Chen Jingbai knew that He He hadn’t realized what the real problem was. He stopped paying attention to how she felt, returned to his original spot, picked up the sickle from the ground, and resumed cutting rice.
He He stared at Chen Jingbai’s back, pouting unhappily.
What exactly was wrong with him?
He He raised her head in despair and stared at the fluffy white clouds in the sky. She thought about it, then thought some more, but still couldn’t understand what Chen Jingbai was angry about.
How had she never known before that Chen Jingbai loved sulking so much?
This was also the first time she’d discovered that she had such a keen ability to read people’s expressions. She could immediately tell from Chen Jingbai’s cold face that he was unhappy.
Chen Jingbai was so difficult to please. She didn’t want to be the female lead anymore.
It wasn’t as though she absolutely had to become the female lead. She just felt that all the female leads in the Book of the World lived very well. They had money and respectable jobs, and those were all things she wanted.
When had she ever chased after a man before? It had always been other people chasing after her.
Back in the compound, the one who loved following her around the most was Ye Minglang. He was like a sticky plaster stuck to her scalp, impossible to shake off.
Even when she behaved so terribly, Ye Minglang still followed her around. It had annoyed her to no end.
Now that she knew Ye Minglang had turned around and started pursuing He Shuying instead, He He couldn’t have been happier. She had finally gotten rid of that ugly man who couldn’t understand human speech.
Under the blazing sun, everyone was working hard and had no attention to spare for anything unrelated to harvesting the rice, so no one else had seen the tugging and pulling between the two of them.
He He bent down again and sped up to catch up on the work she’d fallen behind on. She gathered an armful of rice stalks, refusing to carry them to the pile until her arms couldn’t hold any more.
After speeding up, He He finally caught up with Chen Jingbai. She carefully followed behind him. Every time Chen Jingbai cut a bundle, she picked one up. She kept a distance of two zhang from him—not close enough to be hurt by his sickle, but not too far away either.
He He stared at Chen Jingbai’s back and let out several breaths.
This was the first time He He had ever seen Chen Jingbai with such a gloomy expression. He looked as fierce as the eve of a violent storm, as though he could swallow her whole in a single bite.
He He felt a little afraid, afraid that she had offended Chen Jingbai even more thoroughly. In the more than two years since she’d met him, it wasn’t an exaggeration to say that this was truly the first time she’d ever seen Chen Jingbai angry or heard him speak so fiercely.
Even the first time she’d gotten hold of something she could use against Chen Jingbai and threatened him into doing her work, he hadn’t been this angry.
Back then, his deep-set brows and eyes had only shown the faintest hint of surprise, while his expression remained calm, as though he weren’t the one engaging in speculation and profiteering.
That slight surprise on his face was probably because he wondered how she had discovered that he and Chen Jingyi were secretly engaging in speculation and profiteering despite being so careful to avoid others.
Whenever He He went to the county town, she also liked visiting the black market. There was a bookstall there where she could buy books she liked to read, and sometimes she could even stumble upon pleasant surprises.
The books she’d brought from home had basically been read so many times that the pages had curled at the edges. There wasn’t much entertainment in the countryside, and those books were the only thing she had to relieve her boredom.
If she couldn’t even read novels anymore, then no matter how long and difficult the journey was, He He would want to go home every month just so she could beat He Shuying up.
The county town’s black market was located in a remote residential area. Roads led in every direction, it was far from the Public Security Bureau, there were plenty of houses, and the alleys twisted and turned in all directions.
There was also a small mountain not far away. If public security officers came to make arrests, anyone familiar with the area could easily escape using the winding terrain. And if that failed, they could simply run deep into the mountains.
Some people saw that there were plenty of customers and many small alleys here, so they came to sell things. Over time, it gradually developed into a black market where many small vendors gathered.
The authorities cracked down harshly on speculation and profiteering, but ordinary people still needed to eat. Grain rations in the city were fixed, and families with many mouths often didn’t receive enough. Without grain coupons, even having money wouldn’t allow them to buy anything at the supply and marketing cooperative. Their only choice was to try their luck at the black market, where they didn’t need coupons as long as they had money. With people coming and going like this, business naturally took shape.
As for how He He discovered that Chen Jingbai and his sister were engaging in speculation and profiteering, it was because there was a red-brick factory near the black market.
The red-brick factory produced a lot of dust, and anyone who went there could easily get reddish powder on themselves. The most convenient route from Qianjin Brigade to the black market passed by the road near the red-brick factory.
Every time He He returned from the black market, she carefully checked whether any red dust had gotten onto her clothes. She didn’t know whether Chen Jingbai had been too careless or had simply forgotten from time to time, but once or twice, red dust had gotten onto him, and on those occasions, he had happened to be absent from the educated youth station.
Actually, the red dust alone wouldn’t have made He He suspicious. After all, someone passing the red-brick factory could have been going somewhere else in the county town. But one time, she had accidentally overheard part of a conversation between Chen Jingbai and Chen Jingyi behind the house.
Chen Jingyi had said—
“Xiaobai, let’s do it one more time. Once we have enough money, we’ll stop. It’s too dangerous.”
He He swore she really hadn’t been eavesdropping. She had merely wanted to go up the mountain behind the house to pick some plums, something sour to cut through the sweetness in her mouth. If anyone was to blame, it was the siblings for being too careless and not knowing to avoid other people when they talked.
He He connected the clues—making money, danger, and the red dust on Chen Jingbai—and guessed that they were engaging in speculation and profiteering.
Originally, He He hadn’t wanted to use this matter to threaten anyone. But she had only recently been sent to the countryside at the time and simply couldn’t handle farm work.
Farm work was heavy and exhausting. It just so happened that she knew Chen Jingbai’s family belonged to the “Stinking Ninth Category,” she didn’t like Chen Jingbai, and she had something she could use against him. So she ended up threatening Chen Jingbai with it. Afterward, whenever she didn’t want to work, she would dump her tasks on him.
After all, Chen Jingbai was so easygoing and so easy to order around.
Seeing how agreeable he was made He He feel guilty, so every time Chen Jingbai did her work for her, she would provide him with one meal.
It was precisely because Chen Jingbai was too easygoing and had no temper that He He kept pushing her luck.
He was so easygoing that even when young men from the brigade called him deaf to his face, Chen Jingbai’s expression remained unchanged and he didn’t get angry. He was like an emotionless scarecrow, never fighting back no matter how birds pecked and bit at him.
When He He had first arrived, she would even stand up for Chen Jingbai whenever she heard someone call him deaf. But after doing so a few times, she realized that Chen Jingbai didn’t care at all whether anyone defended him, so He He stopped bothering.
If even he didn’t care, He He didn’t want to waste her energy on it either. She could tolerate having her good intentions thrown back in her face once or twice, but she wasn’t willing to keep doing it.
She wasn’t a Bodhisattva. She wasn’t that kindhearted.
What was strange, though, was that whenever she ran into those brigade boys who had called Chen Jingbai deaf a few days later, almost every one of them would grimace in pain after taking a few steps, looking like complete fools.
She had secretly laughed about it for ages and even imitated them with Zheng Xinxin to see who could do the best impression.
At first, she’d thought those brigade boys were injured, but when she looked carefully, she couldn’t find any injuries.
After thinking it over and over, He He decided they must have gone crazy, or perhaps some strange way of walking had become popular among the brigade boys. The educated youth station was simply too cut off from information to know about it, and none of the male educated youths had started copying them yet.
Back then, just imagining Chen Jingbai grimacing like them had made He He laugh even harder.
But now, the more He He thought about it, the more she felt that for someone as cold and numb as Chen Jingbai to suddenly become so emotional, he really did seem quite angry about what had happened.
So, with great reluctance, He He took out a milk candy, intending to give it to Chen Jingbai.
She had only brought two candies with her when she left today: one fruit candy and this much tastier milk candy. Earlier, she hadn’t been willing to eat the milk candy first, so she’d eaten the fruit candy instead.
Now Chen Jingbai was really getting a bargain.
He He pinched the candy between her fingers, gathered her courage, and walked over to him.
“Chen Jingbai, are you angry?” she asked softly.
When Chen Jingbai didn’t answer, she suddenly remembered that her voice was too quiet for him to hear.
Not wanting anyone else to hear what she was saying, He He boldly reached out and grabbed Chen Jingbai’s right forearm—the arm holding the sickle.
Once she had stopped Chen Jingbai’s arm from moving, she leaned close to his ear. Her voice was extremely soft, yet she made sure it was still loud enough for Chen Jingbai to hear.
“Chen Jingbai, are you angry? I know I shouldn’t have stood somewhere so dangerous just now. Don’t be unhappy anymore, okay?”