Chapter 3, Three Rules

“It’s not impossible for us to become revolutionary partners.” The shimmering light on the river was so dazzling that it was hard to open one’s eyes. Jiang Suining turned to face him. “Besides the salary you promised to hand over and the housework to me, we also need to agree on three rules.”

“Okay,” Lu Ye’s heart, which had been hanging in suspense, finally settled back down after she said those words. He straightened his head and puffed out his chest, his expression serious and earnest. “Go on.”

Jiang Suining bent down and picked up a pebble, drawing a white mark on the bluestone slab by the river: "First, after we get married, I won't interfere in your affairs, and you're not allowed to interfere in mine."

Lu Ye frowned slightly, his lips pressed into a line, and after a moment he nodded slightly: "Okay, but you can't hide anything from me, and you have to tell me directly if you need help."

"Don't worry, I won't hesitate to ask for your help when I need it, and similarly, don't hesitate to ask for my help if you need anything." Jiang Suining raised an eyebrow, the pebble leaving a second white mark. "Secondly, we've only just met. Even if we get a marriage certificate, we still have to start from dating. If our values ​​don't align and we can't live together, you'll have to agree to a divorce."

A look of surprise flashed in Lu Ye's eyes. He swallowed twice and said with some difficulty, "I agree."

“Third!” Jiang Suining suddenly raised her hand, and the pebble drew a silver arc in the air before falling into the center of the river with a splash. As the ripples spread, the tips of her ears turned red. “Don’t have children before you are twenty-four.”

Lu Ye suddenly chuckled: "Last year, the Central Military Commission conveyed the 'later birth rate' policy. Besides, we are still young and not in a hurry to have children."

"Then you have to write a guarantee." Jiang Suining turned away from him. The reason she made him write a guarantee was simply to show how seriously she took the matter.

"Okay, I'll write it when I get back." Lu Ye's heart was surging, his voice was tight, and his chest felt like it was burning with fire.

Jiang Suining was very satisfied. She turned around excitedly, flicked her braid, and the red rubber band flew out in an arc. Jiang Suining touched her loose hair and squatted down to look for the rubber band among the pebbles.

Lu Ye had just seen it clearly; the rubber band had snapped into the river. He took out a neatly folded brown checkered handkerchief from his military trouser pocket, wrung it out, and handed it to the person: "Use this; it's clean."

"Thank you." This person actually carried a handkerchief with him, which seemed to indicate that he was a clean person. Jiang Suining was a little surprised. When she took it, she smelled a faint camphor scent.

Her hair wasn't completely dry yet; after being braided, it looked like she had a perm. She simply used a handkerchief to tie her hair into a low ponytail at the back of her head, which looked like the fashionable look of a city girl.

Lu Ye's Adam's apple bobbed as he stared intently at her.

The air felt like it was boiling, with heat waves piled up one after another, and the scorching sun poured down without any obstruction, almost drying the wet clothes on the two of them.

Jiang Suining felt Lu Ye's undisguised gaze, and her heart pounded like a drum.

The once smooth candy wrapper was now wrinkled and had obvious water stains. His heart sank. He carefully peeled off the wrapper and, sure enough, the candy had been soaked in water and was soft and mushy, and the candy itself was deformed: "It's been soaked in water and can't be eaten. I'll buy you another one later."

"Okay." Jiang Suining responded softly, feeling inexplicably sweet, as if she had eaten candy.

When Lu Ye saw the corners of her lips turn up, he was delighted and couldn't help but smile back.

"It looks like it's going to rain." Jiang Suining pointed to the leaden-gray cumulonimbus clouds pressing in from the southeast horizon and looked at Lu Ye.

The words had barely left her lips when a rumble of thunder rumbled across the river. Lu Ye, who had just washed his hands by the river, grabbed her wrist: "The sheets are still drying in the yard, let's hurry..."

Lu Ye quickly used his coat to create a tent to shield the two from the rain.

"Put it towards you." Jiang Suining saw him intentionally pulling his coat towards her and tugged at the soaking wet corner of his clothes.

Lu Ye, instead, shifted his coat further towards her. Jiang Suining gave up; since she was already soaked to the bone, it didn't really matter whether she covered herself or not.

The two hurried home, only to find that the rain stopped as soon as they entered the courtyard.

"I should have found somewhere to avoid the rain before coming back," Jiang Suining muttered, twisting her hair.

Lu Ye wiped the rain off his face and wrung out his coat: "Go change your clothes first."

He turned and walked towards the clothesline in the yard. The sheets and clothes he had washed before leaving home that morning were already soaked through, splattered with mud near the ground, and the pillows and towels had been blown to the ground by the wind, mixed with the mud and water, a truly pitiful sight.

Jiang Suining pushed open the door and entered the room. On the octagonal table was an enamel mug with the words "Labor is Glorious" printed on it. There were some photos hanging on the wall, some framed and some pasted directly on the wall.

His sailor shirt clung tightly to his bulging back muscles, creating an inverted triangle muscle outline. As he raised his arms, his shoulder blades rose and fell beneath the fabric like a soaring eagle.

"Become my revolutionary partner!" Jiang Suining inexplicably heard Lu Ye's words by the river. Her face flushed, and she turned around abruptly, only to bump into the octagonal table, causing the water in the enamel bowl to tremble.

She paused for a moment, and only after her emotions had calmed down did she push open the wooden door of the west wing. The mortise and tenon joints creaked from years of disrepair.

This was the room that belonged to the original owner. Yellowed newspapers were pasted on the walls. On the windowsill, in a glass bottle of Red Star Erguotou liquor, two pale pink lotus petals were curled up and not yet unfolded. The edges of the lotus leaves were sunburnt and yellowish.

Two camphor wood chests were placed side by side on the bed. The floral sheets on the bed were pulled up without a single wrinkle. A tattered handwritten novel was placed next to the pillow. Jiang Suining picked it up and flipped through it. It was "The Second Handshake".

Outside the main room, Lu Ye stared thoughtfully at the tightly closed door.

He shared a room with Jiang Suining's older brother, Jiang Fengnian, in the east wing of the main room. Jiang Suining had just closed the door to the main room, so he didn't dare to go in rashly. He knocked on the door three times, but no one answered.

He listened intently, but there was no sound from inside. After hesitating for a while, he slowly pushed open the door. The main room was empty, and the wooden door leading to the west wing was tightly closed. Lu Ye glanced at it and then walked into the east wing.

Old newspapers were pasted on the walls of the east wing, and an enamel basin sat on the chest of drawers, the red characters "Defend the Homeland" already faded.

Lu Ye took out clean clothes from his bag, changed, and pulled out his notebook. He recalled the three rules Jiang Suining had made with him by the river and wrote a guarantee carefully.

The wooden door was suddenly kicked open, and he instinctively stood up to defend himself.

"You bastard!" Jiang Fengnian, shirtless, slammed open the wooden door, his tanned arms bulging with veins. "How dare you hug my sister!" His fist, which came flying, smelled of dirt, but was stopped by Lu Ye's iron-like hand before it could reach his cheek.

Lu Ye spun around and took a step, grabbing the other's wrist in the instant his thumb precisely pressed against the numb spot on his wrist.

"Calm down!" Lu Ye said in a low voice.

Jiang Fengnian gritted his teeth, his voice cracking: "You've already bullied my sister, how can I stay calm?!"

"What nonsense are you talking about!" Lu Ye's cold eyes flashed with doubt.

"You coward! You dare to do it but not admit it. The whole village is talking about it. If you're going to save someone, then save them. Why did you have to grab them?" Jiang Fengnian thought of the gossip he heard on his way back and cursed himself for his incompetence.

“Comrade Jiang swam to the shore by herself. I only held her wrist and let go after pulling her ashore.” Lu Ye guessed that he was referring to what happened by the river. His voice was steady. “Hearsay is not to be believed. You should have your own judgment.”

As Jiang Fengnian struggled, he knocked over an enamel mug, staining the wild chrysanthemum tea he had brewed the night before with yellow spots on the table: "Bullshit! Aunt Liu saw you put your arm around her waist!"

“That’s a rumor,” Lu Ye released his grip and quickly grabbed the notebook on the table and stuffed it under his pillow. “I can confront Aunt Liu face to face.”

Jiang Fengnian gradually calmed down. After thinking about it carefully, he realized that his sister had been swimming in the river with him since she was a child, so there was no need for Lu Ye to save her. Besides, Aunt Liu was known as Liu the Big Mouth, and she loved to gossip. Her words were indeed not to be trusted. He felt guilty for his impulsiveness and looked embarrassed. He fastened the buttons on his ripped shirt and said, "I'm sorry."

“It’s nothing,” Lu Ye said, taking out his marriage application from his military canvas bag. “Before I came here, the organization approved my marriage application and the order for my transfer to the military. I also mentioned this to Comrade Jiang today.”

Jiang Fengnian stared blankly at the application form stamped with a red seal. He thought this brother-in-law was quite good, but Sui Sui wanted to break off the engagement! How was this going to end?

"She agreed."

"Let's not rush into marriage, Sui Sui is still young..." Jiang Fengnian suddenly realized what he was saying, looked up and glared at Lu Ye, "What did you say? Who, who agreed? Agreed on what?"

“Comrade Jiang has agreed to become my revolutionary partner,” Lu Ye’s Adam’s apple bobbed in the shadows as he righted the overturned teacup. “Don’t worry, I will treat her well.”

A rumble of thunder rolled past the window, startling the chickens in the backyard.

"You still say you didn't bully her!" Jiang Fengnian swung his fist again, but Lu Ye once again twisted his arms behind his back and pinned him against the wall.

“Comrade Jiang did it voluntarily, you can ask her.” Lu Ye was speechless at his future brother-in-law. He acted impulsively and didn’t think things through. If he had just asked Comrade Jiang, the truth would have been clear. Why did he have to come here to be tormented?

"Let go, I'll go ask Sui Sui." Jiang Fengnian struggled, and Lu Ye released his grip.

Meanwhile, Jiang Suining was in the kitchen helping her mother cook. The cornmeal crumbs in the bamboo sieve rustled through her fingers. She squatted in front of the stove, picking out the blackened bits of cornmeal crumbs, when suddenly a shadow fell over the back of her neck.

"Aunt Liu said you were carried ashore by Comrade Lu!" Jiang's mother snatched the bamboo sieve away. "Since he's already carried you, you can only marry Comrade Lu. Don't even think about breaking off the engagement!"

"I swam to the shore by myself, and Comrade Lu just helped me out. He didn't carry me at all. Where did these rumors come from?" The firewood in the stove crackled and popped. Jiang Suining was annoyed by the villagers' gossip and angrily grabbed the fire tongs and added more firewood to the stove.

Yes, my daughter has been able to swim since she was little, but she was so busy getting angry that she forgot about it.

Jiang's mother felt a pang of regret. Why didn't Comrade Lu hug her? If he had, the marriage would have been settled, and she wouldn't have needed to persuade him so earnestly! No, this can't just end like this!

"I believe you, but we can't silence the villagers. I'm afraid no one will dare to marry you in the future. Comrade Lu, you should just get married. Your father arranged this marriage for you. Do you think you'll suffer a loss?"

Sparks flew onto the pine branches, and the rising smoke made Jiang Suining cough.

"You can't even keep an eye on the stove!" Jiang's mother snatched the fire tongs. "Besides Comrade Lu, who else would want you! If you become an old maid and can't get married, I won't support you!"

“If Mother won’t raise her, then Brother will.” Whether it was because Jiang’s mother looked exactly like Jiang Suining’s biological mother, or because Jiang Suining had the original owner’s memories, she felt no sense of unfamiliarity with Jiang’s mother, but rather a deep sense of closeness.

“Your brother is getting married, do you think your sister-in-law will agree? You can’t lift a finger, if you marry someone else, you’ll have to take care of your in-laws and deal with your sisters-in-law, the hard times are ahead.”

Jiang's mother was determined to marry her daughter to Lu Ye, and she did everything she could to cut off all her escape routes. "Comrade Lu is different. His parents died early and he has no other brothers or sisters. When you two go to the island, you will have a separate house to live in. Comrade Lu's salary is high. Even if you don't work, you won't starve. Isn't that great?"

"Sui Sui," Jiang's mother was speaking enthusiastically when the door opened, and Jiang Fengnian, furious, stepped inside and immediately demanded, "You've agreed to marry Comrade Lu?"

"What did you say?" Jiang's mother shifted her gaze from her son's face to her daughter's, utterly incredulous. "You agreed?"

"Okay, I agree." Jiang Suining took the bamboo sieve from her mother's hand and prepared to fetch water to wash the cornmeal.

"I promised you I wouldn't tell your mother, you brat!" Jiang's mother beamed with joy, pretending to be angry and about to hit her.

Jiang Suining pulled Jiang Fengnian over as a shield: "You didn't even give me a chance to speak."

"Sui Sui, are you really going to marry him?" Jiang Fengnian asked with suspicion. "Yesterday you were still saying you wanted to break off the engagement, didn't he hug you?"

"Brother, what nonsense are you talking about? I can swim, and Comrade Lu didn't carry me." Jiang Suining's cheeks were puffed up with anger, like a frightened pufferfish. "Why do you all believe the rumors people spread in the village?"

"He hugged her, so what? They're engaged now, why make such a fuss?" Jiang's mother was afraid her son would ruin her daughter's marriage. "Fengnian, let me tell you, you're not allowed to bully your brother-in-law."

"Mom, why are you like this too! I'm not talking to you anymore! I'm going to pick vegetables." Jiang Suining stuffed the bamboo sieve into Jiang Fengnian's arms, picked up the bamboo basket from the corner of the wall and walked out of the kitchen, just in time to see Lu Ye's back disappearing at the gate of the courtyard.

It's almost dinner time, what's he doing out here? Jiang Suining was afraid that he would be tricked by Zhou Xiaomei again, and was about to follow him to ask, but was grabbed by someone.

A note from the author:

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