Chapter 21 — Mingze, Could It Be That She Likes You…?

At first, Wang Jinbao didn’t understand and was stunned for a moment. Then he finally realized these people were saying he looked ugly. What nonsense! He had never heard anyone say he looked ugly his whole life. His grandparents, his parents, and even his three older sisters said every day that he was handsome.

“No, who did you say looked like a crooked melon with squinting eyes? Do you have something wrong with your eyes? I’m so handsome, and you say I look like a crooked melon?”

He looked fierce, but his tone was confident and righteous.

“……”

Everyone present showed a brief moment of confusion on their faces.

What the heck?

Several old ladies began doubting their hearing due to old age—how could they have heard something so ridiculous?

Shen Mo’er said very seriously, “I said ‘shifty-eyed and rat-faced,’ not ‘thief-browed and mouse-eyed.’”

Wang Jinbao: “What’s the difference? It all means you’re calling me ugly!”

Shen Mo’er: “It’s actually good that you have that level of self-awareness.”

Wang Jinbao was so angry his face flushed: “You, you, you’re doing this on purpose, right? You must be! You’re deliberately saying this to insult me so you can ask for a bigger bride price later. I tell you, no way! You should feel lucky just to marry me. Don’t even think about asking for a bride price—I won’t pay a single cent! I have such great conditions, there are plenty of people who want to marry me. I’m not paying bride price for my wife!”

He definitely did not think the woman looked down on him. With his good conditions, how could anyone look down on him? It was clear this woman was scheming—she wanted to marry him but also wanted more bride price. Ha! He wasn’t going to fall for it.

Shen Mo’er: “……”

She had seen quite a lot. Every year at the Qionglin Banquet she secretly sneaked in to see the fresh faces. She had seen so many sour people who thought too highly of themselves, but none were as ridiculously self-confident as this guy—so ordinary yet so self-assured, talking to himself to such an extent that she was speechless.

The others also wore complicated expressions. The old ladies couldn’t help but look at Tian Fang with curiosity—where on earth did she find such a livewire?

Aunt Chen couldn’t help but grab Shen Mo’er and whisper, “I didn’t mean for you to consider this guy seriously with what I said earlier. Good heavens, having a problem with your brain is worse than being ugly.”

Tian Fang was also speechless. She knew her nephew wasn’t reliable, but she never thought he could be this unreliable. After all, they only saw each other once a year during festivals. Before, she never thought he could be this absurd.

Now she was full of regret. She had put in so much effort to come up with a plan, and it looked like it was about to fall apart: “Jinbao, why are you talking about this now? When it comes to marriage, bride price, and dowry, those things can be negotiated. Besides, you’re your family’s only son, and Mo’er is the only daughter in her family. Whatever the family has will belong to both of you later, right?”

She was desperately hinting, hoping Wang Jinbao would understand and say something nice to stabilize the situation.

Wang Jinbao was not the type to listen to advice: “Isn’t that obvious? Her family’s stuff will become dowry anyway. As for that house, I think it’s not worth much. Forget it, just sell a bit of it.”

“……”

People thought what he said before was shocking, but no—there’s always something more shocking.

It was deafening.

The old ladies, who had seen plenty of scheming on dowries, were stunned. They had never seen someone calculating dowry so brazenly and openly with such righteousness. They were really shocked.

Tian Fang’s face went pale. She couldn’t do anything else. She just wanted this matter to end right there. She wanted to pull the guy away directly but was afraid he might say something even more terrifying. Everything else was fine, but if he spilled the hundred yuan that she and his mother had agreed on, it would be a disaster!

Just when Tian Fang was extremely anxious, Shen Mo’er glanced at her, then said to Wang Jinbao, “Stop saying nonsense. I’m not interested in you. Go with your aunt.”

Wang Jinbao immediately widened his eyes and shouted angrily, “This is my aunt, my real aunt! You stinky woman, what’s wrong with your eyesight? You really must have something wrong with your eyes. How dare you say you don’t like me?”

Shen Mo’er smiled faintly, glanced at Tian Fang, whose face had turned even paler, and nodded: “Oh, so you’re the real aunt. To be clear, go with your real aunt and get lost!”

She had agreed to come take a look mostly to figure out what Tian Fang was really up to. Sure enough, Tian Fang was trying to conspire with her own family to grab her family’s money and house.

Shen Mo’er had already guessed this, so she deliberately brought a few older women with her. That way, if Tian Fang tried to spread rumors or slander behind her back, there would be witnesses.

She had heard about things like this back in Daliang. Some people, in order to marry into a prestigious family, would do many dirty things unimaginable to others. Spreading rumors was the mildest. They would use all kinds of methods to force the woman to marry down. Especially with harsh customs on women, sometimes the only options were to marry holding your nose or hang yourself with a rope.

Shen Mo’er believed Tian Fang was capable of this. Some people don’t kill or commit crimes, but do morally reprehensible things that can still ruin others’ lives.

Wang Jinbao was furious and close to losing his mind after being mocked repeatedly.

He had never suffered such grievances before. In other teams, when going to blind dates, he would at least hold back a bit. But now, Shen Mo’er’s few words completely broke his defenses. His expression twisted: “Damn it, you stinky woman, I’ll beat you to death!”

He rushed forward to hit Shen Mo’er.

Since Shen Mo’er had been deliberately provoking him, she was prepared for him to suddenly lash out. She was about to pretend to be scared and then “accidentally” kick his foot, but suddenly someone appeared beside her and kicked Wang Jinbao hard, knocking him to the ground immediately.

It was very quick and clean.

It was Fu Mingze.

Fu Mingze had come to return a basketball. When he arrived, he saw quite a few people here, so he just stood aside and waited. Then he heard Wang Jinbao talking nonsense. He found this idiot annoying, and strangely, he felt a bit irritated. Who knew this idiot not only talked crap but also wanted to hit someone?

Seeing Wang Jinbao rush toward Shen Mo’er, Fu Mingze’s heart thumped, and without thinking, he stepped forward and kicked him.

In the blink of an eye, the old ladies, who were panicking when they saw Wang Jinbao wanting to hit someone, said: “What are you doing? Don’t act recklessly. You people from Shashan Team come here to stir up trouble for Yangliu Team…”

Before they could finish, Wang Jinbao was kicked to the ground.

The old ladies quickly reacted, stunned for a moment, then said: “Good hit! Hey, don’t look down on our Yangliu Team. We don’t care if it’s cats or dogs, anyone who comes here stirring up trouble—one hit for one, two hits for two!”

Wang Jinbao was lying on the ground, howling: “Damn it, you actually dared to hit me! Stinky woman, bastard! I’m telling you, you’re finished, you’re all finished!”

Tian Fang tried to help him up: “Hey, let’s talk nicely. Jinbao is just talking nonsense. Fu Zhiqing, how can you really hit someone?”

Wang Jinbao cursed and tried to get up, but when he had only half got up, bam! Another big kick came from behind, kicking him back to the ground.

This time, the kicker was not Fu Mingze but Shen Shaoyuan, who had just finished work and was returning home.

Shen Shaoyuan had seen a crowd at his doorstep from afar. At first, he thought it was the old ladies visiting, but when he saw Tian Fang and an unfamiliar man, he immediately sensed something was wrong and quickened his pace. He saw that the man seemed about to hit his Mo’er.

Shen Shaoyuan was furious—where did this blind scoundrel come from, daring to bully his daughter?

Unfortunately, he was a bit far away. By the time he got there, Fu Mingze had already knocked the guy down. But this scoundrel was still cursing. Shen Shaoyuan’s temper flared, and he gave him a kick too.

But Shen Shaoyuan still wasn’t satisfied and was about to kick again. Tian Fang hurriedly grabbed him: “Old Seven, don’t hit him, don’t hit him. It’s just kids arguing. A misunderstanding, that’s all.”

Shen Shaoyuan glanced at Wang Jinbao and sneered, “He doesn’t look much younger than you. And you call that a kid?”

No wonder the father and daughter were alike—both sarcastic with the exact same attitude.

Tian Fang really had a headache now. But no matter what, she couldn’t let Wang Jinbao get beaten here. Otherwise, the Wang family would be furious, and her sister Tian Cui would tear her apart. She was really exhausted, very exhausted, but had to force herself to speak nicely: “Yes, yes, he doesn’t look like a kid, but he is one and doesn’t understand things yet. I’ll take him away now, I’m taking him away.”

She hurriedly tried to help Wang Jinbao up, but he didn’t appreciate it and brushed her hand away: “What nonsense are you talking? Who’s a kid, who doesn’t understand things? I’m gonna show you how tough I am…”

As he grumbled and started to get up, clenching his fists ready to fight back, he looked across and saw six people—two men included—and one older man was holding a stick: “Come on, come here, let me see how tough you really are.”

Wang Jinbao: “……”

He immediately cowered and instinctively stepped back two steps: “D-don’t act recklessly!”

Tian Fang hurried to smooth things over: “Alright, alright, forget it. We’ll let this go. Later Auntie will introduce you to someone better. The family should have food ready. Let’s go home to eat. Auntie bought half a pound of meat just for you coming. Let’s eat.”

Tian Fang wanted to quickly take Wang Jinbao away. She was afraid he’d say something shameless that might anger Shen Shaoyuan, who might strangle him with a rope.

Wang Jinbao looked at the others, then at Shen Mo’er. Actually, he really liked Shen Mo’er. Even beyond their team, in ten or twenty miles around, he hadn’t seen such a beautiful girl!

He was pulled by Tian Fang and wanted to leave but hesitated, muttering, “Do you want bride price? Well, I guess some bride price is okay, but dowry has to be bigger…”

Shen Shaoyuan was furious: “How dare you, you shifty-eyed scoundrel, to think you can have swan meat! Just wait, I’ll beat you to death!”

He was so angry he almost blurted “this king” but stopped himself. Then he swung the stick hard.

“You, you, you hit people

!” Wang Jinbao shouted loudly, crying loudly, “Ah! Police! Police! Police!”

The old ladies quickly scattered.

Shen Shaoyuan was about to hit again when Fu Mingze grabbed his arm: “Brother Seven, don’t do it. It’s better to talk.”

Shen Shaoyuan took a deep breath and relaxed a bit: “I was too angry just now.”

Fu Mingze patted his back: “I know, I know.”

The old ladies quietly decided they needed to have a good chat with the other elder sisters about this matter, and used the excuse that it was getting late to leave.

Fu Mingze returned the basket and was about to leave, but Shen Mo’er called out to him, “Fu Zhiqing, you still have something you haven’t taken.”

Shen Mo’er went inside, took some clean vegetable leaves, and carefully wrapped the half rabbit that had been cooked earlier. She handed it to Fu Mingze and said, “It was agreed to give you half a rabbit. If you hadn’t come over, I was just about to finish up and send it to you. As for the other half, it still needs to be dried and roasted a bit more. I’ll send that to you later.”

Everything had been arranged in advance, and Fu Mingze didn’t refuse. “Thank you, Comrade Shen, for the trouble.”

Shen Mo’er smiled gently. “I owe you one from earlier too. If it weren’t for you, who knows if I’d have been beaten.”

Fu Mingze shook his head. “It was nothing.”

At the time, it was just a reflex out of urgency. But after watching Shen Shaoyuan pull people away so decisively and thinking about how quickly Shen Mo’er reacted when grabbing the rabbit, Fu Mingze had a strange feeling that even if he hadn’t intervened, Shen Mo’er might not have been at a disadvantage.

Fu Mingze greeted Shen Shaoyuan, then took the half-wrapped rabbit and left.

Watching Fu Mingze’s figure slowly walk away, Shen Shaoyuan squinted and turned to ask Shen Mo’er, “Xiao Mo’er, since when did you become so familiar with Fu Zhiqing?”

Shen Mo’er replied, “I asked him to help draw some designs. Also, today I went to the mountain with Aunt Chen and the others to pick mushrooms. Fu Zhiqing went too, and the rabbit was caught by the two of us together.”

Shen Shaoyuan said with a hint of jealousy, “How come it’s you two now?”

Shen Mo’er laughed. Her father was always like this, worrying about her marriage, wanting to find a good match for her as soon as possible. Yet he was picky about those young gentlemen, never quite satisfied with any of them.

“Ah, if things hadn’t changed suddenly, your marriage should’ve been settled by now,” Shen Shaoyuan sighed, then turned serious. “As for your husband, just pick the one you like. But one rule: he must be a live-in son-in-law. I need to keep an eye on you to feel at ease.”

Back then, they were still in the capital. Even if his daughter married out, he was a leisurely prince. Even if he visited her home every day, who would dare stop him? But now it was different. It was better if she married within the village. If she married far away, how could he rush over every day?

The father and daughter chatted as they went to the kitchen to serve the food.

The rabbit had been prepared earlier, braised with mushrooms in a spicy red sauce, fragrant and appetizing. The wild vegetables were made into a cold salad—refreshing for the hot weather.

While eating, Shen Mo’er told Shen Shaoyuan everything that happened during the day, and Shen Shaoyuan shared what he had seen at the commune.

These days, they were like this—on one hand keeping up with each other’s situations, on the other hand learning more about this world.

Shen Mo’er also mentioned the matter of Liu Yinshuang. Both father and daughter felt that this Liu Yinshuang might indeed be somewhat strange.

*

On the other side, Fu Mingze returned to the educated youth camp. The others were already eating in the main room.

Today, they had gathered quite a few mushrooms and wild vegetables. The camp rarely managed to cook two dishes, and even made some rice. Of course, the rice was only a small bowl per person—there was no way to get full.

Zheng Jiamin helped Fu Mingze serve the rice. As soon as Fu Mingze sat down, Zheng Jiamin began grumbling, “It was just returning a basket, why did it take you so long? If I hadn’t helped you serve the rice, you’d probably be eating burnt rice crust.”

At the same time, he winked towards Zhang Zhiqiang.

Though he lowered his voice, the table was small—how could Zhang Zhiqiang not hear?

Zhang Zhiqiang couldn’t help but say, “I just forgot there was one more person to serve.”

Zheng Jiamin pouted, showing a ‘fine, fine, whatever you say’ expression. Zhang Zhiqiang could only grit his teeth and endure it.

After the meal, Fu Mingze called Zheng Jiamin to take a walk together. After walking a bit away from the camp, Zheng Jiamin whispered, “I suspect Yang Qingqing stole your soap. I saw her washing clothes today. The soap looked pretty new but only half a bar.”

He glanced back sneakily several times and continued, “She often comes over to see Shi Wei. Who knows, maybe she took it then. Also, I just saw her peeking around in the kitchen when we left. Hiss, come to think of it, she seems pretty interested in you.”

Shi Wei and Yang Qingqing are from the same hometown, and the two often hang out together.

Fu Mingze looked at him and couldn’t help but say, “If you keep sneaking around like this, I’ll start thinking you’re the thief.”

Zheng Jiamin immediately stood up straight, scratching his head. “I’m just worried someone might overhear. Besides, there’s no real proof yet. If we wrongly accuse someone and they hear it, that’d be bad.”

As they talked, they arrived outside the yard of Uncle Zhang, a welfare recipient. Outside his yard was a tree split in half by lightning, half dead but still standing. Fu Mingze took the half-rabbit wrapped in vegetable leaves from a hollow in the tree, split it in two, and handed one half to Zheng Jiamin.

Zheng Jiamin was shocked. “You—you—you hid food here?”

Fu Mingze calmly explained, “This place is remote, no one comes here. Uncle Zhang is hard of hearing, so usually he won’t notice. It’s not easy to be found.” Actually, even if it were found out, it wouldn’t matter. Uncle Zhang was kind and would at most just smile and not tell others.

Zheng Jiamin gave a thumbs up, took a big bite of the meat, stuffing his mouth as he chewed, saying, “Mmm, this is really delicious!”

Fu Mingze glanced at him with slight disdain but bit into his own piece slowly. It really was delicious, without any grassy smell. Comrade Shen Mo’er’s cooking skills were very good.

Zheng Jiamin ate more than half in one go, then finally calmed down and asked curiously, “Did you catch the rabbit yourself when you went up the mountain today? You’re impressive, already mingling with the villagers. Don’t underestimate them—although it’s all going up the mountain, the villagers know better where to find good stuff.” Indeed, the mushrooms and vegetables Fu Mingze brought back were more than theirs, not to mention the rabbit.

In the night, Fu Mingze looked toward the village entrance, involuntarily curling the corners of his lips. After a moment, he pulled his gaze back and reminded, “It was just luck that we caught it. You can eat it, but don’t go bragging about it.”

Zheng Jiamin patted his chest with his oily hands. “Don’t worry, it all went down with the meat.”

As he spoke, he nudged Fu Mingze with his elbow, his tone teasing: “Who made the rabbit? Was it Comrade Shen Mo’er? Tsk tsk, Comrade Shen Mo’er really has great cooking skills. Hey, Mingze, I’m noticing she treats you pretty well. Could it be she likes you?”

Fu Mingze kicked him lightly: “Cut the nonsense, finish eating and let’s go back quickly.”

Zheng Jiamin said, “Wait, let me suck on the bones a bit more… Hey, I’m just chatting casually here. Speaking of which, Comrade Shen’s complexion has gotten much better recently, like she’s really blossomed—getting more and more beautiful. You don’t know, they’re all saying behind her back that she’s prettier than Shen Lingling. Tsk, those who used to talk behind Shen’s back are the same ones—flip-floppers.”

They were referring to the other male educated youth, except for Zhang Zhiqiang, who was Shen Lingling’s ultimate supporter.

After they finally finished eating, Zheng Jiamin suddenly remembered something: “But Comrade Shen Mo’er and you really aren’t a good match. Not to mention that if you get married in the countryside, there’s hardly any hope of going back to the city. Just speaking of her family—they’re apparently looking for a live-in son-in-law, and I don’t think you look like the type who could be one.”

Fu Mingze was genuinely annoyed this time. He lifted his leg and kicked him: “Hurry up, let’s go back!” Then he strode off ahead.

Zheng Jiamin dusted off his pant leg, muttering, “So what if you have long legs? Tsk, why did you suddenly get so angry?”

He hurried to catch up.

What Fu Mingze and Zheng Jiamin didn’t know was that when they were talking about Yang Qingqing, Yang Qingqing herself was talking about them.

In the vegetable garden behind the educated youth’s site, Yang Qingqing and Shi Wei were crouching in a corner. Yang Qingqing was swatting mosquitoes while lowering her voice.

“They definitely went off to have a special meal; right now they’re probably hiding somewhere eating meat. I told you, Fu Mingze is just pretending. Look at him—soft-skinned and tender, does he look like a kid from a poor family? And he keeps running off to the commune every so often, but I’ve never seen him bring anything back. What’s he doing there? I’ve followed him a few times, but when more people show up, he loses me. He must have something up his sleeve, or why else would he shake me off? And look, he’s so wasteful—buying such a big bar of soap to wash clothes. Do poor kids do that?”

Shi Wei was getting impatient. He was so tired of hearing Yang Qingqing say all this, his ears almost developed calluses.

At first, he was half convinced, but after months of watching, he found no clues. Either Fu Mingze was really good at hiding his tracks, or the rumor that Fu Mingze was secretly wealthy and pretending to be poor was just Yang Qingqing’s hysteria made up by herself.

“Even if they went off for a special meal, how can you be sure Fu Mingze paid for it? Why can’t it be Zheng Jiamin? He runs off to the commune all the time, and he himself said he knows someone at the textile factory. Sometimes they invite him over for dinner and ask him to help write letters. That’s nothing strange, right? And as for the soap, wasn’t that given to him by Zheng Jiamin? Besides, who buys half a bar of soap? The shopkeeper wouldn’t even agree to that!”

Shi Wei couldn’t help but say, “Zheng Jiamin’s family obviously has better conditions. If you want a sucker to support you, why not just find Zheng Jiamin?”

Yang Qingqing snapped, “What do you mean ‘I want to find a sucker’? I want to find a partner! If Fu Mingze had money, why would I settle for that short little guy Zheng Jiamin? It’s better to have both wealth and looks!”

In the dark, Shi Wei rolled his eyes silently. Why settle for Zheng Jiamin, a little shorty? Whether Zheng Jiamin even likes you is another question.

Shi Wei slapped another mosquito and said, “No, let’s talk again tomorrow. No point in sitting here feeding mosquitoes like fools.”

Yang Qingqing grabbed him: “I’ve already decided. Whether Fu Mingze has money or not, I’m going to get involved with him first. If he really has no money, I can just dump him later. He’s always avoiding me—you’ve got to help me!”

The two of them whispered for quite a while longer before swatting mosquitoes and walking off.

After they left, quite some time passed before a very faint voice came from the other side of the vegetable patch: “Ow, my leg’s numb. I almost got carried away by the mosquitoes.”

After a long while, the person stumbled up carefully, not daring to head straight back to the youth site. Instead, they used both hands and feet to crawl over the fence around the vegetable garden, deliberately going a bit farther away, then entered the youth site from another direction.

Just as they entered, they bumped into Yang Qingqing.

“Qiu Tong, where have you been so late at night? Your face is all red. Were you bitten by mosquitoes?”

That unlucky girl was none other than female educated youth Wang Qiutong, who had crouched in the vegetable garden for a long time, too afraid to swat a single mosquito.

Wang Qiutong had once fought with Shen Lingling in the county department store over a pretty bra—indicating she came from a fairly well-off family.

So she often sneaked out secretly for extra meals. Unfortunately, since the village had a big meeting today and dinner was late, by the time she found a chance to leave, it was already dark. She didn’t dare go far and hid in the vegetable garden.

The garden was fenced and broom grass was planted in the four corners, so it was hard to spot anyone hiding inside after dark.

The problem was everyone thought the same, so Wang Qiutong ran into Yang Qingqing and the others.

While Yang Qingqing and Shi Wei were talking, Wang Qiutong didn’t dare move at all—especially when they started scheming about how to cause trouble, Wang Qiutong was even more scared.

Before, Wang Qiutong thought Yang Qingqing looked kind but was actually hard to get along with. Today, after hearing her conversation with Shi Wei, she realized she had underestimated her. Yang Qingqing wasn’t just difficult—she was a bad person!

So when she suddenly saw Yang Qingqing, she trembled all over.

Luckily, Fu Mingze and Zheng Jiamin came back at that moment, and Yang Qingqing’s attention immediately shifted. Wang Qiutong quietly breathed a sigh of relief and glanced at Fu Mingze, her eyes showing a hint of sympathy.

Being targeted by someone like Yang Qingqing was really tough for Fu Zhīqīng.

*

The next day, the news about Tian Fang arranging a blind date for Shen Mo’er with her maternal nephew, and allegedly asking for a hundred yuan introduction fee, had spread all over the village.

There was no stopping it—these elderly ladies had an amazing talent for spreading gossip.

Actually, there was another factor — Tian Fang’s unlucky nephew was just too bizarre. The way he spoke and acted was ridiculously over the top. When the elderly women enthusiastically mimicked him, it shocked everyone else instantly.

Especially those living near Tian Fang’s house: some had seen Tian Fang dragging him back yesterday, others saw her sending him out of the village this morning. Everyone had witnessed just how plain-looking this young man was, which made his inexplicable confidence seem even more absurd.

Of course, it was also ridiculously outrageous that Tian Fang was trying so hard to play matchmaker for her own nephew—who was, after all, her niece’s own blood—and even charged a hefty introduction fee of one hundred yuan.

Tian Fang’s reputation in the village plummeted overnight. Along with her, the entire second branch of the old Shen family lost face in the village and dared not appear where there were many people.

As the weather grew hotter, Shen Mo’er finally managed to save enough materials to build her new house. It just so happened that her father’s work at the kiln factory had reached a pause, and the factory gave him several days off. So the father and daughter agreed to start construction.

The main thing was the house had to be finished before the autumn harvest; otherwise, once the harvest began, no one would be available to help with the work.

The day before construction began—

Shen Mo’er, carrying a bamboo basket, met up with Fu Mingze and Zheng Jiamin at the foot of the mountain.

These days, asking people to help build a new house didn’t require paying wages, but you had to provide meals. Shen Shaoyuan had only worked there for less than two months, so he could still get some food tickets for oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar from Xu Weiguo, but meat tickets were impossible to get.

Shen Mo’er calculated and figured it was still worth going up the mountain to see if they could find some pheasants or wild rabbits—then they’d have some meat for the meal.

If not, it didn’t matter; they could pick some mushrooms, dig up wild vegetables, or find some bamboo shoots to add one or two more dishes.

Though she had only arrived about two months ago, Shen Mo’er was already well-versed in the survival ways of the poor. The old women often said, “Eating won’t impoverish you, wearing won’t impoverish you; being careless is what causes poverty.” Poor people had to be careful in every aspect of life.

As for why she invited Fu Mingze—if they actually caught a pheasant or wild rabbit, someone had to carry it back, right?

She was a weak woman, barely able to lift a chicken.

That was one good thing about Fu, the educated youth—if you asked him to carry the load, he would, without ever questioning why.

Zheng Jiamin, who came along, was a “buy one, get one free” addition—

He insisted on coming himself. Besides, Shen Mo’er and Fu Mingze both felt it wasn’t quite right to go up the mountain alone, just the two of them.

“Just the three of us? Shen Mo’er, don’t you want to bring some others—like someone who knows the terrain well, or someone really agile, or someone with great aim?” Zheng Jiamin hinted strongly.

Ever since tasting the rabbit meat Fu Mingze shared with him, he couldn’t get the flavor of braised rabbit out of his mind. When Fu said they were going hunting in the mountains, he hurried along excitedly.

Of course, he didn’t think Fu Mingze or Shen Mo’er could actually catch a rabbit—they just didn’t look like the type. As for himself, even less so.

So he wanted Shen Mo’er to call the person who took them rabbit hunting last time, so they could all benefit.

Shen Mo’er smiled sweetly at Zheng Jiamin, who was obviously craving meat: “No need, just the three of us to try our luck.”

Zheng Jiamin gave Fu Mingze a pleading look: “Mingze?”

Fu Mingze smiled faintly: “No need.”

Zheng Jiamin: “…”

Love blinds the mind, love blinds the mind!

Never thought you, Fu Mingze, were like this!

But before long, Zheng Jiamin realized that the one who was truly “blinded” was himself—he was the fool after all!