The Delicate Darling with Her Rough Man

”Sister Xiao Li, I’m going to head back now.”

Gu Jiaojiao picked up her back basket, placed the medicinal herbs she had gathered inside, and said goodbye to Chen Xiaoli before leaving.

When she got home, she went to the cellar to check her stock.

Over the past six months, Leng Yuan had gone up the mountain quite a bit. They basically kept whatever he caught for themselves to eat and hadn’t sold any of it.

She took a look and saw there were two pheasants, one wild rabbit, and some eggs.

Their hens were now laying four eggs a day, but it still wasn’t enough. With everyone eating one boiled egg each morning, there were none left over for cooking. Leng Yuan still occasionally traded for some eggs to bring home.

He had brought back half a basket last time, and there were still quite a few left!

Gu Jiaojiao decided to stew the pheasants.

During the winter, she had stored a lot of wild mushrooms from the mountain. Those mushrooms tasted great, and the dried ones had an even richer flavor than fresh ones. Stewing the pheasant with dried mushrooms and adding some sweet potato noodles would be absolutely divine.

She would make the wild rabbit spicy.

With two meat dishes planned, she could also scramble some eggs with the chives from her backyard, which would be wonderfully fragrant.

The food back then was all about being purely natural. The eggs were all free-range, so they already tasted good on their own. Frying them with a spoonful of homemade lard would make them even more delicious.

Then she could pick a tomato for a cold salad, stir-fry some green vegetables, and make a soup. For the main course, they would have white rice!

These dishes would go perfectly with rice.

While Gu Jiaojiao was busy at home, the village outside was in an uproar.

Leng Yuan was walking along the edge of the fields with a stranger. The man was well-dressed and had a powerful presence; he was clearly not an ordinary person.

Just as everyone was guessing the man’s identity, the production team leader walked up from behind.

He eagerly explained the planting situation and the growth of the crops to the visitor.

The people working nearby kept glancing over, their hands slowing down.

Seeing everyone’s curiosity, the production team leader stood up straight and offered an explanation to the workers.

”This is a leader from our county. He’s here specifically to commend Comrade Leng Yuan for his fearless bravery in rescuing the trafficked children. He’s also here to inspect our work.”

Upon hearing this, everyone looked at Leng Yuan with admiration. They had already heard about what Leng Yuan had done from the younger people in the village the day before and were all incredibly impressed.

However, knowing a leader was inspecting, they didn’t dare to dawdle any longer, and their movements became much quicker.

But, inevitably, someone was resentful.

Feng Ergou, for example.

He watched with jealousy as the man stood at the edge of the field, chatting and laughing cheerfully with the leader. He couldn’t help but feel that heaven was unfair.

’Why does someone like Leng Yuan, with no father or mother, have such good luck?’

’He gets to run into human traffickers, rescue the kidnapped children, and even earn the appreciation of a leader.’

’He, Feng Ergou, also dreamed of being a hero, so why did good things like this never happen to him?’

’Fate!’

’It’s so unfair.’

Feng Ergou’s eyes turned red with jealousy. Leng Yuan immediately noticed the blatant stare fixed on him.

He raised his sharp eyes to look back and immediately saw that among the group of workers, only one hunchbacked man wasn’t working, but was instead staring at him.

The man was small and thin, his clothes washed until they were faded, and he had a rather sleazy expression.

Leng Yuan frowned slightly. ’A man like that... I could take him out with one punch. He’s a total weakling.’

Feng Ergou hadn’t expected to get caught staring at Leng Yuan. He immediately looked away. ’Forget it,’ he thought, ’the leader is still here. Causing a scene would be disrespectful to him. I... I’ll let Leng Yuan off the hook this time. I’ll just be jealous of him again later.’