"Help! Help!"
Before Zhou Zhijun reached the place, he saw a young woman wearing only a vest and underpants.
Her hair and the whole body were all wet, and she was running barefoot towards him.
She shouted for help as she ran. This woman was none other than Zhou Pandi, the second daughter of Village Party Secretary Zhou Dana.
She looked pale. When she saw Zhou Zhijun running over, a glimmer of hope suddenly flashed in her eyes, as if she had grabbed a lifesaver.
She shouted, "Brother Zhijun, please save my elder sister quickly! She fell into the deep pool of the dam!"
Zhou Zhijun strode past her and saw Zhou Zhaodi struggling desperately in the middle of the river.
There were only her flailing hands and the top of her head above the water. It seemed that she was about to sink.
Zhou Zhijun had been playing in the river with the kids in the village since childhood. He could dive and catch fish and shrimps, and unconsciously developed excellent swimming skills.
When he was serving in the army, he saved many people from the flood during emergency rescue and disaster relief operations.
He threw his hoe aside by the river and jumped into the water with a splash.
He swam to Zhou Zhaodi's side effortlessly and pulled her to the shore by the collar.
Zhou Pandi had already brought a group of villagers over. They all helped to carry Zhou Zhaodi to the threshing ground at the village entrance and laid her across the back of an ox to drain the water.
The old ox walked around the threshing ground several times. Zhou Zhaodi only coughed up a few mouthfuls of muddy water with sand. Her face was as pale as a dead person's, and she was almost out of breath.
"No, the water hasn't been drained out!" someone shouted.
Zhou Zhijun had also learned some first - aid knowledge for drowning when he was in the army. He asked everyone to lift Zhou Zhaodi down and lay her flat on the haystack.
He knelt down on one knee and placed his hands one on top of the other on Zhou Zhaodi's chest to perform compressions.
With each compression, a little splash of water mixed with sticky waterweeds overflowed from the corner of her mouth.
It wasn't until Zhou Zhaodi suddenly coughed violently and spat out a mouthful of turbid river water that everyone heaved a sigh of relief.
At this time, Chuntao and Wang Xiaohong were cooking in the kitchen.
Liu Cuilan was lying in the room in the north wing. Wang Haichao was sitting on the edge of the bed, holding her hand and saying, "Cuilan, don't be angry anymore! I couldn't do much there. Coming back can even save two meals' worth of food!"
"Don't worry. I, Wang Haichao, am not a man without a sense of responsibility. I'll treat you well...
Come on, stop being angry. Be good!"
He stroked Liu Cuilan's face and then got up and went to the kitchen. He said to Chuntao, "Chuntao, your mother is weak. Go to the chicken coop and collect two eggs to make her a bowl of egg tea!"
Chuntao didn't say a word. Wang Xiaohong gave him a disdainful look and said, "We know that without you telling us!"
Wang Haichao wasn't angry. Instead, he said with a smiling face, "I knew that Xiaohong is a filial girl. Your mother didn't dote on you in vain!"
He then glanced at Chuntao and said, "From now on, give your mother two eggs every day. She needs to have a good tonic..." Then he turned around and went out.
"What kind of person is he? All talk and no action!" Wang Xiaohong complained.
Wang Haichao saw many people on the road and walked over out of curiosity.
When he learned that Zhou Zhijun had saved Zhou Zhaodi, he sniffed contemptuously in his heart. That guy just loved to show off. If it hadn't been for that jerk Zhou Zhijun that night, he would have gotten to Li Chuntao.
Zhou Zhaodi woke up and was taken home by her family. Zhou Zhijun, wearing wet clothes and carrying a hoe on his back, walked towards this direction.
When Wang Haichao saw him, it was as if that incident had never happened. He still greeted him with a cheesy smile.
Zhou Zhijun didn't even bother to lift his eyelids and just went straight into the house.
It was hot, and the watermelons were growing rapidly. Many of them were already ripe.
Chuntao thought it was time to pick them and sell them, otherwise, they would all be over - ripe when a large number of them became mature.
After dinner, she and Wang Xiaohong pulled a rickshaw to the field.
They slept in the field to guard the watermelons at night and got up before dawn to pick them.
Chuntao was in charge of finding the ripe watermelons and picking them, while Wang Xiaohong was responsible for loading the watermelons onto the rickshaw.
After a morning's work, they filled the rickshaw with watermelons. They didn't go home but pulled the rickshaw directly to the street.
Liu Cuilan was not feeling well, and Wang Haichao was a lazybones. There would be no breakfast if they went back. Wang Xiaohong thought they could sell the watermelons on the street and then buy something to eat.
Chuntao pulled the rickshaw while Wang Xiaohong pushed it from behind. As they walked, Wang Xiaohong said, "Sister - in - law, Mom borrowed fifty yuan from Uncle Zhijun for her medical treatment. I want to use the money from selling the watermelons to pay him back."
The watermelons were originally planted to pay for Wang Xiaoming's schooling. He was already in the second year of junior high school and would be promoted to the third year in the fall.
In the third year of junior high, besides tuition and miscellaneous fees, there would be more expenses for buying study materials.
But the borrowed money had to be repaid. Especially the money borrowed from Zhou Zhijun. Although it wasn't she who borrowed it, Chuntao still hoped to pay him back as soon as possible.
"Okay. The watermelons this year are good. We'll definitely get a good price for them. We can pay him back and also set aside some money for Xiaoming's tuition next semester!"
Zhou Zhijun was working in the field. He saw the two of them pulling the rickshaw towards the street from afar.
He thought to himself, with Wang Xiaohong always around, he had no chance!
When Wang Haichao got up, the sun was already high in the sky. He went to the kitchen and saw that there was nothing in the pot.
He cursed in his heart and ran to Chuntao's room to rummage around. He actually found some uneaten pastries and brown sugar in the cabinet.
He took them to the inner room and said to Liu Cuilan, "Look at your good daughter - in - law. When you weren't home, her mouth was never idle.
Now that you're back, she doesn't even cook. What on earth does she want to do?"
Liu Cuilan's stomach was growling with hunger. Coupled with the absurd incident of her injury this time, she was full of anger.
When she saw Wang Haichao come in with the things, she exploded.
Not even cooking and sneaking snacks while she was away. Liu Cuilan scolded, "This bad - luck woman! I've only been away for a few days, and she wants to turn the house upside down?"
Saying that, she got out of bed and stormed out of the house. Ignoring the pain of her wound, she strode towards the watermelon field.
However, when she got to the watermelon field, there was no sign of Chuntao or Wang Xiaohong. She was so angry that she stood on the ridge of the field and scolded again.
She then went to her own soybean field and saw that half of it hadn't been hoed yet. She started scolding again, "Bad - luck woman! What has she been doing while I've been away?
The soybean field isn't even half - hoed. The weeds are choking the soybeans!"
Zhou Zhijun was squatting in the sesame field next to it, kicking the sesame plants. When he heard Liu Cuilan's scolding, he looked up at her.
His face was cold, and his eyes were like two sharp knives.
When Liu Cuilan met his gaze, her heart skipped a beat and she quickly turned away.
In the past four years, Zhou Zhijun had worked hard and spent a lot of money to help her family.
But that day, she had said in front of so many people that Zhou Zhijun was not a real man. Just thinking about that made her feel guilty.
Just as she had walked a short distance, she saw Aunt Zhou coming over with a kettle in her hand.
"Old Han's wife," Aunt Zhou called out to her.
Liu Cuilan paused in her steps and asked, "What's the matter?"
"For four years, my Zhijun has done a lot of work for your family and given you a lot of financial help.
He did the work out of respect for Lao Han, but the money you borrowed from him must be repaid. No one's money comes easily!"
Hearing what Aunt Zhou said, Liu Cuilan retorted stubbornly, "Auntie, when did I borrow your money? If you say I borrowed money, do you have any proof?"
All in all, Zhou Zhijun had given Liu Cuilan's family at least three or four hundred yuan in financial support.
Back then, three or four hundred yuan was no small amount. You could even use it to marry a wife with some money left over.
Liu Cuilan knew well about the money, but since there was no evidence, she thought she could get away without paying it back.
What she didn't know was that Aunt Zhou had asked her granddaughter Zhou Hongxia to record every single payment in a notebook.
The purpose of each sum of money was also clearly written down. If Liu Cuilan tried to renege on the debt, Aunt Zhou would just take out that ledger.
"Proof? Of course I have it! I'll go back and get it for you right away!"
Aunt Zhou spat on the ground and walked past her without even looking back.
She wasn't a mean - spirited person by nature, but when it came to someone like Liu Cuilan, she wouldn't show the slightest bit of mercy.
