Aunt Bai's eyes bulged out instantly, and she screamed in agony, "Ahhh—"
Watching her roll her eyes and faint, Ning Yuan calmly said, "I did it."
When her aunt hit her, she intended to cripple her, so she didn't need to hold back.
She turned to Li Yan and asked, "My aunt is upset that I didn't follow her advice to date. Comrade Li Yan, this is just a small conflict between our relatives. Does the brigade have to get involved?"
Hearing Ning Yuan take all the blame upon herself, a strange and profound light flashed in Rong Zhaonan's lowered eyes.
Upon hearing her words, Li Yan's face turned pale, but he finally sighed and said, "You guys go first. I'll find a car to take Aunt Bai back to her village to see a doctor."
Regardless of whether Rong Zhaonan was the one who started it, Ning Yuan took the blame, and now he can only try to downplay the incident as a fight between relatives.
...
Leave the village production team office.
Rong Zhaonan noticed that Ning Yuan did not head directly towards home.
He frowned: "Where are you going?"
Ning Yuan glanced at the sky: "Let's go get something to eat, do you want to come?"
I hurt my aunt today, and now I've lost my two yuan and fifty cents living expenses for this month.
If her aunt tells her current mother about this, she probably won't have any living expenses for the next month or the month after.
We need to find a way to fill our stomachs.
Rong Zhaonan looked at her and nodded slightly: "Okay."
Then, he saw Ning Yuan come to a haystack where no one was around and reach inside to rummage for a while.
He pulled out an old earthenware pot, a broken bowl, and a small shovel, along with a rusty tin box.
Next was a straw hat—used for farm work.
Ning Yuan then handed him the old earthenware pot and broken bowl, gesturing for him to follow her to the stream behind the cowshed.
She walked to the stream, took a shovel, and began digging for earthworms in the damp soil. Before long, she had dug up quite a few.
Rong Zhaonan watched as Ning Yuan, seemingly disgusted by the wriggling earthworms, tossed them one by one into the broken bowl. Then, he picked up a thin twig from the forest and broke off the branches.
Then, she opened the small box she had brought with her, took out a fishhook made from a bent sewing needle, some thin hemp rope, a float, and a fishing rod made from the fishhook and a bamboo pole.
She looked at the simple fishing rod in her hand with satisfaction and began to thread the plump earthworms onto the curved sewing needle.
There are many fish in the stream. She used to fish for a treat when she first went to the countryside to work.
Later, when there were quotas for returning to the city, she was afraid that people would say she was taking advantage of the collective by catching fish in the stream, which belonged to the collective, and that she would lose the opportunity to compete for a quota to return to the city, so she dared not fish anymore.
The tools were also hidden away.
Now... it doesn't matter anymore, let's eat something good!
Ning Yuan sat by the stream fishing.
Rong Zhaonan: "...Can you catch it?"
Ning Yuan smiled, her big eyes crinkling: "You just wait and see."
Rong Zhaonan leaned against the tree, coldly watching Ning Yuan's back.
A girl wearing a straw hat and with two long braids sat by a green stream in the autumn twilight, lazily resting her chin on her hand, waiting for a fish to bite—it was like a painting.
Rong Zhaonan stared silently at the painting.
By the time the sun had completely set over the mountains, Ning Yuan had filled her broken basin with four fish in that hour.
She caught two grass carp, two bass, and even some small river shrimp.
Plump fish and small river shrimp huddled together in the earthenware pot.
Rong Zhaonan suddenly spoke up: "You have some skill in fishing, but aren't you afraid of being discovered, having to cut off your capitalist tail, and attending a study session to reflect on your actions?"
The fish in the streams and rivers also belong to the collective property. It's not uncommon for villagers to sneak around and catch fish, but the village team usually turns a blind eye to their own people.
However, he was a sent-down youth undergoing reformation, and she was his "wife" with whom he was about to obtain a marriage certificate.
Going to the stream to catch fish will most likely be seen as exploiting the collective, and you'll be punished and criticized.
Ning Yuan squinted her big eyes and lazily yawned: "Isn't it just between you, me and me now? What, is Dr. Rong going to report me?"
It's late autumn of 1978 now, and in December the central government will finalize the national policy of reform and opening up. The environment has become much more relaxed.
However, Rong Zhaonan has not yet returned to work and remains trapped here, so his concerns are not unfounded.
Rong Zhaonan looked at her and suddenly asked calmly, "Since you're so clever, why did you take the blame for me back then? Your family won't forgive you."
She also refused her aunt's request to frame him.
Ning Yuan looked at the fish in the basin: "If you don't want to forgive me, then don't. As for why I helped you, it's because I like to finish what I start. If I wanted to back out, I wouldn't have registered our marriage in the first place."
Rong Zhaonan stared intently at her, as if trying to see through her thoughts: "Judging from your ability to extort money from Tang Zhiqing, you don't seem like a morally upright person."
Ning Yuan paused in her movements. She hadn't expected that her little trick could fool someone like Rong Zhaonan.
She looked at him with neither arrogance nor servility: "Because some people don't think it's despicable to ruin my life for the sake of a spot to return to the city and out of jealousy. I'm just responding to her."
The college entrance examination was reinstated in 1977, but many educated youth from families with unfavorable class backgrounds were ineligible to take the exam and could only return to the city through recruitment.
More often than not... at that time, the college entrance examination was truly a battle of thousands of troops crossing a single-plank bridge; it was considered good if a few people from a county could get into a university.
Most educated youth were able to return to the city only by participating in recruitment quotas.
Tang Zhenzhen framed her for this reason, so of course she had to retaliate!
Ning Yuan turned and walked towards the cowshed, saying coldly, "This is nothing more than compensation for my emotional distress!"
The money and goods she had "tribute" to Tang Zhenzhen over the years far exceeded five yuan, and now that Tang Zhenzhen wanted to ruin her, she didn't hold back at all!
Not to mention that Tang Zhenzhen also wanted to steal her jade chili pepper!
Rong Zhaonan frowned upon hearing this: "Compensation for emotional distress? You can charge for emotional distress?"
This was the first time he had heard this claim.
Ning Yuan looked at the confused expression on his face, and then recalled his cold and imposing face on television decades later.
She couldn't help but smile. Hmm, even powerful figures have moments when they look silly and confused.
Rong Zhaonan watched as her previously indifferent expression changed. She looked at him, her large, dark eyes sparkling like black grapes, her eyebrows curving upwards, like…
Dai Wangshu's poem "Rainy Alley" describes her as a girl as fragrant as a lilac.
His heart skipped a beat for no apparent reason, and his face turned cold: "What are you laughing at!"
Don't try to use your charm or sweet talk on him.
This imported term, 'mental loss,' is not something that ordinary people would use.
Perhaps she wasn't a small spy sent by his group to target him and his family, but rather a small spy who had infiltrated from across the ocean?
Rong Zhaonan's glasses reflected a cold, inscrutable light as he stared intently at Ning Yuan.
Ning Yuan looked at his cold and stern face, which sent chills down her spine.
She subconsciously suppressed her laughter: "I'm not laughing at you, I just read it in a book and thought it was funny. Okay, let's go cook."
Boss Rong has a really strong sense of self-esteem.
She should go cook.
Rong Zhaonan watched her retreating figure, which seemed to be fleeing in panic, pressed down on the frame of his glasses, and thought coldly.
There will come a day when he finds out the truth about this little spy.
Ning Yuan was unaware that, although she had tried her best to conceal the fact that she unconsciously revealed behavior and certain words that were out of step with the times.
However, she couldn't escape Rong Zhaonan's keen senses honed over years on the front lines; he had completely come to regard her as—
"Little Spies" Who Need to Be Detected
As darkness fell completely, chickens and ducks went into their coops, and cattle and sheep returned to their pens in the village.
After a busy day in the fields, the villagers all went home for dinner.
The cowshed was located at the foot of the mountain, the least lively place, and at this moment it was quiet all around... except for the aroma of grilled fish that filled the air.
Ning Yuan built a makeshift stove behind the cowshed using old bricks and stones.
She held up four fish skewered on branches and roasted them on the small stove, the firewood making the fish skin charred and fragrant.
Fish oil dripped onto the firewood, and the fish was brushed with soy sauce and salt.
The fish was stuffed with ginger, scallions, and wild perilla, and the aroma of the spices seeped into the fish and permeated the air.
Rong Zhaonan came out of the room carrying a small pot of sweet potato porridge. When he was faced with the "stimulating" smell, his stomach tightened.
Ning Yuan noticed him staring at the fish in her hand, so she held up the largest one and handed it to him: "Here, try my cooking?"
You need to cultivate a good relationship with the big shots.
Rong Zhaonan accepted it without ceremony and sat down to eat.
Ning Yuan watched as he picked out the bones and ate the fish quickly and efficiently, but it was clear that he was very well-mannered, as he didn't make a sound while eating.
"What are you looking at? Aren't you going to eat?" In no time, half of the grilled fish in Rong Zhaonan's hand was gone. He stared at the fish that Ning Yuan was still grilling.
Ning Yuan smiled and casually placed the skewered river shrimp on the small stove to grill: "I'm full after eating one, you can have the remaining three."
Seeing her busy herself with sprinkling salt and turning the grilled fish, Rong Zhaonan reached out and took two grilled fish from her: "Okay, I can grill them myself."
Ning Yuan smiled, carefully turning the skewers of nearly cooked river shrimp on the stove, and then filled a lunchbox with sweet potato porridge.
She gave Rong Zhaonan two skewers of small river shrimp to his lunchbox, and they ate the grilled fish and grilled small river shrimp with their porridge.
Rong Zhaonan watched her eat with delicate grace, lost in thought—
The little spy is quite skilled; letting her move in brings some unexpected benefits.
After that, the two fell silent and ate their meals separately.
Ning Yuan couldn't stand the awkward silence, so she coughed lightly and tried to start a conversation: "Why...why did you get that...that...that...that kind of aphrodisiac?"
Rong Zhaonan doesn't seem like the type of person who would be easily tricked into using traditional Chinese medicine.
She always felt that this was very illogical.
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