Chapter 111: Then Let’s Grant Her Wish
“Two grandmas, loosen up a bit, how am I supposed to take it like this?” Wang Mazi howled, eyes darting around as he plotted something.
Ning Xiyue pressed the brick harder against his head, her foot digging in with even more force:
“Don’t play tricks. Tell us where it is. If you don’t hand over that so-called love token, believe me, I’ll show you what ‘chickens flying and eggs breaking’ really means.”
Chen Yechu, face cold, ground her foot against Wang Mazi’s neck. “Yeah, don’t think you can fool us. Our bricks don’t mess around. Spit it out now, or I’ll report you for indecency and make you ‘eat peanuts.’”
She had already seen through Wang Mazi’s little scheme to get them to lift their feet so he could run. Did he really think she and Xiyue were a pair of fools?
“Ah… it’s in my pockets—both sides,” Wang Mazi stammered. “The left one’s the love token Comrade Ning gave me, the right one’s from Comrade Chen. I told you already, now can you let me go? Don’t step on me anymore. It hurts…”
Damn it, these two young women weren’t just hard to fool—they were strong too. Their weight pressed down on him like boulders, making it hard to breathe, pain shooting through his body.
“No.”
“Not a chance.”
The two voices rang out together—Ning Xiyue first, Chen Yechu right after.
Ning Xiyue had lost her patience with Wang Mazi. She called out to Xiaohui behind her. The little dog immediately pawed at Wang Mazi’s trouser pockets and fished out the so-called “love tokens.”
First, from the left pocket—supposedly the one containing Ning Xiyue’s love token—Xiaohui hooked out a white handkerchief.
Ning Xiyue’s face darkened as soon as she saw the crookedly stitched character “Yue” in the lower right corner and the blue flower without petals embroidered on it.
It was her handkerchief—or rather, the original Ning Xiyue’s. The original owner had made it from leftover fabric while sewing clothes from mica cloth. It had been her first attempt, so the character stitching was crooked and the edges uneven. She’d lost it ages ago and never cared enough to look for it, since there were always plenty of fabric scraps at home.
But she never expected it to show up here of all places. How strange.
Her photographic memory immediately pulled up the key details: the only unfamiliar person who had visited her house a few days before the handkerchief disappeared was Ning Xiaoxiao. Now that it had resurfaced here, even a fool could see what had happened.
So, Ning Xiaoxiao was a thief.
Clutching the handkerchief, Ning Xiyue’s gaze turned sharp as she stared at Wang Mazi. “How did you get this? Speak.”
Wang Mazi was terrified and stammered,
“I… I found it hanging on the handle of my door. There was also a small note. I took a literacy class, so I can read it. It said you liked me and told me to come see you this afternoon. And now you’re acting like you don’t know me…”
Deep down, Wang Mazi knew it couldn’t have been these two women. But who cared? He was forty-two and had never had a wife—never even been with a woman. If he could get one now, he’d consider it a win.
“The note—where is it?”
As soon as Ning Xiyue asked, Xiaohui pulled a slip of paper from his pocket and held it up with its paw.
Watching the clever little dog, Chen Yechu couldn’t help but feel envious. It must be nice to have such a smart companion. She decided then and there—she’d adopt a dog too. It could protect her, keep her company, and she had plenty of food and a kitchen. A mutt would do; they were loyal and protective.
Yes, decision made—she’d get one from the team someday.
Ning Xiyue praised Xiaohui with a pat on the head, then took the note from its paw and read it.
It was blunt and crude: nine characters—“I like you, Brother Ma,” signed with Ning Xiyue’s name. The worst part? The handwriting imitated her old style.
It didn’t quite match how she wrote now—her handwriting had evolved, blending the original Ning Xiyue’s style with her own, subtly changing over time. She’d even incorporated those changes into the letters she sent home, so her family could gradually get used to them.
But Ning Xiaoxiao had never seen that. So, her clumsy attempt at imitation only confirmed to Ning Xiyue that this idiocy was indeed Ning Xiaoxiao’s doing.
Ning Xiyue crumpled the note tightly in her hand. Since you want to stir up trouble, I’ll see it through to the end. Just don’t regret it later.
“Ning Xiaoxiao did this?” Chen Yechu asked, already certain from Ning Xiyue’s expression.
“Mm.”
Chen Yechu’s heart sank. Seeing the handkerchief and Ning Xiyue’s reaction, she knew it was hers. That made her dread what Wang Mazi claimed to be her love token.
And sure enough, Xiaohui promptly fished something else from the right pocket—an intimate undergarment.
Chen Yechu’s anger flared when she saw it dangling from the dog’s paw. She snatched it, recognizing two black fingerprints on it—clearly Wang Mazi’s. Her face flushed with rage and humiliation. Grabbing a brick, she began beating Wang Mazi.
“I’ll kill you, you pervert! I’ll kill you!”
The moment Ning Xiyue saw the undergarment, she recognized it too—it was Chen Yechu’s. Sharing a room, she had seen her wear that undershirt many times.
“Ahhh!”
Wang Mazi’s screams were miserable. Ning Xiyue pulled a bundle of straw from the haystack, twisted it into a wad, and stuffed it into his mouth.
“Mmff—mmff—”
When Chen Yechu had nearly beaten the life out of him, and Wang Mazi lay limp on the ground, Ning Xiyue finally stopped her. “Ask him first how he got the clothes.”
Disgusted by the saliva-soaked straw, she used a stick to pull it away.
Chen Yechu was furious beyond words. What woman wouldn’t be, finding her undergarment in an old man’s pocket—with marks on it, no less?
In this era, if a man possessed a woman’s intimate clothing, the implications were explosive. Chen Yechu knew all too well. If people found out that her partner had such an item, tongues would wag endlessly—let alone a stranger.
Her hands trembled with rage. “Talk. How did you get this? Confess, and maybe we’ll spare your miserable dog life.”
Wang Mazi, nearly unconscious and too scared to lie, confessed honestly:
“I swear I’m innocent. I found it on my windowsill. I was sleeping at home when I heard someone knocking on the window and calling my name. The voice sounded like yours. But when I went outside, no one was there—just the clothes on the windowsill…”
“What the hell is this supposed to mean?”
Seeing Chen Yechu raise her hand to hit him again, his survival instinct kicked in and he hastily added:
“Now that I think about it, the voice wasn’t exactly yours. It was more like Ning Xiaoxiao’s.”
“It was Ning Xiaoxiao who stole my clothes,” Chen Yechu spat through clenched teeth. “It has to be. I washed them today and hung them on the pole by my kitchen door—I forgot to bring them in. She was the last one to leave when I went to work this afternoon.”
She swore she’d make Ning Xiaoxiao suffer the consequences.
“Looks like we’ve both been set up by Ning Xiaoxiao.”
Ning Xiyue and Chen Yechu looked down at the battered Wang Mazi, a shared thought forming between them. Their eyes met, and in that moment, they reached the same conclusion.
Since Ning Xiaoxiao liked Wang Mazi so much… then they might as well grant her wish.
