Lin Daya recognized the voice as well—it was Chen Shulan’s. The two children immediately cowered.
"What do we do? Mom is definitely going to beat us."
Although Chen Shulan rarely hit them, that didn’t mean she never would.
Children are very perceptive of adults’ emotions, and the anger on Chen Shulan’s face just now had reached its peak.
Lin Tie Dan was favored far more than Lin Daya. He was the only boy in the family, and Chen Shulan had never laid a hand on him.
After feeling a pang of guilt, Lin Tie Dan relaxed again.
"Mom will only beat you, not me."
When the Lin Family had taken in Sweet Girl and Xiao Yang, Sweet Girl was the one who got beaten most often, while Xiao Yang rarely was. Lin Daya and Lin Tie Dan were never hit. Now that the two "stinky beggars" were gone, leaving only Lin Daya and Lin Tie Dan, the one who bore the brunt of it was always Lin Daya.
Lin Daya understood this all too well, but she couldn’t help but feel it was unfair.
’Why should I be the one who gets beaten for something Lin Tie Dan threw?’
Lin Daya looked at her younger brother’s smug face, and a flash of hatred flickered in her eyes.
It was already very late when Gu Jiaojiao and Leng Yuan returned.
She ran into Chen Ruoyu on the way.
Gu Jiaojiao told Leng Yuan to head back first, then walked over to Chen Ruoyu’s side.
"Ruoyu, were you waiting for me?"
Chen Ruoyu nodded. "Something happened in the village today. It’s already been resolved, but I felt I should still tell you about it."
Chen Ruoyu recounted how Chen Shulan had been slandering Gu Jiaojiao’s name in the fields during the day.
She then recounted how Chen Shulan had been publicly humiliated in the village that evening by Sweet Girl’s and Xiao Yang’s grades.
"You have no idea. The moment Chen Shulan got back, she gave Lin Daya a beating. It was brutal—she whipped her bottom until it was red raw. Plenty of neighbors saw it, and everyone’s treating her like a laughingstock."
Only then did Gu Jiaojiao realize how much had happened in the few hours she’d been away.
Realizing Chen Ruoyu must have been waiting here specifically for her for quite some time, Gu Jiaojiao thanked her sincerely.
Chen Ruoyu gave a casual wave of her hand. "There’s no need for such formalities between us."
Ever since Gu Jiaojiao had married Leng Yuan, Chen Ruoyu felt she had changed, developing a personality that she truly admired.
Making friends was a lot like finding a lover—there had to be mutual attraction.
Gu Jiaojiao watched Chen Ruoyu turn to leave. After a moment of silence, she called out to her.
"Ruoyu, the school is short one teacher right now. I was wondering if you might be interested!"
From the start, Gu Jiaojiao had intended to offer the teaching jobs to Li Fenggu and Chen Ruoyu. Both of them had upstanding characters and sound values, and they were well-educated, having finished high school. She was planning to find them both to talk about it, but she hadn’t expected Chen Ruoyu to come to her first.
They were both people she approved of; it was just a matter of who she ran into first.
Chen Ruoyu was completely floored by the good news. She was still in a daze by the time she got back to the Educated Youth dormitory.
Li Hongmei was sitting on a stool and staring into a mirror. She was furious to see that her skin had gotten a whole shade darker.
She had spent the entire winter pampering her skin just to get it a little fairer. And now, after such a short time, she was even darker than before.
She slammed the mirror face-down on the table in a huff, just as Chen Ruoyu walked in from outside, looking completely dazed.
Knowing that Ruoyu had gone to give Gu Jiaojiao a message, she couldn’t resist a sneer.
"What’s wrong? Back from playing lapdog for someone? With that look on your face, don’t tell me you didn’t get anything good out of it?!"
Chen Ruoyu snapped back to reality and looked at Li Hongmei with unconcealed disgust. "You’d be better off figuring out how to make that face of yours a little paler! Otherwise, Hu Ziqiang is bound to leave you sooner or later."
Her weak spot having been struck, Li Hongmei flew into a rage. "Chen Ruoyu, how dare you curse me!"
Chen Ruoyu snorted. "Well, you’re dark, you’re ugly, and you have a poisonous tongue. You deserve whatever you get."
Li Hongmei was furious and looked ready for a fight.
Chen Ruoyu stood up and rolled up her sleeves. "What, you want a fight? Bring it on!"
Back in the city, Chen Ruoyu had been a pampered daughter in her family, but after several years of farm work in the countryside, she had become quite strong.
Li Hongmei’s family wasn’t as well-off as Chen Ruoyu’s, but she was prone to slacking off and cutting corners. When it came to physical strength, she was no match for Chen Ruoyu.
Seeing Chen Ruoyu ready to throw down, Li Hongmei immediately backed down.
"I’m telling you, fighting is wrong."
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