Is this some kind of feigned indifference? Ha!
After taking Zhi Meizi to the fields, Xu Tangmian felt a little scared.
Having such a scoundrel living in my house, and I've even registered my marriage with him. Thinking about all the cases in the news, even if he beats me up, the police station probably won't care. Even if he tries to take advantage of me... I can only sue him afterward, and whether I win or not, it will take three to five years. How much time will that waste?
Fortunately, he's injured in the arm, so if she's careful, he might at most touch her inappropriately, but he can't do anything serious. But the little girl is weak, and besides, she doesn't know anything about relationships between men and women and has no sense of self-protection. She wouldn't even realize that Yu Chunsheng is taking advantage of her. She can't let this ten-year-old girl run around so recklessly again.
Xu Tangmian and Zhi Meizi sat side by side on the edge of the field. She patiently tilted her head and said to the little girl, "Zhi Meizi, you can't just come here like this anymore, okay?"
Zhi asked her, "Teacher Xu, are you unwilling to teach me anymore? Am I too stupid? I can write the few characters you taught me, but the ancient poems are too hard to memorize and I haven't memorized them yet. I will definitely memorize them tonight, okay?"
Xu Tangmian shook her head, hugged her and rubbed her head affectionately, and said slowly, "No, you are very smart. Teacher Xu would love to teach students like you."
"Then why didn't you let me come over?" Zhi asked, tilting her head up.
Xu Tangmian couldn't bring herself to say it. Zhi Meizi was still too young, and she couldn't bear to tell her such sordid things, so she casually shifted the blame to Yu Chunsheng: "It's your Uncle Yu. He has a bad temper and often beats people."
Zhi frowned: "But Uncle Yu doesn't seem like that kind of person."
"You can't judge a book by its cover," Xu Tangmian lied. "See those two bottles of wine in the yard?"
Zhi nodded.
“Your Uncle Yu loves to drink. He beats me every time he gets drunk, which is why I’m so mean to him and often scold him.”
Zhi Meizi was very naive. Upon hearing this, she immediately jumped up, picked up a red brick from the roadside, and was about to go back: "He dares to hit you? I'll beat him to death!"
"Don't go!" Xu Tangmian quickly grabbed her and patiently coaxed, "You're just a child, you can't beat him."
“Then Teacher Xu, come back with me. Let’s not live with him anymore.”
Xu Tangmian patted her head with a look of relief, "Thank you, Zhi-meizi, but your house is too small. If the teacher comes, you won't have a place to stay."
"Then don't let him drink." Zhi Meizi obediently put down the brick. "I won't come here anymore. How about we go to the air-raid shelter at the village entrance? My brother and I usually play there, so we don't have to worry about wind or rain."
Xu Tangmian nodded, extended her little finger and made a pinky promise with her: "Okay, I'll teach you there from now on."
The two went to the air-raid shelter as they talked, and it wasn't until noon, when Zhi Meizi was going home for lunch, that Xu Tangmian reluctantly returned to her and Yu Chunsheng's home.
The so-called economic base determines the superstructure is exactly like this. Normally, she and Yu Chunsheng can argue and bicker, but if Yu Chunsheng really treats her badly, she has no way to deal with him.
Xu Tangmian secretly vowed to put up with him for the last two days and move to school on Monday. She hoped he would live peacefully with her, otherwise she would definitely fight him to the death! Anyway, she had transmigrated from another world, and maybe she could somehow transmigrate back.
Upon entering the living room, she glanced around furtively, but found no trace of Yu Chunsheng. Only the leftover food on the table told her that this person had once existed.
It's just a Mapo Tofu dish, but it's divided in two; one half is just soup, and the other half is all tofu.
Xu Tangmian went to the kitchen again, where there was already a set of leftover chopsticks and a bowl in the basin, and the bicycle in the yard was gone.
She breathed a sigh of relief. It was good that he was gone; being with him was too terrifying.
Just as she happily picked up her bowl and chopsticks to eat, Yu Chunsheng rode back on his bicycle.
Because of his injured left hand, he was riding the bike with one hand. When he got to the yard, he squeezed the brakes, and the bike came to a stop at an angle. He swept his leg off the bike, and his straw mat and quilt were on the back seat.
He glanced at Xu Tangmian, his face expressionless, and said, "Don't put it so harshly. I'm not some kind of scoundrel. I've told you before, I want to live a good life with you. After what happened last night, I thought you were already willing..."
"What do you mean I'm willing to do!" Thinking of his behavior that morning, Xu Tangmian was furious. "Even if I were willing, you can't treat me like that."
"What did I do wrong?" Yu Chunsheng frowned. "Let's get this straight. Does it mean I can't kiss you or I can't touch you?"
"You still dare to say that!" Xu Tangmian's cheeks flushed red, whether from anger or embarrassment. "How can you be so shameless?"
"You're allowed to be shameless, but I'm not?" Yu Chunsheng put the car on the stand and walked straight over, startling Xu Tangmian into taking a few steps back.
Yu Chunsheng stopped a meter away from her and went straight to the point: "I was drunk that night, and I remember everything you did to me."
When that night was mentioned, Xu Tangmian's face turned red instantly, and she stammered, "I... how can my situation be the same as yours... besides... besides, since you remember that, don't you remember that you were the one who barged in while I was taking a shower?"
Yu Chunsheng then said, "I can let you see it again, can you let me touch it again?"
"This is utterly shameless!" Xu Tangmian's face contorted with rage as she gritted her teeth and said, "Didn't you touch me enough this morning?"
“Not enough!” Yu Chunsheng said calmly, “You didn’t just touch my chest, I remember that.”
"I only touched, I didn't rub or pinch there..." Xu Tangmian's face grew hotter and hotter, but she insisted, "If you take it all into account, what you did to me this morning has already evened things out."
“Okay, then we’re even.” Yu Chunsheng went back and took the blanket off. “From now on, we’ll sleep separately. I won’t touch you without your permission. And don’t go to live at school. If the villagers find out, they’ll laugh at us.”
"Are you afraid of being laughed at?" Xu Tangmian said with a disdainful expression, arms crossed.
Yu Chunsheng was walking towards the door when he heard this. He suddenly turned around and said to her with a serious expression, "Xu Tangmian, gossip is a fearsome thing."
Xu Tangmian shouted at his retreating figure, "If you have a clear conscience, you have nothing to fear!"
There were no cell phones, no TV, and not even books. After dinner, Xu Tangmian had nothing to do and didn't want to stay in the same house as Yu Chunsheng, so she went for a walk in the village.
The convenience store is the busiest place; during the day, except for mealtimes, there's always a group of people sitting at the entrance.
Winter is approaching, and the sun is getting stronger. A few more small stools have been added in front of the shop for people who have finished their housework and farm work to rest on. They are usually elderly men and women.
Xu Tangmian had nothing in common with them and didn't want to huddle together, so she found a corner and sat quietly with her head down. After a while, she got bored and thought that she might as well ask Zhi Meizi to teach her instead of wasting her time, so she got up and went to the Wang family.
As soon as I walked behind the convenience store, I heard several people in front of me talking loudly: "Did you see the person sitting over there? It looks like the teacher from the family living in the fields."
Another person, also an elderly woman, said: "I saw her. She's really good-looking. She's probably in her early twenties, with fair and delicate skin."
Have you ever seen what her man looks like?
"I've seen her. Don't even mention it. This morning, Junjun's mom didn't even tell me. I told Aunt Liu in front of her husband that she had never been raped by a man."
Another old lady chuckled: "Oh, really! The man didn't react at all? And you said such awful things."
"What can he do to me, a rural woman? Can he hit me?"
"That's true. But you know what, I think she looks like it too, her legs don't even spread apart when she walks. Either the man is no good, or they've only been married a few times."
Xu Tangmian was furious. These old ladies were so gossipy! What did it matter to them whether someone did it or not? They could talk behind her back, but she could still hear them even after she'd walked to the back of the house. Weren't they being a little too loud?!
She wanted to rush up and yell at them, but then she thought that these old rural women were not good at saying anything, and if she really angered them, they might say even worse things. So she decided to pretend she didn't know anything.
Being gossiped about behind her back for no reason, Xu Tangmian lost her interest in teaching. She was caught in a dilemma, so she simply went around in circles and returned home.
Yu Chunsheng was watering the flowers with a watering can when he saw her come back looking angry, so he casually asked, "Who made you angry again?"
Xu Tangmian stopped and, remembering what the old lady had said, asked him, "Did you go to the convenience store this morning?"
Yu Chunsheng didn't turn around, but loosened the soil with a small shovel: "Hmm, what's wrong?"
"What did you hear them say?"
Yu Chunsheng then turned around, his face hesitant, and said, "You... what did you hear? Actually, you don't need to worry about it. That's just how it is in small places."
"Of course you don't care if it's not about you!" Xu Tangmian kicked her bicycle angrily. "What kind of people are they? They're so gossipy. They even watch people walk. Why don't they crawl into their beds and watch them?"
Yu Chunsheng had nothing to say.
Seeing his attitude, Xu Tangmian got angry again, "You heard that, aren't you going to say a word for me?"
Yu Chunsheng looked helpless and stopped speaking, then asked again, "What can I say? What do you want me to say?"
"Just say it..." Xu Tangmian had nothing to say.
After a long silence, she finally said, "I don't like it here. I'm moving away once I've made some money."
"It's the same no matter where you move; that's just how it is wherever there are people."
“Big cities won’t be like that,” Xu Tangmian said through gritted teeth. “Once I get my letter of introduction, once I go to Beiping…”
"Then I wish you all your dreams come true." Yu Chunsheng said nothing more and turned back to watering the flowers.
Xu Tangmian stared blankly at his retreating figure. She didn't know when it started, but the two of them started arguing every time they met. When they first met, he was very good to her, and she treated him as her safe haven.
She thought of the photo in the pocket watch, took it out again, opened the watch cover, and gestured towards Yu Chunsheng's back. She thought, perhaps he had seen the original owner of this body before he started treating her so well.
Xu Tangmian put the watch back in her pocket, walked gently to his side, and calmly asked, "Have you seen me before?"
Yu Chunsheng turned around as expected, looking at her with a complicated expression: "Why do you ask that?"
"It's nothing." Xu Tangmian started talking nonsense again: "Sometimes you seem like a pretty good person, and other times you're really awful."
Yu Chunsheng didn't respond and continued working on his tasks.
Having made a fool of herself, Xu Tangmian was very bored.
She then asked, "Have you ever been in a relationship before?"
Yu Chunsheng turned to look at her again, sized her up and down, and said expressionlessly, "Are you bored and have nothing better to do?"
"I'm so bored, I don't know what to do." She picked up a twig and poked the ground listlessly, then suddenly blurted out, "Do you want to be a prostitute?"
Yu Chunsheng frowned slightly: "What does * mean?"
Xu Tangmian regretted asking the question as soon as it left her mouth. She didn't even need to look in the mirror to know her face was red, as she could already feel her temperature rising. But this person was still asking her for an explanation.
She refused to say anything and hurriedly tried to leave: "It's nothing, it's nothing, don't ask, I was just possessed by a ghost."
The next moment, Yu Chunsheng grabbed her hand.
He pressed for details, insisting on getting to the bottom of things: "Explain yourself clearly before you leave. Why are you blushing?"
Seeing that Xu Tangmian remained silent, he boldly guessed, "Is it about married life?"
Xu Tangmian paused, then quickly turned away when she saw his intense gaze, remaining silent.
“Looks like I guessed right.” Yu Chunsheng didn’t care at all. He let go of her hand, turned around and started fiddling with the flowers, saying casually, “If you’re really free, walk to the far east end of the field outside our yard. When the broom seedlings have seeds, you can collect them and I can make brooms and sell them for some money.”
"Or you could wander around and see if they sell yarn. Winter is coming soon, so you can make some scarves and sweaters. Buying clothes alone is quite expensive."
Xu Tangmian frowned as she listened, "Stop, stop, stop! Why am I the one doing all the work? Why don't you go and do it?"
Yu Chunsheng turned around with a puzzled look on his face: "You don't have to do it, no one is forcing you. I just saw you were bored and wanted to find something for you to do to relieve your boredom and make money."
Xu Tangmian was a little annoyed. Although she didn't really intend to have a marital relationship with him, why was he acting this way?
She can offer him things, but he can't ask for them. Now that she's flirted with him, he seems indifferent. What's going on?
Is this a ploy to lure you in? Ha.
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