The Delicate Darling with Her Rough Man

Gu Jiaojiao was at home cooking. After setting the rice to steam, she went out to the private plot in her backyard to pick some vegetables.

The private plot was enclosed by a stone wall, built to keep animals from the mountains from coming down and ruining the vegetable garden. At just over a meter high, however, anyone standing outside it was still visible.

Gu Jiaojiao spotted Chen Shulan standing just beyond her private plot and raised an eyebrow in surprise.

’What’s she doing, loitering outside my vegetable garden?’

Still, the land outside the wall wasn’t hers. If the woman wanted to hang around, it was none of Gu Jiaojiao’s business.

She decided to ignore Chen Shulan, squatting down and getting to work picking vegetables.

Chen Shulan was left speechless.

She’d been loitering there for ages, a knot of resentment twisting in her gut.

She was supposed to be at work, but it wasn’t long before she heard that Leng Yuan had been praised by the leaders from the county. Not only had he received a commendation banner, but he’d also been given a one-thousand-yuan reward.

That was a thousand yuan!

She had never seen so much money in her entire life.

The more she thought about it, the more bitter she felt. Why should Gu Jiaojiao be so lucky? She refused to accept it.

What did Gu Jiaojiao have besides a pretty face?

She was delicate and pretentious, completely useless in the fields. What good was a wife like that?

So, the disgruntled Chen Shulan had decided to come over and let off some steam.

But that Gu Jiaojiao was acting as if she were blind! She was standing right here, and the woman had the nerve to ignore her.

It wasn’t that Chen Shulan had chosen to come to the private plot to try her luck. The problem was, the front wall of Leng Yuan’s house was too high; from inside, you couldn’t see anything outside at all. She could have paced out there for a decade, and as long as Gu Jiaojiao didn’t leave the house, she wouldn’t be seen.

The private plot was another story. The wall here was low, and she’d heard the leaders were having lunch at Gu Jiaojiao’s house. That meant Jiaojiao would surely come out back to pick vegetables.

And sure enough, she’d guessed right.

But the woman had just ignored her. Watching Gu Jiaojiao briskly snapping vegetables off their stems, Chen Shulan finally lost her patience.

"Gu Jiaojiao, you’re the most heartless woman I’ve ever met."

Gu Jiaojiao’s hands stilled for a moment before she tossed the vegetables she was holding into her basin.

She stood up.

Her stare was fixed on Chen Shulan, full of hostility.

"Are you sick in the head? If you’re sick, go to the hospital. I don’t run a clinic here."

’She knew it. This woman was just here to cause trouble.’

Chen Shulan let out a cold snort. She had mentally prepared herself before coming; a few light words weren’t going to hurt her.

"What, did I strike a nerve? I have no idea what Leng Yuan sees in a woman like you. For a measly thousand-yuan reward, you’d send your own husband to fight human traffickers. Don’t you realize he could have been killed?"

Gu Jiaojiao immediately understood. The woman was just jealous that her family had received a thousand yuan, so she’d come to sow discord between husband and wife.

’Well, since you’re here, you won’t be getting away that easily.’

She squatted back down, sighing as she continued to pick vegetables.

"You know, Shulan, I actually feel sorry for you. You’re pretty, you’re smart, and you’re a hard worker. Earning money shouldn’t be difficult for you at all!"

"I mean, with your looks and your smarts, if you’d just found a man who knew how to make money, you’d probably have a brick house built by now!"

"When it comes down to it, you just have bad taste in men. You met so many during the matchmaking days, so how did you end up with the one who’s worst at making money? All these years, and he still can’t even earn full work points."

"He can’t even measure up to the average man in the team. That husband of yours... you could give him a dollar and he’d still end up owing ninety cents."

"I feel so, so sorry for you."

"If your husband were just a bit more capable and had gone with my man that day to save those kidnapped children, wouldn’t he have gotten a piece of that commendation? The reward money would’ve been shared with him, too. When you get right down to it, it’s all because your husband is just a disappointment."

Chen Shulan was stunned by the initial praise, but then she began to follow Gu Jiaojiao’s train of thought. The more she considered it, the more she felt Jiaojiao was right.