Nan Qianqian had thought about too many things last night, so she ended up failing to wake up early in the morning.
It wasn’t until Li Cuihua came to the door of her room and called her to eat that she hurriedly rushed out of the space.
Looking at the bright daylight outside, Nan Qianqian wished she could slap herself a few times.
There was probably no way she could deliver breakfast now.
Still, she had promised to bring it.
That man was probably still hungry even now!
The moment she thought of that, Nan Qianqian felt somewhat guilty.
“Mom, next time, if I don’t wake up, call me earlier.”
Nan Qianqian hurriedly grabbed a cornmeal pancake, picked up the food prepared for Fu Nanxun with one hand, and rushed toward the courtyard gate.
“Slow down. Don’t fall.”
Li Cuihua frowned as she spoke from behind Nan Qianqian.
Watching her daughter rush off in such a fluster, Li Cuihua still found it somewhat unbelievable even now.
She had clearly disliked this person so much before.
How had she suddenly gone from disliking him to liking him?
How strange.
Could it be that Fu Nanxun was too good-looking and had captivated her daughter?
Still, that brat really was quite handsome.
But looks couldn’t fill one’s stomach!
Nan Qianqian jogged the entire way.
A journey that normally took more than twenty minutes was forcibly shortened to only ten.
When she stood outside Fu Nanxun’s house and looked at the tightly shut wooden door, she hesitated and didn’t dare knock.
She really felt that she had quite the nerve.
That man probably didn’t have any favorable impression of her at all.
This was really troublesome!
“What are you doing?”
Just as Nan Qianqian stood there in a daze, the door opened.
The man’s voice was somewhat hoarse, and there was even a trace of displeasure in it.
“I came to bring you breakfast.”
As Nan Qianqian spoke, she held the food out toward the man.
Fu Nanxun frowned as he examined the person in front of him.
Her fair cheeks were flushed, and sweat beaded across her smooth forehead.
He had originally wanted to tell her to take her things and hurry up and disappear from his sight.
But looking at her current appearance, he swallowed the words that had already reached his lips.
“Give it to me. You can go back now.”
Fu Nanxun suppressed the strange feeling in his heart, took the things from her hands, and immediately began driving her away.
Seeing that the man was about to close the door, Nan Qianqian hurriedly reached out to stop him.
“Wait.”
Fu Nanxun looked down at Nan Qianqian’s hand gripping his arm.
His sword-like brows furrowed slightly, and a dark gleam flashed through the depths of his eyes.
Seeing that the man had suddenly stopped moving and was merely staring at her with those dark eyes, Nan Qianqian couldn’t help swallowing.
Her pink lips parted slightly.
“Fu Nanxun, I’m not going back yet. I can help you clean the room, and I can wash your clothes too.”
“No need.”
That fair, slender hand was still resting on his arm.
Fu Nanxun felt as though the patch of skin she was touching was about to burn.
The man’s expression grew increasingly cold, and that distant look made Nan Qianqian feel somewhat discouraged.
In truth, her personality wasn’t the type that could keep pressing her warm face against someone else’s cold backside.
But when she looked at the man’s bloodshot eyes, his unshaven face, and the exhaustion written all over his brows…
Nan Qianqian couldn’t help feeling a little softhearted.
Had his wound been hurting so badly that he hadn’t slept properly all night?
“Fu Nanxun, even if you have some misunderstanding about me, you don’t need to refuse my help.
“After all, my dad is the village Party secretary. Me coming here to take care of you is only helping the village with its work. You don’t have to act like this.”
After saying that, Nan Qianqian didn’t care whether the man agreed or not.
She stepped around him and walked straight into the room.
Seeing that the man was still standing motionless at the doorway, Nan Qianqian spoke again.
“Hurry up and come in to eat. Otherwise, the food will get cold.”
Fu Nanxun’s gaze was dark and unreadable.
He didn’t say anything.
He simply dragged his somewhat painful leg back into the room, sat directly at the table, opened the food, and began eating.
It was almost noon already.
He really was somewhat hungry.
Nan Qianqian watched the man lower his head and eat without even sparing her a glance.
But right now, she didn’t have time to think too much about it.
Her watery eyes narrowed as she stared directly at the food he was eating.
This…
An injured person was eating nothing but cornmeal pancakes and pickled vegetables every day.
Was there even any nutrition in that?
No wonder his injury still hadn’t improved after so long.
She couldn’t help thinking that if he hadn’t once been a soldier and built up such a strong physical foundation, his body probably would have collapsed long ago.
Fu Nanxun didn’t raise his head, but that burning gaze made his entire body feel uncomfortable.
While he was still thinking about it, a slender figure suddenly appeared in front of him.
Fu Nanxun’s movements paused slightly.
Then Nan Qianqian’s soft voice sounded from above him.
“Fu Nanxun, make do with this for now. I’ll go back later, cook something, and bring it over for you.”
Hearing her words, Fu Nanxun’s eating movements stopped.
Looking at the strange expression on her face, Fu Nanxun said hoarsely, “No need. I only eat one meal a day.”
One meal a day?
Nan Qianqian was shocked.
Such a tall man only ate one meal a day.
And even that meal was a small portion of coarse food with barely any nutrition, just enough to fill his stomach.
Although many people in the 1970s still struggled just to eat their fill…
He definitely couldn’t survive on this little!
Even she ate more than he did in a day.
In the past, she hadn’t been able to interfere and it hadn’t been her place to interfere.
But now, when it came to Fu Nanxun, she, Nan Qianqian, was definitely going to interfere.
After all, he was the man she had chosen.
She couldn’t very well let his leg recover only for the rest of him to become skinny as a monkey.
“One meal isn’t enough. You have to eat three proper meals a day. Ahem, I woke up late today, but tomorrow I’ll definitely be on time.”
The moment she mentioned being on time, she remembered that this meal had basically become both breakfast and lunch combined.
Uh…
That really was her fault!
Not only had she delivered the food late, she had also forgotten the Spiritual Spring Water she had said she would bring last night.
“I said there’s no need.”
Fu Nanxun’s gaze was complicated.
He had heard quite a bit about Nan Qianqian from the auntie who had been bringing him meals.
He hadn’t deliberately tried to remember any of it.
But now that the person herself was standing in front of him, he couldn’t help comparing her to everything he had heard.
Everything she was doing now was completely different from what he had been told.
But what did that have to do with him?
No matter what her purpose was, aside from a leg that might or might not ever recover, he had nothing else.
There was nothing she could gain from him.
Fu Nanxun put down his bowl and chopsticks.
He slowly walked over to the bed and lay down, no longer paying any attention to Nan Qianqian.
Nan Qianqian looked at the broad back he had left facing her.
Was he planning to ignore her now?
Judging by the situation…
That seemed to be exactly what he intended.
“Then rest. I’ll go wash your clothes.”
Seeing that the man gave no response, Nan Qianqian didn’t insist on arguing with him.
After all, there would be plenty of time in the future.
Her eyes lingered on the man one more time before she directly picked up the wooden basin containing his dirty clothes and walked outside.
These days, everyone went to the river in the village to wash clothes.
She was feeling somewhat frustrated right now.
She could wash clothes while calming herself down at the same time.
Fu Nanxun, who was lying on the bed, heard the room fall silent.
His tightly closed eyes instantly opened.
Those dark eyes were so deep and shadowy that the bottom couldn’t be seen, like an endless whirlpool…
Nan Qianqian carried the wooden basin all the way to the river, thinking about how she was supposed to win Fu Nanxun over.
As soon as she reached the riverside, she saw several women gathered together.
While scrubbing the clothes in their hands, they spoke animatedly.
“I’m telling you, the village Party secretary has always wanted to marry his youngest daughter to Fu Nanxun.
“Back when Fu Nanxun was still in the army, he received an allowance.
“But now that his leg is injured and he can’t serve as a soldier anymore, I’m afraid this marriage is going to fall through.”
“How come I never heard about this? With that attitude of Li Cuihua’s, would she really be willing to marry her precious daughter to a cripple?”
“Exactly. Daughters are nothing but money-losing goods. I’ve lived for most of my life and I’ve never seen anyone treasure a daughter the way she does.”
“Hmph. So what if she treasures her? Won’t she still belong to someone else’s family in the future?
“Take that money-losing girl in my family. I make her go work in the fields every single day and earn work points. I absolutely won’t let her eat even a single grain of the family’s food for free.”
“Mine is the same. Anyway, I make her do all the work at home. I definitely won’t let her sit around idle.”
…
Nan Qianqian frowned.
She was truly speechless after hearing these older women talk.
Weren’t they women themselves?
Without women, the entire world would go extinct.
Were daughters not human beings too?
This preference for sons over daughters was so severe that it was practically outrageous.
It was bad enough that they didn’t treat their own daughters well.
Her own mother treated her well, yet these women still had to gossip and criticize her for it.
“Some people really should mind their own family’s business instead of spending every day gossiping about other people. Be careful your tongues don’t rot.”