Chapter 11 All Southern Women Are Vixens!

These words completely extinguished the delicate smile on Zhao Hui's face.

His words and actions clearly showed his protection for the woman from the south!

She even asked me for eggs to nourish her body?

What kind of "spoiled young lady" is she?!

Zhao Hui's lips trembled for a long time, but she couldn't utter a single word.

Looking at Zhao Wenchang's cold face, and then at Jiang Wanqiu behind him with an innocent expression, she felt a tightness in her chest and couldn't catch her breath.

“You…you two…” She pointed at the two people, stomped her foot, turned around and ran out of the Zhao family's courtyard.

She looked back halfway through her run.

Her brother Wenchang didn't even chase after her to coax her!

She absolutely loathed this woman named Jiang Wanqiu!

The villagers had been gossiping behind their backs, saying that these educated youths from the south were all seductive vixens who could steal a man's soul with a single glance.

She didn't believe it before, but now she's seen it with her own eyes!

She's only been here a few days, and she's already completely infatuated with her childhood friend, Wenchang, who always sides with her and doesn't even recognize his own brother anymore!

Zhao Hui grew angrier and angrier, and walked all the way to the ridge of the field at the east end of the village.

She then spotted a small figure in the distance, head down in a patch of waist-high weeds, swinging a sickle back and forth.

It's Zhao Ping'an.

Everyone in the village knows that this little monkey-like creature isn't Wenchang's biological son.

It was only because the Zhao family was kind-hearted and afraid of hurting the child's feelings that they kept it from him and lied to him, saying that Zhao Wenchang was his biological father.

Zhao Hui's eyes darted around, and she put on a smiling face again. She walked over along the ridge of the field, deliberately raising her voice: "Ping An, what are you doing?"

Hearing the voice, Zhao Ping'an stopped using his sickle, raised his sweat-covered face, and looked at her with his bright black eyes: "Sister Zhao Hui."

He held up a small bundle of grass in his hand and honestly replied, "I'm cutting some grass to exchange for some goat milk at the commune."

"Switch to goat's milk?" Zhao Hui feigned surprise. "Didn't your father forbid you from drinking that stuff, saying it smelled fishy?"

“It’s not for me to drink,” Zhao Ping’an shook his head. “It’s for Sister Jiang… Sister Jiang. Grandpa and Grandma said that Sister Jiang is from the South and doesn’t like our cornbread and brown rice porridge. People in the city drink milk and eat bread, but we don’t have milk here, so we wanted to get her some goat milk to try.”

"Oh," she laughed sarcastically, crossing her arms over her chest, "this person hasn't even entered the house yet, and you're already ordering your whole family around? I think she's even more robust than me, does she need to be served so delicately?"

Finally, she added, "Ping An, let me tell you something from the bottom of my heart. I think your father has found a new wife and forgotten his old one. That Sister Jiang looks like a fairy in a painting. In a few years, I'm afraid your father won't even remember what your own mother looks like!"

"When they have another baby boy, you'll be a real nuisance. They'll throw you out then, won't they?"

Zhao Ping'an froze in his grass-cutting motion, his face tense, yet he stubbornly retorted, "No way! Sister Jiang promised me she would treat me well and love me like her own son!"

"A guarantee?" Zhao Hui scoffed, curling her lip. "Anyone can say nice things. You're still young, you don't know how treacherous people can be. Have you forgotten? It's all over the surrounding villages, Southerners are the best at lying!"

As she spoke, she raised her chin: "Don't you remember what happened in Jiajia Village next door? Wasn't it a case of a conman from the south swindling them out of their entire fortune, driving the whole family to jump into the river? I think this Jiang Wanqiu is pretty much the same as that conman! Her methods, tsk tsk..."

He knew about what happened in Jiajiazhuang, of course. He was the one who, relying on his good swimming skills, went down into the river with the adults and pulled the youngest son out of the river.

The child was ice-cold all over, and his face was all white from being soaked in water. He still has nightmares about it now.

"You don't believe me?" Zhao Hui felt a surge of pride seeing that he had been persuaded, and continued to add fuel to the fire, "If you don't believe me, go back and see for yourself! Look at your father, isn't he bewitched by that vixen? Go back and ask him if he still cares about your dead mother!"

"My father cares about my mother!" Zhao Ping'an shouted anxiously.

Zhao Hui had achieved her goal. She gave a smug snort, stood up, dusted off her trousers, and swayed away.

Zhao Ping'an was left standing there, stunned.

Once the woman left, Zhao Ping'an couldn't even cut the grass anymore; his mind was a complete mess.

His dad isn't the kind of person who forgets his old love for a new one!

But what Sister Zhao Hui said made so much sense, and how could an adult like her lie to a child...

The more he thought about it, the more uncertain he felt. So he ran all the way to his own yard gate, his small chest heaving violently as he ran.

He wanted to ask his father himself if he had forgotten his mother!

There were sounds of men and women coming from the main room. He didn't go in directly, but quietly peeked through the door frame and peered into the room.

In an instant, his eyes widened.

Inside the main room, Jiang Wanqiu, that woman, was leaning against her father.

No, not leaning on each other, but hugging each other!

Her father had one arm around her shoulder, leaning his whole body towards her, his head lowered, his mouth almost touching her ear. The two of them were so close, completely oblivious to any shame!

The expression on his father's face was one he had never seen before. So focused, so gentle.

Where was his serious, unsmiling father? His appearance clearly showed that Aunt Hui was right—he had been bewitched by a vixen!

Zhao Ping'an felt a sudden darkness before his eyes and a buzzing sound in his ears.

Judging from this, his father clearly no longer has a place for his mother in his heart!

Grandma Zhao came out of the kitchen and told Zhao Wenchang to hurry up and cook for Jiang Wanqiu, and then go to the fields early, as the autumn harvest was in full swing these days.

"That's strange." Zhao Xiaohua muttered with some doubt, "That brat Zhao Ping'an went out to cut grass before dawn, why hasn't he brought back the goat milk yet?"

Upon hearing this, Zhao Wenchang went into the kitchen, rolled up his sleeves, and prepared to knead the dough. Jiang Wanqiu followed him, hoping to find something she could help with.

"Ouch!"

The man had just entered the kitchen when he heard a gasp from behind him.

Jiang Wanqiu subconsciously closed her eyes, but she still felt something pierce them, causing both pain and itching, and tears welled up instantly.

"What's wrong?" Zhao Wenchang immediately turned around and walked towards Jiang Wanqiu when he heard something was wrong.

"My eyes...it feels like something got into my eyes." Jiang Wanqiu rubbed her eyes painfully, tears rolling down her cheeks, her eyes red and swollen, looking quite pitiful.

Zhao Xiaohua was sifting cornmeal with a winnowing basket in the kitchen, and tiny cornmeal fragments were floating everywhere in the air.

"Stop rubbing!" Zhao Wenchang grabbed her wrist. "The more you rub it, the worse it will get! Let me see!"

Zhao Wenchang breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that she was no longer moving. He bent down and carefully approached her face.

"Is it the left eye or the right eye?" he asked.

"Left...left eye."

Zhao Wenchang gently pried open her eyelids with his rough thumb, put his other arm around her shoulder to steady her body, and whispered, "Don't move, I'll blow on it for you."

Zhao Wenchang's attention was entirely focused on her red and swollen eye, and he was completely unaware of how intimate their posture was.