Ordinary World: Starting with a divorce from Tian Runye

Li Xiangqian paused for two seconds before realizing what was happening.

Why are you running?

He wiped the sweat from his forehead.

"I'm just hitching a ride with you, is it going to delay your trip to Huangyuan or something?"

Runye didn't turn around.

"If you dawdle any longer, I'm leaving."

Li Xiangqian quickly shut up and got into the back seat.

Runye started riding her bike towards the family compound.

They rode the bike at a moderate pace. Neither of them spoke.

After a while, Li Xiangqian suddenly remembered something in the back seat.

"Let's go to the supply and marketing cooperative first. We're out of food at home."

"Hmph, by the time you remember to go to the supply and marketing cooperative, it'll be closed long ago."

Runye snorted coldly.

After saying that, he deliberately turned his body to the side.

Li Xiangqian's eyes immediately fell on the cloth bag hanging on the handlebars.

A cloth bag. It was bulging, and you couldn't tell what was inside from the outside. But hanging underneath the bag was a small package wrapped in straw paper, the oil stains already showing through.

Li Xiangqian's lips twitched slightly upwards.

"Oh. That's so thoughtful, especially on such a hot day..."

"Teacher Wang from our office went to the supply and marketing cooperative this morning, and I asked her to bring it back for me on her way."

Runye quickly interrupted Li Xiangqian and explained.

The car continued moving forward.

Sitting in the back seat, Li Xiangqian's gaze involuntarily drifted towards the handlebars again.

Inside the cloth bag, you can vaguely see a piece of green vegetable leaf, probably bok choy. There's also a round, bulging shape, likely an eggplant. Oil stains are seeping through the paper bag below, indicating meat.

Li Xiangqian secretly glanced at the back of Runye's head.

Runye's hair swayed in the wind.

Li Xiangqian couldn't help but chuckle.

"What are you doing?"

Runye asked from the front.

"It's nothing."

Li Xiangqian quickly suppressed his smile.

"Looks like you're popular at school."

……

Early the next morning.

At the entrance of the Ministry of Transport's residential compound.

Li Xiangqian stood on the steps, squinting as he looked towards the courtyard gate.

It's empty.

Other people's women are just unreliable.

Li Xiangqian muttered something to himself, then looked at Runye, who was turning her body toward the bicycle shed.

"This woman didn't even offer me a ride, even though she ate quite a bit of the braised eggplant and pork last night."

Runye pushed her bicycle out of the bike shed, glanced at him, and got on the bike.

"Get in the car."

Li Xiangqian scoffed, "That's more like it."

He then climbed into the back seat.

The car drove out of the residential compound and rode along the street towards the cultural center.

It's even hotter today than yesterday; the sun had barely climbed over the hillside when it started baking people. The poplar leaves on both sides of the street were curled up by the sun, and the cicadas had been chirping since early morning.

The two didn't talk much along the way, but the atmosphere was much more relaxed than yesterday.

Upon arriving at the entrance of the cultural center, Li Xiangqian jumped out of the back seat.

"I'm going."

He was about to walk into the courtyard when Runye suddenly called out to him from behind.

"Wait a minute."

Li Xiangqian turned around.

"what?"

Runye sat in the car, one foot on the ground, her eyes looking elsewhere.

"If Lili comes back, please tell her that I need to see her and ask her to come to Chengguan Elementary School to see me."

Li Xiangqian frowned.

"If you have anything to say, I can just pass it on to her for you."

Runye ignored her and rode off on her bicycle.

Seeing that Runye didn't appreciate his good intentions, Li Xiangqian stroked his chin, shrugged, and turned to go into the studio.

The studio was unusually quiet, just like yesterday. Du Lili wasn't there, and the cultural center was incredibly peaceful. Li Xiangqian casually greeted Lao Yang and Xiao Zhao, then sat down at his desk and started slacking off.

The clock on the wall had just pointed to ten o'clock when another head peeked out from the doorway.

Sister Sun tiptoed in, glanced outside, then glanced at the cave entrance, and left the door slightly ajar.

"Just received the news."

She lowered her voice.

"Director Du has been summoned to the county revolutionary committee again."

Old Yang looked up from the documents.

"You went again?"

"Yeah. I went first thing this morning. It's been two days already!"

Sister Sun became more and more excited as she spoke, her eyes shining brightly.

This is the second biggest piece of gossip from the cultural center this week, second only to "Old Gao's inspection." She held back for half a morning, but finally couldn't resist coming over to share it.

Xiao Zhao peeked out from behind the drawing board.

Another head peeked in through the doorway.

Old Wu.

The old man, who usually only dozed off in the reading room, quietly walked in carrying an enamel mug and closed the door.

"I saw the curator go to the county revolutionary committee."

Old Wu lowered his voice.

"I saw it from the reading room window. It was the county revolutionary committee's jeep that took them away."

Several people gathered around the table in the studio.

"If it keeps calling for two days in a row, something serious must have happened."

Old Wu blew on the tea foam in his enamel mug and said leisurely.

This old man had worked at the cultural center for twenty years and considered himself more sensitive to any developments in the county than anyone else.

"I suspect it's a money issue."

Xiao Zhao analyzed it very seriously.

"Our exhibition has so many frames, so much paint, so much paper. It all costs money. Won't the accounts fall apart?"

Old Yang shook his head.

"It doesn't seem like it. If it were about money, the curator wouldn't be looking so grim. It would be something much bigger."

"Could someone have reported us?"

Sister Sun moved even closer, her eyes wide open.

"Our exhibition has been a huge success. Will anyone get jealous and stab us in the back?"

"Who is it? Who stabbed me in the back?"

Xiao Zhao answered very quickly.

"Could it be Director Ma's side? I heard that the credit for taking over the office this time originally belonged to Director Ma, but our cultural center stole the limelight with our actions."

"Nonsense!"

Old Wu waved his hand.

"If Director Ma wanted to expose something, he would have done it on the first day. Why would he expose it for two days in a row?"

"Who could it be?"

The group of people looked at each other in bewilderment.

"Could it be that the local leaders are dissatisfied?"

Sister Sun suddenly thought of something.

"Think about it, our exhibition is all about Gao Lao's revolutionary stories. Gao Lao came down from above, and his revolutionary stories are not linked to the achievements of the local work, so of course the local leaders are not satisfied."

"so?"

Xiao Zhao looked puzzled.

"But the content of our exhibition was approved by the county revolutionary committee."

Old Wu smacked his lips.

"It's not impossible. The county leaders probably didn't understand the regional leaders' intentions, and the regional leaders are unhappy, so the county can only push our cultural center to take the blame..."

The expressions on everyone's faces changed.

"Tell me about it, Xiangqian."

Suddenly, Sister Sun turned her head to Li Xiangqian, who was leaning back in his chair. Li Xiangqian had droopy eyelids and did not participate in the whole process.

"Xiangqian, tell me, were our guesses correct?"

Li Xiangqian sat up slightly in his chair.

"Forehead……"

He coughed.

"What were you guys guessing just now?"

Sister Sun glared at him.

"I wonder if the local leaders felt there was something wrong with the exhibition, that it didn't highlight the achievements of the region's revolutionary development?"

Just as Li Xiangqian was about to give a perfunctory reply, the door to his studio was suddenly slammed shut.

"Bang!"

The group of people turned around in fright.

Du Lili rushed in.

Her face was flushed red, and her chest heaved as if she had just run a distance. She was still clutching a cloth bag in her hand.

"I'm so angry! I'm so angry!"

Du Lili threw the cloth bag on the table and plopped down in the chair opposite Li Xiangqian.