Chapter 12
12.
When Guan Yue and Cheng Lingjun returned home, they kept a considerable distance from each other. When Guan Yue arrived at her door, she saw that Cheng Lingjun had not yet returned and was obviously waiting for her.
Guan Yue stepped forward and asked, "What's wrong?"
Cheng Lingjun sighed softly and said, "There are some things I couldn't tell you at the village chief's house, but I need to make it clear to you now: the compensation the village chief gave you is actually a bit low."
“The village chief’s land is fertile. The weather is good this year, so the rice yield will not be low. According to previous years, it is not a problem to produce 100 kilograms per mu of fertile land. But giving you only 10 jin per mu is a bit of a reduction.”
Guan Yue said, "But you still agreed, didn't you?"
Cheng Lingjun looked at her expression. There was only a hint of surprise in her eyes, but no anger or displeasure. It was as if her interests were not being harmed. This pure trust made him a little unsure how to deal with it. She had already listened to what he said, yet she could still show such a calm expression. What was she thinking?
"Aren't you angry?" Cheng Lingjun asked instead of saying what she was about to say.
Guan Yue scratched her head. "What are you angry about?"
"I'm angry that I didn't tell you these things and that you agreed to the village chief's request."
Guan Yue blinked in surprise. "You told me, didn't you say the village chief wouldn't give me much compensation?"
Ah, this...
Does he really believe whatever he says? Cheng Lingjun felt that the other person not only had amnesia, but also dementia. He rubbed his forehead and said, "But shouldn't you... shouldn't you blame me?"
"Blame you?" Guan Yue felt that her good neighbor had a very high moral standard. Not only did he help her, but he also felt that he hadn't helped enough. She thought for a moment and said, "Why should I blame you? If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have had this opportunity. Besides, I believe that you must have had a reason for asking me to agree. You're about to explain that reason to me, aren't you?"
Cheng Lingjun looked up at Guan Yue in surprise. Guan Yue winked at him, a hint of shrewdness flashing in her eyes.
It seems he hasn't lost his mind; he's quite clever.
Cheng Lingjun chuckled slightly. He recalled that none of the people who had always been by his side had trusted and understood him as much as the person in front of him. Before the pain of the past touched him, Cheng Lingjun had already put those memories behind him and focused on replying: "There are indeed some reasons. Rui Xi is the village chief, and there's not much point in haggling with her. Even if she deliberately lowered the pay, it's still an opportunity. If you don't seize this opportunity, you might not even get this much. And while she dares to ask you to work, others in the village might not. If you just agree, you'll gain the village chief's appreciation. As the village chief, she won't go back on her word. If you can really do it to the end, given the village chief's position, she won't be stingy enough to give you such a small amount of rice as payment."
Guan Yue exclaimed "Wow!" and said, "You're amazing! You've thought of everything so thoroughly. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't know what to do. You're my savior!"
Guan Yue's somewhat exaggerated words made Cheng Lingjun feel embarrassed and annoyed. He said, "What savior? Don't talk nonsense."
“I’m being sincere,” Guan Yue said, her eyes wide, her face full of genuine innocence.
Cheng Lingjun glared at her, but couldn't do anything about it. She said, "Be serious. This is all I can do for you. You're the one who's going to work at the village chief's house. Try to be as diligent as possible. Even if you can't finish everything, Village Chief Rui will notice and won't treat you unfairly. If you're lazy, the village chief will definitely not pay attention to you anymore, and you'll never have this opportunity again."
Guan Yue listened to the other person's rambling without getting impatient; on the contrary, she was quite happy. After Cheng Lingjun finished rambling, she realized that she had said too much and had unconsciously treated the other person like Xiao Guang. She couldn't help but say a few more words, worried that Guan Yue would not like to listen. But seeing that Guan Yue had a smile on her face, she asked curiously, "What are you smiling about?"
Guan Yue said, "It's nothing, I just feel so good to have someone care about me, you..."
Guan Yue noticed Cheng Lingjun's pupils shrink slightly and realized she might have been a bit too blunt. People from ancient times probably wouldn't be comfortable with such words, let alone a man from this matriarchal world. Considering that Cheng Lingjun was a divorced man with a child, she felt even more guilty for not being careful enough. She quickly stopped talking, coughed, and stammered, "I... I meant thank you. I will definitely remember your words and work hard. It's late today, you must have a lot of things to do, so I won't bother you any longer."
Cheng Lingjun nodded without saying anything, then turned and walked home. Guan Yue watched his retreating figure and couldn't help but call out, "Thank you for helping me. If you ever need anything, be sure to come to me!"
Cheng Lingjun paused for a moment, and just as she was about to turn around, she heard the people behind her running away, followed by the sound of the door creaking shut.
He paused only for a moment, then spun halfway around before returning to the path he was originally on. He walked slowly, pondering why he should help Guan Yue. Their relationship had been so irreconcilable before. Even with her amnesia, given what she had done, he could have easily ignored her. Yet, helping her seemed so natural, so simple, just something he did on a whim, wasn't it? She was in trouble, he saw it, that's all.
He just wanted to see if what this woman said was true. She said she wasn't the Guan Yue she used to be, and that she would survive on her own. He kept his distance from everyone in Dahuai Village. First, he considered himself a divorced man with a tarnished reputation. Even if he believed he was doing the right thing, he couldn't face others' gazes with composure in such a short time. Second, he and Li Guang had just escaped that suffocating home, and it was already difficult enough for them to settle down. Dahuai Village was just a temporary stop for them. He hadn't decided to stay here forever. Perhaps one day they would leave. They were like two wounded birds, needing a place to rest, but their cold hearts were hard to warm up. Even knowing that many people in the village were good, they couldn't open their hearts to accept others.
In fact, Guan Yue is the person he talks to the most and the person he's closest to since he moved here.
This thought struck Cheng Lingjun as somewhat unbelievable. It wasn't anyone else, but Guan Yue, a rogue and a scoundrel, the person he used to despise the most, yet they could now get along so well, and he didn't see anything wrong with it at all.
However, all of this happened naturally, and he didn't think it was a bad thing.
Guan Yue had no idea what Cheng Lingjun was thinking. She was focused on worrying about the upcoming rice harvest. Before she transmigrated, she had never even pulled up a scallion. Her knowledge of rice was limited to pictures and videos. She had never even touched a proper farm tool. The last time she worked in the fields must have been during a group planting activity in elementary school, which was a very long time ago.
For a moment, Guan Yue wanted to go find Cheng Lingjun again, but she suppressed the thought. She couldn't keep bothering him, she thought to herself.
She felt that she was a little too dependent on Cheng Lingjun. She wasn't usually the type to rely on others, but she had changed here, which made Guan Yue feel a little frustrated.
She has been very strong-willed since she was a child. Her grandparents are getting old and need her help with many things. They can't help much with her studies, and she doesn't need them to do anything. She is very talented in her studies and her grades have always been among the best. She feels that apart from not being very good at cooking, taking care of herself and her grandparents is not a problem. She is also good at earning and saving money. She has always been a very worry-free child.
She thought she didn't need, nor would she depend on, anyone else...
It's probably because of this unfamiliar world that she's become like this, which is understandable. Guan Yue made excuses for herself in her heart, comforting herself that this was just a normal psychological phenomenon and that it would naturally get better with time.
But while it's one thing to know rationally, emotional weakness isn't so easily overcome in a short time. Guan Yue forced herself not to think too much. In any case, things are moving in a positive direction now. Cheng Lingjun has already helped her a lot, and she can't let him be in a difficult position. She should also become stronger so that she can repay her good neighbor's kindness.
A few days later, Guan Yue arrived at the village chief's rice paddy as promised. To her surprise, the village chief glanced at the rusty farm tools she had brought, tossed her a sharp sickle, nodded, and said, "Work for a while and let me see."
Guan Yue saw the disdain in her eyes. She gritted her teeth, determined to make the other person look at her with new eyes!
...That's impossible.
Guan Yue looked at the red marks on her hands from the rice stalks. The sickle in her hand felt as if it had been oiled, slippery from the sweat. Her shoulders and arms ached. She dared not look back at Rui Xi's eyes, which she knew were full of contempt and sneer.
But she didn't get the village chief's scorn. Instead, she saw Rui Xi head towards the rice paddies next to her, holding an old, gleaming sickle. With a swift motion, she chopped down the rice stalks as if it were nothing. In her hands, cutting the rice was like cutting grass. In just a short while, she had cut more rice than Guan Yuegan had done in half an hour.
Guan Yue looked at her, then at her own achievements, and felt a horrific contrast.
...Actually, Village Chief Rui doesn't need to hire anyone to do the work, does she? She seems capable of doing it all by herself, Guan Yue couldn't help but think.
Keep going. Guan Yue wiped the sweat off her hands and gripped the wooden handle of the sickle tightly. She watched Rui Xi's movements carefully and clumsily imitated her every move as she continued to cut rice. It was a little better than before, but it was still too difficult for Guan Yue.
The sunlight, though not particularly intense, shone on Guan Yue's back as if it were about to evaporate all her sweat. But at this moment, she no longer felt the discomfort and was only focused on harvesting rice. Anyway, the person who hired her didn't tell her to stop, so she just kept working. The village chief probably already knew who she was and probably didn't have any expectations of her.
She wanted to let the village chief know that the cheap people they hired weren't exactly good... uh, no, they were excellent value for money!
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