When She Stops Being Dramatic

Chapter 358: Chapter 133: The Green Tea Supporting Female Character in a Period Novel (20)

"There’s a saying in books: ’A scholar is utterly useless.’ That describes people like us."

With that, he poured Old Zhang a glass of liquor and downed three glasses himself as a penalty.

Old Zhang was pleased by his words and laughed heartily. "Well, at least you have some self-awareness. But I have to admit, when you cultured folks decide to flatter someone, it’s really something else. You can say the same simple thing and make it sound like poetry."

"However," his expression turned cold, "you city folk are full of petty schemes. Taking us for fools and playing your games... that’s not right, is it?"

Jiang Zishi said hurriedly, "Director Zhang, please, if you have something to say, just say it directly."

"We’re completely in the dark here; we don’t know how we’ve displeased you. We were sincere when we asked for your help before, but... but what did Comrade Chi Yun’er do today when she reported in that made you so unhappy?"

"That little girl has been spoiled rotten, so I hope you’ll take the trouble to teach her a thing or two. The real world isn’t like being at home. No one will unconditionally put up with her arrogance."

"Besides, how much harm can a young girl do? Just give her a little scare, use the old carrot-and-stick approach, and let the matter drop. She’s smart and eager to learn, so she’s sure to get on your good side quickly."

Jiang Zishi rattled this all off in a vague and roundabout way, but his intention was simply to have the conflict resolved internally at the brick factory.

Having spent the better part of a decade with her, almost day in and day out, Jiang Zishi subconsciously still saw Chi Yun’er as the same foolish, empty-headed beauty he used to have wrapped around his little finger.

In his mind, she was just a paper tiger, all bluff and bluster, with the courage of a mouse. ’After leaving me,’ he thought, ’she’ll do nothing but cry her eyes out every day.’

’Heh. I wonder if she regrets rejecting me now?’

Old Zhang let out a dry laugh. "That little brat is more capable than you think. You went to all that trouble to find her a job, and she just turned around and got into the farm, swapping posts with someone else."

"I thought I was going to solve a bachelor problem for the factory, but instead I recruited a new dean of discipline. She’d barely arrived and was already lecturing us, raising everything to a matter of political principle."

"And now my wife is stuck over at the Reorganization and Reform Committee!"

The moment he spoke, the courtyard filled with the sound of sharp, indrawn breaths.

The Reorganization and Reform Committee was a tiger’s den. It didn’t matter if you had done anything wrong; just passing through was enough to get a layer of your skin peeled off!

Everyone in that committee, from top to bottom, had been transferred from elsewhere. They all supervised one another and couldn’t be swayed by either threats or pleas. One could say that with the director’s wife taken in, the entire brick factory was facing a catastrophe.

Jiang Zishi’s focus, however, was on the fact that not only had Chi Yun’er failed to enter the brick factory, but she had used his "good intentions" to secure a position at the farm!

’Heh. If her feelings for me hadn’t been so weak, I wouldn’t have ended up choosing the harshest place for my assignment.’

’Now she’s off to the farm to polish her credentials, while I have to stay here and marry a village girl...’

"My wife would never implicate others for the sake of our family. But she was implicated because of you, so you need to give me an accounting for this!"

Old Zhang said, his eyes still lowered.

Anyone with half a brain knew this "accounting" was no ordinary one. It meant money and ration coupons, and it also had to include the person who had been promised to him before.

With a single look from the village chief, his wife immediately had everyone pick up their bowls and go back to their rooms.

"Old Zhang, this is the first we’re hearing of this ourselves. Who knew that girl could be so thoughtless!"

Old Zhang sneered. "Let’s speak plainly. Don’t you try to shift the blame. If you want to save face and keep this matter quiet, you’ll have to give me a satisfactory resolution."

"Otherwise, believe it or not, by tomorrow everyone for miles around will know that you two, father-in-law and son-in-law, have been unscrupulously matchmaking for the educated youths."

"In the end, my comrades at the factory got nothing out of it and ended up in a whole lot of trouble. When that happens, tell me, what will everyone think of you two?"

Seeing their troubled expressions, Old Zhang continued to eat leisurely. "The way I see it, you two are just overthinking things. You dared to do it once, so why are you getting squeamish the second time around?"

"Don’t we have a saying? If you strike a snake but don’t kill it, you’ll suffer the consequences."

"That Chi girl is no fool. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have skipped reporting to the factory and just swapped her post with someone else."

"And you two still think you can hide behind me like a couple of cowards?"

The village chief wasn’t much of a talker. He puffed on his long-stemmed pipe, PUFF, PUFF, and shot Jiang Zishi a look. The meaning was clear: ’You were the one who asked for this favor, so you fix it!’

Jiang Zishi took a deep breath and dropped his righteous gentleman act. He smiled and said, "That little brat really does have a nasty bite. If we let her keep running free, I’m afraid none of us will be safe."

"My older brother just loves to play the hero, so he must have been the one who interfered this time. I’m not sure if he’ll use it as an excuse to get involved in the brick factory’s business."

"We didn’t think this through. Naturally, we won’t let Director Zhang suffer this injustice."

He and Director Zhang went back and forth several times before finalizing the compensation plan.

He would compensate Director Zhang two hundred yuan, and he would also have to personally deliver Chi Yun’er for the director to "have a taste."

"There won’t be any more screw-ups this time, will there?"

Thinking of the beauty on everyone’s lips, Director Zhang felt an unbearable itch in his heart. If the farm hadn’t been so wary of people from his brick factory, he would have abducted her long ago.

Jiang Zishi shook his head with a low laugh, his eyes glinting maliciously. "I won’t. After the autumn harvest, my brother is leaving with a convoy for Mongolia, and I’ll be getting engaged to Yumei. Given my history with Chi Yun’er, she’s sure to come."

"When that time comes, I’ll get her drunk and knock her out, then hand her over for you to do with as you please!"

Director Zhang nodded repeatedly. "Excellent! Excellent!"

"As long as this gets done, our business together will be smooth and long-lasting. Haha..."

After seeing the men off, Bian Yumin, who had been hiding in the kitchen, finally emerged with a faint sigh of relief. She pursed her lips and looked at Jiang Zishi. "Jiang, isn’t this a little much?"

"Chi Yun’er is just a young girl. What we’re doing... isn’t it too cruel?"

Jiang Zishi gave her a cool look.

Before Chi Yun’er came to the countryside to become an educated youth, Bian Yumin had been the renowned beauty for miles around. She had a pair of thick, black braids, and her skin was a shade of fair that no one else had. As the saying goes, "a light complexion can hide a hundred flaws," and what’s more, her features were already delicate and pleasing.

Even among her peers, Bian Yumin was considered beautiful and gentle, and everyone said she carried herself like someone from the city.

But when contrasted with Chi Yun’er, a "flower raised in riches," Bian Yumin was relegated to looking like a mere handmaiden, a common wildflower by the roadside. She seemed to have no outstanding features at all; it was a mercy people didn’t start calling her ugly.

Before, Jiang Zishi had only wanted to shed his reputation as a freeloader. He had been placed on such a high pedestal by Chi Yun’er that he couldn’t see his own place clearly. In his pursuit of a better future, he hadn’t given much thought to other things.

Now, looking at the floral blouse the woman wore, he felt a wave of revulsion and couldn’t help but sneer, "Bian Yumin, you know, a person can’t go around treating everyone else like an idiot."

"Did you think I don’t know what happened on the bridge that day?"

Bian Yumin’s eyes widened. "You... If you knew, then why did you still..."

Jiang Zishi said flatly, "Yun’er is indeed arrogant, but she’s not a truly bad person. At least she doesn’t have the nerve to plot to kill someone. We were together for over ten years; I can tell the good from the bad in a person."

"You fell into the river, and you put on such a convincing act. In a life-or-death situation like that, who would have the presence of mind to stop and think about whether it was real or fake?"

"I did rescue you, I held you in my arms, and I foolishly gave you mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, sacrificing my own engagement in the process."

Bian Yumin looked at him in disbelief. "Jiang, you shouldn’t have..."

"Shouldn’t have what?" he roared in frustration. "Should I just be a gentle and refined man without a single bad thought? You’ve all pushed me to this point, to the point where I have to move against Chi Yun’er, and you still expect what from me?"

Bian Yumin took half a step back, a dazed look on her face. Then, as if she remembered something, her gaze grew firm again.

She lowered her head slightly. "I’m sorry, Jiang. I didn’t expect things to develop to this point."

"If you’re unwilling, then let’s just call off our engagement. After all, I’d rather be alone for the rest of my life than be forced into an unhappy marriage!"

A flicker of light passed through Jiang Zishi’s eyes.

’He was used to shifting the blame onto others while maintaining his own veneer of pure innocence. But this time, had he perhaps overacted a bit?’