After finishing her work quota and heading home, Su Jin was walking along the small path, where a few children were playing in groups.
“Did you hear? Our village is going to have some educated youth coming!”
“Educated youth? What’s that?”
One child confidently answered, “It doesn’t matter—they’re just people with bad backgrounds, otherwise, why would they be sent to the countryside?”
“Are a lot of educated youth coming then?”
“I think so, that’s what the village chief said.”
The children ran past Su Jin so fast that it was almost like smoke rose from their feet.
Su Jin thought to herself: “Educated youth?”
Oh, she roughly understood. Around this time, many educated youth were sent to the countryside—large numbers of intellectuals would go to live among the farmers and work alongside them. She had also read that some of these educated youth had a hard life during this period.
When Su Jin ran home, she was greeted by a sweet, fragrant smell. She knew immediately—it must be her husband making something delicious again.
Sure enough, at the stove stood a tall man washing rice and cooking. His gaze was focused, his nose high and well-defined from the side, lips sculpted, jawline clear—truly a strikingly handsome man.
Su Jin couldn’t resist his charm. She wrapped her arms around Jiang Heng’s waist from behind and pressed her face against his back. She could feel his warmth, hot like hugging a large stove.
Jiang Heng froze mid-motion, his heart racing. He had no idea where this wife had come from; she didn’t look like any woman from this place.
Turning around, the two were extremely close. Jiang Heng looked down at the small woman in his arms, her large eyes shining as she stared at him. He was about to say, “Step aside, I need to cook first,” when Su Jin gave him a dazzling smile. Her red lips were like flower petals, effortlessly capturing attention.
On tiptoe, she pressed her nose against his, their warm breaths mingling. At this moment, it was as if little pink bubbles could float out of them both.
Jiang Heng stared at this delicate woman, noticing even the reflection of himself in her round eyes. His breath seemed to stop involuntarily.
Su Jin’s presence had changed his previously cold and indifferent life. She still smiled at him playfully, thinking that if it hadn’t been for some accident bringing her here, she probably wouldn’t have encountered such a handsome man.
High nose, deep-set eyes—beauty lies in the skin, not the bones, as they say. Su Jin thought she had just witnessed a real-life example.
Seeing the small woman in his arms grow bolder, trying to burrow into him with her fuzzy head, he lifted her out with one hand.
“Sit on this little stool. I’ll go finish cooking.”
“Emmm…”
Reluctantly, Su Jin pulled out a stool and sat down. Jiang Heng placed a metal bowl of mung bean sweet soup in front of her.
“It’s hot out. Drink some mung bean water to cool down.”
Su Jin’s eyes sparkled as she looked at the bowl. She held it carefully in her hands. The past few days, the sun had scorched everything, the ground baked dry. Even walking a few steps outside made people sweat and pant. Farmers worked bent over all day under the sun, their necks sunburned, lips purple, barely holding on.
Now, with Su Jin here, her expectations for happiness were simple—being well-fed and warmly clothed was already enough. She didn’t need to think about anything else. After all, in this era of collective economy, nobody was particularly rich; in fact, everyone seemed poorer than the next.
Her husband wasn’t the traditional domineering type. He respected her. Today, while collecting her work points, she had heard some gossip: some couples, married just two years, were pressured to have a son this year, or else… the wives looked exhausted and droopy, like frostbitten eggplants, their complexions poor.
After a day’s work, they had to rush back to cook, serve, and arrange the table for the men of the house.
Su Jin sipped the mung bean sweet soup along the rim of the bowl, thinking, “Hmm… am I not the happiest woman in the village?”
By now, Jiang Heng had finished cooking and served the meal. He called Su Jin over.
Her mind raced. Just a moment ago, she had been judging those men who bossed their wives around at home. Yet now… she felt a little like one of them herself.
No, she thought, even though she didn’t boss Jiang Heng, she couldn’t be the same as those men.
After dinner, Su Jin offered to wash the dishes. Just as she reached out to collect the bowls and chopsticks, Jiang Heng stopped her.
“Let me do it.”
“No, you cooked. I’ll wash the dishes.”
Jiang Heng glanced at her small wrist. Upon closer inspection, he realized the width of her wrist joint was only about two of his fingers. He frowned, wondering if his wife could handle working at the oil-extraction team.
Su Jin gently pushed him away. “Just let me do it. I’ve never done housework before.”
As she spoke, she remembered that Jiang Heng washed all her personal clothes. Aside from working at the team leader’s place, she had done almost nothing. A sense of guilt arose in her heart.
But what she didn’t know was that this man was worried about her, afraid that even small chores might tire her.
“No need. Go rest.” Jiang Heng scooped her up in a princess carry and placed her on a chair. “You just ate. Sit and digest.”
Su Jin muttered discontentedly, “Why don’t you let me do anything?”
Noticing his wife’s complaint, Jiang Heng gently stroked her head like one would a child. Then he opened a locked cabinet to reveal a bag of milk candies.
“Here, have a little snack,” he said, coaxing her like a child.
Su Jin thought to herself: Damn it, I’m being cajoled by this man again.
After finishing their meal and drinks, Su Jin suddenly remembered something. From what she had heard from others, before she appeared, Jiang Heng lived alone.
Given his income, how did he have such abundant food—meat every meal, refined white sugar, and even mung bean sweet soup? Even families in the county seat couldn’t afford meat every day.
