Chapter 7: Damp Sheets

After dinner.

Chi Wan helped Zhang Yue’e clean up the table and chairs, wash the dishes and chopsticks.

She was very clear about her abilities. In this 1980s, where people relied on physical labor, she was someone who couldn’t even do basic chores and didn’t know anything about farming.

Even cooking wasn’t her forte.

She could only do what she was capable of.

While they were busy, Huo Nanchuan left the yard and went out.

Chi Wan saw him leave, but she didn’t know where he was going. She didn’t see him carrying a hoe, so it didn’t seem like he was going to work in the fields.

Zhang Yue’e was calling her from the side.

She quickly retracted her gaze.

Chi Wan didn’t realize that in just half a day, she seemed to have a kind of “baby bird complex,” always subconsciously paying attention to Huo Nanchuan’s every move.

After a while.

Even the kitchen was cleaned up.

Chi Wan walked out of the small house and saw several triangular bamboo poles in the yard, with a clothesline stretched across them.

Huo Nanchuan had returned at some point.

The man stood with his back to Chi Wan, holding a red and white striped sheet in his hand.

The sheet was damp, freshly washed, and dripping with water as he hung it on the clothesline.

Drops of water dripped down the edges of the sheet, falling onto the ground in the yard.

Huo Nanchuan stretched out his long arm, and the damp sheet instantly stretched out.

He carefully smoothed out the wrinkles.

The sun was good today, and it would dry in half a day.

The man looked like a rough farmer, but when he did things, he was meticulous and thorough.

So he had gone to the river to wash the sheet.

Chi Wan had her answer.

She turned to leave, but her steps suddenly froze.

At the same time.

Chi Wan’s face flushed red!

The sheet!

He had actually gone to wash the sheet!

It was the sheet!

The sheet from their wedding night! What did it mean? Chi Wan knew it very well.

Last night, they hadn’t done anything. They had both passed out and slept together.

Yet Huo Nanchuan had rushed to wash the sheet.

What was he trying to hide?

Chi Wan understood immediately.

This was so embarrassing…

He had even hung the sheet out in the yard for everyone to see.

Chi Wan blushed, her head felt like it was going to smoke, and her heart was pounding wildly.

Like a carbonated drink that had been shaken vigorously.

Countless tiny bubbles popped up, “puchi, puchi.”

Forcing down the heat on her face.

Chi Wan walked towards Huo Nanchuan, approaching him, and said softly, “Why did you go wash the sheet?”

She was so embarrassed, she wanted to stamp her feet.

Huo Nanchuan just gave a low “hmm.”

The man’s handsome face remained calm and composed.

He added, “The basin was too heavy, you couldn’t carry it.”

Huo Nanchuan’s gaze swept over Chi Wan’s slender limbs, seemingly without noticing.

She was so thin.

Pale and tender.

Like a peeled bamboo shoot.

It seemed like she would break if you touched her.

Chi Wan’s throat tightened, and she didn’t know how to respond.

After all, what Huo Nanchuan said was true, it was impossible to refute.

But…

She still said timidly, “Can you not hang it here?”

It was too conspicuous.

It was too obvious.

It was impossible to ignore.

Huo Nanchuan calmly looked down at Chi Wan’s blushing and shy appearance and asked in a low voice, “Where else should I hang it?”

“Just…”

Their house was so small, inside and out.

If it wasn’t hung in the yard, it couldn’t be hidden in the room.

It couldn’t be hung outside the house either, otherwise, more than just their family would see it.

Wouldn’t the whole village know that Huo Nanchuan had washed the sheets!

Wouldn’t it be like shouting to the whole village that the young couple had done some unspeakable things on their wedding night?

Chi Wan just thought about it.

Her face flushed even redder.

Huo Nanchuan, however, continued to look at her with a calm gaze.

As if he had simply washed a sheet.

There was no room for any suggestive thoughts about this matter.

All this shyness, embarrassment, and shame, was just Chi Wan overthinking.

Was this man…

Really clueless?

Or was he pretending to be clueless?!

Chi Wan was struggling when she suddenly heard a noise coming from the kitchen. It sounded like Zhang Yue’e was about to come out.

As soon as she heard the footsteps.

She panicked.

Her clear eyes swept over Huo Nanchuan from the corners of her eyes, then quickly retracted.

Chi Wan stomped her foot.

With a bright red face.

She hurried back to their room.

Huo Nanchuan looked at her hurried back, and her swaying waist, a slight smile curled at the corner of his lips.

The air around his nose still faintly carried the sweet scent that Chi Wan had emitted when she was close to him.

She wasn’t just sweet.

Even her blushing face was so beautiful.

When Zhang Yue’e came out, she saw Huo Nanchuan standing alone in the yard, smiling inexplicably.

…

After preparing the meals for Huo Dongzhi and Huo Lichun.

Huo Nanchuan and Zhang Yue’e were ready to go out.

It was the busy season for spring farming, and their few acres of land, although not much, required constant attention due to the lack of strong labor.

Everything depended on Huo Nanchuan alone.

Zhang Yue’e felt sorry for him, so she went to the fields with him.

But before they officially left, Huo Nanchuan went back to the room and told Chi Wan.

He was wearing Huo Father’s old clothes, rough and full of patches, with cloth shoes on his feet and a towel hanging around his neck.

His sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, revealing his bronze-colored arm muscles.

He held a large hoe in his palm.

Combined with his tall and sturdy build, he exuded a rough and rugged vibe.

Chi Wan had calmed down by now.

She saw Huo Nanchuan ready to go out, so she gave him a few words of advice.

But.

Chi Wan’s eyes rolled, and she suddenly grabbed Huo Nanchuan’s wrist.

She raised her white face and said, “Huo Nanchuan, I want to go out for a walk, I don’t want to go anywhere, just to see the production brigade.”

Hearing this.

The man frowned slightly.

He wasn’t against it, he was just thinking, why did Chi Wan need to tell him about such a small thing like going out?

Did he look so fierce and menacing that he would lock her up at home and prevent her from leaving the house?

Huo Nanchuan didn’t like the image he had in Chi Wan’s mind.

But their marriage was not exactly something Chi Wan was enthusiastic about…

While Huo Nanchuan was frowning and thinking, Chi Wan continued.

“Also, I’m not sure about Lu Xiangxiang.”

“Even in our house, she dared to lie with a straight face, saying that I ran away with that Song Zhiqing.”

“I don’t know what’s being spread around in the village, maybe they really believe Lu Xiangxiang’s lies, so I’ll go out for a walk and let them see for themselves.”

At the end of her words.

Chi Wan proudly lifted her chin, her eyes shining with pride and brilliance.

Humph.

Didn’t Lu Xiangxiang say that she ran away last night and disappeared?

She was going to let everyone see that she, Chi Wan, was still in the village, and her relationship with Huo Nanchuan was fine!

Huo Nanchuan understood immediately.

The frown on his brow relaxed, and the suffocating feeling in his chest disappeared.

However.

He was a bit worried.

“The villagers talk a lot.”

Huo Nanchuan chose his words carefully.

Actually, they were vulgar and shameless, and they loved to gossip about couples’ private lives.

When Huo Nanchuan was a child, he and Zhang Yue’e, a mother and son, had endured this kind of hardship.

But Chi Wan didn’t care.

“I don’t care what they say, I’ll just go out and blind them with my brilliance.”

Her tone was full of arrogance.

In an instant, Chi Wan’s original carefree personality was revealed.

Huo Nanchuan chuckled softly and nodded.

He agreed.

He lowered his head, his dark eyes fell on Chi Wan’s hand still holding his wrist.

Chi Wan realized this.

She quickly let go, and even straightened Huo Nanchuan’s sleeve.

“Alright, go to the fields, see you tonight.”

The soft touch of his skin on her wrist was gone.

Huo Nanchuan said in a hoarse voice, “Okay, see you tonight.”

…

Yesterday’s bride.

Today’s runaway wife.

As soon as Chi Wan walked into the village, she immediately received a lot of attention.

“Look, isn’t that Chi Wan, the female intellectual who married Huo Nanchuan yesterday? Didn’t they say she ran away with someone last night? Why is she still in the village? Did I see wrong?”

“No, no, no! That pale and tender face, we can’t find anyone whiter than her in the surrounding villages!”

“Don’t they say that city people are open-minded, and they engage in relationships at a young age! How can such a beautiful girl be so dirty!”

“If she was clean, she wouldn’t have been assigned to our village, and she wouldn’t have been willing to marry Huo Nanchuan, that farmer. Their family is so poor!”

“You’re right, this woman must be dirty, maybe she never stopped seeing that Song Zhiqing!”

The gossiping and criticizing never stopped.

Chi Wan suddenly realized that her hearing was exceptionally good. Even when she was four or five meters away, she could still hear the villagers’ remarks.

Especially the women who gathered together and whispered. They said the most nasty and dirty things.

It made Chi Wan furious.

She never expected that the villagers would not only be indifferent to the truth but also constantly smear her.

Were these people brainwashed by Lu Xiangxiang?

Although Lu Xiangxiang was the original female lead, her protagonist aura wasn’t that strong, right?

Chi Wan held a grudge in her heart, and her steps became faster and faster.

But at this moment, a hand reached out from the side.

It grabbed her wrist.

And called out affectionately.

“——Wanwan!”