Reborn in the 1970s — Married a Proud Rough Man

Lin Yaru stiffened her neck and glared furiously at Jie Jingwei. ”You dare hit me? My parents won’t let you get away with it.”

Jie Jingwei sneered. ”Your parents are the ones asking me for favors. Even if I did hit you, what could they possibly do? Run to my father and tattle on me? The most he’d do is give me a talking-to.”

Lin Yaru gritted her teeth. Her parents had forced her to marry Jie Jingwei for the sole purpose of latching onto the Jie Family, hoping they would pull some strings and get her brother transferred back to the city.

”Lin Yaru, just look at yourself. The sight of you makes me sick. And you still fantasize about Jing Si giving you a second glance?” Jie Jingwei shot her a disgusted look, then stood up, grabbed the round mirror from the vanity, and tossed it onto her.

Lin Yaru didn’t dare to look, instead flinging the mirror to the ground and smashing it. ”Who’s responsible for me becoming this hideous? You are! If it weren’t for you, I’d still be...”

”You brought this on yourself,” Jie Jingwei cut her off. ”Lin Yaru, you’re a special kind of shameless.”

Jie Jingwei’s words enraged Lin Yaru. She lost all reason, snatching up a shard of the broken mirror from the floor and slashing at him without a moment’s hesitation.

Jie Jingwei hadn’t expected her to attack him. It was too late to dodge; all he could do was throw up his hand to block. The sharp edge of the mirror sliced across the back of his hand.

”SSS!” Jie Jingwei sucked in a breath of cold air. Ignoring his injured hand, he seized her wrist and gave it a vicious twist.

”AH!” Lin Yaru cried out in pain, and the shard of glass slipped from her grasp. With a violent shove, Jie Jingwei threw her onto the bed.

”Psycho,” Jie Jingwei cursed, tightly clutching the back of his wounded hand. ’I haven’t even hit her, and she has the gall to injure me.’ He couldn’t imagine what would happen if they lived alone; if he tried to teach her a lesson, would she actually try to kill him?

Lin Yaru lay face down on the bed, her body trembling uncontrollably. A wave of fear washed over her in the aftermath. ’Just a moment ago,’ she thought, ’I wanted to stab him to death. If he died, I would be free.’ But now that she had actually hurt him, her courage vanished, replaced by fear.

Jie Jingwei glanced at the wound—it was long and deep and would probably need stitches. He shot Lin Yaru a furious glare before striding out of the room.

Before Qin Mei and Jie Jingchen even stepped into the courtyard, they heard Ah Bing’s hearty laughter.

’Ah Bing is here!’ Qin Mei was delighted. ’This is perfect timing. I can talk to him about Zhang Haoyuan.’

Jie Jingchen stopped and pulled Qin Mei back.

Forced to a halt, Qin Mei looked up at Jie Jingchen with a puzzled expression. ”What’s wrong?”

Jie Jingchen pointed to the sweat-dampened front of her shirt. He cursed inwardly. ’Of all the times for Ah Bing to show up, it had to be now.’

Qin Mei glanced down. ’I don’t feel awkward in front of Jie Jingchen, but it’s a little embarrassing in front of another man.’ ”What should I do?”

”I’ll go in first. You wait a moment before coming in,” Jie Jingchen said.

”Okay,” Qin Mei nodded.

Jie Jingchen strode forward and crossed the threshold. Hearing the footsteps, Ah Bing turned and saw it was just Jie Jingchen, with no sign of Qin Mei. ”Brother Jie, where’s Sister-in-law? Jing Qi said you two went out. How come you’re back by yourself?”

”Come with me to the kitchen.” Jie Jingchen slung an arm over Ah Bing’s shoulders, steering him toward the kitchen.

Utterly confused, Ah Bing craned his neck to look behind him, but Jie Jingchen simply turned his head back to face forward.

Qin Mei peeked out, craning her neck. Once she saw the two of them go into the kitchen, she slipped into the courtyard and hurried into the house to find a pair of shorts and a short-sleeved shirt to change into.

”Brother Jie, why’d you bring me to the kitchen?” Ah Bing asked curiously.

”Know how to cook?” Jie Jingchen asked.

”Yeah,” Ah Bing nodded.

Ah Bing assumed Jie Jingchen was about to ask him to cook, but instead, Jie Jingchen just scooped up half a ladleful of water and offered it to him. ”Drink up.”

The corner of Ah Bing’s mouth twitched as he stared at the ladle. ’Drinking straight from a ladle?’ he thought. ’Aren’t city folks supposed to be really picky about hygiene?’ People in the countryside weren’t so particular. Forget using a ladle; they would just squat by a hand-pump well and drink straight from the spout as the water came up.

”Brother Jie, I brought a canteen,” Ah Bing said, declining the offer.

Jie Jingchen didn’t press the issue. He set the ladle down just as he heard Qin Mei call out at the top of her lungs, ”Jie Jingsi!”

”Let’s go outside,” Jie Jingchen said, striding out of the kitchen.

Ah Bing stood frozen, rubbing the back of his neck. He was more baffled than ever. ’What kind of act was that? Brother Jie brings me all the way to the kitchen just for that?’

Qin Mei sat in the courtyard, fanning herself with a palm-leaf fan and watching with a wide smile as Ah Bing emerged from the kitchen.

Ah Bing’s heart lurched. ’Brother Jie dragged me to the kitchen for no reason, and now Sister-in-law is beaming at me like the sun itself. Something is definitely weird with these two.’

Ah Bing walked nervously up to Qin Mei. ”Sister-in-law, did you have something you wanted to tell me?”

”What a psychic! You’re incredible, young man! I do, in fact, have something to talk to you about. Sit, sit down. We can take our time.” Qin Mei’s face was lit with an enthusiastic smile. Then, she turned to Jie Jingchen, who was just about to take a seat, and said, ”Jie Jingsi, go get Ah Bing a bowl of cooling herbal tea.”