Chapter 022.

Zhen Zhen was humming a song in her heart as she cooked, like a little bird that had just begun to spread its wings.

Recently, Shihua Ming was always attracted by the smile on Zhen Zhen’s face without realizing it, and he could feel her simple and light happiness, and his heart would follow suit with a feeling of simplicity and calmness, and a sense of quietness and beauty.

Infected by this simple and light happiness for a moment.

He asked Zhen Zhen, “What did Li Shuang take you to do this afternoon?”

Hearing Shi Huai Ming ask this question, Zhen Zhen turned around, looked at him and said with a smile, “Sister-in-law Li Shuang brought a record player from her home, played me songs all afternoon, gave me coffee, and told me a lot of beautiful words.”

Mr. Huai Ming looked at her from the side and asked, “What songs did you listen to?”

Zhen Zhen was busy cooking, and her voice was full of laughter, “I listened to many songs, but my favorite was ‘Listening to Mother Tell Stories of the Past’, where we sat next to a high pile of grain and listened to Mother tell stories of the past.”

Jen read the lyrics.

But her tone of voice was warm, and from her tone of voice, Servant Huai-ming immediately recalled the scene.

Such a scene was also in his memory, listening to his mother’s storytelling next to the grain pile during the fall harvest.

He was lost in thought as he looked at half of Zhen Zhen’s face.

Seeing that he didn’t speak again, Zhen Zhen turned her head to look at him, and just happened to meet his gaze.

When her eyes met, Shui Huai Ming’s gaze didn’t move, and Zhen Zhen’s heartbeat pounded twice.

I don’t know why Shi Huai Ming suddenly looked at her like this.

Zhen Zhen hesitated for a moment and asked, “Third brother, what’s wrong?”

Servant Huai Ming returned to his senses, and quickly averted his gaze and replied to Zhen Zhen, “I miss my mother.”

By him, Zhen Zhen also missed Zhong Minfen, and then thought of her own mother.

She could not see her own mother in this life, but Zhong Minfen could still see her, so Zhen Zhen said to Shui Huaoming, “When you get your family leave, let’s go back to see my mother together. Or when she gets better, we can ask her to come to the city.”

Shui Huaiming nodded, “Good.”

He had originally asked Zhong Minfen to come to the city with him, but he hadn’t expected her to come with Zhen Zhen.

When it was convenient, he would naturally ask her to come over.

The old home was one of the biggest common topics between Zhen Zhen and Shi Huai Ming.

The two of them chatted a bit more when they brought up the people and events of their hometown.

Zhen Zhen told Shui Huai Ming about what had happened in the village during the five years he had been away.

The stories were all trivial, either about family matters or related to the land.

In the days since Zhen Zhen came to the city, Shui Huaiming and his family have corresponded regularly.

Nothing much happened in the family, and the days remained the same as before. The village remained the same, day after day, year after year, with little change, the same sun and the same land. As a farmer, the biggest thing in life is spring planting and fall harvesting.

***

It was a full and satisfying day for Jen.

After dinner back to the room to relax in a circle, she sat down to the writing table to the morning to buy all the things out to see, in front of the mirror to try the hairpin, small leather shoes to wear to the feet back and forth a few times, the heart is even more happy and satisfied.

After wearing small leather shoes put away, Zhen Zhen suddenly remembered something.

Before going out in the morning, she told Wu Dafeng that she would come back to look for her to play, but as a result, she didn’t go to look for Wu Dafeng this day.

Thinking of this, Zhen Zhen went to say hello to Shui Huai Ming and went to Wu Dafeng’s house again.

The Wu Dafeng family had already finished dinner, Old Zhou took the four dolls to the playground to move their muscles, so Zhen Zhen accompanied Wu Dafeng to do some sewing and sat down with her to talk a little bit.

Wu Dafeng was curious and asked Zhen Zhen, “What were you doing at Li Shuang’s place in the afternoon? I saw you and her sitting in the house drinking something, and I heard someone singing inside the house, who was singing?”

She wanted to find Zhen Zhen to talk to her in the afternoon, but when she saw that Zhen Zhen was at Li Shuang’s house, she didn’t look for her.

Seeing Wu Dafeng asked so, Zhen Zhen naturally told her what happened in the afternoon.

Wu Dafeng heard also feel fresh and rare, looked at Zhen Zhen said: “The world actually have this kind of thing? It can sing when you turn it around?”

Zhen Zhen nodded, “Yes, it’s very interesting, why don’t you take the time to let sister-in-law Li Shuang play it for you?”

Thinking of Li Shuang’s face, Wu Dafeng immediately refused, “I don’t want to listen to it, what’s the point of listening to that thing if it doesn’t fill you up? What’s the point? Listening to this today and playing that tomorrow, what’s the point of living?”

Seeing Wu Dafeng said so, Zhen Zhen didn’t talk about it anymore.

She previously thought that she and Li Shuang are two worlds, but now she realized that Wu Dafeng and Li Shuang are really two worlds, they do not understand and do not accept each other’s way of life, and they both think that the other is not living right.

Zhen Zhen doesn’t think anyone is wrong.

Everyone has their own way of life, as long as they feel good.

She feels bad about herself and that’s why she wants to change, to learn more and try to be better.

Wu Dafeng keeps saying that she is going to be brought down by Li Shuang.

But she herself felt that her life had not only not gotten worse, but also had a lot of fresh experiences.

Compared to her previous self, she felt that she was slowly becoming richer and had a feeling that she was slowly becoming thicker.

Of course she did not say these words to Wu Dafeng.

The fact that she didn’t quite understand was one thing, and the fact that Wu Dafeng wouldn’t agree was another.

In Wu Dafeng’s eyes, these changes are all bad changes, a woman’s bad performance.

Without mentioning Li Shuang, Zhen Zhen accompanied Wu Dafeng to talk about some shortcomings of the family.

The first time I saw her was when she came back with four dolls, so Zhen Zhen said hello to Wu Dafeng and went home.

At home, after freshening up and lying down to sleep.

Satisfied and fulfilling day, ended in sleep.

***

The next day, get up and start a new week.

Zhen Zhen didn’t need to be reminded by Servant Huai Ming, she took the initiative to say first, “I’ll concentrate on studying hard.”

Servant Huai Ming nodded at her and encouraged her, “Cheer up.”

After being strictly supervised by Servant Huai Ming for such a long time, Zhen Zhen’s self-control and concentration in her studies was now much better, and she was serious and focused in her studies, not thinking about other things.

Because of this seriousness and concentration, she could now read a lot of words.

After roughly estimating Zhen Zhen’s literacy, Servant Huai Ming thought that it was time to let her try using it.

So he thought for a while and then told Zhen Zhen, “Teaching you to read is for use in life, reading is one aspect, writing is also another. Starting today, she tries to write something every day.”

Write something?

Jen looked at him and asked, “Write what?”

She was definitely not good at writing articles, and she was not even very good at accessible reading.

Of course, Mr. Huai Ming knew that she couldn’t write anything, she didn’t have enough literacy, she had only learned a little bit of word formation, and she couldn’t even read smoothly. He said, “Let’s try bookkeeping first. If you don’t know any words, use pinyin first, and I’ll teach you.”

Bookkeeping was indeed possible.

Zhen Zhen was busy nodding her head at Servant Huai Ming, “Good.”

After agreeing to this, before Servant Huai Ming went to class, he brought Zhen Zhen a new book.

He brought the new notebook to Zhen Zhen and told her, “Write it down in this one.”

Zhen Zhen liked the new cover of the book.

She took it with her hand and smiled as she promised Squire Huai Ming, “Okay.”

After Squire Huai Ming left for class, Zhen Zhen sat down at the writing table, picked up Squire Huai Ming’s pen, and wrote her name, Lin Zhen Zhen, on the cover of the new book.

When she had finished writing she was satisfied with herself and put the fountain pen away with its cover.

Looking at the name on the book, she thought in her heart – having written her name, it is her thing.

Putting the book with her name written in it away, Jen focused her attention and began to study.

She first read all the textbook articles she had learned, then wrote the Chinese characters she had learned, and then did those math problems she had learned to consolidate the points she had learned.

When she was almost done with her revision, Zhen Zhen went to the sub store to buy something.

She brought a pen and notebook with her in her bag, and took them out and held them in her hand when she went to the store, writing down everything she bought in her notebook.

Seeing her like this, Shizuku watched her for a while and said with a smile, “So meticulous?”

Jen told her seriously, “I’m practicing my writing.”

Shizuku looked at her book again, still smiling, and said, “Nice writing.”

Jen was happy to hear that and smiled back, “Maybe someday I’ll be able to write too.”

That’s a big ambition, Shizuku patted her shoulder and encouraged her, “I’m sure you can, go for it.”

Jen came back after shopping and keeping track of the bill.

When she got home and put her things down, she sat down and looked at the accounts she had kept.

There were some words she couldn’t write, such as the complicated lotus root, so she substituted pinyin on them.

This was the first time she had applied the words she had learned to her life, and Zhen Zhen’s heart was filled with another sense of accomplishment.

From not knowing a single word when she first came here, to now being able to buy things and keep track of them, for her, this was a magical and fulfilling thing, a great, great thing.

After looking at it for a while, Jen put her book away carefully.

She went to the kitchen to cook, and her mind was still on the accounts she had kept.

After lunch, she followed Shi Huai Ming to learn something new, and Zhen Zhen showed Shi Huai Ming the accounts she had written down.

After reading it, Mr. Huai Ming said, “Well, it’s very good.”

After saying that, he picked up his pen and helped Zhen Zhen fill in the words she couldn’t write.

Zhen Zhen watched as Servant Huai Ming filled in her books.

Looking at her own words interspersed with his, her heart throbbed slightly out of focus, and suddenly she had a vague feeling – it felt as if she was getting closer to him.

She lifted her gaze to look at Servant Huai Ming, her eyes concealing a smile that was about to bloom.

Servant Huai Ming met her gaze when he returned the book to her, quickly moved away and said, “Still have to work hard.”

Zhen Zhen collected her thoughts and nodded her head in response, “Uh-huh.”

She knew there was still a long way to go between her and him, and she would continue to work hard.

In addition to working hard on her studies, Zhen Zhen tried to get closer to Shi Huai Ming in her mind, and she would also follow Li Shuang when she was free to try to change her speech, behavior, mannerisms, and temperament, and follow her to gain insight.

As for how much closer she was to Mr. Huai Ming, Zhen Zhen didn’t know.

She was also not sure if he had any different feelings for her after all these days together.

Servant Huai Ming hadn’t said anything, so she naturally didn’t take the initiative to ask.

Normally, the biggest and most frequent interaction between her and Shi Huai Ming was still the daily lessons.

Servant Huai Ming constantly taught her new content, checked her learning, and then gave her criticism or praise and compliments based on her mastery of what she had learned.

There were many different words of criticism and many different rewards.

When Zhen Zhen mastered the subject well, Shihua Ming would draw Zhen Zhen a little red flower, praise her verbally, and sometimes reward her with milk sugar cookies and chocolates, so that she would continue to keep up the good work.

When she was not doing well, he would criticize her and sometimes make her cry.

When it came to her studies, he was always as strict and stern with Zhen Zhen as he said in the beginning.

In the alternation of criticism and encouragement, Zhen Zhen went from not knowing a single word when she first came here to knowing a lot of words, from going out in the dark at first to recognizing simple signs and learning to keep accounts.

Although sometimes it can feel torturous and you can feel out of breath.

But overall, everything is getting better and better.

***

Time slides smoothly past ten days of hard work.

After finishing her studies today, Jen took a ride out on her own.

She found the tailor store by herself and went to pick up the two new sets of clothes she had made earlier.

The fabrics and styles had been chosen for her by Li Shuang and Wen, and the finished dresses were both very nice.

When she arrived home with the new clothes, she couldn’t help but be tempted and tried on both sets of clothes.

The new clothes all fit and flattered her, still not over-the-top, but nice to look at.

After trying them on, Zhen Zhen stood in front of the mirror and hesitated for a while, and finally put on a long plaid dress that she didn’t take off.

In order to match this dress, she also put on the small leather shoes she bought earlier.

Put on the shoes and put on a hairpin, and then put on a little snow cream.

Zhen Zhen slightly carrying the skirt to stand in front of the mirror, slightly breathless looking at themselves, just feel a little do not recognize themselves.

This will be her, is really like a painting out of the people, a look is fragrant and beautiful.

Zhen Zhen stood in the mirror looking at herself, out of a moment of God.

When she came back to her senses, she suddenly thought that it was time to cook, but when she went to take a look at the time, it was already too late, so she didn’t do it again, but took her lunch box and went to the cafeteria to get some food.

Because of her new outfit, Jen was a little nervous when she left the house.

But she was actually dressed normally, normal skirt, normal little flat-heeled leather shoes, so no one looked at her with strange eyes. It’s just that she hadn’t worn them like that herself, so she was always a little uncomfortable walking around.

But after going out for a round and coming back from the cafeteria, Zhen Zhen was already less nervous.

When she came back, she saw Wu Dafeng, who was very surprised to see her and said, “Zhen Zhen, why are you dressed like this?”

When she saw her, she let out an ouch and said, “Zhen Zhen, why are you dressed like this?” Being said by Wu Da Feng, Zhen Zhen was embarrassed again.

She stopped and looked at Wu Dafeng and asked, “Doesn’t it look good?”

Wu Dafeng frowned and said: “Not good, not good, what is wearing this ah, out of the ordinary, not at all immodest, ugly dead, hurry home to change.”

Zhen Zhen was embarrassed by what she said.

Before she could make a sound, she suddenly heard another sentence, “It looks good! Very nice!”

Zhen Zhen turned around and saw Li Shuang holding He Ziran back.

After Li Shuang finished saying that Zhen Zhen looked good, she took He Ziran and asked, “Ziran, do you think auntie looks good like this?”

He Ziran immediately replied loudly, “Auntie looks good in a skirt!”

Wu Dafeng let out a sigh of dismay and turned to Li Shuang, “It’s not enough for you to be colorful yourself, you have to bring Zhen Zhen along with you. If you let her dress like this, can she still work?”

Li Shuang smiled and ignored Wu Dafeng’s comment.

If she were to go on theorizing with Wu Dafeng, she would definitely have to pinch and quarrel again.

She didn’t dare to offend Wu Dafeng anymore, so she smiled a few perfunctory sentences and went home.

After Li Shuang went into the house, Zhen Zhen did not stand outside more, and Wu Dafeng greeted carrying a lunch box to go home.

When she got home, she put the rice on the stove and warmed it up, and then she went to the house to look in the mirror for a while.

When she looked in the mirror, she was just thinking – in the end, each color is not each color, in the end, out of the ordinary, in the end, good-looking not good-looking.

In the end, she thought it looked good, so she didn’t take it off.

Hearing the sound of the door opening outside, Zhen Zhen came out of her room and greeted Shui Huaiming with, “You’re back.”

Servant Huai Ming hung up his hat and turned his head to see Zhen Zhen, and subconsciously froze for a moment.

Zhen Zhen’s entire body changed into a new one, at this time wearing a long dress, with a belt around her waist, her waist was pinched very thin by the belt, her figure was slender, under the skirt revealing a section of thin white calves, and then there were snow-white socks and black leather shoes.

Frozen for a few seconds to return to his senses, he continued to come to the house, his mouth responding with a, “Uh-huh.”

Zhen Zhen didn’t say much else and went to the kitchen to get the rice, while Squire Huai Ming went in with her.

The food and dishes were set out on the dining table, and the two of them sat down to eat.

Zhen Zhen didn’t know what Servant Huai Ming thought of her current outfit, and was slightly nervous in her heart, so she didn’t speak.

Servant Huai Ming was usually a man of few words, so he didn’t say anything either, and didn’t comment on Zhen Zhen’s dress.

Zhen Zhen was afraid that Servant Huai Ming would not like her to dress like this, so she hesitated for a long time and asked, “Is it okay for me to dress like this?”

Servant Huai Ming raised his head at her words and nodded at her, “Yes.”

Now that the day had warmed up, there were not many girls wearing skirts on the street.

Zhen Zhen breathed a sigh of relief and wanted to ask him again if it looked good.

But the words came to her lips and she swallowed them, because it felt as if it was quite embarrassing to ask.

So she didn’t ask again, lowered her head and ate quietly.

After eating, it was still the same routine.

Zhen Zhen went to Squire Huai Ming’s room and sat down to listen to Squire Huai Ming’s lesson.

Since Squire Huai Ming didn’t have a problem with her dress, she was just as normal.

She flipped her textbook to the page she was going to learn, picked up her pencil and listening book, and focused her attention.

Squire Huai Ming was also still as usual, his face serious as he followed the textbook and gave Zhen Zhen a lesson.

He sat next to Zhen Zhen and looked at the articles in the textbook with Zhen Zhen, and slowly read them to her with a pen, pointing out the words.

When he reads a sentence, Zhen Zhen will follow it carefully.

After reading the text with Zhen Zhen, Shui Huai Ming taught Zhen Zhen how to write Chinese characters.

When she encountered a complicated character, Zhen Zhen’s writing was not smooth, and she wrote it in a crooked way. As usual, he reached over and held Zhen Zhen’s hand, wanting to teach her how to write it again, so that she could learn it more quickly.

But this time when he held Zhen Zhen’s hand and wrote a dot, he suddenly withdrew his hand.

Jen turned her head to look at him in confusion and he said, “It’s better for you to practice on your own.”

Jen didn’t have a problem with that, “Oh.”

Zhen Zhen carefully finished writing all the raw characters.

Without evaluating whether it was good or bad, Servant Huai Ming took out his math book again and gave Zhen Zhen a new lesson to continue.

He taught the new math lesson very quickly and let Zhen Zhen do the problems directly after the lesson.

Zhen Zhen felt as if he was a little more serious than usual.

So she tensed her nerves and didn’t dare to be half serious.

When Zhen Zhen was seriously doing the questions to consolidate her knowledge, Shui Huaiming took his own book out to read.

However, his eyes fell on the book for a while, but he didn’t put the words into complete sentences in his head.

The warmth of Zhen Zhen’s hand was still on his right hand, and it seemed to have some light scent on it.

Zhen Zhen was writing next to him, the pencil rubbing on the surface of the paper making a rustling sound.

He listened to this rustling sound, unconsciously turned his head, his eyes fell on Zhen Zhen’s workbook.

His eyes stayed on the workbook for a while, and then unconsciously traveled upward, landing on the side of Zhen Zhen’s face.

The typhoon light was white and bright, illuminating Zhen Zhen’s face.

Her eyelids were lowered, and her eyelashes were traced by the light, curling at the roots.

Behind her ear she wore a tiny hairpin that dotted the dark strands of her hair and made her ear white and small.

Zhen Zhen finished writing a question and inadvertently turned her head to look at Shi Huai Ming.

Coldly bumping into Shui Huaiming’s gaze, she suddenly froze for a moment, and some doubts subconsciously surfaced on her face.

Her thoughts were still on the points she had just learned and the questions she had done, so she didn’t think about anything.

Servant Huai Ming returned to his senses, busy withdrawing his gaze and putting down the book, he got up and said, “I’ll go out for a while, you write at ease.”

After saying this, without waiting for Zhen Zhen to react, he went out.

Zhen Zhen came back to her senses and wanted to explain that she wasn’t lost in thought, but Servant Huai Ming had already closed the door.

So Zhen Zhen didn’t say anything and recovered her thoughts and continued to bury her head in the problems.

Squire Huaiming went outside and lit a cigarette.

He exhaled a mouthful of smoke in the night and tilted his head up to look at the moon in the sky.

It was as if a stone had fallen in his heart, rippling and appearing especially clear in this quiet night.

He naturally knew that he had recently been a bit unlike before when facing Jen.

Zhen Zhen had also worn new clothes when she first arrived, and had also dressed up carefully, but at that time he did not feel there was anything special, but today, he felt that Zhen Zhen was very different.

He didn’t know when it started, but when he was talking to Zhen Zhen, he would be attracted to her eyes and smile from time to time, and occasionally he would lose his concentration and get restless when he looked at her, which he shouldn’t have.

Like just now in there, without realizing it, he lost his mind again.

He thought as he smoked his cigarette.

In the end, he was still a commoner, and couldn’t really remain unmoved by the color of women.

But his principle will not move – people can not be swayed by desire.

While he was lost in thought, someone suddenly bumped his shoulder from the side.

Servant Huai Ming was knocked back to his senses and turned around, only to see that it was He Shuo coming out.

He Shuo looked at him and asked, “What are you doing at night?”

Servant Huai Ming was calm and replied, “Came out for a smoke.”

He Shuo asked him for a cigarette and borrowed his cigarette to light it up, “I’ll smoke one with you.”

After smoking, He Shuo smiled and added, “Why do I feel like you have something on your mind.”

Serving Huai Ming spat out the cigarette, “What can I have on my mind, I just came out to smoke a cigarette to get some fresh air.”

He Shuo followed the conversation and asked, “Can little Cotton make you breathless? Isn’t it always you who makes her breathless?”

Serving Huai Ming: “……”

He Shuo smiled and didn’t ask more questions down the line.

He quickly finished a cigarette and said, “I’m going back to be with my wife, so you can become a Buddha here.”

Serving Huai Ming: “……”

***

After He Shuo went back, Squire Huai Ming stood outside for a while longer.

Completely adjusted, he turned around and went back inside, going to sit down next to Zhen Zhen as usual to read a book.

Zhen Zhen secretly turned her head to look at him.

Feeling as if he was even more serious and icy than before he went out, Zhen Zhen immediately collected her thoughts and studied seriously.

She felt that if she let him pull out the faults in this situation, he would definitely criticize her severely.

Studying seriously until it was time, Zhen Zhen only loosened her nerves when she heard Servant Huai Ming give the word.

She didn’t stay here at Servant Huai Ming for more than half a minute, quickly packed up her textbooks and pencils and workbooks, and went back to her own house.

After relaxing completely in her own house, Zhen Zhen lay on her bed for a while.

She looked at the roof and thought in her heart – could it be that Shi Huai Ming didn’t like her dressed like this? But with his usual style, he would directly say if he didn’t like it, so it shouldn’t be.

Thinking about it, the biggest possibility that I could think of was that he was more serious than usual in order to prevent her from being distracted by this kind of thing and not taking her studies seriously.

It would have been the same, he didn’t care about what she looked like or what she wore.

Jen rolled over and flopped back down on the bed.

Plopping down for a while she climbed up and stood in front of the mirror to look at herself again.

She herself kinda liked it, and was quite happy looking at it, so she pursed her lips and smiled, carrying the skirt in a circle.