A delicate beauty takes a place in a marriage, while a cold, rough man seduces her every night.

Shidianzi Village.

Chen Xiaomeng got up early, before six o'clock.

She knew perfectly well that marrying Jiang Runsheng was a huge step up for her.

Since she was new to the place, she wanted to make a good impression on her in-laws. So she got up early to cook.

Her father-in-law, Jiang Decheng, was the village head; her mother-in-law had previously served as the women's director; her sister-in-law worked at the supply and marketing cooperative; and Jiang Runsheng was a radio announcer. The family was respectable and successful.

On the other hand, she herself was just an ordinary country girl with no job and no skills other than doing farm work.

Although I was reborn, it's a pity I wasn't reborn sooner.

Her mother, Chen Xiuying, was old-fashioned and conservative, still adhering to the old rule that a woman's virtue lies in her lack of talent, and did not value her studies.

Therefore, Chen Xiaomeng dropped out of school after the third grade of elementary school.

If she could be reborn back to her childhood, she could definitely get into Tsinghua or Peking University with her own abilities.

It's too late to say anything now.

But then I thought, so what if I'm uneducated?

Qiao Qingyan was full of scholarly air, but in the end she still married a poor man who went into the mountains to hunt.

Despite her lack of education, she married into the most cultured and respectable family in the entire village, the Jiang family.

Compared to this, Chen Xiaomeng felt much more at ease, her smugness barely concealed, almost reaching for the sky.

She hummed a little tune as she carefully rinsed the rice in the pot.

Inside the inner room, on the kang (heated brick bed), village chief Jiang Decheng, with his eyes closed, said, "Runsheng's mother, go check what's going on in the yard?"

As Wei Yongqiu got up and dressed, he pursed his lips and replied, "Your daughter-in-law is cooking."

"Sigh..." Jiang Decheng turned over, rested his head on his arm, and slowly opened his cloudy eyes.

"Why are you sighing so early in the morning?" Wei Yongqiu asked.

"Sigh..." Jiang Decheng sighed again, "Why did I have to marry her of all people?"

Wei Yongqiu snorted irritably, "Didn't you tell your son to marry her?"

"I had no choice," Jiang Decheng said helplessly. "If I didn't marry her, someone would report it to the commune and accuse me of misconduct. Would I still have to work at Runsheng Broadcasting Station?"

Wei Yongqiu finished dressing and sat on the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed), gently poking her husband's forehead: "You're just too honest. You and your son have clearly been tricked by this young girl."

Jiang Decheng looked at her: "What do you mean by that?"

"It's a pity I wasn't there that day. If I had, I would have said on the spot that she took advantage of Runsheng while he was drunk and seduced him first! How could our son, a high school student and the village announcer, possibly be interested in a country girl who can barely read?"

"Sigh, you don't know what happened back then..."

Jiang Decheng paused, then continued, "Runsheng, why did you get involved with such a good girl like Qingyan?"

"Need I say more? She definitely seduced him with her cunning." Wei Yongqiu muttered in a low voice, "You men are all the same at heart, you don't refuse anyone who comes your way. If a woman takes the initiative to be with you, how many of you can resist?"

"Our Runsheng is no saint either, just a hot-blooded young man. That day, his uncles came to visit, and he drank a lot of wine. He wasn't careful and fell into this scheming woman's trap."

"Hmph, her little schemes might fool some men, but they won't fool me. She's clearly trying to climb up to Runsheng, a pheasant dreaming of becoming a phoenix."

Jiang Decheng frowned: "I think Runsheng is very unwilling. He was drunk last night and there wasn't a smile on his face at all."

He rubbed his face and sighed, "What's done is done. She's already married into the family. There's no use regretting it now."

He then instructed his wife, "Go to the kitchen and help that girl out. She's new here and doesn't know the place well."

Wei Yongqiu plopped down on the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed) and picked up a needle and thread to mend clothes:

"I'm not going. She's getting up early to cook, all pretense, trying to please us. Humph, I'll see how long she can keep it up!"

-

Qiao Qingyan saw Xiao Jingye again two days later.

She was washing clothes by the river at the time.

Her mother-in-law had bad legs, and she thought it would be inconvenient for the elderly to squat while washing clothes, so she took the initiative to do the laundry.

Zeng Yumei felt sorry for her and said that the fabric of her own clothes was rough and stiff, and she was afraid that it would hurt her delicate hands.

Unable to persuade her otherwise, I had no choice but to pick out a few soft cotton clothes for Duoduo and let her go to the river to wash them.

The river is not far from the Xiao family's house. Willows droop along both banks, the water is crystal clear, and the current is gentle.

On weekdays, village women often come here to wash vegetables and clothes, and adults also bring children to play in the river.

When Qiao Qingyan brought over the wooden basin, a number of women had already gathered on the shore to wash clothes.

Seeing that she was a stranger and that her clothes and demeanor were different from others, everyone whispered among themselves, trying to guess which family's daughter she was.

Qiao Qingyan didn't recognize any of these people, except for Chun Ya.

Thinking that they were all neighbors and girls of similar age, she took the initiative to step forward and greeted them with a gentle smile: "Chun Ya, hello there."

Chun Ya looked up and saw that she was wearing an elegant white dress and a pair of strappy sandals with a beautiful and unique style that she had never seen in the countryside.

A gentle breeze swept across the river, causing the grass and trees on the bank to sway softly, and a sweet fragrance of flowers drifted in from somewhere on the wind.

Those exquisite sandals made her slender ankles and delicate toes look exceptionally beautiful.

Chun Ya looked down at her slightly oversized old slippers and unconsciously curled her toes.

City people greet each other so politely; country girls are always straightforward and don't need to be so affected and refined.

She really is a pampered young lady.

With such a wife, will Jingye be able to get along well in the future?

Chun Ya felt a tightness in her chest, but still managed a polite reply.

Seeing her indifferent attitude, Qiao Qingyan didn't say anything more. She found a flat and clean bluestone slab, squatted down, took the clothes out of the wooden basin, and slowly began to wash them.

A woman washing clothes nearby asked Chun Ya curiously in a low voice, "Whose family is this girl from? She looks unfamiliar."

Chun Ya looked listless. "Aunt Zeng's daughter-in-law."

"Kinye's wife!" the woman exclaimed, "She's so beautiful."

Chun Ya scrubbed the clothes harder, until her palms turned red.

The two voices reached Qingyan's ears, but she quietly continued washing clothes, pretending not to hear.

Just then, the clear sound of a bicycle bell came from the shore.

A woman sat on the back of a bicycle, smiling and greeting acquaintances on the shore: "Cui'e, Caixia, are you both washing clothes?"

The woman named Cui'e turned around and replied, "That's right, where are you going?"

The woman affectionately wrapped her arm around the waist of the man on the bicycle: "It's all because my husband cares about me. He specially brought me to the city today and bought me this new bicycle. From now on, when I go to the market to sell vegetables, I won't have to walk so hard anymore."

"Oh, Liangzi really dotes on you, you're so lucky."

The woman smiled even more broadly, "You guys take your time washing, I'm going home first. The clothes in the washing machine are still waiting to be hung out to dry."

The sound of the bicycle bell and the turning chain gradually faded into the distance.

Once the two figures were out of sight, Cui'e immediately pouted and rolled her eyes: "Look at her smug look, she's practically wagging her tail in the air."

Caixia, standing nearby, asked curiously, "Buying a washing machine and a bicycle, where does her family get so much spare money?"

Cui'e sneered, "Don't you know? She's all living off her sister-in-law. If she earned her money honestly, she wouldn't be so extravagant."

"Who is her sister-in-law?"

"Sigh, she's that notoriously feisty character, Chen Xiuying!"

Qingyan raised an eyebrow. Her stepmother?