After becoming a widow, I became the apple of a rough man's eye.

The mountain path after the rain was all muddy, and you could sink up to your ankles with one step.

Qin Lie pulled out a worn military green hiking backpack from the house. It was an old item he had kept from his time in the army. It looked unremarkable, but it was packed full of things.

The three of them walked to the doorway. Jiang He was leaning against the door frame, his feet stepping on a broken brick, grinding it back and forth.

He practically crushed those bricks into powder.

Seeing Lin Qingqing approaching, Jiang He immediately straightened up, put on a resentful expression, and blinked his beautiful eyes twice, as if they were about to drip water.

"Sister," he called out, his voice weak and limp, "Are you really not taking me?"

Lin Qingqing stopped and reached out to straighten his disheveled collar. "It's not good to leave the house unattended. Besides, that road is too slippery. Didn't you say last time that you didn't like stepping in mud?"

"I don't like stepping in the mud, but I like being with my sister," Jiang He muttered softly, giving Qin Lie and Gu Qiangying a fierce glare out of the corner of his eye.

The two men sandwiched Lin Qingqing between them, one clearing the way and the other protecting her from the wind. They looked like a family of three going out for a spring outing, with Lin Qingqing being the only one left to guard the door.

Qin Lie didn't have the patience to watch him put on that melodramatic act, so he turned around and called out, "Fifth Brother, watch the house. If you come back with even a chicken missing, you'll be held responsible."

"Okay, okay, okay!" Jiang He replied irritably, then turned to Lin Qingqing with his usual obedient demeanor. "Sister, come back early, I'll be waiting for you to make dinner."

"Okay, I left some porridge and pickled vegetables in the pot. Remember to heat them up if you get hungry at noon. Don't eat anything cold or you'll get an upset stomach," Lin Qingqing added a couple more words of advice, still feeling a little uneasy.

Jiang He nodded obediently, watching the three figures disappear around the corner of the bamboo forest.

Once he could no longer see anyone, the innocent look on his face vanished instantly.

"cut."

Jiang He kicked the broken bricks under his feet, sending them flying. The bricks smashed against the courtyard wall and shattered into pieces with a loud crack.

"Why should I?!"

He paced around the yard twice, growing angrier with each passing thought. "They're ganging up on me. They say the road is difficult to walk on, but I think they just want to take this opportunity to be alone with my sister!"

A few grunts came from the pigsty in the backyard.

The piglets are squealing because they're hungry.

Jiang He was already furious, and hearing this noise only made him angrier.

He rushed to the backyard, pointed at the pink piglets in the pigpen, and yelled, "What are you squealing about! All you do is eat and sleep. If you squeal again, I'll stew you all!"

The piglets were startled by his shout, then squealed even louder, and one even knocked over the pig trough.

A strong smell, a mixture of pig manure and swill, wafted over.

Jiang He pinched his nose and took two steps back, frowning deeply.

"It stinks."

Just as he was about to trample down the ant nests on the ground in the yard, he caught a glimpse of a figure passing by on the path at the village entrance out of the corner of his eye.

The man was wearing a white polyester shirt, with a pen in his pocket and a book tucked under his arm. He walked with his head held high and chest out, exuding an air of aloofness.

Chen Qinghe.

Jiang He narrowed his eyes, and his previously agitated mood suddenly calmed down a bit.

His eyes darted around, and a slight smile slowly spread across his lips.

Here comes something to relieve boredom.

Chen Qinghe was actually in a terrible mood today.

Since that night in the bamboo forest, although Su Jiaojiao didn't implicate him, he always felt that the villagers were looking at him strangely. Especially the old village chief, who would stare at him gloomily every time they met, making him feel uneasy.

He just wanted to find a quiet place to read as soon as possible. The book he held in his hand, "Self-Study Series on Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry," was something he had asked someone to find at a junkyard, and he treasured it dearly. As long as the news of the resumption of the college entrance examination was confirmed, this would be his ladder to return to the city.

As I was walking, a leg suddenly appeared out in front of me.

Chen Qinghe was startled and slammed on the brakes, almost hitting his nose on that leg.

Looking up, I saw Jiang He's face, which had a half-smile on it.

"Hey, isn't this Chen, the educated youth?" Jiang He leaned against a tree by the roadside, idly playing with a blade of grass in his hand. "Where are you going to take the imperial examination so early in the morning?"

Chen Qinghe frowned, took a step back, and created some distance.

He didn't have a good impression of any of the Qin brothers, especially Jiang He, who looked young but was full of bad intentions and was no different from the village hooligans.

"Where I go is none of your business." Chen Qinghe adjusted his glasses, his face cold, and started to walk around him.

"Don't rush me." Jiang He leaned to the side and blocked his way again. "Let's talk."

"I have nothing to talk to you about," Chen Qinghe said impatiently. "Move aside, I'm going to the brigade headquarters."

"The battalion headquarters..."

Jiang He drawled, brushing the foxtail grass in his hand against Chen Qinghe's pristine white shirt collar, "Go find the old village chief? Or go find Su Jiaojiao?"

Upon hearing that name, Chen Qinghe's body visibly stiffened.

He looked at Jiang He warily: "What do you mean?"

"It's nothing." Jiang He threw the foxtail grass on the ground and rubbed it under his foot. "I just heard that Su Jiaojiao hasn't been feeling well lately, it seems like... she's having morning sickness?"

Chen Qinghe's face turned deathly pale instantly, and his fingers gripping the book tightened sharply.

"You... what nonsense are you spouting!" His voice rose several octaves, but it lacked conviction. "You have to take responsibility for spreading these kinds of rumors! Don't make baseless accusations!"

"Rumors?" Jiang He scoffed and took a step closer.

He was half a head taller than Chen Qinghe. He was usually well-behaved, but that was just an act with his family. However, when he encountered outsiders, his sinister gaze instantly cast a shadow of oppression.

"Chen, are you really stupid or just pretending? Su Jiaojiao tried to cling to my fourth brother that night, but my Qingqing saw through her. Tell me, if this child isn't my fourth brother's, whose is it?"

Jiang He leaned close to his ear, lowered her voice, and said with a hint of gloating malice, "Who else in this village is close to Su Jiaojiao besides you? Do you think if I were to shout it out on the loudspeaker at the brigade headquarters, you could still keep your spot to return to the city?"

Chen Qinghe felt a chill creep up his spine.

Returning to the city is his lifeline.

He was fed up with this poor, remote place, toiling in the fields every day, living in a leaky youth settlement, and eating corn porridge that made his throat sore. He dreamed of going back.

If this gets out, his conduct alone will be enough to ruin his reputation in this village for the rest of his life.

"What...what do you want?" Chen Qinghe asked through gritted teeth.

Looking at Jiang He's seemingly harmless smiling face, he felt that this person was more terrifying than a demon.

Jiang He was very satisfied with his reaction.

He reached out and patted Chen Qinghe on the shoulder, brushing the dust off his shoulder like a good buddy.

"Don't be so nervous. I'm not the kind of person who likes to gossip," Jiang He said with a smile. "As long as Chen Zhiqing does me a small favor, I'll keep this to myself."

Chen Qinghe swallowed hard. "What kind of busy?"

As long as it's not murder or arson, and as long as his reputation is preserved, he'll do anything.

Jiang He turned around, raised his hand and pointed in the direction of the yard, or more precisely, pointed to the "fragrant" place in the backyard.

"See? My piglets have been acting really spoiled lately, refusing to eat unless they're fed. I've been in a bad mood these past few days, and just seeing pigs annoys me. Since you have so much free time, why don't you go sweep the pigpen and feed the pigs while you're at it?"

Chen Qinghe looked in the direction he was pointing, and his face instantly turned ashen.

The stench from that pigsty could be smelled from halfway across the yard.

Feeding pigs is the dirtiest and most tiring job in the whole village, and even the laziest men in the village are unwilling to do it.

Asking a scholar, a hand that holds a pen, to scoop up pig manure?

"You...you're insulting me!" Chen Qinghe trembled with rage. "A scholar can be killed but not humiliated! I would never do such a thing!"

"Okay, then."

Jiang He shrugged, looking nonchalant. "Then I'll go to the brigade headquarters to chat with the old village chief and ask him if he wants a son-in-law who's a former educated youth. I heard Su Jiaojiao is making a scene at home. If she knew you were willing to take responsibility, she'd probably faint with joy."

As he spoke, he made a move to walk towards the brigade headquarters.

"etc!"

Chen Qinghe shouted urgently.

Jiang He stopped and turned to look at him, raising an eyebrow. "What? Changed your mind?"

Chen Qinghe stood there, his chest heaving violently.

On one side is dignity, on the other is the future.

He closed his eyes, tucked the book he treasured into his coat, gritted his teeth, and forced out a single word:

"sweep."

Jiang He was amused.

"That's right. Labor is the most glorious thing. As an intellectual, Chen, a sent-down youth, should take the lead in accepting the re-education of the poor and lower-middle peasants. Even if it's just helping the poor and lower-middle peasants feed their pigs, that's still an ideological sublimation."

He walked over, grabbed Chen Qinghe's stiff shoulder, and half-pushed, half-dragged him into the yard.

"Come on, come on, I've prepared all the tools for you. A shovel, a broom, and that big latrine ladle, nothing's missing. If you do a good job, I'll treat you to... um, steamed buns for lunch."