Chapter 693: 693

The six newly woven large bamboo baskets from their home had come in handy. Xiao Yishan tied them together with hemp rope, making them into three sets of baskets. Together with the two existing baskets, there were eight baskets in total, enough for carrying soil and stones.

The next day, early in the morning, as the sky brightened, there was activity outside the Xiao Family’s courtyard door.

The little bastard dog barked loudly at the outside courtyard.

Outside the courtyard, there were three people waiting – Zhou Fuquan, Zhang Ping’an, and Zhang Youlai. Each of them brought their own hoes. Zhang Ping’an even returned the bowl that the Xiao family had taken yesterday.

The Xiao family had risen early to eat breakfast.

Chuan and Dashan were both satisfied with how early the three men had gotten up. They both borrowed two hoes from their neighbors yesterday.

Su Qingyue said, “Second brother, third brother, it’s too slow to use bamboo baskets to manually transport soil and stones. It’s more convenient to drive our horse-drawn cart. With the horse cart, the second brother can carry things, and leave the digging work to others.”

“Alright then.” Xiao Yishan brought out the flatbed cart, put the eight baskets, four carrying poles, and two hoes on it, and drove the horse-drawn cart to the empty land where they were building their house.

Xiao Yuchuan walked with the three newly hired men to the site since it was nearby and easily reachable.

After they had all left for work,

Xiao Qinghe continued to weave baskets in the yard. Su Qingyue went to the village well to buy vegetables from Aunt Zhang.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

As she passed by the Zhu family’s courtyard, Zhu Nengwen saw her and coughed as if to remind her of his presence.

However, Su Qingyue didn’t even look at him and kept walking.

“Su Qingyue!” Zhu Nengwen called out boldly.

She turned her head to look at him, “What do you want?”

“Come over here, I have something to tell you.” His tone was condescending, as if it was a privilege for her to talk to him.

Unfortunately, this man had a mediocre face with bushy eyebrows and a flat nose, so forgettable that it left no impression. Not only was he unattractive, but he seemed to have a good self-image. Su Qingyue humphed, “I’m not interested in listening.”

She continued to walk away.

He hurriedly ran in front of her to block her path, “Su Qingyue, didn’t you say you liked me?”

She hesitated for a moment, “When did I say I liked you?”

“Back when you were in the Zhu family, you said you liked me and admired me…” He cleared his throat and took a confident pose.

Qingyue noticed that he didn’t look like he was lying, which meant that the original owner of this body must have said those words. She didn’t know what kind of taste the original owner had, “No such thing, I don’t like you.”

She wasn’t going to admit it.

“You clearly said you liked me and even climbed onto my bed!” Zhu Nengwen emphasized loudly.

Several villagers heard him and stopped to look at Su Qingyue with a mixture of contempt and surprise.

Su Qingyue immediately put on a sad expression, “Do you really think I wanted to climb onto your bed? Back when I was with the Zhu family, your mother would scold me until my soul scattered and hit me until I was bruised all over. I had to do the hardest work in your family, getting up earlier than the chickens and sleeping later than the dogs. You didn’t even like me and to be honest, I didn’t like you either. But your mom forced me to seduce you – if I didn’t listen to her, she would beat me to death. I was afraid of dying too…”

She spoke in a sorrowful tone, lowered her eyelids, lifted her sleeve, and pretended to wipe her tears.

Passing by, Aunt Liu couldn’t help but say, “Wife of the Xiao family, you truly have a hard life. Now everyone in the village knows that you are still pure and clean. It must have been against your will back when you seduced Zhu Nengwen.”

Master Yang, who also happened to pass by, added, “Wife of the Xiao family, we all believe you. Who doesn’t know that the Old Lady of the Zhu family is tricky? Back then, I saw you working in the Zhu family’s fields from morning till night without stopping, while the Old Lady of the Zhu family was resting in the shade under a tree. She didn’t hesitate to treat you like a workhorse. The Old Lady of the Zhu family beating you with a stick was witnessed by more than one or two people. Don’t mind the Zhu family. They’re an unscrupulous bunch.”