Pei Jiaojiao’s voice was filled with venom, madness, and the ruthless determination of someone with nothing left to lose.
“You managed to escape me at the hospital last time, but let’s see where you can run this time! Go on, run! Aren’t you disgusted by me? I don’t care. I want to see how you’ll feel when you wake up and realize you’ve slept with your own sister-in-law. Let’s see how you can look down on me after that.”
Xiao Mandong had never imagined that this woman could go so insane. She was willing to frame and slander others, even destroy her own reputation, just to drag Shen Linzhou into the mud with her.
Pei Jiaojiao continued venting all her hatred and resentment. Meanwhile, Xiao Mandong had already circled around behind her without making a sound.
The silver needle dropped, striking a precise acupoint on the side of her neck. Before Pei Jiaojiao could react, her eyes rolled back, and she fainted, collapsing straight onto Shen Linzhou.
Xiao Mandong muttered under her breath, “You could have set your sights on anyone, but you just had to go after the handsome man I’ve chosen. A top-quality man like this—I was planning to keep him after the Reform and Opening-Up, get rid of the father, and have his children. How could I let you have him for free?”
As she spoke, she dragged Pei Jiaojiao off Shen Linzhou and moved him into the room next door, half dragging and half supporting him.
At first, she had intended to take Shen Linzhou away. But then she changed her mind.
Pei Jiaojiao hated her to the bone. Now that she had appeared here, what if she discovered someday that her family had been sent down here? With Pei Jiaojiao’s personality, she would definitely come looking for trouble.
The man outside was probably from the other family assigned to live in the cowshed.
Judging from the fact that this entire family was capable of doing something like this, they were clearly no good either. Keeping them in the cowshed would only invite trouble.
Xiao Mandong gritted her teeth and hardened her resolve. Since she was doing this, she might as well finish the job.
Using her mind, she retrieved a packet of powdered medicine from her space. She looked around but found no water. She couldn’t give Pei Jiaojiao her spiritual spring water, either. After thinking for a moment, she took out the bottle of Moutai she had prepared for her grandfather, poured out some, dissolved the medicine in it, then pinched Pei Jiaojiao’s chin and forced it down her throat.
Xiao Mandong’s heart ached terribly. What a waste of her good liquor.
She covered her face with a headscarf, went to the door, and called softly toward the outside, “Big brother, come in and give me a hand. This man is too heavy for me to carry alone.”
The man outside was already deeply unsettled and didn’t notice that her voice sounded unusual. He pushed the door open and walked straight in.
Xiao Mandong immediately raised her hand and flung a handful of powder at him. The man turned sideways to dodge it, but he still inhaled quite a bit.
His eyes instantly turned vicious.
“Who are you? Why are you here?”
Xiao Mandong retreated several steps, keeping a safe distance between them. Ever since her confrontation with Director Huang, she had prepared all kinds of medicinal powders in her space, just in case.
The man sensed that something was wrong. After shaking his head, he advanced toward Xiao Mandong, killing intent filling his eyes.
He told himself that he had to get rid of this woman today. He couldn’t let her tell anyone that he had framed a soldier. Otherwise, he would certainly be doomed.
He had had no choice. His entire family had been sent down here, they lacked food and clothing, and his children were still so young. He only wanted to survive. As for this woman, she had brought it upon herself. Who told her to meddle in other people’s business?
The man’s body grew weaker and weaker. Realizing that something was wrong, he suddenly lunged at her the moment the thought crossed his mind, reaching straight for Xiao Mandong’s throat.
But just as his hand shot forward, a knife-hand strike landed on the back of his neck.
Thud!
The man crumpled to the ground and fainted.
Xiao Mandong met Shen Linzhou’s eyes and froze for a moment.
“You weren’t unconscious?”
Shen Linzhou’s tone carried a trace of helplessness. “If I could be knocked unconscious by a woman that stupid, I’d have died a hundred times over by now.”
Xiao Mandong raised an eyebrow, her voice teasing. “Then when she undid your buttons, you didn’t resist? Did I ruin your good time?”
The tips of Shen Linzhou’s ears grew faintly warm. He turned his face away.
“I sensed someone coming in, so I wanted to see who it was.”
Xiao Mandong rolled her eyes. “Then why did you pretend to be unconscious when I dragged you over?”
Shen Linzhou coughed lightly and didn’t answer.
How was he supposed to explain it? Could he say that he hadn’t dared open his eyes? Keeping him to have children and raising them without the father—if he had opened his eyes at that moment, he wouldn’t have known what to say.
Xiao Mandong stopped teasing him. She motioned for him to carry the man onto the heated brick bed. Then she picked up the remaining half bottle of Moutai beside the bed, mixed it with more medicine, and forced it down the man’s throat as well.
Shen Linzhou roughly guessed what she intended to do. He didn’t stop her. Everyone had to pay the price for their actions.
Before long, the cheeks of the two people on the bed began to flush slightly, and their breathing gradually became more rapid.
Xiao Mandong checked their pulses. Once she felt the timing was right, she walked to the door and shouted outside.
A figure immediately flashed past the crack in the door. It was the man’s wife, who hurriedly ran toward the village.
Xiao Mandong pulled the silver needle from Pei Jiaojiao’s neck, then used another needle to wake the man.
Under the influence of the medicine and alcohol, their eyes instantly grew glazed. Their bodies were unbearably hot, and soon they began tearing at each other’s clothes.
Xiao Mandong and Shen Linzhou climbed straight out the window and crouched beneath it, waiting for the villagers to arrive.
What happened inside progressed faster than the villagers could get there. Before long, the sounds of a woman’s moans and a man’s low growls came from the room.
Although the two were complete strangers, they worked together with surprising harmony.
Hearing the indecent sounds from inside, Shen Linzhou’s face instantly turned grim, though the tips of his ears flushed uncontrollably. On impulse, he raised his hand and covered Xiao Mandong’s ears. The moment his fingers touched her, he withdrew both hands as if shocked by electricity.
“I…I’m sorry.”
“This isn’t something a girl should hear. You should leave.”
Just then, the door to the room was kicked open with a loud bang!
The Brigade Leader rushed in with a group of people. The moment they saw the scandalous scene on the heated brick bed, his face darkened with anger.
“What are you doing? This is utterly disgraceful! Have you no shame?”
But the two people on the bed had long since been overwhelmed by the effects of the medicine. They couldn’t hear anything happening around them and continued clinging to each other, completely lost in the moment as though no one else existed.
The shameless spectacle left everyone who rushed in staring in stunned silence.
When one woman saw her own husband staring intently at the scene, she slapped him across the face.
The Brigade Leader ordered everyone out of the room and told someone to hurry and fetch water from the well.
Shen Linzhou gestured for Xiao Mandong to hide while he went out to take a look.
He understood what Xiao Mandong was thinking. If he didn’t show himself, he was worried that the Brigade Leader and the Village Secretary might try to suppress the matter to save the village’s reputation.
The man’s wife had squeezed into the crowd and was peering toward the room when she caught sight of Shen Linzhou.
She rubbed her sore eyes and looked again at the doorway blocked by the packed crowd. Suddenly, she realized what had happened.
Just then, someone came running into the courtyard carrying a bucket of water. The crowd immediately parted to make way.
Splash!
A bucket of icy well water was poured over the two people’s heads. Only then did they stop.
Pei Jiaojiao shuddered all over and abruptly woke up. Her hand instinctively reached for the quilt, her mind confusing this scene with what had happened at the hospital that day.
