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Qin Chunlan was both shocked and terrified—regret filled her heart!
She had originally thought Lin Ting looked gentle and easy to bully—who would’ve expected she was ruthless!
Just as the other team members rushed over in a panic, Lin Ting finally pulled her up.
“Comrade Qin, how could you be so careless?”
“There was a whole other ridge to walk on, but you just had to be on the same one as me. See what happened?”
Zhong Shuhe said in a cool voice, “Comrade Qin, this is what they call ‘brought it on yourself’.”
“You’ve done too many shady things—karma came fast, didn’t it?”
For a moment, Qin Chunlan felt the urge to tape both Lin Ting and Zhong Shuhe’s mouths shut.
She wiped her face furiously and snapped, “Nothing good ever comes out of your mouths!”
Lin Ting sneered, “How could anything good come out of a dog’s mouth? Dogs and ivory don’t belong together, you know.”
“Comrade Qin, do you not even have that much common sense?”
Pure, blatant sarcasm!
Qin Chunlan finally realized something—she would never win an argument against Lin Ting and Zhong Shuhe. She might as well shut up and stay far, far away from them from now on.
With Qin Chunlan’s humiliation as a warning, the others who had opinions about the new educated youth didn’t dare cause more trouble.
The rice transplanting went smoothly after that. Lin Ting was the first among all the new youth to complete the task.
The work recorder Chen Jiang said happily, “Comrade Lin, you’re amazing! First day on the job and already full marks.”
Lin Ting smiled sweetly, “It’s all thanks to Auntie Yuan’s good teaching.”
Auntie Yuan Xiang’e was overjoyed by her praise but remained modest. “Comrade Lin is smart and learns quickly.”
Since Lin Ting was praised, her teacher also got face and recognition.
The recorder casually added, “You all did great today. Everyone got full marks.”
“The team leader said if the mentorship goes well, the mentor will get extra points. So Auntie Yuan, you’re getting an extra day’s credit today.”
The older women who had refused to mentor the new youth instantly regretted it—if they’d known, they would’ve fought to take in a mentee!
Yuan Xiang’e hadn’t expected the bonus, and her smile was so wide her crow’s feet could kill a mosquito. “Looks like I’ve benefitted from Comrade Lin!”
Lin Ting smiled again. “It’s your good teaching, Auntie Yuan!”
“We make a great team.” For the first time, Yuan Xiang’e said such a confident sentence—and her posture unconsciously straightened with pride.
The older youth listening felt uncomfortable. The day wasn’t even over, and someone already earned full marks?
And it was a newcomer?
On their first day?
These veteran youth could barely avoid getting scolded—being praised was basically a miracle!
During the two-hour lunch break, Yu Mo cooked while Zhong Shuhe and Lin Ting went to a nearby grove to collect firewood. They planned to gather extra to repay the team leader for what they borrowed earlier.
They also needed to clear a private plot to grow vegetables. They couldn’t rely on the team leader’s supplies forever.
The two walked into the grove one behind the other. The outer edges had already been stripped clean by others, so they had to go deeper to find anything useful. Zhong Shuhe was afraid of wild animals and clung to Lin Ting.
“Do you think we’ll run into wild boars or something?”
Lin Ting’s eyes sparkled. “We’d be lucky if we did!”
“I heard wild boar meat is kind of tough, but we could trade it for something else.”
Zhong Shuhe stared in disbelief. How could everything lead back to food for Lin Ting?
Wild boars were filthy—no way was she eating that!
“Let’s not talk about this in broad daylight. What if we really run into one?”
“If we do,” Lin Ting said naturally, “we’ll catch it!”
Zhong Shuhe didn’t respond. She just kept holding Lin Ting’s hand tightly. If they did meet a wild boar, she planned to hide behind her.
Lin Ting saw scattered firewood ahead and instructed, “Let’s split up. Try to finish in 30 minutes so we can go back, eat, and nap.”
Zhong Shuhe was reluctant—truthfully, she was scared to act alone—but still agreed. “Don’t go too far. I’m scared.”
“Okay, okay. I’ll stay nearby.”
Lin Ting worked quickly and soon cleared all the wood in her area. She had no choice but to move deeper into the grove.
“Your younger uncle gets to stay in the city now?”
“Yeah.”
“And you’re really okay just watching him live a carefree life in the city while you suffer here?”
“What can we do if we’re not okay?”
There was a pause, and the woman continued: “That Li Haitang even traveled all that way to get their marriage certificate. Secretary Chen’s family must be over the moon!”
Lin Ting had found the voice vaguely familiar at first, but when she heard the name Li Haitang and the content of the conversation, it clicked—
The woman speaking was Li Lijuan, Chen Li’s sister-in-law!
In her past life, Lin Ting had been her sister-in-law too, and they’d spent plenty of time together.
Li Lijuan had married a few years earlier. Her wedding was painfully simple—just a family meal and that was it.
When Lin Ting married Chen Li, it was different. They booked several tables at a state-owned restaurant, she wore a custom red dress, and even her red leather heels were brand-new.
That contrast had made Li Lijuan deeply bitter, and she frequently quarreled with the Chen family because of it.
To pacify her, the Chen family had secretly told Chen Li to give her 100 yuan in compensation.
At the time, the entire family couldn’t even make 100 yuan in a year!
Later, Lin Ting found out Chen Li had sold a watch her mother had gifted him just to scrape together the money.
Li Lijuan had always used her two sons as leverage—and the Chen family kept secretly taking Lin Ting’s belongings to “help” her.
Lin Ting used to think their home was being robbed and was about to report it to the local security office. Eventually, the Chen elders confessed.
And they even self-righteously claimed that, since Lin Ting was financially better off, she should help support her elder brother-in-law’s family.
Snapping back to the present, Lin Ting crept forward to see who Li Lijuan was secretly meeting.
She couldn’t see the man’s face clearly, but Li Lijuan’s eyes were practically glowing with affection—something Lin Ting never saw her show her husband.
She lay softly in the man’s arms, her hands gently stroking his chest. “Every day, I have to hear our son call someone else ‘Dad.’ It really breaks my heart.”
Lin Ting’s breath caught. She stood frozen in place.
Li Lijuan had two sons. Were both of them fathered by someone else?!
Her question was quickly answered when Li Lijuan murmured, “Your genes are so much better than the Chen family’s. Tie Dan is such a good boy—he never makes me angry.”
Tie Dan was her younger son, and come to think of it, he was noticeably more obedient. By contrast, the older son was much more difficult.
In Lin Ting’s past life, she and Chen Li had to clean up after him constantly.
He’d even lived with them for a while, and only then did his bad habits begin to fade.
Chen Li and Lin Ting had once considered grooming Li Lijuan’s older son to be their heir—but she had insisted on sending her younger son instead.
Now it all made sense.