Ye Qingyun released Zhou Guifen and held out her hand toward the other two women.
They both trembled violently and hurriedly raised their hands.
“N-No! Please don’t hit us! We’ll do it ourselves! We’ll do it ourselves…”
The two women, who had always been unbeatable among the women of Qinghewan, could clearly sense the terrifying aura radiating from Ye Qingyun.
It was the aura of someone who truly dared to kill.
If they had known there was someone like her in the Seven Ridge Village Production Brigade, they never would have dared snatch those two young educated youths.
Under the overwhelming pressure of feeling as though the King of Hell himself was collecting their debts, the two women hurriedly took the red hair ribbons from their pockets with trembling hands and offered them up.
Ye Qingyun accepted the ribbons, held up the hairpin, and turned to Qi Xue and Mo Qiuyu.
“Are these yours?”
The two girls nodded blankly, bobbing their heads like pecking chickens.
Ye Qingyun handed their belongings back before turning to look down at Zhou Guifen and her two companions.
“Listen carefully. I’ll only say this once.”
Planting her hands on her hips, Ye Qingyun declared domineeringly,
“I found this hillside first. Every single blade of grass here belongs to the Seven Ridge Village Production Brigade. If I ever catch the three of you here again, you’ll walk in—but you’ll be carried out. You’ll leave home in the morning, and by noon people will already be eating at your funeral banquet!”
“If you understand, then get lost.”
The situation was against them.
Although Zhou Guifen and the others burned with resentment, they didn’t dare utter a single curse.
They scrambled to their feet and fled.
“Wait.”
Ye Qingyun suddenly called out.
The three women froze in terror, despair filling their faces.
Ye Qingyun pointed at the baskets on their backs.
“Leave the grass.”
The three women immediately let out enormous sighs of relief and hurriedly dumped every last stalk from their baskets onto the ground.
Afraid Ye Qingyun might still beat them, they even held up their empty baskets for her inspection.
Ye Qingyun examined them carefully.
From a crack in Zhou Guifen’s basket, she pinched out a tiny blade of grass.
Not even a single strand of her grass was leaving with them.
“Alright. You can go.”
She waved them away.
Zhou Guifen nearly ground her back teeth to dust.
As the younger sister of Qinghewan’s brigade leader, this was the first time she had ever suffered such a humiliating defeat.
Holding her still-ringing head, furious and terrified, she grabbed her basket and fled as though running for her life.
The other two hurried after her, afraid Ye Qingyun might suddenly shout, “Wait,” again.
“…That’s it?”
Qi Xue looked at the pile of grass on the ground, then at Ye Qingyun, muttering in confusion.
Mo Qiuyu calculated the time.
The whole thing had taken less than five minutes.
The three women who had been bullying them so arrogantly moments ago had fled like beaten dogs.
The two girls looked at Ye Qingyun together, admiration surging in their hearts.
“Big Sister Qingyun, you’re amazing!” Qi Xue exclaimed excitedly.
Just yesterday she’d been calling her by her full name.
Now she was calling her “Big Sister.”
Mo Qiuyu asked curiously,
“Big Sister Qingyun… do you know martial arts?”
Ye Qingyun dusted off nonexistent dirt from her clothes.
“My late husband used to be a soldier. When he had free time, he taught me a few moves.”
Lying was one of the essential skills of a Hehuan Sect disciple.
Ye Qingyun answered so naturally that not a hint of hesitation showed.
Seeing the instant admiration appear in Qi Xue’s and Mo Qiuyu’s eyes…
Ye Qingyun suddenly felt that using her late husband as an excuse was brilliant.
The longer she stayed in the village, the harder it would be to hide the fact that she knew martial arts.
She might as well use Fu Linchuan as her shield.
A soldier knowing martial arts was perfectly normal.
A soldier teaching his frail wife a few self-defense moves because he worried bad people might bully her while he was away…
That sounded even more reasonable.
Didn’t believe her?
Then go ask Fu Linchuan yourself.
Whether her bargain-bin husband had even been buried with an intact body, she had no idea.
The dead couldn’t testify.
Qi Xue couldn’t understand it.
Why was it that whenever Ye Qingyun mentioned her deceased soldier husband, there wasn’t the slightest trace of grief or nostalgia on her face?
Instead…
She actually smiled rather strangely.
Before Qi Xue could think it through, Ye Qingyun pointed at their empty baskets.
“It’s getting late. Hurry up and gather the pig grass.”
Thanks to the “gift” Zhou Guifen and the others had left behind, Qi Xue and Mo Qiuyu didn’t even have to cut any grass themselves.
They simply picked up the ready-made pile, filling their baskets to overflowing in just ten minutes.
Ye Qingyun wasn’t idle either.
Borrowing their sickles, she cut another huge bundle.
The three of them returned fully loaded.
Sister Chunhua was staring worriedly at the empty pig grass basket.
She was thinking that the two young educated youths were simply too unreliable.
It was already so late, and they still hadn’t brought back the pig grass needed for the afternoon.
Without Ye Qingyun…
It really felt as though every pig in the pig farm was going to starve.
Just as she anxiously waited, she finally spotted the familiar figures approaching.
With a dark expression, Sister Chunhua strode over.
“Why are you only getting back now? If you’d been any later, the pigs would’ve starved to… Xiaoyun?”
Seeing Ye Qingyun behind Qi Xue and Mo Qiuyu, Sister Chunhua was both surprised and pleased.
Now this was what dedication to one’s job looked like!
Hmm?
Why did those two young educated youths look as though they’d just rolled around in the mud?
“What’s with you two?”
She pointed at Mo Qiuyu’s messy braid and Qi Xue’s torn sleeve, concern filling her voice.
Being beaten up and then beating someone back wasn’t exactly something worth bragging about.
The two girls smiled awkwardly as they lowered their heads and dumped the pig grass into the large basket.
In perfect unison, they answered,
“Nothing. We just fell down on the way.”
Sister Chunhua put her hands on her hips.
She wasn’t blind.
That definitely didn’t look like the result of one little fall.
She looked toward the model worker, Ye Qingyun, hoping for an explanation.
Ye Qingyun shrugged.
“I don’t know.”
Pointing toward the three pigs burying their snouts in the feeding trough, she reminded her,
“The pigs are hungry. Sister Chunhua, you’d better cook their feed now, or it’ll get too late.”
The three of them dropped off the pig grass, completed their task, and quickly slipped away.
Busy preparing the pig feed, Sister Chunhua forgot to press the matter further.
By the time she remembered…
They were already long gone.
…
The educated youths’ dormitory in Seven Ridge Village was located beside the brigade storeroom, in a yellow mud house.
The house wasn’t large.
There were only two rooms—one for the men and one for the women.
The windows had originally been built with only frames and no actual panes.
In winter, freezing winds blew straight inside, making everyone shiver.
In summer, mosquitoes swarmed everywhere, and the mud house trapped heat like an oven.
It was practically torture.
Fortunately, the older educated youths had already overcome those difficulties.
They had asked villagers to make proper windows, bought paper to paste over them, built a small lean-to beside the house, learned to build a clay stove from the locals, and even made themselves a tiny outdoor kitchen.
The old saying was true:
Those who came later enjoyed the shade planted by those who came before.
Although Qi Xue and Mo Qiuyu still lived under harsh conditions, they had it much better than the earlier educated youths.
At the moment, only the two of them lived in the women’s dormitory.
Each even had a bed to herself.
Ye Qingyun had to pass by the storeroom on her way home, so she walked them back to the educated youth residence.
After what had happened with Zhou Guifen that afternoon, the relationship among the three of them had undergone a dramatic change.
Qi Xue and Mo Qiuyu now regarded Ye Qingyun as a dependable older sister.
The two warmly invited her inside for a look around.
Unable to refuse such enthusiastic hospitality, Ye Qingyun followed them in curiously.
“Big Sister Qingyun, have a seat. I’ll get you some water.”
Mo Qiuyu brought over a chair, gesturing for Ye Qingyun to sit, then carefully took out her treasured enamel mug and poured her a cup of water.
“Big Sister Qingyun, thank you for today.”
Ye Qingyun really was thirsty.
Without any ceremony, she accepted the cup and took a big drink.
Qi Xue rummaged through a small box beside her bed.
After opening it and looking at the abundant supplies inside, she gritted her teeth and took out the remaining half bag of White Rabbit milk candies.
She locked the box again and pushed it back into place.
Holding the half bag of candy, she excitedly walked over to Ye Qingyun.