Chapter 37.2

In Hongshan Village, Lin Fang was carrying a basin of clothes that her husband and son had changed out of. She headed down to the riverbank, chatting and washing clothes with a few familiar women from the village, enthusiastically discussing the latest gossip.

“Hey, have you heard? Widow Liu is pregnant!”

Wow, this revelation caused quite a stir. The women washing clothes immediately paused their work, their eyes wide as they turned to look.

“Is that true? Who is the father?”

“It has to be some man from our village. Tsk, tsk, I wonder if that man’s wife knows about it.”

“Probably not.”

Lin Fang laughed mockingly. “If she can’t even control her own man, what kind of useless wife is she?”

“Could it be Dali’s mother?”

“Could be. Xiaoyun’s mother is also a possibility. Those two can’t keep their men in line.”

“They wouldn’t dare to say anything. You know what their men are like…”

After finishing their laundry and gossiping, Lin Fang, satisfied, carried her basin home. Upon arriving at the courtyard, she ran into Liu Cuicui. “Hey, did you know that Widow Liu is pregnant?”

Liu Cui Cui turned to look at her. “You already know?”

“Of course!”

“You, you’re not angry?” Liu Cuicui observed Lin Fang’s expression in shock. “You’re not angry at all? I was afraid that you would be mad to death, so I didn’t dare to tell you.”

Lin Fang frowned. “What’s there to be angry about?” It’s not like it’s my husband’s child. Why should I be upset?”

“Second brother is having an affair with Widow Liu, so that kid is probably his,” Liu Cuicui said as she saw that Lin Fang really wasn’t upset. “I thought you would be angry, so I didn’t dare say anything. It’s good that you’re okay. Men are just like that…”

“What did you say!?” Lin Fang’s mind went blank, her ears ringing. “Zhou Jianghai’s child???” Her voice became shrill, her eyes bloodshot.

Liu Cui Cui jumped in fright. “Y-you said you already knew!”

“Zhou Jianghai, you bastard! I’m going to kill you!” Lin Fang couldn’t hear Liu Cuicui anymore. She turned around and dashed into the kitchen, grabbing a kitchen knife and running outside.

Liu Cuicui cried out, and slapped her lips twice: “My mouth!”

Fearing something bad might happen, she hurriedly chased after her.

Lin Fang, wielding the knife with a fierce expression, ran wildly down the path. This scene quickly attracted the attention of the villagers, who rushed to follow her.

At this moment, Zhou Jianghai was working in the fields with his son Zhou Guangzong. Both were the kind of people who only focused on their work and stayed quiet.

As Zhou Guangzong stood up to take a break, he saw his mother angrily approaching from a distance. A bad feeling rose in his heart. “Dad, did you upset Mom recently?”

Zhou Jiang Hai frowned and replied in a low voice, “What did I do to provoke her?”

Zhou Guangzong was worried. “But Mom looks really angry… and she’s holding a knife?!”

At this, Zhou Jianghai’s heart skipped a beat. He quickly looked up and met Lin Fang’s twisted and furious face, his gaze landing on the cold, gleaming kitchen knife in her hand. His eyes widened in shock, and he immediately dropped the hoe and turned to run.

“Dad?” Zhou Guangzong was confused.

Lin Fang screamed, “Zhou Jianghai! You bastard! If you have the guts to do such immoral things, then have the guts to not run away! I’ll settle this with you today!!”

“Mom, Mom! What’s going on?” As Lin Fang rushed by, Zhou Guangzong tried to step in and stop her, but Lin Fang shoved him aside with force.

Lin Fang’s eyes were bloodshot, and she pointed at Zhou Jianghai in the distance. “You go ask your dad! Ask him what good things he has done!”

“Dad?” Zhou Guangzong turned to look at Zhou Jianghai.

Zhou Jianghai stood silently on the ridge, his lips pressed tight.

Lin Fang’s voice became more hoarse as she shouted, “Why aren’t you saying anything? Huh? Why don’t you tell your son what you’ve done? Zhou Jianghai, you’re over forty years old! How can you do something so shameless?”

“Dad! What did you do?” Zhou Guangzong felt a mix of disbelief and confusion.

No matter how much Lin Fang screamed or how many times Zhou Guangzong asked, Zhou Jianghai remained silent, as if his mouth were glued shut.

Unable to hold it in any longer, Lin Fang raised the kitchen knife and hurled it at Zhou Jianghai, not caring whether it would hit him or not. She shouted, “Zhou Jianghai, if you have the guts, don’t come home! If you have the guts, go stay at Widow Liu’s until you die!”

As soon as Widow Liu’s name was mentioned, the onlookers, who were clueless about what was happening, immediately reacted. Their gazes turned to Zhou Jianghai, filled with suspicion.

“I heard Widow Liu is pregnant. That kid is Zhou Jianghai’s?”

“Who would have thought? Zhou Jianghai seems so honest, yet he’s been fooling around with Widow Liu and got her pregnant!”

“No wonder Lin Fang is so furious. Who wouldn’t be angry in her position?”

With several children already born and decades of marriage, how could a man have an affair and get another woman pregnant? It was impossible for anyone to tolerate! Zhou Jianghai was really something else—his eldest son was already in his twenties, yet he could do something so reckless.

“Dad?” Although Zhou Guangzong didn’t know about Widow Liu’s pregnancy, he was aware of her bad reputation in the village. He couldn’t believe his ears as he stared at Zhou Jianghai. “Is it true, Dad?”

Facing the judgmental stares and derisive glances from the crowd, Zhou Jianghai’s face twitched, his initial guilt replaced by anger. He pointed at Lin Fang and yelled, “You want to blow this up, don’t you? I can’t live with you another day! We must get a divorce!”

Lin Fang’s eyes widened in disbelief. “Zhou Jianghai, you really are inhuman!!!”

Such matters should be discussed privately within the family. What kind of wife would shout about it for the whole world to know? If only he had listened to his mother and not married Lin Fang, the troublemaker, who always created chaos!

Zhou Jiang Hai blamed everything on Lin Fang.

The two of them glared at each other, both with bloodshot eyes, looking more like enemies than a married couple.

In the afternoon, the students in class began to feel drowsy.

The Chinese teacher was reading from the textbook, his dialect making his speech slow and monotonous, causing several students to nod off.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. A dark-skinned man in his early twenties appeared at the entrance of the classroom, capturing everyone’s attention.

He looked nervous and glanced at the teacher, saying, “Hello, teacher. I’m Zhou Yaozu’s older brother. Something happened at home, and I need him to come back.”

The teacher nodded, “Alright.”

Zhou Yaozu furrowed his brow and stood up to leave.

Wen Yue, Li Nianqiu, and Wen Xiaoyu were in the same class as Zhou Yaozu. Wen Yue didn’t interact much with him, treating him more like a stranger.

After class, Wen Yue found Li Nianqiu and eagerly asked, “I noticed Zhou Guangzong looked upset. Do you think Zhou Jianghai and Widow Liu’s affair has been exposed?”

Li Nianqiu raised an eyebrow. “It’s quite possible.”

“If they’ve called Zhou Yaozu back, it must be serious,” Wen Yue said.

Lin Fang usually treasured her son, who was in his senior year. No matter what happened, it wouldn’t affect Zhou Yaozu. But now, calling him back showed just how serious the situation was.

Li Nianqiu replied, “Such matters can never be kept secret.”

The village was small. How long could they hide it?

Wen Yue nodded in agreement. “That’s true.”

Not just them, but the other students in the classroom were also curious. Unfortunately, without any gossip channels, they had to suppress their curiosity.

The next day, when Wen Yue arrived at school, she noticed that her classmates seemed to be glancing at her now and then, their expressions a bit strange. She stuffed her backpack into her drawer and asked Li Nianqiu with confusion, “Is something going on? Why do I feel like they’re looking at me strangely?”

“Hm?” Li Nianqiu scanned the classroom and frowned slightly. “It looks the same as usual; nothing has happened.”

Wen Yue took out her textbooks and slowly replied, “Maybe I’m overthinking it.” She dismissed the thought and opened her book to read.

Time flew by, and before she knew it, it was noon.

Lunch was prepared by Grandma Fang, so Wen Yue returned home to eat. As she stepped out of the school gate today, she caught sight of a tall, familiar figure.

He was wearing a dark blue long-sleeve shirt with a white tank top underneath. His hair was cut short, revealing his sharp and deep-set features and dark eyebrows.

His deep black eyes looked straight at her, and a hint of a mischievous smile played on his lips.

“Zhou Yao?” Wen Yue’s eyes widened, sparkling with excitement as she quickened her pace and ran over. “When did you come back?”

Zhou Yao’s slender eyes curved slightly as he replied in a low voice, “Just arrived.”

“Why didn’t you call me before coming back?” Wen Yue pouted, slightly annoyed, but quickly smiled, her eyes sparkling. “How was Shencheng?”

“You’ll have to ask Old Fang and Yeliang. I was busy with serious business,” Zhou Yao replied, glancing at her as they walked home together. “What about you? What have you been up to these days?”

Wen Yue looked down at her toes. “Just studying at school.”

“By the way, there’s something I need to tell you.” She lifted her face to look at Zhou Yao. “It seems your second uncle is with Widow Liu, and she’s pregnant. Your second aunt knows about it now…”

Zhou Yao hadn’t returned to school yet and was unaware of how chaotic things had become.

Hearing this, Zhou Yao simply raised an eyebrow. “That’s none of our business. We don’t need to get involved. With Lin Fang’s personality, it was only a matter of time before they clashed.”

Wen Yue frowned. “Even if they’re having conflicts, you can’t blame everything on your second aunt. Your second uncle has issues too.”

Zhou Yao nodded in agreement. “True, they’re both at fault. Neither is innocent.”

Wen Yue relaxed her furrowed brow.

As they returned to the alley, they hadn’t even entered the courtyard when they heard Ren Yeliang’s loud voice boasting about his experiences in Shencheng.

Pushing open the slightly ajar gate, Wen Yue saw Ren Yeliang sitting in front of the stove, chatting with Grandma Fang while tending to the fire. Upon seeing her and Zhou Yao, his eyes brightened as he exclaimed, “Sister-in-law! You’re back!”

Fang Shitao, who was washing vegetables nearby, greeted her as well, “Sister-in-law.”

“Did you have fun in Shencheng?” Wen Yue asked, her eyes beaming as she returned their greetings.

Ren Yeliang said, “It was alright! Sister-in-law, let me tell you, there are so many people in Shencheng! It’s so lively! The night market is packed! We even saw that hairpin necklace you used to make—selling like hotcakes…”

Ren Yeliang couldn’t stop talking about Shencheng, eager to share everything he had seen and heard over the past few days.

“If it weren’t for Brother Yao urging me to come back, I would’ve stayed longer in Shencheng,” he said, sighing regretfully.

Zhou Yao and Fang Shitao were eager to return home—one thinking about his wife and the other about Grandma and his younger sister. Though Zhou Yao missed home too, he secretly wished he could have stayed in Shencheng a bit longer to explore.

Zhou Yao glanced at him. “I already said you could stay in Shencheng by yourself.”

Ren Yeliang turned back, stuffing firewood into the stove. “How could I? You’re willing to leave me all alone in Shencheng?”

Zhou Yao replied, “I’d be more than happy to let you go far away.”

“Brother, I don’t like that! Take it back!” Ren Yeliang covered his ears, making a face like a petulant child.

Wen Yue smiled, feeling the quiet courtyard suddenly become lively. Her mood improved significantly.