Chapter 31 Where can you find nice abs to touch? Come and feel them if you don't believe me.

The riverbank was wet, and people were gathered in layers, all craning their necks.

"Oh dear, isn't this Hui'er from Weimin's family? What happened to her like this?"

"What else could it be? He just plunged headfirst into the river! If it weren't for Zhu Zi's dad jumping in quickly, he would have been long gone!"

Zhao Xiaohua squeezed to the front and finally saw it clearly.

Lying on the ground was Zhao Hui. She was soaking wet, her hair was a mess and stuck to her face. Her face, which was usually quite rosy, was now as white as a sheet of paper, her lips were blue, her eyes were tightly closed, and she was completely still. If it weren't for the slight rise and fall of her chest, she would have looked just like a dead person.

"Make way! Make way!"

A loud shout came from outside the crowd, and village chief Zhao Weimin, his face dark, strode over. When he saw his daughter's half-dead state, his eyes instantly reddened, a mixture of anger and heartache that made his square face look particularly ferocious.

An aunt who was close to Zhao Weimin's family couldn't stand it anymore and angrily questioned, "Weimin! What did you say to the child? This morning when I went to the commune, I heard you two arguing in the office. A few words are fine, but how could you drive the child to jump into the river!"

Zhao Weimin's lips trembled, but he couldn't utter a single word.

He simply waved his hand and hurriedly shouted at the people around him, "Stop crowding around! Hurry up and carry it home!"

Several burly men immediately stepped forward and lifted Zhao Hui up with their bare hands.

A man walked along, sighing, "Weimin, what could be so important that you couldn't talk it out instead of resorting to violence? No matter how ignorant the child is, he's still your own flesh and blood!"

Upon hearing this, Zhao Weimin only sighed even more heavily.

He doesn't dare to say it, how could he have the face to say it?

They say his daughter was so jealous of a man that she went so far as to instigate Wang Laizi from the village to ruin a woman from the city.

When Wang Laizi was first arrested and confessed that Zhao Hui had ordered him to do it, he was the first person who didn't believe it! He knew his own daughter well; she was just a little temperamental, how could she possibly do such a despicable and heinous thing!

Until Wang Laizi mentioned the bottle of strong liquor.

He said that Zhao Hui promised him that after he succeeded, she would give him the bottle of strong liquor buried under the locust tree in the backyard.

That bottle of wine was buried by him and his daughter when she was fifteen. He even joked at the time that it was her "daughter's red wine," and that they would dig it up and drink it on her wedding day.

No one else in the world knows about this except for the father and son!

He went back and secretly questioned Zhao Hui. His daughter admitted it readily, without a trace of remorse on her face. When she mentioned Jiang Wanqiu, the disgust and hatred in her eyes made even her father feel uneasy.

Not to mention this morning, she was still arguing with him in the office, calling him "her Wenchang brother" repeatedly, and even threatening him that if he didn't arrange the hardest and most tiring job for Jiang Wanqiu, she could do what she did last time, and she could do it again!

They still call him "Brother Wenchang" all the time!

Given Zhao Wenchang's shrewdness honed in the army, he probably already guessed that this matter was related to his daughter, but he didn't reveal it because of the decades-long relationship between the two families.

That day, when he invited people to dinner, it wasn't really a treat; it was clearly him, as the father, swallowing his pride to apologize to his daughter!

Fortunately, Zhao Wenchang nodded, giving him face. But his good-for-nothing daughter still didn't learn her lesson and even got worse!

He was so angry that he was trembling all over, and then he raised his hand and slapped her hard across the face.

Unexpectedly, this one slap drove her into the river.

Zhao Hui was carried home and placed on a warm earthen bed. Her wet clothes had been changed, and she was covered with a thick quilt.

She was jolted by the cold water, choked on it, and developed a fever, becoming delirious with heat.

"Wenchang... Brother Wenchang..." She lay on the kang (a heated brick bed), repeatedly and unconsciously uttering the name.

Her mother sat beside her, tears streaming down her face, repeatedly wiping her burning forehead with a towel.

Finally, he turned to Zhao Weimin, who was silently smoking, and said, "Honey, look at Hui'er's fever... and she keeps muttering about Wenchang. Why don't we call him over to take a look? Maybe if he comes, Hui'er will feel better."

Seeing his daughter like that, Zhao Weimin felt extremely distressed and had no choice but to say to his son, "Fu'er, you're quick on your feet, go and call Wenchang over."

Zhao Fu responded, put on his coat, and ran outside.

Meanwhile, at Zhao Wenchang's home, he and Jiang Wanqiu were packing their luggage, preparing to catch the evening train.

The room was quiet, with only the rustling of clothes.

Zhao Wenchang zipped up his suitcase and turned around to see Jiang Wanqiu standing by the window, wearing only a thin khaki trench coat and looking out. The north wind was blowing in through the cracks in the window, making her coat flutter and causing her to shrink her neck.

"Put this on." Zhao Wenchang said helplessly, picking up the neatly folded military overcoat from the kang (a heated brick bed), the one she had worn when she first arrived.

Jiang Wanqiu looked at the bulky coat and stepped back: "I'm not wearing it, it's too bulky and heavy. Besides, it's not cold in Shanghai, it'll be warmer in the south."

"You prioritize style over warmth," Zhao Wenchang ignored her completely. He used a bit of force to drape the heavy coat over her shoulders, then buttoned it up one by one, muttering, "You'll know you're wrong when you catch a cold and lie on the train groaning."

The overcoat was large and looked somewhat comical on her slender body, but it covered her completely and kept her warm from the cold outside.

Jiang Wanqiu simply pursed her lips and didn't resist anymore.

Because it's so warm...

She regretted it a little when she realized she was even colder after getting dressed, but she was too lazy to change and thought she would just have to endure it until she got there.

However, it's still comforting to have someone worry about you.

"And what about you?" Jiang Wanqiu couldn't help but ask when she saw that Zhao Wenchang wasn't dressed very warmly either.

"Me? I'm not cold, I'm used to it." Zhao Wenchang smiled and turned to get back to work.

Looking at the man's tall and slender figure, and then at herself, dressed like a fat penguin, Jiang Wanqiu couldn't help but feel a mischievous urge to tease him.

You're not cold, right? Okay.

Zhao Wenchang suddenly felt a chill in his lower abdomen, his abdominal muscles tensed, and when he turned his head, he saw the woman stuffing her icy hands into the hem of his clothes without saying a word.

His gaze, somewhat surprised, met the woman's. Her eyes were bright, and seeing his reaction, she looked like she had successfully pulled off a prank.

Instead of getting angry, Zhao Wenchang laughed and pulled the woman in front of him, grabbing her hand and pressing it onto his abs: "It feels better to touch it inside."

Jiang Wanqiu was stunned, not expecting the man to react this way. The man's firm muscles in her hand tensed, and her face flushed: "You, you're being a pervert!"

Zhao Wenchang raised an eyebrow, leaned closer to the woman, and stared at her: "Who started this?"

"I, I..." Jiang Wanqiu's guilty gaze swept around erratically.

Seeing how embarrassed the other person was, Zhao Wenchang finally let go of her hand. He turned his head and looked at the old-fashioned clock hanging on the wall. The hands were pointing to four o'clock in the afternoon.

He picked up the two suitcases and said in a deep voice, "Let's go, the tractor should be waiting at the village entrance."

Not long after the two arrived at the village entrance, they saw Zhao Fu running breathlessly from the east side of the village.

He spotted Zhao Wenchang and Jiang Wanqiu as they were about to climb onto the back of the tractor.

"Wenchang! Wenchang! Wait a minute!"

The tractor was making a loud "putt-putt" sound, and Zhao Fu shouted at the top of his lungs until his face turned red.

Upon hearing this, Zhao Wenchang told the driver to stop, then jumped out of the car and went to meet him: "What's the matter that's so urgent?"

Zhao Fu ran up to her, hands on his knees, panting heavily. It took him a while to catch his breath before he could speak. He pointed in the direction of the village, his face full of anxiety: "Wenchang... Hui... Hui girl... she jumped into the river! They just pulled her out, she's still unconscious! My dad sent me to ask you... before you leave, do you... do you want to go back and check on your sister?"