Chapter 14

Xie Chen suddenly laughed and kissed her.

“Wifey, are you jealous?”

Jiang Tian’s face instantly flushed red, perhaps because he had hit the nail on the head.

“Xie Chen!” she called his name in annoyance, only for him to sneak in another kiss.

Smack!

Jiang Tian shoved him in anger. “Go pluck the chicken’s feathers!”

Smack!

The moment the door closed, Jiang Tian finally let out a sigh of relief. This sickly man had become more and more shameless ever since he started recovering.

When Jiang Ying returned to the educated youth dorm, her face was still streaked with tears. As soon as she stepped into the yard, Jiang Cheng spotted her.

“Oh, sister, what happened? Did someone bully you?”

Jiang Ying stayed silent and was about to head inside to wash her face, but her younger sister grabbed her hand and wouldn’t let her go.

Jiang Ying said coldly, “Jiang Cheng, let go!”

Of course Jiang Cheng wouldn’t. When Jiang Ying lost patience and tried to push her away, Jiang Cheng deliberately fell to the ground. Looking at the scrape on her palm, she cried pitifully, “Sister, I was just worried about you. Did someone bully you in the village?

“I can understand if you’re upset, but you shouldn’t keep everything bottled up. I can share your burden with you.”

Jiang Ying looked down at Jiang Cheng, who was weeping on the ground, and sneered coldly. “Jiang Cheng, stop pretending to be pitiful. A mistress’s daughter is still a mistress’s daughter. Don’t call me your sister.”

Jiang Cheng felt embarrassed when she saw everyone in the dorm peeking out. Then, catching sight of Lin Muyu approaching in her peripheral vision, she clung to Jiang Ying’s pant leg and cried louder.

“Sister, it’s not like I had a choice. What happened between our parents isn’t something I can control. I’ve already tried my best to make it up to you. I’ve only ever worn your hand-me-downs, at mealtime I always let you eat first, and whenever I see you upset, I’m the first to come comfort you.

Sister, you…”

Before she could finish, Lin Muyu strode over, helped Jiang Cheng up, and scolded, “Comrade Jiang, your younger sister was only showing concern. How could you push her? She’s already said it was the older generation’s business.”

Jiang Ying let out a cold snort and looked at Jiang Cheng. “Well, Jiang Cheng, you just arrived here and already found yourself a sweetheart? What, you don’t want the fiancé back home anymore?”

As soon as the words fell, Lin Muyu instinctively stepped back. Jiang Cheng lost her balance and fell again.

Her heart sank—when had this little tramp gotten so sharp-tongued?

She quickly explained, “Sister, how can you talk nonsense like that? Father was the one who arranged the engagement for you. You didn’t like him and fought with Father, then ran off to the countryside on your own. Father was afraid you’d be scared alone, so he asked me to come after you.”

Jiang Ying sneered inwardly. This girl could really twist black into white.

The truth was, Jiang Cheng had taken a liking to the man. She and her mother had tried to shove Jiang Ying into his bed. Jiang Ying had overheard by accident and fled to her grandmother’s house that very night, barely escaping.

Her father had changed ever since this mother and daughter moved in, so she decided to go to the countryside. Who would have thought Jiang Cheng would even chase her here?

“Jiang Cheng, are you sure about what you just said?”

A flicker of guilt flashed in Jiang Cheng’s eyes, which Jiang Ying caught at once.

“Of course it’s true.”

“Alright then, dare you swear an oath? If you’re lying, may lightning strike you dead.”

Jiang Cheng of course wouldn’t dare swear. Tearfully, she pleaded, “Sister, we’re family. Why force me like this?”

Jiang Ying ignored the moral blackmail. “Just answer: will you swear or not? What’s wrong, too scared to do it?”

Then she added, “And stop calling us family. The disgusting things you and your mother did—I won’t even bother to speak of them, so as not to dirty my mouth.”

Lin Muyu couldn’t understand why Jiang Ying had suddenly gone mad and hurried to persuade her. “At the end of the day, you’re family. Don’t make things so ugly.”

Jiang Ying, who never had much warmth for him anyway, snapped, “Comrade Lin, do you have feelings for Jiang Cheng? This is a family matter. Do you want to use this chance to cozy up to her?”

Startled that she had seen through him, Lin Muyu quickly denied it. “We all came down here together as educated youths. It’s better to stay on good terms. I didn’t mean anything else.”

Hearing that, Jiang Cheng also felt uncomfortable. When she first arrived today, she had already taken a liking to this Lin Muyu.

She slowly stood up. “Since you already think of me that way, I’ll just stay away from you then.”

Looking utterly heartbroken, she hobbled back into the dorm.

The youths who had been eavesdropping quickly scattered and pretended to busy themselves.

Inside, Jiang Cheng changed her clothes and sat in silence.

The new girl, Cheng Xiaocao, wanted to comfort her, but just then Jiang Ying walked in.

By now, everyone in the dorm understood the grudge between the two sisters.

No matter who was right or wrong, neither of them seemed like good people.

Lin Shu and Chen Lulu exchanged glances, then continued packing their things.

The two of them had already made arrangements with the village chief’s family to rent an old house at the far end of the village. They were planning to start fixing it up soon.

Lin Yue, noticing they had packed up to leave, asked what she hadn’t gotten the chance to earlier. “Which villager’s place are you two going to stay at?”

Lin Shu replied, “We rented the old house at the end of the village.”

Lin Yue’s eyes lit up. If the price was cheap, she wanted to move out too. “How much? Can I go as well?”

Chen Lulu smiled faintly and held up her hand with five fingers.

Lin Yue’s eyes widened. “Five yuan?”

“Mm. And that’s just the rent. The house still needs repairing, and we’ll build a yard around it.”

Lin Yue quickly waved her hands. “Then forget it. I’ll stay here in the dorm.”

With repairs and fencing, it would easily come to ten yuan. She didn’t even earn five yuan worth of work points in a month—definitely not worth it.

In the northeast, there were only nine months of work in a year, so you couldn’t make much money.

After Lin Shu and Chen Lulu left, other educated youths who planned to lodge with villagers also moved out one by one.

In the end, only four male educated youths remained, along with four girls: Lin Yue, Jiang Ying, Jiang Cheng, and the new girl Cheng Xiaocao.

Lin Yue remembered that Jiang Ying had mentioned moving out too. “Jiang Ying, didn’t you say you were leaving as well?”

Jiang Ying pouted without answering. She had nearly forgotten why she cried earlier—she had just been refused lodging by Jiang Tian, and now the dorm didn’t seem so bad after all.

“I’m not moving anymore. Four people in one room works fine.”

Lin Yue thought to herself: At night it’ll probably be cramped again.

And with the feud between those two sisters, she couldn’t help turning her eyes to Cheng Xiaocao.