Chapter 4 : Scandal

“Songzi, have you gotten bold? How many times have I told you? You little rascal still dare to climb trees and steal bird eggs? I’ll tell your grandmother that you’ll be punished with the soles of your shoes!”

Songzi was startled and turned to see a pair of beautiful eyes, long black hair falling messily behind her waist, and a small face full of frustrated anger.

“Wuwuwu, little aunt, it was Huto who persuaded me to go!”

The blame-shifting trick was already in play, but when i turned around, the courtyard door was empty. Hmph, no sense of loyalty!

The two had purposely lowered their voices to avoid waking Liang Qingqing, but who knew she hadn’t even fallen asleep.

In this sweltering weather, with a disgustingly sticky feeling all over, combined with a bamboo chair that’s neither soft nor hard, lying down for too long made her back ache. It would be a miracle if she could fall asleep.

No air conditioning, no lazy sofa, and without any entertainment or electronic devices to pass the time, it was unbearably boring.

But that wasn’t the worst. The most torturous thing was the growling hunger that seemed to spread from deep inside her body. Her stomach growled with hunger, but there was nothing to be done. In this era of scarcity, with only two meals a day and no food outside meal times, not even the king of heaven could provide a meal.

Moreover, just thinking about the cabbage and sweet potato porridge she had for lunch made Liang Qingqing feel like her mouth was going to wither. She immediately lost any desire to eat anything else.

After all, who could tolerate such poor fare after being accustomed to delicacies?

She was truly fed up with this life!

What’s worse, everything was constantly reminding her that she was still in the world of the book!

“Little aunt, please don’t tell grandmother, okay? I beg you.” Songzi looked down dejectedly and gazed at Liang Qingqing with a pitiful expression.

Her thoughts were interrupted, and Liang Qingqing lifted her eyelids. Seeing Songzi sweating profusely, she guessed what had happened, opened her mouth, and finally sighed, “Silly child, I asked you to help fan, and you just kept fanning?”

With a final hand gesture to her forehead, she waved her hand and said, “Alright, go play outside.”

Songzi thought she must have heard wrong. He blinked in shock, realizing that her little aunt had really changed! In the past, her little aunt would never have let him off so easily. She would have made him work for days and then snatched away all the good food!

It’s great that my little aunt has changed! I wonder if she can endure more of her grandmother’s so-called “emotional wounds” and change even more!

“Aren’t you going yet?”

It was not until Liang Qingqing urged her again that Songzi ran out quickly , seemingly afraid she might change her mind.

“No climbing trees, no going to the river!”

“Got it, thank you, little aunt.”

Once Songzi had run far away, the courtyard fell silent again. Liang Qingqing closed her eyes, but just as she was starting to feel sleepy, a series of intermittent shouts woke her up again.

“Qingqing, are you at home?”

Looking in the direction of the voice, she saw a young girl, short in stature, with round eyes and short, ear-length hair—her appearance could be described as delicate.

In her mind, information about this person automatically appeared. This was Qiu Xiaoyan, one of the few good friends of the original owner. She lived at the village entrance, came from a poor family, and was the third child, not very favored. Usually, having food to eat was a blessing, so she was raised with a meek and timid demeanor. Her voice was so soft it was barely audible, much like a mosquito’s hum, and the girls in the village didn’t like to play with her.

Of course, no one liked to play with the original owner either.

Firstly, the original owner had a capricious and unreasonable nature, and anyone who played with her was in for trouble. Secondly, the original owner was extraordinarily beautiful, and as she grew older, who would want to always be the supporting role next to a beauty?

In normal circumstances, two “outcasts” should have stuck together for warmth.

However, the original owner’s arrogance meant she looked down on Qiu Xiaoyan. Although the original owner’s family was poor, her parents adored her, and her brothers always let her have the best of everything, so from another perspective, they were not of the same world.

But fate is unpredictable. The two, similar in age, happened to be seated next to each other in school, and their relationship unknowingly grew closer.

Moreover, to get some of the snacks that the original owner didn’t like, Qiu Xiaoyan silently followed her around for years, always eager to do any odd job.

Over time, the original owner thought having a little follower wasn’t so bad and tacitly accepted it.

Thinking of this, Liang Qingqing rubbed her forehead. She found the mistress-and-maid dynamic utterly nauseating and had no interest in playing along. She wanted to pretend she hadn’t heard and run back to her room, hoping that Qiu Xiaoyan would leave if she thought she wasn’t home.

But before she could act, Qiu Xiaoyan had already spotted her and, with her round eyes wide open, exclaimed with joy, “Qingqing, you’re home! I’ve been calling you for a long time. Hurry up, or you won’t be able to see the good show later.”

“Ah? What good show?”

Liang Qingqing was full of questions. By the time she figured things out, she had already been dragged out of the courtyard by Qiu Xiaoyan.

Qiu Xiaoyan, who had helped with farm work since she was young, had surprising strength. Liang Qingqing gave up trying to break free after a couple of attempts. As she listened to Qiu Xiaoyan’s rapid and loud explanation, she realized what the so-called “good show” was all about. Her curiosity was piqued, and she followed along, half reluctantly, half eagerly.

In simple terms, it was a fight between a female intellectual and a village woman!

Coincidentally, the female intellectual was Xu Qiao, the heroine from the original book. Liang Qingqing was even more interested because who wouldn’t find watching a main character’s drama more engaging than staying at home?

The incident wasn’t huge, but it wasn’t trivial either. It attracted half the village to watch the commotion. The place was small, and new events each year could be counted on one hand. Even the slightest stir would be talked about for days by the relatives, so a “scandal” like this was bound to draw attention.

The story began after lunch when the village woman went back home to fetch a water jug she had forgotten. On her way back, she happened to see her husband working for someone else. Known for her fiery temper, she didn’t listen to explanations and believed her own eyes, assuming the female intellectual was seducing her husband. Without a second thought, she went straight to confront her.

The educated female didn’t back down either. She cried out that she was innocent and fought back. The noise grew louder and louder until everyone came to see what was happening, and the fight finally stopped.

As Liang Qingqing followed Qiu Xiaoyan, she reviewed the plot of the book.

As the heroine, Xu Qiao was portrayed as a kind and positive young woman with strong moral principles, so she definitely wouldn’t seduce a married man to help with work. On the contrary, she had repeatedly declined, but the man didn’t seem to hear her refusals and continued to help silently, thinking it would win her favor.

Where the man got his confidence from was anyone’s guess.

In summary, Xu Qiao, who had done nothing wrong, was not only beaten up by the man’s wife but also had her reputation damaged in front of everyone. Liang Qingqing felt sympathetic for her.

However, the protagonist’s halo was strong. The author wouldn’t let her own daughter suffer such humiliation, so just when everyone thought the matter could only be trivialized due to lack of evidence, the male lead made his appearance!

Not only did he perfectly resolve the situation, but he also made the other party apologize and make amends, successfully turning the tables.

The hero-saving-the-damsel scenario often greatly enhances the romantic relationship between the leads, making this event a significant turning point in the book.

In other words, the entire village’s gossiping crowd was just a part of the male and female leads’ play.

Liang Qingqing didn’t want to be a part of this, but having been cooped up at home for so long, she was about to go stir-crazy. With the mindset of wanting to watch the drama since she had the chance, she quickened her pace and even overtook Qiu Xiaoyan.

“I knew you’d be interested, Qingqing. That Xu Qiao is doomed. Before I came to find you, Auntie Wu almost slammed her head into the ground. This is a huge embarrassment. I wonder how she’ll dare to compete with you for Su Zhiqing in the future.” Qiu Xiaoyan, with a self-satisfied air, raised her chin and prattled on about Xu Qiao’s disgraceful performance.

Liang Qingqing frowned. Seeing Qiu Xiaoyan’s gloating expression reminded her of her own identity—a cannon fodder character, the  female character who liked the male lead and saw the female lead as the top rival!

Sometimes a woman’s intuition is eerily accurate. Even the original owner of the body, who was not particularly sharp, could sense some romantic tension between Su Zhiqing and Xu Qiao. Thus, whenever the original owner encountered Xu Qiao in the village, she would give her the cold shoulder, treating her with disdain, and would talk bad about her with Qiu Xiaoyan in private.

Coincidentally, Xu Qiao also disdained the original owner, leading to mutual dislike between them.

Liang Qingqing didn’t want to comment on this, especially since she hadn’t done anything herself, and the words weren’t hers. Although she wasn’t fond of Xu Qiao, the favored character of this world, and wanted to keep her distance to avoid being cannon fodder again, now they were strangers, and there was no need to hold onto past grievances.

“Don’t talk about this anymore. I don’t like Su Zhiqing anymore, so don’t mention him in front of me.” Liang Qingqing said in a few words and quickly found a spot along the edge of the field to slip through, leaving a confused Qiu Xiaoyan standing in place for a while before coming to her senses.

“Huh? Qingqing, you don’t like him anymore?” It was unbelievable that she could just stop liking him so suddenly. This was too strange. Qiu Xiaoyan, of all people, knew that Liang Qingqing had been obsessed with Su Zhiqing, dreaming of marrying him and moving back to the city.

But now Liang Qingqing calmly said she no longer liked him?

“Qingqing, did you… get possessed or something? Shall we go see Old Lady Wang in the village?” Due to the eradication of old customs, Qiu Xiaoyan didn’t dare to speak too clearly about superstitions, but Liang Qingqing immediately understood what she meant.

Who was Old Lady Wang? She was a well-known descendant of a “Taoist” in the surrounding ten miles and had made some achievements in this field. Even during the most urgent times, people would secretly bring eggs to her to seek her advice.

Hearing this, Liang Qingqing was taken aback. She hadn’t expected Qiu Xiaoyan to be so sensitive and notice the differences between her and the original owner.