“Slap!”
The crisp sound of the strike still echoed inside the earthen room.
Shen Qianqian panted, her palm burning with pain. She had used every ounce of her remaining strength; though her body was weak and hollow from hunger, the blow lacked heavy physical force, but the insult it carried was absolute.
The two of them locked eyes in the dim, yellowish light—
Her gaze was filled with a swirling sea of remorse and deep tenderness, while his eyes held bone-deep agony and a bleak, “I knew it” darkness.
Just as Shen Qianqian parted her lips to blurt out, “Huo Xiangbei, I’m back!”—
“Qianqian? Qianqian? Are you in there?”
A male voice, intentionally softened yet trembling slightly with tension, unexpectedly called out from just beneath the window.
It was Xu Yanqing.
Huo Xiangbei’s body instantly tensed. The arm wrapped around Shen Qianqian’s waist tightened with sudden force, squeezing the air out of her with a stifled groan.
Hovering right above her, he slowly turned his gaze toward the window patched with old newspapers. His eyes grew cold inch by inch, finally freezing into solid ice.
The faint trace of hesitation and emotional wavering that had flickered in his chest moments ago because of her tears was smashed to pieces by that voice from outside.
(He’s here.)
(Right outside.)
(So that slap she just gave me… was she hitting me for him to see, or hitting me for him to hear?)
(Is she waiting for him? Waiting for me to bully her so he can play the hero saving the damsel in distress?)
The sharp pain and piercing suspicion hidden in that inner thought made Shen Qianqian’s heart contract violently.
“It’s not like that, Huo Xiangbei, listen to me—”
“Qianqian! Are you locked up by Huo Xiangbei? Don’t be afraid!”
Xu Yanqing’s voice raised a notch, carrying a perfectly calibrated blend of anxiety and righteous indignation.
“This is the new society; personal freedom is valued! If he dares pull anything reckless, we’ll go straight to the commune and report him!”
A bitterly cold, mocking smile twisted the corner of Huo Xiangbei’s mouth. He turned his head back, his pitch-black eyes fixed on Shen Qianqian as he spoke in a low, hoarse voice:
“Hear that? Your ‘revolutionary comrade’ has come to save you. Report me? Report me for what? For sleeping with my own wife?”
“He’s not! I have nothing to do with him!” Shen Qianqian cried out in desperation, tears welling up again as she shook her head frantically.
“Qianqian!”
Xu Yanqing’s voice suddenly pitched higher, turning as impassoned as a propaganda slogan.
“You have to be brave! Women hold up half the sky; you can’t surrender to feudal violence! Huo Xiangbei’s behavior is persecution of an educated youth, a sabotage of the ‘Up to the Mountains and Down to the Villages’ policy! You have to stand up and resist!”
“Resist?”
Huo Xiangbei repeated it in a low mumble, then let out a sudden, chilling laugh completely devoid of warmth, leaving only barren coldness.
“Fine. Go ahead and resist. Call him inside and let’s see how he ‘saves’ you.”
“Huo Xiangbei!”
Shen Qianqian grabbed his muscular arm, her fingertips turning white.
“Believe me just once, this once! He and I really—”
“Really what?”
Huo Xiangbei pressed down abruptly, his scalding breath washing over her face. His eyes were bloodshot, every word squeezed out from between his clenched teeth.
“Really just ‘revolutionary comrades’? Really didn’t discuss how to use your father’s quota to return to the city? Really didn’t promise to take him with you? Shen Qianqian, I heard it with my own ears! Now you’re telling me it was fake?!”
The final sentence was practically a low roar, the repressed fury and agony exploding inside the cramped earthen room.
Shen Qianqian was stunned by the deep hatred in his eyes, momentarily struck dumb.
Outside the window, hearing Huo Xiangbei’s suppressed roar and Shen Qianqian’s tear-choked defense, Xu Yanqing felt a surge of elation.
They were fighting! Excellent!
What he had feared most was Shen Qianqian being too terrified of Huo Xiangbei to make a sound. The fiercer the argument, the more violent Huo Xiangbei would seem, and the more “victimized” Shen Qianqian would appear.
Steeling himself, he decided to pour fuel on the fire.
This time, instead of keeping his voice down, he shouted at the top of his lungs, ensuring the neighboring courtyards could hear every word—
“Huo Xiangbei! Open the door! In broad daylight, what do you think you’re doing?!”
“Comrade Shen Qianqian is an educated youth who answered the nation’s call to come to the countryside! She is here to receive re-education from the poor and lower-middle peasants, not to be your personal breeding tool!”
“This is illegal detention! It’s persecution of a revolutionary comrade! It’s dragging the reputation of the poor and lower-middle peasants of our Red Flag Production Brigade through the mud!”
“If you don’t release her right now, I’m going to find the brigade leader and the commune’s armed forces department! I’ll let the leaders see how a military man from our village bullies an educated youth!”
Layer upon layer of heavy labels was piled on, every single sentence appealing to “policy” and “collective honor.”
Under Xu Yanqing’s escalating and increasingly absurd accusations, Huo Xiangbei’s expression completely sank into an ice cellar.
He stared at Shen Qianqian, suddenly feeling an overwhelming sense of absurdity and exhaustion.
“Hear that?”
He said in a hoarse voice, every word dripping with cold self-derision.
“I’m persecuting a revolutionary comrade, smearing the poor and lower-middle peasants, and bullying an educated youth. Shen Qianqian, in your eyes and the eyes of people like you, I, Huo Xiangbei, am just such a heinous bastard, right?”
“No! That’s not what he meant! He’s talking nonsense!”
Shen Qianqian trembled all over with anxiety, desperately wanting to rush out and tear Xu Yanqing’s lying mouth apart.
“Does what he means even matter?”
Huo Xiangbei tugged at the corner of his mouth, the last glimmer of light in his eyes seeming to extinguish, leaving only bottomless black and a desperate, do-or-die resolve.
“Anyway, you’ve wanted to leave all along. Today’s little show is just right.”
He leaned down, his scalding lips ruthlessly crushing against hers.
He swallowed back all her unvoiced defenses, while also silencing the frantic, icy panic spreading wildly in his own heart.
“Ngh… Huo Xiangbei! Let go… mmh!”
Shen Qianqian’s struggle was effortlessly subdued.
At the exact same time, his waist sank down hard—
“Ah—!”
A sharp, unexpected cry of surprise, laden with a sob and an unspeakable, trembling cadence, pierced straight through the thin doors and windows.
Outside, Xu Yanqing—who had been shouting with righteous fury, gearing up to rally the “broad masses of commune members to uphold justice”—abruptly cut off mid-sentence.
He froze like a choked rooster, blood rushing to his face until it turned crimson, his ears ringing.
That sound…!
He wasn’t completely ignorant of worldly matters; within that sound… there was clearly undisguised pleasure!
Shame and mortification poured over him like boiling oil.
But what made him even more panicked was—Shen Qianqian’s reaction!
Shouldn’t she be fighting to the death, crying and begging for rescue?
Why did that sound…
No! Impossible!
Huo Xiangbei must have used some despicable trick!
Shen Qianqian was so proud, her heart set entirely on returning to the city to live a good life with him—how could she possibly…?!