Chapter 26: Her legs are sore, she's really good at it.
They ate dinner in the corridor at night. Two tables were set up. The men sat at one table to drink, and the women and children sat at the other table. Mischievous children from two nearby units also came over to watch the fun. Zhou Aodong had the children grab some peanuts, melon seeds, fruit, and candy.
"Li Xiaopang, you eat the big chicken leg!"
"My dad cooked fish for me! He even killed a chicken for me and let me eat the chicken leg!"
...
Qin Xiangxiang had little appetite. She had been a picky eater since she was a child. She wouldn't eat more than a few bites of meat if she didn't like it. Zhou Aodong had scolded her for being difficult and picky since she was a child, but she just couldn't eat things that didn't taste good.
Her father, Qin Wutong, was a poor cook when it came to chicken; it was overcooked and looked tough. She didn't want to eat it, so she just picked out the chicken wings, tips, and feet, ate them in a few bites, and then picked out some toon leaves and eggs. After a hasty dinner, she took out the radio from the house and started playing a program.
"Think about it? You're not going to eat it then?"
"There's still some fish that hasn't been served yet."
Qin Xiangxiang: "I don't need it."
Li Jianzhi noticed that she wasn't eating much, and felt a pang of heartache. He thought about how obedient and considerate his wife was. With so many people present, not to mention the children, even the adults were craving meat, especially chicken. They wished they could eat more pieces of meat, afraid of falling behind and not getting any.
My wife is different. She doesn't fight or compete, she's gentle and elegant, and she says she's full after eating a few pieces of meat. No wonder she's so thin; she's so sensible.
I only regret that I wasn't sitting at the same table as her, otherwise I would have made sure she ate a few more pieces of meat.
"Xiao Li, our family has raised Xiangxiang to be a bad person. Don't look down on her in the future. You two should live a good life together." Dr. Wei, Qin Wenxian's husband, was in cahoots with Qin Wenxian. They were both there to watch the show and gossip.
Li Jianzhi frowned, once again feeling that the Qin family was no good. Before transmigrating, Li Jianzhi had read many controversial posts on Zhihu and Digua about gender antagonism, regional discrimination, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law conflicts, and toxic relatives, so he was quite "well-informed".
The son, Li Qingfeng, spoke very disrespectfully to his mother, Qin Xiangxiang. This was definitely something he had been taught by an adult. He had only seen similar scenes in posts about terrible mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law, where the mothers-in-law taught their grandsons to curse their own mothers and spoke ill of their mothers in front of their grandsons every day.
As for him and Qin Xiangxiang, since they don't live together, there are no mother-in-law/daughter-in-law issues for the time being. However, Qin Xiangxiang, this "grandmother," is quite problematic. The child says that his great-grandmother is like this and that, and that he was taught by his great-grandmother.
It wasn't just her grandmother; her aunt Qin Wenxian and her husband, Dr. Wei, were also intentionally or unintentionally targeting and belittling Qin Xiangxiang. In essence, they were targeting Zhou Aodong, the eldest daughter-in-law of the Qin family.
Having clearly distinguished between friend and foe, Li Jianzhi naturally didn't take the Qin family's words seriously. In fact, he felt disdain for them, thinking that these awful relatives were bullying his wife and corrupting his son. Now that he was a man, he couldn't let his wife suffer any more grievances.
"Uncle, I'm just curious, did you dislike our aunt when you got married?"
Dr. Wei was stunned: "Wenxian is a very good person, how could you dislike her?"
"Excuse me for speaking frankly, but you can tell that our aunt came from the countryside when she was young. She still has a rustic air about her and hasn't forgotten her roots. She's different from Xiangxiang. Xiangxiang is clearly a girl who grew up in the city."
Dr. Wei was dumbfounded, and Qin Wenxian's smile froze on her face. Over the years, living in the central urban area of a big city, they were the ones who looked down on people from the countryside, but they had never heard anyone say this before.
Qin Wenxian was going crazy. Her nephew-in-law's words had severely shattered her sense of superiority.
Is this man blind?! He actually said she had a rustic look!
“My aunt’s voice still has a northern Jiangsu accent.” Having lived through the 1980s and 1990s, Li Jianzhi knows best how to crush some people’s sense of superiority. For the older generation of Shanghai residents, “northern Jiangsu” was a demonized concept.
From the Republican era onwards, many people from northern Jiangsu fled to Shanghai, taking up low-level jobs or engaging in petty theft. As a result, many Shanghainese looked down on people from northern Jiangsu. Later, this even evolved into a demonic concept used to scare children, with people saying, "If you don't behave, be careful, or someone from northern Jiangsu will take you away..."
This kind of discrimination was still quite serious before the millennium. Saying someone had a northern Jiangsu accent was roughly equivalent to saying you were a country bumpkin and that you spoke with an unpleasant rural accent.
This kind of regional discrimination is not good, but you can't be too kind when dealing with difficult relatives.
Qin Wenxian and Dr. Wei felt a burning pain on their faces. Li Jianzhi's voice wasn't quiet, and since it was in the corridor, all five or six households in the building could hear it. "Ahhh, I'm going crazy! He actually said she had a country accent!"
The couple were both heartbroken, feeling as if a million ants were crawling all over them.
"I am so lucky to have married Xiangxiang. I should be the happiest man here. It is good enough that she does not look down on me. How could I look down on her?"
"Thinking about it, she was such a good woman. I've wronged her all these years..."
...
Li Jianzhi praised Qin Xiangxiang highly, and Qin Wutong, blushing, nodded in agreement. Yes, yes, his daughter was the best. Qin Wutong didn't usually drink much, but listening to his son-in-law's "drinking talk," he felt quite tipsy and drank several more cups.
"My daughter, think it over! You and your son-in-law are a perfect match, a match made in heaven!"
"You're a good man, and let's think about it, you're a good woman..."
The father-in-law and son-in-law carried each other in a back-and-forth manner, creating an incredibly warm and harmonious scene. Zhou Aodong couldn't help but burst out laughing, while Zeng Fengyu and her second son's family were somewhat dumbfounded, and Dr. Qin Wenxian's face remained stiff.
"Good woman", "virtuous wife and loving mother", "virtuous woman"...
Qin Xiangxiang was not only restless, she was also unable to eat or sleep. She wanted to strangle that man and poison him to make him mute. But the two men who spoke were the two most important men in her life, one was her father and the other was her husband.
These two men are talking nonsense!
For the first time, Qin Xiangxiang, this little drama queen, felt a bit withdrawn. She was a mix of withdrawal, anger, and resentment. Was this man flattering her?
I'll show him what a troublemaker can do later!
After the meal, the relatives dispersed. Qin Wutong was drunk, and Li Jianzhi efficiently collected all the bowls and chopsticks, returned the stools to each household, and quickly washed the bowls and chopsticks, returning them to the Xu family next door.
Qin Xiangxiang took a shower and lay lazily on the bed, showing no intention of helping. Her heart was pounding, and she felt that her deadbeat husband must be holding a grudge after doing so much work today, and would be sarcastic and sarcastic towards her later.
She'll be even more mischievous then, making him unable to stand her little devilish temper.
The door was pulled open, and a tall, handsome man walked in. Qin Xiangxiang caught a glimpse of him and immediately started acting up. She lifted her right leg, and the slipper in her hand flew out, hitting the man squarely.
They greeted you with their shoes the moment you walked in! Hmph.
Li Jianzhi grabbed the "flying shoes," his face expressionless. He walked over, squatted down, grabbed Qin Xiangxiang's ankle, and put the shoes on her.
Qin Xiangxiang felt the strength of the hand on her ankle, her waist suddenly went limp, and a strange, tingling sensation spread throughout her body. Involuntarily, she recalled the scene from last night, where the man's hands had also gripped her ankles in the same way.
Her legs went weak involuntarily, and she felt both ashamed and angry.
At this moment, Li Jianzhi couldn't help but recall the chaotic and ambiguous scene from last night. He touched his nose with his other hand, remaining outwardly calm and expressionless, but in reality, he could feel a strange burning sensation.
Just like rinsing crucian carp under the tap during the day, he grabbed her ankle, unwilling to let go, wanting only to hold on a little longer.
What's even more terrifying is the greed in his heart. Yesterday, under those circumstances, his hands were like those of a textile factory's inspection department employee, caressing every soft part of the yarn in his hands. But he was as drunk as he was, and didn't have time to appreciate the beauty of the yarn.
Holding this strand of yarn in my hand, I imagine stroking it from beginning to end, feeling every soft and touching part of it under the night light.
"Li Jianzhi, pour me a glass of water!" Qin Xiangxiang continued her antics without any politeness.
The man still held her ankle, not moving an inch.
Qin Xiangxiang stared at his increasingly gloomy and serious handsome face, and she was secretly amused. Hehe, he's angry now!
She added fuel to the fire, saying, "Li Jianzhi, did you hear me? I told you to go and get me a glass of water."
The man gripped her ankle tighter.
The little drama queen was secretly overjoyed: "Oh no, oh no, this is about to explode!"
Would he beat his wife? If he did, he would pretend to be pitiful after the divorce and cry to outsiders that he beat his wife!
Xiao Zuo's heart raced, waiting to see his next reaction: would he fly into a rage? Or would he lie motionless like a corpse and coldly say, "Go get your own water if you want. I'm going to sleep."
"Would you like it hot or warm?" Li Jianzhi looked up, completely ignoring his own hands, but his mind was still on the woman's ankles, wanting to hold them a little longer.
His wife is so adorably silly; he didn't even realize he was holding her leg.
Qin Xiangxiang was stunned: "?"
Warm water? Hot water?
"Of course, drink warm water." The little devil blinked and looked up at him.
Li Jianzhi nodded, finally releasing the woman's ankle. His gaze lingered upwards, and he thought to himself that if he were a less respectable man, he could have continued upwards... But he was a "gentleman," how could he touch her like that on the second day of their relationship?
How disgusting!
"I'll go get you some water." While inwardly criticizing himself, he stood up and silently whistled as he went to get water for his wife, Xiangxiang.
Having had several "electronic pet" romances, this is the first time I've had such a realistic girlfriend. She even needs her boyfriend to pour her water. I imagine my own wife is the kind of little woman who needs her boyfriend to unscrew the bottle cap even when she's drinking water.
Will she expect him to peel the shrimp for her every time she eats them in the future?
Some people might see this as manipulative behavior, but as a man—I actually find myself falling for it.
Qin Xiangxiang watched as the other person poured her a glass of warm water. She held it to her chest and took a sip, feeling somewhat dazed.
Looking up at the man's face, it was still that expressionless, lifeless face, revealing no inner turmoil.
Qin Xiangxiang: ? ? ? ?
What on earth is this damned man thinking?
Didn't this guy praise her for being virtuous in public at dinner just this evening? He even called her a good wife and mother. Now she's too lazy to even drink water at night. Open your dog eyes and look, where is she virtuous?
"Li Jianzhi, I feel a bit sore in my legs, can you rub them for me?" The little drama queen stretched out her toes and tried to lift the other man's trouser leg, even rubbing them against him maliciously a few times.
She didn't dare look at the man's face, because he was handsome and serious, and his cold expression was quite intimidating. Plus, he was so tall... He must be angry now, right?
I'm just a troublemaker who creates problems for no reason.
She didn't walk all day, so her legs are aching for no reason.
"Where it hurts, massage it there?" The man sat down on the edge of the bed and naturally grabbed her ankle with his hand.
The woman's ankles were small and slender, yet they had a moist, fleshy feel to the touch—a delicate sensation that a man could not experience. Her toes were slightly curled up, and her nails resembled tiny, pinkish seashells.
His gaze swept across the water like a swallow before he looked away.
Li Jian thought to himself: She's so good at this.
Qin Xiangxiang: "?"
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