casual excuse, then said with a hint of solemnity, “You should be more careful from now on. If a man had been the one to save you today, you’d probably be preparing to get married right now.”
Lin Xu’s immediate reaction was, “No way, I’m not getting married.”
Lin Ruochu said earnestly, “When the time comes, it won’t be up to you. Did you see that educated youth Yang Lang today? If I hadn’t run over so fast, he would have been the one to pull you out and then casually show up to propose a marriage alliance.”
“I don’t know what’s wrong with that educated youth Yang. I had already rushed over and called out to stop everyone, but he still tried to jump into the river. Wasn’t that intentional?”
Lin Xu wasn’t close with Yang Lang at all. As the production team’s grain recorder, she had only ever exchanged nodding acquaintances and brief words with Yang Lang during work-point tallies.
She certainly wasn’t going to marry an educated youth! Those educated youths all looked scrawny and frail, not a single one of them capable of doing real farm work. If she married one, wouldn’t she just end up starving? The mere thought of going hungry sent a wave of lingering fear through Lin Xu.
She even patted her chest in relief. “Good thing it was you who saved me, or I’d be out digging wild herbs to survive. That’s too terrifying.”
Lin Xu wasn’t just overthinking; it was a real-life example. Many educated youths failed to earn enough work points to feed themselves, and when hunger struck, they had no choice but to go up into the mountains to dig for wild vegetables.
Lin Ruochu hadn’t expected Lin Xu to have such a clear-headed perspective.
In her past life, by the time Lin Xu married Yang Lang, Lin Ruochu had long since married Lu Yichen and lived away in Lu Family Village, meaning the two of them could only meet once in a blue moon.
Regardless of what happened in the past life, Lin Ruochu was determined to warn Lin Xu in this one. Of course, if Lin Xu still let her “love-brain” take over, there was nothing she could do.
Lin Ruochu said in a very serious tone, “You’re thinking along the exact right lines, especially regarding that educated youth Yang. He can’t carry anything on his shoulders or lift anything with his hands, and the work points he earns aren’t even enough to feed himself.”
“To marry a man is to have clothes to wear and food to eat. If you marry someone who can’t even keep his own stomach full, the wild herbs on our back hills won’t even be enough for you to dig up.”
“Besides, today that educated youth Yang clearly wanted to engineer some intimate physical contact with you. You have to be careful.”
Hearing Lin Ruochu put it that way, Lin Xu shivered. “No way, no way, I’m definitely not going to dig wild herbs. From now on, I’m staying far, far away from those educated youths.”
Lin Ruochu didn’t pursue the topic any further. Some things were best understood once stated clearly.
Instead, Lin Xu brought up another matter. “You wouldn’t believe it, Ruochu, but today my dad assigned Chai Lin to carry nightsoil, and she fell right into the pit! Hahahaha! If someone hadn’t seen her, she would have drowned in there today.”
Lin Ruochu hadn’t expected that by simply going to town for half a day, she would miss such a great show. She spat out a mock curse and said, “Serves her right.”
“Who’s to say otherwise? You used to be so good to her and even asked me to look out for her, but how did she repay you? With sheer ingratitude. Let’s see if she can still have it so easy in the production team from now on.”
“Thanks for venting my anger for me.” Lin Ruochu knew that Chai Lin being assigned such a filthy job was largely because Lin Xu was helping her get back at Chai Lin.
“What are you thanking me for? I’ve been displeased with Chai Lin for a long time anyway. She used to flirt and mess around with Lu Yichen behind your back; someone like that deserves to be put in her place.”