Chuntao wanted to run up and pull him back, but just as she stepped one foot over the threshold, Wang Xiaohong returned carrying a basket of wheat straw.
Seeing Zhou Zhijun enter the main room, and noticing Chuntao's flushed face with sweat on the tip of her nose, she asked, "Sister-in-law, what's wrong?"
Feeling guilty, Chuntao whispered, "Nothing!"
Wang Xiaohong said, "Has Uncle Zhijun finished building his house?"
"Yes!"
Zhou Zhijun walked into the main room, lifted the door curtain to the inner room, and went right in. His tall figure cast a shadow over half the room, drawing everyone's eyes toward him.
Zhou Zhijun found Wang Jieshi annoying and had never set foot in this room before. His sudden entrance today took both Wang Haichao and Wang Jieshi by surprise.
Was Zhou Zhijun here to ask about Wang Jieshi's condition?
Seeing Zhou Zhijun made Wang Haichao grind his teeth in hatred.
But he was a man who could bend when needed. Even though he secretly wished Zhou Zhijun dead, he did not show it on the surface.
"Brother Zhijun, you're here! Let me tell you some good news. Doctor Zhang's medicine is really effective. Next year, Chuntao will be able to give you a little nephew!"
The old man also quickly chimed in, "The young man just injured his leg, everything else is just minor issues. He'll be fully healed after taking some medicine!"
Wang Jieshi, however, remained expressionless. He lay on the bed, staring blankly at the rafters on the ceiling.
"That's good. Once Jieshi's body recovers, my sister will suffer less!"
Saying this, Zhou Zhijun stepped right up to the bed, looked at Wang Jieshi's face, and said, "Jieshi, don't burden yourself mentally, that's how you'll recover faster!" After speaking, he turned around and walked out.
Zhou Zhijun was truly a hard man to read, leaving Wang Jieshi's mind in an even greater mess.
Did he say those words because he genuinely wanted him to get better, or because he was afraid he would?
Wang Haichao turned his head toward the inner room's doorway and muttered, "A weasel paying respects to a hen—harboring no good intentions!"
Wang Jieshi was terribly emaciated, his face a sickly sallow yellow. Zhou Zhijun was certain his illness couldn't be cured, and even if it could, so what?
He couldn't even straighten his back, what could he possibly do?
Zhou Zhijun felt a pent-up fire in his chest that he couldn't vent, an indescribably uncomfortable feeling.
The most pressing matter right now was to find a secure place.
The ditches, the broken brick kilns, and the straw stacks were out of the question; they were too unsafe.
He had made that large bed for Chuntao, originally planning to try it out with her on it someday, but that girl Wang Xiaohong was always sleeping there.
What was he to do? Zhou Zhijun was so worried that his food lost its taste.
"What's wrong? What are you thinking about?" Aunt Zhou asked upon seeing him staring blankly while holding his bowl.
"Today that doctor came to treat Wang Jieshi again. He said his illness is easy to cure, and he'll be fine after taking some medicine!"
Aunt Zhou shook her head and said, "How could it be that easy to cure? I think that man is just a traveling charlatan, swindling some money! Sigh, with Wang Jieshi in this state, there's no end in sight to Chuntao's hard life!"
Zhou Zhijun had already thought of a good place.
On the west side of his house, two large adobe rooms had been built to serve as a cow shed.
The east room had been cleared out. Aunt Zhou and her husband had tidied it up spotlessly and plastered the walls with a fresh coat of mud.
The old couple was getting on in years and were used to sleeping early and waking early. Zhou Zhijun, however, sometimes came back late from work, and they had to get up to open the door for him, which disrupted their sleep.
Especially in winter, when the weather was too cold and getting up made it easy to catch a chill. After the east room was cleared out, the old couple moved in there to sleep.
Zhou Zhijun slept alone in the north room. Wasn't this exactly the perfect spot he was looking for?
If he had Chuntao come to his room to sleep at night, no one would know what they were up to.
Thinking of this, Zhou Zhijun slapped his forehead, shouldered his hoe, and headed out to the fields.
Not far above Chuntao's family watermelon patch was his family's cotton field. He appeared to be hoeing the ground, but in his heart, he was constantly thinking about Chuntao, scheming how to get her into his room.
He looked up and saw Chuntao pulling weeds in the watermelon patch. Being able to look but not touch made him feel even more tormented.
"Second Uncle, hoeing the field?"
Hearing someone call him, Zhou Zhijun turned his head and saw the siblings, Zhou Xiaowei and Zhou Hongxia.
He gave a grunt of acknowledgment.
"Second Uncle! They're showing a movie in our village tonight! I heard it's going to play for seven days!"
"Seven days?" Zhou Zhijun was a bit skeptical.
Showing a movie for just one night cost at least a dozen yuan, which many families couldn't afford.
Throughout the whole year, movies were shown in the village no more than ten times, usually only when a family had a joyous occasion and hired someone to put on a screening.
"Gousheng from the west side of the village got promoted to an officer in the army and came back to visit his family. His family is putting on movies for seven days!" Seeing his disbelief, Zhou Xiaowei quickly explained.
Zhang Jinshan and his wife were both teachers, so their family's financial situation was quite good. Now that their son had been promoted to an officer in the army, Zhou Zhijun could believe they were hosting seven days of movies.
"Sister-in-law, Uncle Zhijun, Hongxia, and the others are hoeing the field up there!" Wang Xiaohong turned around and spotted the group in the field above.
At the mention of Zhou Zhijun, Chuntao's mind grew even more chaotic. The shameless things he had said at noon echoed in her ears once again.
Zhou Zhijun was an animal, always thinking about that kind of thing. As long as it was something he wanted, he would do everything in his power to make it happen.
While the sun was still a pole's length above the horizon, Zhou Hongxia ran over to the melon patch. "Xiaohong, they're showing a movie in the village tonight. Go back early to boil some soup, and after we eat, let's go grab a good spot."
Hearing there was a movie in the village, Wang Xiaohong was beyond excited.
When the workers' compound first moved to the private plots, they played the television in the yard every day, drawing people from several nearby villages to watch.
But not long after, a few workers lost some belongings, and the compound stopped showing the TV.
Without any television to watch, Wang Xiaohong had long been itching for entertainment. Now that a movie was playing in the village, how could she still be in the mood to pull weeds?
Wang Xiaohong headed back early to cook the soup, and other villagers who heard about the movie also went home early.
Up in the field, Zhou Zhijun and Zhou Xiaowei were still there, so Chuntao wasn't afraid of Zhou Zhijun coming over to bother her.
What she didn't know was that Zhou Zhijun was currently saying to Zhou Xiaowei, "It's getting dark, why aren't you going home yet? Aren't you going to watch the movie?"
In truth, Zhou Xiaowei had stayed because he saw Chuntao was still in the field, but he couldn't say that to Zhou Zhijun.
"I'll go back together with you!"
"You go back right now. Tell your grandma to make the soup and eat first. I'll head back once I finish hoeing this ridge to the end!"
Zhou Zhijun's face was icy, and his voice was stiff. Not daring to say anything more, Zhou Xiaowei shouldered his hoe and left.
Before leaving, he wanted to call out to Chuntao to go home early for the movie, but afraid that Zhou Zhijun would accuse him of showing off, he kept quiet.
As soon as Zhou Xiaowei left, Zhou Zhijun saw that there was no one else in the fields, so he hurried toward the melon patch in quick strides.
"Tao!"
Chuntao was lost in thought when suddenly a deep, hoarse voice sounded right by her ear. It startled her so much she shivered and sprang straight up to her feet.
