Mu Jingzhe was very busy. She didn’t know if it was because the news of her adding more people agitated Bai Qiang, but something happened on his end again.
Because the Li Family had held on and refused to give in, Li Fang refused to marry no matter what he did to tarnish her reputation. Hence, he changed his mind.
He said it was fine if Li Fang didn’t want to marry him, but the Li Family had to compensate him.
The betrothal gifts, the money it had cost to marry Li Tao, and the money he had spent on Li Tao in the past three years—even the responsibility of the Bai Family not having a child—were all pushed entirely onto the Li Family. They even shamelessly asked the Li Family to be responsible for his second marriage. What an exorbitant demand.
That wasn’t all. In fact, he even demanded the compensation to include Li Tao’s salary.
He said that Li Tao had been previously earning money by working for Mu Jingzhe. Therefore, if Li Tao hadn’t run away, the money would have been his.
The Li Family naturally wouldn’t agree to such an absurd request. They didn’t have that much money either.
This time, Bai Qiang was completely shameless. He called a few hooligans from the outer village to harass the Li Family every day. They would smash their things, snatch their food and drinks, and verbally and physically harass Li Fang. They hurled all sorts of humiliating insults at her.
Li Fang’s parents ended up falling sick from fury.
Everyone in the village said that they were not dishonorable. Even the village leader had spoken, but Bai Qiang was shameless and refused to listen. He continued making a fuss and refused to leave until he got paid.
The matter between Bai Qiang and the Li Family attracted the attention of the villagers, but Mu Jingzhe kept a low profile.
In the blink of an eye, it was Sunday again. It was time to go learn in the county city.
However, Mu Jingzhe hadn’t set off yet because it was raining.
When the rain subsided, Mu Jingzhe told the children to pack up and prepare to leave.
Before leaving the village, she ran into Mu Xue and Tang Moling.
Mu Xue was holding an umbrella and wearing a pale yellow dress and white sandals. She was taking Tang Moling to the car.
In the drizzling rain, the handsome man and beautiful woman looked like a gorgeous painting.
Mu Jingzhe looked at the pleasing scene, then looked at herself.
It was only when it rained that Mu Jingzhe realized that there was no umbrella at home.
During this time of the year, umbrellas were considered luxury goods by the villagers. Only Mu Xue had one.
Every family in the village used plastic sheets that had previously been used to contain urea compound fertilizer as umbrellas and raincoats.
The thing above Mu Jingzhe’s head was a plastic sheet, and it made a lot of noise when the rain fell on it.
Upon looking down at her muddy wet pants and old shoes, Mu Jingzhe felt that she was an embarrassment to transmigrators everywhere.
When other people transmigrated, they transformed into glamorous and well-loved characters that racked in big bucks and everything. She was the only transmigrator who had to work hard to make a living every day.
After transmigrating here for so long, she didn’t even own a dress or a pair of sandals.
Before transmigrating, she used to be a worker. After transmigrating, she was still a worker.
The villagers were still envious of her for earning money, but they had no idea how difficult it was to earn money here. Carrying those products and running around to negotiate business deals was no joke.
Without her monstrous strength, she would have died from exhaustion.
At the end of the day, this was similar to running a business, and she had to deal with countless cold faces. Fortunately, she had already trained herself to be thick-skinned.
She had worked so hard and she still lacked money. She was indeed a supporting character.
Look at the female protagonist, Mu Xue. She had been born smart and quick-witted. All she had to do was just wait for the male protagonist to love her and dote on her. Whatever she wanted to do, the male protagonist would be there to support and guide her through.
She remembered that in the novel, Mu Xue seemed to have published some books midway and even opened a shop later on. However, she hadn’t suffered, and all she did was wait elegantly to receive the money.
Unlike her.
Mu Jingzhe was envious, but that was it. She preferred to take things step by step.
If she worked harder, life would get better and better in the future.
After thinking about all these random things, in order to avoid any misunderstandings between the male and female lead, Mu Jingzhe pretended not to see them and quietly walked away.
However, Mu Xue and Tang Moling had already seen her.
Mu Xue had a complicated expression on her face. “I heard that Mu Jingzhe sent the children to an art school in the county to study. She’s really behaving like their mother now. She’s being very responsible. She even went beyond what other parents do for their own children.”
She hadn’t expected Mu Jingzhe’s transformation to be so thorough and lasting, that she would be so consistently good to the children and even manage to persist for so long.
Tang Moling raised his brows, feeling very surprised. Mu Jingzhe actually had great foresight and knew how to develop the children’s artistic talents.
In spite of his curiosity, he said, “Who cares what she’s thinking? Let’s not talk about her.”
That was the only appropriate thing for him to say. Otherwise, Mu Xue would be unhappy again.
Mu Jingzhe and the kids left first, but Tang Moling chased after them not long after they left the village.
Upon seeing Mu Jingzhe move with difficulty on her bicycle with the five children, Tang Moling frowned.
He had previously believed that Mu Jingzhe had deliberately said those words in order to attract his attention. He had even decided to ignore her in the future and make her give up on her own.
Unexpectedly, he had been given no chance to ignore her. During this period, whenever he had run into Mu Jingzhe, she had never looked for him. Instead, she had avoided him like the plague.
Tang Moling felt uncomfortable. He suddenly suspected his conclusion had been wrong.
Was she really not playing hard to get?
Tang Moling looked at her pathetic back as she tried her best to ride the bicycle. He suddenly wanted to confirm her intentions.
“Do you want a ride?” Tang Moling stuck out his head and offered her a ride.
Mu Jingzhe had seen his car. Due to the narrow roads, she had stopped the bike to give way to him. She froze in surprise at the sudden offer.
“A ride?”
Seeing the genuine surprise on Mu Jingzhe’s face, Tang Moling narrowed his eyes. “That’s right. It’s not easy to ride a bike in this weather.”
He was momentarily frustrated after those words came out of his mouth, but when he saw Mu Jingzhe’s reaction, his frustration ceased.
He wanted to see if she was deliberately ignoring him to attract his attention.
If she was doing this on purpose, he would pretend to be attracted to her. When she revealed her true colors, he would say those awful words back to her and show her how it felt to be despised.
Tang Moling gave her a perfect smile. “Get in quickly. You don’t want to catch a cold.”
Mu Jingzhe looked at the children and made up her mind. “Alright, thank you.”
It was probably because she hadn’t been up to any mischief recently that this future cousin-in-law of hers had shown mercy and taken pity on her.
That was fine. After all, he would be her cousin-in-law in the future.
It would be good to improve her relationship with the male and female protagonist.
None of the kids objected.
After all, they were still children, so they were very curious about cars.
This was their first time sitting in a car.
Previously, when there had been fewer people around, they had secretly gone to take a look. However, they didn’t dare approach, afraid that they would bump into the car or scratch it and have no money to compensate the owner.
The five kids got down from the bike and stood a little awkwardly. They looked down at their shoes and pants, feeling a little hesitant.
Tang Moling could tell. “It’s fine. Get in the car.”
After driving to the village, it was inevitable that the car would get dirty. It wouldn’t take them long to get there anyway.
Only then did the five kids smile.
Little Bei’s eyes were filled with excitement. She pulled at Mu Jingzhe’s clothes and asked, “Auntie, can I sit in the front?”
She felt that sitting in the front was very impressive. The last time she had gone to the joint performance, she had seen some students sitting in the front passenger seat.
Tang Moling frowned slightly when he heard that. He didn’t like having children by his side, nor did he like having people sitting in the front passenger seat, as they would either be overly nervous or overly relaxed.
The overly nervous ones would shout and scream. As for the overly relaxed ones, they would touch the car here and there. Sometimes, they would be so enthusiastic that they would force him to eat or even tug at him.
Upon recalling these experiences, Tang Moling was about to speak.
However, he then heard Mu Jingzhe say, “No, Little Bei. Children can’t sit in the passenger seat. It’s dangerous.”
“Then Auntie, you sit there and I’ll sit on your lap.” Little Bei’s form of address became increasingly intimate.
“That won’t do either. It’s dangerous for an adult to hold a child in the front.” Mu Jingzhe continued to shake her head.
In the end, Shao Dong sat in the back with Little Bei on his lap.
There weren’t enough seats, so Mu Jingzhe, the biggest person among them, sat in the front.
Seeing that he didn’t have to waste his breath, Tang Moling heaved a sigh of relief.