When She Stops Being Dramatic

Chapter 308: Chapter 117: The Green Tea Female Supporting Character in a Period Novel (4)

Previously, everyone had been dead tired. With nothing to do after dinner, they sat around and started complaining about the villagers. They had made a pact to stick together, vowing they would absolutely not be like the sent-down youths assigned to other villages who married locals and put down roots here.

In truth, they were just afraid of being stuck in this village—a place cut off from information and transportation, with barren land where they could barely scrape by. They were also afraid that others might be braver, marrying a local and making a huge sacrifice in exchange for personal gain.

Take Jiang Zishi, for instance. He was a truly ruthless man. He had cast aside someone as wonderful as Chi Yun’er, sacrificing his love and marriage, all for a spot as a student at the Industrial and Agricultural University.

’If it were them, they probably couldn’t have resisted the temptation either.’ After all, slogging away here year after year, who knew when there would ever be an end in sight?

A moved expression on her face, Chi Yun’er smiled, grabbing a youth’s hand with each of her own. ”Thank you, everyone,” she choked out. ”Thank you so much for your concern. I’m fine. Brother Zishu treats me very well.”

”I know he loves me. It’s just my own health that’s failing, and I don’t want to hold him back any longer. So, please, everyone... don’t blame Brother Zishu...”

’She was only making things worse!’

On the surface, it seemed Chi Yun’er was taking all the blame upon herself to absolve him, but in reality, she was nailing him to the pillory of a heartless betrayer, leaving him no room to move.

Matters of the heart are never easily explained. The two of them had come from the same place, and their relationship had always been ambiguous, so everyone tacitly considered them a couple.

Jiang Zishi had always been evasive, neither confirming nor outright denying it. But everyone wasn’t blind. Living under the same roof, how could they not have noticed his freeloading?

However, he was quite clever about it. He never took the initiative to ask for anything; Chi Yun’er always forced it on him.

But the fact that he accepted those things was his original sin!

If he tried to argue the point now, given Chi Yun’er’s agitated and unstable state, who knew what else she might bring up.

Jiang Zishi’s lowered eyes narrowed. Clenching his fists, he decided to play along. ”Chi Yun’er, stop. It’s my fault in the end. If it weren’t for me, you and Comrade Bian wouldn’t have gotten into a fight.”

”I had to take drastic measures to save Comrade Bian, and now I must take responsibility for her. But it’s also true that in doing so, I have betrayed the pact we sent-down youths made.”

”So it’s only right for all of you to resent me.”

The other youths had been blaming him, feeling that he was taking a shortcut and leaving them all in the dust.

But now that he had admitted it so candidly, they felt uneasy and couldn’t help but try to see things from his point of view.

Bian Yumin and Chi Yun’er had fought, almost certainly over a man. When one of them fell into the water and Jiang Zishi was nearby, how could he have just stood by and done nothing?

People wear thin clothes in the summer, and Bian Yumin happened to be wearing a white blouse. The moment she entered the water, it was soaked through, clinging to her skin. Unless he was blind, how could Jiang Zishi not have seen everything?

Even if he hadn’t performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, he couldn’t escape the responsibility of saving Bian Yumin’s reputation.

Seeing the expressions on their faces soften, Jiang Zishi let out a small sigh of relief.

But just at that moment, villagers began to trickle past, shouldering their tools on their way to the fields.

Although Bian Yumin had fallen into the water the day before, she hadn’t taken any time off to rest. She was still heading out to work in the fields with her family first thing in the morning.

The village chief had already had a talk with Jiang Zishi the previous night.

Jiang Zishi was from the capital—a city boy. He was educated, his family wasn’t poor, and his looks and demeanor made him the most outstanding of all the male sent-down youths.

From the moment he arrived, he had caught the eye of the village’s young women, both single and newly married.

It was just that he and Chi were a couple everyone envied. Their bond seemed so strong that it left no room for anyone else to get between them.

Besides, city folk were proud and arrogant; how could they possibly be interested in a village girl?

The village chief knew his own daughter’s feelings and had reprimanded her for them many times behind closed doors.

Their family was a local powerhouse. With a son in the army, their circumstances were among the best for miles around.

His daughter was fair-skinned and pretty, not looking at all like a country girl. She was also educated. After graduating from high school, the township had hired her directly as a primary school teacher, giving her a secure government job.

In the past two years, so many suitors had come calling that they’d nearly worn the threshold of their home flat, and all of them were from decent families.

However, the village chief’s wife was always going on about how only a man from a big city was worthy of her daughter. Whenever there was a holiday, she would make Bian Yumin visit her brother at his army base to get out of farm work, hoping her daughter would find a promising junior officer just as successful as her own son.