Chapter 031.

The production team’s rice field.

The women wore straw hats that shielded them from the sun as they worked and gossiped.

The sudden return of Zhen Zhen and Shui Huai Ming had caused a big event in the quiet village.

Now they were gossiping together, and they couldn’t stop talking about Zhen Zhen and Shi Huai Ming.

Cuilan smiled and said to Hongmei, “You said you’d wait and see, but now you’ve seen it, haven’t you? Huai Ming is chasing after Zhen Zhen and is not trying to divorce Zhen Zhen at all. Yesterday at noon, he chased after Zhen Zhen to help Zhen Zhen carry the hogweed basket, and this morning, he helped Zhen Zhen pull the cart and accompanied Zhen Zhen to sell bean sprouts for half a day on the street.”

Hongmei this time no longer hardened, sour tone said: “I underestimated her.”

Xiuzhu then lamented, “Zhen Zhen’s life is so good, I envy people.”

Cuilan also followed the sentiment: “From now on, Zhen Zhen will be completely different from rural women like us, she is the family of a prestigious cadre, everyone has to respect and emphasize, and we are no longer the same kind of people.”

Before, there were people chewing on Zhen Zhen’s jokes, but now they can’t say anything.

The status of Shui Huaoming among the men in the village is the same as Zhen Zhen’s status among the women in the village.

Cuilan had just finished lamenting, and before anyone else could pick up the conversation, she suddenly heard someone shouting from the ground.

Listen carefully, it is the Secretary Li asked everyone to gather in the ground, so everyone put down their hands to gather over.

Summoned people over, Secretary Li cleared his throat and said in a loud voice: “With everyone to announce, today’s work will be done here, and then come over to work tomorrow. I’ve made some arrangements, I plan to give Huai Ming a reception tonight, we all eat a big pot meal together, so you now put down your hands, listen to my arrangements, go back to work together tonight’s dinner, okay?”

This is something that the members of the community are aware of.

No one had a problem with it, all answered in unison, “Yes!”

After agreeing on this matter, Secretary Li then arranged tasks for each person.

Who went to the pig pen to catch and kill pigs, who went to the sheep pen to take sheep and slaughter sheep, who went to each family to lift the eight immortal table to make benches, who went to the ground to gather vegetables, who was responsible for washing vegetables and cutting vegetables, he gave detailed arrangements for each thing down.

After the arrangement, Secretary Li waved his hand, “Do it!”

***

Serving Huai Ming’s sudden and intense behavior scared Zhen Zhen.

Zhen Zhen ran out of the courtyard after pushing him away, her mind knotted in chaos.

Without a clear direction under her feet, she instinctively ran towards the less crowded area outside the village.

But before she could reach the head of the village, she suddenly bumped into the women returning from the rice fields.

Zhen Zhen subconsciously wanted to avoid, so she stopped and turned around.

But before she turned around and took two steps, she heard Chen Qingmei’s voice from behind her, “Zhen Zhen.”

This makes it impossible to hide, Zhen Zhen stopped her steps and quickly adjusted for a moment, especially organizing the expression on her face, and then turned back to Chen Qingmei’s group of people, uttering, “Sister-in-law, why are you guys back at this time?”

The sun had only just dipped to the western half of the sky, and it wasn’t even time to get off work yet.

The group of people in front of them were holding all kinds of farming tools in their hands, and all of them looked like they were returning from work.

Chen Qingmei didn’t have time to speak out again, but Cuilan grabbed her voice and said, “Zhen Zhen, Secretary Li said that tonight we will give Huai Ming a reception, so he left work early. He’s already arranged for a few men to kill the pigs and slaughter the sheep, and the eight-imperial tables and benches will be put together from each family, so we’ll eat in the courtyard of the village committee, and we’ll all go over and help out together.”

Before Zhen Zhen had a chance to speak out, Cuilan came over and grabbed her arm, leading her along.

Xiuzhu said next to her, “The only one in our village who can get this kind of treatment, who can let the secretary lead everyone to work together, is your family’s Shuihuaiming, it’s even more grand and lively than other people’s wedding banquets.”

As the people around her talked, Zhen Zhen was dragged along with them, and her other emotions were overshadowed by the hustle and bustle. She was dragged to the village committee compound and had to follow along to work on the evening’s dinner.

The village committee compound was filled with people coming and going, and was extremely lively.

As the protagonist, Shui Huaoming was naturally dragged here as well.

He was surrounded by the men in the village who could talk about anything, and all they talked about was the war.

They talked about the anti-Japanese and civil wars, as well as the border war that had just ended.

Zhen Zhen’s knife skills are good, followed by Cuilan and Xiuzhu together responsible for cutting vegetables.

But after standing there for a while, a woman cadre from the village came over to her and said, “Oh, Zhen Zhen, what are you doing here? Why don’t you take a break and have some fun while you wait for dinner?”

Zhen Zhen, of course, did not put down her knife and go away; she preferred to follow and do something.

She sent the person who came to pull her away, and Cuilan Xiuzhu continued to cut meat and vegetables.

Cuilan smiled as she lowered her head to cut the vegetables and said, “See, Zhen Zhen, you’re not like us anymore.”

Zhen Zhen could of course feel that everyone’s attitude towards her had truly become different, it was really from the heart, of course she also knew why everyone was treating her this way, naturally it was all because of Serving Huai Ming.

In fact, this kind of being valued and respected by people, being held up by people’s feeling is quite good.

Especially Hongmei, who was always souring her and irritating her before, waiting to see her laugh, was now treating her with courtesy and respect as well.

But Zhen Zhen did not let this good feeling grow in her heart.

She followed up on Cuilan’s words and said, “It’s nothing different, I don’t like to be in other people’s good graces.”

Hearing this, Xiuzhu looked at Zhen Zhen with a smile and added, “That’s someone else? That’s your man!”

Zhen Zhen lowered her head and continued chopping vegetables, not answering Xiu Zhu’s words.

Cuilan looked at Zhen Zhen’s reaction and asked speculatively, “Zhen Zhen, did you and Huai Ming have a bad time?”

Zhen Zhen came back in the past few days are avoiding people, did not come out to talk to anyone, they have been very curious about why Zhen Zhen will run back, and now rarely caught Zhen Zhen talk, naturally want to ask more questions.

Zhen Zhen didn’t want to talk to the village people about what happened between her and Shui Huai Ming.

Although she knew that there were many stories about her and Shui Huai Ming that had long been fabricated by these people in the village, she was sure that they had been fabricating stories about her and Shui Huai Ming.

In the past, they must have said that Shi Huai Ming couldn’t stand her, and that she came back from the city in disgrace.

Now, they may have changed their mind and said that it was just a husband and wife quarrel between her and Shui Huai Ming.

Seeing that Zhen Zhen still didn’t say anything, Xiu Zhu really smiled again and said, “There is no overnight enmity between husband and wife, Zhen Zhen, you just came back from the city in the first place, and Huai Ming immediately chased you back in the second place, so it can be seen how important you are in his heart.”

Listening to Xiuzhu’s words, Zhen Zhen couldn’t help but think back to what Shui Huai Ming had told her.

When Servant Huai Ming had just come back and found her, the first thing he said was that he had specially come back to apologize to her, and then he asked her if she could give him a chance to repent, and then he disagreed with the separation, and then ……

Did he really treat her ……

No way, absolutely impossible.

Zhen Zhen shook her head and didn’t let herself think any further.

She gripped the knife in her hand tightly and was about to continue cutting vegetables, when Shui Xingguo suddenly ran over again.

Shi Xingguo held a folded paper in his hand and brought it to her, telling her, “Auntie San, this is what Uncle San asked me to give you.” After saying this, he shoved the paper into Zhen Zhen’s hand and ran away.

This is interesting, Cuilan and Xiuzhu look at Zhen Zhen together.

Zhen Zhen looked woodenly at the paper in her hand for a while, hesitating for a while she unfolded the paper, after unfolding it she saw a few words written on it with a black fountain pen – [I’m sorry for being a jerk].

This is about the incident at home just now?

Zhen Zhen reacted with a reaction, her eyelids jumped, and she hurriedly folded up the paper.

Cuilan and Xiuzhu can’t read, so they came over and didn’t understand anything, so they asked Zhen Zhen curiously, “What’s written?”

Zhen Zhen stuffed the paper into the pocket of her pants, pulling the corner of her mouth and said, “Nothing.”

Cuilan and Xiuzhu looked at her for a while, the two slowly smiled ambiguously, did not ask again.

Between husband and wife is only a little thing, see all see, there is no need to ask too much understanding.

Zhen Zhen lowered her head and continued to cut vegetables.

Suddenly, she heard another sentence in the clamor of people, “Huai Ming, you’re really back!”

Hearing the voice, she and Cuilan Xiuzhu looked over to the courtyard together, only to see that it was Servant Huaixia’s family coming over.

Servant Huaixia had a loud voice and yelled when she saw Servant Huai Ming.

Servant Huai Ming got up to greet her and Sun Deshu, “Second sister, second brother-in-law, you’re here.”

Servant Huaixia was overjoyed and spoke in a louder voice, “We heard you were back and immediately came over.”

Greetings were exchanged in the courtyard, and Zhen Zhen withdrew her gaze to continue cutting vegetables.

She and Cuilan Xiuzhu cut the vegetables, since some people are busy frying vegetables in a big pot, a frying is a big pot.

When it was time to start the meal, everyone found a table suitable for them to sit down to eat.

Zhen Zhen was naturally still with Cuilan Xiuzhu and the others, and sat at a table with the women in the village who were her age.

But as soon as she sat down and hadn’t even picked up her chopsticks, she heard Shui Huai Ming call out to her, “Zhen Zhen.”

She pretended not to hear, but Cuilan, who was sitting next to her, poked her and said, “Huai Ming is calling you.”

Zhen Zhen had to pretend to come back to her senses again and turn her head to look at Shi Huai Ming.

And Squire Huai Ming had already come over and walked over to her, looking directly at her and saying, “Go to my table.”

Go to his table?

The people sitting at his table were all respected people in the village.

Zhen Zhen was busy saying, “It’s not appropriate, I’ll just sit here.”

Servant Huai Ming spoke simply: “It’s appropriate, let’s go.”

Zhen Zhen hesitated for a while, but Cuilan gave her a gentle push, so she had to follow Shi Huai Ming over.

She sat next to Shi Huai Ming, while Zhong Minfen sat on the other side of the table.

She felt out of place at this table, so she did what juniors should do, only eating and not talking casually.

While the others drank and chatted, she just buried her head in her mouth and ate her food.

If she couldn’t reach the dishes, she didn’t say anything as Serving Huai Ming would put them in the bowl for her.

After a decade of drinking, Secretary Li suddenly turned his attention to Zhen Zhen.

He held a glass of wine and said to Zhen Zhen with a smile, “I forgot about Zhen Zhen, I haven’t had a drink with Zhen Zhen yet.”

Zhen Zhen was different now, so of course she couldn’t be slowed down.

Zhen Zhen didn’t think anyone would talk to her.

Hearing Secretary Li say this, she hurriedly put down her chopsticks, picked up her wine glass and stood up in a very disciplined manner, “Secretary, I’m a junior, I should be the one to honor you.”

Secretary Li pressed his hand at her, “Not so much etiquette, sit down sit down.”

Zhen Zhen sat down with her cup, Secretary Li looked at her and said, “Zhen Zhen, you are a blessed child, and Huai Ming well, in the future there will be time to come back with Huai Ming more often to see us old folks.”

Zhen Zhen continued to hold her cup and didn’t care what he said, she nodded her head in agreement anyway, “Okay, Secretary.”

Secretary Li was very happy and reached over to clink glasses with her.

But before Zhen Zhen could bring the glass to her mouth, she was intercepted by Servant Huai Ming next to her.

Serving Huai Ming took the glass from Zhen Zhen’s hand and said, “Secretary, Zhen Zhen can’t drink, I’ll drink for her, do you think it’s okay?”

She had been able to pour red wine in the city before, and was definitely even more incapable of drinking white wine.

Getting drunk was not something comfortable, so don’t let her suffer.

Hearing Servant Huai Ming say this, Zhong Min Fen also chimed in, “Yes, my family Zhen Zhen doesn’t know how to drink.”

She has never drank white wine even when she was growing up, so it’s better not to let her drink something so spicy.

Secretary Li didn’t care about these things, and only smiled, “OK, OK, OK, it’s all fine.”

After drinking with Mr. Huai Ming, he put down the cup and said, “You are quite good at loving your daughter-in-law.”

Servant Huai Ming smiled and answered, “Not even close.”

Zhen Zhen turned her head to look at him and withdrew her gaze before pursing her lips slightly and not saying anything.

Cuilan Xiuzhu’s table.

After watching this interaction at Zhen Zhen’s table, Cuilan couldn’t help but open her mouth as she chewed on her food: “Aiyo, how in the world did Zhen Zhen repair in her last life, and repaired this life to be so good.”

Xiuzhu follows and agrees, “That’s right, it’s really one person, one life.”

Hongmei grunted from the side, “You two can stop saying that, it makes my heart more sour than drinking two pounds of vinegar.”

Cuilan swallows the dish in her mouth and looks at her, smiling, “Can you afford to drink two pounds of vinegar?”

Hongmei: “……” She picked up the bowl of vinegar on the table and drained it in one gulp!

***

Because the main character of today’s meal was Servant Huai Ming, there was always someone to honor him, so Servant Huai Ming was the one who drank the most out of everyone.

By the time the drinking reached the second half of the meal, both of his ears were already all red.

Zhen Zhen sat next to him and didn’t say much, and of course fewer people approached her to talk.

By the time the second half of the meal was over she was full, but mindful of her manners she did not leave the table, still sitting at the table taking a bite from time to time and listening attentively to what others were saying. Somewhat bored, she walked on her thighs with her index and middle fingers.

This was going back and forth for fun when Servant Huai Ming suddenly reached over and held her hand, interrupting her self-indulgence.

Zhen Zhen was confused by the grip and was busy trying to pull her hand out, but Servant Huai Ming immediately tightened his grip.

Is this drunk?

There were so many people in the courtyard, and two large lamps were picked.

The hand was wrapped in his hand, the back of the hand can not control with the hot, Zhen Zhen do not want to be held by him also afraid of being seen by others, and vigorously pumped a few times.

But Squire Huaeming’s grip was so tight that she couldn’t pull it out.

But he looked as if nothing had happened, and was still talking to the others normally, only his ears and eyes were red.

Zhen Zhen couldn’t pull her hand out, so with a red face, she pinched the back of his hand with her other hand, hoping that he would eat the pain and let go.

Which know that he seems to be unconscious as if, is holding her hand does not let go.

Zhen Zhen tossed for a while and failed to pull out, so she had to let him hold it. She couldn’t help but be nervous, her heart was beating fast, but Shi Huai Ming squeezed her hand and was not honest, rubbing his fingers on the back of her hand, and then rubbing over her fingers little by little, lingering at the joints.

Zhen Zhen’s face was reddened by him.

Afraid of being seen by others, she tried to stabilize her expression and kept bringing water to drink to hide what was going on under the table.

It was easy to endure until the end of the meal, and when Shi Huai Ming loosened his grip, Zhen Zhen hastily pulled her hand out.

But before she could stand up and walk away, her arm was again held by Shi Huai Ming.

Servant Huai Ming held her arm and shook it.

Seeing this, Secretary Li busily spoke out, “Yo, Huai Ming is drunk.”

He wanted to find someone to help Shi Huai Ming back, but Shi Huai Ming waved his hand and said, “Zhen Zhen can just help me.”

Zhen Zhen didn’t want to help him and quickly said, “I may not be able to help you.”

Servant Huai Ming was like a different person, his eyes colored with fog as he looked at her and said, “I’m not that drunk, I can do it.”

The others had to stay and help pack up their things.

So Secretary Li didn’t say anything else, looked at Zhen Zhen and said, “Zhen Zhen, then you help Huai Ming back, you don’t need to take care of this place, go back and rest early, be careful on the road.”

Zhen Zhen turned to Zhong Minfen, “Mother?”

Zhong Minfen was already busy and also said, “I’ll clean up here, you and Huai Ming go back first.”

No one else drank too much wine, but only Servant Huai Ming was being honored and drank a bit too much.

Zhen Zhen turned back to look at Servant Huai Ming.

Servant Huai Ming looked at her with lowered eyebrows, smiled a little and said, “Let’s go, let’s go home.”

“……”

Zhen Zhen tilted her head and stared at him for a moment, took a breath and put up his arm, helping him out of the courtyard of the village committee.

There was moonlight on the road out of the courtyard, and because Squire Huai Ming was drunk and unsteady, the two of them walked slowly.

After being supported for a while, Shi Huai Ming turned his head and looked at Zhen Zhen and said, “I have something I want to say to you.”

Zhen Zhen held him up and walked forward carefully, “It’s better to hurry and go home first.”

Shi Huaiming paused for a moment, seemingly thinking, “Okay, go home first.”

Zhen Zhen smoothly helped him to the house, entered the courtyard door and directly helped him to go to Shui Xingguo’s house.

Seeing that he was walking more and more unsteadily, pressing more and more weight on her, and speaking more and more indistinctly, Zhen Zhen felt that he probably had no way to wash himself, so she planned to let him go straight to bed.

She helped Squire Huai Ming to the edge of the bed and exhaled tiredly, “It’s too heavy.”

Being tall and lean, it was very laborious to help him back, and it was also very laborious to put him toward the bed.

He wouldn’t sit down on the bed, so Jen found an angle to let him lie down directly on the bed.

Who knew that when he lay down, his hand still grabbed Zhen Zhen’s arm, and with a bang, Zhen Zhen also pulled down.

His entire arm was pressed against Zhen Zhen’s body, and he suddenly and vaguely said, “The words have not yet been said.”

Zhen Zhen wanted to take away his arm to get up, but it still took half a day’s effort to get up at all.

She this body frame and strength, in front of him half useless.

After tossing and turning, Zhen Zhen exhaled and said, “Go ahead.”

Serving Huai Ming moved his head a bit at the word, directly to Zhen Zhen’s ear, and whispered, “I don’t have the problem of not getting up.”

Zhen Zhen: “……”

She blinks with bated breath, not picking up on his words.

He added, “There have been many times when I’ve wanted you and have been afraid I wouldn’t be able to hold back.”

The breath he exhaled on Zhen Zhen’s ear was hot, and his low, hoarse voice drilled deeper against Zhen Zhen’s ear, and Zhen Zhen’s face instantly became hot, her nerves numbing for a moment. She subconsciously wanted to get up again to avoid him, but still failed to lift his arm.

Servant Huai Ming then pressed himself to her ear like this, and continued in a low voice by virtue of his drunkenness, “I forgot that it was my birthday, and when I saw you dressed like that, my veins were going to explode. I was the bastard, I spoiled your heart and didn’t apologize to you in time, I deserve to die. After you left, the house was full of your shadow, and my mind was all about you ……”

Zhen Zhen held her breath and suppressed her heartbeat, slightly looking sideways at him.

Serving Huai Ming eyelids loosely drooped, voice Su Su lazy with gas sound, “I now heart brain, really all is you …… Zhen Zhen, I know I did not do well, you give me a chance, go back with me, we start again, OK? If you don’t like to study, you won’t study anymore, and you can do whatever you want to do in the future. I’ll correct all the things I did badly before, okay?”

Zhen Zhen’s face turned sideways some more, touching Servant Huai Ming’s eyes.

Their eyes touched each other at a very close distance, Shui Huai Ming stared at Zhen Zhen for a while, and then suddenly closed his eyes and exerted force on his hands, taking her into his arms. Zhen Zhen was encircled in his arms, and even buried her face, appearing to be a very small one.

***

Bright, intense sunlight pierces through the curtains and hits the cooler.

The light shifted and fell on Servant Huai Ming’s eyes, he furrowed his brows for a moment and opened his eyes, realizing that it was already light outside. He dreamed of holding Jenny in his arms, but when he opened his eyes, he was holding a pillow.

His head hurt after the hangover.

He took a small moment to get up from the bed and got out of it to head out into the yard.

His body was full of the smell of alcohol, he beat the water into the house to freshen up, after freshening up and pouring water, Zhong Minfen just happened to finish haying pigs and grass to come back from outside.

After Zhong Minfen entered the courtyard door, she put down the hogweed basket and scythe, and said in a loud voice: “You’re awake.”

His head was still not very comfortable, so he let out a hmm and asked, “Where’s Zhen Zhen?”

Zhong Minfen told him, “She went to sell bean sprouts.”

Shui Huaiming asked again, “Which market?”

Zhong Minfen said, “It’s a fair in Hongqi Town today.”

Shi Huaiming let out a hmm, “Mother, I’ll go to Red Flag Town to look for her.”

Zhong Minfen watched him go out and asked him in a loud voice, “Aren’t you going to eat something?”

Servant Huai Ming replied, “I don’t have much of an appetite, so I won’t eat.”

Because he had gotten up late, when he arrived at the marketplace after blowing off steam and sobering up, Zhen Zhen had already packed her crate.

He found Zhen Zhen on the street, walked to the crate, and directly asked out loud, “Is it sold out already?”

Seeing Squire Huai Ming suddenly appear, Zhen Zhen froze violently.

The things he did last night and the blunt and revealing words he said close to her ear had been still spinning in her head, and she couldn’t help but blush and be nervous and embarrassed when she saw him now.

She froze for a moment to steady her expression and voice in response, and in turn asked him, “What brings you here?”

After waking up from sleep, her mind is all about her, the wine has not woken up through the brain is not yet fully awake, so she came here by herself.

Servant Huai Ming also froze and reacted for a moment, then said, “Of course I came to find you.”

Since the bean sprouts were sold out, it was good for him to pull the cart.

Without asking any more questions, he pulled the car and went home with Zhen Zhen.

On the way home, Zhen Zhen kept walking silently without speaking.

The service Huai Ming is now accustomed to Zhen Zhen ignore him, he pulled the car to walk for a moment, turn his head to look at Zhen Zhen for a moment.

Zhen Zhen felt his gaze, holding her breath to avoid, but then unconsciously turned her head to look at him.

The two men’s gazes met and both paused slightly.

Then Servant Huai Ming met Zhen Zhen’s eyes, and some very intimate and ambiguous images suddenly flashed through his mind, and synchronized with the images, there were also some words that wouldn’t even come out of his mouth but seemed to have.

He pulled the car to a violent stop.

“……”

What had he done again?