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Gu Nan wore a cold expression, his imposing presence so intense that no one dared approach him.
Su Niannian, the educated youth, was known for her warm heart and kindness. Nowadays, among the eligible bachelors in the village, who didn’t want to build a connection with her?
If some farmer in the village could actually marry Su Niannian, that would be like fireworks going off on his ancestors’ graves—far luckier than just smoke rising from them.
“The two of them went off together… Why does this feel a bit like something out of a fantasy novel?”
“Why don’t we just go take a look and find out?”
“If you want to go, then go. But what if it’s nothing? That’d put Educated Youth Su in an awkward spot. How would we ask her for help in the future?”
“That’s a good point. Maybe we should just stay here and not get involved.”
The older women exchanged glances and ultimately decided not to meddle.
After all, those two really didn’t seem like a match at all.
Just look at Educated Youth Su’s petite frame—how could she possibly handle someone built like Gu Nan?
On the other side, Su Niannian had her arm held by Gu Nan. Meeting his serious gaze, she realized she might have taken the joke a bit too far just now.
“Alright, then let me think it over.”
“Mm.” Only then did Gu Nan release her.
The two of them also noticed the group of older women under the tree nearby.
But since they no longer intended to hide anything, they walked calmly and openly toward the educated youth camp.
Seeing how neither of them acted shy or evasive, the women figured they must have been overthinking things earlier.
This time, Gu Nan personally escorted Su Niannian all the way back to the educated youth camp.
It happened to be dinner time, and most of the educated youths were eating.
“Alright, go on in. I’ll head back now.” Gu Nan stopped about a dozen meters from the entrance and handed the bicycle over to Su Niannian.
Su Niannian naturally took hold of the handlebars.
“Okay. Don’t go to the back mountain these next few nights.” Her voice wasn’t loud, but Gu Nan heard her clearly.
Gu Nan nodded and turned to leave.
“Hopefully, you’ll actually listen,” Su Niannian muttered under her breath.
The truth was, Gu Nan had still been planning to head to the back mountain in the coming days—especially now that the wounds from the wolf attack had almost completely healed.
Su Niannian’s skills were truly astonishing. Although the injury had only been superficial, it should have still hurt for several days, and with how filthy a wolf’s claws were, it could’ve easily become swollen and inflamed.
Yet after Su Niannian treated it, only a few faint scars remained—it now looked like an old wound that had long since healed.
Gu Nan had once thought that if Su Niannian brought her abilities to the army, she could help countless people.
But the matter was simply too extraordinary—if it were ever exposed to the public, Su Niannian might become a target of scrutiny and suspicion.
Gu Nan would rather protect her from harm.
So, selfishly, he hoped Su Niannian would never reveal her abilities.
When Gu Nan got home, his mother brought up the topic of him and Su Niannian.
Mainly, it was about the bride price—and the traditional “three large items.”
Gu Zhi didn’t want Su Niannian to be shortchanged in any way.
“Mother, I know what I’m doing,” Gu Nan said firmly. He knew that even if he had nothing, as long as Su Niannian had set her heart on him, she would still marry him.
What Su Niannian valued had always been him—nothing more, nothing less.
But he wanted to give her the best of everything.
So, during this time, he would work hard to earn money.
To make sure Su Niannian would have nothing but the best.
On the other side, Su Niannian returned to the Educated Youth camp under the watchful eyes of the others, pushing a bicycle.
After parking it, she glanced around but didn’t see Huang Yingying or Lu Xingguang.
Zhao Sulan was still there, sitting next to Sun Siyuan.
“Niannian,” Song Zhaodi called out. She had just finished dinner and was about to wash the dishes when she saw Su Niannian return.
“What did you have for dinner?” Su Niannian asked. Seeing that Song Zhaodi only had a single bowl in her hand, she immediately knew she had probably just grabbed a few bites to get by.
“Just some wild vegetable soup with two steamed buns,” Song Zhaodi said with a smile.
“I’m not criticizing you, but are you really not eating properly?” Su Niannian said, her tone a bit unhappy.
“No, not at all. This is what everyone’s having,” Song Zhaodi gestured with her chin for Su Niannian to look around.
And sure enough, that’s what everyone was eating.
Even the big pot of rice had steamed buns mixed with bran.
It was all whole wheat steamed buns.
Su Niannian didn’t say much after that.
She took the bamboo basket and bamboo box off the backseat of her bike.
Then, she pushed the bike over to the shed next to the firewood storage.
That spot had originally been a cow shed, long unused, and was mostly filled with miscellaneous items.
However, there was still plenty of empty space, so Su Niannian decided to leave her bike there.
“Yo, Su Niannian, who’d you borrow this bike from? Coming back to the commune just to show off?” The one speaking was, of course, Zhao Sulan.
After all, apart from her, no one else held such animosity toward Su Niannian.
Now, everyone knew about Su Niannian’s medical skills and her ability to help people. No one in their right mind would want to make an enemy of her.
Moreover, Su Niannian was generous and would treat them to sweets.
She didn’t seem to have any ill intentions, at least not from what anyone had seen so far.
The only thing was, Su Niannian’s display of a little wealth did make a few of the other youth a bit envious, but it wasn’t anything too serious.
“Eh? What’s that awful smell?”
“Why is the dog poop not in the latrine, but over here instead?”
Su Niannian held the bamboo basket in one hand, and with the other, she waved it near her nose, acting as though she truly smelled something foul.
“You…” Zhao Sulan was furious and slammed her chopsticks onto the table.
Seeing this, Sun Siyuan recognized an opportunity to step in.
These past few days, Zhao Sulan had been giving him mixed signals—sometimes distant, sometimes close—and Sun Siyuan had been racking his brain trying to find the right moment to make a good impression.
And now, the opportunity had arrived.
He stood up and walked over to Zhao Sulan’s side.
“We’re all educated youths from the same village, Su Niannian. Maybe try not to speak so harshly—we’re all on the same side, after all.”
“And besides, Zhao Sulan didn’t say anything wrong just now—she was just kindly reminding you.”
“This bicycle is a valuable item. If it gets lost or damaged, it wouldn’t be good. Since you borrowed it from someone else, her reminding you is for your own good.” Sun Siyuan wasn’t tall, and his build was scrawny—he didn’t carry much presence to begin with. The words he spoke weren’t particularly convincing either, but it was clear he was standing up for Zhao Sulan.
“Want me to gift you that so-called kindness?” Su Niannian wasn’t about to waste time on Sun Siyuan. One look at him and she could tell he wasn’t much to begin with.
“Why so nosy? What, your house by the river?” As soon as Su Niannian’s words dropped, Song Zhaodi came out, having just finished washing the dishes.
“You…” Sun Siyuan felt like what he said made perfect sense, but these two just refused to give him any face.
“It was Zhao Sulan who spoke out of line first, wasn’t it? What do you mean by ‘showing off’? Can’t borrowing a bicycle from someone simply mean you had something to take care of? Why does it have to mean she’s showing off?” Liu Yang, who was off to the side slurping his bowl of corn gruel, finally spoke up.
In Liu Yang’s view, unless there was something truly important, who would open their mouth to ask someone for a bicycle?
And really, if it wasn’t for something urgent, who would even lend out their own bicycle to begin with? It was a simple logic.