Chapter 26

On the way back, the more Bai Xinmei thought about it, the angrier she became. Today had been incredibly unlucky. This couldn’t go on, she had to think of a way to teach Liu Mazi a lesson.
[Male lead Song Jinping has appeared. Current progress is slow. Interns, please speed things up.]
[Male lead?]
She recalled that there had been several neatly dressed people on the ox cart earlier, looking like students.
But she had been too angry at the time to take a good look. What rotten luck, there wasn’t much food left in the pot, so not only did she have to cook again, but her first impression on the male lead…
A flirtatious widow? Or a shrew who beats people and curses at them?
She was truly speechless. [Why didn’t you remind me earlier!]
[This system is only responsible for broadcasting the task host’s score and mission progress. Other matters will not be commented on. Apologies.]
Angry, Bai Xinmei fanned the stove hard, forgetting that the firewood in the corner had been soaked by rain a few days ago. As soon as the fire started, thick smoke filled the entire kitchen.
“Cough, cough, cough!!”
“Third Aunt… did you burn down the kitchen again…?”
Da Ya had brought Niuniu to the small vegetable patch beside the courtyard to look for caterpillars to feed the chickens. Suddenly, she saw thick smoke billowing from the kitchen.
Her heart jumped, surely Third Aunt hadn’t set the kitchen on fire again? Ever since Third Uncle passed away, Third Aunt had taken over all the cooking. A while back, the kitchen had caught fire two or three times, and the food came out black as charcoal.
Things had improved later, it was passable now, and it had been a long time since this kind of mistake happened.
“It’s fine, it’s fine. You kids keep playing. The firewood is damp.”
By the time she finished cooking again, the sun was no longer directly overhead.
“Ma, Ma, Niuniu wants to go with Ma…”
Seeing her about to head out again, Niuniu immediately started fussing.
“You can come, but Ma won’t carry you on the way. Ma’s hands will be full with baskets, you’ll have to walk by yourself.”
Bai Xinmei crouched down, rubbing her temples, and explained the key issue to Niuniu.
“Niuniu’s not scared!”
Niuniu patted her little chest, declaring she could do it.
“What about Da Ya? Do you want to come with Third Aunt?”
“No, Third Aunt. Da Ya has to watch little brother.”
“Ma, Niuniu’s feet won’t move anymore. They don’t listen to Niuniu.”
From the Qin family’s house to the fields where the Qin family earned work points was several li away.
Niuniu quickly ran out of strength, muttering that her feet wouldn’t listen to her anymore. In truth, she was telling her Ma she couldn’t walk and wanted to be carried.
“Ma told you before we left, Ma doesn’t have free hands to carry you.”
“But my little feet won’t listen, Ma. Look, Niuniu isn’t lying.”
Niuniu lifted her little face, three parts resembling Qin Yuanzheng, seven parts resembling Bai Xinmei, and pointed at her feet in a babyish voice.
Her fair cheeks were flushed red from the sun, sweat all over her small body in her little jacket.
Bai Xinmei was anxious to deliver the food, but she couldn’t just abandon Niuniu halfway.
She tried hanging both food baskets on one side and holding Niuniu with one arm.
After just two steps, it still didn’t work. Both arms ached. She had never done hard labor in her life, her body was simply too weak.
After walking a dozen more steps, she set Niuniu down, squatted on the ground, buried her head in her knees, and began to cry in grievance.
She hated Qin Yuanzheng to death. Leaving her with a child was bad enough, he had to go and die too. What bullshit “martyr’s widow” title, just a chastity plaque for her to bear.
Back when he came to the Bai family to take her away, he had promised to treat her well for a lifetime, to never let her suffer hardship.
If she’d known he’d die, she would never have slept with him before he went to the army. She hated him so much.
She hated this world too. How had she ended up so unlucky?
[Sigh, being a single Ma really isn’t easy. Respect to the streamer, sending two colas.]
[Honestly, the host could’ve tweaked the character setting a bit and changed the main storyline, if she hadn’t gotten involved with that cannon-fodder male, the kid wouldn’t be such a burden.]
[How can you say that! Niuniu is so cute! I’m cheering for Niuniu!]
Fortunately, a few women from the same village were returning from the lower dam. They were fairly familiar with the Qin family.
“Third Qin’s wife, what are you doing squatting here counting ants?”
“Aren’t you afraid the child will get sunburned?”
After some conversation, Bai Xinmei had them take Niuniu back first while she went to deliver the food.
After Bai Xinmei left, the women continued chatting.
“Oh dear, what a sin, the child’s all sunburned.”
“Come here, Niuniu. Great-Grandma Wang will carry you. You’re so little, how could you walk several li? Third Qin’s wife really hasn’t been a mother long enough.”
Niuniu was small but very polite.
“Thank you, Great-Grandma. The baskets were heavy, that’s why Ma couldn’t carry Niuniu.”
“Look at that, such a filial child, even defending her Ma.”
Hearing Niuniu protect her mother and refuse to let others badmouth her, the women burst into laughter.
“Well, it’s true. She got pregnant at eighteen, then the man died. She’s pitiful too. I heard her family used to be big landlords, but then the revolution happened. Her fate, tsk, tsk, not good.”
“But still, her husband died so young, she’s pretty, yet she raised the child without remarrying. She held fast. If you ask me, Wang Cuilan, she’s a good woman. We should stop harping on her class background.”
“Exactly. When her husband first died, lots of young men came asking me whether she planned to remarry…”
Bai Xinmei finally delivered the food. The Qin family in the fields had been waiting desperately, stomachs growling, full of resentment.
Li Zhaodi had even thrown down her hoe and started cursing. Only when Bai Xinmei arrived did she rein it in.
“Sister-in-law, I’m sorry…”
With red eyes, Bai Xinmei explained everything from start to finish. The Qin family’s resentment and anger instantly shifted to Liu Mazi.
“Damn it, tonight we’ll grab hoes and beat that bastard to death.”
Watching Bai Xinmei cry so pitifully, Li Zhaodi suddenly understood why her short-lived brother-in-law had been completely bewitched by this younger sister-in-law.
You had to act pitiful. Soft. Fragile.
As evening fell and the sun dipped toward the mountains, the Qin family headed back together.
“Ouch, my fall hurt so bad”
Halfway back, Li Zhaodi stepped on a stone and fell. She was about to scramble up when she suddenly remembered her daytime realization.
So she pinched her voice and cried out, thinking her husband would feel sorry for her and come comfort her, ideally even carry her hoe for her.
But after a long while, Qin Yuangang didn’t even make a peep.
“Eldest son’s wife, the ground’s cold. Get up quickly.”
It was Old Madam Qin who finally urged her.
Li Zhaodi sprang up and stomped over to Qin Yuangang, glaring viciously. “Didn’t you see me fall? You couldn’t even come pull me up?”
Qin Yuangang didn’t quite understand why his wife was suddenly acting so crazy, so obedient usually.
“You went up the mountain to pick mushrooms and broke your right arm, and you walked all the way back by yourself. I offered to carry you, and you refused!”
“You heartless man!”
This scene made Bai Xinmei’s live-stream viewers laugh out loud.
[So she’s imitating the streamer’s melodramatic acting, too funny.]
[Ouch~ That must’ve hurt~]
[LOL, why is someone upstairs sending a voice message now?]
Bai Xinmei also wanted to laugh, but she held it in.
After walking for about an hour, from sunrise to sunset, they finally made it back home.
Da Ya ran out excitedly to greet her mother, saying her little brother hadn’t pooped much today and had been very good.
Bai Xinmei also waited for Niuniu to come greet her, waiting for a long time…
“Da Ya, Niuniu isn’t back yet?”
“Third Aunt, didn’t Niuniu go with you to deliver the lunch?”
“Didn’t Great-Grandma Wang from the west side of the village bring Niuniu back?”
“No.”
Bai Xinmei hurried to the houses of the women who had helped at noon and found that they were also looking for the child.
The child was missing. Wang Cuilan said that while feeding the chickens, the girl had disappeared.
This was the child Bai Xinmei had carried for ten months and raised for three years.
But in this situation, she couldn’t really blame Wang Cuilan.
“Whose child are you?”
Song Jinping was sitting under a tree near the Educated Youth station, reading. Not long after, he noticed a little girl peeking at him from behind the tree.
She was a fair-skinned girl with two small pigtails, her eyes sparkling. Even in the capital, such a pretty girl was rare.
This appearance… why did it seem vaguely familiar?
Noticing that she had been spotted, the girl covered her face with her hands, then peeked again at Song Jinping.
Suddenly, she called out in a clear little voice: “Daddy.”
Song Jinping’s expression shifted subtly. Whose child was this?
The whole village had been searched. Bai Xinmei was on the verge of tears. Could the child have fallen into a well or river? The brigade leader thought for a moment and reassured her: the Educated Youth station hadn’t been searched yet.
When Bai Xinmei and the others arrived, they witnessed a harmonious scene.
A fair-skinned, refined-looking man sat upright in a chair, slowly peeling candies for the little girl. A small pile of wrappers had already accumulated on the table.
It made everyone envious.
“Educated Youth Song, this child…”
Qilian Shan scratched his head, unsure how to ask.
“Niuniu!”
“Ma!”
Song Jinping looked and finally realized that Niuniu’s mother was the widow he had encountered earlier in the day.
Under the moon, a beauty could be admired, her eyes full of spirit, her features beautiful. Suddenly, he understood why the others had discussed this widow on the ox cart earlier, though it was somewhat regrettable, it didn’t concern him.
Niuniu was still chewing a candy, handing one to Bai Xinmei at the same time.
The group searching for the child was stunned. How wealthy must Song Jinping’s family be to give so much candy to a stranger? Some children in the village might not even get one candy a year.
“Ma, it’s delicious.”
Bai Xinmei patted her little bottom, thinking, Little ungrateful thing, after all that searching, all you care about is eating.
“Song Jinping, thank you. This is my daughter. I’m so sorry she ate so much of your candy. If you don’t mind, please come have a meal at our home sometime.”
Song Jinping waved his hand, signaling it was no trouble.
As the group prepared to leave, Niuniu hugged Bai Xinmei’s neck and, unwilling to let go, said something that shocked everyone: “Daddy, can Niuniu come eat candy again tomorrow?”
The sly and proud Song Jinping experienced his first defeat in life. His hand holding the book trembled slightly, almost breaking his calm, refined appearance.
Bai Xinmei’s eyes were practically shooting fire. Although her task was to win over the male lead…
But the male lead had such poor character, tricking Niuniu into calling him “Daddy” with candy. In this day and age, any Tom, Dick, or Harry could be a male lead.
Everyone else’s expressions changed too.