She pulled Yu Caihong along, walking forward with quick, light steps. Her delicate face remained expressionless, but her mind was racing with malice.
Xu Liang was terrified. This Yu Zhiqing was completely unpredictable! Didn't she have even a shred of compassion?
"Wait! Don't go, I..."
He quickly caught up and tried to take Yu Jiu's hand.
"Don't touch me, Uncle Xu! Men and women shouldn't touch each other. Even if you're old, you can't be so disrespectful!"
Yu Jiu moved lightly, dodging his dirty hand with a serpentine movement, her face showing a warning.
"Who's being disrespectful to their elders, Uncle? What are you doing here?"
Xu Zijiang's voice came from afar. He walked very fast. When Yu Jiu looked in the direction of the voice, he was already striding up to her. His handsome, rugged eyebrows were furrowed, and his thin lips were pursed into a sharp line, making him look extremely dissatisfied.
"Zijiang, no, listen to me first..."
Xu Liang swallowed hard and gave Xu Zijiang a fawning smile. He had barely started speaking when Yu Jiu interrupted him, grabbing Xu Zijiang's sleeve and angrily complaining.
"Captain! He called you an ingrate! He said I corrupted you! He said you forgot your family after getting married, and said a bunch of nonsensical things! How could he be like this! Why is he telling me his opinions instead of you? He even said I'm pretty but not likable! He'll get tired of me sooner or later!"
Should I thank him for telling me I'm pretty?
Yu Jiu was furious and kept ranting and raving about it. Her beautiful almond-shaped eyes seemed to be filled with exploding fireworks, dazzling and burning with raging anger. Her voice softened with anger, and her complaints were sweet and melodious, like she was being coquettish.
She wasn't tugging at Xu Zijiang's sleeve; she was clearly tugging at Xu Zijiang's heart!
A fleeting smile appeared in Xu Zijiang's eyes as he held Yu Jiu's slender hand and patiently coaxed her.
"No, don't listen to his nonsense. You're beautiful, gentle, kind, and considerate. What man wouldn't like you? I like you even more, and I'll never get tired of you! I wasn't corrupted by you. I was bad to begin with, so don't worry about him."
"Go back to the educated youth settlement for lunch first. I'll teach him a lesson. I'll come find you later."
"Go ahead and teach him a lesson! I want to see for myself what else he can say!"
Yu Jiu raised her chin and said angrily, which immediately confirmed her reputation as a "femme fatale".
"Okay, then stand further away, so you don't get hurt."
Xu Zi touched Yu Jiu's soft hair, affectionately pulled her to stand aside, and when he looked at Xu Liang, his rough and handsome face immediately fell, his eyebrows and eyes darkening.
"Uncle, what's wrong with me? If you have something to say, just say it. Why are you looking for Yu Zhiqing? What, are you trying to ruin my future wife?"
Yu Caihong had already disappeared to the other side when the captain arrived, keeping a distance from the family's entanglements. At this moment, she watched with a furtive glance at the man's blatant double standards and tsk-tsk, shaking her head. The captain wasn't hiding anything anymore, openly treating Xiao Jiu like his future wife!
And the captain even held Xiao Jiu's hand and touched her hair! That was so natural! Xiao Jiu, fight back! Slap him! Show the same fighting spirit you had when you confronted Uncle Xu!!!
She screamed inwardly, "Even if you're going to join the team, don't do it so quickly! Otherwise, the team leader won't cherish you!"
Yu Caihong eats coarse grains but takes the most meticulous care; it's not easy for her.
"How could that be? Zijiang, your uncle wants you to be well too. You've always stayed in our house, and your uncle treats you like his own child. When you were little, your uncle treated you well too, didn't he? You really can't act like this. How about this, you can give us a smaller subsidy, instead of ten yuan a month, how about eight yuan?"
"Five yuan is fine too, Zijiang. Your uncle's family has a heavy burden. Can you bear to see him toiling away in the fields for a few work points? You've become the team leader, yet you don't even consider your family. You assign us easier jobs with higher work points. Your uncle has already been very understanding, hasn't he?"
Xu Liang didn't dare to confront Xu Zijiang directly, so he could only plead and appeal to his emotions, even recalling his childhood with Xu Zijiang's father. Xu Zijiang listened quietly as he finished speaking.
He thought Xu Zijiang had been moved by his words, and he was overjoyed. He immediately stepped forward to give his nephew a loving hug, but unexpectedly Xu Zijiang turned around, picked up a large stone, and held it high.
He asked expressionlessly.
"Are you sure you were good to me before? I was nine years old then, not nine months old. Do you think I don't remember anything? Everyone in the team has memories, right?"
“My father just died, and you couldn’t wait to take me back to your house, saying you were afraid I wouldn’t be able to take care of myself if I were alone at home. But in reality, you turned around and had your son bring his new wife to live with us. At your house, all I could do was eat. I had to help you with the work in the fields, feed the chickens, and cut pig feed.”
“You took the work points my dad earned that year, and I don’t need to tell you how much grain he exchanged for, right? I left your family when I joined the army at sixteen, and during that time your son and daughter-in-law were still living in my house. They almost claimed my house as yours. What about your son living in my house? I also gave you a subsidy for two consecutive years, ten yuan a month. You can calculate how much that is.”
He couldn't be bothered with such trivial matters. After returning, he kicked the couple out and demolished their house to rebuild the current brick and tile house. As for the subsidies he gave them, it was because he had returned to the team as the team leader and was very busy. He was too lazy to watch them running around every day. Anyway, he didn't have many places to spend money, so he gave them the subsidies.
Consider it money spent to buy peace and quiet.
He just doesn't want to give it to me now, so what? He wants to spend all his money on his wife and kids; no one else deserves it.
"Do you remember this big rock? Your son hit me there back then, I don't need to repeat myself, do I? You protected him and refused to teach him a lesson, you just kept telling me to be patient. Uncle, you've been so good to me."
Xu Zi sneered, his disdainful gaze making Xu Liang feel utterly ashamed.
He thought that was all in the past, and besides, no matter what, his father had given him food, and even though his father was gone, he had also provided him with shelter. Otherwise, how could a little kid guard a house?
Xu Liang thought about it, then shamelessly tried to let the matter drop with a smirk.
"That's all in the past. Why are you still holding a grudge? Your brother was ignorant when he was young. If you're not satisfied, I'll go back and teach him a lesson right now. Zijiang, you only have these few relatives left now. We're all connected by blood, so why hold grudges? Families living together are bound to have their share of disagreements."
"Okay, if you still think five dollars is too much, how about three dollars? I really can't go any lower."
He was shameless and just wanted Xu Zijiang's money. Xu Zijiang's post-military allowance was a full thirty yuan a month! He also thought that Xu Zijiang, with his hot temper, wouldn't be interested in any women and probably wouldn't have any offspring. In a few years, he planned to give one of Xu Zijiang's grandsons to him, and then Xu Zijiang's house and money would all belong to his family.
They've already suffered so much loss; they can't afford to get nothing in return!
"Oh."
Xu Zijiang sneered and, with a grim face, smashed the large rock hard.
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