Chapter 39
“Then would you also let her buy whatever she wants and use coupons however she likes?”
“A man earns money just to spend it on his wife.”
“And if she gets into an argument with someone, would you side with her?”
“Only someone whose head was kicked by a donkey wouldn’t side with his own wife but side with outsiders instead.”
“But what if the person arguing with her is your family?”
Yan Lei paused slightly, but still said resolutely, “Only when a husband and wife are of one mind can they live a good life.”
Qiao Wei got the answer she wanted.
No wonder Yan Lei and Lin Xixi’s vibes didn’t match, yet they could still act so “sweet and doting” in the main story.
It was because those actions that seemed “sweet and doting” from Lin Xixi’s perspective were actually just the basic requirements that Yan Lei believed a husband should fulfill.
There was no need to feel shame when fighting for one’s own interests.
Especially since Qiao Wei had transmigrated this time to take over the identity of Yan Lei’s current wife, his original wife. So even if Lin Xixi and Yan Lei had a sweet and doting happy ending in the original novel, Qiao Wei couldn’t possibly hand Yan Lei over to her on a silver platter.
She had a natural conflict of interest with Lin Xixi, who had reborn with the goal of “marrying Yan Lei,” so she wouldn’t feel guilty about fighting for her interests.
But after spending the past few days with Yan Lei, she had more or less developed a bond and feelings for him.
Once people started talking about feelings instead of interests, emotions like insecurity and anxiety would surface. She would also feel guilty, wondering, “Would Yan Lei have fallen in love with Lin Xixi anyway, only to be hindered by me?”
But now she understood.
Whether it was Lin Xixi, Lin Duoduo, or Lin Chaochao, as long as that person actively wanted to live a good life with Yan Lei, Yan Lei would achieve a so-called sweet and doting happy ending with them.
The last trace of anxiety in Qiao Wei’s heart finally vanished.
If anyone would do for Yan Lei as long as they lived a good life together, then she, the original wife, would be the one to do it.
Yan Lei peeked at Qiao Wei’s expression, feeling like he had survived this death-trap of a question.
He glanced into the yard and bellowed, “Yan Xiang! Stop eating!”
The couple quickly went outside, and sure enough, Yan Xiang was still eating.
Aside from various practical daily utensils, there were also agricultural and sideline products brought by various communes at the market. Among them, Qiao Wei particularly liked the various dried fruits and dried sweet potatoes.
Yan Xiang had already eaten a lot of good food with Qiao Wei at the market. Now, taking advantage of the two adults talking in the room, he had opened the bag on his own and was stuffing handfuls of dried fruit into his mouth.
In this era, what a wonderful snack this was—satisfying and delicious.
But he couldn’t keep eating endlessly, especially since he was such a small child.
Seeing his parents come out, Yan Xiang quickly stuffed a large handful into his mouth and then covered it.
Sure enough, the next second, the bag “flew” away from before his eyes, snatched up by his tall and imposing father.
Immediately after, his mother flicked his forehead and scolded, “Still eating! Still eating! Your tummy is going to hurt from being too full later.”
Yan Xiang moved his hand from covering his mouth to covering his forehead.
“Sho good!” he said, his cheeks bulging.
Of course it was delicious. It was purely natural, sun-dried, and completely pollution-free. Qiao Wei had also fallen in love with it at first bite and bought quite a lot.
She took the bag, shook it, and asked Yan Lei, “When is the next big…”
“…market day?”
“This is the last one for July,” Yan Lei said. “As soon as school lets out, the ‘Double Rush’ will begin.”
Qiao Wei had absolutely no idea what the “Double Rush” meant, and she didn’t dare ask. Fortunately, Yan Lei followed up immediately: “Rushing to harvest and plant, rushing to plant early rice and late rice, harvesting the paddy.”
Oh, oh, oh, so that’s what it was.
“The market won’t open again until after the busy farming season, which will be in August.”
“Alright then.”
Qiao Wei went to tidy up the various things she had bought today.
Yan Lei also had his own things to tidy up—he had bought vegetable seeds.
Qiao Wei watched as he looked for bowls and basins to soak his precious seeds. He really treasured them, being extremely careful. The way he stared at the seeds in the water was like he was looking at some lover.
Tsk, tsk~
As long as he was happy.
While tidying up, Qiao Wei discussed with him, “What should we use to fence off the vegetable garden? Bricks or something? Also, I want to pave a path from the courtyard gate to here. What do you think of pebbles? I saw quite a few in the river. Let’s go gather them and use them to pave the path.”
Yan Lei asked, “How do you want to pave it?”
Qiao Wei explained her idea, and Yan Lei couldn’t help but laugh. “You make it sound so simple. Do you think you can just lay them down directly?”
Qiao Wei was dumbfounded. “No?”
After a thought, she said, “Does it need to be fixed with cement?”
Yan Lei smiled and shook his head.
Qiao Wei snorted. “As if you know so much. Have you ever paved a path?”
To her surprise, Yan Lei said, “Of course I have. Paving roads, building bridges, constructing houses, raising pigs—what haven’t we soldiers done?”
He actually had.
“Alright.” In the face of a doer, Qiao Wei lost her confidence. “Then you tell me how to pave it. I’ll listen to you.”
Yan Lei said, “If you want to use pebbles, go ahead and get them. I’ll take care of the other materials.”
Great, that meant she was only responsible for the fun part.
Qiao Wei happily agreed.
Although she really wanted to mimic those home renovation videos she used to watch, she actually knew that a video of just a few minutes might represent several days of hard work for the creator, the kind of labor that left one’s back too sore to straighten.
Of course, creators always showed the most interesting parts to the audience, while glossing over the parts that were less interesting, dirty, and exhausting.
Qiao Wei was just like Lord Ye who claimed to love dragons but feared them in reality. She only wanted to do the most fun parts that fit her pastoral fantasy, leaving the dirty and tiring work to Yan Lei. This was great; this was what it meant for a husband and wife to work together.
“Fix your vegetable garden first. Does your soil still smell?” Qiao Wei craned her neck to look toward the vegetable garden.
“Just a little bit! Just a little bit!” Yan Lei quickly said. “The smell is mostly gone. After letting it bake in the sun a bit more, it’ll be completely odorless by tomorrow.”
Qiao Wei gave him a half-smile, then carried her beans, dried mushrooms, pickled radishes, and dried fruits to the kitchen.
Yan Lei lined up the bowls with the soaking seeds on the windowsill one by one, wiped his hands, and quickly picked up his shovel to turn the soil in the vegetable garden again. The river mud had dried completely. After turning it over once more and letting it bake in the sun, the smell would indeed be completely gone.
He wouldn’t let her find it disgusting.
This was something Regimental Commander Zhao had reminded him of when he went to drink at his place after they had argued and he had dug up the vegetable garden that year.
“Why are you composting? Do you still think you’re back home in the countryside?”
Regimental Commander Zhao had pointed at his nose and scolded him, “Think about it, what kind of wife did you marry? A city girl! It would be a miracle if she could stand that.”
Regimental Commander Zhao had suggested he could use river mud instead.
Actually, nothing was better than his own compost. Besides, it wasn’t needed anymore anyway; his vegetable garden had been dug up, and he wouldn’t be planting anything in the future.
At the time, he really thought he would never plant anything again, never expecting there would be a day when he would start planting once more.
As Yan Lei turned the soil, he sighed with emotion. Indeed, one had to go through certain experiences to grow and make progress.
She was much more tolerant now than before. Once a person’s mind broadened, life suddenly became much smoother.
While the couple, Qiao Wei and Yan Lei, were in a mood as bright as today’s sunshine, Lin Xixi’s mood was not good at all.
First, she had run into Yan Lei again at the market, which reinforced her feeling from last night—this man was really quite annoying.
In short, leaving aside other external factors and just speaking of him as a person, Lin Xixi was now a bit annoyed by Yan Lei.
Lin Xixi was originally a middle-aged woman, and people of that age loved to lecture young people, nitpicking and micromanaging everything. In Qiao Wei’s era, this was called having a “paternalistic” vibe.
Furthermore, she was a reborn person. This magical experience had brought intense self-confidence to this auntie who had lived a drab life in the 1990s, making her feel that she stood on the shoulders of the era and could look down on everyone in it.
This sense of superiority made her confident and pleased.
Who would have thought that Yan Lei, this man, would be even more paternalistic than her, instantly extinguishing her pleasure.
It was… truly annoying.
Last night, keeping his future in mind and dreaming of a life of wealth and splendor, she could still tolerate it.
But today at the market, what did she see? He was carrying a bamboo basket, and what was he buying? Coarse cloth, hand-stitched cloth shoes, and even straw sandals.
He even bought straw sandals!
Suddenly, the illusion brought by the term “high-ranking official” collapsed, no longer seeming so brilliantly glorious.
The fact that Yan Lei, like her, came from the countryside began to stand out clearly and strongly.
It was truly difficult to go against human nature. Although Lin Xixi kept telling herself that this and that didn’t matter, and that future wealth and honor were all that mattered, she only now realized that she was still the same as when she was young—what she truly yearned for deep down was the city.
She had spent half her life and still hadn’t truly turned herself into a city person.
Just last night, Yan Lei had nitpicked her, saying that anyone could tell at a glance she was from the countryside. He had no idea how deeply those words had pierced Lin Xixi’s sore spot.
Lin Xixi wandered aimlessly with Xiao Zhang through the crowded market, trying to fish for information by asking about Qiao Wei’s trip to the provincial capital.
“Her relative isn’t up to much—just an old lady who isn’t warm at all,” Xiao Zhang said. “There’s no point in keeping in touch with that kind of relative.”
Why was it an old lady? Shouldn’t it have been an elopement?
But Lin Xixi found that she actually didn’t have much interest in this matter anymore.
Looking at the crowd of rural folk at the market who were clearly mud-legged peasants, as well as some town residents who weren’t much better off, she felt a wave of disgust rise in her heart.
She even felt disgusted by Zhang Guoqiang—he was also from the countryside, spoke with a heavy local accent, and often used rustic slang.
At this moment, Lin Xixi faced her true feelings once again and realized that, just as she had for decades, she still preferred city people.
She truly, deeply hated the countryside and hated the place where she was born. In fact, after being worn down in the city for over twenty years, she hated it even more than when she was young.
After wandering around aimlessly, she parted ways with Xiao Zhang and went home.
No one was home; everyone was still browsing the market and had agreed to have lunch there. She didn’t feel like cooking either, so she lay in bed all afternoon.
When Sister Yang and Regimental Commander Zhao came back carrying Wu Nier and saw her, they thought she was sick.
She looked so listless; what was wrong?
Sister Yang brought her meal to the room and said, “What’s wrong? Can you eat? If not, should we go check it out at the town clinic? If that doesn’t work, we can go to the county hospital.”
Her husband’s older sister, who was like half a mother-in-law to her, had entrusted her daughter to them. As the sister-in-law, she didn’t dare let anything happen to her niece while she was in her care.
Lin Xixi took the food but had no appetite.
Sister Yang saw that something was wrong and sat down next to her. “If something’s on your mind, just say it. Don’t bottle it up and make yourself sick. Your aunt isn’t an outsider, and I only want what’s best for you. Tell me, did things not go well with Xiao Zhang today?”
