Chapter 12

Hidden corner of the park.

“Brother Zhiqiang, you don’t know how crazy she is!” Ji Xiaorou cried into Chen Zhiqiang’s arms, “My parents can’t control her, I’ve become her fire-starter at home! I can’t take it anymore, you have to come to our house to propose!”

Li Zhiqiang quickly comforted her, “My sweetheart, don’t cry, you’ll break my heart if you keep crying!”

Ji Xiaorou cried, “I don’t care! I’m twenty this year! You’re twenty-two, no matter how strict your family is, they can’t possibly let you stay unmarried until now! We’ve been dragging this on for two years, do you still have me in your heart?”

Ji Xiaorou was also considered pretty, especially now with her tear-stained face, she had a special kind of charm.

Li Zhiqiang glanced around, pulled her into his arms and soothed her, “You know my mother is from the countryside, she saw my sister marry well, and she’s determined to find a good daughter-in-law for me, she won’t give in until the very end.”

Ji Xiaorou raised her head, “Am I not good enough? My parents are both working, I’m a high school graduate, if it wasn’t for the current job shortage, I could even work in an office!”

“Okay, okay, our Xiaorou is the best.” Li Zhiqiang soothed her, “But my mother is stubborn, she won’t give up until she sees the Yellow River, only after she suffers some setbacks will she realize how good our Xiaorou is.”

Ji Xiaorou sensed that Li Zhiqiang was trying to stall her, but now Ji Wanqing had taken all the money in the house, and the one hundred yuan dowry her mother had promised was nowhere to be found, Ji Xiaorou didn’t dare to push too hard and scare him away.

“Good Xiaorou, it’s been a few days since we last met, give Brother Zhiqiang a kiss.”

Ji Xiaorou half-heartedly complied, and the two of them kissed passionately, just when Li Zhiqiang was about to lose control, Ji Xiaorou quickly pushed him away.

“It’s getting late, I have to go back and cook.”

Li Zhiqiang raised his head, unsatisfied. They had been talking for so long, they had done almost everything except the final step, Ji Xiaorou was also quite sensible, she hadn’t given herself away before marriage.

“Xiaorou, can you give me one next time? We’re going to get married anyway, just give me some affection, holding it in is bad for your health, you have to think about your future happiness!” Li Zhiqiang coaxed her.

Ji Xiaorou was troubled, “Brother Zhiqiang, my mother will beat me to death if she finds out! Let’s get married first, after we get married, you can do whatever you want.”

The two of them hid in the bushes of the park and talked sweetly for a while longer, before reluctantly going home for lunch.

She had no choice but to go home, Li Zhiqiang couldn’t accompany her for lunch, and she didn’t have any money to eat out.

At home, Ji Wanqing had already cooked a pot of snow-white, fragrant tofu and crucian carp soup, she was eating it with delicious appetizers.

“You’re back.” Ji Wanqing put down her chopsticks, “Just go wash the dishes.”

Looking at the messy kitchen table, Ji Xiaorou was starving and wanted to cry.

Clearly, Ji Wanqing was the one doing all these things at home, why was she the one doing them now?

After surviving in the apocalypse for so long, Ji Wanqing finally had a few days of leisurely and comfortable life.

Every day she either read books or sunbathed, if she wasn’t afraid of them poisoning her, she wouldn’t even want to cook.

But to satisfy her own appetite, she had read several cookbooks and practiced them herself, her cooking skills could now be said to be even better than the chefs in state-owned restaurants.

Ji Wanqing also inexplicably discovered that not only did she have a photographic memory, but her hands-on ability was also ridiculously strong.

It was as if her eyes had a measuring scale, 3g or 4g of salt, she could tell the difference at a glance.

She followed the recipe strictly for every step of the cooking process, how could it not be delicious?

So, every day she ate and drank well, and someone took care of the housework, Ji Wanqing was meticulously nurturing herself, after half a month, her complexion had recovered, and she had gained some weight.

The spiritual spring water was constantly nourishing her, her appearance in the mirror was almost the same as when she first arrived, except for the scars on her body.

Ji Wanqing had never used the spiritual spring water to heal those scars, mainly because Ji Jian Guo’s family had been too obedient recently, doing whatever she told them, she always felt that they were secretly plotting something bad.

She kept these scars to occupy the moral high ground at a critical moment, just in case.

…

Half a month.

Ji Jian Guo had been eating husks and drinking gruel for half a month!

Because of his nephew going to the countryside, he was too embarrassed to borrow money from his eldest and second brothers, his colleagues at the factory would only lend him three or five cents, not enough for a meal at a state-owned restaurant, and he didn’t have tickets.

If he wasn’t afraid of that ghost, how could he have suffered so much!

And today was payday at the factory.

Ji Jian Guo, the deputy director of the workshop, had a monthly salary of sixty-eight yuan, Su Xiu, a nurse at the medical station, had a monthly salary of thirty-two yuan, a total of one hundred yuan!

As soon as he got his salary, Ji Jian Guo took the one hundred yuan to Apricot Flower Lane in the south of the city and knocked on the door stealthily.

“Master Nie, I’m here.”

The door opened, a thin, wiry old man poked his head out.

He first looked around cautiously, making sure there was no one else in the alley, before grabbing Ji Jian Guo’s hand and pulling him in.

In those days, they were cracking down on feudal superstition and fortune-telling, if the Revolutionary Committee found out, they would be in trouble!

“Master Nie, please pick a date, so we can get rid of that ghost!” Ji Jian Guo couldn’t wait another day! He was really tired of his current life.

Nie Yougen squinted his eyes, his right hand holding a lotus shape, he calculated on his knuckles.

“There’s no time like the present, eleven o’clock tonight is a good time!”

“Okay, okay, okay!” Ji Jian Guo was overjoyed, he took out twenty yuan from his bag as a deposit, “After you succeed, I’ll pay you the remaining eighty yuan!”

–

Tonight, Ji Wanqing was eating sweet and sour pork ribs.

The sweet and sour aroma filled the entire room, Ji Xinbao was drooling, but he didn’t dare to go near Ji Wanqing, so he kept tormenting Su Xiu and Ji Xiaorou, punching and kicking them in their arms, shouting that he wanted to eat meat.

Ji Jian Guo came back, smelling the strong aroma of meat, then he looked at the coarse flour bread in his bowl, the saliva he had swallowed felt like a knife cutting his throat.

He glared, and Ji Xinbao immediately stopped making trouble, he reluctantly nibbled on the bread, tears streaming down his face.

At the dinner table.

The four of them only had sweet potatoes and coarse flour bread to eat every day, they had to work and do housework.

As a result, they had lost a lot of weight, and their faces were yellow and sallow.

On the other hand, Ji Wanqing ate and drank well every day, she no longer looked as thin and bony as she did half a month ago, even her hair had become black and glossy.

Ji Xiaorou looked at Ji Wanqing jealously.

Yesterday, Li Zhiqiang sent her home and accidentally met Ji Wanqing going out.

She had noticed that Brother Zhiqiang was a bit absent-minded, and he kept asking about Ji Wanqing, it seemed like he had a crush on her.

Ever since Ji Wanqing came to this family, Ji Xiaorou knew that she was prettier than her, so she never mentioned to Brother Zhiqiang that she had a new step-sister.

Only later, when Ji Wanqing was worn down by them and lost her color, no longer a threat, did Li Zhiqiang learn from Ji Xiaorou that there was another person in the family.

The rough texture made her cheeks ache, Ji Xiaorou didn’t dare to show her emotions in front of Ji Wanqing, but she accidentally noticed her parents’ eyes meeting, as if they were playing some kind of riddle.