People who eat melon are in 70 - Chapter 34

The situation between Zhao Yonglan and Su Zhengtang is quite simple.

“He’s a filial person. Every time he comes back, he’s in a rush. Although he’s just an apprentice and doesn’t have much money, he still buys things for his parents and cousins. I think that’s nice. One time, I came over late for dinner, and he specifically saved me a portion and even secretly added an egg to it.”

Zhao Yonglan eats the same dishes as the Su family, but over the past month, eggs have been particularly scarce. Each time she has them, they’re usually cooked with other ingredients, and the eggs are so scrambled that she can’t grab any. This is the first time she has eaten a whole egg by herself.

Maybe after enduring tough times for too long, even a small kindness makes her feel deeply touched.

Jiang Yutao and the others were momentarily speechless, especially Zhang Huihui: “Have you lost your mind? Just because he made you a separate egg, you think he’s a good person? What about the men in our courtyard? Don’t they give you things worth more than an egg? You’d sell yourself for one egg?”

Zhang Huihui was extremely agitated: “He looks good, sure, but he’s just a middle school student without a proper job. With his father’s situation, his family isn’t exactly innocent, especially with the new daughter-in-law he brought in. Don’t be foolish.”

Zhang Huihui truly disliked Zhao Yonglan but couldn’t stand to see her walk into a trap: “With your mindset, living with the Su family, you’d be taken advantage of in no time.”

Jiang Yutao and Gu Nianwei somewhat understood Zhao Yonglan’s feelings.

During her time with the Su family, she indeed ate poorly. Suddenly having a bit of good food made her feel deeply touched. It was like living alone for a long time and then having someone accompany her for a while. This person, in many ways, wasn’t bad, leading her to develop an uncontrollable sense of dependence.

Jiang Yutao thought even more about it.

In the story, Zhao Yonglan is Su Zhengtang’s legitimate wife. Zhao Yonglan’s character is generally disliked, so if Su Zhengtang married her and treated her well, it must mean he genuinely liked her. Zhao Yonglan is also quite proud, and her background makes her look down on those from less affluent families. She has never shown interest in any of the men from the village.

But she married Su Zhengtang, which wouldn’t make sense if it wasn’t for love.

Jiang Yutao found herself somewhat invested in their pairing. The combination of a proud young lady and a poor country boy is appealing in any era. However, such a pairing only looks good on the surface; living in different environments would surely lead to some friction.

Zhao Yonglan likely faced plenty of grievances dealing with the Su family’s dynamics.

Jiang Yutao was particularly curious about Zhao Yonglan’s life in her past two lives: “System, please filter out all the content related to Zhao Yonglan so I can take a look.”

The reason the “Melon eating System” is called that is because it has a bit of a mischievous nature, and the saying “the system follows its master” holds some truth. It was also curious about Zhao Yonglan’s past life, and as soon as Jiang Yutao finished speaking, it sprang into action.

Before long, it filled Jiang Yutao’s mind with information about Zhao Yonglan.

In her first life, Zhao Yonglan was much the same as in this one: naive and a bit foolish. She couldn’t get along with everyone at the youth station and didn’t want to work. Persuaded by Zhu Yuemei’s sweet words, she ended up living with the Su family. Her money was still borrowed by Zhu Yuemei, but unlike this life, she didn’t argue with Zhu Yuemei; she simply persistently asked her to pay it back.

When Su Zhengtang, who happened to return home, learned about this, he promised to repay the money Zhu Yuemei borrowed. He kept his word and began repaying Zhao Yonglan weekly, anywhere from two to six yuan, which he secretly obtained from the black market.

In less than six months, he paid back all of Zhao Yonglan’s money and even returned the tickets Zhu Yuemei had initially borrowed. During this time, as they spent more time together, Zhao Yonglan developed some feelings for Su Zhengtang, and he felt the same way.

They had a lukewarm relationship for over a year, during which a lewd man named Zhou Zhenfeng would occasionally annoy Zhao Yonglan like a fly. Eventually, after he got into debt and asked Zhao Yonglan for money, he turned aggressive when she refused to lend him any.

He thought that as long as Zhao Yonglan became his, she would have to marry him, and then her money would be his. Just at that critical moment, Su Zhengtang appeared and saved Zhao Yonglan, which rapidly advanced their relationship.

After the college entrance examination was reinstated, Zhao Yonglan tried twice but failed to get in, so she married Su Zhengtang. By then, Su Zhengtang had gained some assets from his dealings in the black market, and the couple bought a house in the county town, rarely returning to the village, while Zhao Yonglan seldom interacted with Zhu Yuemei. According to the customs of the time, when brothers split their families, parents typically stayed with the eldest son.

In this life after her rebirth, things became even simpler for Xia Heyu. Zhu Yuemei had just borrowed her money and hadn’t yet kicked her out, so Xia Heyu took on the role of the villain. She didn’t return Zhao Yonglan’s money and spread rumors in the village that Zhao Yonglan had a lot of money, which attracted the attention of an old bachelor and a lecher from the neighboring team. This old lecher had been following Zhao Yonglan for a long time and finally kidnapped her when she was alone.

Zhao Yonglan went missing without a trace, causing Zhang Huihui and others to panic and mobilize many people to search for her. They searched for a whole year, and by the time they found her, she was about to give birth. After that, Zhao Yonglan’s fate was never mentioned again in that book, and for Xia Heyu, it was a relief; she felt that the threat Zhao Yonglan posed to her had finally been lifted.

She had finally removed a stumbling block on her path to love with Su Zhengtang.

Jiang Yutao was quite speechless: “What kind of brain-dead plot is this? Just to suppress a rival, she has to be humiliated? It’s one thing if the female supporting character did something wrong, but what did Zhao Yonglan do? She didn’t do anything! Just because she was Su Zhengtang’s wife in the last life, she has to suffer through all this?”

The melon-eating system didn’t dare to speak up. Jiang Yutao vented her frustrations and then asked the system for her reward.

The melon-eating system suddenly remembered that it hadn’t issued the reward yet, so it hurried to get to work. It definitely wouldn’t tell her that it got so engrossed in chatting about melons on the forum that it forgot.

The post it had made had already turned into a melon forum, where experienced systems shared all sorts of bizarre people and events they had encountered. The melon-eating system was enjoying the fun atmosphere of gossip and wouldn’t have shown up if Jiang Yutao hadn’t summoned it!

Once the reward was given, the melon-eating system disappeared. Jiang Yutao had nothing more to say. However, she just couldn’t ship the CP of Zhao Yonglan and Su Zhengtang.

Xia Heyu was quite foolish, and foolish people could be devastating when they thought they were clever. Zhao Yonglan was annoying, but she was showing signs of improvement; she shouldn’t fall to the same level as in the book. That would be too cruel and insulting.

And then there was Zhou Zhengfeng. Previously, she only thought he was a bit sleazy, hypocritical, and annoying, but now he even dared to force a woman. Jiang Yutao felt more wary of him and decided to buy a mini stun gun to keep in her pocket, just in case.

Zhao Yonglan didn’t respond to Zhang Huihui’s lecturing, but she felt quite unconvinced; she genuinely thought Su Zhengtang was pretty good.

Jiang Yutao considered this and, feeling sympathy for Zhao Yonglan from the book, advised her, “Yonglan, Su Zhengtang does seem nice now, but look at his family—what have they become? And that egg he cooked for you? Isn’t that what he should do? You’ve been contributing money to the Su family every month; it’s only fair for you to get an egg occasionally.”

Jiang Yutao believed that a girl should have many reasons to be fond of a man, but it shouldn’t be based on such cheap favors.

“Our hearts are precious, and an egg shouldn’t be enough to win them over.”

Seeing Jiang Yutao encouraging her, Gu Nianwei joined in as well. Everyone chimed in, successfully suppressing Zhao Yonglan’s fleeting feelings for Su Zhengtang. Now, whenever she thought of him, all she could see was him trying to deceive her with an egg.

After returning to the youth commune, Jiang Yutao went to cook. She and Gu Nianwei had agreed to take turns making meals, and today it was Jiang Yutao’s turn.

Gu Nianwei, not short on cash, had grown tired of rough grains and brought out a bag of white flour. “I got this from my aunt’s place last time. Let’s make some dumplings.”

Eating rough grains every day was healthy, but who could stand it for long? In the past, Gu Nianwei had to sneak away to eat better food, and while it felt good a time or two, after that it lost its charm. Even the best food began to lose its appeal.

With a bag of flour, Jiang Yutao didn’t feel like she owed anything. She said, “I brought some flour coupons with me when I returned. After a while, I’ll go to the commune and buy some flour.”

Jiang Yutao was right; Ying Caixia had indeed exchanged her national grain coupons for her, and she had enough flour coupons for two or three pounds, which would last her quite a while. Plus, with the food she had earned from tasks in her system backpack, she was set for a good supply of grains.

Gu Nianwei appreciated this aspect of being with Jiang Yutao the most. When she shared good things with her, Jiang Yutao wouldn’t hesitate or act overly modest; instead, she would graciously accept and reciprocate with something of equal value.

If it ever exceeded what Jiang Yutao could handle, she would straightforwardly express it and politely refuse.

No one dislikes spending time with someone like that.

“Great! The zucchini in the yard is ripe. I’ll go pick one, and we can make zucchini and egg dumplings.” Meat-filled dumplings have their deliciousness, but vegetarian dumplings have their own fresh flavor, and just thinking about it made Gu Nianwei salivate.

Jiang Yutao was also tempted. She knew how to make dumplings; when she was a child, the orphanage organized dumpling-making events twice a month. She started making dumplings at six and rolling the dough at ten. In high school, to earn pocket money, she even worked part-time at a dumpling shop.

By the time Gu Nianwei returned with the zucchini, Jiang Yutao had already prepared the dough.

Seeing this, Gu Nianwei took the initiative to chop vegetables and make the filling. As a single woman, her survival skills were impressive.

The two worked together seamlessly, and before long, a pot of plump, white vegetarian dumplings was ready.

Gu Nianwei poured half a cup of vinegar, and they happily dipped their dumplings in it for a delicious meal.

After finishing, Li Yunying came to call them to go up the mountain.

In the north, the seasons are distinct. As autumn arrived, after the White Dew festival, the mountains began to turn yellow.

Autumn is a harvest season, and this year, with ample rainfall, there were plenty of mushrooms. Having lived in the village for eight years, Li Yunying knew which mushrooms were edible and which weren’t, as well as where to find the best ones. After following her in the mountains for the entire morning, Jiang Yutao and the others returned with their buckets full.

On their way down the mountain, they came across a hazelnut tree, which was a great find. If they dried the nuts at home, they would have snacks for the winter. Everyone was excited and quickly cleared the tree of its hazelnuts. On the way back, they chatted and laughed together, feeling very joyful.

At the foot of the mountain, they ran into a group led by Lin Jianzhong.

At this point, Lin Jianzhong was no longer the high-and-mighty retired soldier and supply cooperative director he once was. With a tainted reputation, he had been brought down by his rivals, and the person who had previously supported him was now reported by Zhao Xiaotao for embezzlement. He had also been sent to the farm along with Luo Xueming. Now, both the commune and even the county avoided someone like Lin Jianzhong.

He had no connections to offer bribes, and he was out of money. To leave a good impression on his military leaders and knowing that Luo Xueming would protect him upon returning to the village, he had given his severance pay and bonuses to the widow of a comrade.

Having barely worked a full month since his discharge, he was essentially broke, unable to gather even a small amount of capital to trade in the black market.

Seeing Gu Nianwei, his forgotten ambitions surged once again, but he clearly understood that he was no longer the same person he had been a month ago. He no longer had the power he once held, and he had learned a hard lesson about underestimating women. He recognized that these seemingly powerless educated youths were actually quite resilient.

With no solid plan, the idea of marrying Gu Nianwei seemed utterly ridiculous to him.

Gu Nianwei sensed his gaze; she could see the greed in his eyes, and it made her feel particularly repulsed.

She still remembered Lin Jianzhong’s arrogant attitude from their last meeting, and she recalled the lengths he went to achieve his goals. Her feelings toward him had plummeted, and now seeing him made her feel disgusted and irritated.

As they passed each other, Li Yunying clicked her tongue twice. “His change is really significant. When he returned home on leave before, he acted so grandly. The village officials would go to his house to have meals with him, and he was always greeted warmly on the streets. But now, he’s so reserved, hardly smiling at anyone. If someone greets him, he just gives a grunt or two.”

Lin Jianzhong’s behavior, when he was in power, could be explained as a professional demeanor, being reserved and uncommunicative. But now that he has fallen from grace, those same behaviors appear rude and disdainful.

During discussions about past gossip, people frequently recalled Lin Jianzhong’s attitude toward them. Everyone was aware; his reluctance to speak with them ultimately stemmed from his disdain for the farmers who toil in the fields. How could someone who reached the rank of company commander in the military truly be oblivious to human relations?

The competition in the military is fierce, and while there are those who are exceptionally talented yet pure, Lin Jianzhong clearly is not one of them.

To be honest, Li Yunying always found this person hypocritical. She never spoke up before because he was a soldier and they had little interaction, but now she felt free to express herself with Jiang Yutao and the others.

“His ex-wife, Wang Lili, was actually quite a good woman. She was gentle and attentive, always smiling at everyone, and when she talked about him, it was with pride and admiration. When I first arrived in the countryside, I thought their relationship was great. Later, I realized it was one-sided; Wang Lili was good to him, and he took it for granted, treating her like garbage.”

“At that time, Wang Lili wasn’t even pregnant yet; they had just married. Once, when I went to find Wang Lili, they were holding hands. After I called her away, I glanced back and saw him carefully wiping his hand with a handkerchief. He was so serious and meticulous, you’d think he was cleaning blood off his hands.”

That memory still sends chills down Li Yunying’s spine. “What kind of man looks at his wife’s affection with such disdain? He treated Wang Lili poorly, yet she bore him three children. He only returned home twice, and both times she ended up pregnant.”

Li Yunying couldn’t understand it at all.

Her complaints continued: “It’s as if he has no humanity. He knows how Zhao Chunhua treats him, and he’s aware of how Wang Lili lived with the Lin family. I refuse to believe Lin Weihong wouldn’t write to him. But whether it’s Wang Lili or the kids, has he ever cared?”

“He’s not Lin Laozhuang’s son; Lin Laozhuang wouldn’t care about those kids. Look at what those kids have become. Lin Jianzhong has been back plenty of times; has he ever taken responsibility? The commune is so close to the village, and he’s only been back a few times. What could Wang Lili have seen in such a man?”

Li Yunying had a good relationship with Wang Lili and felt deeply saddened thinking about the gentle woman who died shortly after giving birth.

A chill rose in Gu Nianwei’s heart as she thought about being pushed unknowingly toward Lin Jianzhong. She couldn’t imagine what kind of person she would have to face.

[Beep~~ Gu Nianwei’s awakening progress increased by 10%. Reward: 20 melon coins, now in the system backpack. Please continue the effort, host.]

Jiang Yutao glanced at Gu Nianwei.

Her awakening progress had already reached 60%. She had asked the system, and once it exceeded 50%, the consciousness of the small world could no longer control Gu Nianwei, meaning she wouldn’t act foolishly anymore.

She had completely broken free from the plot of the book.

The system said Gu Nianwei’s awakening would steadily improve, and she no longer needed to do anything; she just had to relax, enjoy the show, and reap the rewards.

Jiang Yutao hoped for more good news like this.

When they returned to the youth station, they laid out the mushrooms they had picked to dry. While Jiang Yutao was washing her face, a postman arrived. He parked his bicycle at the entrance and walked into the courtyard, carrying a military-green messenger bag.

“Is Jiang Yutao here? Is Jiang Yutao here? You have a letter.”

Jiang Yutao stood up, “That’s me! Who’s it from?”

The postman rummaged through his bag and handed her a letter. Standing face to face, the postman was a good ten centimeters taller than Jiang Yutao, at least 1.8 meters tall. He said, “It’s from Shencheng.”

Jiang Yutao took the letter, flipped it over, and when she looked up, she was stunned. The reason? The postman in front of her was incredibly handsome.

With delicate features, fair skin, and eyes that sparkled slightly in the sunlight, along with dimples that appeared when he smiled.

He perfectly hit Jiang Yutao’s sweet spot. Oh, God, who wouldn’t like a handsome boy who seemed to have stepped out of an anime?

Jiang Yutao’s heart raced with excitement, and she blurted out, “Comrade, what’s your name?”