Chapter 9: Feels Like I’ll Be Sleeping in the Wilderness Tonight

“Uncle Li, this is Su Tangxue, from Uncle Yulong’s family,” Lu Qinglin introduced.

Su Tangxue quickly smiled and greeted him politely.

“Oh my! It’s been ages since Xiao Xue visited! You’ve grown into such a fine young lady—so pretty and delicate. Are you married yet? My Caibao keeps talking about you!”

Su Tangxue’s smile stiffened as her mind frantically tried to remember who this “Caibao” from the team leader’s family was.

Then she remembered—a chubby little boy with a perpetually dirty face and two long trails of snot hanging from his nose. She inhaled deeply.

She quickly explained, “Uncle Li, I’m engaged. My fiancé… is Lu Qinglin.”

Ling Bing looked disappointed. “Ah, is that so? What a pity! My Caibao’s not lucky enough. Haha…”

“If you ever need anything in the village, come find me. I’ll help you both however I can.”

“Thanks, Uncle Li. You’d better get back to work—we’ll head off first,” Su Tangxue said, and followed Lu Qinglin away.

Zhang Yunlan, who had been working in the fields, watched them leave and seemed deep in thought.

She had just heard the team leader call that man “Lu Qinglin.” That name sounded familiar to her.

Oh…

She suddenly remembered. That man must be the same “Brother Qinglin” Wang Xifeng often mentioned. Though she hadn’t gotten a good look because of the distance, if even the team leader called him Lu Qinglin, it had to be him.

Zhang Yunlan’s eyes flicked around—she needed to tell Xifeng about this quickly.

A fellow educated youth looked up and saw Zhang Yunlan hurrying away. “Hey, Zhang Yunlan, where are you going?”

“My stomach hurts. I’m going to the latrine. Mind your own business.”

Xu Qing curled her lips in disdain. Zhang Yunlan was probably slacking off again—she wasn’t even heading in the direction of the latrine.

Among all the female educated youths, Zhang Yunlan was the laziest. She never worked properly and was always trying to sneak off.

Last month, she even got a crush on Wang Xifeng’s brother, Wang Baogui, and recently she’d been visiting the Wang family more often than she came to work.

—

Su Tangxue followed Lu Qinglin all the way home, and when she saw what was in front of her, it felt like the sky had collapsed.

Six hours on the road, followed by another two hours on foot—and what she ended up seeing was a half-collapsed, overgrown, broken-down shack.

Su Tangxue felt like she’d be sleeping in the wild tonight.

Honestly, that tree hollow they passed earlier looked better than this!

After Lu Qinglin’s father passed away, his aunts and uncles saw him and his mother as burdens and went to the old matriarch to demand a division of the family.

After the split, Lu Qinglin moved out with his mother. Misfortune strikes the weakest point—during a harsh winter, his mother passed away as well.

When Su’s father, Lu Yulong, heard about it, he pleaded with Su Tangxue’s uncle to help get Lu Qinglin into the army—at least there he could eat.

Since then, Lu Qinglin had been living in the army and never came back here. The house, left abandoned for so long, naturally collapsed.

Just as Su Tangxue was wondering which corner of this wasteland she’d have to sleep in tonight, Lu Qinglin had already grabbed the luggage and walked ahead.

Snapping out of it, Su Tangxue quickly caught up.

“Lu Qinglin, where are we going?”

Lu Qinglin walked fast, and Su Tangxue had to jog to keep up.

Afraid he’d ditch her, she instinctively grabbed his arm.

The soft feel of her hand startled Lu Qinglin, and even he noticed himself slowing down slightly.

“To your house,” he replied coldly, as always, but Su Tangxue was already used to it.

She frowned, confused. “My house?”

Then she remembered—Lu Yulong did have a house in the village.

That was after Su Tangxue’s grandmother kicked her father out. He had gone to the team leader and requested a plot of land to build his own house.

In rural villages, a man marrying into his wife’s family was seen as disgraceful—Su Tangxue’s grandmother thought Lu Yulong had shamed their family. But Lu Yulong was stubborn. He refused to marry anyone but Su’s mother, even if it meant falling out with his own family.

Later, the grandmother was so furious she had the village chief sever ties.

Su Tangxue vaguely remembered the house’s general location, but it was thanks to Lu Qinglin’s sense of direction—and asking a few villagers—that they finally found it.

Looking at the clean, intact house before her, Su Tangxue thought for sure they had the wrong place.

“Lu Qinglin, are you sure this is my house?”

Her father’s house had been abandoned for years—how could it still look this good?

The next second, she was proven wrong.

Lu Qinglin pulled out a key, unlocked the door, and walked right in without sparing her a glance or saying a word.

Feeling awkward, Su Tangxue followed behind him into the house.

The courtyard was spotless—not a weed in sight. As they entered the house, she saw that the heated brick bed and the cupboards were all sturdy and intact, as if someone had been keeping it up on purpose.

She sat on the bed, looking around curiously at everything.

After putting down their bundles, Lu Qinglin rolled up his sleeves and headed into the kitchen.

When Su Tangxue came out, she saw him crouched by the stove cooking. They were having steamed cornbread cakes—prepared earlier by Lu Yulong—just needed reheating.

She was just lamenting that there wasn’t any meat when she noticed eggs on the stove.

Did this house come with auto-refilling eggs?

“Where did the eggs come from?”

She picked one up to inspect it.

Afraid she’d break them, Lu Qinglin hurried over and snatched them back. “I borrowed them from Aunt Huang next door.”

For dinner, Su Tangxue had a cornbread cake and two boiled eggs—she was stuffed.

She considered sharing an egg with Lu Qinglin, but he refused, so she just ate it herself.

There was just enough firewood for cooking, not enough for heating bath water. After dinner, Su Tangxue washed her face and wiped herself down before getting into bed.

The candlelight flickered inside the room as she curled up under the covers, not daring to move.

Lu Qinglin went to bathe in the village river, leaving her alone in the room.

Only when she was alone in this unfamiliar place did fear creep in. Nervous and anxious, she buried herself under the blanket.

When Lu Qinglin returned from bathing and lay down beside her, she finally relaxed.

She was starting to rely more and more on Lu Qinglin—in this strange place, it felt like as long as he was there, she was safe.

After a long day of travel, she couldn’t resist the sleepiness and drifted off.

Lu Qinglin blew out the candle and lay down. Su Tangxue instinctively scooted closer to him.

The soft, sweet scent of a young woman filled the air. Lu Qinglin froze for a second. Turning his head under the moonlight, he saw her sweet face.

His mind was a mess, like a tangled ball of yarn—he had no idea what he was thinking.

—

The next morning—

Bang bang bang!

“Lu Qinglin, you little brat, open the door!”

“I know you’re in there—open up right now!”

A loud female voice accompanied by banging on the door jolted Su Tangxue from her sleep.

The woman clearly had no plans to leave unless someone opened the door.

But Su Tangxue wasn’t about to spoil her. She pulled the blanket over her head and rolled over to keep sleeping, completely ignoring the cursing from outside.

After all, it was Lu Qinglin she was yelling at—not her.