Chapter 42 Don’t look at me when it comes to settling accounts. I won’t fall for it.
When Yan Xue asked about it that day, she didn't mention these things, and Qi Fang thought that the matter was over.
Unexpectedly, Qi Fang left, and Miss Yan also left. When I could finally breathe a sigh of relief, Yan Xue brought it up again.
This made him look at Yan Xue's face, and he remained silent in silence.
Yan Xue wasn't in a hurry either. She asked him with a smile, "Why? Do you need to make it up right away?"
Those eyes were curved, and you could see a beautiful arc in the darkness, but it just made people feel more uneasy.
Qi Fang denied it quickly, "No."
"Are you trying to hide this from me forever?"
"No."
This time, it was just as quick. Qi Fang even looked at her seriously, "I can't hide it from you either."
It was unclear whether this was out of sincerity or a desire to survive, but Yan Xue just stared at the man without saying a word.
Qi Fang now understood what it meant to be silent, leaving you guessing. He tentatively placed his hand on Yan Xue's arm. Seeing that Yan Xue didn't refuse, he slipped his arm around her back, but didn't dare hold her too long, only holding her loosely. "I was shocked at the time, too."
Yan Xue believed this, otherwise he wouldn't have been in such a strange mood that day and said some things that were very unlike him.
But this man was really good at hiding himself, and he didn't let her see anything. Yan Xue smiled and said, "You were trying to trick me that day, weren't you?"
Qi Fang paused slightly, but his voice didn't sound unusual. "I just wanted to confirm it again."
"Confirm how great aunt praised Qi Fang?" Yan Xue laughed.
Even if he didn't believe it when he received the letter, he would have believed it after he knew she had received money. He later asked about the great aunt and how she had referred to him, which was pure rhetoric.
Yan Xue poked the man, "You told me later that you were not good. Were you also deliberately showing weakness?"
She didn't know where she had poked, but the muscles under her fingertips quickly hardened, and the man grabbed her hand. "No."
Qi Fang's palms were very hot. Compared to the loose grip on his back, this time he was holding it firmly.
Yan Xue tried to pull it out, "And you didn't let me go to Aunt Qiufang's house."
Some things really can't stand up to scrutiny. Once you think about it, you'll find loopholes everywhere. "Are you afraid that I'll be exposed if I go?"
Qi Fang stopped talking now, but he didn't let go of her hand.
Yan Xue simply poked him again, "You hid it really well. You didn't even let Liu Weiguo speak at that time."
Then he poked, "And when you saw Qi Fang the other day, you treated him badly. Did you already know..."
Before she could finish her words, her hand was pulled and placed behind the man's waist, and he was hugged from the front.
Yan Xue's hand, which was supporting her head, slipped away, and the next second, she was resting her head on the man's arm. The man held her tightly, breathing close to her ear, "I'm worried."
The hug was too tight, too close. If he had just moved a little higher, his lips would have landed on the side of her face.
Yan Xue had just thought of this when she felt a soft warmth on the side of her face. "I didn't know it was him."
Although he was cold, his body was hot everywhere, and even his breath was scorching. "If I knew..."
If he knew how, he didn't say it, but his lips fell on Yan Xue's cheek again.
First it was tentative, then it meandered all the way, bringing with it a hot breath, and even the embrace gradually tightened.
It was the first time for Yan Xue to be so intimate with a member of the opposite sex. She felt that wherever the delicate kisses landed, a hot flower would bloom.
She unconsciously grabbed the man's clothes on his back and felt the air around her slowly warming up.
At the same time, her back was also heating up as the man's fingers caressed it, from her waistline to her neck, and finally through her hair, clasping the back of her head...
Just before the breath touched the corner of her lips, Yan Xue turned her head.
His soft lips brushed her cheek and finally landed on her neck. He paused noticeably, "Yan Xue?"
The voice was breathy and tingling in her ears, and the air was so hot that it started to itch.
But Yan Xue still pushed the man away and said, "Don't try to change the subject." After she said this, she realized how soft her voice was.
She cleared her throat and pushed again, "Get up."
The man didn't move, and called her softly again: "Yan Xue." His peach blossom eyes looked at her quietly.
This was indeed a bit unfair, because from a close distance, Yan Xue could even see the peach blossom color at the corner of his eyes that was always suppressed by coldness.
Yan Xue covered the man's eyes and said, "Don't look at me. I won't fall for it."
Although she said she didn't want to eat it, her palm still felt a little itchy from the other person's slightly trembling eyelashes.
She simply pressed the other person's forehead and pushed hard, and the person broke free and turned his back to her. "I don't like being kept in the dark about things that concern me, and I don't like others making decisions for me."
It’s okay if it’s his own business. If he doesn’t want to talk about it, she can choose not to ask, but she can’t ask about things related to her.
This is a matter of principle. Yan Xue does not accept any ambiguity or any beauty tricks.
For a long moment, the man behind him didn't move. He seemed to have calmed down and said, "I understand."
After Qi Fang finished speaking, he tried to move closer, but Yan Xue kicked him. "You've kept it a secret from me for seven days, so you should at least reflect on it for seven days."
As he spoke, he moved the pillow away and pushed the quilt down, drawing a line between the two of them.
Even for the food she was going to bring up the mountain the next day, Yan Xue added a fried sunny-side-up egg with a slightly runny texture to the lunch box.
Qi Fang noticed that when he went to work that day, his expression was not only cold, but also slightly stern.
Liu Weiguo noticed that he was talking less than usual. He leaned over while working and asked, "What's wrong? You were fine when you came back yesterday. Did you not sleep well last night or are you unsatisfied?"
Hearing that unsatisfied desire, Qi Fang looked at him silently, "You understand a lot?"
This look was so meaningful that Liu Weiguo immediately shook his head, "I don't understand. Don't talk nonsense, especially not to Zhou Wenhui."
This desire to survive is really strong. Qi Fang didn't say anything else, lowered his eyes and continued to work.
Liu Weiguo, however, was a man who couldn't hold back his words. After a while, he asked again, "Someone came to your house a few days ago, but I didn't get a chance to ask. Did you find the person you were looking for?"
This made Qi Fang look at him again, "Found it."
"Is he looking for that?" Liu Weiguo continued to ask with concern.
"No." Qi Fang answered decisively, cutting the weeds around the sapling close to the ground. "They are fine."
Liu Weiguo didn't know if it was an illusion, but he always felt that his movements in weeding were too neat, and the shovel even emitted a faint cold light.
"Oh, nothing's been going smoothly lately." Liu Weiguo sighed, thinking of himself and Zhou Wenhui. "Wenhui went home a few days ago to inquire about it, but she didn't find out anything. Her father even urged her to deliver something to the Jiang family. You said we were getting along so well, why did we have to be separated?"
"Don't you want to be separated from her?" After removing the weeds, Qi Fang went to add soil to the next sapling with exposed roots.
"Of course not. Do you want to separate from Yan Xue?"
Liu Weiguo was quite good at asking questions. After asking, he chased after him and lowered his voice, "What's the matter? Do you have a good idea?"
His eyes lit up, and he obviously believed in his buddy's ability.
Then he heard his powerful buddy say, "If you accept her as your sister, you will be a family forever."
When Yan Xue found out about this, it was already afternoon when she got off work.
Liu Weiguo came over to give Huang Fengying some elm yellow mushrooms she had just picked today. "We picked over ten kilograms from one tree. My family can't even eat them all."
In spring, we eat elm yellow mushrooms, and in autumn, we eat frozen mushrooms. Now it is just the beginning of June, which is a good time to eat elm yellow mushrooms locally.
This kind of mushroom mostly grows on fallen trees, dead standing trees and felled stumps of broad-leaved trees such as elm, birch and willow. It is fan-shaped or funnel-shaped and will gradually expand after maturation. The larger ones can indeed weigh more than ten pounds.
The piece that Liu Weiguo sent over was obviously broken off, but it weighed about four or five pounds, and the wavy edges were still fresh and slightly yellow.
This thing is different from frozen mushrooms. It has to be eaten fresh. If you make too much, you really can't finish it. So Yan Xue didn't be polite to the other party.
Seeing that she accepted it, Liu Weiguo began to complain to her in a low voice, "Is your Qi Fang in a bad mood? I told him that I didn't want to be separated from Zhou Wenhui, but he actually asked me to recognize Zhou Wenhui as my sister."
"He asked you to recognize Zhou Wenhui as your sister?" Yan Xue's eyes widened.
How hurtful! It makes lovers become siblings. "Did you say something you shouldn't have said?"
Otherwise, no matter how much Qi Fang said, he usually wouldn't criticize his own friends.
"What can I say?" Liu Weiguo obviously hadn't grasped the point yet. "It means that he..."
At this point, he suddenly remembered that Qi Fang had told him not to tell Yan Xue about that matter, and changed the subject again, "He said that he was sexually unsatisfied since early this morning."
As soon as he finished speaking, Qi Fang came out from the inner room, and glanced at him quietly with his dark eyes.
Liu Weiguo immediately left. "Then I'm leaving. My family is also making yellow elm mushrooms. I'll send some to Zhou Wenhui."
Yan Xue looked at his back as he ran away, then turned back to look at the man, "You're so unsatisfied this morning, did you tell him that?"
"No." Qi Fang answered very coldly and seriously.
"That means you two are hiding something from me again." Yan Xue smiled.
The word "又" was used very cleverly, and it reminded Qi Fang of Liu Weiguo's words: "Be careful, your wife might kick you off the kang."
He paused, "I asked him to find out if there is anyone with the same name as me in the forest farm."
"So I was the only one who knew last that I recognized the wrong person?" Yan Xue narrowed her eyes.
Qi Fang immediately denied it, "No, I only asked him to help me find someone, I didn't say who."
Yan Xue didn't say whether she believed it or not. She went to the cupboard, took out a basin and started to pick the elm yellow mushrooms.
Mushrooms are not easy to cut with a knife. You have to tear them into strips by hand to preserve the original flavor to the greatest extent.
Qi Fang has always been conscientious when it comes to work. He immediately came over to help her break the rice, and after breaking it, he took the initiative to add more fire to the bottom of the pot.
Yan Xue mixed half of the four or five pounds of elm yellow mushrooms with eggs into a soup, and the other half was coated with flour and deep-fried.
I happened to have some oil I had squeezed from wild boar meat at home. After frying, I drained it on a colander, poured it into a bowl, sprinkled it with the dry ingredients, and tossed it until it was evenly coated. I took a sip of the soup before eating. The delicious flavor hadn't even faded from my tongue before the dry-fried meat had already arrived with its unique crispy and tender texture.
After all, the weather was getting warmer. After drinking half a bowl of hot soup, Yan Xue had already sweat on her forehead.
Qi Fang saw this and handed her a handkerchief. He himself was dressed in plain clothes, with only a hint of red on his lips.
Somehow, Yan Xue thought of the red mole on his collarbone again and glanced at his collar.
The man noticed it and looked up with a puzzled look. Before he could ask, Auntie Guo's voice came from outside, "Xiao Qi, the Liu family's Weiguo is fighting with someone!"
He paused, and Yan Xue was already looking out the window. "What's going on?"
Aunt Guo was standing outside the kang by the window, with her grandson Tiedan following behind her. "I just went to call Tiedan for dinner, and I saw him fighting with someone by the river."
The couple hurried out without finishing their meal. When they arrived, many people had already gathered by the river.
Liu Weiguo and Jiang Debao were separated far apart. One of them had red eyes, obviously still angry, and the other was bleeding from the corner of his mouth.
Yan Xue glanced around and saw Zhou Wenhui not far away.
The young girl was holding a basin in her hands, crying with her head down. There were wet clothes stained with mud in the basin.
It was obvious that she came to the river to wash clothes and ran into Jiang Debao, and Jiang Debao said or did something that angered Liu Weiguo.
Sure enough, Liu Weiguo was stopped by someone, and he pointed at Jiang Debao, "If you dare to touch her again, just try it!"
"I'm moving now, what can you do to me?"
No one tried to stop Jiang Debao, after all, he was obviously the one being beaten.
He spat bloody saliva on the ground and said, "My family arranged a partner for me, so I can do whatever I want. What's it to you?"
Liu Weiguo was about to rush forward again, but was stopped by several male educated youths, “Don’t be impulsive, don’t be impulsive!”
"He's not touching your wife!" Liu Weiguo was practically yelling.
Qi Fang frowned, walked over and patted one of them, "Are you taking sides?"
He has a cold personality and is not easy to get along with, unlike Liu Weiguo, who smiles all day long.
The other party subconsciously let go, "No, I'm just afraid that he will act impulsively."
On the other side, Yan Xue also walked up to Zhou Wenhui and asked in a soft voice, "Are you okay?"
Zhou Wenhui quickly wiped her face and said, "I, I'm fine."
Before he finished speaking, Jiang Debao sneered, "Why are you pretending? Liu Weiguo can touch me, but if I touch him, I will die."
When several male educated youth heard this, they knew that something bad was going to happen and hurried to stop Liu Weiguo, but Qi Fang stopped them calmly.
So Liu Weiguo shook off the people around him, rushed over and punched Jiang Debao hard, and kicked him again, before he was caught up and pulled away by someone.
Now Jiang Debao was kicked to the ground, his face looking very ugly.
Zhang Guogang, standing next to him, also had a rather unhappy expression, and a hint of impatience. "Could you please stop talking? Is it honorable to tease a female lesbian?"
Jiang Debao choked, and not far away he heard Yan Xue's voice comforting Zhou Wenhui again, "It's okay, I'll ask Sister Yue'e for you, her family has experience in suing people."
Everyone present knew who Lang Yue'e's family was suing and what they were suing for. Jiang Debao choked again.
At this moment, Huang Fengying, who had heard the news, hurried over and asked, "What happened?"
With the elders around, the fight was not so easy, not to mention that Jiang Debao was always the one being beaten.
But he was too angry to let him go like this, so he simply looked at Liu Weiguo and smiled coldly, "Anyway, her father asked my father to make him the deputy director of the workshop. It will be mine sooner or later. I'm not in a hurry."
He even raised his eyebrows deliberately, "I'll torture her eight times a day, what can you do to me?"
"You're fucking dreaming!" Liu Weiguo almost jumped up, but because Huang Fengying was present, he didn't do anything.
"Why is this person like this?" Huang Fengying also frowned and walked over to ask Zhou Wenhui: "Are you okay, my girl?"
He also consoled her by saying, "He's a mean-spirited person, you don't have to listen to his nonsense."
Zhou Wenhui had no choice but to listen, because Jiang Debao clearly said that her father wanted to be promoted to deputy director of the workshop.
Now there is no need to ask, it is clear why Zhou's father wants to marry her to the Jiang family.
A deputy director can marry his daughter to such a thing. In his eyes, his daughter is really worthless.
Huang Fengying looked at Zhou Wenhui, whose eyes were swollen from crying but she couldn't stop crying, and couldn't help but say, "What's going on?"
Liu Weiguo didn't know how to coax or persuade her, so he simply looked to Qi Fang and Yan Xue for help.
"Jiang Debao is such a jerk. Doesn't he have any tricks to ruin this thing for them?"
He was truly a worthless person. If he had been nice to Zhou Wenhui and things didn't work out, Liu Weiguo would at most have felt regretful. But if he treated Zhou Wenhui like this, if he really let her marry him, wouldn't that be like sending her into a fire pit?
"There is a way," Qi Fang said. "Find a way to make the Zhou family severely offend the Jiang family, and this plan will fail."
Since the Zhou family can't be persuaded, they will start with the Jiang family. This is a way to cut off the source of the problem.
Liu Weiguo's eyes lit up immediately, "How do we do this?"
Yan Xue was not as optimistic as him, "It's just that if there is no Jiang family, there are still the He family and the Hai family."
As long as the Zhou family wants to sell their daughter, they can always find a buyer.
Unexpectedly, Qi Fang immediately added, "But this only treats the symptoms, not the root cause."
Although the couple said different things, they meant the same thing and couldn't help but look at each other.
Liu Weiguo didn't care whether they were in sync or not, "Then what should we do?"
He is not only worried that he and Zhou Wenhui will not be able to be together, but also worried that if Zhou Wenhui really marries Jiang Debao, she will be bullied by Jiang Debao.
This time Qi Fang didn't look at him, but looked at Huang Fengying, "Then it depends on whether your family is willing to give it up."
"What are you willing to give up?" Huang Fengying didn't react for a moment.
Yan Xue understood what he meant, "Are you willing to spend a fortune to replace the Jiang family?"
Since Zhou's father has made up his mind to sell his daughter, it is useless to say anything to him. Instead of trying to change his mind, it is better to become the buyer.
As long as it is proven that what the Jiang family can do, the Liu family can also do it, Zhou's father's attitude will naturally be different.
However, what impressed the Zhou family was the Jiang family's connections, and if the Liu family wanted to do the same thing, they could only spend a lot of money and give expensive gifts. It all depends on whether the Liu family thinks it is worth it.
Zhou Wenhui was not stupid after all, and she quickly realized, "I don't need it, don't spend money on me."
She looked at Huang Fengying and said, "Thank you." Then she looked at Qi Fang and Yan Xue and said, "Thank you too." But she didn't look at Liu Weiguo. She took the basin and went to the river to rinse the dirty clothes again.
Liu Weiguo felt that her attitude was wrong and quickly chased after her, "Hey, what do you mean? Don't you want to be with me anymore?"
It was hard to hear what the two of them said over there, but Zhou Wenhui's attitude was very clear. She didn't want the Liu family to spend this money in vain.
Huang Fengying stood there without saying a word, obviously undecided.
Yan Xue also knew what she was hesitating about. Old Man Liu hunted in winter and released livestock into the mountains in autumn. Although the Liu family didn't look prominent, they actually had some good things.
But it is hard to say whether this good thing is worth using on Zhou Wenhui, and whether the Liu family is willing to have Zhou's father as a relative.
After all, people like Zhou's father have tasted the sweetness this time, and they may want more next time. It all depends on whether Zhou Wenhui can be clear-headed and withstand it.
Everything that could be said had been said, and the rest would have to be discussed by the Liu family themselves, so Yan Xue and Qi Fang said goodbye.
On the way back, Yan Xue looked at Qi Fang and said, "I thought you would let Liu Weiguo give up."
After all, Qi Fang looks indifferent and has no interest in anything. He doesn't seem like a persistent person.
If it was five months ago, Qi Fang might not have said it out loud, but in his heart he might have felt that it would be better for Liu Weiguo to give up, but now...
He glanced at Yan Xue beside him and said, "We can't really ask him to recognize Zhou Wenhui as his sister."
"You also know that we can't let lovers become siblings, right?" Yan Xue smiled, and her two watery eyes immediately turned into crescents.
Qi Fang looked at her and reached out to help her up, "There's a hole."
The forest farm's roads were all dirt. After rain, the ground would be punctured by tire tracks, making it difficult to walk even after it dried. Yan Xue's foot hadn't fully healed yet, so she really needed to be careful. She followed his strength and switched places with him, allowing him to walk on the harder side while Yan Xue walked on the easier side.
But as he finished changing, the man seemed to have forgotten that he was still supporting someone and looked ahead, "Is your fungus almost healed?"
"Almost. I'll pick the biggest one tomorrow and cultivate it." Yan Xue tried to take it.
The man's eyes were still focused on the road ahead, and he didn't seem to notice. "Do you want to adjust the temperature?"
But his hand did not loosen. It changed from holding Yan Xue's arm to holding Yan Xue's wrist, and further down, it was Yan Xue's hand.
Yan Xue looked at his profile, which was as cold as usual. "No, there are still at least six days."
This seemed to be inconsistent with what he had said before, and the man finally looked over.
Yan Xue smiled, and before he could look at her with confusion, she slapped his hand away.
The next day, Yan Xue picked the largest fungus as instructed, cut off the thickest part, and prepared to culture the fungus.
She estimated the time it would take for the wood ear mushrooms to mature and prepared the culture medium two days in advance.
Wash and peel the potatoes, weigh out 200g, and slice them thinly. Boil for 30 minutes. Remove the potatoes and strain through four layers of cheesecloth. Add water to 1000ml. Add 20g of agar and heat until melted. Add 20g of glucose and simmer for a few minutes before straining through four layers of cheesecloth.
After that, a simple sterilization process was performed using Yan Xue’s largest investment to date - a pressure cooker.
It was really a very simple pressure cooker, but it was a good thing in that era. After Yan Xue bought it, the Liu family borrowed it several times to press wild game.
The test tubes used to hold the culture medium were bought from the Forestry Bureau Middle School. The mouths of the test tubes have been raised and left to stand for 48 hours.
After Yan Xue checked, she removed a few pieces of wood ear mushrooms that were obviously growing bacteria, and used sterilized tweezers to put the cut wood ear mushrooms into a test tube that was free of bacteria.
The next step is to control the temperature and wait for the mycelium to grow all over the slope, then the mother culture will be cultivated.
However, the temperature requirement for bacterial culture is higher, 22 to 28 degrees Celsius. Yan Xue went to the kitchen to add some firewood, feeling that the house was almost uninhabitable.
If that doesn't work, move quickly and live in the new house, while continuing to rent this place specifically for cultivating fungi.
Yan Xue was thinking while washing her hands. Just after she finished washing, someone was looking for her outside the yard.
"Yan Xue lives here, right? There's a telegram for you."
In this day and age, people wouldn't send telegrams unless it was something serious. Yan Xue quickly wiped her hands and poked out the hand with her name engraved on it.
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