The little commotion in the morning more or less affected Xie Zhuo's mood, leaving his handsome face cold for a long time without warming up.

It wasn't because of Sun Jiarou, but because Xie Zhuo felt sorry for his parents.

They helped the Sun family so much back then.

In those famine-stricken years, his parents saw that the Sun family had many children, all of whom were skin and bones from hunger. They couldn't bear it, so they gave them all the large basket of cornbread they had saved.

At that time, Sun Guoan and Chen Guizhen took the initiative to visit him, insisting that they should give Sun Jiarou to him as his wife.

At first, his parents strongly disagreed, partly because they felt he was too young, and partly because they believed it was unethical to "take advantage of someone's misfortune."

It was only after Sun Guoan visited them twice that they finally agreed.

Unexpectedly...

A bunch of ingrates.

"Third Uncle," Da Bao broke a cookie he had gathered from the kitchen in half and stuffed it into Xie Zhuo's hand.

Xie Zhuo snapped out of his daze.

“Third Uncle, eat,” Da Bao said.

Xie Zhuo's expression softened, and he handed the biscuit back to Da Bao, saying, "Third Uncle isn't hungry yet, you can have it."

Xie Zhuo woke up late today and was delayed at the gate for a while. After washing his face and tidying up, he heard the captain outside breaking a porcelain basin.

I don't know where he found that broken enamel basin. It had a chip on the rim, but when you tapped the bottom of the basin with an iron rod, it made a very sharp sound.

Xie Zhuo turned to Da Bao and Xiao Bao and gave them a few more instructions before taking a piece of leftover sweet potato from last night and leaving.

Qingshan Brigade has a large population. Apart from the educated youth settlement, most of the other residents live together. If there's any commotion in someone's yard, you don't need to listen carefully; you can get pretty much the story just by listening.

Moreover, when Sun Jiarou came today, they even went to the entrance to check.

Although I didn't hear exactly what the two of them said, just seeing them standing together was enough to make things interesting.

Xie Zhuo followed behind them, yawning as he listened to their gossip.

"I regret what I've done to the Sun family!"

“I think so too. Otherwise, why would Sun Jiarou never come to the Xie family before, but this time she actually stood at the door and talked to Xie Zhuo for a long time?”

What do you think they could say?

"What else could it be? He wants Xie Zhuo to break off his engagement with Xiao Xu, the educated youth, and marry her instead."

"That can't be right. They just broke off the engagement yesterday morning. Chen Guizhen went to the field herself to tell them."

"Sigh, we didn't know Xie Laosan had so much money back then. If we had known earlier, we probably would have let them get married last year."

“That’s right, they even observe three years of mourning,” another old woman lowered her voice a little, “It’s just that no one dares to report the secretary’s family, otherwise, with their old-fashioned thinking, they would be arrested sooner or later!”

"Isn't it going to happen soon? In my opinion, this is karma."

"Who can argue with that?"

"Over the years, Chen Guizhen is the only one in Qingshan Brigade who dared to steal public grain."

"Exactly, if they weren't shameless, they wouldn't have done something like stealing public grain."

A young woman suddenly changed the subject, and then the others joined her in talking about stealing public grain.

Xie Zhuo was still trailing far behind the crowd, his eyes half-closed as if he hadn't woken up yet, occasionally chewing on a piece of dried sweet potato.

Educated youth settlement.

The educated youth overslept again today because they hadn't slept well.

Of course, Xu Yan is an exception.

After the brigade leader arrived, he banged on an enamel basin outside for a long time before Zhou Jingjing quickly put on her cloth shoes and ran out of the dormitory.

Next were Ye Wei, Wu Shi, and the others.

The captain glanced at them and noticed that Han Xiaoyu hadn't arrived yet.

"Captain," a bespectacled male educated youth called out to Song Guangming. When Song Guangming's eyes met his, he continued, "Brother Han isn't feeling well today, so he asked me to ask for leave for him."

As soon as he said that, Song Guangming's brows furrowed immediately. "He hasn't had a single day of comfort!"

After saying that, he didn't actually go to the dormitory to forcibly pull Han Xiaoyu up; he only said, "Deduct two work points."

Then he led everyone into the field.

When the people at the educated youth settlement heard that their work points would be deducted, they all wore long faces, but no one dared to wake Han Xiaoyu up to go to work.

The villagers weren't interested in whether Han Xiaoyu went to work or not; they were much more interested in Xu Yan.

After all, she made a big splash last night, taking away all of Xie Zhuo's belongings with just a few casual words.

He's a formidable character.

Xu Yan wasn't afraid of being watched and stood ramrod straight.

As the brigade leader led his men into the field, he also planned to pick up his hoe and follow, but before he could even make a move, a hand suddenly reached out from behind him.

That hand is very big.

It looked about twice the size of hers. You couldn't see if there were calluses on her palms from years of hard work, but her fingers were quite long, and she looked very strong.

A strong hand grabbed her hoe and sack, then swung them cleanly and neatly onto the man's shoulder.

Xu Yan was a little taken aback when she looked up and saw Xie Zhuo standing beside her.

The man was tall and blocked the sunlight.

"You're going to the fields today?" Xie Zhuo's brow furrowed slightly. "Have you recovered?"

“It’s alright,” Xu Yan said. “It’s not heavy work right now, so weeding should be fine.”

Xie Zhu didn't speak for a long time before finally humming in response.

The two of them walked behind everyone else, and every now and then people in front of them would turn around and look at them.

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