The black-and-white photo on the dirt ground was inconspicuous, yet at this moment, it attracted everyone’s attention.
Cheng Fangqiu inwardly thought that this was bad. Just as she was about to pick up the photo, a pair of well-defined hands moved faster than her, picking it up first. The fingertips pinched the edge, faintly turning white from the pressure.
“Here, take it.”
A deep, slightly cold and hard voice came from above her head. Cheng Fangqiu only felt her scalp tingle. She swallowed nervously and hastily shook her head, denying, “It’s not mine.”
The words came out fast and anxious, making her sound inexplicably guilty at this moment.
Zhou Yinghuai stared at the small section of her fair chin that was exposed. His always calm and indifferent expression faintly furrowed at the brows, his jawline tightened, and his heart felt as if it had been punctured by a fire of jealousy from an unknown source, leaving behind countless small holes.
He stared at her for two seconds before finally shifting his gaze away first, turning his hand to pass the photo to Li Lifen beside him.
“Auntie, is this yours?”
The latter reached out to take it, not noticing the odd atmosphere at all, still grinning as she said, “It’s mine. Thank you, Comrade Zhou. Are you all going to eat and rest now? Then I won’t disturb you.”
After speaking, she winked at Cheng Fangqiu and Ding Ximei, hinting, “I’ll come by your house later to discuss the details. I guarantee you’ll be satisfied.”
“Alright.” Ding Ximei hadn’t expected Li Lifen to find a male comrade with seemingly good conditions so quickly. She was eager to learn more details, but considering that outsiders were present, she refrained from asking further and suppressed her excitement for the time being.
Seeing the technicians lining up to receive their meals, Ding Ximei knew she shouldn’t linger, so she reminded Cheng Fangqiu to return home early. After greeting Zhou Yinghuai, she left with Li Lifen.
For a moment, only Cheng Fangqiu and a group of technicians remained.
She had no time to explain anything and was quickly urged to start distributing food. Facing the crowd, she had no choice but to temporarily collect herself and smile while responding to everyone. But deep down, she was already panicking.
She had no idea how much Zhou Yinghuai had overheard. Could he have heard everything?
For some reason, Cheng Fangqiu felt completely uneasy, so much so that she was too embarrassed to even lift her head. By all logic, after what had happened this morning, she should be able to hold her head high, and it should be Zhou Yinghuai who felt awkward instead. So why did it feel like the roles had reversed?
At the root of it all, it was all because Auntie Li had suddenly tried to set her up with someone. It seemed that her mother was aware of it too. But why was she, the person involved, the last to know?
Cheng Fangqiu clenched her molars tightly. She would have to ask Ding Ximei for the full story when she got home.
But what should she do now? All her plans had been disrupted, and dealing with Zhou Yinghuai had become a problem. Every time she recalled the obscure coldness in his gaze earlier, her entire back went cold.
His expression looked as if she had done something to betray him.
Thinking about it, Cheng Fangqiu’s pupils suddenly widened. Could it be that Zhou Yinghuai was jealous?
Putting herself in his shoes, if a man constantly expressed his fondness and interest in her every time they met, yet in the next moment, he let someone introduce him to a new partner—if she didn’t like him, she would feel relieved and wouldn’t care at all.
But if she happened to have feelings for him, then she would be angry and uncomfortable.
Zhou Yinghuai definitely had feelings for her! Only someone with feelings would get jealous!
This thought made Cheng Fangqiu feel a surge of excitement, but at the same time, she couldn’t help but panic. Oh no, what if this made him hold a grudge against her, thinking she was someone who ate from one bowl while eyeing another?
Two-timing, fickle, keeping a backup plan…
If these labels stuck to her, wouldn’t that completely ruin her chances of climbing the social ladder?
No, she had to hurry and explain things to Zhou Yinghuai. She couldn’t let something she hadn’t even known about ruin her plans.
But wasn’t she supposed to be the one making him come to her this time? How had it suddenly flipped, with her being the one chasing after him instead?
At this thought, Cheng Fangqiu felt a headache coming on. She took a deep breath and lifted her gaze toward Zhou Yinghuai in the queue. He was holding a meal box, talking to Zhao Zhigao about the machine’s operation. His expression was perfectly normal, showing no signs of looking in her direction at all.
She pursed her lips, then looked at the iron pot filled with steaming tomato egg soup. A plan immediately formed in her mind.
If she wasn’t willing to make some sacrifices, she wouldn’t catch the wolf. She had to take action.
Not long after, it was Zhou Yinghuai and Zhao Zhigao’s turn to get their meals.
Cheng Fangqiu moved swiftly, quickly serving Zhao Zhigao his food. The latter, holding his bowl, caught a glimpse of the contents of another pot out of the corner of his eye and couldn’t help but praise, “There’s mung bean soup today? Comrade Cheng, you’re really considerate.”
Cheng Fangqiu smiled slightly. “It helps clear heat and detoxify. You can come back for some after your meal.”
“Alright.”
After finishing their exchange, Cheng Fangqiu turned her gaze to Zhou Yinghuai. The two of them remained silent, and the atmosphere, once relaxed, became somewhat stiff. He lowered his eyelashes, simply waiting for her to serve his meal before leaving to eat.
But in the next second, an unexpected mishap occurred.
As Cheng Fangqiu ladled soup for him, her hand trembled, and the scorching hot liquid spilled onto the back of her hand. In an instant, a large patch of her fair skin turned red.
“Hiss—”
She gasped in pain, inhaling sharply, but before she could react, someone grabbed her hand. In the next moment, a water bottle was quickly unscrewed, and cool water was poured over her burn to rinse it.
Zhou Yinghuai’s face, rarely showing any panic, now carried an unmistakable sense of urgency. Looking into her eyes, he asked anxiously, “How’s your foot?”
She was wearing the common black cloth shoes of rural households, and some soup had splashed onto them. With the layer of fabric in between, it was impossible to see if her foot had been scalded.
“It’s fine.” Cheng Fangqiu shook her head and instinctively withdrew her foot slightly. Her eyes were red—clearly, the pain was not light.
Seeing this, Zhou Yinghuai frowned, took the meal box still in her hands, and placed it on the ground. Then, he turned to the stunned Zhao Zhigao and ordered, “I’m taking Comrade Cheng to the health clinic.”
“But…” Cheng Fangqiu hesitated, glancing at the queue of technicians still waiting for their meals.
At a time like this, and she was still worrying about that? These grown men could surely get their own food, couldn’t they? An unexplainable anger surged within Zhou Yinghuai. He grabbed Zhao Zhigao and said, “You help serve the food and bring everything back afterward.”
“Oh—oh, got it.” Zhao Zhigao snapped out of his daze and pounded his chest in assurance. “Leave it to me, Brother Huai. Just take Comrade Cheng to the clinic.”
Cheng Fangqiu opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but Zhou Yinghuai had already taken her by the hand and pulled her away. Along the way, they attracted quite a few curious gazes, but he acted as if he didn’t notice, focusing only on moving forward.
As they neared the village entrance, he suddenly remembered—this wasn’t the provincial capital, where health clinics and hospitals were easy to find. The village only had a local barefoot doctor with limited medical knowledge, and the nearest health clinic was in the commune.
Burns could be minor or serious, and Zhou Yinghuai wasn’t willing to entrust her care to an untrained village doctor. So, he went to the brigade to borrow a bicycle, planning to take her to the health clinic himself.
The rural dirt roads were rough, and even with Zhou Yinghuai’s good cycling skills, the ride was bumpy. Several times, Cheng Fangqiu felt like she was going to fall off, so she nervously grabbed onto his shirt. When he didn’t react, she cautiously wrapped her arms loosely around his waist.
Taking advantage of the situation—if anything, this was the perfect example.
The man had a well-trained body, firm and muscular. The moment her hands made contact, she could feel the tightness of his abdominal muscles. Her fingertips couldn’t help but rub against them lightly, and she silently remarked in her heart—it actually feels pretty good.
They were sitting so close that their breaths intertwined in the air, forming an atmosphere of subtle intimacy. Even Cheng Fangqiu found herself blushing slightly.
Truthfully, the burn on her hand didn’t even hurt anymore—it just looked dramatic. Her fair skin made the redness seem particularly pronounced. She had always taken great care of her appearance, and she had tested the soup beforehand—it wasn’t boiling hot, or she wouldn’t have dared to spill it on herself.
A bitter scheme was cliché, but as long as it worked, that was all that mattered.
Zhou Yinghuai’s anxious concern just now had been genuine. That gave her a sense of certainty. Her dark, gleaming eyes shifted slightly before she rested her face against his back, closing the distance between them even more.
The man, already stiff, instantly tensed up further. Even the bicycle wobbled for a moment. He took a deep breath, steadied himself, and finally regained control of the handlebars, continuing forward steadily.
The sun shone brightly, the sky a clear azure. White clouds drifted lazily, complementing the lush green mountains in the distance like a picturesque painting. A cool breeze carried refreshing air, lifting strands of her hair forward.
Zhou Yinghuai, sensing the ticklish feeling, glanced down and saw a stray lock of black hair resting on his hand. He twitched his fingertips, wanting to catch it, but in the next moment, it slipped away, frustratingly out of reach.
Yet what truly unsettled him was the pair of hands encircling his waist—holding him as though they had no intention of letting go. A tingling warmth spread from that point of contact, seeping into his limbs.
And the culprit behind all this remained oblivious to the turmoil she was causing him. Instead, she nestled closer against his back, pushing him further into a difficult predicament.
The village wasn’t exactly close to the commune, and in order to save time, Zhou Yinghuai rode fast. The wind stung Cheng Fangqiu’s face, and she endured it for a while before finally speaking up.
“Slow down.”
Zhou Yinghuai had been paying attention to her movements the entire time, and almost as soon as she finished speaking, he slowed down. At the same time, an inexplicable awkwardness spread through the air.
He tightened his grip on the handlebars, hesitated for a moment, then took the initiative to break the silence. “Does your hand still hurt?”
Cheng Fangqiu instinctively glanced at the reddened skin on the back of her hand. It didn’t hurt anymore, but she still trembled her voice slightly and acted coy, “It hurts, look.”
She sounded like a little kitten, her voice sticky and delicate, irresistibly endearing. As if trying to prove that she wasn’t lying, she lifted her fingers slightly in front of him, wanting him to clearly see her pain. Paired with her pitiful tone, it was impossible for anyone to ignore.
“We’re almost there. Be good, just bear with it a little longer.”
It seemed he wasn’t used to comforting people, and when Zhou Yinghuai said this, his tone was stiff and serious, without the slightest fluctuation. Cheng Fangqiu almost couldn’t hold back her laughter. She hurriedly buried her face against his back again, covering the curve of her lips as she softly responded.
“I trust you.”
These three words landed like a stone, making Zhou Yinghuai unconsciously tighten his grip on the handlebars. His mind flashed back to the scene at the Cheng household earlier that morning, and his throat suddenly felt uncomfortably tight.
He didn’t want certain things to be left in misunderstanding.
Taking a deep breath, Zhou Yinghuai spoke slowly, “About this morning, I’m sorry. I wasn’t considerate enough and overlooked your feelings. But I really didn’t mean to hurt you. I just thought… maybe this was the best way for everyone.”
“I’ve already spoken to the village secretary about it. Sun Jiayang has been sent back to the factory, and they’ll handle it properly.”
“I wasn’t taking his side, and I don’t look down on you. In my eyes, you’re… very good.”
Someone who was usually eloquent and ruled by logic suddenly found himself fumbling over his words. Yet, even in his clumsy phrasing, everything he wanted to say was clearly conveyed. It was just a matter of how the other party would take it.
As Cheng Fangqiu remained silent, Zhou Yinghuai’s heart hung in suspense. Fortunately, after a short pause, he heard her soft reply, “I said, I trust you.”