Chapter 12.2

Meng Yinyin’s good mood, built up over the whole day, instantly vanished because of what she said.

With a blank expression, she stopped walking and turned to face Lin Xiaoxia, who glared right back at her.

She loathed Meng Yinyin’s face and despised her shamelessness, always flirting with men!

At the Educated Youth point, there was already Song Yue, but that wasn’t enough for Meng Yinyin—she secretly hooked up with Lu Chen too. It was simply shameless!

She wanted every man in the whole brigade to see how ugly and despicable Meng Yinyin really was!

The others, watching the scene unfold, couldn’t help but feel like they were reliving the tension between the two from a few days ago. Were these two about to argue again?

Everyone held their breath, staring at Meng Yinyin, both worried and curious about how she would respond.

But to their surprise, Meng Yinyin glared at Lin Xiaoxia for a few seconds, then suddenly smiled smugly.

“Educated Youth Lin, don’t be so envious. Some things you just can’t get no matter how much you want them.”

Lin Xiaoxia immediately thought Meng Yinyin was talking about Song Yue and didn’t even hesitate before her face twisted with anger.

“Envious of you? You’re making me laugh! How could I envy someone who only knows how to seduce men and has no skills of her own? Only shallow men who only care about looks would fall for someone like you!”

Lin Xiaoxia’s harsh words naturally angered Meng Yinyin.

But she reminded herself not to get upset. At least from one perspective, Lin Xiaoxia’s words were a compliment to her appearance.

Thinking this, she calmed down a lot.

In situations like this, anyone who showed too much anger would lose the argument!

As the most beautiful person in the compound, Meng Yinyin had experienced countless similar situations growing up and had developed a perfect and effective way to deal with them.

And that method was, of course, to openly admit her beauty.

“Yes, what can I do? I’m just too good-looking. If others like me, there’s nothing I can do about it. Their eyes and hearts belong to them, and I can’t stop them from liking me. But, Educated Youth Lin, if you’re so starved for love, you can always find another man. Why are you fixating on me? I haven’t done anything to provoke you.”

Her shameless words left the entire crowd stunned.

But amidst the shock, a ridiculous thought unintentionally emerged in everyone’s minds—Meng Yinyin actually made some sense.

Lin Xiaoxia was stunned into silence by Meng Yinyin’s shamelessness, staring at her with wide eyes and repeatedly saying, “You, you, you… you have no shame!”

Meng Yinyin innocently touched her face.

“My face is right here, isn’t it? But Educated Youth Lin, if you still care so much about your reputation and are too afraid to express your feelings to Educated Youth Song, then your chance with him may be over. Oh, don’t misunderstand, I don’t like Educated Youth Song, I’m just offering advice since we both live at the same Educated Youth point.”

After all, Lin Xiaoxia had been targeting her because of Song Yue, and Meng Yinyin had refrained from confronting her earlier purely out of laziness.

But now that Lin Xiaoxia was acting up again, she decided to speak up directly.

Moreover, thinking back to her encounter with Song Yue outside the bamboo forest this morning, Meng Yinyin realized that this approach could kill two birds with one stone.

It didn’t matter whether Song Yue liked her or not, she would never like him. This was a good opportunity to make her stance clear and avoid any future misunderstandings, especially since Song Yue had been getting too close.

What?

She didn’t like Song Yue?

Not only Lin Xiaoxia but even other Educated Youth were shocked by Meng Yinyin’s statement.

After all, in their eyes, Song Yue was the best match in the entire Nanjiao Brigade—handsome, well-mannered, and well-respected among the Educated Youth. Furthermore, everyone firmly believed they would eventually return to the city and never considered marrying local villagers. There was always a gap between them and the rural residents, especially when it came to marriage.

Now, Meng Yinyin was saying she didn’t like Song Yue. Was it because her standards were too high, or was she simply not interested? Or maybe, did she already have someone else she liked?

No matter the reason, Lin Xiaoxia’s hostility toward Meng Yinyin lessened considerably after hearing that.

But when she thought about how often Song Yue had been looking at Meng Yinyin recently, Lin Xiaoxia still felt uneasy.

Before, things between her and Song Yue had been almost settled, but ever since Meng Yinyin arrived, Song Yue had been acting distant.

She knew deep down that Meng Yinyin hadn’t done anything, but the change came after her arrival. Could it be that if Meng Yinyin left, Song Yue would pay attention to her again?

Lin Xiaoxia was aware that her thoughts were becoming unreasonable, almost extreme, but she couldn’t help it! She refused to let go of Song Yue just like that.

If Meng Yinyin left the Educated Youth point, would things return to normal between her and Song Yue?

With that thought, Lin Xiaoxia suddenly felt like she had found a direction. Gritting her teeth, she shot a glance at Meng Yinyin before turning and heading toward the dorm.

This little drama ended quickly, and the other Educated Youth exchanged glances, feeling awkward but unable to prolong the situation. They reluctantly got back to their tasks.

Meanwhile, Meng Yinyin snorted and went back to the dorm to rest.

Just then, an Educated Youth who was about to go behind the building to hang clothes unexpectedly ran into Song Yue, who was standing around the corner. To his surprise, Song Yue’s expression appeared unusually cold and dark.

The educated youth was startled, thinking that this couldn’t be the expression Song Yuehui made. He rubbed his eyes and looked again, and sure enough, he saw the familiar smile on Song Yue’s face again.

He breathed a sigh of relief and said, “Well, he must have seen it wrong just now.”

However, when he recalled what Meng Yinyin had said in front of everyone about not liking Song Yue, he wondered if Song Yue had overheard. Regardless, it must have been an awkward and embarrassing statement for anyone to hear.

The Educated Youth cautiously watched Song Yue’s face and wondered whether he should offer some comforting words, such as saying there were plenty of other girls who liked him and not to mind Meng Yinyin’s comments.

Before he could speak, however, Song Yue asked in confusion, “What happened? Did something occur just now?”

It turned out that Song Yue hadn’t heard what Meng Yinyin said. The Educated Youth relaxed.

Immediately, he forced a smile and covered up, saying, “It’s nothing, nothing at all, Educated Youth Song. I’ll go hang the clothes now.”

Song Yue smiled and nodded, kindly reminding him to watch his step. “Alright, go ahead.”

“I know, thank you, Educated Youth Song. You’re really a good person.”

After saying this, the Educated Youth passed by Song Yue and left.

As he did so, he didn’t notice how Song Yue’s smile slowly faded into a cold, stern expression.

Recalling the moment when Meng Yinyin openly stated that she didn’t like him, a flash of fury appeared in Song Yue’s eyes, and a cold smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.

In reality, Song Yue had never been as interested in Meng Yinyin as Lin Xiaoxia believed. At first, he just thought Meng Yinyin was pretty and had looked at her a few times out of admiration. Later, he found her interesting—despite being abandoned by her family and sent to the countryside, she still acted proud and haughty, looking down on everyone. Where did she get the courage from?

It was precisely because of his curiosity about when Meng Yinyin would accept the reality of being abandoned that Song Yue had paid so much attention to her.

As for the relationship between him and Lin Xiaoxia, he had not been very interested in Lin Xiaoxia to begin with. After he realized that his casual glances at Meng Yinyin were making Lin Xiaoxia act like a madwoman, Song Yue lost patience with her and deliberately ignored her.

Since Lin Xiaoxia misunderstood that he liked Meng Yinyin, he decided to use that to his advantage and make her give up entirely.

Meng Yinyin’s actions left Song Yue stunned, especially with how she publicly embarrassed him in front of so many people.

Every time Song Yue thought about the fact that others now knew he had been “rejected by Meng Yinyin,” his anger would rise, and he struggled to keep it in check.

Meng Yinyin… She was something else.

…

The other Educated Youths were unaware of what had happened at the Educated Youth point. By the time everyone had finished dinner, and the brigade’s other cadress arrived to record the work points from the afternoon, they found the Educated Youths quietly sitting in the open area outside the point, relaxing in the evening air.

This calm scene caught the cadress by surprise.

“Hey, why are you just sitting here enjoying the cool breeze? Why don’t you chat or something?”

Is this the difference between intellectuals and these country folk?

They, after all, enjoyed chatting and gossiping after a long day’s labor.

One of the Educated Youths, sitting awkwardly, forced a smile and explained, “Uh, we were really tired today, so we just wanted to rest. Haha.”

The truth was, the awkwardness from the earlier incident between Meng Yinyin and Lin Xiaoxia had yet to dissipate, and they were still too shy to speak up.

Fortunately, the cadress weren’t too curious and simply smiled, thanked everyone for their hard work, and started asking about their labor results.

Each Educated Youth reported their tasks, and the cadres recorded them as work points in their notebook.

While the cadres recorded the work points of the other Educated Youths, Meng Yinyin, sitting with Yu Xiaoyu in the corner, felt her heart racing with nervousness.

Though she had accepted that she would likely get zero points for the afternoon’s work, knowing that only she, Lu Chen, and the scorekeeper were aware of this made it bearable. But if the whole group found out, after she had been pretending to be so competent in front of everyone, it would be too embarrassing!

Just thinking about it made Meng Yinyin want to bury her face in her hands.

Oh, this was just too awkward.

But what she didn’t expect was that when the brigade cadre moved to the next person, he skipped over her and asked the next Educated Youth.

Meng Yinyin froze. Did he not see her?

It seemed the cadre noticed her confusion and smiled, explaining, “Educated Youth Meng, Lu Chen already told us what you did this afternoon, so we’ve already recorded it for you.”

In other words, since Lu Chen had already mentioned it, there was no need for her to say anything now.

Meng Yinyin couldn’t believe it—once again, Lu Chen had saved her. She was both surprised and deeply moved.

After the brigade cadres walked away, Yu Xiaoyu couldn’t help but quietly express her thoughts to Meng Yinyin.

“Yinyin, I really believe Lu Chen is a good person now.”

She had seen how uneasy Meng Yinyin looked just moments ago, clearly not wanting to face the situation. She had even mentally prepared herself to comfort her, but things had taken an unexpected turn.

Meng Yinyin’s face, despite being thick-skinned, flushed with embarrassment, and she stammered, “I don’t really know what happened, but he did help me again… I’ll definitely thank him properly!”