Living like a widow? My rough neighbor is coaxing me to have a baby every night.

Chapter 7 I'm going to climb through your window again tonight.

The room was dark, with no lights on.

Aunt Zhao huddled in the corner like a ghost, opposite a man who looked like a hooligan, with a blade of grass dangling from his mouth. He was Chen Dagui, a notorious scoundrel in the village.

"Da Gui, your auntie is sending you a woman, do you want one?"

Aunt Zhao lowered her voice, her tone sinister.

Chen Dagui, with a blade of grass dangling from his mouth, crossed his legs and shook them rapidly: "Who? Which family?"

"My family's jinx, Li Xianglian."

Aunt Zhao gritted her teeth, "You know what that little slut looks like. That figure, that face, and even though she hasn't had children in the past few years, her body is more slender than a young woman's..."

Chen Dagui swallowed.

Although Li Xianglian usually dressed in rags, she was indeed quite pretty. Many bachelors in the village secretly coveted her because her waist was so slender that you could pinch it with one hand.

But when he thought of that ruthless guy next door, Chen Dagui shrank back a little: "Auntie, aren't you setting me up? Who doesn't know that mad dog Qin Rushan has his eye on her? You heard about what happened last night when he pulled out a knife, right? I don't want to lose my head."

"What's there to be afraid of!"

Aunt Zhao spat, "No matter how ruthless Qin Rushan is, he's just a brute. We're not going to confront him head-on."

She leaned forward and whispered in Chen Dagui's ear:

"Tomorrow night, I'll send that little slut to keep watch in the melon shed behind the hill. You wait there."

Aunt Zhao's eyes flashed with a fierce light, the madness of someone driven to desperation. "Once you've made it a fait accompli, even if Qin Rushan is powerful, will he still want a used shoe?"

"When the time comes, I'll lead a group to catch her in the act. The whole village will see her cheating on her husband in the melon shed—that's adultery! She'll be paraded through the streets like a slut and drowned in a pig cage!"

Once Li Xianglian's reputation is ruined, Qin Rushan won't be able to protect her even if he wanted to.

Moreover, only in this way can Gangzi's bigamy be suppressed. As long as Li Xianglian is driven out of the house, Gangzi's future in the city will be secured.

For her son's secure job, she would gamble even on someone as powerful as Qin Rushan, or even the Emperor himself.

"Once this is done, that little wench will be too ashamed to stay in the village. She'll be yours to do whatever you want with her. Who can control your own wife, Chen Dagui?"

Hearing this, Chen Dagui felt a surge of anger, and the heat in his lower body instantly overwhelmed his fear.

That's the woman Qin Rushan has his eye on.

If I could pin that fierce woman down... just thinking about it would be amazing.

"become!"

Chen Dagui spat out the grass root from his mouth; the grass root had already been chewed up.

He licked his chapped lips, revealing a set of large, yellow teeth.

"Auntie, I'll do it! Don't worry, I'll make sure that young widow screams so loudly the whole village can hear her tomorrow night!"

*

As the sun rose higher and higher, by midday, the scorching sunlight felt like it was peeling a layer of skin off a person.

The soil in the field was so hot from the sun that it was steaming, and the air itself seemed distorted.

The cicadas were howling loudly in the trees, their calls driving people crazy.

Li Xianglian was hunched over, weeding in the cornfield.

Sweat streamed down her hair and into her eyes, stinging painfully.

Her faded floral blouse was soaked through, clinging tightly to her back and outlining the slender yet supple lines of her spine.

The hoe in his hand grew heavier and heavier, as if it were filled with lead.

I didn't eat enough this morning, and now that the sun is shining, my vision is going black and I'm seeing stars.

"Huff..." Xianglian straightened up, trying to catch her breath, but her legs went weak and she uncontrollably fell into the ditch beside her.

The expected pain from the fall did not come.

An arm as strong as if cast in iron was firmly placed across her waist.

The muscles on her arms were hard and frighteningly hot; even through her thin, damp clothes, the heat penetrated right into Xianglian's flesh.

Immediately afterwards, a strong, earthy, and masculine scent of hormones forcefully entered her nostrils.

Xianglian jolted awake, hurriedly regained her balance, and looked up to meet a pair of unfathomable black eyes.

Qin Rushan.

He arrived at some unknown time, wearing an old, open military green vest, his exposed bronze chest covered in sweat, and a somewhat blackened towel hanging around his neck.

The scar on his face was reddish in the sunlight, making him look even fiercer than usual, but the large hand supporting him was surprisingly steady.

"Are you out of your mind?"

Qin Rushan frowned, his voice low and hoarse as he reprimanded, "The sun is so scorching, you don't even drink water, do you want to dry out in the sun?"

Without saying a word, he took a military-green water bottle from his waist, unscrewed the cap, and held it to Xianglian's lips: "Drink."

Xianglian was indeed extremely thirsty; her throat felt like it was on fire.

She instinctively took two large gulps from his hand. The water was well water, cool to the touch, and flowed down her throat, making her shiver with pleasure.

After drinking the water, she suddenly realized: she was in a field!

Although there were sorghum stalks blocking the view, there was always someone with sharp eyes who might spot them.

"Qin... Rushan, let go quickly."

Xianglian blushed, hurriedly pushed his arm away, and took two steps back like a startled rabbit, creating some distance between them.

Her eyes darted around in a panic, as if afraid of seeing a head pop out from under the green gauze curtain.

Qin Rushan felt a strange sense of loss as his hands went empty.

The soft, warm touch of her skin still lingered in his palm. Her waist was so slender that he could pinch it with one hand. She was too thin and needed to be recuperated.

Seeing Xianglian's frightened appearance, a dark glint flashed in Qin Rushan's eyes.

"What are you afraid of?" He stepped forward, his tall figure like a mountain, shielding her from the scorching sun. "I'm here. Anyone who dares to gossip will have their teeth pulled out."

Xianglian felt a warmth in her heart, but also a sharp pang of sadness.

This man truly protected her.

She heard about it this morning when he went to knock on Aunt Zhou's door with a knife last night for her sake. She felt both grateful and scared.

But precisely because of this, she couldn't let him be implicated.

"Rushan, I know you're good to me." Xianglian bit her lower lip, her voice extremely low, with a hint of pleading, "But I'm still a daughter-in-law of the Zhao family. People's opinions are a fearsome thing. You're a young man who hasn't married yet, and your reputation can't rot in the mud with mine."

She looked up, her eyes, which were always misty, were clear now. "Stay away from me. If anyone sees this again... and if Zhao Gang's mother uses this as an excuse to make trouble, I'll really have no way to survive in the Zhao family."

Qin Rushan originally wanted to say "I don't care," but when he heard the last half of the sentence, he swallowed the words back down.

Yes.

She is still Zhao Gang's wife in name only.

Even if Zhao Gang was a beast, even if that whole family was worthless, she was still trapped in that den of wolves until that divorce certificate was torn down.

This world is always harsh on women.

Men are considered "capable" for having affairs, but if a woman gets even the slightest bit of gossip, she'll be drowned in spittle.

Qin Rushan was a rough man, thick-skinned and not afraid of being scolded, and he could live a comfortable life despite being known as a "childless man".

But Xianglian is different; she's too shy and soft-hearted.

If you push too hard, you'll just become a knife in the hands of that old hag Zhao.

Qin Rushan was a clever man, and even more so, a hunter. A hunter knows when to attack and when to lie in wait.

He took a deep breath, suppressing the restless urge to take her away regardless of everything.

"become."

Qin Rushan nodded, took a step back, and increased the distance between the two.

But he didn't leave. Instead, he bent down and grabbed the hoe that Xianglian had just dropped.

I won't come near you.

The man spoke in a muffled voice, the veins on his arms bulging, and he picked up the hoe and got to work.

His movements were astonishingly fast; the hoe seemed to have eyes in his hands, uprooting weeds wherever it went, while leaving the corn seedlings unharmed.

He can do the work of three strong laborers by himself.

"But I'll do this job for you," Qin Rushan said without turning his head, his voice harsh. "Go rest under the shade of the tree. If you dare to come and take the hoe, I'll climb through your window again tonight."

"you……"

Xianglian blushed at his shameless words, but her heart felt as if it had been filled with honey, sweet yet tinged with an indescribable bitterness.

She didn't argue anymore and obediently went to sit under the shade of the willow tree at the edge of the field.

Looking at that tall figure sweating profusely under the scorching sun, Xianglian's fingers unconsciously tugged at the foxtail grass on the ground.

Such a broad back, such strong arms, if only I could lean on them for a lifetime...

Pah! Pah! Pah! Li Xianglian, what are you thinking!

Xianglian cursed herself inwardly for being shameless, but her gaze was glued to her, and she couldn't bear to look away.

Qin Rushan worked extremely fast, and in less than two hours, he had finished weeding the remaining half acre of land.

He planted the hoe at the edge of the field, not even glancing at Xianglian, grabbed the towel hanging around his neck, wiped his face haphazardly, and strode away.

As he passed the place where Xianglian had put her water jug, he paused, took out two wild eggs that were still warm from his body, and put them under the straw hat that Xianglian had placed on the ground.

They didn't say a word the entire time, not even a glance.

But his actions showed her: I'll listen to you and avoid suspicion. But it's also true that I care about you.

Xianglian held the two warm wild eggs in her hands, and finally couldn't hold back her tears, which fell down her cheeks.