Gu Huai.

The name sounds nice.

Yang Xiaoye is being thoughtful and began to understand why that guy was avoiding her.

It turns out he ran away quickly, without even asking for money because he was afraid someone might catch him.

There’s nothing to do about it. In this time period if you’re known as troublemaker, everything you do will be wrong.

Yang Xiaoye could understand.

But she still needed to give him the money. You can’t just ride in someone else’s car for free.

“Sister Xiaoye, this is your breakfast. You must not have eaten yet.”

Yang Xiaohua from the eldest wife’s house timidly handed a bowl to Yang Xiaoye.

There’s a fist-sized pancake made from a mixture of white and yellow flour in the bowl. The pancake is mostly yellow flour with a little white flour scattered around.

The other bowl was a bowl of porridge and there were few rice grains visible in the white rice soup.

Yang Xiaoye looked around the dining table. Everyone else had yellow-flour pancakes and there were even some black-flour pancakes.

Only Yang Jiaxiang’s bowl had the same pancake as hers.

It seemed that she was treated so well because she contributed the white flour.

Yang Xiaoye curled her lips. She had just eaten wontons ^[1]a type of Chinese dumpling in the morning and wasn’t hungry at the moment.

Besides, she wasn’t interested in this cold pancake.

“Xiaohua, you can eat this cake. I’ll just have some porridge.”

“Really?”

An expression of great surprise appeared on Yang Xiaohua’s dark and thin face.

While Yang Xiaohua’s biological sister, Yang Xiaoxiang looked even more upset.

“Thank you, Sister Xiaoye. Sister Xiaoye, you are such a good person.”

The somewhat strange words made Yang Xiaoye look up and glance at the little girl who had the least presence in the family.

Yang Xiaohua is the youngest child in the Yang family. Logically, she should be the most beloved child.

But she became the person with the least sense of presence.

She was a little over ten years old, dark and thin. Her appearance looking about seven or eight years old.

Li Shujing probably didn’t take good care of her.

“It’s okay, you can eat it.”

Yang Xiaoye avoided Yang Xiaohua’s extremely grateful look.

“Xiaoyue, take me back to the house.”

Old Yang’s house is a big, bright brick house.

This is the house that Yang Guoyao built with the money he brought home.

She doesn’t know what he talked about with Grandpa Yang at the beginning.

In the original body’s memory, that was the first time Grandpa Yang went to the city to find Yang Guoyao. The two didn’t talk for long and Grandpa Yang took the money for building the house and left.

At the same time, the two families no longer had any contact, except that Yang Guoyao would mail some things home during the Chinese New Year, but he never came back.

So the Yang family can now have such a bright house in the village, all thanks to Yang Guoyao.

But although the house is big, there are also many people.

If everyone shares it, there will be no extra room.

The last time the original body came back, she lived in the same room with Yang Xiaoyue.

Originally, the first and second branches each had two rooms.

Before, Yang Xiaoyue lived in one room with Sun Juan and her husband and then in another room with Yang Jiaqiang.

But when Yang Xiaoye came, she couldn’t live in the same room with Yang Jiaqiang. So Yang Jiaqiang had no choice but to live with Sun Juan and her husband and Yang Xiaoyue came to live with Yang Xiaoye.

As for the big house, there were already many people and Yang Jiaxiang was the only one who lived with no one else, so naturally there was no room for Yang Xiaoye.

“Okay, Sister Xiaoye, wait a moment.”

After swallowing the last bite of the cake, Yang Xiaoyue took Yang Xiaoye back to the house.

When Yang Xiaoye was leaving, she saw Li Shujing rudely snatch the pancake from Yang Xiaohua’s hand and give it to Yang Jiaxiang.

When Grandma Yang saw it, but she didn’t say anything.

Yang Xiaoye, who was watching the food chain in her family, sighed but said nothing. It was enough that she wasn’t being bullied when she first arrived, so there was no reason for her to stand out.

What surprised her was that when Yang Xiaohua had her things stolen, she didn’t cry or make a fuss. She just lowered her head so no one could see her expression.

Yang Xiaoye guessed that she was probably used to being robbed so many times.

She didn’t pay much attention to it.

“Sister Xiaoye, please sleep at the head of the kang. It’s warmer there.”

Since Yang Guoyao paid for the house, every room had a kang ^[2]a heatable brick bed with a stove connected for boiling water.

The head of the kang was the warmest place, while the end of the kang, farthest from the stove, was cooler.

“No, no. You sleep on the kang. I can’t stand it.”

When Yang Xiaoye heard Yang Xiaoyue say that, she quickly waved her hands.

Although she was afraid of the cold, she couldn’t stand the heat from the kang.

Once the stove was lit, she would be woken up by the heat even though she was sleeping on the kang. It was also very dry, which she couldn’t tolerate.

“Okay, then if you’re cold, just tell me and I’ll have my mom fill your hot water bottle for you.”

Yang Xiaoyue nodded and went upstairs to quickly tidy up the bedding.

“Sister Xiaoye, let me help you spread the bedding.”

When they entered the village, Yang Xiaoye had carried a large bag on her back. She also had a small bag with more food.

“Sister Xiaoye, this quilt is so soft and the material is so comfortable.”

Yang Xiaoyue touched Yang Xiaoye’s bedding with envy. It was new, specially bought by Chen Yu. It was filled with the finest cotton and even the quilt cover was of good quality.

“I brought two mattresses. We’ll each have one.”

The kang on Yang Xiaoyue’s side wasn’t big, just enough for two people.

Yang Xiaoye was used to sleeping on a double bed, so she brought a mattress the size of a king-size bed, which was perfect for her and Xiaoyue.

“Really? Thank you, Miss Xiaoye.”

Thinking about sleeping on such good bedding, Yang Xiaoyue couldn’t wait for the night to come.

“Sister Xiaoyue, there’s water on the stove. I’ll pour you some to wash your face. I have to go to work soon.”

It was morning when Yang Xiaoye entered the village, just in time for work.

She expected the branch secretary would announce her return and the newspaper issue soon and she didn’t want to miss it.

She also wanted to see if she could give her ‘dear’ cousin a surprise since she had hidden the newspaper matter.

After washing her face, Yang Xiaoye changed clothes and prepared to go to work.

Though it was very cold in the morning, it was warm during the day, so she couldn’t wear the thick clothes she had before.

When she arrived at the village committee entrance, she overheard people chattering about her return.

Yang Xiaoye arrived in the village in the morning just in time to start work.

She guessed that the branch secretary would soon announce her return and mention the newspaper incident, so she didn’t want to miss it.

She also wanted to see if she could give her cousin a surprise, especially since she had kept the newspaper matter hidden.

After washing her face, she changed clothes and prepared for work.

Although the morning was very cold, it warmed up during the day, so she avoided wearing the thick clothes she’d worn before.

At the entrance to the village committee, she overheard people discussing her return.

“I heard Yang Xiaoye is back.”

“What? Didn’t she leave before? Why is she back again?”

“Who knows? I heard she came to our village claiming she loved to work but ran away secretly because she couldn’t stand the hardship.”

“Really? Isn’t that dishonest?”

The villagers chatted loudly, almost as if they wanted her to hear.

Her cousin, Yang Xiaoxiang, watched the scene from a corner, pleased with the outcome.

Yes, she was the one spreading the rumors. Although she didn’t know why Yang Xiaoye had returned, now that she was here, Yang Xiaoxiang intended to make it impossible for her to stay.

She would drive her out, then go to the city to enjoy a good life.

Yang Xiaoye wasn’t surprised, knowing her cousin would talk behind her back.

However, the intensity of the rumors felt a little odd, though she couldn’t pinpoint exactly why.

“Alright, everyone, settle down.”

The village party secretary stepped in.

“Before we begin, I have an announcement. Our comrade Yang Xiaoye, an educated youth, had to return home urgently due to her mother’s serious illness. Now she has returned to continue her honorable work in our village.”

The crowd was stunned.

They had heard she left because she couldn’t handle the work. Now, the story was about her mother’s illness.

Even Yang Xiaoxiang looked shocked, feeling powerless as things seemed to shift against her.

“Secretary, this isn’t true! We all saw what Yang Xiaoye did before.”

Some villagers voiced their doubts, insisting on what they believed to be true.

In reality, most had never seen Yang Xiaoye. She had only worked for an hour before leaving, but rumors spread quickly.

“Exactly. She doesn’t look like she’s here to work,” one of the village girls, jealous of her appearance, said sourly.

The crowd looked over to where Yang Xiaoye stood, neat and clean in a sky-blue coat, fashionable pants and shiny braids.

Her face was fair, with large, bright eyes and delicate features, making her stand out almost like a scene from a painting.

She certainly didn’t look like someone used to field work.

Gu Huai, standing at the edge of the crowd, didn’t join in the gossip but noticed her too.

He immediately recognized her as the girl he had seen taking a ride back to the village that morning.

She was the city girl who had created such a stir in Qingshan Village, Yang Xiaoye.

Gu Huai’s frown deepened.

“Alright, everyone, that’s enough.”

The village party secretary was visibly displeased, as Yang Xiaoye and Qingshan Village had both been mentioned in the newspaper.

Now in his eyes, this girl is the representative of the village.

How could the representative be happy when scolded by the villagers?

“Everyone, please be quiet and listen to me. Comrade Yang Xiaoye is indeed here because her mother is seriously ill. This is not just what I said, it was said in the newspapers.”

The village party secretary raised his voice to emphasize the word “newspaper.”

When the villagers heard the newspaper, they quickly quieted down.

“What, newspaper? Let me see.”

“Let me see, let me see first.”

A sentence from the newspaper immediately caught the villagers’ attention.

When they heard the village news was in the newspaper, everyone rushed to get a copy to read it.

Meanwhile, Yang Xiaoye remained calm and composed, still standing on the ridge of the field.

She didn’t say anything, just watching everyone with a smile.

Her relaxed attitude almost made Yang Xiaoxiang grit her teeth in frustration.