Chapter 164 Regret Let’s Break Up

Wen Wenxu brought out the dishes and wiped his hands on his apron. "Captain, you can eat now."

"Well, thank you for your hard work." Zhu Yingning closed the documents in his hand and put them away, intending to help serve the rice. As soon as his butt left the bench, he heard a shocking scream coming from the direction of the bathroom.

"ah--!!"

The sound was extremely shrill.

Wen Wenxu shuddered with fear, spilling the soup all over his apron. Luckily, he'd cooled the soup beforehand, so the water was just the right temperature. Otherwise, it would have burned him like a scorch. As he frantically tried to put the pot back in place, Zhu Yingning leaped to her feet and dashed to the bathroom.

"Chen Fei?!" She knocked hard on the door.

Chen Fei inside opened the door wrapped in a bath towel, his face pale, his left hand holding a toilet brush, his right index finger pointing out the window, his whole body trembling and unable to speak.

Looking in the direction of her finger, an eye flashed through the hole in the newspaper in the window.

Zhu Yingning's face darkened, he rushed forward, unlocked the window, opened it with a swish, and jumped into the air under Shen Fei's astonished gaze, like an agile black panther, chasing after him at lightning speed.

It was only then that Wen Wenxu finally arrived. He rushed to the bathroom door with a bang, shaking the ceiling. He put his five fingers in front of his eyes and asked nervously and awkwardly, "What's wrong? Are you okay?!"

"...Someone was peeping at me taking a shower outside the window just now." Chen Fei choked up, and after saying this, two lines of tears fell straight down.

Wen Wenxu was stunned by her words and tears. When he came to his senses, his cheeks flushed with anger: "How can this be absurd! In this day and age, there are still such things?! Who is it?!"

"I didn't see it. The captain chased after him."

"I'll go check it out!"

The bathroom window was narrow and Wen Wenxu couldn't fit through it due to his large body, so he had to go around to the main door.

Chen Fei clutched the bath towel tightly and stuck her head out of the wide-open bathroom window. She saw that Zhu Yingning had successfully caught the peeper. Wen Wenxu arrived shortly afterwards and helped to subdue him. The peeper was wearing a yellow short T-shirt and had a shaved head. It was none other than Li Hengyu, the silly grandson of Zhen Yuhua whom they had visited in the afternoon.

After recognizing the other person's appearance, Shen Fei felt as if he had fallen into an icy cave. He pinched his upper arm tightly and felt cold all over.

Li Hengyu's hands were handcuffed behind his back by Wen Wenxu. Perhaps he was uncomfortable and soon started to roar, making vague and meaningless syllables like a beast.

Their movements inevitably attracted the attention of nearby villagers, and many people poked their heads out of their homes, pointing at the three people at the center of the conflict.

Zhen Yuhua's home wasn't far from here. She came out with a spatula in hand to join in the fun. When she saw that the person involved was actually her grandson, she was shocked. She rushed forward with the spatula in hand and attacked Wen Wenxu without hesitation, cursing in her dialect: "I'll beat you to death! You dog officials, you want to kill my grandson! Murder, murder!"

"Hey! Hey - Grandma Zhen, I didn't do anything, I just held your grandson, he did the bad thing himself!" Wen Wenxu couldn't attack the crowd, so he could only dodge. Unfortunately, Zhen Yuhua's spatula with oil stars was very powerful, hitting him on the body and face. The last blow almost broke his front teeth. He had no choice but to let go and ran to a place where Zhen Yuhua couldn't reach him with his head in his hands.

Freed from his shackles, Li Hengyu immediately ducked and hid behind Zhen Yuhua, like a chick seeking shelter from its hen.

At this moment, Zhen Yuhua did not look like an old man in his seventies at all. Holding a spatula in her hand, she looked like the Statue of Liberty holding a torch, and also like the domineering Li Tianwang holding a pagoda. Her eyes were wide open, and she was cursing, still cursing Zhu Yingning and Wen Wenxu, the so-called dog officials, saying that not only did they not serve the people wholeheartedly, but they also bullied the villagers for no reason, and should go back to where they came from.

"Granny Zhen, we will not slander any of the people without reason. There is a reason for all this." Zhu Yingning said.

"What's the reason? Ah?! What's the reason? Tell me!" Every time Zhen Yuhua said this, she pushed the spatula forward, and it was close to Zhu Yingning's face at a tiny distance, as if what she held in her hand was not a spatula, but a sharp knife.

Zhu Yingning didn't even blink, took a deep breath, and said, "It's because—"

Chen Fei, who was watching all this in the bathroom, felt her heart skip a beat when she saw this - although she did not have such conservative ideas and did not think it was her fault to be peeped at, but being in such a traditional place, she was afraid that she would be ridiculed by the villagers in the future if she told the truth directly.

Rumors are scary; three people can make a tiger.

She was terrified and deeply saddened by the fact that she had only been in the village for a few days and had already been brainwashed into this fear. Just as she was frantically spinning around, not knowing how to stop it, she heard Zhu Yingning calmly say, "It was because Li Hengyu was peeping at me bathing from outside the window."

As soon as these words were spoken, the whole audience was in an uproar.

Not only was Chen Fei stunned, but Zhen Yuhua probably didn't expect Zhu Yingning to directly say something that she thought was "embarrassing", and she paused waving the spatula.

Zhu Yingning struck while the iron was hot and spoke to Zhen Yuhua and the onlookers in dialect and in a way that the villagers could understand: "We are here to lead everyone to make money and help everyone live a good life, but this must be based on mutual respect. We are all human beings, and no one likes to be peeped at while taking a bath, right? Do you like it?"

She picked up a random kid and asked.

The child screamed with laughter and twisted around to hide behind his grandmother's legs. "I don't like it. I'm not a pervert!"

"Do you like it?" She looked at the middle-aged man closest to her.

Being asked one-on-one, the man could not ignore it and could only smile awkwardly and sheepishly.

The onlookers also laughed: "Comrade Xiao Zhu, if he says he likes it, his wife will peel off his skin!"

"Well, no matter what the reason, it seems no one likes it. I don't like it either. No one likes it." Zhu Yingning emphasized and looked at everyone again, "As cadres, we will never do anything like peeping at people taking a bath. This is called respect. We respect you. In return, don't you have to respect us?"

After singing the white-faced version, Zhu Yingning signaled Wen Wenxu to speak with her eyes.

After a month of getting along, Wen Wenxu and Zhu Yingning had already developed a tacit understanding. Upon receiving the signal, he stepped out from his hiding, stood before Zhen Yuhua, and began to play the good cop. "Grandma Zhen, Li Hengyu is an honest child. We believe he wouldn't take the initiative to peek at someone bathing. He must have been led astray by someone else. Do you know who? Find this bad guy, and we will severely criticize and educate this scum! This person is morally corrupt himself, and he actually wants to drag a simple child like Li Hengyu into this trouble."

The onlookers laughed sparsely.

What Zhen Yuhua was most worried about in her life was her grandson's marriage. She was afraid that he would never be able to find a wife because of his stupidity. Whenever she saw women of marriageable age coming here to help with poverty alleviation or do volunteer work, she would encourage Li Hengyu to peek at them taking a bath. She would also argue that she wanted to see whether these women had big breasts and buttocks, and whether they were suitable for childbearing.

Li Hengyu can sometimes peek successfully, and sometimes not.

But regardless of success or failure, the young girls who come here are inevitably frightened when faced with such things. They are afraid of being talked about or retaliated against, so they have to swallow their anger.

Zhen Yuhua didn't expect that she would be caught this time, and to say "caught" was not entirely accurate, because the other party did not name the person who instigated her. She couldn't just come out and admit it herself, so she could only endure Wen Wenxu's explicit praise and implicit criticism. Her hand holding the spatula was shaking, and her face was blue and red.

After Wen Wenxu finished his indirect criticism, Zhu Yingning stepped forward and they each held one of Zhen Yuhua's arms. They kindly helped her into the house and said that since Li Hengyu was a first-time offender, they would give him a chance to reform. "Grandma Zhen, if you're tired and neglectful, and there's something you can't do, you can always ask us to come and help look after Hengyu. We're all neighbors, and we should help each other."

These words made Zhen Yuhua have no reason to get angry, and her face turned ashen.

Seeing that the scene was becoming peaceful, the onlookers gradually dispersed and went back home to prepare dinner.

When Zhu Yingning brought Wen Wenxu back to their home, Chen Fei had already changed into clean clothes. There was still a faint pink under her eyes. She looked at Zhu Yingning, wanting to say something but stopping herself several times. Finally, she just choked and said, "Captain, thank you." She turned to Wen Wenxu and said thank you as well.

Zhu Yingning shook her head and motioned for everyone to go in and eat first. Once the door was closed, she sighed softly, "It's my fault that you were wronged and I couldn't get justice for you."

Chen Fei waved her hands hurriedly: "No, Captain! You handled it very maturely. Really, if it were me, I wouldn't know what to do."

Their identities were sensitive, and they were still on probation. If they were accidentally reported by the public, their future careers would be affected. The village didn't even have any surveillance, so the only evidence was their own words. Even if the villagers had grudges against each other, they would unite against external threats. Chen Fei didn't dare take the risk. She was surprised and moved that the confrontation had reached this point.

Zhu Yingning didn't say anything else and just invited them to eat.

**

This incident left some psychological trauma on Chen Fei. Although Zhu Yingning and Wen Wenxu both found an opportunity to talk to her alone after dinner and comforted her with kind words, she still couldn't sleep that night.

Afraid of disturbing Zhu Yingning's sleep on the upper bunk by turning over, Chen Fei didn't dare to move the whole night. He lay straight on his bed, playing the role of a zombie. He barely took a nap at four in the morning. He woke up at dawn and felt dizzy, but couldn't fall asleep. He simply got up and brushed his teeth and washed his face.

To her surprise, Wen Wenxu actually got up earlier than her and was doing squats in the living room. When he saw her, he greeted her, "Good morning, you didn't sleep all night?"

Seeing through him, Shen Fei smiled awkwardly and said nothing.

She went to the kitchen to take a look around, opened the refrigerator, and found that the food was empty. She planned to go out to the market to buy some food.

This market was jointly organized by several villages and was held in the next village—because the next village was larger and had a larger population. The market was quite a distance from them, and Shen Fei didn't want to walk, so she simply borrowed Wen Wenxu's car keys.

"Do you want to drive? You haven't driven this car before, right? I'll go with you." Wen Wenxu said enthusiastically that he would go with her.

Shen Fei thought about it and agreed.

The two walked to open the door one after the other. As soon as the door opened, Shen Fei was about to step out when Wen Wenxu stopped him: "Ouch! Wait... What is this?"

He stared at the ground in front of his house in surprise.

Shen Fei followed his gaze and his expression changed instantly.

A pool of yellowish-brown and foul-smelling liquid was sprayed at the door of their house. It had been there for an unknown amount of time and had dried up somewhat, but the strong stench was still powerful and penetrated every pore.

Wen Wenxu also understood what was going on and couldn't help but yell "Fuck!" After cursing, he quickly covered his mouth and brainwashed himself: "Don't say bad words, don't say bad words... Establish a civilized language system."

After brainwashing himself, he wanted to take a deep breath, but halfway through he realized that he had inhaled a lot of foul smell. He coughed anxiously, and the cough was so heartbreaking that his face turned red. He finally stopped coughing by pounding his chest, and glanced to the side. Damn, tears were on Shen Fei's face again.

"You..." He said cautiously.

Shen Fei broke down crying.

The source of this pool of manure is easy to guess. No, there is no need to guess. Apart from Zhen Yuhua, who was offended just yesterday evening, who else would do such a thing?

Chen Fei came from a civilized world and received a civilized education. She had never faced such straightforward, vulgar and undisguised malice.

Thinking about how she had come all the way to this place just to help these unruly people, Shen Fei almost wanted to die. She had originally been full of enthusiasm for doing practical things, but now she felt disheartened and even felt that her mother was absolutely right. She should have obeyed her family's arrangements and quietly become a university teacher instead of coming to this desolate place to suffer mental torture.

While she was silently shedding tears, Wen Wenxu had already turned around and went into the house to get cleaning supplies to clean up.

His calmness left Shen Fei completely baffled, and it made her cry even harder. She couldn't help but ask, "Why are you still here to clean? Huh? Don't you feel particularly overwhelmed? Why can you endure it? Why? Why?!"

Wen Wenxu bent down to sweep and looked at her sympathetically: "Ah, how can I put it..."

"Speak!"

“Because I’ve already had a breakdown.”

“…”

Wen Wenxu pursed his lips and touched his face again: "Before you came, I broke down and cried four or five times, and every time it was the captain who comforted me. Maybe I have developed a resistance. I haven't cried this week. I feel like I have become a little stronger."

“…”

Shen Fei was speechless.

Wen Wenxu continued hunching over the mess in front of the goal, rinsing the floor as he spoke, "I didn't want to tell you this at first, wanting to maintain a good impression in front of the new team members. Now you know, I'm actually quite fragile. You asked me why I didn't break down, and I did break down, didn't I? You should be asking why the captain didn't break down. She's truly the most superhuman superhuman I've ever met."

"Why doesn't she collapse?" Shen Fei asked.

"Hey, you're really asking me something?" Wen Wenxu straightened up with the mop in hand, hands on hips, pondering. "That's a difficult, skillful, and sophisticated question. I'm really curious. I even suspect our captain is inhuman, because she didn't even show any emotion when she broke up with her boyfriend."

The words "boyfriend" and "break up" finally successfully diverted Shen Fei's attention. She temporarily pulled herself away from her deep regret and asked in surprise: "...break up?"

No wonder Zhu Yingning told her that night, "I don't have a boyfriend right now." Did they break up? Oh my god, wouldn't it have been very offensive for her to ask that question then? Shen Fei fell into another kind of regret.

Wen Wenxu glanced behind him, confirming that Zhu Yingning was not there. He lowered his voice and leaned close to Chen Fei's ear, his expression becoming overjoyed by the gossip: "I'm telling you this in secret, but you must not tell anyone else. Do you swear?"

Shen Fei didn't swear.

"Hey! Why are you so aloof?" Wen Wenxu was surprised, but the words were on the tip of his tongue. He felt uncomfortable holding them back, so he continued to tell everyone what he had heard. "Actually, the captain didn't tell me this. I overheard it myself. When we first came here, weren't she and I the only ones living in the house? I got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and heard the captain talking on the phone in her room. I swear on my muscles that I really didn't eavesdrop on her on purpose. It's just that the soundproofing in this house is not good."

"I heard her say to the other end of the phone: 'Let's break up. Thank you for being with me for so long. I have learned a lot from this relationship. I wish you a bright future and great success.'"

"I've never heard of anyone breaking up so... ah... peacefully in my entire life? It was like something out of an American TV series. I thought the captain was just pretending to be calm, so after using the restroom, I didn't go to sleep right away. I lay in bed for a while before getting up. I wanted to see if the captain was crying. If she was, I could lend her my muscles... my shoulder. Why are you looking at me like that? I'm really not a pervert!"

Shen Fei reluctantly retracted her gaze: "Go on."

"Guess what? I saw her designing a questionnaire on the coffee table in the living room. She wasn't crying, but actually working on it! She even calmly asked me why I wasn't up so late and if I wasn't used to the bed here. Can you imagine? Wouldn't a normal person cry when they break up, even if it's amicable? Our captain wasn't even sad, that's so cool."

Chen Fei frowned slightly: "But... getting up in the middle of the night to write an investigation report, doesn't that mean she can't sleep? Doesn't being unable to sleep mean that the captain is actually sad?"

Wen Wenxu was stunned by what Chen Fei said. He was stunned for a few seconds before he punched his palm with his fist, revealing an expression of acceptance: "Oh, yes, why didn't I think of that? Help, what you said makes sense! It turns out that you girls understand girls."

Shen Fei wanted to say something when he heard a familiar voice behind him: "Are you talking about me?"