Chapter 65

Zhao Yongsen called for Liu Cuifang to come into his room to apply the ointment, but Liu Cuifang was unwilling to move.

As a young woman, how could she go into a man’s room?

“Liu Zhiqing, your wound is still bleeding, hurry up and come inside to apply the ointment!”

Zhao Yongsen’s mother urged her before turning to take the empty bowl back to the kitchen.

Liu Cuifang thought about the humiliation she had suffered at Lu Baiwei and Tang Yunling’s place. Could she get some revenge now?

After a moment of hesitation, Liu Cuifang decided to step inside Zhao Yongsen’s room.

“Zhao Yongsen, why haven’t you put on your shirt yet?”

Seeing that Zhao Yongsen was still shirtless, Liu Cuifang’s face immediately flushed red.

“I went to get the ointment for you and didn’t think about it.”

When Liu Cuifang stood hesitantly in the doorway, looking wary, Zhao Yongsen scooped up some ointment and stepped forward, grabbing her hand.

With a bare-chested man so close, the scent of his body made Liu Cuifang’s legs feel weak.

At the same time, an inexplicable frustration rose within her.

Zhao Yongsen rubbed the ointment on her hand in circles, and Liu Cuifang’s breathing became uneven.

She gasped, “Zhao Yongsen, it hurts.”

To be honest, Liu Cuifang might have made enemies with a lot of people, but she was not unattractive. She had a nice figure.

She was slender where she needed to be, with curves where she should have them.

While her facial features might not have been striking, her skin was fairer than the local girls, since she was a city girl from a big town.

As the saying goes, “A white complexion hides three flaws.”

And Liu Cuifang was far from ugly.

When she cried out in pain, Zhao Yongsen felt a rush of tenderness.

“Does it hurt?”

“I’ll blow on it for you!”

Zhao Yongsen said he would blow on the wound, but as he did, his lips nearly touched her hand, and the sensation of his hands on her skin made Liu Cuifang shiver.

She didn’t understand why she was so sensitive to a country bumpkin she despised.

She suddenly felt that the man, standing so close, exuded a scent that was like poison, making her body go soft and weak.

Whether it was intentional or not, Zhao Yongsen’s lips brushed against her palm while blowing on her wound. Liu Cuifang’s legs went weak, and she could no longer stand.

Seeing she was about to fall, Zhao Yongsen grabbed her waist to steady her.

“Liu Zhiqing, what’s wrong?”

“You… you let go…”

“You… let go…” 

Liu Cuifang wanted to scold him, but she didn’t understand what was happening. The words she intended to say in anger came out sounding like a playful flirtation instead. 

Seeing Zhao Yongsen coming closer, his eyes glinting with a strange light, she pushed his hand away from her chest, but it felt more like she was scratching an itch for him… 

Meanwhile, Zhao Tiantian was running to borrow sugar from Tang Yunling’s aunt next door, and the main door at Ye Hongmei’s house was tightly closed. 

Just as she was about to head home with the enamel cup, Ye Hongmei arrived with Lu Baiwei and Tang Yunling, coming up the slope. 

“Lengling Jie, Weiwei Jie, you’ve come!” 

Zhao Tiantian quickly jogged over to greet them, raising the enamel cup in her hand. “You came at the perfect time! Today, my mom made a pot of green bean soup, but we ran out of sugar. I came to borrow some from Redmei Aunt.” 

“The new bed that Weiwei wanted has been finished. Come to my place for a bowl of chilled green bean soup.” 

Ye Hongmei, who had initially dismissed the gossip from the aunts she worked with, now believed it! 

A few days ago, she had gone to the supply and marketing cooperative with Zhao Yongsen’s mom to buy sugar. They had said they were out of sugar, and now Zhao Tiantian was borrowing some—this made her suspicious. 

Originally, Ye Hongmei planned to take Lu Baiwei and Tang Yunling next door to Zhao Yongsen’s house, then return home with the aunts for a drink. But now, she decided to change her plan and take Zhao Tiantian home to get the sugar first. 

After giving Zhao Tiantian half a cup of sugar, she stopped her. 

“Tiantian, wait a moment. Let’s go to your house together, and I’ll take a look at the new bed Weiwei made.” 

Ye Hongmei exchanged a knowing glance with the aunt she had just shared a drink with, then led Lu Baiwei and Tang Yunling through the back door to Zhao Yongsen’s house. 

Zhao Yongsen’s room was at the back of the house. 

Actually, when the group came to her house, Zhao Yongsen’s mom, who was in the kitchen, had heard the noise but didn’t plan to warn her son because she had other intentions. 

As Zhao Tiantian and the others crossed through the back door, they heard sounds from inside the room that were hesitant yet inviting. 

“Zhao Yongsen, you’re hurting me.” 

“Liu Zhiqing, you’re really beautiful. I noticed you as soon as you came to our village.” 

“You’re a phoenix from the big city, and compared to you, Lingling is just a country bumpkin…” 

Zhao Tiantian wanted to call out to Zhao Yongsen, but it was too late. 

Before Zhao Yongsen could react, Tang Yunling kicked open the door to his room, glaring angrily at the two of them, locked in a passionate embrace. 

Without waiting for Zhao Yongsen to respond, Tang Yunling stormed over like a gust of wind, grabbed Zhao Yongsen, and threw him to the ground, kicking him hard. 

“So Liu Zhiqing is really beautiful, huh?” 

“And I look rustic?” 

“She’s a phoenix from the big city, and I’m a country chicken?” 

“Go to hell with your country chicken!”

—

“F*** you, you country bumpkin!”

“When you were a kid, you cried like a dog, following me around, wanting me to protect you. Why didn’t you call me a country bumpkin then?”

“Why don’t you let Liu Cuifang, that golden phoenix, protect you?”

“If I hadn’t had my aunt’s family back you, your orphaned, widowed family would have been bullied to death in the Hongqi Brigade.”

“When you wanted my aunt to help with matchmaking, you and your mom said that marrying me was like burning incense in my past life, and now you think you’ve climbed to a high branch. And now you call me a country bumpkin?”

Zhao Yongshen was dragged and kicked to the ground like a dog. Tang Yunling rode on top of him, punching him in the face with each word she spoke.

Zhao Yongshen screamed in agony, covering his face, but it was no use. Tang Yunling kept punching him.

“You think I’m a lowly dog, but look at what you are?”

“If I, Tang Yunling, look at you, it’s because I must have lost my mind.”

“I’ve fed my heart to the dogs for so many years…”

Hearing her son’s increasingly desperate screams, Zhao Yongshen’s mother was utterly terrified and rushed into the room, lunging at Tang Yunling.

“Let go of my son!”

But before she could succeed, Lu Baiwei stuck out her foot, tripping Zhao Yongshen’s mother, who fell to the ground in a disgraceful manner.

Ye Hongmei finally came to her senses.

Zhao Yongshen and Liu Cuifang made such a big noise, and Zhou Xiaohong couldn’t hear it?

Now that her daughter, Lingling, had started hitting people, only then could she hear it?

The facts were right in front of her, what was there to not understand?

Liu Cuifang was an educated youth from Beijing. It was said her family was well-off. Zhou Xiaohong was trying to have her daughter marry up.

No, wait! That’s wrong!

Zhou Xiaohong was being fickle, eating from one bowl while eyeing another.

On the one hand, she was having Zhao Yongshen betrothed to her daughter Lingling, while on the other, she was eyeing Liu Cuifang, the educated youth from Beijing.

If Zhao Yongshen and Liu Cuifang ended up together, she’d abandon Lingling.

The scheme was almost slapping her in the face.

Both families lived next door, and right under her nose, Zhou Xiaohong dared to do such a dirty thing, trying to set up a marriage for her son.

She could never forgive this woman.

Lu Baiwei tripped Zhao Yongshen’s mother, and Ye Hongmei rushed forward, punching and kicking her.

“Ah, so you’re eating from one bowl while eyeing another, huh?”