The next day.
Just as dawn was breaking, Song Yueying woke up from her sleep.
She opened her eyes and stared at the old, worn ceiling in a daze for quite a while before finally remembering that she had transmigrated into this era of extreme material scarcity.
She also recalled everything that had happened the previous day.
“You’re awake,” a cold voice sounded.
Song Yueying turned toward the source of the voice. On the next hospital bed, the man was leaning against the headboard. His face looked somewhat haggard, and his sharp eyes were fixed on her.
From the looks of it, he had probably been watching her all night.
This thought made Song Yueying feel displeased, as if her credibility had been questioned. She withdrew her gaze, got out of bed, put on her shoes, straightened her clothes, and left directly.
Seeing her leave the ward without saying a word, Qi Yanjue assumed she had gone to wash up and didn’t say anything. He planned to wait until she returned to tell her that Zhao Yiheng wanted to speak with her.
Who would have thought that this wait would last until the sky was fully bright, and there was still no sign of her returning.
Only then did Qi Yanjue realize that the woman might have already left the hospital.
Thinking of how Zhao Yiheng had repeatedly reminded him the night before to make sure Song Yueying stayed and waited for him, Qi Yanjue knew he was going to be nagged endlessly now that she had run off.
Just the thought of it gave him a headache.
Not to mention, he had spent the entire night thinking about her situation, and in the end, he had come to no conclusion. Qi Yanjue raised his hand and rubbed his faintly aching temples.
On the other side.
A mule cart had already left the county town.
The young man driving the ox cart was a plainly dressed male comrade. He had a simple, honest smile on his face. “Comrade Song, did you spend the whole night studying at the hospital?”
The one giving Qi Yanjue a headache, Song Yueying, was now sitting on the ox cart, swaying along as she made her way back to the production brigade. Hearing the young man’s question, she couldn’t help but pause.
Only then did she remember that, when the original owner asked the brigade leader for a letter of introduction, the stated reason was to come to the county hospital for study.
“Mm,” Song Yueying responded lightly.
She had originally thought she was just lucky, that this ox cart was specifically there to pick her up. Thinking about it that way, the brigade leader still valued the original owner, who was a village doctor.
When she heard someone calling “Comrade Song” as she stepped out of the hospital earlier, she had even assumed they weren’t calling her.
It wasn’t until the ox cart stopped in front of her, blocking her path, and she saw the person get down from it that she recognized him from the original owner’s memory: he was the brigade leader’s son.
He was responsible for driving the ox cart in the brigade, though the original owner had already forgotten his name.
The young man driving quickly asked, “Are you tired? Have you had breakfast? I’ve got some—”
“Comrade, I want to sleep for a while now,” Song Yueying interrupted him, then closed her eyes.
“Alright, alright, I’ll drive slower. You sleep, go ahead and sleep,” the young man replied, glancing back at her. His honest face carried an awkward smile.
Song Yueying gave another soft “mm,” then began resting with her eyes closed.
The ox cart swayed slowly along the road. Just as it reached the village entrance and before it had even stopped, a middle-aged woman rushed over.
“Yueying! Why are you only coming back now? Your mother’s illness has flared up again at home!” the woman shouted sharply. Her voice was loud and piercing, and the commotion immediately drew the attention of people working in the nearby fields.
Everyone started discussing it again.
“She’s sick again?”
“Why is she sick again?”
“Yeah! I even saw her sitting at the courtyard gate yesterday afternoon. I asked her what she was doing, and she told me her Xiao Ying had gone out and she was waiting for her Xiao Ying to come back.”
“At that time, was she speaking clearly? Any signs she was about to have an episode?”
“No, no. She spoke quite clearly, and she didn’t look like she was about to get sick at all.”
“Then why did she suddenly have another episode?”
“Exactly! She was perfectly fine, how did she suddenly get sick again?”
The woman ignored everything and rushed forward. Worried that the ox cart might hit her, the young man had no choice but to stop. Song Yueying got down from the cart and paid no attention to the chatter coming from the fields.
As soon as she looked up, she saw a face like a round platter, so much fat on it that her eyes were almost completely squeezed shut.
This woman’s surname was Li. She was the wife of the team leader. Backed by her husband’s authority, she often acted domineeringly within the brigade.
She was also one of the very few people in the production team that the original owner had been wary of. After all, local authority outweighed distant officials; the team leader had real power over the entire production team, and his words carried significant weight.
Sister-in-law Li immediately grabbed Song Yueying’s hand and said with a sympathetic expression, “Yueying, your mother has had a hard life. She didn’t enjoy many good days after marrying your father, and then your father….”
She trailed off, shaking her head as if she couldn’t bring herself to continue.
“Sister-in-law Li, you just said my mother had another episode, right? I’ll go back and check on her right now,” Song Yueying said, acting anxious as she pulled her hand back.
“Oh my, why are you in such a hurry!” Sister-in-law Li reacted quickly and grabbed her arm, refusing to let her go. “Child, I haven’t finished speaking yet.”
“Look at your pale little face, you must not have slept well last night. And look how thin you are, you probably haven’t been eating properly either. Such a pitiful child, it breaks my heart just looking at you.”
“Yueying, once you become part of our family in the future, I’ll definitely raise you nice and plump.”
“I’m very fond of delicate young girls like you. I promise I’ll never let you suffer any mistreatment.”
“Sister-in-law Li, what are you talking about? I don’t understand,” Song Yueying said with a completely confused expression, while inwardly cursing this shameless, vicious woman to the core.
From the original owner’s memory, this Sister-in-law Li was not a good person. In particular, she had set her sights on the original owner and had been scheming in every possible way to force her into marrying her foolish son.
“Oh come on, stop pretending you don’t understand. Your mother and I already agreed on it. Today you’ll come to my house for lunch, and I’ll make you some delicious braised pork.”
“I’ll properly nourish your body, you’re so thin you’re practically skin and bones.”
This vicious, disgusting woman was trying to set another trap for her. Song Yueying sneered inwardly while gripping the wrist of the hand that was holding her arm.
She quietly applied more force, but her face remained innocent and puzzled, her eyes clear and pure. “Sister-in-law Li, didn’t you just say my mother had another episode?”
“If my mother had an episode, how could she possibly have agreed to go to your house for lunch?”
“This…” Sister-in-law Li didn’t expect Song Yueying to suddenly ask that. She was caught off guard and momentarily speechless.
She had dared to set such an obvious trap because she was certain Song Yueying wouldn’t dare to fall out with her.
As long as she got Song Yueying into her house, she would have ways to keep her there. Once the person was inside her home, her son could do whatever he wanted with her with ease.
And even if nothing happened between them, as long as Song Yueying spent a night in her house, no one else in the village would dare to covet her anymore.
The people around them, however, looked on with clear understanding and contempt.
Everyone in the village knew exactly what Sister-in-law Li was planning. They just didn’t dare to say it out loud because she was the village head’s wife.