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

"ah--!!"

Aunt Zhao rolled her eyes and fell straight backward, this time truly fainting.

As night fell, the Zhao family compound was deathly still.

Aunt Zhao lay motionless on the kang, groaning and unable to get up, looking as if she had lost half her life.

Li Xianglian didn't serve her. She went to the kitchen and cooked a pot of sweet potato porridge herself. The egg jar that was usually monopolized by Aunt Zhao and Zhao Xiaoyun was opened by her without any politeness today.

She took two eggs, which her family had been saving for several days to exchange for salt at the supply and marketing cooperative.

Li Xianglian didn't feel bad at all. She cracked the egg into a bowl, chopped some scallions, drizzled sesame oil on it, and steamed a bowl of smooth and tender egg custard in the big iron pot.

The aroma wafted out, making Aunt Zhao, who was pretending to be sick in the main room, swallow hard, but she dared not come out.

Now, whenever she sees Li Xianglian's face, she gets chills, always feeling that she is a ghost in human skin.

Li Xianglian ate two bowls of porridge with steamed egg custard and pickled vegetables, thoroughly enjoying her meal.

After eating and drinking her fill, she tidied up and went straight back to the woodshed.

She locked the door, blew out the light, but didn't go to sleep.

They waited until the moon was high in the sky, until the barking of the village dogs stopped, and then came that familiar, extremely faint knocking sound from the neighboring yard.

Thump, thump, thump.

Three beeps, two long and one short. That was the secret signal Qin Rushan and she had agreed upon.

Li Xianglian's heart skipped a beat, and her cheeks involuntarily flushed.

She tiptoed to her feet, not daring to put on shoes, afraid that the hard-soled cloth shoes would make too much noise hitting the floor tiles, so she walked barefoot on the cool mud.

The window paper had long since been torn, which she stuffed with straw.

Now she carefully pulled away the straw and, by the dim moonlight, deftly pushed open the rickety broken window.

It was eerily quiet outside; you couldn't even hear the chirping of insects.

Li Xianglian crouched low and, with practiced ease, made her way to the base of the backyard wall.

The ladder is still on the top of the wall.

As soon as she climbed up, a large, hot hand reached out from the other side of the wall, grabbed her wrist, and lifted her up with a slight pull.

In a dizzying moment, she landed steadily in that embrace that smelled strongly of soap.

"Why did it take you so long to get here?" Qin Rushan's voice was muffled in his chest, making her ears ring.

He didn't let go; his arms were like iron clamps around her, and his usually fierce eyes were now frighteningly bright in the night.

"We're waiting for Aunt Zhao to fall asleep."

Xianglian gasped for breath, her small hands instinctively gripping his shirt. "She was terribly frightened today. I heard her talking nonsense in the main room for a while, and that's why she's quiet now."

"Serves you right for being scared to death." Qin Rushan scoffed, patted her back reassuringly, and then pulled her into the house.

The room was dark, with no lights on, which only made the atmosphere more ambiguous.

Qin Rushan made her sit on the edge of the bed, then turned around and rummaged through the cabinet for a while, pulled out a cloth bag, and stuffed it into her hand.

"Take it."

Xianglian was taken aback. She opened it by the moonlight and found a stack of crumpled money and a few grain coupons.

"What... what is this?"

"Found on Zhao Xiaoyun."

Qin Rushan spoke with righteous indignation, plopping down next to her, his hard thighs pressed tightly against hers. "That girl is always cunning and sly, saving up quite a bit of money on her own. Plus, I intercepted the 350 yuan that old hag was trying to sell her daughter for halfway."

Li Xianglian's eyes widened: "That 350... you got it back?"

"That's natural."

Qin Rushan reached out and pinched her slightly chubby cheeks; they felt so good that he didn't want to let go.

"That human trafficker wasn't any better. He hadn't even gone two miles from the village entrance when I put a sack over his head and beat him up. I got the money back, but I didn't care about the person; I just had him taken away on a donkey cart. The old guy was beaten black and blue, and even when he woke up, he didn't dare come back to settle scores. He just thought he'd run into a tough nut to crack down on."

Xianglian was both terrified and incredibly relieved. Looking at the money in her hand, her eyes welled up with tears.

These days, money is life. With this money, even if she really leaves the Zhao family in the future, she can still survive.

"Keep this money," Xianglian pushed it into his arms. "You'll have to get married someday..."

Before he could finish speaking, Qin Rushan covered his mouth.

"What are you babbling about?"

His brows furrowed deeply, clearly displeased with what he was saying. "Isn't you my wife? This money is just a small fraction of your dowry. Besides, you've suffered so much in the Zhao family for so many years, working like a slave for them. Consider this your wages, take it!"

His tone was domineering, leaving no room for negotiation.

Xianglian felt warm inside and stopped being coy, carefully putting the money away from her body.

"There's something else."

Qin Rushan suddenly became serious, his eyes fixed on her, "That old hag is temporarily intimidated, but she's vicious and might still be plotting something bad. Be careful these next few days, watch what you eat and drink. If she dares to get violent, throw bricks at the wall, and I'll climb over and kill her right away."

"I know."

Xianglian nodded, a cold glint in her eyes. "After this ordeal, I'm no longer the pushover I used to be. If she wants to fight, I'll give her a good fight."

Looking at her like a little wildcat with its claws outstretched, Qin Rushan felt a tightness in his throat; he was genuinely amazed.

He suddenly leaned in and gave that chattering little mouth a big kiss.

"I really want to..."

His voice was hoarse and filled with intense lust, "I really want to do you right now."

Xianglian's body went limp, collapsing into his arms, her face burning hot enough to fry an egg: "You...you're being indecent again..."

"Why should I be serious with my own daughter-in-law?" Qin Rushan chuckled, his large hand wandering restlessly over her waist.

But he held back in the end.

The night was deep outside the window, but the ambiguous warmth inside the room had not yet dissipated.

Qin Rushan's large hand was still caressing the soft flesh of Li Xianglian's waist, his calloused fingertips brushing against her delicate skin, causing the person in his arms to tremble slightly.

Xianglian didn't dodge; instead, she snuggled closer to him, like a lazy kitten.

Listening to the steady, powerful heartbeat in the man's chest, the anxiety that had been hanging over her all day finally subsided.

But just as that feeling of relief subsided, another wave of bitterness washed over me.

She recalled the scene of bumping into Liu Chunhua at the Zhao family's door during the day.

"Like a mountain..."

Xianglian stretched out a slender white finger and drew circles on his chest muscles, which were as hard as iron. Her voice carried a hint of probing, as well as a touch of coquettishness that she herself was unaware of, "I have a question for you, and you have to tell me the truth."