Chapter 12

Although Zhou Yao and Wen Yue had gone to the Wen family home as quietly as possible, it was nearly impossible to keep anything secret in a village.

When the argument broke out, someone just happened to be passing by outside the Wen family courtyard. Hearing the crash of a table being overturned, they stopped to listen out of curiosity. The courtyard gate had been left open as well, so there was no way to keep the noise from carrying.

Before long, everyone in the village knew that Li Huarong had tried to seize her niece’s land and refuse to return it. They also learned that Zhou Yao had offered a bride price of one thousand yuan.

People cursed Li Huarong for her cruelty while simultaneously marveling at Zhou Yao’s generosity.

If they’d known he was that wealthy, they would’ve married their own daughters to him instead.

Naturally, Lin Fang heard about it too.

The jealousy in her voice was impossible to hide.

“That bastard sure has all the luck. If I’d known he had that much money, I would’ve introduced my niece to him! One thousand yuan—that’s enough to put Yaozu through college…”

Liu Cuicui was preparing lunch in the kitchen.

Lin Fang followed behind her, bringing it up over and over again.

The constant complaining made Liu Cuicui increasingly irritated. She nearly sliced her finger while chopping vegetables and finally snapped.

“Will you stop already? What’s the point of whining to me? Is the money going to end up in your pocket?”

Who wouldn’t want it? She wanted it too. But wishing didn’t make it yours.

“Can people really earn that much working outside?” Lin Fang fell silent for two seconds before speaking again, her face full of longing. “Big Brother spent five years away and made all that money. I remember he gave Mother five or six hundred yuan when he came back, and he paid to renovate the house too. Add in the bride price, and that’s got to be more than two thousand yuan altogether, right?”

Five years. More than two thousand yuan.

The more she thought about it, the more excited she became.

If working outside could earn that much money, why bother farming? She should just send Zhou Jianghai out to work instead.

After all, their family managed to save only one or two hundred yuan a year at best.

Liu Cuicui rolled her eyes.

“If it were that easy, everyone would do it. Do you even know where Big Brother worked? Shanghai. Do you know how hard it is to find a job there? Without connections or an education, you can’t get decent work.”

Her eldest son had married a city girl and often talked about such things whenever he came home.

She remembered him mentioning that wages in Shanghai were far higher than elsewhere, but it was extremely difficult for outsiders to find work there.

Truthfully, she admired her husband’s elder brother.

A man with only a primary school education had gone to Shanghai alone and somehow managed to build a life there.

That was impressive.

If she’d married him instead—

Her gaze darkened.

Then she shook her head and forced the thought away.

The man was dead. What was the point of thinking about it now?

Besides, Zhou Qingshan wasn’t bad. At the very least, he was smarter than Zhou Jianghai.

“Really?” Lin Fang still wasn’t willing to let it go. “Sister-in-law, your son works in town, right? How much does he earn a month? Tell me.”

Liu Cuicui frowned slightly and replied in her usual gentle voice.

“Not much. Just a little over ten yuan a month. This is a small place—it can’t compare to a big city. I’ve heard that in Shanghai, people earn at least a hundred or two hundred yuan a month. The higher-paying jobs can bring in three or four hundred.”

She deliberately steered the conversation back to Shanghai.

As expected, Lin Fang immediately took the bait.

Her eyes widened.

“Good heavens! Three or four hundred a month? That’s more than we make in an entire year! Ah… if only I could go work in Shanghai…”

Liu Cuicui curled her lip in disdain.

With your brains? Shanghai would eat you alive.

The two sisters-in-law continued preparing lunch, each lost in her own thoughts.

Not long afterward, Zhou Jianghai and his son returned from the fields along with Zhou Qingshan.

Clearly, they had heard about what happened at the Wen family home that morning.

None of them looked pleased.

Resentment, jealousy, and envy mingled on their faces as their gazes drifted repeatedly toward the room where Wen Yue was staying.

In the end, Zhou Qingshan spoke first.

“With Zhou Yao’s temperament, that thousand yuan will be gone in no time. Forget about it.”

Only then did they reluctantly put the matter aside, though inwardly they continued cursing Zhou Yao in every way they could think of.

Wen Yue carried lunch into the room and placed the heaping bowl of rice in front of Zhou Yao.

Zhou Yao picked up his chopsticks and immediately prepared to eat.

“Did you wash your hands?” she asked.

His movements froze.

Following her gaze to his hands, he clicked his tongue in annoyance before standing up and heading toward the kitchen.

What a hassle.

A few dozen seconds later, Zhou Yao reappeared at the doorway.

His hands were still wet—he hadn’t even bothered drying them. He strode back inside, eager to grab his chopsticks and reach for the braised pork.

The moment the meat entered his mouth, the slight crease between his brows visibly relaxed.

A deeply satisfied expression spread across his face.

It suddenly felt as though every meal he’d eaten over the past twenty years had been a waste.

He picked up two more pieces of pork and tasted them on their own before finally eating them with rice.

Smack. Smack.

The sounds were surprisingly loud.

The problem was, he seemed completely unaware of it.

Wen Yue endured it as long as she could before finally tapping his bowl with her chopsticks.

“Don’t smack your lips while you’re eating.”

Zhou Yao looked up.

His expression practically screamed: Why are you so troublesome?

Wen Yue remained serious.

“It affects your handsome image. So please… no eating noises.”

Zhou Yao: “…”

Eating a meal had never involved this many rules.

If the food weren’t ridiculously delicious, he would’ve walked out already.

He stared at her for two long seconds before finally saying,

“Got it.”

After that, he genuinely ate in complete silence.

Satisfied, Wen Yue hugged her bowl and continued eating.

As usual, dishwashing duty fell to Zhou Yao afterward.

Wen Yue stood nearby supervising, leaning against the stove with both hands.

“Can I take some of the rice cakes and walnut pastries to give someone? I want to borrow books from Li Nianqiu, and it feels rude to show up empty-handed.”

“Do whatever you want.”

Zhou Yao didn’t even look up.

“You’re the lady of the house. Use that stuff however you like.”

His tone was casual and unconcerned.

His eyes remained lowered as he washed the dishes, and a rare softness lingered around his handsome features. The slight upward curve at the corners of his eyes gave him an unexpectedly alluring look.

Wen Yue’s heartbeat skipped.

She quickly looked away, inwardly cursing herself.

Back in her previous life, she’d seen enough handsome men on her phone to circle the globe twice.

So why was she still getting flustered this easily?

Pathetic.

Taking a deep breath, she hurried off after receiving permission.

Inside Zhou Yao’s room, she opened the cabinet and carefully packed several pieces of rice cake, walnut pastries, and a small handful of White Rabbit candies.

“I’m heading out!” she called toward the kitchen from the courtyard.

Zhou Yao’s response drifted out from inside.

“Alright. I’ll be going out later too.”

Incidentally, Li Nianqiu and Li Huarong were distantly related.

The village was dominated by the Li and Fang families, after all.

The weather was beautiful that day.

The sunlight was warm rather than scorching, spreading comfortably across her skin. A gentle breeze swept through the nearby cornfields, stirring a soft rustling of leaves.

Following the narrow path between the fields, she eventually reached the Li family’s courtyard near the lower stretch of the river.

It was the midday rest period, and the courtyard was quiet.

Just as Wen Yue was wondering how to call for someone, a young girl with a ponytail stepped out of the house.

She paused upon seeing a visitor outside.

After recognizing who it was, she turned and called softly into the house.

“Big Sis, Sister Wen Yue is here.”

Wen Yue immediately found the information in her memories.

The girl was Li Nianqiu’s younger sister, Li Xiangdong.

She was thirteen years old and already attending middle school.

Children from poor families grew up quickly.

Like her sister, Li Xiangdong was intelligent and resilient.

The two sisters were like wild grass growing from barren land—tenacious, stubborn, and determined to survive.

Unfortunately, Li Xiangdong’s fate was anything but kind.

After Li Nianqiu was admitted to university and left for school in another province, she’d asked the village chief to look after her younger sister.

But there was only so much one person could do against a family full of wolves.

While the village chief was away handling business in the city, they tied the girl up and sold her to a widower nearing fifty from the neighboring village.

For one hundred yuan.

She wasn’t even fifteen years old.

When Li Nianqiu returned home during winter break, the first thing she learned was that her sister was dead.

She had nearly gone insane.

Carrying a cleaver, she’d chased members of the Li family halfway across the village before the village chief finally stopped her.

Afterward, she left with her sister’s ashes and never returned.

Years later, after becoming successful, she spent considerable effort ruining the lives of those relatives, ensuring they lived in poverty and misery.

But none of that could bring her sister back.

Li Xiangdong had died forever in the cold winter of her fifteenth year.

When Wen Yue had read that part of the novel, she’d nearly cried.

Her eyes had turned red with anger.

How could they do that to a fifteen-year-old girl?

How could they?

Now, looking at Li Xiangdong standing safely before her, her eyes filled with pity and tenderness.

Li Xiangdong looked completely baffled.

“…Sister Wen Yue, is something wrong with me? Why are you looking at me like that? And why are your eyes red? Have you been crying?”

Hearing the voices, Li Nianqiu stepped out of the room.

She raised one thick, slightly unruly eyebrow.

The moment she noticed Wen Yue’s reddened eyes, the first words out of her mouth were:

“Did Zhou Yao bully you?”

After saying it, she immediately felt it was unlikely.

After all, Zhou Yao had stood up for Wen Yue at the Wen family home that very morning.

She’d heard about that too.

Her opinion of him had improved somewhat because of it.

“No,” Wen Yue replied softly. “I got some sand in my eyes.”

“Come inside and talk.”

Li Nianqiu opened the courtyard gate.

Her gaze briefly swept across several tightly shut wooden doors nearby before she spoke in her usual calm tone.

Li Xiangdong said, “I’m going to the bathroom.”

That had been why she’d come outside in the first place before running into Wen Yue.

Li Nianqiu nodded.

Wen Yue followed her into the room and quickly looked around.

There wasn’t much inside.

Everything was clean and neatly arranged.

A bed draped with a mosquito net.

A desk and two chairs.

An old wardrobe so worn it was nearly falling apart.

And a scattering of odds and ends.

Several cracks ran across the walls, while aged wooden beams remained exposed overhead.

The living conditions were far worse than she’d imagined.

Compared to this place, the blue-brick house she lived in now felt a hundred times better.

Sure enough—

Nothing made you appreciate what you had quite like comparison.