My Wife is the Vicious Supporting Character from an Era Novel - Chapter 14

Chapter 14

◎Want to Write a Letter?◎

In the afternoon, Ji Baiqing and Wen Miao went to the fields together, checked the work situation, and also annoyed the other educated youths. After the inspection, Ji Baiqing and Wen Miao went home to process the wild vegetables and mulberries they had picked today. She drew a bucket of water from the well and washed the mulberries in a red and white iron basin. Ji Baiqing fed some to Wen Miao. She used the rest to make a small jar of wine, and the remainder was spread out on a bamboo basket to be dried and brewed into a drink.

With the experience from last night, Wen Miao felt much more at ease tonight. Seeing Ji Baiqing wash her hair, she also imitated Ji Baiqing’s gentle manner from last night and used a towel to help her dry it. Unlike Wen Miao’s long, curly hair, Ji Baiqing’s hair was shoulder-length and very straight, which matched her temperament. When she didn’t smile, she looked distant and cold, keeping people at a distance. Her hair dried faster than Wen Miao’s. The two of them sat in the courtyard just like last night. Ji Baiqing looked at the beautiful woman’s exquisite profile and suddenly spoke.

“Wen Miao, why did you go to the countryside? Can you tell me in detail?” She had wanted to ask this question for a long time. There was no explanation for it in the original book, but because their relationship was not that close before, she could only suppress this question in her heart.

When this was brought up, Wen Miao’s face showed a hint of loneliness. She asked in a low voice, “Do you really want to hear it?” Ji Baiqing naturally saw her low mood. She leaned on her shoulder, rubbed against her affectionately, and said softly, “If you don’t want to talk about it, then I’ll pretend I didn’t ask.” She wanted to respect Wen Miao’s feelings.

But because she was so understanding, Wen Miao felt a little embarrassed. She tried to raise her hand and gently stroked Ji Baiqing’s soft hair. “There’s no harm in telling you if you want to know.” She spoke slowly about her family situation. Under the soft moonlight, the moon seemed to favor the beauty.

Wen Miao’s grandmother was actually her maternal grandmother, but her father was a live-in son-in-law, so Wen Miao took her mother’s surname. Wen Miao’s mother was Wen Lingyue, the eldest daughter of the Wen family. Wen Miao’s grandmother was a secretary to a founding father and had always been strong. Even though she had four daughters, she required all their husbands to be live-in sons-in-law. The Wen family had a legacy to inherit. Wen Lingyue and her sisters were all in high positions in various fields. Wen Miao’s father, Li Wenyu, took a fancy to Wen Lingyue’s family wealth and chose to be a live-in son-in-law. They had Wen Miao.

But Wen Lingyue had a congenital deficiency and passed away from an illness when Wen Miao was ten years old. She left behind a large inheritance in Wen Miao’s bankbook and a courtyard house. The next year, Li Wenyu brought another woman to live in the courtyard house that Wen Lingyue had left behind. The woman also had a daughter who was four years younger than Wen Miao. She had the same surname as Li Wenyu, Li Xin, and looked five-tenths like him.

Fortunately, they didn’t get to be happy for too long. Wen Miao’s grandmother brought people to kick them out. She gave him a room in a public house for his contribution to Wen Miao’s birth. When Wen Miao was little and still had hope for her father, Li Wenyu often secretly came to her for money. Wen Miao would use her small savings to subsidize him, and that money would be used on Wang Yao and Li Xin. Later, Wen Miao became sensible and stopped giving him money after she found out that Li Wenyu had cheated on her mother.

But she never expected that at the beginning of 1975, the quota for one educated youth to go to the countryside was assigned to Li Wenyu. Wang Yao had found out about this early by giving gifts and bit the bullet to spend two hundred yuan to buy a job for Li Xin. In the end, Wen Miao was the only suitable young woman left on Li Wenyu’s household registration. Wen Miao didn’t have a job in Beijing, so she had to go to the countryside.

After hearing the woman’s story told in a flat tone, Ji Baiqing felt a little sad. She moved closer to Wen Miao and wrapped her arms around Wen Miao’s slender waist. She didn’t know how to start comforting her. She looked up at Wen Miao’s face. In the dark night, the other side of her face was blurry, but her light-colored eyes were bright, holding a shallow pool of moonlight. She curved her lips. The question she had originally wanted to ask her—if she was sad—was replaced with something else.

“Are you happy now?” Wen Miao looked down in surprise, meeting Ji Baiqing’s beautiful, obsidian-like eyes. Infected by the smile in the woman’s eyes, she also curved her own. “I’m very happy now.” It was strange. It had only been less than half a month since she was assigned to Yunshui Village, but it felt like a long time had passed since her life in Beijing. Her life now was not as hard as she had imagined. In fact, she was happier than she was before because of Ji Baiqing’s presence.

Ji Baiqing’s smile deepened. “I’m glad you’re happy.” It was her goal to be friends with Wen Miao, so it was normal to hope her friend was happy every day. Looking at Ji Baiqing’s smiling face, Wen Miao’s gaze seemed to be scalded by her, and she quickly looked away. Her long hair fell from behind her ear, covering the blush on her cheeks. She stood up in a panic and stuttered, “Okay, it’s very late. Let’s go back to sleep.” She thought, I don’t know why Ji Baiqing doesn’t hide anything about this kind of thing. Shouldn’t girls be reserved when it comes to feelings? She was so direct, which made Wen Miao feel very uncomfortable. Wen Miao was not ready to accept her yet. She needed more time to determine her own sexual orientation. Only then could she give Ji Baiqing a response.

Watching Wen Miao rush back to the room, Ji Baiqing was a little confused. Why was she walking so fast? Thinking about how Wen Miao had been talking for so long, Ji Baiqing set up a fire to boil water. The water quickly warmed up. She carried the cup of water into the bedroom. Fumbling to turn on the flashlight on the table, she said softly, “Wen Miao, are you asleep?”

Wen Miao’s eyelashes fluttered. She answered in a muffled voice, “No.” Ji Baiqing walked to the bed and handed her the water. “You talked so much just now. Is your throat dry?” Wen Miao hadn’t felt anything, but after she said that, she did feel a little thirsty. “Yes, a little.” She took the water and took a sip. The water was still warm. In the beam of the flashlight, Ji Baiqing bent over and asked her softly, “In a few days, the village will have a holiday. Should I take you to the town to walk around?”

“Although there’s nothing fun to do, we can go to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy things. Are you craving meat? Next time we’ll buy some meat and get some bones to make soup for you.” Wen Miao looked at her chattering lips. The emotions in her heart softened quickly, and she didn’t know how to describe them. She took a deep breath and drank all the water in the cup. “Okay, we’ll go next time.” “The package from my grandmother and them should have arrived.” “I also need to send them a letter… Do you want to write a letter to them?”