She needed to coax some information to understand what was going on. She found Li Qiao in private, "Third Sister, why did you buy yellow paper on credit? Because of that, I was publicly asked for money."
"Sorry about that, I didn't bring money with me when I went out. You can ask Loser Qin for it, just say I owe you."
Li Jinhua certainly wouldn't trouble Qin Jin over a mere dime. She changed the subject, "Mom said you are repeating a year, is that true?"
Li Qiao wasn't prepared to tell Li Jinhua the truth. "When did she say that? No. Loser Qin, the educated youth from the village, needed the books. I just picked them up on my way home."
Li Jinhua secretly breathed a sigh of relief, so that was it. "Right, Third Sister, I just heard on the street that Cai Hechuan's mom is clamoring to arrange his engagement. Do you have any plans for that?"
Li Qiao's eyes slightly narrowed, Li Jinhua was saying these things in front of her just to see her pained expression of unrequited love.
She had to put on a show, she couldn't let Li Jinhua be disappointed.
She pretended to be in agony and said, "What plans can I have? But even if Cai Hechuan gets married, I won't live peacefully with Loser Qin. You'll see, we'll divorce sooner or later."
Upon hearing this, Li Jinhua let go of the doubts in her mind. She smirked secretly, Li Qiao was still the same foolish love-struck girl.
She really was blind, Cai Hechuan was selfish, spoiled by his mother, and didn't do anything when his mom berated her harshly. He just stood by without uttering a word.
Qin Jin, the one who was not favored, would help her talk back. Just for this alone, he was streets ahead of Cai Hechuan, okay?
In her past life, Li Qiao didn't appreciate such a good man. She even reported him for speculation to get a divorce, which resulted in him being sentenced to three years of reform through labor and indirectly caused the death of Old Mrs. Qin.
Qin Jin, disheartened, agreed to the divorce, and whether it was karma or not, Cai Hechuan's wedding news broke just two days later.
Her parents wanted to find her another man, but she flat-out refused.
Perhaps her sincerity had moved the heavens because, three years later, Cai Hechuan's wife was washed away in a flood.
The two lovers eventually got married.
But when she aged and faded, Cai Hechuan actually took a mistress, and she, foolish enough, was manipulated into leaving the house without a penny to her name.
To support the child left by her ex-husband's deadbeat ex-wife, she didn't have her own children and ended up having no one to rely on in old age.
Meanwhile, Qin Jin, after being released from prison, made a fortune dealing in antiques, expanding to real estate, building materials, hotels, entertainment, and so on, becoming incredibly wealthy.
Even past the age of sixty, he still looked spirited and formidable.
Every time the news featured a report about him, she couldn't help but think to herself that if the person who had married him back then wasn't Li Qiao but her, she definitely would have supported him from nothing to everything.
Though she was reborn two days late, it was okay since she had the upper hand. In this life, she was determined to marry him and bear a whole brood of children to inherit his empire.
...
After the wedding reception, Qin Jin drank quite a lot. Li Qiao wanted to stay overnight, but their stepmother urged them to leave, saying that returning late from the reception was a taboo against their natal family.
Qin Jin, completely drunk, couldn't control the vehicle, swerving left and right, causing Li Qiao to jump out of the car for fear of crashing.
Qin Jin stopped the car immediately, hiccuping while drunk and slurring his words, "Wanna... go find that Cai guy? Dare... to cuckold me, I, I'll beat you till you're rolling in piss!"
Li Qiao: "..." Domestic violence? Scared of being beaten, she quickly explained, "I'm not looking for him, and I'd never dare cuckold you. Are you drunk?"
"I... I'm not drunk!" Qin Jin stubbornly said.
Li Qiao's expression shifted as she said, "You're not drunk? Then let me test you. What are the names of my parents? The current mother is my stepmother, right? Did Jinhua and Jinniu come with our stepmother? Does Jinhua go to school? What are the names of our eldest sister and second sister and their husbands? How many children does each of their families have?"
She had to grasp the basic situation as soon as possible.
Qin Jin's memory was not bad; even in his drunken state, he could answer her questions in order.
Li Qiao understood.
The mother was indeed the stepmother; her real mother died in childbirth, along with the newborn.
Jinhua came with the stepmother and was in the same class as her; both failed to pass the exams.
The stepmother only gave birth to Jinniu after marrying into the family.
The eldest sister, Li Jiaoyang, and her husband, Song Lin, have three children, two girls and one boy.
Li Jiaojiao, her brother-in-law Fang Chaonan, have one child.
She wanted to continue asking questions, but Qin Jin leaned onto her body, causing the bicycle to tilt to one side.
Li Qiao took a step back to stabilize herself, reached out her arms to embrace him, how heavy.
Looking around, she spotted a few large haystacks not far away, letting the bike fall, she supported him towards the haystack. She didn't care about cleanliness or tidiness, propped him up against the haystack, and prepared to ride the bike back by herself.
But the big 28-inch bike was too tall, and her legs couldn't reach the ground as his could. She also couldn't master the skill of pushing and climbing onto the bike at the same time, so she had to leave the bicycle by the haystack and sit beside Qin Jin, feeling the cold wind piercing through her.
Wasn't he cold?
She reached out to touch the back of his hand, it was very cold. She pulled some straw, planning to cover him with it, only to discover a large hollow space inside the haystack, with a thick layer of dry straw at the bottom. She simply dragged him into it to sleep; the wind couldn't get in, but his hands were still cold. Was it because he was wearing thick clothes for sleep that he felt cold?
She began to undress his coat to cover him, and after about ten minutes or so, his body temperature had recovered.
Li Qiao felt relieved.
In the dim surroundings, she gazed at his silhouette and recalled how he had treated her with a certain attitude when he was sober, feeling helplessly weak.
Under the same roof, him always being prickly wasn't a solution.
She muttered to herself, "I treat you well, can't you be a little nicer to me?"
"My head hurts..."
"Your head hurts?" Li Qiao leaned close to him, extending a hand to gently massage his temples. "Does this feel good? Am I treating you well?"
He seemed dissatisfied and grunted, then vomited.
A sour and rotten smell permeated the air, Li Qiao was petrified. After snapping out of it, she dragged him out of the hollow in the haystack to another one.
After setting him up, she went home for a bowl of hot tea, which had cooled to just the right temperature by the time she returned to the haystack. She woke him to drink it and waited patiently for him to sober up.
He finally stirred as the sun started to shift westward, and she spoke with a slight sense of surprise, "You're finally awake."
Qin Jin was indeed awake, but he had also remembered her meeting with Cai Hechuan, and anger flared up in an instant. He had given his father-in-law face in her home.
But now there was no need, right?
He spat out angrily, "Damn, finally? Can't wait for me to die of drunkenness so you can flirt with that Cai surname, huh?"
He thought to himself that if she countered with even a word, he would hit her.
Instead, she suddenly screamed that a mouse had emerged from the haystack.
He followed suit and walked out.
He glanced at her sideways.
In front of the haystack, she was hopping and jumping about, her red garment making her face look even paler. It added to her already delicate and frail temperament, evoking a feeling of heartbreaking fragility.
His eyes suddenly fixated on her.
Li Qiao noticed and felt apprehensive inside. Why was he staring at her? He wasn't going to hit her, was he?
She clenched her fists, but a second later she still smiled and said, "You've misunderstood, I have nothing going on with Cai Hechuan. Just now, I was busy taking care of you, massaging your head, and giving you warm water to drink."
Qin Jin then realized that this time his drunkenness hadn't resulted in a headache or a dry throat, and he had slept without his jacket on.
Hearing her say she had nothing to do with Cai Hechuan, he snorted coldly, thinking to himself, go deceive someone else! He put his clothes back on, and pushed the bike onto the road, with Li Qiao closely following behind.
...
Upon reaching her in-laws' house, Qin Jin returned the borrowed bike, and Li Qiao moved the books into the house.
Old Mrs. Qin asked, "Qiaoqiao, where did these books come from? Did you bring them from your parental home? Are you planning to repeat your studies?" Young people who failed their exams were also planning to repeat their studies, recently looking everywhere for books.
Li Qiao, worried that Old Mrs. Qin would object, promised, "I won't let it interfere with work when it's busy."
Old Mrs. Qin smiled and said, "Studying is a good thing. Jin did really well at school when he was younger, but it was unfortunately wasted. It's a pity. You'll have to return to school to repeat the year if you want a chance of passing the exam, and you certainly won't be able to work. I won't let you work while Jin is with me."