"What?" The crowd stirred, and some eyes turned toward Fan Wenhai—some sympathetic, some suspicious. Either way, the looks were complicated.
Fan Wenhai knew the child was definitely his, but there was no way he could admit it right now.
At this moment, Chen Yulan's eyes were dim with despair. She had once been pregnant, but because she was young at the time and had a secret abortion, her body had been damaged. The doctor said she could never get pregnant again. This child was Fan Wenhai's. If she could bring the child home and raise it, wouldn't she be able to stay with Fan Wenhai forever?
Cripple Liu's face turned extremely ugly when he heard Xiao Mandong's words. Even if he wanted a wife, he didn't want to raise another man's child.
Xiao Mandong administered two acupuncture needles, and Hu Guizhen slowly regained consciousness. When she heard she was pregnant, she wished she could pass out again.
Then she spotted Fan Wenhai in the crowd and looked at him with pleading eyes. She hoped he would acknowledge the child, divorce Chen Yulan, and marry her. But Fan Wenhai simply turned his head the other way.
Hu Guizhen suddenly felt utterly hopeless. If she said the child was Fan Wenhai's, would he admit it? What was she supposed to do? Unmarried and pregnant—how could she go on living?
After a fierce internal struggle, Hu Guizhen's gaze drifted back to Fan Wenhai.
Fan Wenhai met her pleading eyes, his heart pounding faster and faster. His hands clenched tight, and he turned to leave immediately—he was truly afraid Hu Guizhen would shout his name.
When she saw how cowardly he was, her heart went completely cold. She suddenly raised her voice: "Brother Wenhai, say something! You can't just abandon me."
At those words, everyone's gaze swept toward Fan Wenhai. His face flushed deep red, and he wished he could crawl into a crack in the ground.
Fan Wenhai took a deep breath. He knew if he admitted the child was his, he would be finished today. The cave incident had barely blown over, and now Hu Guizhen was stirring up more trouble? If she would just claim the child was Cripple Liu's, then once things settled down, they could plan something slowly. Why did she have to make him take responsibility in front of everyone like this? How was he supposed to manage it? He couldn't exactly marry two women, could he?
Gritting his teeth, he squeezed out a line: "Are you crazy? What do I have to do with you? Why should I take care of you?"
Hu Guizhen scrambled up from the ground. Since things had already gone this far, she figured she might as well go all in: "Fan Wenhai, the child is yours. Are you going to deny it?"
"You say it's his, so it's his? What proof do you have?" Chen Yulan jumped in first. She absolutely couldn't let Fan Wenhai sink—otherwise she'd be ruined too.
Hu Guizhen laughed through her tears, like a madwoman. Yeah, what proof could she possibly have? She'd been caught in the act on Cripple Liu's bed, and now she was claiming the child was Fan Wenhai's. Who would believe that nonsense? Was this karma? The karma for scheming against Xiao Manxue all this time.
Hu Guizhen wiped her face roughly and said, "The child is Cripple Liu's. I agree to marry him."
But now Cripple Liu didn't want to marry Hu Guizhen at all: "You're crazy! I touched you for the first time today. Don't you dare frame me!"
Hu Guizhen let out a sinister smile: "Take a bullet, or raise the kid—pick one?"
Liu's mother snapped out of it and grabbed at Hu Guizhen's hair, about to hit her, but the auntie beside her pulled her back.
"Don't fight. What matters is saving your son. If this gets ugly, it could be a hooliganism charge. That Educated Youth Hu can still get pregnant later, and there's no guarantee this baby will even make it to birth. Don't act rashly."
Cripple Liu grabbed at his hair in frustration. He didn't want to be a cuckold, but he sure as hell didn't want to take a bullet either. He'd heard what the auntie said, and finally gritted his teeth and accepted it. The auntie was right—there was no guarantee the kid would even be born.
"Fine. I agree to marry her."
Liu's mother could only slap her thighs and sit on the ground crying: "What a curse—bringing such a slut into this family! What are we going to do?"
The village chief saw that the matter was settled and let out a sigh of relief.
"Go get the marriage certificate tomorrow, pick a day for a small ceremony, and bring her back from the educated youth dorm."
Cripple Liu nodded eagerly. He knew the chief was doing him a favor: "Uncle, I'll go pick her up as soon as possible."
The village chief stopped Fan Wenhai, who was about to leave, and gave him no face in front of everyone: "Educated Youth Fan, you'd better behave yourself from now on. Keep your damn pants zipped."
Fan Wenhai's face turned deathly pale. He knew the village was only covering this up to avoid scandal—but that didn't mean no one knew what was going on.
Fan Wenhai didn't say a word and disappeared from sight in a hurry.
Xiao Mandong curled her lip: "Wonder which barn door wasn't shut properly—out came Fan Wenhai."
Once the crowd dispersed, Xiao Mandong called out to the village chief: "Uncle, I'd like to take tomorrow off to buy some groceries. The villagers helped me find my sister today, so I want to host everyone for a meal tomorrow."
The chief had already heard about what happened that day and gave her the leave without hesitation, telling her to stop by the village office first thing in the morning for a permit. Under the planned supply system, without a permit from the village, she could buy at most two pounds of meat.
Xiao Mandong asked Zhou Qichuan to help buy some fish from the villagers—there were those in the village who knew how to catch fish, and fresh ones didn't require ration tickets.
Back at the clinic, she saw her sister standing in the doorway looking out. Xiao Mandong suppressed the turmoil inside her. Was her sister's ordeal finally over?
Xiao Manxue saw her sister return and immediately went to heat up the food. Xiao Mandong didn't bring up what happened that day. She knew her sister must have been terrified, and didn't want to upset her further, so she decided not to mention it. She believed her sister had learned her lesson and would be more careful from now on.
Xiao Manxue felt deeply guilty—she'd brought her sister more trouble again.
That day after getting off work, Hu Guizhen had said Xiao Manxue's work points were wrongly recorded and accused her of cheating them. She insisted Xiao Manxue go to the fields to check, or she'd report her. Xiao Manxue reluctantly followed Hu Guizhen to look, only to discover that Cripple Liu was hiding nearby. He gagged her, threw her into a cave, and left her there, planning to come back in the middle of the night. Meanwhile, the whole village was searching frantically for her.
Xiao Manxue knew that if her sister hadn't been in the village, she would have been ruined. Just thinking about it sent chills down her spine.
The two sisters finished their meal before returning to the educated youth dorm.
The next morning, Xiao Mandong waited early at the village office. After getting the permit from the chief, she caught the ox cart into town.
Before long, she saw Hu Guizhen and Cripple Liu walking toward the cart, one behind the other, arguing the whole way. Cripple Liu kept rubbing his knee—he didn't know what had happened. Last night, after everyone left, he'd felt a pain in his knee. He figured he'd just bumped it. But it hadn't gotten better all night, and by morning it was even worse.
He'd wanted to rest for a couple of days, but the village chief had shown up at his house early and handed him a village permit, telling him to get the marriage certificate with Hu Guizhen today to avoid any unnecessary trouble. So he had no choice but to endure the pain in his leg and head into town for the certificate.
