Chapter 14: Killing with a Borrowed Knife
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If it had not been for the quota to return to the city, why would Chen Wanru ever have looked twice at Lu Qianjin, that petty hooligan?
Her eyes blazing red, she clenched her teeth and demanded, “Xie Jinyu! You did this to me on purpose!”
“Chen Wanru, why are you so worked up? Wasn’t it because you wanted a quota to return to the city that you sought out Lu Qianjin in the first place?”
After her rebirth, Xie Jinyu had merely exposed the affair between Chen Wanru and Lu Qianjin. She had not mentioned the matter of the drug—not because she had forgotten it.
Rather, as long as she and Yan Hongying remained in Leap Forward Village, she could not act rashly.
In an era when one needed an official letter of introduction to travel anywhere, the village party secretary wielded enormous power. The slightest misstep could leave Xie Jinyu herself in trouble.
She had already composed, in her mind, the report she would submit against the village party secretary.
The moment she and Yan Hongying left, Xie Jinyu would make the secretary’s entire family pay the price.
With so many villagers watching, Xie Jinyu had exposed Chen Wanru’s true nature. Furious and humiliated, Chen Wanru raised her hand to strike her.
But before her hand had even fully risen, Lu Qianjin seized her arm and yanked her back.
“Chen Wanru, do you really want to return to the city that badly?” he demanded harshly.
Lu Qianjin had told only Chen Wanru about the return quota.
It was precisely for that quota that Chen Wanru had fawned over him and offered herself to him.
No one knew better than Lu Qianjin what kind of woman Chen Wanru was. Yet because she was carrying his child, he had still given her a respectable wedding.
And now she even wanted Xie Jinyu to give up her quota for her!
“Brother Qianjin, you’re hurting me!” Chen Wanru cried coquettishly.
Lu Qianjin ignored her completely. He dragged her roughly into the room they shared on the other side of the cowshed.
He threw her onto the bed, then leaned over her and gripped her jaw.
“Chen Wanru, you’re not going anywhere until the child is safely born.”
Chen Wanru tried once more to use her old tricks, clinging to him and fawning over him.
Lu Qianjin flung her aside, rose, and left the room. He locked her inside and strode away.
Determined to curb Chen Wanru’s arrogance, Lu Qianjin delivered her three meals a day on schedule, but otherwise forbade her from leaving the room.
The twentieth day of the twelfth lunar month.
The list of those permitted to return to the city was finally decided.
Among the educated youths in Leap Forward Village, three had received quotas.
They were Zhan Xinyue, Yang Jiaojiao, and He Chen, a male educated youth who had always been taciturn.
Before returning to the city, Zhan Xinyue deliberately gave Xie Jinyu some things she could not take with her.
“Xie Jinyu, thank you.”
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Zhan Xinyue had learned from the village party secretary that the quota originally belonged to Xie Jinyu.
Xie Jinyu had said that she would be joining Ye Changzheng’s military posting, and had voluntarily transferred the quota to Zhan Xinyue.
“Why are you thanking me?” Xie Jinyu asked, looking at Zhan Xinyue. She thought that perhaps if Zhan Xinyue returned to the city early this time, her fiancé would not fall in love with someone else. “You earned it through your own good performance. Otherwise, why would the village party secretary have given you the quota?”
Zhan Xinyue reached out and hugged Xie Jinyu.
“Will we ever see each other again?”
“We certainly will.” Xie Jinyu patted her shoulder. “I’ll write to you.”
After Zhan Xinyue left, Xie Jinyu walked to Chen Wanru’s window and gently tapped on the frame.
“Who is it?”
Through the window, Xie Jinyu slowly said, “The list for returning to the city has been finalized.”
Chen Wanru had been locked up for many days. She ate, drank, relieved herself, and slept all in that one room.
Cold wind blew through the cracks where the packed-earth walls joined together.
To keep warm, Chen Wanru had no choice but to wrap herself tightly in a quilt every day.
“You’re not on the list.”
Xie Jinyu had heard Yan Hongying say that Lu Qianjin had already discovered that he was impotent and was searching for a renowned specialist in men’s ailments to treat him.
Under such circumstances, the village party secretary was even less likely to give Chen Wanru a quota.
After all, the child in Chen Wanru’s womb might be Lu Qianjin’s only blood heir.
“Xie Jinyu, please, let me out.”
“Xiaoyu, weren’t we good friends?”
After being confined for so long, Chen Wanru had long since lost all sense of the passing days and months.
Wrapped in her quilt, she threw herself toward the window and pleaded with Xie Jinyu through the glass.
Thick hatred gathered in Xie Jinyu’s eyes. If Chen Wanru had not destroyed her life again and again in her previous existence, how could she have—
Now, the reason she had not killed Chen Wanru with her own hands was that she wanted to borrow someone else’s blade.
“Chen Wanru, you don’t have to do a thing, yet you have meat and rice to eat. Isn’t this the good life you always yearned for?”
Xie Jinyu left those cold words behind and returned to her own room to begin packing.
Judging by the date, Ye Changzheng’s reply should be arriving soon.
If her application to join him at his military posting was approved, she could leave this place with her grandmother.
A small black car slowly entered Leap Forward Village from the distance.
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For the villagers of Leap Forward Village, it was the first time they had ever seen such a car. Adults and children alike gathered around it.
The village road extended only as far as Cangfang Dam.
Once the car came to a stop, two men in Mao suits stepped out.
The children crowded around the vehicle, touching it curiously.
One of the men in the Mao suit looked toward an older child among them and asked, “Young comrade, do you know where Comrade Yan Hongying is?”
The village party secretary hurried over upon hearing that a car had arrived in the village.
“Who are you? What do you want with Teacher Yan?”
One of the men in the Mao suit handed him a document.
“We have received orders from our superiors to escort Yan Hongying back to the capital for investigation.”
The village party secretary took a draw from his hand-rolled cigarette.
After glancing at the large red seal on the document, he said to the man in the Mao suit, “I’ll take you to her.”
A group of sows at the pig farm had recently begun giving birth. The old man in charge of the farm had once been a close friend of Yan Hongying’s, and she often helped him out.
When the village party secretary brought the two men in Mao suits directly to the pig farm, Yan Hongying was in the midst of delivering a sow’s litter.
“Yan Hongying, someone is here to see you.”
“Give me a moment,” Yan Hongying replied.
After one piglet after another had been delivered safely, Yan Hongying, her clothes and body covered in stains, walked over to the village party secretary.
“Secretary.”
He said, “These two men are here to escort you back to the capital for investigation.”
Yan Hongying’s heart jolted, but her expression remained composed.
“May I return to the cowshed and change my clothes first?”
The village party secretary looked toward the two men in Mao suits. They could only nod silently in agreement.
Yan Hongying returned to the cowshed.
She did not know what she would be facing next, but she knew she could not let her turmoil affect Xie Jinyu.
Her expression remained as calm and unruffled as ever. She handed Xie Jinyu the medical texts she had carefully treasured and earnestly instructed her again and again:
“Xiaoyu, if Changzheng’s application for you to join him at his military posting is approved, you must leave Leap Forward Village without delay. The sooner, the better. Never forget that.”
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