Chapter 30.1

People are afraid of the unknown.

Before meeting Liu Kai, his existence had always been a deep, hidden fear for Chen Nongmo.

But when she truly faced this person, she suddenly felt that the fear and apprehension she had once felt were excessive.

No wonder she dared to act so boldly. Liu Kai, a notorious murderer in the original story, after arriving at Shanshun Village, worked every day doing the hardest, most exhausting farm labor.

Chen Nongmo had seen him from a distance twice.

After a few days, Liu Kai no longer had the dignified appearance he had when he first arrived. The whole person had become filthy and covered in mud, and from far away, one could smell the suffocating sour odor.

How should she put it? It was very satisfying, but there was no longer much fear to be had.

She hadn’t asked the Old Secretary why he deliberately tormented the man, but she had guessed that Old Master Bian must have seen something.

After all, although the old man had never been warm towards the Educated Youth, he wouldn’t intentionally cause them distress.

Of course, Chen Nongmo wouldn’t sympathize with Liu Kai for his current predicament, and she still maintained her vigilance toward him.

She was just waiting, waiting for the day when this man with a devil hiding in his heart would tear off his human skin.

“Back in the fields again? Didn’t I tell you not to go?” Hearing movement in the yard, Cao Qiuhua stuck her head out from the kitchen window. Seeing her daughter, who was made to look particularly small by following behind her husband, she asked helplessly, with a hint of annoyance.

Afterward, she gave her husband a glare, irritated that he hadn’t stopped her.

It wasn’t that she, as a mother, was overly protective of her child, not allowing her to go out.

In the past, she would have been more than willing, but recently, the sun had become too harsh, and a girl’s skin was delicate, easily getting sunburned.

Another thing, tasks like fertilizing, weeding, pest control, and irrigation—none of these farm chores were needed from a girl like her.

Chen Zong wasn’t upset by his wife’s glare. He only smiled good-naturedly and picked up the farming tools to go to the storage room.

“I really wanted to go help Daddy Zong, but he wouldn’t let me,” Chen Nongmo mumbled a few words before smiling as she walked to the window, holding a bamboo basket and handing it to Mother Qiuhua to look at. “These were all given by the village’s aunts.”

“Oh, this is quite a harvest, huh?” Early autumn was a good season for fruit to ripen, and the small bamboo basket contained not only peaches, but also two bunches of grapes and a few red tomatoes with just a little green left on them.

“That’s right, all from the aunts. One gave me one, another gave me a bunch. If my basket were bigger, there would be even more… By the way, look, I also put some wildflowers in the basket. Do you think they look nice?”

“Heh… nice, my daughter is so skilled, everything she does looks good… Give me the biggest persimmon on top, I’ll slice it and eat it with sugar for lunch.”

“Alright, I’ll wash it with well water before I bring it to you.”

“……”

At the same time.

Compared to the warmth and comfort of the Chen family at the foot of the mountain, Liu Kai, having just completed the task assigned by the team leader and nearly exhausted his energy, staggered back to the Da Mountain family.

Upon seeing him enter, Da Mountain’s father, Chen Gui, greeted him with a silly smile: “The Liu Educated Youth is back. We’ve been waiting for you to eat.”

Upon hearing this, Liu Kai, whose eyes were green from hunger, instinctively looked at the table.

Sure enough, as expected, the only things on the table, apart from a bowl of watery porridge so thin it could cast a shadow, were black flatbread and a plate of overly salty pickled vegetables.

In fact, the flatbreads weren’t small, and they were enough to fill the stomach. For many families, this could be considered a decent meal.

But this was nothing like the life Liu Kai had been accustomed to before.

Especially after being in Shanshun Village for a week, every meal had been the same two dishes.

He hadn’t seen meat once, let alone any oily dishes, and having a plate of saltwater cucumbers was considered a luxury.

Liu Kai was a smart man, and the experiences of these past few days had been enough to make him realize that everyone in Shanshun Village was deliberately making things difficult for him.

He also more or less understood the reason behind this mistreatment.

He had to admit, he regretted it.

Of course, it wasn’t because he regretted having impure thoughts—after all, wasn’t a woman who looked that beautiful just asking to tempt a man?

What he regretted was that he shouldn’t have let his admiration for Chen Nongmo’s beauty slip, inadvertently revealing his intentions, which led to the difficulties he was facing now.

Of course, aside from regret, there was also resentment.

He resented that such a poor, harsh place had produced such a troublesome people.

He resented the entire village for being abnormal, where even a casual remark had him treated like a beast of burden.

Wasn’t it just a way to warn and tame him, to make sure he wouldn’t dare to think of a woman named Chen Nongmo again?

But he refused to bow down!

The more he was mistreated over the past few days, the more it fueled the desire deep within him.

It even gave birth to a twisted pleasure, where the more difficult the hunt became, the sweeter the prey would taste once captured.

Of course, he couldn’t just keep dragging things out; he didn’t want to collapse before he had the chance to taste the prize himself.

He only had to hold on for a little longer. Once everyone relaxed their guard, he would overpower the woman, then leave this cursed place immediately. Who would be able to find him if he took on a new identity? After all, the name he was using now was fake.

With that thought in mind, Liu Kai had already mentally rolled over countless methods of capturing the woman, yet his face betrayed no emotion. He smiled at Chen Gui and said, “Thank you, Uncle Gui. I’ll take a quick shower and change my clothes, then I’ll join you. Don’t wait for me to eat.”

Da Mountain watched Liu Kai walk into the room in the corner, feeling a little reluctant to look away. He glanced at his father, who had already begun eating, and lowered his voice, “Dad, is it wrong for us to secretly eat meat? Don’t we need to give some to Liu Comrade? I think his temper is pretty good. He doesn’t seem like a bad person.”

Upon hearing this, Chen Gui sighed and poked his son with his chopsticks. “His temper isn’t good; it’s that he’s become an immortal.”

“What do you mean?”

Seeing his son’s confused expression, Chen Gui clicked his tongue a couple of times, his small eyes gleaming with wisdom. “You just need to remember, in the future, stay away from people with a bodhisattva-like temper.”

Da Mountain was even more bewildered. He sat down across from his father, took a bite of the black flatbread, and mumbled, “Isn’t it good to be a bodhisattva?”

“A bodhisattva is good, but people aren’t bodhisattvas. Everyone has their temper. If Liu Kai were to get angry and fight back, I wouldn’t be watching him like this,” Chen Gui explained, shaking his head. He didn’t understand great principles, and he couldn’t even read a large batch of characters, but decades of life experience and the trauma of having lived through the massacre of their village by the R-country invaders had taught him a thing or two.

He had seen the worst kinds of evil in this world, and he could tell that there was something off about Liu Kai.

He couldn’t exactly pinpoint what was wrong, but he just felt that Liu Kai’s gaze, even when he was smiling, made him uncomfortable.

He also trusted the Old Secretary’s judgment. Since the old man thought Liu Kai was problematic, then there was definitely something wrong with him, and keeping an eye on him wouldn’t hurt.

Da Mountain was still confused, but he was obedient, nodding seriously. “Don’t worry, I’ll stay far away from him.”

“What’s with you two lately? Why are you running out every day?”

At lunchtime, the twin brothers came back with their heads dripping with sweat after being out the entire morning. When Cao Qiuhua came out of the kitchen holding dishes, she instinctively frowned upon seeing them.

Chen Jun hadn’t told his mother about the fact that his younger sister was being eyed by a scoundrel. With her personality, if she knew—even if it was just a suspicion—she probably wouldn’t be able to sleep peacefully for a long time.

So, when she asked, he set the towel in the basin of well water and laughed as he answered, “We went to find Er Zhu and the others to catch fish.”

The summer days were hot, and the family ate all their meals under the eaves of the house, where there was more ventilation. Cao Qiuhua set the dishes on the table under the eaves and quickly glanced around at the two brothers. “Where’s the fish? Didn’t catch any?”

Not very good at lying, Chen Jun focused on washing his hands, leaving the stage to his younger brother.

Chen Yi wiped his face and neck with the towel he had washed. As the coolness touched his skin, he let out a sigh of relief before responding slowly, “Not yet. You know there’s a little river behind the village, right? We’ve been draining the water all morning. This afternoon, when the water’s out, we’ll just collect the fish.”

Thinking her son was telling the truth, Cao Qiuhua didn’t press the matter further. She just muttered, “Boys will be boys, tough-skinned and thick-fleshed. They don’t even mind the sun beating down on them…”

As she turned to head back to the kitchen to serve the rice, Cao Qiuhua was still a bit suspicious. “Is there even any fish in that little river? It’s all floating weeds. If there were fish, they’d be suffocating in there. Don’t waste the whole day and end up catching nothing…”

Once their mother left, Chen Jun, who had been holding his breath, gave his brother, who was talking nonsense so seriously, a thumbs-up. “As expected of Fifth Brother Yi.”

Chen Yi glanced at his Fourth Brother Jun but didn’t say anything. He was mentally calculating the time. It was almost time to call Brother Shao Zheng at the Village Committee and check on the progress.

“…Fifth Brother Yi, you’re telling lies. What if Mom goes for a stroll around the village? Won’t everything be exposed?”

Chen Yi came back to his senses, rinsed the towel in another basin of water, and hung it on the bamboo pole to dry. “After we eat, you can go find Er Zhu to drain the water and catch the fish.”

He then kicked at his Fourth Brother Jun, who was about to haphazardly hang the towel on the bamboo pole without properly cleaning it. “It’s not clean.”

Chen Jun, who had been mentally prepared for the entire afternoon under his brother’s careful guidance, was about to protest when he saw Fifth Brother Yi turn and look toward their mother, who was coming out of the kitchen.

Successfully intimidated, Chen Jun shrank back and became obedient.

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THIS CHAPTER IS FOR THE MONDAY-UPDATE! Thank you for reading!

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