"Um... we only have half a fish per person for dinner tonight, so please make do." Ning Yuan hesitated for a moment, but still reluctantly cut off half of the fish, put it in a bowl, and handed it to him.
Since everyone's food rations were already low, that's why she went to the fishing spot secretly.
Rong Zhaonan did not take the fish, and said indifferently, "I'm not hungry, you eat it."
After saying that, he turned and went inside.
Ning Yuan was taken aback, then grabbed the bowl and chased after him, saying, "You've worked all day, how could you not be hungry!"
As she spoke, she put the bowl on the table: "There's no need for me to help you. It's settled then, we'll be a fake couple for two years. You help me, I help you, and we'll get through this together. That's what partners are."
Rong Zhaonan looked at her slender back, then glanced at the fish in the bowl, a hint of indescribable light flashing in his cool gaze.
A business partner... it seems more like she's supporting herself.
He sat down and slowly ate the fish.
The night was deep
After taking a shower, she coughed lightly at Rong Zhaonan and said, "You go to bed first, I'll read a book and review my notes."
She really wasn't used to sleeping with a strange man.
Rong Zhaonan remained noncommittal as he dried his hair, watching Ning Yuan sit down at the old desk she had found.
Then, she took out a notebook and a worn-out Chinese textbook from the drawer.
I started copying down vocabulary words from my high school Chinese textbook and reviewing old lessons.
Ning Yuan knew very well that in her previous life, her low level of education made her look down on in terms of marriage, employment, and even her limited horizons.
She's starting her life anew, and she's determined to give it her all.
Initially, it was just to alleviate the awkwardness of sharing a room and a bed with a nearly stranger.
But as she copied, Ning Yuan became engrossed in it.
By the time she felt her wrists were tired from copying, she had already copied almost half a book of words for the test.
Ning Yuan stretched and looked at the candles beside her, two of which had already been replaced and the third one was almost burned out. She then realized that she had been studying for a while.
When she was at the educated youth settlement, she lived with several people and they were always noisy, gossiping about all sorts of things, so she had no interest in reading.
But now, her learning efficiency has surprisingly improved.
Ning Yuan read for half the night, and only after Rong Zhaonan fell asleep did she climb into bed, feeling both sleepy and hungry.
After a busy day, she was woken up in the middle of the night by her dog's cries of hunger.
"I'm starving..." She touched her stomach, sat up groggily, and decided to get some water to fill her stomach.
But as soon as Ning Yuan got out of bed, she felt that something was not right.
She turned her head sharply and found that the bed next to hers was empty!
Rong Zhaonan has disappeared?!
The thought of the man silently passing over her without her reacting jolted Ning Yuan awake instantly.
The cowshed hut wasn't big, and Ning Yuan could see at a glance that no one was in the room.
She thought for a moment, then put on her shoes somewhat uneasily and carefully walked outside.
"Dr. Rong... Rong Zhaonan?" she called softly as she left the room.
It was pitch black outside, with only a dim moon hanging in the sky. Ning Yuan searched around.
There was no one in the toilet, no one in the cowshed, and the door was locked from the inside, so it didn't look like anyone had gone out. No one knew where Rong Zhaonan had gone out from.
It was pitch black all around, and Ning Yuan felt a little scared. She quickly went back to her room, locked the door, and absentmindedly took out a cookie box and stuffed a cookie into her mouth.
Strange, where could Rong Zhaonan go?
As someone who had been sent down for reform, he usually either worked in the fields, cleaned the cowshed, raised cattle, or went to study sessions in the evenings.
These past few days, because he 'married' her, the village secretary has made an exception for him, allowing him to skip studying and writing self-criticisms.
But he disappeared in the middle of the night. What did he do? Does he usually do this?
Ning Yuan sat on the edge of the bed, lost in thought, and finally drifted off to sleep.
until……
"Ning Yuan, Ning Yuan, get up..." The man's clear, slightly hoarse voice rang out.
Ning Yuan jolted awake and sat up abruptly.
It's Rong Zhaonan, he's back!
Then she met a pair of clear, narrow eyes that were looking down at her with deep, unfathomable gaze.
Her round little nose was right against his high, straight nose, and her lips were almost touching his.
"Ah—" She instinctively pushed him away and shrank back.
But she forgot that she was sleeping on the outside, and the next moment, she found herself with her buttocks dangling in the air, and then she fell headfirst off the bed.
Rong Zhaonan reacted quickly, grabbing her wrist and pulling her back: "Be careful."
Ning Yuan was thus spared the fate of falling flat on her face first thing in the morning, but she was immediately pulled into his arms.
The man's broad chest was pressed against Ning Yuan's face, and she could even feel the rise and fall of his muscles. The warm touch on her face made her blush instantly.
Rong Zhaonan quickly released her and looked down at Ning Yuan, whose face was flushed: "Were you scared? I just saw that it was time to go to work."
Ning Yuan scrambled to her feet, coughing, "It's nothing, cough cough..."
When exactly did this person climb over her and then go back to sleep on the inside of the bed?
Ning Yuan quickly got up to wash up, and asked casually, "Didn't you eat enough yesterday? Will you wake up hungry tonight?"
Rong Zhaonan changed his clothes, filled a pot with rice and sweet potatoes to cook porridge, and said casually, "You'll get used to it and won't wake up hungry. Our food rations are already less than yours."
Ning Yuan paused while brushing her teeth. She knew, of course, that there was a shortage of food and that everyone was struggling to get enough to eat. People like Rong Zhaonan, who were reformers, received even less food than the rest of the population.
She felt a little embarrassed and didn't say anything more.
It seems Rong Zhaonan doesn't intend for her to know what he did when he disappeared in the middle of the night.
After eating the cooked sweet potato porridge, the two went off to their respective tasks.
Ning Yuan had just arrived at the field with water when she heard Huang Xuehong's sarcastic voice behind her: "Oh my, who is this? Isn't this our Ning Zhiqing? Finally decided to come out of the cowshed?"
Ning Yuan turned her head and saw Huang Xuehong, Tang Zhenzhen, Qin Xiaoxia and others walking over carrying hoes.
She ignored them and turned to leave, carrying water with her.
Tang Zhenzhen had suffered a great loss at her hands, how could she not hold a grudge? Her eyes darted around, and she sneered at Huang Xuehong, "Who knows? She could climb into the bed of a bad element before marriage, now that she's married, she'll probably be even less likely to get out of bed. Shameless..."
"Splash!" Ning Yuan suddenly put down the carrying pole, grabbed the bucket and poured water all over Tang Zhenzhen's and her friends' faces.
Tang Zhenzhen and the others screamed and scattered, but they still couldn't avoid getting splashed!
"What are you doing!" Tang Zhenzhen screamed and glared angrily at Ning Yuan as water splashed all over her face.
Ning Yuan clapped her hands and smiled, "Oh, I'm sorry, I just saw that your mouths were so dirty, so I wanted to help you wash them. Don't thank me too much!"
Having lost both money and face, Tang Zhenzhen already hated Ning Yuan to death, and now Ning Yuan is even throwing water at her.
She was trembling with anger, and with Huang Xuehong by her side, she was about to rush over and grab Ning Yuan's hair: "I'll beat you up, you shameless bastard!"
"Afraid of you?!" Ning Yuan wasn't the pushover she was in her past life; she grabbed a carrying pole and pointed it at them.
But the next moment, Hua Zi quickly led his men to block their way: "What are you female educated youths doing? You can't fight!"
Several other male educated youths also rushed over to help separate the girls who were tearing each other apart.
Seeing that she was getting nowhere, Tang Zhenzhen's eyes reddened as she pointed at Ning Yuan and shouted angrily, "After she married a bad element, her thinking became corrupted. She doesn't go to work every other day. At the end of the year, she doesn't have enough work points, and our educated youth team still has to share the grain with her. Why should we!"
Upon hearing this, the other male educated youths exchanged glances, realizing it was the truth.
Wang Jianhua has broken his head and is still bedridden, unable to work. Now Ning Yuan is also not working, so their work points are even fewer.
When the year-end settlement comes, the grain will be distributed according to the team's work points, and those who have worked more will suffer more losses.
"Yes, that's not fair."
“Didn’t Ning Yuan get married? I think the work points for those educated youth who got married were counted in the village team, not in the educated youth team.”
So, several male educated youths chimed in.
Ning Yuan understood; so that's where they were waiting for her.
She turned to Hua Zi and said, "Brother Hua Zi, I'm married now, and my household registration is in our village. I'm wondering if it's okay if I don't join their educated youth team? I don't want to take advantage of them."
Hua Zi hesitated for a moment when he saw Ning Yuan's insistence: "Why don't you apply to our team later and have your work points for this year recorded in our village team?"
In the village team, work points were calculated by household. Ning Yuan and Rong Zhaonan's marriage counted as one household.
Educated youth received preferential policies and were considered to be in the higher tier, while those like Rong Zhaonan who were sent down to the countryside received the lowest tier of work points.
Therefore, Ning Yuan is at a great loss, as she will have to exchange far less grain at the end of the year.
Seeing that she had achieved her goal of kicking Ning Yuan out of the educated youth team, Tang Zhenzhen sneered and left with Huang Xuehong and the others.
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