CHAPTER 149: CHAPTER 148: COWARD

Once again embarrassed in front of Ye Manman, Xie Fengmian’s expression was quite ugly, but he was outnumbered, and Liu Jitong was his nemesis.

Now, Liu Family Farm’s business is flourishing, and if Liu Jitong really decides to lower their prices ruthlessly, he would suffer a major loss.

In just half a minute, Xie Fengmian thought about many things, and finally decided to leave as the best strategy.

At worst, he would look for another chance later. After all, He Chen seems to be absent now, so he surely will have an opportunity.

He calmed down and leisurely dusted off non-existent dust from himself, ignoring Liu Jitong and the others, and attempted to smile at Ye Manman standing behind Liu Jitong.

"Manman, there are so many interruptions today, let’s chat better next time."

Saying this, he quickly took his two friends and slinked away in the opposite direction.

Meanwhile, on the busy main road, people were passing by and standing around talking was quite conspicuous, already drawing lots of attention. Liu Jitong wasn’t foolish enough to actually confront Xie Fengmian with so many people watching.

After all, he had already vented his anger, and the only one left feeling upset would be the humiliated Xie Fengmian.

"Let’s go back, probably scared you today, huh? That little girl rushed over, claiming a big incident was happening, scared me into calling the biggest guy from the factory. I thought we were going to fight, but it turned out to be just that coward Xie Fengmian."

Liu Jitong walked with both hands in his pockets, feeling quite at ease. His tone even tinged with a bit of regret, as if he truly wanted to fight.

Ye Manman looked at everyone sincerely thanked them.

They all waved their hands, saying it was nothing, followed by Jiang Tianrui starting, Liu Jitong quickly following, and then Jiang Yuan, as they took turns insulting Xie Fengmian again and again.

Ye Manman listened to their different styles of insults, not repeating themselves, and her mood, previously disgusted, improved considerably.

Arriving at the store, Ye Manman bought a drink for each of Liu Jitong and his friends, watched them leave, and she felt completely better.

All because of this rotten Xie Fengmian, they had been delayed for so long during lunch.

Many people had already started lining up to buy fried chicken, so Jiang Tianrui and Jiang Yuan had to close their mouths on insulting Xie Fengmian and quickly throw themselves into the business.

Ye Manman sat downstairs for a while but didn’t want to stay anymore. Watching the bustling scene, especially when someone shouted for the boss to bring something, she habitually glanced at the Sweet and Spicy Duck counter.

He Chen was not there.

She didn’t want to stay downstairs either.

After all, she could read upstairs and have some peace.

About giving thanks to Liu Jitong and the Jiang siblings, she planned to wait until He Chen returned to pick out some gifts with him for them, as she was not fit to go out, especially alone.

If she encountered Xie Fengmian alone outside, she would literally disgust herself to death.

But when she went upstairs, returned to their shared room, Ye Manman found herself even less capable of focusing on her reading.

No matter where she looked around the room, it always reminded her of He Chen’s presence.

Seeing the closet, she’d think of him every night putting away dry clothes neatly folded.

Looking at the desk, she’d think of him buying hair ties and small snacks every few days to put in the drawer.

Looking at the bed, what came to mind were more intimate images of them closely connected.

Standing by the bed, looking at the unmade covers she had pulled back that morning, all her suppressed grievances suddenly surged.

She threw herself onto the covers and burst into tears.

Actually, her hand was injured. The fragments were so sharp when she smashed the plate, and her palm was pierced by several small cuts but hadn’t mentioned it to anyone, always keeping her fist clenched. Now back in the room, Ye Manman felt the pain intensely.

If He Chen were around, he would have noticed her injury immediately. She would have willingly shown him her hurt and even acted spoiled, asking him to blow on it.

The more she thought of these things, the more wronged Ye Manman felt, crying into the covers for quite a while before stopping.

But by letting it out like this, she finally felt considerably better. Having bottled up those uncomfortable feelings for so long, now she felt a lot more relieved.

After tidying up a bit, Ye Manman shook off the gloom. She couldn’t always be like this, and while He Chen was away, she should quickly finish translating those two books to collect payment.

Although they had saved quite a bit, it would definitely be insufficient for expanding their business. When possible, she wanted to ease He Chen’s burden as much as she could.

Carrying this sentiment, Ye Manman soon immersed herself in the books, her efficiency was unprecedentedly high.

Downstairs, Jiang Yuan and Jiang Tianrui worked hard all afternoon, and by the time dinner approached, business dwindled, their stock ran out, so they closed the shop.

If they went to the state-owned restaurant to eat, they didn’t know whether the midday incident would happen again, so Jiang Tianrui straightforwardly made a few simple dishes in the back kitchen and had Jiang Yuan call Ye Manman down for dinner.

Ye Manman heard someone coming upstairs and promptly closed the book to go down. She was quite possessive of her space, not preferring even friends to enter her and He Chen’s private room.

"Manman, let’s eat in the store from now on? My brother’s cooking is pretty good, though sometimes he cooks too hard and burns things, but the taste is still nice, you should try it."

Jiang Yuan, simple-minded, had only been briefly scared, now completely devoid of any psychological shadow, yet still worried Ye Manman might dislike her brother’s cooking and insist on eating at the state-owned restaurant.

That Xie Fengmian didn’t seem like a good person at all, might even wait around there, so Jiang Yuan did her utmost to sell her second brother’s cooking as delicious.

Ye Manman was no longer in her former indifferent and silent state. After sorting through things, she naturally wore a lot more smiles.

"Got it. We’ll trouble your brother with cooking for a few days then. It’s thanks to you that I wasn’t in trouble at noon, that Xie Fengmian is such garbage, I hardly ate because of him and got so disgusted, now my stomach is starving."

"Exactly, exactly, my brother mentioned he was boastfully claiming he would divorce just because of what you said, and force his wife to abort, truly not human, right? Disgusting. Even thinking about it turns my stomach."

Jiang Yuan noticed she no longer seemed unhappy, immediately happy chattered away and led her to sit down.

Jiang Tianrui cooked quickly, perhaps due to his impatient nature, using high heat, but the resulting fried greens were crisp and delicious, quite tasty.

The three were starving, the two exhausted, and Ye Manman hungry, so this meal was exceptionally quiet.

Until almost finishing, Jiang Tianrui suddenly seriously turned to Jiang Yuan.

"By the way, why did you go find Liu Jitong at noon? I thought you meant calling for backup by reporting to the police, aren’t they more reliable than Liu Jitong?"