Chapter 20: Fool

Translated by Sakura Time

She gritted her teeth and fixed her gaze on Xiao Xiao. “No matter how hard you try, you can’t deny that you like Li Zhixin; if you didn’t, why would you give him all the food rations you worked so hard to save?”

Xiao Xiao, seeing that Wenwen was stabbing her with words at the moment, was not so worried. She shook her head and looked at Wang Wei.

Wang Wei understood what she meant: she had lost her memory and remembered nothing. And he trusted his instincts more; Xiao Xiao was telling the truth.

Wang Wei kicked Li Zhixin, who was still lying on the ground: “Is what she said true?”

“I did accept something from Xiao Xiao a few times, but it was something that Aunt Xiao and Uncle Xiao gave me to eat when they saw that I was hungry and pitiful.” Wang Wei was too cruel. If he found out that Xiao Xiao really did like him, he would have beaten his guts out.

“You? Pitiful? With so many educated youths out there who are as hungry as you? Why would they give it to you and not to others?” Jiang Wenwen sneered.

“I frequently visit Uncle Xiao’s house to borrow a bucket. Naturally, I’m more familiar with them. Other people don’t know Uncle Xiao very well, so why would he give them food?” This is true. Even educated youths don’t have their own buckets. Every time they go fetch water, they have to borrow buckets from other people’s houses in the village. He once noted that the original Xiao Xiao blushed anytime she glanced at him, so he took the position on purpose. With that, he got in touch with Xiao Xiao a lot. Li Zhixin took advantage of her feelings and received all sorts of gifts from her.

But that only started last year, when the harvest dropped sharply. At least since they didn’t get to eat well, unlike the past few years, the food they got from Xiao Xiao could fill their stomachs. Li Zhixin, of course, would never sell himself out and divulge the truth.

In the dim light, Xiao Xiao grinned as she leaned against Wang Wei. Good! As expected, she knew from the first time she saw Li Zhixin that he was a person who paid great attention to his face. He would not, under any circumstances, reveal his flaws to others. Unfortunately, he’s just too simple to read for me.

It was the original Xiao who liked Li Zhixin, not her. So, she doesn’t really have anything to do with him. Moreover, there really was nothing going on between the original Xiao and Li Zhixin. It was simply the unrequited love of a girl who had only recently begun to fall in love, but with the wrong person.

“Sister Wenwen, I’m so sorry to make you misunderstand, but you heard it. There is nothing going on between me and Li Zhixin. I only like my husband. You and Li Zhixin should be together.” Yes, she likes Wang Wei, the kind of love between men and women. She discovered it that day, when she realized that she no longer wanted to return to Interstellar.

Wang Wei’s face flushed in the dim light, and his body was almost blazing from Xiao Xiao’s blunt comments. He was too embarrassed and overjoyed to speak. He couldn’t possibly be concerned about Li Zhixin and Jiang Wenwen.

“Misunderstanding or not, let’s not talk about it anymore!” Jiang Wenwen said as she listened to Xiao Xiao’s unfazed lie. She swallowed her rage and exhaled deeply: “Regardless, I will still break up with him!”

“Yeah, we don’t have to talk about it any longer because the misunderstanding has already been resolved. Anyway, it’s really none of our business if you want to break up with him. Let’s go.” The latter sentence was said to Wang Wei.

Wang Wei nodded quietly, his expression trance-like, and the two left in the dead of night, holding hands.

“Wen Wen, I really like you…” Xiao Xiao and Wang Wei could still hear Li Zhixin’s voice faintly emanating from the night as they went away.

Jiang Wenwen’s boredom was evident. “Get lost!” she exclaimed.

Wang Wei smiled as he looked at Xiao Xiao; his wife is kind, gentle, sweet, and can even turn stone into gold.

Everyone in the Wang family had already eaten dinner when they returned home. It was a good thing that Wang Wei and Xiao Xiao had their fill earlier in the cave. Wang Wei prepared a bath for Xiao Xiao, and the two went to bed as usual.

In the past, although Wang Wei had an awkward face, he had always held Xiao Xiao in his arms. But today, he turned his back on her.

Xiao Xiao knows that Wang Wei likes her, but what is this? Are they already going through a cold period before they can even express their love?

Xiao Xiao poked Wang Wei’s back with some displeasure, “What are you doing? Why aren’t you hugging me?”

Wang Wei was shaken by Xiao Xiao’s poke. His body stiffened, but he still did not turn around.

Xiao Xiao buried her head in grievance and said, “Do you dislike me?” The tone of her voice already sounded like she would cry.

Wang Wei turned around in a hurry when he heard this. His face was red and he had to pretend to be fierce: “Do you only know how to cry and cry?”

“Then why are you ignoring me?” Xiao Xiao grumbled, trying to hold back her tears.

Wang Wei looked uncomfortable. “Who told you to say you like me in front of others…” Then his eyes wandered around everywhere else. He looked at the roof and the corner, but not at Xiao Xiao.

Xiao Xiao understood at a glance. It turned out that he was only shy!

She stopped crying and deliberately squeezed Wang Wei’s chest, “You are so good. Why can’t I say that I like you? I don’t care. I just like you. I like you. I like you…”

Her voice was soft, but her eyes were fixed on Wang Wei. Because she had just shed a few tears and her eyes were still glistening, when the ends of her eyelids were elevated, it appeared as if she had brought a hook, which quickly blended purity and seduction.

How could Wang Wei stand up to this?

All of his blood surged to his face as his body temperature quickly soared. He was really flushed.

Wang Wei pulled Xiao Xiao into his arms fiercely and said, in a rough voice, “Sleep!”

Xiao Xiao snickered and nodded obediently, then really closed her eyes.

She buried herself in Wang Wei’s arms, then fell asleep after getting used to his embrace, but Wang Wei, on the other hand, was unable to sleep and remained awake until daybreak.

When Xiao Xiao awoke in the morning, she felt distressed by Wang Wei’s bloodshot eyes. Now she regrets teasing him too much last night.

Xiao Xiao put a cold compress on Wang Wei’s eyes with a handkerchief: “Why didn’t you sleep last night? Look, you made such beautiful eyes like this. Are you deliberately making me feel bad?” Xiao Xiao murmured, worried, her face showing a deeper degree of concern.

Her feelings are always so straightforward and warm, and her words never hide them. Wang Wei had been in a drifting state last night. Although he had an idea that Xiao Xiao liked him a lot, he somehow couldn’t believe it fully. There was just this strong lack of self-confidence at the bottom of his heart.

He was a “monster” and was despised by others. His biological mother even wanted his life. He armed himself from his feet to his teeth. In the eyes of everyone in Xiaoqian village, he is a “bully.” Will anyone really like him? Why would Xiao Xiao like him?

But today, looking at Xiao Xiao applying a cold compress to his eyes, he could see that there was no anger nor fear in her eyes. What he sees are eyes that are filled with worry. He felt like his heart had finally sunk into its proper place. Xiao Xiao really liked him!

Even if everyone in this world hates him, there will still be people who like him. It used to be grandpa and Zhuang’s mother ^[1]the tiger’s mom, but now it’s… Xiao Xiao!

He pulled the handkerchief to cover his face and said in a muffled voice, “It’s okay, I was just too full last night that my stomach bloated.

“Too full?” This was heard by Wang Mu, who happened to come out, “You didn’t even eat last night. How are you so full?”

Wang Wei suddenly stood up and threw the handkerchief into the basin. He was already a head taller than Wang Mu and looked at her mockingly from above: “What, you don’t think that we can fill our stomachs by ourselves? Actually, it’s all thanks to you; how could I be fed by the tigers in the mountains if it weren’t for you? It’s definitely thanks to you that I got to follow them and learn to be this strong!”

Usually, whenever he came across Wang Mu, neither of them was willing to give an inch, but the unrestrained rage in his eyes was replaced by confidence because Xiao Xiao liked him wholeheartedly. Someone had taken a liking to him. He no longer bothers to pray for a small bit of motherly affection from his birth mother, who disliked him and won’t be bothered by her viciousness towards him anymore.

Wang Mu choked when she heard Wang Wei say that he had been fed on the mountain. He lived and could mix with the wild beasts on the mountain. It had been spread in the village for a long time, so even though the family did not give him much food during the famine, he did not starve to death.

Wang Mu sneered, “Yes, since you’re originally a monster! Like those beasts, you can certainly mix with them.”

Xiao Xiao stuck her head out from behind Wang Wei: “You’re calling them beasts, but they are definitely more affectionate than some people. Tigers don’t even eat children. So I wonder.. Isn’t someone like you, who purposely left her own child to die, much worse than a beast?”

“What did you just say?” Hearing Xiao Xiao call her worse than a beast, Wang Mu immediately wanted to pounce on her to grab her.

Xiao Xiao then hid behind Wang Wei’s back. Wang Wei stepped forward, blocking her tightly, and looked at Wang Mu with contempt: “Come… come… If you dare touch a hair on her today, I will peel off your skin. Believe it or not!”

No one dared doubt it. Wang Mu stiffened in place, shaking with anger.

Wang Wei looked at her and gave a sneer, “What the hell?” He even wanted to find family affection from such people before. When he thought about it again, he felt more and more like a fool.

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The author has something to say.

Wang Wei: I am a fool.

Xiao Xiao covered Wang Wei’s mouth: Honey, I forbid you to say that about yourself.

Wang Wei: All right.

The crowd: *vomits*