Xu Xingchen suddenly remembered that there was a public bath in the village, which was usually not visited by many people. So she decided to go there to take a bath.

Jun Haoyue asked about the location, and Xu Xingchen thought for a moment and replied, "It's at the west entrance of the village."

"That's too far. I'll go with you."

Xu Xingchen took a step back, his eyes scanning him up and down, "What do you want to do? There's only one public bath."

Hearing this, Jun Haoyue was stunned for a moment, and a blush flashed across his cheeks. "You didn't say that."

"Oh my, are you shy?"

Seeing Jun Haoyue shy for the first time, Xu Xingchen looked at him with sparkling eyes, quite teasingly.

Jun Haoyue's face turned cold, "You wash first, I'll give you some fresh air."

Seeing that the other person was getting angry out of shame, Xu Xingchen decided to stop while he was ahead. "Okay, okay." At the end, he didn't forget to tease him again: "Don't peek."

"Won't!"

......

Arriving at the bathhouse, it was not yet noon, so not many people were there. This was convenient for Jun Haoyue, as he didn't risk being thought of as a voyeur.

He drew water from the well, boiled the water, placed it at the door of the bathhouse, and then walked a few meters away to get some fresh air.

Xu Xingchen was in a good mood and hummed a song: "I love taking a bath, my skin feels good~ Oh oh oh oh~"

After she finished washing and drying her hair, she came out. Jun Haoyue was dozing off on the haystack with his hands behind his head.

Xu Xingchen climbed up the haystack and bent down above his head, "Jun Haoyue? I'm done washing." A drop of water fell from the undried hair and landed on Jun Haoyue's forehead.

Jun Haoyue opened his eyes and met the gaze of the person above him. Xu Xingchen had just finished taking a shower and her body still smelled of soapberries. Looking up from below, he could even see her collarbone at the open neckline.

His eyes flashed, he pursed his lips uncomfortably, looked away, and whispered, "I know."

After saying that, he hurried into the bathtub.

Xu Xingchen rubbed his hair with a towel, and inexplicably felt that Jun Haoyue had a feeling of "running away in panic".

Not long after, Jun Haoyue came out after taking a shower and cleaned up the bathtub before the two left.

The two of them were walking down the street when they happened to run into Zhou Xiaoniang, who was picking corn at the door. "...Sister Xu...?"

Zhou Xiao's mother's home was just west of the village, so it was normal for them to meet. But the unusual thing was that they had just showered, their hair still wet, and there was something inexplicable about it.

She looked back and forth suspiciously between Xu Xingchen and Jun Haoyue, as if there was something going on between them.

Xu Xingchen explained awkwardly, "Mrs. Zhou, my firewood got wet from the rain, so I couldn't take a bath, so I went to the village's public bathhouse."

"You two... together?"

"No, no, my cousin washed it after I finished, and they were separate." Xu Xingchen waved his hands to explain.

Just kidding, this is a huge misunderstanding.

Seeing Xu Xingchen's strong reaction and her expression of implausibility, Zhou Xiaoniang slowly put aside her doubts.

"It's the rainy season recently, so it's best to keep firewood, dried grain, and other things indoors."

Xu Xingchen nodded like a little chicken pecking at rice, "Okay, okay, I understand."

The two men said goodbye to Zhou Xiaoniang.

When I got home, a group of villagers were gathered at the door of Xu Xingchen's house, making a lot of noise. As I got closer, I heard Zhang Tiansheng's loud voice shouting, "Widow Xu!"

Xu Xingchen responded from behind the surrounding villagers, "What's wrong?"

A sudden sound came from behind, startling everyone, and the timid ones even screamed.

"Widow Xu is here."

Everyone turned around in unison as if they were in military training. Zhang Tiansheng pushed through the crowd and took out an oil-paper bag from his arms as he walked.

Jun Haoyue's eyes moved as he looked at the oil-paper bag. Xu Xingchen asked, "What are you guys doing at my doorstep?"

"Everyone, look here. I found the duck meat in this oil-paper bag at Widow Xu's house. Look, Widow Xu caused everyone's farmland to be plowed again, and everyone had nothing to eat, but she still ate meat every meal at home."

The aroma of roast duck wrapped in oil paper filled the air, and the sound of people swallowing saliva could be heard.

"Widow Xu really knows how to live. She has meat for every meal."

"Bah, you're trying to persuade us to grow wheat, and you're talking about buying it out. It's just to take advantage of us."

“This is too much.”

The villagers smelled the fragrance and became more and more greedy. They inadvertently followed the rhythm guided by Zhang Tiansheng, and Widow Xu swallowed their money and ate meat for every meal.

Xu Xingchen laughed angrily. Jun Haoyue was right. She shouldn't have been so kind as to waste the roast duck that her son brought back.

"Zhang Tiansheng, you said you found it in my house. How did you find it?"

Zhang Tiansheng only wanted to arouse the villagers' dissatisfaction. He didn't expect Xu Xingchen to ask him this. He stammered back, "Just, you took it from the table when you were eating."

Xu Xingchen raised the corner of his lips, crossed his arms and asked, "You took it from our table, how come I didn't know? Or did you steal it secretly like a thief?"

As soon as the word "thief" came out, Zhang Tiansheng was like a cat whose tail was stepped on, "You're talking nonsense! You're the thief, it's not you who gave...!" He stopped talking and looked at her hatefully.

"Give? Yes, I gave it to you, you didn't find it."

She paced a few steps and said to the villagers, "Since everyone is here, I'd like to ask you, Zhang Tiansheng."

"Why did you break into my yard in the middle of the night last night? What were you thinking?"

The incident took a turn, and the villagers were surprised. It turned out that it was Zhang Tiansheng who stole it by climbing over the wall of Widow Xu's house?

Zhang Tian was so angry that he jumped up and down, cursing Xu Xingchen, "Widow Xu, you're talking nonsense! Who turned over your house? Don't confuse the subject. The question now is, why the hell is there meat in your house?"

"It's the meat." Xu Xingchen spread his hands innocently.

"I'm asking where the meat comes from!"

"I caught it in the mountains. You can catch it in the mountains too."

It was naturally impossible for Xu Xingchen to say that Munduner brought it back from Kyoto.

Zhang Tian was shaking with anger, and Xu Xingchen was worried that he might faint from anger.

"Plop—" Someone fell down.

Xu Xingchen: “…”

She couldn't help but want to slap herself in the face. Her words had come true. Zhang Tiansheng collapsed, and a villager fainted.

The villagers surrounded the person and kept beating the unconscious person.

Xu Xingchen stepped forward and said, "Don't gather too close together. Move back to allow air to circulate." The villagers didn't understand what she meant by "air" and only took small steps forward.

She squatted down and pinched the philtrum of the unconscious villager, and the villager slowly opened his eyes.

The fainted villagers had thin and sallow faces, looking as if they were malnourished.

Based on the medical knowledge he learned on Kokodo Star, Xu Xingchen initially concluded that the fainted villager had fainted due to malnutrition.

Jun Haoyue squatted beside her, lifted the villager's eyelids and took a look, then snorted, "Malnutrition."

"Hey, you also know medicine?" Xu Xingchen was surprised.

"Just a basic understanding."

Xu Xingchen wanted to ask for more details, but the villager in his arms said, "I feel dizzy."