Chapter 165: You Look a Little Happy

The couple's faces instantly turned as pale as earth.

Neither of them expected that the person standing by the brick bed was Jiang Xun, nor did they imagine he would bring so many snakes inside.

"You... Jiang Xun, this, this is the Green Mountain Production Brigade. If I, my dad won't... won't let you off." At this moment, Li Cuihua's obsession and thoughts regarding Jiang Xun were completely and utterly wiped out.

Through one incident after another, she had learned that neither Jiang Xun nor Lin Jingyue was someone to be trifled with.

Yet she never expected him to be this ruthless!

If he wanted to, making someone disappear without a trace would be as easy as turning over his hand, leaving others with no evidence whatsoever.

Having figured this out, the couple looked at Jiang Xun with unprecedented terror and tension.

"You, don't be rash. I promise... I promise I won't let this bitch ever... ever make you angry again..." Zhao Hua wished he could kneel down and kowtow a few times.

However, the snakes wrapping around his body kept him from making any reckless movements, and coupled with the creature in Jiang Xun's hand that kept flicking its forked tongue, he wished he could just drop dead on the spot.

"But I don't really believe what you're saying," Jiang Xun said leisurely.

While speaking, he feigned pushing the snakes forward.

The couple: "!!!" Fuck, fuck, fuck!

"I swear, I won't do anything of the sort ever again. I've given up completely!" Li Cuihua restrained herself to the extreme, her teeth chattering.

"What if they're lying to us? I think we should just throw the snakes in. It'll just look like an accident anyway," Lin Jingyue's voice chimed in abruptly.

The couple jumped in fright once more, huddling together and shivering.

Internally, they were screaming at the top of their lungs, swearing to the heavens that they would never provoke these two ruthless people ever again!

Jiang Xun replied, "Alright, whatever you say."

"Ah, no, no, no! We were wrong, we were truly wrong..."

"It was just my greed blinding me, a toad trying to eat swan meat. I was resentful, it was all my fault, but I really have no lingering thoughts left. I'm begging you, please don't—I don't want to die, sob, sob..." Li Cuihua curled into a ball, snot and tears smudged all over her face.

At this moment, Zhao Hua harbored even deeper resentment than Li Cuihua. He intensely regretted hastily marrying her just to secure a quota.

Everyone knew what kind of person this woman was, and her reputation was already thoroughly ruined. He truly had been out of his mind.

And now he had dragged himself into this mess too...

"Hmph, then I'll spare you one last time. If I ever hear or see anything else again, you can go feed the wolves. Big Ash, come in!" Lin Jingyue huffed.

Big Ash?

What Big Ash?

Immediately after, the couple locked eyes with a pair of glowing green eyes, their scalps instantly tightening.

They stared in utter terror.

To make matters worse, Lin Jingyue maliciously switched on her flashlight, casting the beam directly onto Big Ash.

I'll be damned... it really is a wolf—

Without processing anything else, the couple passed out cold from sheer fright.

Jiang Xun and Lin Jingyue exchanged a glance, raising their eyebrows with a glint of amusement in their eyes.

"Big Ash, head back up the mountain," she patted the wolf's head.

With the snakes paving the way and Big Ash delivering the fatal psychological blow, if these two still dared to harbor any petty thoughts, they truly wouldn't fear death anymore.

Jiang Xun didn't bother clearing away the snakes; the two of them simply dusted off their hands and left the house.

The next morning, a shrill, ear-piercing shriek shattered the morning silence of the mountain village.

Following her mother-in-law's instructions, Chen Cuicui had come to check if her sister-in-law had received another beating, only to find the courtyard completely deserted. She called out a few times, assuming the couple had stepped out. Seeing the door wide open, she pushed it open suspiciously, and then... collapsed to the ground, paralyzed with fright by the sight on the brick bed.

Overnight, snakes had slithered everywhere, some still writhing on the brick bed, forming creepy clusters all over the room...

Villagers who woke up early to prepare for farm work heard the commotion and rushed over to watch the spectacle.

Soon, the news that snakes had invaded the couple's home and scared them unconscious in the middle of the night spread throughout the entire brigade.

In private, everyone whispered that Li Cuihua must have done something wicked to summon such a curse.

Yet, given the sensitive circumstances of the times, no one dared to voice it loudly.

Meanwhile, the culprits were currently sipping thick, fragrant millet porridge, eating scallion and egg pancakes, and enjoying each other's sweet company.

Sensing a rather strange gaze directed at her, Lin Jingyue looked up. Chen Chunlan?

She tilted her head in confusion.

Chen Chunlan hurriedly averted her gaze, leaving Lin Jingyue thinking: "..."

This little gossip enthusiast definitely had something sketchy going on.

In truth, Chen Chunlan was simply terrified. Waking up in the middle of the night to use the latrine, she had vaguely spotted two figures leaving the educated youths' quarters, initially mistaking them for unclean spirits.

Thinking about it now, they indeed weren't clean—oh wait, they were just ruthlessly vicious.

Sneaking into someone else's house in the dead of night to release snakes—in the entire Green Mountain Production Brigade, only those two monsters could pull off such a feat.

Chen Chunlan shrank her neck back silently, resolving once and for all never to cross Lin Jingyue.

At that exact moment, she felt immensely grateful that her mind hadn't wandered down some dark path back then.

Over at the couple's house, Aunt Chun's eyes were swollen from crying. Between yesterday's events and today's disaster, her daughter's reputation and life were completely ruined.

The brigade leader had called over a few young men to clear the snakes out of the house. Outside, Li Cuihua stood looking haggard and utterly lifeless. Just recalling the events of the previous night chilled her to the bone.

She knew that Jiang Xun and Lin Jingyue weren't joking around; push them far enough, and she might not even leave a corpse behind.

Snakes, wolves...

When the brigade leader and Aunt Chun questioned them about what had happened the night before, the couple shook their heads repeatedly, stubbornly refusing to utter a single word.

People simply assumed they had been scared out of their wits.

"That Li Cuihua, tsk." During the lunch break, Tian Jiao heard the news and made no attempt to hide her mockery.

She and Li Cuihua had been classmates, but their relationship had always been terrible.

Li Cuihua was nothing more than a pretentious hypocrite; only foolish boys fell for her act.

"Serves her right."

Seeing her gloating, Shang Meilin sighed helplessly, "You're still on her turf, you know. Be careful she doesn't beat you."

Tian Jiao had suffered quite a few losses back in school, yet she still hadn't learned to restrain herself.

"She wouldn't dare," Tian Jiao curled her lips, then looked at the others in the office, particularly Li Cuihua's cousin, "Teacher Li, you won't go leaking information, right?"

Li槐安 (Li Huai'an): "..."

"Teacher Lin and Teacher Xie certainly won't, I just don't know about you."

Li Huai'an asked, "Why are you so sure they won't?"

They had only recently started working together, so they certainly couldn't be called close friends yet.

"We're all girls, we're of the same kind," Tian Jiao declared.

Li Huai'an: "..." What kind of twisted logic is that?

Xie Juanjuan and Lin Jingyue: "..." Fair enough, that reasoning is surprisingly solid.

Dropping those words, Tian Jiao grabbed her lunchbox and walked out.

Shang Meilin offered an apologetic smile to the others before hurrying after her, leaving only the three of them in the office.

Lin Jingyue rested her chin in her hands, studying Xie Juanjuan, who was organizing her desk. As expected, being nurtured and cared for made all the difference; the change in her was stark—her complexion was rosy and her spirit was vibrant.

Noticing her gaze, Xie Juanjuan paused, "Teacher Lin, is there something on my face?"

"There is."

"Really?" Xie Juanjuan instinctively reached up to wipe it.

"A bit of happiness."

Xie Juanjuan froze, "..."

A moment later, realization dawned, leaving her half-amused and half-embarrassed.

Meanwhile, the corner of Li Huai'an's mouth twitched violently. What kind of nonsense was this?