Chapter 29: Picking Mushrooms on the Mountain

“Wang Erxi, I’m telling you, if you don’t return our things, you have to marry our Xiaobao.”

“That was Liu Xiaobao’s own will to give them to me.” Wang Erxi had no intention of returning them at all.

“You promised to date me, so I gave them to you.” Liu Xiaobao stood beside Chen Fengya, trembling with anger.

Only after Wang Erxi broke up with him did he realize that she had been deceiving him from the beginning.

“The village head and the team leader are here.”

The team leader happened to be inspecting Yuhucun today. When the village lads went to invite the village head, the team leader followed along.

After understanding the situation, the team leader looked at Wang Erxi. “Wang Zhiqing, is what the Liu family said true?”

“Well, those things were all given to me to eat, I didn’t ask for them.” Wang Erxi’s confidence was a little shaken because the team leader was a different kind of person.

“What about the watch? Since you didn’t intend to marry Liu Xiaobao, why did you still let him buy you a watch? This is considered fraud, and you could be sent to a labor camp. As an educated youth, don’t you know that?” The team leader looked at her.

“He insisted on buying it for me.” Hearing that she could be sent to a labor camp, Wang Erxi immediately shifted the blame to Liu Xiaobao. After all, there was no one else there, so who knew who wanted to buy it?

“No, you asked for it yourself.” Liu Xiaobao looked at Wang Erxi, his eyes red.

“Then you should return it.”

“That’s right.” The villagers nearby shook their heads at Wang Erxi. A watch and ticket cost almost 200 yuan.

The educated youths looked at Wang Erxi and exchanged glances. Since the village head and the team leader were here, they didn’t want to get involved, lest they get caught in the crossfire.

“Team leader, this is a record of the things I bought for her in the past two years. Also, she lived with us and most of the work points for grain were earned by me. She never paid for the food she ate.” Liu Xiaobao took out a small notebook and handed it to the team leader.

“You.” Wang Erxi never thought he would keep records. Originally, she planned to return the watch if she had to when the team leader arrived.

Tang Xiaoxiao and Song Jingzhi saw this and simply rode their bicycle back to the Song family.

There were undoubtedly three possible outcomes. Wang Erxi would marry Liu Xiaobao, but Tang Xiaoxiao guessed that she wouldn’t.

After this incident, with Chen Fengya being the kind of person she was, she would definitely be tormented if she married into that family.

Either Wang Erxi would pay for the things and return them, or the Liu family would report it to the police.

After returning home, they started cooking. They had bought some large intestines today, and Tang Xiaoxiao had eaten braised large intestines in her previous life and wanted to try it.

However, it was very troublesome to prepare. It was smelly and had to be washed vigorously. This task was left to Song Jingzhi.

When the Song family was filled with the aroma of braised meat, Song’s father and Song’s mother returned from work, bringing back the outcome of the Wang Erxi and Liu family incident.

Wang Erxi returned the watch to Liu Xiaobao and compensated him for the money and tickets he had spent on her over the past two years.

As for the work points Liu Xiaobao had earned for her and the cost of the food she had eaten at the Liu family’s, it was difficult to calculate, and they were indeed a couple at the time.

“The autumn harvest is coming soon. I told your uncle that Jingzhi will take over Xiaoxiao’s work then.” Song’s father said during dinner.

The autumn harvest was busy, even the children would go to pick up the rice grains that fell from the fields. Song’s mother would definitely not have time to come back and cook.

“Then I’ll cook at home.” She could bring more meat then and give it to the Song family to replenish their energy.

“Then Xiaoxiao, you’ll have to work hard. If you’re too tired, it’s okay for me to come back and cook.” In Song’s mother’s eyes, there was no reason why her daughter-in-law had to cook.

“It’s not hard.”

“After the autumn harvest, Jingzhi also needs to learn how to cook. You can’t have Xiaoxiao cooking all the time when you go to the army.” Song’s father looked at Song Jingzhi. Song’s father would also help with cooking at home.

“Okay.” He nodded.

“You also need to do other housework. Don’t look at other families where women do all the housework. Look at our family, most of the work is done by your father for me.” Song’s mother added.

Why should their precious daughter come to your house and be a workhorse, working hard without complaint?

“I will.”

Tang Xiaoxiao picked up her bowl and secretly smiled.

“Xiaoxiao, if Jingzhi is not good to you, if he acts like a big shot at home and doesn’t do anything, tell Auntie. Your uncle and I will go to Jin City and beat him up.”

“Okay.” Tang Xiaoxiao nodded obediently.

“Jingzhi, your army should be not far from Xiaoxiao’s home, right?” Song’s father looked at his son.

“Yes, it’s a three-hour train ride, and it should only take two hours by army car.”

“Then you two should go visit each other often, since you’re so close.” Song’s mother said with a smile.

At first, they were worried that Tang Xiaoxiao would marry far away and her future in-laws wouldn’t be happy. Now it was good, they were so close.

It had rained a few days ago, and Tang Xiaoxiao wanted to go up the mountain to see if there were any mushrooms. In the afternoon, she went with Song Jingzhi, each carrying a basket.

Because of the rain, the path up the mountain was not easy to walk. Song Jingzhi held her hand the whole way.

The mushrooms on the outer edge of the mountain had basically been picked by the children, so Song Jingzhi took her deeper into the woods.

“Watch your step.” He used a branch to sweep the grass nearby, afraid of snakes and insects.

“Song Jingzhi, there are a lot of mushrooms over there.” Tang Xiaoxiao pointed to the forest on the right.

Song Jingzhi took her towards that direction. Sure enough, there was a large patch of mushrooms. They could probably go back after picking these.

They quickly picked mushrooms until their baskets were full.

“We should come back tomorrow and pick more. We can dry them and eat them in winter.” She said with a smile. Mushrooms were delicious whether stir-fried or stewed in soup.

“Okay, as long as you’re happy.” Song Jingzhi looked at her.

He thought Tang Xiaoxiao was a very easy girl to please. He had mentioned a few times that he would accompany her to the city to watch movies and go shopping at the department store, but she always refused.

She preferred to stay at home, where he would read to her or they would go to the mountain to pick wild fruits and mushrooms.

“In a few days, when the autumn harvest starts, you don’t need to go to the city to buy meat every day. We have cured meat and cured chicken at home.”

He reminded her, guessing that she would want to buy meat every day to nourish their bodies.

“Fresh meat is delicious.” She also wanted to take advantage of buying meat to make some extra money at the black market.

“Wouldn’t it be better to sleep a little longer?” He reached out and touched her hair.

“You have to help me with work, you’re so hard-working.”

“Is there a reward?” He originally wanted to say that he wanted her to make him braised bone marrow. He had been thinking about it every day since he had eaten her braised bone marrow once, but he was too embarrassed to ask.

She looked at him, thought for a moment, blushed, and tiptoed to kiss him on the cheek.

Just as she was about to pull back, he wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her lips.

She froze, staring at him with wide, watery eyes.

Song Jingzhi’s movements were gentle, like a dragonfly touching her soft lips, and then he let go.

It wasn’t until he released her that Tang Xiaoxiao came to her senses.

Was this still the same Song Jingzhi?