Chapter 51: The Fierce and Rugged Man Who Was Loved and Left Abandoned (3)

Seeing that hand about to touch her candy, Shu Yao stood up unceremoniously, putting some distance between herself and Yang Rongrong.

"What are you doing?!"

Shu Yao's voice was not soft, causing well over half the people in the cafeteria to look over.

Yang Rongrong's face instantly flushed crimson, darkened by the daily wind and sun from farm work.

"Are you out of your mind?! Why are you yelling so loud? I just wanted to taste your candy! So stingy."

Shu Yao clutched her milk candy tightly, looking Yang Rongrong up and down with utter contempt.

"Who do you think you are? Why should I give you any? Are we even that close?"

When had the former Jiang Shu Yao ever used such a tone to speak to her?

"Jiang Shu Yao, what is your problem? We came from the same high school to teach in this godforsaken place. What is wrong with helping each other out?"

Hearing this, Yang Rongrong grew displeased and slammed her chopsticks back into her bowl with a loud *clack*.

Her bowl was filled with quite a bit of cabbage soup, and the moment the chopsticks dropped, splatters of watery broth splashed onto the back of Shu Yao's hand.

The temperature was not high, but it was enough to disgust her.

Ye Xiu tugged at Yang Rongrong's arm from the side. "Rongrong, keep your voice down."

With a cold face, Yang Rongrong shook her off and snapped unhappily, "Did I say something wrong? It's just a piece of candy, is it really worth making such a huge fuss over?"

She had taken advantage of the original owner so many times that she felt entitled to everything.

Although the original owner was pampered and lazy, she had a very easygoing personality and was generous with her money.

When they first arrived at Shiyao Village, Yang Rongrong, banking on the fact that she and the original owner were classmates, often went to her dormitory after work to get things to eat.

The original owner never minded, thinking that whatever she couldn't finish would just go to waste anyway, so she might as well give it to others to build good relations.

However, Yang Rongrong was an insatiable parasite.

While she looked down upon the original owner's promiscuous behavior, she craved the things the original owner brought from the city.

Between belittling her and sucking up to her, Yang Rongrong deserved half the credit for ruining the original owner's reputation.

And then there was Ye Xiu.

The look Shu Yao gave her was no longer as warm as before.

If she remembered correctly, Ye Xiu, just like Yang Rongrong, had taken plenty of things from the original owner.

Yet she wasn't as sharp-edged as Yang Rongrong; she always maintained a gentle, unassuming, and harmless facade no matter the occasion.

The original owner came from a well-to-do family and was too naive to see through such intricate schemes—or to put it bluntly, she was simply dense.

Therefore, in her heart, Ye Xiu was much easier to get along with than Yang Rongrong.

However, what Shu Yao detested most in this world were fake nice people!

She put down her chopsticks and lifted her eyelids to stare straight ahead.

Yang Rongrong felt a twinge of guilt under her gaze.

"Do you want me to calculate how much of my food you've eaten this month?"

Yang Rongrong only cared about eating; how could she possibly remember all that?

Even if beaten to death, she never would have imagined that Jiang Shu Yao would actually settle accounts with her over a cheap piece of milk candy.

Ye Xiu also felt she was going too far and opened her mouth to persuade her. "Yaoyao... it shouldn't..."

"And you."

Shu Yao cut her off directly, her pretty, fair face covered in frost.

"However much food Yang Rongrong managed to squeeze out of me, you tagged along and freeloaded just as much. I can let it slide, but don't take me for a fool."

Ye Xiu's complexion turned pale at a visible rate, her fists clenched, looking fragile and on the verge of collapsing.

"Yaoyao, how can you say such a thing?"

"I never even wanted to eat your things. It was you who forced them onto me and Xiuxiu because you wanted us to do your chores for you. Now that the work is done, this is how you treat us."

Once she finished speaking, the surrounding educated youths and villagers who had been watching the spectacle began to understand the situation and couldn't help but criticize Shu Yao.

"Exactly. You wanted people to help you work, and those candies were just payment. Why are you still bickering over it?"

"Such a pretty girl, why is her personality like this?"

Of course, there were also male educated youths who knew Shu Yao and tried to speak up for her, but to avoid drawing trouble onto themselves, they muttered a couple of words and shut their mouths.

***

Pei Zhi walked out of his bedroom to find Wang Cuie and Wang Cheng eating dinner in the courtyard.

The aroma of eggs drifted over, stirring up hunger.

Out of the corner of her eye, Wang Cuie caught sight of him and immediately patted Wang Cheng's hand, signaling him to eat faster.

"The jinx is here."

Eggs were a rare commodity in the village and hard to come by at the supply-and-demand cooperative.

Aside from the ones laid by their own chickens, they had to go to town and pay a markup, and even then, getting them wasn't guaranteed.

The only laying hen in the household was the one Pei Zhi had exchanged his work points for last year.

Every single egg laid by that hen ended up in Wang Cheng's belly, fattening him right up.

Wang Cheng immediately sped up his eating, slurping and swallowing a whole egg in one go, his mouth glistening with grease.

Ignoring them completely, Pei Zhi walked straight past.

"Mom! Did you see the look he gave us just now?"

Feeling his self-esteem wounded, Wang Cheng wailed loudly, complaining to Wang Cuie.

Wang Cuie spat viciously onto the ground. "Pay him no mind, that ungrateful little brat. If it weren't for the work points he earns, I would've chased him out long ago."

Before Pei Zhi even stepped into the cafeteria, he heard people arguing inside. One of the female voices sounded somewhat familiar, though he couldn't place where he had heard it.

Upon walking in and seeing the furious-looking woman, Pei Zhi understood.

It was actually her.

Shu Yao stood with her hands defiantly on her hips, dragging Yang Rongrong through the mud from head to toe.

"Help me work? You shameless thing, how do you even have the face to say that?"

"The team leader told me myself—my assigned work had no one doing it at all; it was just left sitting there empty! You did nothing, yet you're still acting so justified?!"

The original owner was lazy, but every time she slacked off, she would find people to help her out.

Either she would use seduction on the male educated youths, or she would hand Yang Rongrong and Ye Xiu a pack of milk candy or biscuits.

The original owner's snacks were brand-name goods brought from the big city, things unavailable in the rural towns, making them far more precious than work points.

Little did the original owner know, the two of them would take her things and do nothing in return.

With her neck stiff and her cheeks flushed red, Yang Rongrong opened her mouth to deny it.

Shu Yao directly hauled over the team leader, who was buried in the corner slurping soup.

"Hey, hey..."

Before Zhao Qiming could put down his soup spoon, he was dragged by Shu Yao right into the middle of the crowd.

It takes three women to stage a drama, and he had been watching the show from the sidelines for quite a while.

"Team leader, tell them—didn't they fail to help me with my work?"

That'll teach you to watch the fun.

Shu Yao deliberately dragged Zhao Qiming into the women's war, indirectly forcing him to vouch for her.

"Uh..."

Zhao Qiming stammered, feeling his head grow immensely heavy.

"Are you saying that the majority of your farm work was handed over to Educated Youth Yang and Educated Youth Ye?"

Shu Yao nodded vigorously.

Zhao Qiming turned to look at Yang Rongrong. "Educated Youth Yang, this is where you were in the wrong."

Yang Rongrong bit her lip, stomped her foot, and whined in a spoiled tone.

"Team leader!"

Zhao Qiming was worst at handling women acting coquettishly. A lump formed in his throat, and he quickly changed his tune.

"Educated Youth Jiang, there might be some misunderstanding here."

Well, would you look at that.

Shu Yao curled her lips, cleared her throat, and knitted her pretty brows.

"Team leader!"

She was naturally fair and pretty, and having indulged in laziness lately, she hadn't gotten tanned at all.

When she stared at someone with her watery, doe-like eyes, it was quite captivating.

No wonder so many male educated youths in the production team had fallen victim to her; even he, a man solely dedicated to rural education work, couldn't help but be rattled by her soft offensive.

His heart fluttered, and before he could speak, his peripheral vision caught sight of the cafeteria entrance.

A tall, broad-shouldered youth parted the curtain and walked in. Zhao Qiming's eyes lit up instantly.

He thought of a brilliant strategy: deflecting the trouble onto someone else.

Zhao Qiming raised his arm high into the air. "Brother Pei!"

Shu Yao's body stiffened as she sneaked a peek over.

No way, what a coincidence.

The youth standing not far away was none other than Pei Zhi. He was overwhelmingly handsome and exceptionally tall, standing out in the cafeteria like a crane among chickens.

His short-sleeved shirt was washed until it was pale white, revealing arms that were lean and full of quiet strength.

Pei Zhi walked over slowly, completely unaware of what had happened.

Upon seeing him, Zhao Qiming looked as though he had just caught sight of a savior.