Chapter 18

“It’s fine, it’s fine…”

If Xie Tingyu hadn’t had such a fierce and savage expression when he said this, it might have sounded a bit more convincing. He was terrible at comforting people, awkward and stiff. Tucked in his arms, Ye Qingshui could even feel the rigidity of his elbow, which was quite uncomfortable. His skin radiated steamy heat, and his breathing was hot and rapid, low and rough, which, well, made him seem pretty manly.

Ye Qingshui’s heart gave a sudden thump. She quickly stepped aside and put on her mask.

Soon after, Shen Weimin, Zhang Yuanchao, and Liu Yiliang rushed over, panting, riding their bikes as fast as they could. But they were ten minutes too late — the smoke of the battlefield had already dissipated; not only dissipated, even the lingering fumes were about to cool. From a distance, all they could see was their usually cold and distant Brother Yu…

…comforting a village girl.

Seeing this scene, everyone’s faces lit up with a variety of colorful and complex expressions.

“Brother Yu is over there,” said Houzi (Monkey).

“Looks like nothing serious happened,” Shen Weimin said.

No, how could nothing have happened! Monkey shouted inwardly. Shen Weimin’s expression was just as complicated.

Only Liu Yiliang was grinning happily, revealing the satisfied smile of a little brother seeing something good happen. He nervously patted the dust off his hands and said, “Good thing nothing serious happened, or there would’ve been regrets. Hey—you guys, what are you standing around for, like fools?”

Only then did the three of them walk over.

Xie Tingyu had already calmed down.

He asked Ye Qingshui lightly, “What did they do to you?”

Hadn’t he just checked that not even a single strand of her hair was harmed? What was with this tone? The thugs lying on the ground, battered and miserable, could only suffer silently.

At his question, Ye Qingshui recalled what had just happened, and a wave of lingering fear swept over her. She stammered, “They wouldn’t let me go, demanded protection money, and tore off my mask.”

Ye Qingshui hesitated for a moment before continuing in a disgusted tone: “This thug wanted me to kiss him and be his girlfriend. He said he wouldn’t let me go unless I agreed…”

She left out a few particularly nauseating remarks.

The body on the ground, beaten almost into a puddle of mud and pretending to be dead, started trembling.

“Oh, really?”

Monkey, who had still been relatively calm a second ago, now had a face full of murderous intent. He walked over and slapped the thug twice across the face with a pa pa sound:

“Remember this day. If you mess with her again, you’re dead—”

Xie Tingyu said coldly, “No ‘next time.’ We’ll hand them over to the police right now for assault and harassment charges, right, Shuiya?”

The eight thugs on the ground, terrified out of their wits, began begging for mercy: “No, no, we didn’t hurt her!”

Everyone turned their gaze to Ye Qingshui — the “victim.”

They saw her with a pained expression, bending down carefully, picking up bones one by one from the ground. After she finished gathering most of them, she even looked around carefully, afraid of missing any. Seeing her regretful look, Xie Tingyu couldn’t help but laugh.

Truly, to her, food was more important than the sky.

Shen Weimin and Zhang Yuanchao were left speechless. It was a feeling of deep, instinctive understanding toward people from the countryside. After picking up all the bones, Ye Qingshui nodded and said, “I was just about to mention this.”

She looked at the thugs with a dangerous smile and said, “We’ll document everything to keep a record. If you ever come after me for revenge, I’ll have proof. If anything happens to me, it’ll be on you.”

The thugs: “……”

Xie Tingyu wrapped it up decisively: “Take them away.”

…

By the time they finished giving their statements at the police station, the sun had already set. Stars and the sliver of the moon were scattered sparsely in the sky, and the mountain village was enveloped in darkness.

Xie Tingyu borrowed two flashlights from Zhang Yuanchao, giving one to Shen Weimin and one to Ye Qingshui. Ye Qingshui grabbed the flashlight and nimbly hopped onto a bike. The bike had barely moved a few feet when Shen Weimin chuckled.

He said, “You sure are getting used to riding Brother Yu’s bike, huh?”

“Get off.”

Ye Qingshui had no interest in riding on the same bike with Xie Tingyu. She waved her hand dismissively, “You guys are just worried I’ll take advantage of Brother Yu, right? This way is better.”

She smiled, “I’ll head off first. You guys can take Brother Yu.”

Earlier, when Xie Tingyu hugged her to comfort her, the expressions in these two men’s eyes had practically screamed that they wanted to drag Xie Tingyu away. The way they looked at him was like he was a thug harassing some innocent girl. But if you thought about it carefully, that hug barely even counted as a real embrace — he had just wrapped an arm around her back and lightly patted her shoulder. Ye Qingshui really was quite innocent.

Hearing her reasoning, Zhang Yuanchao had to admit it made some sense. His pure, untouchable Brother Yu definitely couldn’t be “tainted” by this village girl any further. He patted the back seat of his bike and said, “Come on, bro, I’ll give you a lift.”

But Xie Tingyu, with just a few quick strides, caught up. He grabbed the back of Ye Qingshui’s bike, steadying it with one hand before it could topple over, and used the other to hold the handlebars.

He said lightly to Ye Qingshui, “It’s my bike — I’ll ride it.”

Xie Tingyu’s thought process was simple: something had just happened, and now it was dark. It would be irresponsible to let the little girl ride home alone.

Ye Qingshui replied briskly, “Just let me ride, don’t be so stingy. There are elders waiting at home for dinner, we need to get back quickly. If I get home faster and cook sooner, you can eat sooner too. Otherwise, we’ll be eating sweet potato porridge tonight.”

“It’s fine, I can ride fast,” Xie Tingyu said quickly.

Since it wasn’t her bike after all, and under the oppressive aura of its owner, even Ye Qingshui couldn’t insist. She nimbly hopped onto the back seat.

The three men behind them couldn’t help but grumble.

The Monkey sighed and said, “What’s up with Brother Yu?”

Liu Yiliang had already heard them complain about Ye Qingshui several times today, and he couldn’t help but argue back, “What’s wrong with Sister-in-law? I think she’s great! A girl like her, you couldn’t find even if you searched with a lantern.”

Shen Weimin thought for a moment and said, “Brother Yu is just being responsible. He’s just worried that something might happen to Shuiya again. Monkey, don’t overthink it.”

But from the way he said it, it still sounded like Ye Qingshui and Xie Tingyu weren’t a good match.

Liu Yiliang couldn’t stand it anymore and said, “Don’t you guys think Sister-in-law is really nice and also very good-looking?”

Shen Weimin and the Monkey exchanged helpless looks — this was already the second time today they had heard Liu Yiliang’s twisted sense of aesthetics.

Liu Yiliang sulked for a while, then his eyes lit up as he suddenly understood, “You guys just haven’t really taken a good look at Sister-in-law, have you?”

The Monkey laughed and said, “What do you mean we haven’t seen her? You think I went to the wedding banquet that day without my eyes?”

Liu Yiliang instantly understood, but he forcefully held back the words he wanted to say. He thought to himself: Heh, one day you’ll all regret it.

Acting all profound, Liu Yiliang said, “You can’t judge a person just by appearances, because even the prettiest face will grow old one day. A kind heart — that’s the real treasure beyond price.”

“Let’s go, let’s head to Brother Yu’s house for some bone soup. You guys must already be full from eating at the state-run restaurant, right? You probably don’t even care anymore. I’ll go ahead.”

Liu Yiliang pedaled hard and sped off.

By the time Ye Qingshui got home, it was too late to cook bone soup, but luckily she had bought some small bits of pork ribs from someone at the livestock station earlier in the afternoon. What she had been carefully picking up from the ground before were these very ribs, which had been chopped into small segments, making them quite hard to gather.

Ye Qingshui hadn’t cherished food this much in years. She washed the ribs five or six times, making absolutely sure there was no sand left, and even she was touched by her own diligence.

After cleaning the ribs, she called out for her mother to help pick and wash vegetables. Ye Qingshui then took out some marinade she had saved from a few days earlier, planning to make braised ribs. When Xie Tingyu saw her working with the dark marinade, despite normally never setting foot in the kitchen, he actually went to the garden to pick a bunch of fresh greens and washed them without complaint.

Very soon, the Ye family’s kitchen was filled with the aroma of cooking food.

After tasting a piece of the braised ribs, Xie Tingyu felt that he had gone too easy on those thugs — they had wasted food! He remembered seeing two pieces of rib trampled and ruined that Ye Qingshui hadn’t picked up. Also, the ribs that she did manage to pick — they were truly delicious.

Ye Qingshui didn’t have a big appetite and ate quickly. Her grandmother and mother were the same. In the countryside, eating was almost like fighting a battle — no matter how good the food was, people would just gobble it down.

All that was left was for Xie Tingyu to enjoy. But his pleasant mood didn’t last long — he heard Liu Yiliang’s loud, bell-like laughter approaching.

“Hahaha, it smells amazing — and we just happened to catch it!”

Liu Yiliang shamelessly helped himself to some rice and began devouring the ribs enthusiastically.

Shen Weimin and the Monkey followed him inside. When they saw the look in Xie Tingyu’s eyes, it was obvious he wasn’t happy, and they felt a bit awkward.

But really… it wasn’t their fault — Liu Yiliang had dragged them along.

Ye Qingshui had already finished applying the herbal medicine to her face and was wearing a mask. She was about to head out when she saw the two of them and gave a cold hum. Then, thinking of something, she stopped.

Smiling sweetly, she said to them, “Are you hungry? Come have some food.”

“No, no, no, we’re not eating,” Monkey said stubbornly.

“Oh, come on. Even if you already ate, just think of it as a little midnight snack,” Ye Qingshui said.

She generously divided the remaining food: giving about half of it to Xie Tingyu and the larger half to Liu Yiliang. Then she placed two small pieces of ribs into Shen Weimin and the Monkey’s bowls.

Feeling satisfied after dividing up the meat, she happily walked away.

Xie Tingyu shook his head, suppressing the smile in his eyes.

Liu Yiliang secretly gave Sister-in-law a thumbs up and ate the meat in his bowl with great satisfaction.

Shen Weimin and the Monkey could only sit down reluctantly. Monkey grumbled, “I definitely didn’t come here just to eat food cooked by some village girl.”

“I—”

“I, I, I… damn it…”

It’s delicious!

A rich, heavenly flavor exploded on his taste buds. The thick, sticky braising sauce coated the tender pork ribs perfectly. With each bite, the juicy meat released bursts of fragrant oil. The marinade had soaked into every fiber of the meat, flavoring it to the bone, making it irresistibly delicious.

“And then… what?”

Nothing — because it was already all eaten.

Liu Yiliang, almost done himself, quickly stuffed the last of the meat into his mouth to avoid having it snatched away. After a few chews, he neatly spat out a few clean rib bones.

Shen Weimin muttered, “Shuiya actually has quite a temper.”

In the height of summer, under the blazing sun.

The sun ruthlessly scorched the land, as if trying to wring out every drop of its sweat and blood. The fierce sunlight soon ripened the rice crops.

During the busy farming season, even those assigned to animal husbandry like Ye Qingshui had to join the harvest crews. She went out early and came back late every day, always wearing a straw hat — a wide-brimmed sun hat was a must.

This made her stand out sharply from the other women, who could barely wait to wear as little as possible in the heat.

Ye Qingshui, who had married Xie Tingyu, was already the subject of much village gossip. Now, covering herself up even more, she attracted even more attention and curiosity.

The female educated youth who farmed alongside her couldn’t help but comment, “Why are you covering yourself up so much? Even if you didn’t, nobody would look at you.”

Their impression of Ye Qingshui was still stuck on her sunburned, cracked, and red face — it really was quite a sight at first glance.

But still — it was precisely this village girl who had, without a word, snatched away the handsome Educated Youth Xie from under their noses. It made them grind their teeth with resentment.

One of the educated youth, He Fang, couldn’t help but touch her own face smugly and said, “No matter how much sun I get, my skin never gets damaged. Ye Qingshui, you better be careful — covering up like that for too long can cause heat rashes.”

Ye Qingshui responded with a cool “oh” and said lightly, “I can’t, I get damaged if I’m exposed to the sun. I like to cover up, you like to tan, then tan.”

Ye Qingshui’s body constitution tended to be cold — cold in winter, cool in summer. Back when her mother led her in working, she would often touch her cheeks and say, “Our Qingshui is so cool, touching you feels comfortable, let Mother hug you more.”

The female educated youth wanted to show off in front of Ye Qingshui but failed, so she mocked, “Why hasn’t Comrade Xie come to teach at the educated youth point recently? Could it be that you’re jealous? Someone as educated as him should be spreading knowledge more, Ye Qingshui, how can you limit him?”

Ye Qingshui lazily said, “No, whatever he wants to do — I support it.” She swallowed the words “I don’t interfere.”

“If you’re not stopping him, why doesn’t he come?”

Ye Qingshui noticed that she had put down her farm tools, not focusing on work at all and just following her around. Clearly, her intentions weren’t really about the work.

Ye Qingshui calmly said, “I didn’t stop him. Maybe he thinks you’re too stupid and not worth teaching. After meeting someone as smart as me and then comparing back and forth… he got lazy.”

“You, how can you say that! Ye Qingshui, that’s not being united! Comrade Xie is our educated youth representative. As his partner, you should learn from him, encourage him, supervise him. That’s the correct way of thinking. And — how am I stupid!”

The female educated youth nearly cried from anger at Ye Qingshui’s tone. Several others gathered around and started comforting her.

“Ye Qingshui, stop it. Hefang has already been recommended to attend the Workers, Peasants, and Soldiers University. In such a tough and simple environment, she still humbly seeks advice from Comrade Xie — that spirit is admirable. Why would you stop her? Do you think you’re more cultured and more capable than Hefang?”

“That’s right, that’s right, Ye Qingshui, you only have a primary school education, you don’t know how to improve yourself, but others aren’t like you.”

A group of women surrounded Ye Qingshui, their faces full of indignation but their hearts secretly satisfied: so what if Ye Qingshui married Comrade Xie? At least there was one area they could crush her in — she was uneducated!

Not only was she uneducated, she even liked to pretend she was cultured. How could a scholar like Comrade Xie ever truly look up to such an ignorant woman?

Sweeping the grain was an easier task, so most of the workers were women. And where there were many women, there was naturally a lot of gossip.

Looking at the various expressions of the educated youth around her, Ye Qingshui deeply felt it was time to let them face reality.

In her previous life, Ye Qingshui had indeed been very soft-tempered, very self-abasing, and rarely dared to refute others.

But now, after spending forty years away from them, she was no longer the ignorant girl she once was.

It had been countless “three days ¹ an idiom: “士别三日，当刮目相待” — “If a person is away for three days, you should look at them differently” ” over those forty years.

It was about time for these female educated youth to “wash their eyes” and look at her with fresh perspective.

She cleared her throat and said loudly and clearly:

“The last time I said you were arrogant and ignorant like frogs at the bottom of a well, it seems I didn’t slander you. Since ancient times, there have been countless outstanding people with little formal education.

No need to speak of the distant past — let’s talk about recent examples:

The literary giant Lu Xun, graduated from a vocational school;

Professor and mathematician Hua Luogeng from Tsinghua University, only graduated from middle school;

The painting master Qi Baishi, never attended a single day of school.

This is called ‘ability comes first.’”

Ye Qingshui straightened her face and seriously added:

“If you’re not convinced, we can have a competition. I’ll gladly accompany you. But if you lose, you must shut up and stop talking nonsense whenever you see me, and learn to be a civilized person.”

After she finished speaking, the crowd suddenly fell silent.

Ye Qingshui, holding a broom, lightly and happily spread out the grains evenly.

She didn’t know that after the workday ended, chaos had broken out among the female educated youth.

After a full day’s work, Ye Qingshui felt like a faucet, sweating like rain. No matter how much water she drank, it was no use. After sweating all over the threshing ground all day, she returned home, gulped down eight cups of water, sweated all over again, and only then felt herself rescued from the brink of heatstroke.

If only it would rain — rain would bring coolness.

But during harvest season, rain was the worst thing that could happen.

So Ye Qingshui immediately hoped it wouldn’t rain — at least not until the brigade finished gathering all the grain.

The grand grain harvest finally ended, and Ye Qingshui’s wish came true — not a single drop of rain fell.

As a thorough farmer, Ye Qingshui gazed at the blazing sun with growing anxiety.

Returning home, she asked Xie Tingyu,

“Do you remember when it last rained? Will the grain harvest be bad this year? I feel like there’s less grain drying out than before.”

Xie Tingyu quickly answered, “A month and three days ago.”

Then he calmly reported this year’s brigade grain production figures — he had just helped the accountant compile the reports.

“Previously, the average yield per mu was 903.5 jin of grain. This year, production fell, dropping about 5% to 7%. I looked at the data from other counties — it’s about the same everywhere.”

Xie Tingyu usually didn’t discuss these things with women — only the brigade leader and secretary cared about them. But since Ye Qingshui asked, he answered her directly.

Ye Qingshui squinted and frowned. She sighed,

“Phew, with this scorching weather, once the grain’s done, we’ll have to start digging wells, huh.”

Xie Tingyu nodded, “That’s right. We must dig before planting the second-season rice, or else there won’t be enough water.”

Digging wells wasn’t a big deal. Ye Qingshui was very familiar with it — after busy farming seasons, communes often organized labor to build irrigation projects or repair roads. If farmers depended purely on the weather, they’d starve.

At the educated youth dormitory:

After finishing the grain harvest, the educated youth finally got a chance to rest — and immediately exploded into heated discussion about Ye Qingshui.

Female educated youth Shen Yan said, “How did Ye Qingshui get so sharp-tongued?”

Zhou Tingting objected, “I don’t think so. I feel like she speaks very elegantly now, like a real scholar. Last time I asked her for help, she even poured me a cup of tea—”

But Zhou Tingting’s words were quickly drowned out by the heated discussion.

“Yeah yeah, it’s like she’s a different person, so arrogant!

How can someone with only a primary school education not be humble? Even the village elders are respectful to us!”

Zhou Tingting stubbornly tried again, “That’s because your attitude was wrong! Hefang, put yourself in her shoes — if I talked to you like that, would you be happy? When I talk to her, she’s never treated me like that.”

Li Lina said, “You’re right! She’s way too unhumble.

And… I heard her tone — she’s even more arrogant than those properly enrolled college students! Even real university students aren’t as cocky as her.”

Zhou Tingting said, “Cocky? Comrade, you’re misusing the word. She’s confident! I really admire her now. She truly knows a lot. I even asked Teacher Xie if she could really recite those things fluently — and he said, ‘Yes.’”

Finally, Sun Lingyu said, “Yes, you’re right.

Even proper college students aren’t as smug as her. We need to ‘correct’ Comrade Ye Qingshui’s blind arrogance. Didn’t she say she welcomes challenges? Then let’s go challenge her!”

At last, Zhou Tingting, who had been unable to get a word in edgewise: “……”

Author’s note:

Shuiya’er: “……”

So scared, these women are so dramatic.

Tingting: I’m bitter inside, but I can’t say a thing.

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