“Look at this mess. I’ve ended up delaying everyone’s work. That’s my fault.”
Su Meier deliberately changed the subject.
“Five work points are perfectly fine. I’m satisfied with that. Let’s leave it at that.
Comrade Lin, if you’re busy, you should get back to work. I need to leave too.”
She decisively settled the matter, hoping no one would continue arguing about it.
For a moment, Lin Siyu could not figure her out.
She forced a smile.
“Comrade Su, then please be careful on your way.”
With the matter resolved satisfactorily, Su Meier turned and left without the slightest hesitation.
“Wait, Comrade Su.”
Jiang Honglian called after her.
Su Meier stopped and looked back.
“Comrade Jiang, is there something else?”
“Comrade Su, where do you live? When I have free time, I’d like to come visit you.”
Jiang Honglian genuinely liked her and had already decided they would become friends.
After thinking about it, Su Meier realized she really did not have any close friends here.
Perhaps she could try making one or two.
“The Su family home. The house with the white walls right in the center of the village.”
She gave a simple description.
After all, theirs was the only house whose walls had been whitewashed with plaster.
“The Su family? The white-walled house?”
Jiang Honglian’s eyes widened.
“You’re Captain Su’s daughter?”
Su Meier nodded openly.
“Captain Su is my father.”
Suddenly everything made sense to Jiang Honglian.
No wonder she had White Rabbit milk candies.
Her family clearly had some means.
“I never expected you to be Captain Su’s daughter. You’re completely different from the rumors.”
Sure enough, gossip could never be fully trusted.
Previously, she had heard that Su Meier had been abandoned by a man and assumed Captain Su’s daughter must be unbearably ugly.
But now?
This soft, sweet, and genuinely kind young woman—
If she were a man, she could never imagine abandoning someone like her.
Which meant the problem must have been with that man.
Su Meier knew the original owner’s reputation was not exactly spotless.
Because of her family’s status, however, the villagers did not dare openly criticize her.
She simply chose to ignore it.
After all, she had not lived through any of it.
“Of course. Once a story gets passed from one person to a hundred, the meaning changes completely.”
She did her best to improve her image.
Jiang Honglian nodded.
“I believe you.”
Even if there had been personality issues before, Su Meier’s body type was exactly her preference.
As the saying went, birds of a feather flock together.
That described sturdy girls like them perfectly.
Su Meier smiled brightly.
“You should come eat at my house sometime.”
Leaning closer, she whispered into Jiang Honglian’s ear,
“I’ll tell you a secret. I know how to hunt.”
“When you have a day off, I’ll take you hunting in the mountains. We’ll have ourselves a proper feast.”
In truth, Su Meier thought Jiang Honglian’s strong build would make her the perfect person to help carry the spoils.
Of course, she would not shortchange her on rewards.
Jiang Honglian lightly bumped her shoulder and gave her a thumbs-up.
“Comrade Su, you’re exactly my kind of person.
You’re nothing like those scheming women who make a fuss over every little thing.
I really like people like you.”
She had judged correctly after all.
The corners of Su Meier’s lips lifted.
“Alright, hurry back to work. If we keep chatting, they’ll deduct your work points.”
“They wouldn’t dare. If they did, I’d just stop trying. Then everyone would end up working overtime anyway.”
The essence of labor was teamwork.
When workloads were heavy, everyone had to help each other.
Still, she obediently returned to her own work area.
“Oh? You finally came back?”
Fang Zhaodi glanced at her sideways.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were a village girl from Dali Village yourself.”
Jiang Honglian shrugged indifferently.
“Oh, noble citizen of Haicheng, are your eyes pointed toward the sky? Do you see everyone as a villager?”
“You!”
Fang Zhaodi fumed.
“Then why are you so close to that village girl?”
“You manage the heavens, the earth, and now my freedom to make friends too?
What? Do you like me?”
Jiang Honglian suddenly threw her an exaggerated flirtatious wink.
“You’re called a tomboy for a reason, and now you’re really getting carried away. Disgusting!”
After throwing out that insult, Fang Zhaodi stormed off.
“Tch. What a rookie.”
Jiang Honglian picked up her shovel again and resumed working.
Meanwhile, on her way home, Su Meier ran into several village aunties, including Aunt Chunwang, whom she had met the day before.
Each of them hinted openly or indirectly that if she caught another wild rabbit, she should trade some meat with their families.
Even a few pieces would do.
The requests gave Su Meier a headache.
If she caught several rabbits, that would be one thing.
But if she only caught one?
There wouldn’t even be enough for her own family to eat.
Naturally, she made her position clear.
If she caught plenty, she could trade.
If she caught very little, then no.
“Mom, I’m back.”
As Su Meier pushed open the courtyard gate, she spotted two fashionably dressed young women sitting inside.
The enemy doesn’t move, so I don’t move.
She quietly observed them while they, too, stood up and looked at her.
The girl in a clean white blouse spoke first.
“Meier? Are… are you alright?”
Before she could respond, the girl in the yellow dress rushed forward and gave her a huge hug.
“Meier, you broke your promise! Half a month ago, you said you’d come back to the city and visit us. But as soon as you returned home, you completely forgot about us!”
Su Meier forced a professional sweet smile.
“How could I? I got sick for a while and only recently recovered. I simply haven’t had the chance to see you yet.”
“You’re lying!”
The girl in yellow immediately called her out.
“You’ve already started working in the village!
Tell me the truth. Are you planning to stay in this little mountain village forever?
Have you forgotten your great dream?”
Holy crap! What dream?
Su Meier glanced guiltily at the pretty young woman.
She had none of the original owner’s memories.
She knew absolutely nothing.
Judging from the situation, however, this yellow-dressed girl was obviously one of the original owner’s closest friends.
After all, she had charged over and hugged her immediately.
Feeling awkward, Su Meier gently pulled herself free.
“Well… dreams can change sometimes.”
“How could they?”
The girl clearly did not believe her.
“I’ve known you for years. You talked about it constantly for three whole years and never once changed your mind.”
Then tell me what the dream was!
How was she supposed to make something up otherwise?
It was driving her crazy.
The more mature-looking girl in the white blouse finally spoke.
“Meier, you always said you wanted to travel around the world. Even after you started dating Senior Tao, that dream never changed.”
Su Meier nearly rolled her eyes.
So that was the dream.
With her current circumstances, traveling around her own country would already be difficult enough.
Traveling around the world?
What kind of fantasy was that?
Suddenly, the girl in white seemed to realize something.
“Did something happen between you and Senior Tao?
The day you left, you seemed distracted.
And around that time, he stopped being inseparable from you.
You two…”
“We broke up.”
Su Meier answered calmly and directly.
“What?!”
The girl in yellow cried out in shock.
“How could something this important happen and you never tell me?”
As for what exactly had happened, Su Meier had no idea.
When she arrived here, she had been completely in the dark.
So she casually covered it with a simple explanation.
“My mind was a mess back then. I didn’t want you two worrying about me, so I kept it to myself.”
A trace of delight seemed to flash through the eyes of the girl in white.
“I see.”
She looked at Su Meier seriously.
“Then where did Senior Tao go?”