Chapter 300 - 115: The Green Tea Female Supporting Character in a Period Novel (2)
Chapter 300: Chapter 115: The Green Tea Female Supporting Character in a Period Novel (2)
When people feel slighted, their words are bound to get nasty:
"Heh. I’d say her days as a pampered princess are numbered. Without Jiang Wenhua pulling strings for her, let’s see how comfortable she’ll be."
Another voice chimed in. "Exactly. She’s the village chief’s daughter. You think she’s going to let her man wait on another woman? The girl might play nice, but the village chief’s wife is no fool..."
The women’s voices carried, their rising and falling tones drifting clearly into the room.
The woman on the bed had an almost sickly pallor. Her features were fine and slender. A severe coughing fit had left her eyes glistening and her cheeks and the corners of her eyes flushed a feverish pink, lending her an unexpected allure. Her nose and mouth were small and lovely, more delicate than a porcelain doll sent as tribute.
Yet she was a particularly theatrical, artsy type. She spoke and acted as if possessed by Lin herself, taking everything so seriously it was suffocating. Even in these surroundings, she still managed to live a life of refinement.
Jiang Zishi glanced at her, a trace of his old infatuation still in his eyes. But in the end, reason—worn down by more than a year of hardship in the countryside—had won out.
He set two bowls on the low kang table, which was carved with a design of magpies on plum branches. "Chi Yun’er," he said in a low voice, "there’s meat and eggs today. Eat something. Don’t punish your own body."
"And don’t take what those people outside are saying to heart."
"Yes, I rescued Comrade Bian Yumin. And yes, I held her in my arms in public and gave her artificial respiration as an emergency measure to save her life."
"But my conscience is clear. For your sake, I have to marry Comrade Bian Yumin!"
Chi Yun’er lowered her gaze, toying with her slender fingers. Her voice was husky from coughing, but it still managed to stir a sense of restless heat in the sweltering summer air.
"Jiang Zishi, I’ve told you many times: I didn’t push her into the river."
"Are you deaf, or do you really think I’m so obsessed with you I’d stoop to murdering a rival?"
"Did you have to be so eager to jump in and save her? To act so cautiously, so humbly, groveling in the dust, just to make sure all the blame fell squarely on me?"
"You’re a fool. You can’t see what’s important, you’re indecisive and spineless. Stop trying to drag me down with you, will you?"
"A girl who’s lived by the river her whole life, and she can’t swim? Or was everyone else there blind? Were they all just going to stand there and watch her die?"
"And besides, the water was only chest-deep. Did you two really need to stage such a life-and-death drama right in front of me?"
Jiang Zishi clenched his fists, suppressing his fury.
"Chi Yun’er, you two were the only ones on the bridge! Everyone saw you arguing. They saw you raise your hand, and then she fell in. What more proof do you need?"
"So chest-deep water doesn’t count as water? The riverbed is full of rocks. What if she’d hit her head? Do you think you’d still be lying here safe and sound?"
"I saved her on your behalf, and now I’m the one who’s been dragged into this, forced to take responsibility for her reputation. I’ll probably be stuck here for the rest of my life because of you."
"Whether you want to stay here in comfort or you can’t take the hardship anymore and want to find a way back to the city, you’ll need the village chief’s approval. That’s why you have to be the one to apologize!"
Chi Yun’er lifted her head, scrutinizing him.
He was of average height and slender build. Over a year of manual labor had tanned his once-fair skin to a wheaten hue. His already handsome features had only become more pronounced, making him the exact type of man the village girls and young wives secretly dreamed about.
His looks really were quite good. Back at the Kyoto General Hospital, he had been considered one of the most handsome. He had been a good student since he was a boy, and he treated people with a gentle, polite, and humble demeanor. He was like one of those gentlemen from the classics, "as warm and lustrous as fine jade," a type that girls found irresistible—including her, the cherished daughter of the hospital’s deputy director.
But no one else had been as crazy as her, chasing a man to the countryside to become a sent-down youth as if she’d been put under a spell, pouring her heart out for him and acting as his personal wallet.
’She was a peerless beauty herself, with enough young men chasing her to form an entire military company. Yet she’d been blind enough to fall for this hypocrite. She remembered the part about a gentleman being like jade, but forgot the saying that follows: a gentleman is also like water, benefiting all things, yet remaining impure. Not that any of it had anything to do with Jiang Zishi—he was no gentleman at all.’
’Whenever Chi Yun’er thought about how her parents worked so hard, scrimping and saving to mail her money, ration coupons, and other goods, only for her love-addled self to spend most of it subsidizing him, she felt so sick with regret she wanted to bang her head on a block of tofu and hang herself with a noodle!’
Thankfully, the Sleep God had pulled her into a game of chess last night, granting her an eye-opening dream. In it, she saw her future: the next twenty miserable years, chained to a village ruffian and treated as a breeding machine.
When she opened her eyes again, Chi Yun’er’s mind was startlingly clear. Any lingering illusions she’d had about Jiang Zishi were gone. In their place was a burning hatred; she wanted to chop him into pieces and feed him to the dogs!