Chapter 32: Loneliness

After Jiang Pan Yu returned the tools, she couldn’t find Tan Yanlu anywhere.

Just then, the Gossip System “dinged” and issued a task: [The event of Gao Shaolin’s heroic rescue has been triggered. Detected changes in the event. Please hurry to the riverside to witness the drama.

Task rewards: A set of thermostatic thermal underwear, a box of beauty cream, and a jar of nutritious rock sugar.]

Hearing the task issued by the Gossip System, Jiang Pan Yu felt a sense of inevitability. She knew things wouldn’t be so easily avoided.

She had clearly seen Gao Shaolin leave the village, but now he had inexplicably returned to play the hero. Did Gao Shaolin save the galaxy in his past life as a Weasel Spirit?

These so-called accidents were all orchestrated for Gao Shaolin’s benefit!

Fortunately, Jiang Pan Yu had already considered what to do if Tan Yanlu fell into the water. Now she was calm and composed.

Jiang Pan Yu grabbed a child by the roadside and took a closer look. Wasn’t this the little girl who had dared to stage a scam with Lin Wumei the other day?

She fished out a piece of milk candy from her pocket and handed it to the little girl, instructing her, “Little sister, do me a favor. Go to the Educated Youth Residence and find Li Gaoyang.

Tell him that Tan Yanlu, the Educated Youth, has been pushed into the river, and ask him to bring people to the riverside to help.”

The little girl was momentarily stunned but then nodded, “Alright, I’ll go find Li Gaoyang right now.”

With that, Jiang Pan Yu sprinted towards the riverside. When she arrived, a crowd had already gathered by the river.

She pushed her way through the crowd to the center, where Tan Yanlu stood, her clothes soaked and her hair dripping with water.

The weather was chilly, and wearing wet clothes could easily lead to illness. Jiang Pan Yu approached Tan Yanlu and handed her own jacket to her, urging her to put it on to block the wind.

Jiang Pan Yu glanced around at the crowd. In the novel, when Tan Yanlu fell into the water, there hadn’t been so many onlookers.

She also noticed that several people had sleeves and pants that were dripping with water.

Opposite Tan Yanlu, besides Gao Shaolin, whose sleeves and pants were also dripping, were the two boys from the Jin family, looking dejected.

There was also a woman carrying a child on her back, whispering something to the person next to her.

It seemed this was the change the Gossip System had mentioned, and it was no small change.

Although Jiang Pan Yu had a good idea of what had happened, she still asked Tan Yanlu for the details.

Tan Yanlu recounted the events. It turned out that when it was time to finish work,

Tan Yanlu had gone to return the water buckets she had used that day. Since it was her first time doing this task, she didn’t know how to use the right technique, so the bottoms of both buckets had gotten covered in mud.

This meant she couldn’t return them directly; she needed to clean them first.

However, the rest of the team didn’t have to do this, so they took their tools and left, leaving Tan Yanlu almost alone.

Tan Yanlu remembered Jiang Pan Yu’s advice and quickly grabbed the woman carrying the child, using a piece of candy to persuade her to stay and keep her company, claiming she was scared to be alone.

The woman, seeing an opportunity for gain and considering it no hardship to wait a little longer, readily agreed.

While Tan Yanlu was washing and scrubbing two buckets by the riverside, the child on the woman’s back got hungry, and the woman went behind a nearby bush to breastfeed the child.

Just as Tan Yanlu momentarily looked away and was alone, the two boys from the Jin family quietly approached her, looking sneaky and clearly up to no good.

At that moment, Tan Yanlu was fully focused on scrubbing the buckets, eager to finish quickly, and didn’t notice the subtle movements behind her.

The woman who was breastfeeding her child looked up and saw this scene. Realizing that the Jin boys were about to cause trouble, she immediately shouted out.

The two boys hadn’t expected anyone else to be by the river. Whether they were startled or too fixated on the two pieces of dried sweet potato, they didn’t stop even after being discovered. They pushed Tan Yanlu into the river and then ran away.

When the woman shouted, Tan Yanlu didn’t react immediately. By the time she realized what was happening, she was already in the river.

In Tan Yanlu’s memories from her past life, after being pushed into the river, she was swept to the center of the river and nearly drowned because there was no one around.

It was Gao Shaolin who risked his life to jump into the river and pull her out.

But this time was different. The woman holding the child saw Tan Yanlu fall into the river and immediately shouted for help, yelling that someone had fallen into the water. Fortunately, the woman had a very loud voice.

People who had already walked away heard the cries for help and hurried back to the riverside.

Among them was Gao Shaolin, who had suddenly turned back to the village. Tan Yanlu was pulled out of the river by the collective effort of everyone present.

Although Gao Shaolin also contributed, it was no longer his solo act.

The two boys from the Jin family were caught, and someone had already gone to fetch the brigade leader. This matter couldn’t be easily resolved today.

After listening to Tan Yanlu’s account, Jiang Pan Yu compared the memories with reality and found significant differences.

She was quite relieved. Tan Yanlu was someone who listened to advice, and this time she didn’t let herself be alone, so more than one person came to her rescue. Gao Shaolin’s life-saving favor was thus diluted.

Gao Shaolin could no longer use the pretext of saving her life to pester Tan Yanlu.

In Tan Yanlu’s memories from her past life, after Gao Shaolin heroically saved her, he escorted her back to the educated youth residence.

Being alone with a man and returning soaking wet, Tan Yanlu was naturally met with ridicule from Zhao Xiuzhu and others at the residence, who had already been isolating her.

Then rumors spread that Tan Yanlu and Gao Shaolin had been intimate in the woods, pulling and tugging at each other, and ended up drenched in water.

It was unclear whether these rumors were spread by Zhao Xiuzhu and her group or by Jin Bei.

For Tan Yanlu’s reputation, it was a slander that made it difficult for her to stay in the village, especially since Gao’s sister-in-law had just successfully pressured Gao Shaolin into marriage. Some even said it was a case of two women fighting over one man.

Later, Gao Shaolin married Gao’s sister-in-law to protect himself, and Tan Yanlu became the “homewrecker” who was abandoned by Gao Shaolin.

Tan Yanlu was ruined by Gao Shaolin, but the truth of these events was unknown to anyone. As the victim, Tan Yanlu had endured too much.

But now things were different. Tan Yanlu wasn’t entangled with Gao Shaolin, and more than one person had come to her rescue. The boys from the Jin family had been caught, and there were so many eyewitnesses.

Could the rumors still spread? With even the slightest change or deviation, Jiang Pan Yu was confident that Tan Yanlu wouldn’t follow the same path as before.

At this moment, Tan Yanlu’s full attention was on the two boys from the Jin family. Her face was icy, and her gaze was hostile, clearly indicating she had no intention of letting them off easily.

As for the so-called hero saving the beauty and the debt of gratitude, Tan Yanlu had no mind to heed the voice in her heart. She was solely focused on figuring out how to deal with the Jin family boys.

It had to be said that this was the biggest turning point in Tan Yanlu’s fate. Jiang Pan Yu glanced at Gao Shaolin standing to the side—this hero saving the beauty had turned out to be quite a lonely affair!