85. 085 Scoundrel
Ning Jin spent three whole days cutting through the nearly five miles of weeds with a sickle. The day before he left home again, smoke billowed all day along the road leading to the orchard.
Many people came out to watch, mainly because they had never seen grass cut and set on fire in the summer. The grass was still green in the summer, and there might be snakes crawling in it.
"Why did your man suddenly cut the lawn and then burn it all?" Yu Yuan'an wondered. In two or three months, it would be autumn, and the grass would be withered. He could just light a fire and burn all the weeds and trees to the ground. "Or are you planning to plant something again?" He suddenly perked up. Only this reason was worth the effort and time to cut, dry, and then burn.
"For safety reasons." Su Yu glanced at the people around her and said with some emotion, "A few days ago, on my way home, I felt someone crawling in the bushes. When I looked back after passing by, there was indeed a figure. After that, I searched that area and found a clump of cut grass and traces of someone walking in the approximate location."
She had thought that when Xiao Yuan was picking up and dropping off Ping An, it had already revealed that she had discovered him. Now that Ning Jin had cut and burned all the grass, both sides knew what his purpose was. So she might as well make a big scene to deter those with ulterior motives.
"What? There's such a thing? Who's so bold as to ambush people in broad daylight!" Yu Yuan'an was surprised and angry. Even in peacetime, someone still dares to act like a bandit. "He should be called to the police and thrown in jail. That son of a bitch, he's utterly wicked," he cursed.
“No wonder you used to drop off and pick up Ping An and Xiao Yuan every morning and evening. You should have said so sooner. Weren’t you afraid something might happen to the two kids?” Qiu Fuli frowned, not daring to imagine what the consequences would have been if Su Yu hadn’t found out. He thought for a moment and said, “Have you offended anyone recently? Or met any strange people?”
"No, the person who offended me is in jail and has now been sent to the Great Northern Wilderness to reclaim wasteland."
Qiu Fuli glanced at Su Yu. They were both exposed to the wind and sun in the orchard, yet she was still fair-skinned and dressed appropriately. In the same floral cotton coat, she looked more eye-catching than a young wife in her twenties. It was hard to say which man had caught her eye.
"So what are you going to do about this?" He looked at Yu Yuan'an and Liu Quan and tentatively said, "How about we ask Lao Yu and Liu Quan to take you to town every time you go back? Anyway, the three of you have free time, and you don't see each other for a day or two when there's not much to do."
Yu Yuan'an and Liu Quan were taken aback for a moment. The former frowned, while the latter turned his head to look in another direction, rubbed his hands together, and said, "Okay, I don't have much to do anyway, and I'll have nothing to do when I get back. I'll take Sister Su back."
Yu Yuan'an frowned even more upon hearing this and shook his head. "I'm afraid I can't do it. I don't have a bicycle. My son has taken over all the bicycles at home. Besides, the orchard is right behind the village. I always walk here. I haven't touched a bicycle handlebar in years, and I can't ride it steadily."
He was mainly worried about picking up and dropping off a lone man and woman, fearing he might attract unwanted attention. His children were growing up and would be getting married in a few years. If he were embroiled in scandalous rumors, no decent family would want his children. He didn't want to let others hinder his children's future.
Liu Quan clenched his fist and said, "Then I'll deliver it every day. I'm free, I have a bicycle, and I need time every day."
Su Yu had seen his expressions and actions throughout, and she was 80% certain that the person squatting in the thatched hut that day was him. Their relationship wasn't that good, and besides, they were enemies. If he were this kind to her, he wouldn't have tried to sow discord between Ping An before.
"No need, thank you for your kindness, Liu Quan, but it's not really suitable. I heard your wife is pregnant with your second child. You should spend more time taking care of your family. I have my son to pick me up. Besides, the grass on the road has been burned clean now, even a fool wouldn't be lurking on the road anymore." Su Yu refused with a smile, and said to Qiu Fuli, "Xiao Yuan and Ping An are both fourteen or fifteen years old. They're tall and strong, and at this age, they're at the peak of their recklessness. If that thief dares to come again, I guarantee I'll make sure he loses an arm or a leg."
Liu Quan smiled and said, "As long as your family has made arrangements, that's fine." She had already said that much; if he insisted any further, it would seem like he had ulterior motives.
He stood aside and silently murmured the word "lover." Thinking of his lazy, pregnant wife at home, he felt only irony. They both graduated from junior high school, but his wife had spent a year and a half in high school. Not only did she hate books, but she was also shrewish and no different from the peasant women in the village.
"Can I go home now?" Su Yu asked the man, covered in soot and still tending to the fire, as she rode her bicycle home after get off work.
"You go back first, I'll be there in a while. The weeds haven't been burned yet, and I'm worried that the wind will blow the fire into the fields and kill the crops." Ning Jin turned his clothes inside out, buried his face in them and rubbed them. After a day of tending the fire, he was almost completely dried out. His hands were like a dirty rag, wrinkled and stiff, and his eyes were dry and itchy.
"I'll wait for you so you don't have to walk home." Su Yu pulled the car over to the side of the road, ready to get out and help him burn the food.
"Don't come any closer, it's dirty and hot." The man immediately stopped her: "Your skin is delicate, if you're roasted for half an hour, your face will get wrinkles."
"It's not like I've never cooked or started a fire before." Su Yu ignored him, broke off a long branch from the tree, and went down to help him tend the fire, letting in air to make it burn brighter.
"You'll regret this." Ning Jin was both angry and helpless, so he had no choice but to let her take off the gauze and cover her mouth and nose, otherwise she would have a nose full of black soot when she got back.
“I want to change jobs.” This was a solution he had come up with after thinking about it for three days. “I’m always away from home, and you’ve been taking care of everything at home. You’ve handled everything, from the trouble my mom caused you, to Xiao Yuan being robbed, to your job change, and your dad’s illness. I told you I would support the family, but the family has only been able to stay together because of you. Now that you’re in danger, if I leave, I won’t even know what might happen. I want to change jobs, somewhere close to home, so I can come home every day.”
Perhaps it was because his face was too dry, but even when he tried to force a smile, it seemed unnatural. "The only downside is that my salary will be much lower, and most importantly, I won't be able to buy you local specialties anymore. Don't look down on me then."
He was at his wits' end, racking his brains. There were no high-paying jobs near home. Even transporting fruit in the orchard only paid a little more in the summer and autumn; the other two seasons only brought in about thirty yuan a month.
"Then I'd definitely look down on you." Su Yu pouted, her hands still busy picking firewood. Facing the menacing flames, she said, "I admire strength. I like men who are more capable than me. I don't really like domestic men. I might get tired of them after a while. Don't give up your job because of this little difficulty. I still have decades to live. There's always the possibility of falling and breaking my head while walking. You can't be following me around all the time. It's such a trivial matter. If he weren't so secretive, he wouldn't even be on my radar."
At this moment, she exuded an aura of immense power, completely unlike Ning Jin's pitiful state when she first returned home. Her desire to complain and seek support came and went quickly, leaving the man somewhat stunned.
"I'm pretty sure it was Liu Quan that day. That scoundrel isn't worth all the trouble. Spending a few days mowing the lawn is already doing him a favor. He's vengeful but cowardly, a bunch of petty thieves. If you really asked him to do something like murder or arson, he wouldn't dare to do it." She said this to comfort the man, but it was also the truth. Liu Quan was a rat in the gutter, disgusting and good at making noise behind people's backs to scare them, but once he was exposed, everyone could beat him to a pulp.
“How can you be sure it’s him? There’s still a 20% chance it could be someone else. Besides, you don’t know him. Men can do anything when they’re blinded by lust. Don’t underestimate any man with bad intentions.” Afraid of provoking her rebellious spirit, he added, “After all, you’ve been as beautiful as ever for ten years.”
No, she gets more beautiful every year. It's as if she has torn off a dusty rag, holding her head high. Every frown and movement is exceptionally beautiful. Ning Jin looked at her. She didn't care about other people's opinions or what others said about her. She cared about very few people and very few things. He felt that the small town behind him was about to be unable to contain her because she was out of place.
She loves to hear compliments on her beauty, but that's not enough to convince her to quit her job and stay home because of that uncertain 20% chance.
“If you want to change jobs because of health reasons, I agree. But if you want to change jobs just because of the thief behind it all, I’m not willing. I don’t like staying at home myself, and I don’t like a life without any excitement. You decide for yourself. Anyway, I’ve said my opinion. If you still want to change jobs, I won’t stop you.” Su Yu stopped talking and focused on the embers that were almost gone. After the last spark died down, she threw away the branch and walked towards the road through the black ash.
Ning Jin didn't mention changing jobs again. The next morning, he packed his bags and headed to the factory, just like usual. He asked his wife and children, "Is there anything you want to eat? I'll bring it back for you next time I come back."
“Mango,” Su Yu said.
"The jam should be a little sour," Ping An said somewhat unhappily. This time, his father only bought fruit and didn't buy any jam. When he asked why he didn't buy any, his father said he didn't hear him say that!
How could he not have heard? He just doesn't care! He doesn't take it to heart!
“Okay, I got it. Where’s Xiaoyuan?” he asked.
"Um... let me think... cured pork? If I come across cured pork, I'll buy two pieces." He likes to stir-fry cured pork.
"Okay, then remember what I told you." Ning Jin looked at his two sons, and only after receiving their assurances did he open the door and leave.
After Ning Jin left, Su Yu had her two sons accompany her to and from get off work every day. After seven or eight days, she looked at the desolate wilderness that stretched as far as the eye could see and decided she didn't want her two children to keep running back and forth between the two places.
"That won't do. My dad told us to pick you up and drop you off every day. I don't feel tired at all. What about you, Xiao Yuan?"
"I don't feel tired at all; in fact, I feel more energetic."
"Alright then, this is also a form of exercise in the morning and evening." He's just a bit shameless; every morning he rushes to the orchard to pick peaches or melons, and in the evening after school he goes to the orchard to choose what to eat.
It's also a blessing. When she was little, she envied her classmates who had fruit trees and melon patches at home, so they could choose to eat whatever they wanted. Her wish has now been fulfilled in a roundabout way, and it has also satisfied Xiaoyuan and Ping'an.
The three of them had gotten used to laughing and talking loudly on this shady dirt road every day, and were almost forgetting about the rats hiding in the shadows when, in the middle of the night, Little Black and Little Flower started barking wildly, and the two dogs crowded at the doorway, snapping at the outside.
Su Yu turned on the light, got dressed, and got out of bed. The two children next door also came out wearing shorts. Seeing that the two dogs had gradually calmed down, she said, "Go inside and sleep. They must be just passing by."
She went inside to sleep, and as she lay down, she glanced at her watch on the pillow; it was a little past 1:40 in the morning.
She felt like she had only been asleep for a short while when the two dogs started barking again. Su Yu immediately got up and ran to the front door. She heard the sound of footsteps running rapidly into the distance. This time, she couldn't convince herself that they were just passing by.
The footsteps had stopped. She turned to look at the child standing at the door and said with a smile, "It must be the neighbor who went out earlier coming back. I'll ask them tomorrow if anything happened to anyone."
After Xiao Yuan and Ping An entered the house, she went to the kitchen, took a cleaver, and went into the bedroom. This time, she checked her watch again; it was 3:05 a.m.
She put on her clothes and shoes, turned off the light bulb, and leaned against the headboard. She waited until dawn, and the mother and daughter stopped screaming and remained quiet until daybreak.
This morning, Su Yu, unusually, took her breakfast out and ate with her neighbors while squatting on the roadside. "Hey, my dog barked really loudly last night. Did someone go out at night for some reason?"
"Who knows? I heard your dog barking last night too. It was really loud. I wonder who was wandering around outside in the middle of the night."
There was still no news. Su Yu, with her dark circles under her eyes, went to the orchard. Liu Quan, whom she suspected, had been there for quite some time. At lunchtime, she sat among the crowd listening to people gossip. She casually inquired about Liu Quan's family affairs. "I think Liu Quan doesn't seem to be in a good mood today. Did he have a fight with his wife and get kicked out of the house?" she asked gossipy.
"Hey, Technician Su, you like hearing about this too?" The woman suddenly laughed and said to the people around her, "You all said that Technician Su is different from us, that you're afraid of her and don't dare to gossip."
“Same, who says different? I have what you have too!” She puffed out her chest and smiled meaningfully.
Sure enough, her action amused the others.
"So you're saying there's something interesting going on in Liu Quan's family?" She brought the topic back on track.
"Yes, they make a fuss every now and then. That bastard Liu Quan complains that his wife is vulgar, unrefined, and unambitious." Someone scoffed, "Pregnant women are clumsy and not in good spirits. There's also a child at home who can't understand what they're doing. How clean can the house be? His wife complains that when he comes home, he has a long face, glares at you, picks and chooses things, and scolds you for being lazy and gluttonous. She's probably having a boy this time. He'll be hungry and want to eat everything. He gets cravings just from the smell."
"Yes, yes, when I was pregnant with my first child, I was also drooling all the time, and I would crave even an unripe green date. Her symptoms this time are similar to mine, so it's probably a boy."
The topic veered off course, and someone asked Su Yu how she reacted to Xiao Yuan's pregnancy. She nodded haphazardly and said it was the same as theirs.
"I'm done eating, you guys take your time." She emerged from the crowd, washed her lunchbox, and sat under a big tree at the village entrance. It wasn't surprising that Liu Quan hadn't come out to cause trouble for Su Yu for three or four years. The fact that he could hide in the vineyard for so long meant that he hadn't forgotten the beating he received before.
It seems this bastard suddenly went mad because he resented her for ruining his plans to find a wealthy and noble woman, and he was venting his frustrations about his family on her.
You worthless bastard!
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