“You really are a good person. Take these pears and eat them. They’re not worth much, so please don’t mind them.”
The old farmer came back to his senses, rummaged through his basket, and pulled out the two biggest, reddest pears before stuffing them into Lu Huaiyuan’s hands.
Lu Huaiyuan tried to refuse, but the old farmer was too insistent, so he had no choice but to accept them. He casually reached into his pocket, pulled out two yuan, and stuffed the money into the old farmer’s hands.
“It’s still early. Hurry up and go. Don’t let the local patrol team see you.”
The old farmer thanked him profusely, hoisted the basket onto his back, and hobbled away.
“Had enough of watching?”
It was as if Lu Huaiyuan had eyes in the back of his head. Without even turning around, he spoke in a harsh, intimidating voice.
Shen Zhixia was still thinking about how juicy those pears looked and how delicious they must taste when his sudden words startled her.
He had just seemed so warm-hearted, and now he had changed his attitude in an instant. What a moody man!
Shen Zhixia obediently stepped out from behind the large rock where she had been hiding.
Lu Huaiyuan turned around.
Standing before him was a small village girl with a sallow complexion and patches covering every inch of her clothes. She was thin and petite, and he could not even tell whether she was an adult yet.
The young girl stared straight at him with a pair of dark, gleaming eyes. The scrutiny in them made Lu Huaiyuan feel distinctly uncomfortable.
He took two or three large strides toward Shen Zhixia, and his tall shadow instantly enveloped her.
The presence and oppressive aura of a grown man came rushing toward her. Shen Zhixia straightened her back, but her line of sight barely reached the tip of his chin.
Lu Huaiyuan deliberately narrowed his eyes, putting on his most menacing expression.
“Little girl.” He bent down and leaned closer, his warm breath brushing across Shen Zhixia’s face as he spoke fiercely. “If you dare go around telling anyone what you just saw, I’ll cut out your tongue and feed it to the dogs. Understand?”
If not for what she had witnessed earlier, Shen Zhixia might actually have believed him.
She lowered her eyes to the two red fruits in his hands, calmly took a small step backward, and slowly raised her head.
Her clear, snow-bright eyes reflected Lu Huaiyuan’s intimidating yet obviously feigned expression.
“Oh.”
Shen Zhixia answered with a single, indifferent word, a clear hint of amusement in her eyes.
That amusement was particularly irritating. What did she mean by that? Was she laughing at him?
Before Lu Huaiyuan could recover, Shen Zhixia casually sidestepped around him as though nothing had happened.
Her pace was neither hurried nor slow, carrying a composure that seemed completely out of place in this era.
As the two brushed past each other, Shen Zhixia’s slightly reddened, nimble fingers, chilled by the cold, actually snatched the two ripe red wild pears right out of his hand!
Lu Huaiyuan stood frozen on the spot, still bent over in that ridiculous position, for a full three seconds.
This woman… What had she just done? How dare she!
Lu Huaiyuan stared at his empty palm, where he could still seemingly feel a faint trace of coolness.
When he looked up again, Shen Zhixia had already reached the bend in the mountain path.
Her figure looked slender and frail, yet her back was held perfectly straight.
“Interesting.”
Lu Huaiyuan took the cigarette from behind his ear again. He did not light it, merely rolling it between his fingers.
“Brother-in-law?”
Seeing Lu Huaiyuan standing there in a daze, Zhao Meiyun felt her heart tighten with unease.
Lu Huaiyuan came back to himself and quickly schooled his expression.
He walked several steps toward Shen Zhixia, lowered his head slightly, and spoke in a voice only the two of them could hear. His tone was gritted with irritation, yet carried a hint of teasing.
“Shen Zhixia, right? You hid yourself pretty well, didn’t you, little pear thief?”
They were standing extremely close, close enough for Shen Zhixia to catch the faint scent of tobacco on him, along with that familiar sense of oppression.
She raised her head to meet his narrow, deep-set eyes and replied in the same low voice.
“Lu Huaiyuan, right? Don’t be so stingy. They were only two wild pears. Just consider them a meeting gift.”
Lu Huaiyuan raised an eyebrow, almost laughing despite himself.
Calling him stingy? This woman had even more nerve than he had expected.
“Fine! What a ‘meeting gift.’”
Lu Huaiyuan straightened up and suddenly raised his voice, his tone domineering.
“Let’s go, wife.”
He reached out without hesitation, grabbed Shen Zhixia by the wrist, and pulled her along.
That single “wife” came so naturally that all the young men nearby, who were pushing bicycles, were stunned.
Was this really the same Brother Lu who had never shown any interest in women?
Wasn’t he supposedly only here to go through the motions?
This was… a little too cooperative, wasn’t it?
Lu Huaiyuan pulled Shen Zhixia over to the vehicle, opened the door, and placed one hand above the roof to shield her head as she got inside.
“Monkey, lead the way.”
He then walked around to the other side and got into the back seat.
The young man leading the group immediately snapped back to his senses and called for the wedding procession to turn around.
Firecrackers exploded in a chorus of noise as the convoy passed the large banyan tree at the village entrance and headed toward the county seat.
Inside the vehicle, the newlywed couple said nothing. The silence was unusually profound.
“What are you thinking about?”
Lu Huaiyuan casually took Shen Zhixia’s hand and played with it on his own.
“Nothing.”
Shen Zhixia withdrew her hand and gave Lu Huaiyuan’s sharply defined profile a faint glance.
The first step toward escaping her tragic fate had succeeded.
As for the man sitting before her, she only hoped he would not disappoint her.
After all, given his status, the fact that he had been willing to go out of his way to help an unrelated old farmer suggested that he was a fundamentally decent person.
When the convoy arrived in the county seat, they first went to the marriage registration office in the county Party committee compound to obtain their marriage certificate.
Normally, this step should have been completed in advance, but one dismissive “Too much trouble” from the young master had pushed it back to the day of the wedding.
Fortunately, both sides had already prepared the necessary introduction letters and proof of marital status, so the entire registration process took less than an hour.
By the time they returned to the Lu family home, it was not yet eleven o’clock.
The Lu family mansion stood in a quiet alley several streets away from the county Party committee compound. It was one of the few private residences in the area with its own enclosed courtyard.
The jeep slowly entered the alley and stopped in front of an iron gate painted black.
The courtyard was already crowded with guests who had come to offer their congratulations, while bright red paper cuttings bearing the characters for “Double Happiness” decorated the lintel.
Two red lanterns hung beneath the eaves, adding a touch of warmth to the bleak early winter atmosphere.
Through the car window, Shen Zhixia immediately spotted the two-story Western-style house standing in the center of the courtyard.
With its red brick walls, gray-tiled roof, and arched window frames, it stood out conspicuously among the rows of ordinary courtyard houses surrounding it, exuding an understated sense of luxury.
“Your family’s house… it must be quite old, right?”
As she got out of the vehicle, Shen Zhixia looked at the Western-style house before her and asked casually.
In an era when almost everything was under public ownership, preserving a private residence like this was certainly no easy feat.
Lu Huaiyuan stood beside her with one hand in his pocket. Following her gaze, he glanced at the old family mansion and spoke in an indifferent tone.
“It was passed down from our ancestors. Back then, the old man donated ninety-five percent of the family fortune to the country to support its development. We barely managed to keep this empty shell.”
“Also, let me correct you, Comrade Shen Zhixia. This isn’t just my home. From now on, it’s your home too.”
Lu Huaiyuan said it casually, but his words caused a slight stir in Shen Zhixia’s heart.
My home?