Chapter 6
Upon hearing Li Taohua's name, Xiang Wan stopped walking and stood still, looking across the river.
Although Chen Yan was walking ahead, he secretly observed Xiang Wan's every move in the reflection on the river. When he saw her stop, he turned around and looked at her with some confusion.
It wasn't until he followed her gaze and saw the farcical scene of several village women wrestling on the other side of the river that he understood why she had stopped.
This is a young lady from the city who has never seen a shrew cursing in the street before, so she stopped to watch.
He didn't urge her, but silently observed her. When he saw the young lady raise her eyebrows, he also looked towards the other side of the river.
On the other side of the river, two peasant women were wrestling, each grabbing the other's hair and refusing to let go.
Chen Yan glanced around and saw that the one who was in the lead and more aggressive was the village chief's wife, Wang Xiaohui, who was also the mother of Li Xiaohua and Li Yaozu. The other one being beaten was the daughter-in-law of the village's wealthy household.
Neither of them were easy to deal with, and when they started fighting, no one dared to really stop them. The few village women nearby were just pretending to break up the fight.
Li Yaozu, who was playing football nearby, saw his mother being beaten and went over to intervene and take sides.
Both mother and daughter were skilled at farm work, so the daughter-in-law of the wealthy man across the street was no match for him. Li Yaozu held her down from behind and Wang Xiaohui beat her for quite a while.
She had just finished her postpartum confinement and was still weak. Seeing herself being beaten, tears welled up in her eyes, and she pointed at the mother and daughter, angrily cursing, "Wang Xiaohui, you brainless good-for-nothing! Your husband even named your daughter after Li Taohua!"
"Back then, everyone in Li Family Village knew how madly in love your husband was with Li Taohua, but you're such a fool to have married into this family."
Her eldest son is named Li Yaozu, but her youngest daughter is named Li Xiaohua.
Upon hearing this, Wang Xiaohui paused in her slap and subconsciously looked at the village women washing clothes nearby.
Seeing their evasive eyes, she felt a chill in her heart, as if struck by lightning. When she gave birth to her youngest daughter, she had asked Li Shengde about it. He hesitated at the time and only said after a long time that it was because her name was Xiao Hui that her daughter was named Xiao Hua.
She felt happy then, but now she feels terrified.
Wang Xiaohui lost all interest in fighting and turned to walk towards home.
She walked hurriedly, and Li Yaozu behind her glanced at her, fearing something might have happened at home, and quickly followed.
As soon as the mother and daughter left, the daughter-in-law of the village's wealthy household also stormed home, cursing that she must get revenge for the beating she suffered that day. In her haste, she didn't even take the clothes she had just washed by the river with her.
The farce finally subsided. After they left, there were only a few people left on the riverbank, and it returned to its initial quiet.
After they left, Xiang Wan looked thoughtfully in the direction they went. In her previous life, Zhou Chengze had mentioned his family to her. He said that his father had passed away when he was only four years old, but his father and mother had a very good relationship.
Her future mother-in-law, Li Taohua, had been a widow for her husband her whole life, but what was that village woman talking about?
Thinking of Li Taohua, who liked to put on airs with her in her previous life because of Zhou Chengze's success, Xiang Wan raised an eyebrow, her gaze somewhat amused.
She was still thinking about her past life while looking towards the opposite bank of the river, while Chen Yan was secretly observing her.
Even though she hadn't said a word, he could see the coldness in her eyes. Looking at her icy profile, Chen Yan suddenly felt a strange sense of inferiority.
Before he could figure out what he was feeling inferior about, Xiang Wan interrupted his thoughts: "Kid, let's go."
"..." He didn't look at her or say anything, and silently walked forward. Not long after, Chen Yan stopped when he passed a small brick house.
Seeing the little devil stop, Xiang Wan knew that the brick house in front of her was the little devil's home. Looking at the dilapidated little house in front of her, Xiang Wan's brows furrowed subconsciously.
Even a bare house has four walls, but this house is even more dilapidated than that. The gaps between the bricks are so wide that a mouse can squeeze through them, not to mention what will happen when it rains.
She used to think Zhou Chengze's family was poor, but now she realizes that compared to Xiao Gui's family, Zhou Chengze's family is actually quite well-off.
Xiang Wan remained silent for a long time before finally mustering the courage to step across the threshold. Chen Yan, standing to the side, didn't urge her but simply watched her quietly. Seeing that she was willing to come in, he felt a sense of relief.
He knew his family was poor, and sometimes villagers wouldn't even come in, let alone this young lady who looked like she came from the city.
Chen Yan first locked Green Hair inside the fence in the outer yard, and then went to the woodshed in the back to boil a kettle of hot water.
He didn't pretend to be generous and make brown sugar water for Xiang Wan. It was a limited-edition drink that he and his grandmother only had during the Chinese New Year. He knew that the young lady definitely wouldn't care for it, and he didn't want to waste the little bit of brown sugar that was left.
He picked out a bowl without any chips, poured her a cup of hot water, and handed it to her. Then he led her to his desk.
That was the cleanest spot in the house, but even so it was still a bit worn out. The stool was given to him by Aunt Wang next door after many years of discarding it.
Chen Yan looked at the leather stool, which was so worn that the sponge was almost showing. He had never thought anything of it before, but today he felt a little embarrassed, even though Xiang Wan behind him hadn't said a word.
He took his denim jacket from the cabinet next to him, carefully covered the stool with it, and gestured for her to sit there.
Xiang Wan raised an eyebrow, staring at the jacket on the stool for a long time without saying a word. Although the jeans looked quite old, they were washed until they were faded, showing that the owner cherished them very much.
She unbuttoned her denim jacket, shook it out, and set it aside. Then, she sat down calmly on the stool with exposed foam.
Although she came from a wealthy and powerful family, she never disrespected others. Even though she felt disgusted, she would never do something as rude as sitting on someone's clothes.
Even in a drafty environment with leaky walls, Xiang Wan maintained a very upright posture, as if she were sitting in a private booth in a Western restaurant, not in an unfinished house.
When he saw her move his coat away, Chen Yan immediately lowered his eyes, his trembling eyelashes betraying the turmoil in his heart.
Xiang Wan looked around and roughly guessed that the room she was in was the living room. She took the bowl from his hand, sipped some hot water, and waited until her body warmed up a bit before looking up at him again: "Kid, where is your guardian?"
Chen Yan kept his eyes down. When she asked him a question, he quickly glanced at her and said, "I'll go call my mother-in-law."
After saying that, he rushed into another room without looking back.
After he left, Xiang Wan got up and moved around in the room. The room was very small, even smaller than the toilet in the Xiang family villa, and quite dilapidated, but it was still clean enough. It was clear that although the owner of the room was poor, he was very clean.
After waiting for a long time, only a loud noise came from the hut. The little ghost did not come out. Thinking that something unexpected had happened, Xiang Wan went to the inner room.
There was no door, only a curtain that was barely visible. She gently lifted the curtain with her fingertips and saw an old man lying on a couch with a hunched back.
The old man looked pale and thin, clearly a farmer who had worked the land his whole life. His face was full of wrinkles, but he had a kind face.
The old man's leg was exposed, and there was a festering wound on his calf. It was clearly not a normal wound, but rather a sign of an impending disease.
Xiang Wan was still deep in thought, looking at the old man's wounds, when the old man on the bed noticed her leaning against the door. Afraid that his wounds would frighten her, the old man subconsciously tried to tuck his legs into the blankets.
"Ayan, why didn't you tell your mother-in-law that guests were coming?"
She tried to move, but Chen Yan pressed her leg down. He took out a cloth bag from the pocket of his cotton-padded coat and took out something that looked like a leaf.
Those were the herbs he picked today, and it was because of these herbs that his green hair scared Xiang Wan and dirtied her shoes.
He put the herbs into a mortar, mashed them, and applied the mixture to his grandmother's wound: "Grandma, are you feeling better?"
"This child, I've already told you Grandma doesn't care." The old woman's eyes looked somewhat helpless.
Although she said she wasn't in pain, Chen Yan knew perfectly well that she was lying. Her mother-in-law's wound wouldn't heal; it would ache whenever it was rainy. Although she never admitted it, she tossed and turned every night because of the pain.
Chen Yan knew they couldn't afford to go to the hospital, so he could only follow the prescriptions in the traditional Chinese medicine book and pick some herbs to apply to his mother-in-law's face.
He didn't know if the young lady from the city would be frightened by his mother-in-law's wound, but he didn't want his mother-in-law to suffer even more because of it.
Only after the herbal medicine had been applied to the wound did he use a gauze towel to bandage his mother-in-law's wound.
After everything was finished, he stood up and looked in Xiang Wan's direction, only to find that she was also looking at him. There was no disgust or aversion in her eyes, just a very peaceful look.
For some reason, he breathed a sigh of relief and turned to look at his mother-in-law: "Mother-in-law..."
Chen Yan was about to confess his mistake when Xiang Wan interrupted him calmly: "Hello, my name is Xiang Wan. Our car broke down, and we're here to ask for lodging for the night."
"..." Chen Yan pretended to be calm, but the surprise in his eyes betrayed him.
He didn't know why she wouldn't let him lose money again, but he didn't want his mother-in-law to take out her meager savings, so he remained silent.
The mother-in-law on the bed glanced at Chen Yan, then at Xiang Wan, her expression somewhat surprised, but she still looked at her kindly and gently: "That child... I'll make room for you."
"No need, we can sleep in the cubicle."
"That's okay too."
After Xiang Wan finished speaking, she went out, and when she left, she pulled the curtain down again to give the grandmother and grandson some space to be alone.
After she left, her mother-in-law looked at Chen Yan, her voice unusually serious: "Yan, tell me honestly, did you cause any trouble?"
Chen Yan looked somewhat dejected and recounted how Green Hair had scared Xiang Wan so much that she fell into cow dung.
After listening, his mother-in-law did not scold him. After a moment of silence, she asked him to take a small box from the large trunk behind her. Chen Yan obediently did as she was told, but then he saw his mother-in-law take out a fifty-yuan bill and hand it to him: "Go and compensate them."
"Grandma, this is what you've been collecting bottles for a year... to save for medical treatment." Chen Yan lowered his head, his expression unreadable, but a faint sob could be heard in his voice.
The mother-in-law regained her initial kindness and raised her calloused hand to wipe his face: "Boys shouldn't cry. Our Xiao Yan needs to be strong."
"..."
Chen Yan gripped the banknotes tightly in his hand, his regret reaching its peak. He shouldn't have taken Green Hair out with him.
If he had been more careful, there wouldn't have been any need to pay compensation, and his mother wouldn't have needed to use the money she had saved for medical treatment.
He held his mother-in-law in his arms, looking at the dilapidated, drafty walls of the house, his eyes filled with sorrow.
Why is it that his mother-in-law, who was kind all her life and raised him when no one wanted him, couldn't even afford to go to the county town for medical treatment?
'Is this the fate the schoolteacher spoke of?'
*
When he came out of the inner room after composing himself, he saw Xiang Wan, wearing a woolen skirt, standing in the sunset, looking straight at the sky. In the soft sunset light, she looked as beautiful as a real princess.
Chen Yan looked at her silently, swallowing the bitterness in his heart. For the first time, he was curious about someone else. Did princesses also have troubles?
Just then, Xiang Wan turned around, and their eyes met. In that instant, the sound of keyboards from another world began to play, and their trajectories were drastically altered without their knowledge...
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