Chapter 71
The village chief's house on the other side.
Driver Uncle Zhang and village chief Li Shengde reached some kind of agreement, agreeing that they would stay at the village chief's house for one night and he would pay for the room the next day. Therefore, the village chief also gave up the master bedroom.
Although it still can't compare to a hotel, it's passable. After a long day of running around, 12-year-old Xiang Wan fell asleep on the blanket that Wang Yidong had laid out.
At four in the morning, when all was quiet, Xiang Wan couldn't sleep. She came out of the master bedroom and sat down in the yard. She wanted to wait for the sunrise, but instead of seeing the sunrise, she saw Chen Yan with tears in his eyes outside the village chief's house.
At ten years old, he was thin and bony, but his eyes looked as if they had been washed with water; his eyes were filled with tears, and the corners of his eyes were also bloodshot.
Xiang Wan was stunned for a moment, then suddenly remembered that in this life, her mother-in-law had collapsed not long after she arrived in Lijia Village.
Was it the same in my previous life?
She frowned and unconsciously stood next to Chen Yan. She watched him gently knock on the door, calling out the village chief's name.
"Uncle Li—"
"Uncle Li, are you asleep? It's me, Xiao Yan—"
Four o'clock in the morning might be just the beginning of a night's sleep for city dwellers, but for villagers who still make a living by farming, it's not particularly early.
Li Shengde came out not long after, but he still seemed a little sleepy. He looked at Chen Yan with a somewhat impatient expression: "What are you yelling about so early in the morning, kid?"
Seemingly afraid that he would wake up the money tree in the master bedroom, the village chief pushed him out of the door into the yard.
"What's wrong?"
Chen Yan showed no displeasure at his shoving. Instead, she grabbed his sleeve and pleaded, "Uncle, my mother-in-law has fainted. Could you take me and her to the county hospital?"
Li Shengde yawned, thinking of the old lady in his memory who always had a smile on her face. They say you can't hit someone for smiling, and he hesitated for a moment, but…
He looked at Chen Yan, who was pleading, and then glanced at the shoes on his feet. His family couldn't even afford a decent pair of cotton shoes. Sending them to the county was a small matter, but what about the medical expenses?
Li Shengde was still hesitating when Chen Yan saw the trouble on his face and knelt down in the courtyard. He grabbed Li Shengde's trouser leg and refused to let go, his voice already trembling with tears: "Uncle Li, I beg you to help me, I'll kowtow to you."
As he was about to kowtow, Li Shengde reluctantly stopped him, saying, "What's wrong with you, kid? Let me think about it first."
He thought it over and over and still felt that he couldn't get involved in this mess. He wanted to refuse, but he didn't want to be seen as heartless, so he brought up his wife, Wang Xiaohui: "I'll go back and discuss it with your aunt. You go back to your house and wait. I'll come find you later."
After saying that, Li Shengde was about to send him away, but Chen Yan refused to leave no matter what: "Uncle, I can go to town to work as a laborer and earn money. I will definitely pay you back the medical expenses I owe you, ten times the amount."
Seeing that he remained unmoved, Chen Yan's eyes showed some despair, but he refused to give up. He let go of Li Shengde's hand and kept kowtowing in his direction.
"Uncle Li, please—"
Chen Yan's voice trembled, but his kneeling and kowtowing were resolute, each kowtow landing solidly on the cement floor.
But he seemed completely unconcerned, breaking free from Li Shengla's grasp and continuing to kowtow.
The two made quite a commotion, even waking up Li Xiaohua, who was sleeping in the side room.
Li Xiaohua is the daughter of village chief Li Shengde. The little girl came out wearing a cotton-padded coat. She looked at the two people in the yard with a strange expression. She walked to Chen Yan, who was kneeling on the ground, and looked at her father: "Dad, what happened?"
Li Shengde pointed at Chen Yan, who was kowtowing incessantly, and said irritably, "The old lady fainted and has no money for treatment, so she begged me to take her and her grandson to the county hospital."
Upon hearing this, Li Xiaohua pulled Li Shengla aside and whispered in his ear, "Dad, think about Gouwa from the next village. He used to be a ragpicker, but he went to town and somehow became successful. What if Chen Yan does the same?"
"Why don't you accompany him to the county hospital to see how much the medical expenses will be?"
When Li Shengde heard his daughter mention Gouwa from the next village, he was actually persuaded. Gouwa had returned to his village and built a big villa there.
He looked at Chen Yan, who was kneeling on the ground and kowtowing incessantly. Looking at his face, regardless of how successful he was, if he were to be noticed by some rich woman in the future, he would at least have risen to a higher social status.
Li Shengde looked at his daughter and was surprised that she was only 11 years old and had already thought so far ahead. He couldn't help but feel gratified when he thought of the fortune teller's words that his daughter had the potential to marry into a high-ranking family.
He looked at Li Xiaohua, then pointed towards the master bedroom and said softly, "Is Miss awake?"
"No, I listened at the door for a while when I arrived, and they didn't seem to be awake yet." Li Xiaohua's voice was also very soft. "Dad, how much did Miss say she would pay us for one night?"
Li Shengde beamed and held up five fingers to his daughter. Li Xiaohua frowned upon hearing this: "They're dressed so well, and you only give them 50?"
Although 50 was a huge sum of money in Lijia Village, Li Xiaohua, as the village chief's daughter, was considered worldly-wise among the village's children.
Li Shengde shook his head, indicating that she should guess higher.
Li Xiaohua's brows relaxed, clearly somewhat surprised: "500?" He shook his head again, but didn't beat around the bush with his daughter any longer, "5000."
Eleven-year-old Li Xiaohua stared wide-eyed, still in shock, but Li Shengde patted her head, indicating that he would accompany Chen Yan to the county and told her to go back to sleep for a while.
While the father and daughter were whispering intimately to each other, Chen Yan in the other courtyard was kowtowing one after another.
Seeing that Li Shengde ignored him and did not stop kowtowing, he realized that he had already visited two other places before coming to find Li Shengde, and both said they had no money.
Even Aunt Zhang's family next door avoided him for fear of him borrowing money.
Seeing that no one was paying attention to him, Chen Yan banged on his head harder and harder, as if Li Shengde would soften his heart if he hurt more.
Chen Yan kowtowed until his head was bleeding, but he didn't shed a single tear; instead, his face turned deathly pale.
Standing beside him, Xiang Wan looked down at Chen Yan, whose forehead was covered in blood, but her gaze toward Li Shengde and his daughter grew colder and colder.
Whatever the reason, she could understand why Li Shengde didn't want to pay for Chen Yan's medical expenses. However, he left a 10-year-old child kowtowing to him while he whispered to his daughter.
Even if Chen Yan kowtowed voluntarily, it is not a reason for an elder to treat a junior so disrespectfully.
Xiang Wan crossed her arms and looked at the father and daughter with a cold gaze.
After the father and daughter finally finished their private conversation, Li Shengde seemed to finally remember Chen Yan, who was kneeling on the ground, and helped him up: "You are such a sincere child, why are you kowtowing so many times?"
"I'll take you and your mother-in-law to the county in a donkey cart later."
When Chen Yan was helped up, he was a little unsteady and swaying. When he heard that Li Shengde was willing to take them to the hospital, he was still full of gratitude: "Thank you, Uncle."
Xiang Wan coldly watched as Li Shengde feigned concern as he went to the backyard to get the donkey cart, and then took Chen Yan and his mother-in-law to the county hospital.
On the way to the hospital, he kept yawning. Chen Yan noticed his fatigue and thoughtfully offered to drive the bus himself so that he could rest in the back for a while.
Xiang Wan originally thought Li Shengde would refuse, but he actually shamelessly agreed. Li Shengde, who was in his thirties or forties, actually let a 10-year-old child drive a donkey cart.
She looked at the village chief, who was half asleep on the cart, and couldn't help but scoff.
She looked at Xiao Chenyan, who was driving the cart alone on a donkey, and deliberately avoided looking at the tears welling up in his eyes. It wasn't that she didn't feel sorry for him, but that she was afraid she might fall in love with him.
Xiang Wan rarely watches TV dramas, but when she was in junior high school, she couldn't resist Che Nanbei's persistent pleading and watched one. She couldn't remember the plot anymore, but she still remembers one line very clearly.
The female supporting character is questioning the male lead, asking him when he fell in love with her, but the male lead replies, "Love begins with pity."
Although Xiang Wan is a businessman, he has also felt compassion for many people, such as when he saw Wang Yidong standing by the bridge preparing to commit suicide, and when he saw Shen Feiyang crying uncontrollably in the equipment room.
But Chen Yan was the only one whose pity seemed to have subtly changed, perhaps because he was truly too pitiful.
Although 10-year-old Chen Yan is thin and young, there is a certain tenacity in his eyes. The little boy has a hunched back, but even his cries are silent.
Xiang Wan, standing to the side, dared not look him in the eye. She didn't say a word, just stared ahead, accompanying him as he drove the donkey cart, even though the child probably had no idea she was there.
At this moment, Xiang Wan only wanted to quietly stay with this poor little devil, but she was just a soul at this moment, unable to resist the arrangement of fate...
A white light flashed before her eyes, and her soul disappeared from the donkey cart. When she opened her eyes, she found herself back in the village chief's courtyard.
She still felt a tightness in her chest, so she closed her eyes to calm herself down. When she opened her eyes again, she saw her 12-year-old self coming out of the master bedroom.
The car that was supposed to pick her up had already arrived at the gate of the courtyard. Xiang Wan got into the car, and after a short while, Li Xia got out of the car and handed a wad of cash to Li Shengde's wife, Wang Xiaohui.
It must have been at her suggestion in her past life that, after handing her the money, Li Xia also showed her the cotton shoes behind him and asked her if she had ever seen the owner of the shoes.
Wang Xiaohui's mouth was practically stretched from ear to ear as she held the money. When she heard him looking for someone, she glanced at the cotton shoes several times to make sure they weren't hers.
"These shoes are so tattered, they definitely don't belong to me. They probably belong to some poor family. Young man, what do you need the owner of these cotton shoes for?"
When Li Xia heard that she didn't recognize the shoes, she nodded and said, "My young lady wants to sponsor the owner of these shoes."
Hearing that the rich, foolish young lady was about to pay again, Wang Xiaohui instantly regretted her loose tongue. These were clearly women's shoes. If she had recognized them earlier, her daughter might have become a golden phoenix.
She was filled with regret, but she had already said it wasn't hers, and no one would believe her if she changed her mind, so she had no choice but to give up.
Outside the courtyard gate, Xiang Wan was sitting on a stone bench, resting her chin on her hand. She watched Li Xia carrying cotton shoes and asking people all over the village, but her thoughts drifted to Chen Yan, who was driving the donkey cart.
She also recalled her memories of her past life. She remembered that in the information about Chen Ruilin, there seemed to be no one in the family section.
As if she had guessed Granny Chen's destined ending in this life, Xiang Wan sighed. However, her gaze swept over and she saw Li Taohua lurking suspiciously outside the courtyard...
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