Chapter 40

Stirring Emotions

Xu Jiajia didn’t even feel like speaking to this person.

Song Ran mistook Xu Jiajia’s silence for guilt, and he angrily shouted, “Bitch, say something!”

Chen Ji swung a punch: “Speak properly!”

This time, Song Ran dodged the punch. He glared at Chen Ji, gritting his teeth: “You wait!”

Chen Ji chuckled lightly: “You’re hilarious. You act like I’m afraid of you. If you’re so capable, do something now!”

Song Ran wasn’t here to fight, he came to cause trouble for Xu Jiajia: “What did you say to Xu Xin?”

Seeing Song Ran’s behavior, Xu Jiajia immediately realized that Xu Xin had broken off with him. Xu Xin was a person who only acted when there was something to gain, and since Song Ran was no longer useful to him, Xu Xin would obviously discard him.

“Do I even know her? Song Ran, could it be that you were abandoned? Hahaha…”

Xu Jiajia laughed with schadenfreude: “Didn’t she think you were useless and dump you?

It makes sense.

Your father is not only a spy but also a murderer. Anyone with a normal mind wouldn’t want anything to do with you.”

Song Ran hated it when people mentioned his father, Song Hanyong. He got angry and snapped: “I’ve already severed ties with him. He’s not my father anymore, don’t bring him up in front of me.”

Did Xu Jiajia care what he said? Of course not. She went on, her words directly hitting him where it hurt: “Blood relations can’t be severed, unless you change all the blood in your body!”

Chen Ji, standing nearby, egged her on: “Right, right, you still have his blood flowing through you. Tsk, what good is getting in the papers? You need to change your blood for it to count!”

Song Ran’s face turned a mix of green and white: “Don’t push me too far!”

Xu Jiajia mocked him: “Aren’t you the one pushing others too far? What’s this? Only the officials can set fires, but the common folk can’t light lamps?”

Chen Ji, like a parrot, repeated: “Yes, yes…”

In the end, Song Ran once again left in defeat.

Chen Ji watched his retreating figure, his eyes turning as if thinking of something mischievous: “Sis, I’m heading back now.”

Xu Jiajia: “Be careful on the road.”

Chen Ji chuckled: “Of course, I’ll be careful.”

He pushed his bike out of the yard.

Once out of the village, he started riding faster.

In no time, he caught up with Song Ran.

He rode past and moved close to Song Ran’s bike.

“I know why that woman abandoned you.”

Song Ran shot him a glare but didn’t say anything.

Chen Ji didn’t care about his attitude and continued: “That woman knows a lot of men, and it seems they have a good relationship.

She even hit on me last time.

But I turned her down.

Hahaha…”

Song Ran didn’t believe a word Chen Ji said. With a serious face, he said, “You’re slandering her reputation. Aren’t you afraid of lightning striking you?”

Chen Ji kicked him: “You have a head but no use for it.”

Song Ran reacted quickly this time, speeding up and zooming away on his bike.

Chen Ji clicked his tongue: “Riding so fast, aren’t you afraid of crashing?”

Just as he finished speaking, he heard a loud bang.

He looked up.

Song Ran and his bike had fallen into a rice field, crushing the rice.

Chen Ji couldn’t help but laugh heartily: “Hahaha… Serves you right, that’s karma!”

Song Ran, covered in mud, crawled out of the field and slowly dragged his bike out.

The rice field was even more trampled now.

The villagers working nearby saw this scene and rushed over. When they saw the damage, they almost fainted: “You bastard, did you crush all this? Do you know how much grain this will cost us?

You’ll pay for it. If you don’t, don’t even think about going back!”

Song Ran, all covered in mud, frowned and looked at the villagers: “I didn’t do it on purpose.”

This attitude made the villagers even angrier: “You crushed so much rice and now you’re saying it wasn’t on purpose? Think we’re fools?

You have to pay, or you’re not going anywhere.”

The villagers, worried that Song Ran would try to weasel out of it, called more people over.

The newcomers carried farming tools with them.

Song Ran was scared by their show of force: “I never said I wouldn’t pay.”

One villager snorted: “That’s more like it.”

Song Ran pulled out a wad of damp money, about five or six yuan: “How much do I owe?”

The villagers felt insulted. The man was so angry that his hair almost stood on end: “You think money is everything? Can money buy food? We don’t want money, we want food.”

At this time, food was rationed for workers.

Once it was used up, money wouldn’t buy more.

Unless you went to the black market, but it was expensive and unsafe.

Song Ran was now in a tough spot: “I… I don’t have any grain, only money.”

The villager replied: “We don’t have extra grain either, but the rice you trampled could have yielded at least 15 pounds of grain.”

Song Ran didn’t know what to do, but a tall villager, seeing him in a bad situation, suggested trading something for the grain.

Buying with money was a private transaction and could lead to trouble.

But exchanging goods wouldn’t cause any issues.

Song Ran realized that every time he was involved with Xu Jiajia, things went wrong: “I only have money and this bike, but I can’t trade the bike.”

The tall villager thought for a moment and then said, “My family is short on brown sugar. Can you get some brown sugar?

If you can, come to my place, leave the bike as collateral, and tomorrow you can trade it back for sugar.”

Song Ran: “If I leave the bike with you, how am I supposed to get back?”

The tall villager pointed at Chen Ji, who was standing by the roadside watching the drama: “Isn’t your friend over there? He can give you a ride back.”

Song Ran hated Chen Ji to the core and would never accept a ride from him.
He sneered, “He’s not my friend, I don’t even know him.”

Chen Ji grinned mischievously: “You’re lying with your eyes wide open. We’re obviously friends, yet you’re lying just for a bike. This kind of thinking is no good!”

The villagers immediately changed their attitude towards Song Ran: “Comrade, what’s going on with you? I’m trying to help you, and you treat me like a fool. Is this fun for you?”

Song Ran couldn’t hide the anger in his eyes and snapped, “Shut up. If you don’t speak, no one will think you’re mute!”

In the end, Song Ran had to leave the bike with the villagers.

When he came out of the villager’s house, Chen Ji had already left.

Without a ride, he had no choice but to walk home.

Song Ran had never walked such a long distance before. By the time he returned home, his legs felt like they were about to give out.

At the Shen Family’s House.

Zhao Chunlan, upon hearing that Shen Zhou had been accepted into the mechanical factory, was so excited she started pacing around the house: “Good, good, our family finally has a worker! Zhou Zhou did great, didn’t rely on anyone and became a worker on his own. Hahaha…”

Shen Dazhu’s eyes turned red as well. After all, becoming a worker meant having a stable job, the “iron rice bowl” everyone dreamed of. Not only would they have a salary every month, but they could even eat meat!

“Blessings from our ancestors! Blessings from our ancestors! I’m going to burn extra paper for them tonight so they can be happy down there too.”

Zhao Chunlan reminded him, “Be careful, don’t let anyone see.”

Shen Dazhu nodded, “I know, I know.”

Shen Zhou glanced at both of them before speaking, “The reason I passed isn’t because I’m so great. It’s because big sister-in-law was amazing. She highlighted the key points and made me memorize them.”

Zhao Chunlan’s smile immediately froze: “What? Are you kidding me?”

Shen Zhou shook his head and said seriously, “I’m serious.”

Zhao Chunlan didn’t believe that Xu Jiajia was that kind-hearted: “That bitch must be up to something, right?”

Shen Zhou looked at her with a stern expression: “Mom, if you continue to insult big sister-in-law, I won’t come back.”

This sentence successfully restrained Zhao Chunlan. She had no choice but to compromise for a moment: “Fine, fine, I won’t say anything.”

At night.

Zhao Chunlan tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep.

She glanced at Shen Dazhu, who was snoring, and shook his arm hard: “Shen Dazhu, wake up.”

Shen Dazhu was sleeping deeply.

Zhao Chunlan called him several times before he groggily opened his eyes: “What’s the matter in the middle of the night? What do you want to do?”

Zhao Chunlan lowered her voice: “I just have this feeling that Xu Jiajia, that bitch, is scheming something.”

Shen Dazhu was stunned: “What could she possibly be scheming? Zhou Zhou has a job now, that’s good for him and for us. Xu Jiajia gains nothing from this. On this point, we’re the ones benefiting.”

Zhao Chunlan saw that her husband was on Xu Jiajia’s side, and she was furious. She slapped his arm hard: “If she was such a good person, would she let that unlucky Xu Yuebai become a son-in-law?

Wait a minute.

Is she trying to sow discord between me and Zhou Zhou?”

As soon as she said this, Shen Dazhu’s sleepiness vanished, and he became serious: “That makes sense. Zhou Zhou hasn’t been like this before.”

Zhao Chunlan gritted her teeth with hatred: “I knew that bitch had bad intentions.”

Shen Dazhu quickly asked, “So what should we do?”

Zhao Chunlan, frustrated, replied, “How should I know?”

Shen Dazhu: “You usually have plenty of ideas.”

Zhao Chunlan shoved him away: “Go away, don’t bother me.”

Zhao Chunlan thought all night but couldn’t come up with a solution.

The next day, she showed up in the field with dark circles under her eyes.

A few women noticed her and immediately began making suggestive comments: “Chunlan, how late did you and your husband go at it last night?”

“Looking at you, it seems like you were at it all night.”

“Tsk, with kids that old, and still so strong, your husband must be very durable!”

“…”

Zhao Chunlan was so annoyed, her hair seemed to fall out, and she felt like she had been wronged. She was in a terrible mood: “A bunch of shameless women, always thinking about those private matters.”

“Hmph, as if you didn’t think about it!”

Zhao Chunlan denied it: “Of course not. I’m just stressed out.”

“Your son is a worker now. What’s there to be stressed about?”

“Ugh, it’s that Xu Yuebai’s wife. That woman is very cunning, I’m no match for her.”

One of the women found it odd: “You don’t even live together, how could there be conflict?”

Zhao Chunlan, with a dark expression, began spreading rumors: “That woman is heartless. Not only did she encourage Xu Yuebai to become a son-in-law, but she also tried to turn Zhou Zhou against me.”

One of the women who knew the situation spoke up: “I heard from Li the matchmaker that little Shen isn’t a son-in-law, he’s just helping with the banquet at the Xu family. I don’t believe it, don’t you, as his mother, know?”

Zhao Chunlan didn’t actually know. Shen Dazhu had mentioned the son-in-law thing a few times, but the unlucky Xu had never denied it: “Is this true?”

The woman nodded: “Of course. A lot of people in the neighboring village know about it. On the day of the banquet, someone said he was a son-in-law, and they said Xu’s wife made a correction.”

Zhao Chunlan: “…”

That unlucky Xu must have done this on purpose!

Time passed.

Before they knew it, it was Friday.

On that day, Xu Jianguo returned from town.

A woman deliberately stepped in front of him.

He slammed on the brakes in panic, almost throwing himself off the bike: “Are you blind? Can’t you see this big bike?”