Hearing the shout, Chuntao shuddered and jumped down from the back seat of the bicycle.
The three people had already run up to them. When Chuntao saw clearly who it was, her face instantly turned pale, and her heart felt like it was about to leap out of her chest.
"Li Chuntao! Jieshi is still lying in the hospital, but look at you, living it up at home!"
Wang Lanhua glared fiercely at Chuntao, cursing under her breath, while her peripheral vision slyly drifted toward Zhou Zhijun.
Grandma Shen and Li Dazhuang also darted their eyes back and forth between Zhou Zhijun and Chuntao, their gazes full of scrutiny and speculation.
"Tao..." Grandma Shen shuffled two steps toward Chuntao, but Zhou Zhijun abruptly turned the front of the bicycle around, firmly blocking Chuntao behind him.
"Great-aunt, you all came rushing over here so frantically, is there something urgent?" Zhou Zhijun's voice was stiff, his face expressionless.
"Second brother, we just came today to see Chuntao! It's nothing major, nothing major!" Grandma Shen quickly waved her hands with an apologetic smile.
"Since it's nothing major, then go inside and sit for a while. Chuntao still has things to do and has no time to chat with you."
"What could she possibly have to do?" Wang Lanhua pushed forward, sticking out her round, pregnant belly, and retorted with a stiff neck.
"Li Chuntao, I have something to say to you, get over here!"
Dropping these words, she turned and walked into the courtyard, plunking herself down on a stone stool.
Grandma Shen and Li Dazhuang exchanged a glance. Looking at Wang Lanhua in the courtyard and then at Chuntao standing frozen in place, their faces were full of awkwardness.
"Tao, your sister-in-law is about to give birth, she can't get angry. Whatever grievances you have, let's talk about them slowly after she has the baby!" Grandma Shen coaxed in a low voice, her tone almost tearful.
Li Dazhuang also pleaded with a bitter face, "Tao, my good sister, you absolutely cannot leave the Wang family! If you leave, your brother's family will truly fall apart!"
Lijia Village was over twenty miles away from Wangjiazhai. Chuntao originally thought that this matter wouldn't reach their ears anytime soon.
It would have been better if they found out after Wang Lanhua gave birth. She never expected them to come knocking on her door like this.
She had no idea that the root of all this lay in yesterday afternoon.
The person eavesdropping outside the melon hut on Li Mingliang and Chuntao's conversation was none other than Zhou Pandi.
Zhou Pandi, a temporary worker at the workers' canteen, had long set her sights on the presentable and gentle Li Mingliang. She usually tried every possible way to get close to him, but Li Mingliang always gave her the cold shoulder.
She had known for a while that Li Mingliang and Chuntao were close, but she was never sure what exactly their relationship was.
Yesterday, after lunch, seeing Li Mingliang leave the workers' compound carrying a few bottles of soda, Zhou Pandi quietly trailed behind him all the way to the melon field.
She hunched over and hid outside the melon hut, hearing the commotion inside loud and clear.
No wonder Li Mingliang turned a blind eye to her; his soul had been snatched away by Li Chuntao!
Zhou Pandi gnashed her teeth in hatred, but she didn't rush in to throw a tantrum and hurl insults. She knew that doing so would only make Li Mingliang more annoyed with her.
If you wanted to ruin someone, you had to trip them up in the dark; only then could you hit the mark with one strike.
After returning from the melon field, Zhou Pandi hurried to her aunt's house in Lijia Village. By the time she arrived, it was completely dark.
She pulled out a handful of fruit candies she had been reluctant to eat herself and bribed her cousin-in-law.
She had her cousin-in-law go to the Li family overnight, adding fuel to the fire as she recounted the events of the past two days, specifically emphasizing that Chuntao was living at Zhou Zhijun's house.
Upon hearing this, Wang Lanhua was so anxious she stomped her feet on the spot. Carrying her large pregnant belly, she wanted to go to Wangjiazhai that very night.
Grandma Shen and Li Dazhuang couldn't talk her out of it, so they could only bite the bullet and tag along.
Wang Lanhua was pregnant, and Grandma Shen's legs were not nimble. The three of them stopped and started along the way, stumbling along, and finally managed to reach Wangjiazhai at the crack of dawn.
Just as they turned the corner past the houses on the edge of the village, Wang Lanhua saw the figures of Chuntao and Zhou Zhijun, and a surge of anger shot straight to her head.
She shouted at the top of her lungs while stumbling forward, with Grandma Shen and Li Dazhuang running breathlessly behind her.
Before this, Wang Lanhua was only half-convinced about the relationship between Chuntao and Zhou Zhijun, but seeing the two of them together with her own eyes today, she believed it one hundred percent.
But she had no hard evidence in her hands, so she didn't dare speak recklessly in front of Zhou Zhijun.
Grandma Shen looked worriedly at Wang Lanhua in the courtyard, then leaned into Chuntao's ear and whispered, "Tao, go say a few words to your sister-in-law. Her body can't handle getting angry!"
Li Dazhuang chimed in from the side, "Chuntao, your sister-in-law has something to say to you! Go quickly, as soon as she's done we'll leave immediately, we won't delay your business!"
Chuntao's heart was in her throat, her mind a tangled mess.
Chuntao knew Wang Lanhua's shrewish temper all too well. If she stubbornly insisted on leaving today, Wang Lanhua definitely wouldn't let it go.
If it agitated her pregnancy and hurt the baby in her belly, there would be huge trouble.
She looked up at Zhou Zhijun, her voice timid. "Brother Zhijun..." She hesitated, stopping herself from speaking further.
Zhou Zhijun understood Chuntao too well.
She had finally made up her mind to leave, and now that Wang Lanhua and the others had shown up, he was really afraid she would have a moment of soft-heartedness and change her mind again.
"Let's go! We have to go!" Zhou Zhijun grabbed her wrist, his tone resolute. "If we delay any longer, it really will be too late!"
Saying this, he turned the bicycle around and pulled Chuntao, ready to leave.
"Chuntao! Stop right there!" Li Dazhuang quickly ran forward and reached out to block their path.
"We really have something important to say to you today! You can't leave!"
"Yes, yes, can't you go do your business another day?"
Grandma Shen also hurried over, tightly grabbing Chuntao's other hand, her eyes reddening. "Tao, we really have something to tell you!"
Sitting on the stone stool in the courtyard, Wang Lanhua saw that Chuntao was taking her time coming over. She turned her head and saw that Zhou Zhijun was actually pulling her to leave, and she immediately flew into a rage.
She thought to herself that with her big pregnant belly, no matter how tough a grown man like Zhou Zhijun was, he wouldn't dare lay a finger on her.
If he dared to touch her, she would throw herself on the ground and extort him until he was skinned alive!
Wang Lanhua stood up, supporting her lower back with one hand, and hurried out of the courtyard. Her cloth shoes stepped on the muddy ground, making dull thudding sounds.
"Ouch!"
Keeping her eyes fixed on Chuntao and Zhou Zhijun, she wasn't looking at the road at all and tripped over a clod of dirt, stumbling forward.
Her body pitched forward violently. Terrified and deathly pale, Wang Lanhua couldn't help but let out a scream.
Hearing the noise, Li Dazhuang was scared out of his wits. He rushed over in a few quick strides and grabbed her to steady her.
Grandma Shen was also so frightened that her lips trembled. She hurried over to help support her.
"Oh, my great-grandson! Why are you walking in such a panic? What if you hurt yourself!"
The two of them clumsily supported Wang Lanhua, and it took quite a while before she finally steadied herself.
Seeing that Wang Lanhua hadn't fallen, the heart that Chuntao had in her throat finally settled back into her chest.
Zhou Zhijun quickly got onto his bicycle, turned his head, and shouted to Chuntao, "What are you standing there for? Get on the bike! Let's go!"
"You can't leave! Grab her quickly!" Recovering her senses, Wang Lanhua threw off Li Dazhuang's hand and screamed.
"Li Chuntao! If you dare take even half a step out of Wangjia Village today, I'll divorce your brother! I'll leave him a bachelor for the rest of his life! And I won't give birth to the baby in my belly, either! I mean what I say!"
"Lanhua! Let's talk this over calmly, please don't be angry!" Li Dazhuang was sweating profusely from anxiety. He turned and ran over to grab Chuntao's arm.
His eyes were red, and his voice trembled with a crying tone. "Tao, you can't leave! If you leave, your sister-in-law really won't live with me anymore! It's fine if I end up a bachelor, but our Li family's bloodline cannot be broken! The baby your sister-in-law is carrying is a boy. If she really refuses to give birth, the Li family will have no descendants! Tao, consider it as your brother begging you, alright?"
"Tao, we came from so far away. Do you really have the heart to deny us even a sip of water?" Grandma Shen also looked at Chuntao with red-rimmed eyes.
"Brother Zhijun..." Chuntao turned her head, her voice thick with hesitation. "How about... we go another day?"
Hearing this, Li Dazhuang's eyes instantly lit up. He quickly lowered his voice and said, "Tao, listen to your brother. Whatever it is, wait until your sister-in-law gives birth, okay?"
Grandma Shen supported Wang Lanhua as they slowly moved closer to Chuntao.
"Li Chuntao, don't push your luck! If you dare to refuse, I'll smash my head and kill myself right at your doorstep! Two lives lost in one go!"
Just then, Aunt Zhou walked out of the courtyard unhurriedly, gripping a broom in her hand.
She bent down and swept the ground, kicking up clouds of dust that made everyone choke and cough.
As she swept, she suddenly jabbed the broom handle hard against the ground. Giving Wang Lanhua a side glance, she said coldly, "Your life is your own. What does it have to do with anyone else? There is no need to use it to blackmail people!"
Upon hearing this, all the color drained from Wang Lanhua's face. Trembling with rage, she hunched over and tried to lunge at Aunt Zhou. "You damn old hag! It's not your place to meddle in my family's business!"
Grandma Shen was scared out of her wits and desperately clung to Wang Lanhua's arm. "Lanhua, please calm down!"
"Ouch... my belly..." Wang Lanhua's expression suddenly twisted in pain, and her body fell stiffly backward.
