Chapter 11

“Brother Gao Han…”

Ren Nana’s eyes instantly turned red with grievance.

“Nana, we have guests at home today, so it’s not convenient to entertain anyone. Um… why don’t you go back and tell your parents first?”

To be honest, Mrs. Ye Chunjiang didn’t really like this spoiled and willful young lady.

But she always liked to hang around the Gao family.

Just to chase after Gao Han, she had even persuaded her parents to buy a house in Hongxing Town, following Gao Han around every day.

The moment the Gao family saw her, they’d get a headache.

“Aunt Ye, I—I brought gifts today to visit you all…”

“Oh my, just the thought counts. No need for gifts. When Gao Han gets married, you can bring your congratulations then—no rush! Take care now!”

Gao’s mother directly pushed both the girl and the gifts out the door and promptly shut it.

She let out a long sigh.

Goodness, finally managed to send that young lady off.

“Comrade Xiao Song, please don’t misunderstand. Our Gao Han has never liked any other girls, nor has he ever brought one home. Nana… she’s just…”

“I understand. I know.”

Song Qingdai smiled gently, her eyes forming soft crescents with shallow dimples showing when she smiled.

She looked beautiful.

There was a composed and intellectual aura about her that made people feel incredibly comfortable around her.

Ye Chunjiang couldn’t help but think—if her own mother hadn’t become mentally ill, she might’ve been like this too.

That afternoon, Gao Han drove her home.

Many of the town roads were broken, full of potholes and extremely bumpy.

Sitting on the backseat of the motorcycle, Song Qingdai felt like her butt was getting shaken numb.

“Um… Comrade Gao Han, could you go a little slower?”

Hearing the girl’s soft voice behind him, Gao Han raised an eyebrow. “You could just hold on to me.”

Her hands were free, but she stubbornly refused to hold him, even if it meant putting up with the bumpy ride and hurting her backside.

With her delicate and fragile appearance, if they hit one more bump, she might just fall apart.

Every year the town fixed the roads, and every year they’d break again. Just outside the town was a large field of rice paddies. When the wind blew, waves of rice swayed, and the air was filled with the fresh scent of nature.

Song Qingdai carefully reached out and wrapped her arms around his waist.

The man’s waist was lean and firm. Through the fabric of his shirt, she could feel his abs.

The same feeling as when she touched him that night—

Hard and solid.

The motorcycle suddenly hit a bump, and Song Qingdai instinctively leaned forward.

The soft part of her chest collided hard against his broad, solid back.

The pain was so sharp, she almost teared up.

“You okay?”

He immediately hit the brakes and turned back to look at her.

What he saw was the girl’s reddened eyes.

“Sorry,” he suddenly said, his voice uncharacteristically gentle.

“Qingdai, hold on a little tighter. This stretch of road is rough. I’ll try to go slower.”

So soft.

So full.

He could feel it.

But she had gotten hurt too.

As his voice drifted over, Song Qingdai really wanted to rub herself, but felt too embarrassed. She just shook her head and said, “No, no, it didn’t hurt that much.”

His gaze dropped from her face to her chest.

Song Qingdai blushed and tugged his sleeve. “Comrade Gao Han, let’s go. We should head back.”

She still needed to pack up her things.

Especially her late mother’s belongings.

“Then hold on tight. Let’s just get through this road.”

“Okay…”

Her voice was soft and gentle, just like every time they ran into each other on the street.

He would usually only watch her from afar, never daring to disturb her.

This time, Song Qingdai had learned her lesson and obediently wrapped her arms around his waist. Their bodies inevitably touched again and again with the bumps.

But for the sake of protecting her chest and her butt, Song Qingdai had no choice but to set aside her sense of propriety for now.

Though the heat in her face just wouldn’t go away.

When they got back to the Song house, Song Qingdai found all her belongings had been thrown into the courtyard by Feng Cuifen.

“Well, look who finally decided to come back. I thought you’d run off with some man and never return.”

Feng Cuifen was still holding some of her things. Upon seeing Song Qingdai, she dropped everything to the ground. Her items scattered everywhere.

“What are you doing?!”

“What do you think? Your parents raised you this far, and now you go off flirting with some man without even bringing a single cent back home. You think you still have the right to live here?”

The one speaking was Feng Cuifen’s son from her previous marriage. His original name was Wu Guangji. After Feng Cuifen married into the Song family with her son and daughter, he changed his surname and was added to Song Yuanshan’s household registry. He was now called Song Guangji. He was already thirty and had just found a girlfriend, supposedly from the provincial capital.

A city girl like that demanded a bride price of a thousand or two, plus the “three essentials” (a watch, a bicycle, and a sewing machine).

The Song family couldn’t afford that much, so they’d planned to marry Song Qingdai off to Zhang Shaoxing in exchange for some dowry money. But for some unknown reason, Song Mingshan had suddenly insisted on marrying him herself.

But for Song Guangji, it didn’t matter which sister married Zhang Shaoxing.

After all, girls were just born to sacrifice for the family.

Once a daughter is married off, she’s no longer part of her birth family.

When he came back, he heard his mother exaggerate everything, saying how Song Qingdai had kept all the dowry money to herself.

The Gao family had given nearly four thousand yuan!

Wu Guangji had never seen that much money in his life. Just thinking that Song Qingdai didn’t hand it over made him furious, and he egged his mother on to throw all her stuff out.

The goal was to kick her out of the compound.

Let her fend for herself outside, since she was getting married anyway.

They simply wanted the Gao family to know that Song Qingdai was like a slave at home—no love from her father or mother. Once she married into their family, they could treat her however they wanted. Her birth family wouldn’t lift a finger to help her.

In their minds, a woman without her maternal family’s backing would surely suffer in her husband’s home.

And Gao Han wasn’t exactly some saint. If he found out the woman he married was such a burden, he’d surely show his true colors and mistreat her after the wedding.

“You’re trying to kick me out of the Song house?”

“You can stay, sure. Didn’t Gao Han give you 3,800 yuan as a dowry? We won’t ask for all of it—just 2,000. Give us that and you can stay!”

Song Guangji said it shamelessly.

It was clear: either she left the Song house, or she paid up.

“I didn’t realize the Song family had fallen to such shamelessness.”

Unexpectedly, Gao Han, who had already dropped her off at the gate and left, had come back.

He returned just in time to see the chaos and heard those despicable words.