Chapter 5 : Seduction

But Liang Qingqing wasn’t afraid. She cleared her throat and pulled out the prepared excuse, adopting the original owner’s tone and expression to coldly scoff, “Wait for him to return to the city? I’d be waiting until the monkeys take over. I’m someone destined to live a good life, and I can’t waste my prime years on him. So I plan to switch goals; I just haven’t found a new one yet.”

“But Qingqing, you’ve already invested so much time and energy into Su Zhiqing. Are you really not going to wait?”

“I’m cutting my losses before it’s too late. Haven’t you noticed that I haven’t delivered anything to the educated youth camp for more than half a month?”

Not only had she not sent anything to the youth point recently, but she hadn’t even been seen in the village for a long time. Could it be that Qingqing really had given up on Su Zhiqing? But…

“Su Zhiqing is tall, handsome, and capable. The village party secretary has praised him many times. If it weren’t for Wang Zhiqing intercepting him, he would have been a worker-peasant-soldier student by now. Qingqing, don’t you want to reconsider?” Qiu Xiaoyan enumerated Su Zhiqing merits on her fingers, becoming increasingly convinced that Liang Qingqing shouldn’t give him up so hastily.

“Am I not pretty? Am I not capable?”

Qiu Xiaoyan quickly shook her head. “You’re pretty!”

But whether she was capable was a different matter.

“So what is there to reconsider? It’s a waste of time. Su Zhiqing is excellent, but he’s surrounded by too many girls. I’m too lazy to compete with them. In the future, the person I find will definitely be someone who loves only me and not just a ‘central air conditioner.’”

“What’s a ‘central air conditioner’?” Qiu Xiaoyan blinked, not understanding the term, but she got the point about Liang Qingqing not just liking someone who’s wealthy, but also someone who’s dedicated.

“Well, if there was a chance for us, we’d have been together by now. That’s it, don’t mention him again, or you’ll just irritate me.”

With these words, seeing Liang Qingqing was resolute about letting Su Zhiqing go, Qiu Xiaoyan didn’t dare to say more to avoid upsetting her. She quickly nodded in understanding and agreed, “Qingqing, you’re so beautiful. Why would you have trouble finding someone else? Su Zhiqing is blind and ungrateful. We don’t need him!”

Liang Qingqing nodded and glanced at Qiu Xiaoyan several times. Seeing that she no longer suspected her, she breathed a sigh of relief.

These words had proven effective time and again. During this period, her family, especially Ma Xiuzhi, had been brainwashed by this rhetoric, believing that her change in temperament and seclusion was due to Su Zhiqing “attracting peach blossoms” causing her distress.

She was even afraid she might have a breakdown, so every night, someone would come over to ask if she needed company to sleep.

Although this added some unnecessary over-care, at least it managed to pacify things. From now on, she and Su Zhiqing would be like two grasshoppers on the same rope, no longer being pulled together by the people around them.

In other words, from now on, she could be the real Liang Qingqing again, no longer needing to mimic the original owner’s behaviors and mannerisms!

Thinking of this, Liang Qingqing sighed with relief and then focused her attention on the “great battle” happening nearby.

She saw that the area around the soybean field was packed with people, forming layers upon layers of spectators. Those standing at the back, like Liang Qingqing, were all on tiptoe, stretching their necks to catch the action, afraid of missing any exciting moments.

In the center, the two women were pulling each other’s hair, neither willing to let go first. Nearby stood the village party secretary and the Team leader, who had just arrived. They were trying to mediate but, due to gender differences, couldn’t directly intervene and pull the women apart. They were anxiously pacing around, trying to find a solution.

Meanwhile, Wu Xiuli’s husband was crouched in a corner like a quail, not daring to say a word. Upon closer inspection, his legs were trembling, revealing how afraid he was of his wife. Yet, this same person dared to “flirt” with the female intellectuals outside. It’s ironic how those who appear “honest” are often the boldest.

“Hey, Yang’s wife, let go first. What’s this supposed to be? Why are you still fighting?”

“Pfft, why should I let go first? This shameless vixen seduced my man, and now I’m not allowed to fight back?” Wu Xiuli spat at the village party secretary’s feet, her saliva flying everywhere.

“An upright official is hard to settle household affairs,” the village party secretary furrowed his brow in worry, but he knew he had to stop the fight first. Other matters could be addressed later. If this continued, it might get reported to the commune, affecting not just the village’s reputation but also risking his own accountability.

“Get a few people to separate them!”

With the order given, others could no longer ignore the situation. Moreover, no one wanted to miss the opportunity to show off in front of the officials. Several aunts immediately rushed from the crowd and separated the two women who were fighting fiercely.

“Who seduced your man? You can say whatever you want, but you need evidence!” Xu Qiao, who had fallen to the ground, had her originally fair and slender face swollen high. There were several scratches on her face, and her braids were undone, hanging messily on her shoulders.

Despite the pain and grievance, her large, bright eyes stubbornly refused to shed tears, making her look both pitiful and touching.

Seeing Xu Qiao’s pretentious, seductive appearance, Wu Xiuli’s anger was reignited. Her powerful frame struggled fiercely, nearly breaking free from the hold of two or three aunts who tried to stop her, and she charged forward to hit Xu Qiao again.

“You say you didn’t seduce my man? Then he must be out of his mind! Not doing his own work and coming to help you for free?”

After the commotion, Wu Xiuli wasn’t in much better shape than Xu Qiao. Her hair was disheveled, and her shirt had lost a couple of buttons.

When Wu Xiuli spoke, Yang Zhengwu, who had been crouching in the corner, turned pale. He was stuck between agreeing and refuting, his face turning a dark shade.

“This is really hard to say!Otherwise, why would he come to work on my land?”

Xu Qiao’s sarcastic comment made everyone laugh, and Wu Xiuli was clearly outmaneuvered.

Seeing Wu Xiuli’s embarrassment, Xu Qiao  let out a sigh of relief but didn’t want to waste more time with her. She turned to the village party secretary and the Team leader, her voice trembling with emotion, and said, “I’m so wronged! Village Secretary, Team Leader, I don’t have any relatives here. When I’m bullied, I can only swallow my grievances.”

“But I believe you, Village Secretary and Team Leader,are both fair and selfless good people.  As the saying goes, ‘Officials and common people are one family,’ and you are like my family. You must stand up for me!”

With such high praise, what was going on here?

Hearing the village party secretary’s assurance, Xu Qiao wiped her face and began to explain the situation: “Just a little while after we started working this noon, he came to my field and started working. I thought he was a new member assigned by the Team Leader, so I didn’t pay much attention and just continued with my own work.”

“Who would have thought, while I was working just fine, his wife suddenly came over…”

“This is just an undeserved disaster. I haven’t even exchanged two words with him, and I don’t even know his name. I’m a pure and innocent girl; why would I go out of my way to seduce him!”

“Moreover, we female intellectuals come to the countryside to help build a new rural area. How could I let him work for me? That would be deceiving myself, the collective, and the organization!”

Hearing this, Liang Qingqing almost wanted to applaud Xu Qiao. See? She truly deserves to be the heroine. In just a few sentences, she laid out the entire situation, providing reasonable explanations and successfully shifting the blame.

First, she played the victim to garner sympathy and attention from others. Compared to Wu Xiuli’s disruptive behavior, no matter what the truth was, the balance of sympathy had already tilted in Xu Qiao’s favor.

Finally, by elevating the matter to a broader context, anyone with some sense of decency would likely refrain from pursuing it further. After all, people from that era didn’t want to be associated with such a sensitive accusation; it was better to avoid unnecessary trouble.

But Wu Xiuli was known as the fierce woman of the village. If she could let this go just like that, she would have to rewrite her own name.

“You shameless trash, after seducing my man, you’re also trying to seduce the village secretary and Team leader?”

Upon hearing this, the village party secretary and the Team leader both stiffened and quickly stepped back several paces to distance themselves from Xu Qiao. Wu Xiuli’s reputation for turning a situation black even if it was white was well-known, and they didn’t want to get caught up in the mess.

“Only a sly fox like you would say that? Come, come, everyone, let’s judge this for ourselves. We all know how honest and caring Old Yang is, right?”

Who knows what goes on behind closed doors in every household?

“If you can’t even finish your own work, how could you possibly go out of your way to do work for others? If I don’t get an explanation today, tomorrow the female intellectuals can flirt and say nice things, and all the big men in the village should do their work for them instead, leaving the old and young at home to starve.”

When the issue was still theoretical, no one cared much. But now that Wu Xiuli had dragged everyone into it, some of the women present started to see her point and began pulling their men’s ears, warning them to stay away from the female intellectuals.

However, some remained clear-headed and scoffed, “Why would a refined, cultured person like her look down on my husband? If that were the case, then that day would be as dark as night.”

A few more rounds of arguing followed, but clearly, Xu Qiao, who only spoke in general terms, couldn’t compete with Wu Xiuli, who was hurling insults. She quickly fell into the disadvantage, especially after Wu Xiuli dragged Yang Zhengwu up to confront Xu Qiao. The cowardly Yang Zhengwu actually dared to lie, insisting that Xu Qiao had seduced him into doing the work.

Now, the tide had turned. Xu Qiao became the target of criticism, surrounded by Wu Xiuli and some of her friends, and people felt she was at fault. Since no one wanted to get involved in the fight, they just watched the spectacle as long as it didn’t get too violent.

“What’s going on here?” A stern voice suddenly cut through the chaotic scene.