CHAPTER 15: CHAPTER 15: THIS VILLAIN IS HOPELESS, TRULY HOPELESS

That night, it started to rain, pattering softly.

Lin Qiao was woken up by the cold, and got out of bed in the dark to close the window. Just then, a slight creaking sound was heard.

She perked up and instinctively asked, "Uncle?"

"Sister-in-law, it’s me, I saw it was raining and came to close the windows and doors," a young voice said, with a hint of hoarseness.

Lin Qiao breathed a sigh of relief, "Uncle, are you cold? I’ll get you a quilt."

Song Tingfan shook his head outside the door, "Sister-in-law, I’m not cold."

He paused for a moment, "Sister-in-law, make sure you’re covered well."

"Alright, go back to sleep soon, call me if anything happens." After waiting for a while, there was no more sound from outside the courtyard, Lin Qiao lay back down and soon fell asleep.

The next day, the weather was clear. The ground that had been soaked last night was dry again, emitting heat.

Lin Qiao was at home pondering over embroidering square cloths. At first, the first couple were not up to standard, but later she became skilled and they turned out well.

Song Tingfan was not idle; he took a hoe to cultivate the barren land behind the house.

The barren land at the back had many weeds, but few stones, and had a large planting area.

For four or five days, the two were like this. The villagers were curious as to why Lin Qiao had not been out and about causing any stirs lately.

The women by the river started chatting out of boredom, "Hey, haven’t seen Widow Song recently?"

"I was thinking the same, haven’t seen her for many days. She used to be out every day, but these days she’s quite a rarity."

"It’s better she doesn’t come out, my deadbeat husband can’t see her then."

"Do you think it’s because Zhang Dong got engaged?"

"Oh, most likely, but honestly speaking, the Xu Family’s young girl is no match for Widow Lin."

"Even if she’s good, she’s still a widow."

Right then, Lin Qiao, the widow, had just finished the last bit of fabric. She counted them—eight square cloths in total, amounting to sixty-four cents.

Alas, even being an extra doesn’t get this poor.

Suddenly, footsteps could be heard. She looked up to see a young man in a cloth shirt, sleeves rolled high, revealing his thin yet strong arms.

Her gaze drifted down to his cloth shoes; his dirty big toe was half exposed.

Meanwhile, Song Tingfan put down the hoe, cheerfully calling out, "Sister-in-law."

Lin Qiao had gotten used to him calling her sister-in-law like a child that still needed caretaking.

"Uncle, take off your shoes and I’ll patch them up."

Upon hearing this, Song Tingfan looked down, saw his dirty big toe, and immediately awkwardly retracted it, "Sister-in-law, there’s no need, I’ll sew them myself tonight."

Lin Qiao gestured for him to come over, "Uncle, take them off, it’s just the right time to thread the needle."

"No."

Song Tingfan shook his head, and quickly explained with embarrassment, "Sister-in-law, my feet stink."

"Feet always stink when you work," Lin Qiao didn’t mind.

Actually, she had noticed over the past few days that Song Tingfan was quite clean, changing clothes daily and washing them after.

Also, his room was always neat and tidy.

Tingfan couldn’t refuse, so he took off his shoes. They weren’t very stinky, just a bit sweaty.

He initially thought his sister-in-law would be a bit disgusted, but she wasn’t. She took the shoes and began cutting cloth for patching.

This eased his awkwardness a bit, and he then shared what he found while digging the barren land, "Sister-in-law, today I dug up five wild radishes, weighing over a pound, and a few medicinal herbs."

Lin Qiao glanced at the basket, thought for a moment, "Uncle, take some money and buy a large bone."

Large bones here weren’t worth much, even two cents could get you a big one.

She continued, "The money’s in a box under the bed."

Song Tingfan hesitated, shyly asking, "Sister-in-law, should I go get it?"

"Yes, go ahead, take two more cents and buy some malt sugar for yourself." Lin Qiao glanced at him from the corner of her eye, thinking this antagonist should be somewhat fond of her as his sister-in-law by now.

Song Tingfan hesitated a bit before entering her room. It was clean and simple, a few wild chrysanthemums in a pot on the windowsill, but they were a bit wilted.

His gaze shifted and his face suddenly flushed red. A rope was strung on the innermost wall for drying two dudou.

Red and white.

He quickly recovered, hurriedly lowered his head, grabbed two copper coins from under the bed, and ran out.

He stammered to the sister-in-law in the main hall, "Sister-in-law, I took two cents, I’m going to buy meat now." With that, he took off running.

Lin Qiao didn’t think much of it. She didn’t consider the dudou as anything significant since they had more fabric than her camisole.

The patched cloth shoes were just finished when Song Tingfan returned with a large bone, and a few pieces of intestine.

The young man seemed uneasy when he saw her, quickly lowering his head to hide it, "Sister-in-law, Grandpa Wu gave some intestines."

Most people in the village were quite kind to Song Tingfan, with no ill intentions.

But one thing’s for sure, they had loose tongues.

Lin Qiao nodded, "Uncle, the shoes are mended." With that, she stood up, stretched her neck a bit, then took things back to the room.

Song Tingfan nervously glanced over, fearing his sister-in-law would notice the dudou drying inside, but soon she came out.

He anxiously picked up the bucket to wash the intestines.

Lin Qiao finally noticed his odd behavior. She walked over and found his forehead sweating, face quite red.

"Uncle, have you gotten heatstroke?"

"No...no." Song Tingfan replied a bit unnaturally.

"Why is your face so red then?"

"It’s heatstroke."

Seeing him at a loss for words, Lin Qiao’s eyes turned mischievous, "Uncle, did you do something wrong?"

Song Tingfan panicked even more, "No, no, no."

Seeing that he almost couldn’t stand, Lin Qiao couldn’t help but laugh, "Just teasing you, I know Uncle wouldn’t do anything wrong, at most just secretly talking to some village girl."

Hearing the first part, Song Tingfan sighed in relief, but after hearing the latter, he urgently waved, "Sister-in-law, I didn’t, I haven’t spoken to anyone, I just..."

Lin Qiao chuckled, this antagonist is so innocent. She reached out and patted his head, "Just teasing you, but if you really do, remember to show your sister-in-law."

"Sister-in-law is cooking now."

Song Tingfan wanted to explain but didn’t know how, standing there blushing.

After eating, Song Tingfan continued to cultivate the barren land, and Lin Qiao had nothing to do, so she followed along.

They worked all afternoon, and over the past few days had opened up a large enough field for vegetables.

A breeze blew by, and Lin Qiao felt a bit cooler, glancing at the bamboo forest not far away, casually remarked, "Uncle, does bamboo shoot grow in the forest?"

"Yes, it rained a few days ago, there should be a lot growing." Song Tingfan wiped the sweat from his forehead, glanced beside him, noting the woman’s fair skin with a faint blush.

Lin Qiao didn’t intend to miss any edible things now. The wild vegetables Song Tingfan had picked over the past few days were all cooked and spread out in the courtyard to dry.

Stockpiling for the cold winter.

"Uncle, let’s take a look, if there are any, let’s dig them up for food."

Song Tingfan obediently nodded, and the two headed toward the bamboo forest, where someone was already digging and had collected quite a bit.

Lin Qiao saw that even the shoots no thicker than two fingers had been dug up, "..."

No need to look further; there were surely none left.

"Tingfan!" A twelve-year-old girl stood not far away, joyfully looking at Song Tingfan.

Lin Qiao raised an eyebrow, she had said this would happen.

In front of his sister-in-law, the usually well-behaved Song Tingfan’s handsome face was tense, "Hmm."

Lin Qiao glanced at him, then smiled, "Uncle, you go play with her, sister-in-law will go back to cook."

Giving the antagonist a little nudge in romance.

"Sister-in-law, I’ll go back with you." Song Tingfan instinctively moved a bit closer to her side.

"Tingfan, come play with me, I dug up a lot of bamboo shoots, I’ll save you two big ones." Ma Xihong beckoned.

Song Tingfan resisted, stepping back, "I have to go home and work," and then he turned quickly to leave.

Lin Qiao: "..."

This antagonist is hopeless.

Truly hopeless.