50: Notes from a Paranoid Educated Youth 19

“Minister Zhou… he’s been acting strange lately.”

By the stone roller in the threshing ground, a few villagers huddled together, whispering.

“The day before yesterday, Old Li’s dog barked at him a couple of times, and his eyes were so dark they could kill!”

“This morning was even scarier. He stared at the name ‘Wen Ci’ on a document from the commune for half an hour, and the paper was crumpled in his hand…”

The murmuring suddenly ceased.

Zhou Linchuan emerged from the woods, carrying a wild rabbit dripping blood. The sound of his black boots crushing dry leaves was like bones breaking.

His gaze was icy, looking at everyone as if devoid of emotion.

The blood in his hand was a vivid, striking red.

Everyone lowered their heads and fell silent, only daring to breathe again after he had walked far away.

How terrifying.

*

“If you ask me, that capitalist young lady got what she deserved!”

Lin Hongying deliberately raised her voice, scrubbing clothes by the well.

Lately, she had been overjoyed; her life had become much easier since Wen Ci left.

Before, all the men in the village would stare at Wen Ci. With Wen Ci gone, wasn’t the village hers, Lin Hongying’s, domain now?

All the good men should belong to her, Lin Hongying. Although Zhou Linchuan had a strange temper, he was incredibly handsome; there was no man in the village more attractive than him.

When Wen Ci was around, Lin Hongying had never seen Zhou Linchuan look at any other woman. She could understand that he had been bewitched by that vixen Wen Ci.

But now that Wen Ci had left, she wanted Zhou Linchuan to know that she, Lin Hongying, was much more suitable for marriage and daily life than a woman like Wen Ci.

“Capitalist young ladies are all delicate and pampered, not like us working people?” She secretly glanced at Zhou Linchuan, who was chopping wood nearby. “If I were a man, I’d definitely choose someone who can handle daily life…”

A loud “bang” choked her words in her throat.

The man’s axe suddenly deeply embedded itself in the tree stump.

Zhou Linchuan looked up.

That gaze made the washing stick in Lin Hongying’s hand drop into the well with a “thud.”

It wasn’t annoyance, nor anger.

It was a cold indifference, as if he didn’t even recognize who she was.

For the first time, panic seized her heart.

This shouldn’t be happening.

In her previous life, Zhou Linchuan loved her so much; his eyes should have been on her.

Why was he looking at her with such a cold gaze?

Lin Hongying knelt by the well, her washing stick still in the well with a “thud,” forgotten. She just stared blankly at Zhou Linchuan’s retreating back.

“How could this be…” she murmured, her nails digging deeply into her palms.

As a reborn person, Lin Hongying clearly remembered how obsessed Zhou Linchuan had been with her in the previous life.

In the previous life, his eyes had never held any other woman but her!

She had thought that after being reborn, this life would be the same; as long as she crooked her finger, Zhou Linchuan would come to her.

But reality had dealt her a heavy blow. Zhou Linchuan’s eyes didn’t hold her at all, only that capitalist young lady named Wen Ci!

“Lin Hongying, what are you spacing out for? Your clothes are going to be washed away by the water!” Aunt Wang from next door’s shout pulled her back to reality.

Lin Hongying hurriedly grabbed the floating clothes, her heart in turmoil.

She looked unwillingly towards Zhou Linchuan’s small courtyard, its doors and windows tightly shut, as if isolated from the world.

“It must be that vixen Wen Ci who put some kind of spell on him…” Lin Hongying gritted her teeth as she wrung out the clothes. “Once the spell wears off, he’ll naturally remember my good qualities.”

This thought made her feel a little better. She straightened her back, deliberately walked past Zhou Linchuan’s door, even slowing her steps and clearing her throat to sing a folk song.

“In March, peach blossoms bloom~ Little sister waits for big brother to come up the mountain~”

Her singing abruptly stopped as Zhou Linchuan’s courtyard door suddenly opened, and the man’s tall figure appeared in the doorway.

Lin Hongying’s heart swelled with joy. Just as she was about to speak, she saw Zhou Linchuan walk straight towards the village entrance without even glancing at her.

He clutched a piece of paper, his knuckles white from the force. Lin Hongying squinted, vaguely seeing the name “Wen Ci” on the paper.

“It’s her again!” Lin Hongying trembled with rage. “Even after she’s gone, she’s still haunting him!”

What kind of bewitching potion had that Wen Ci given him?

In the following days, everyone in the village witnessed Zhou Linchuan’s “strangeness.”

He worked as usual during the day, but at night, he would stay in the small courtyard where Wen Ci had lived until dawn. Some people saw him carefully putting away Wen Ci’s comb and clothes, one by one, into a wooden box, treating them like precious treasures.

Even more terrifying was his gaze; he looked at everyone like they were dead, and only when Wen Ci was mentioned would a morbid light appear in his eyes.

“He’s a madman…” Lin Hongying complained to her girlfriends while washing clothes by the river. “To be so obsessed with a capitalist young lady, he truly doesn’t know what’s good for him!”

However, her girlfriends, who used to chat with her, had somehow ganged up to isolate her!

They wouldn’t even talk to her anymore!

And when they saw her coming, they would even shift away, as if afraid of being tainted by her.

Lin Hongying’s face turned an embarrassed crimson, then she stomped her foot fiercely, “Why are you ignoring me?!”

Still, no one paid her any mind. They spoke amongst themselves, but not to her.

Lin Hongying was practically fuming. She turned and, without even washing her clothes, carried them home.

She had no idea that her recent bad temper and constant badmouthing of Wen Ci had long since ruined her popularity; everyone wanted nothing to do with such a person.

“Damn it, this must all be because of Wen Ci! It’s all her fault! She should have died long ago…”

A sickle suddenly pressed against her neck. Lin Hongying was so terrified that her hair stood on end, too petrified to even scream.

She looked up and saw Zhou Linchuan, his eyes dark and menacing.

“Let me hear you say one more word about her,” he slowly approached, his voice terrifyingly soft, “and I’ll cut out your tongue.”

Lin Hongying’s face turned ashen. She hadn’t expected that the man who, in her previous life, would only protect her, would now turn a knife on her!

That night, Lin Hongying had a nightmare. In her dream, Zhou Linchuan was choking her, repeatedly demanding to know Wen Ci’s whereabouts.

She woke up drenched in cold sweat, collapsing on the bed, finally realizing what kind of madman she had provoked.

“He’s not normal…” she murmured. “This pervert doesn’t deserve me at all…”

This realization made her feel a little better. Yes, Zhou Linchuan was a lunatic, desperate for a woman, not at all like someone capable of great things.

Why should she, Lin Hongying, reborn into this life, waste her time on such a person?

However, fate soon dealt her a heavy blow.

Three days later, a black car drove into the village. County leaders personally came to announce that Zhou Linchuan’s father had been exonerated. Because his father had already passed away, Zhou Linchuan could not only return to the city but also directly enter the provincial committee to take over his father’s work and high position!

The news spread, and the entire village was in an uproar, shocked beyond belief!

Lin Hongying was working in the fields when she heard the news, and her hoe dropped directly onto her foot.

“Ouch!” She hopped in pain, but her heart ached even more. “How could this be?!”

She suddenly remembered that in her previous life, Zhou Linchuan had indeed mentioned that his father had been wronged. But at that time, she hadn’t believed him; not only that, she had even mocked him. Afterward, Zhou Linchuan never spoke to her about his family again.

She hadn’t expected it to be true, that he could actually be exonerated!

In an instant, Lin Hongying became ecstatic.

Zhou Linchuan had become a high-ranking official, which meant she would be the wife of a high-ranking official!

Wouldn’t she have everything she desired, no longer needing to work in the fields and dig wild vegetables every day like this!

“Hahahaha!” She burst out laughing, looking up at the sky.

The people around her looked at her as if she were insane.

Lin Hongying didn’t care about their gazes. Her heart was now soaring, wishing she could look down on everyone with disdain.

She would be the wife of a high-ranking official in the future; these people weren’t even worthy of speaking to her!

Just thinking about it made her incredibly excited.

“I have to seize this opportunity…” Lin Hongying ignored her foot pain, limping towards Zhou Linchuan’s house. “It’s definitely not too late to show my goodwill now!”

She still firmly believed that Zhou Linchuan still had feelings for her in his heart!