Make a Fortune and Become Well-off [90] - Chapter 21
The station had just pumped water in the past few days. At that time, the ditch was still half full of water. The wooden basin floated down the river ditch while Jiang Ning walked on the bank. When she reached the point closest to her home, she dragged the wooden basin ashore and moved it home bit by bit.
“Ning Ning!”
Jiang Ning turned around and saw Jiang Yueqin.
After rejecting her that day, she hadn’t seen Jiang Yueqin for several days. She looked at her face with heavy makeup, curious about how this person could deceive her into such a place while still calling her Ning Ning affectionately.
Jiang Yueqin originally went to the river to watch the excitement. Unexpectedly, she met Jiang Ning on the road and immediately greeted her enthusiastically.
“You want to move it home? Do you want me to help you carry it?”
She was just being polite. But unexpectedly, Jiang Ning agreed.
Jiang Yueqin was stunned for a moment.
She wore a hip-hugging leather skirt and high heels.
She looked at the small miscellaneous fish in Jiang Ning’s half-tub, then looked at her own high heels. She saw that Jiang Ning had already grabbed one side of the tub, waiting for her to grab the other side. Cruelly, she bent down and gritted her teeth to help Jiang Ning lift it up.
Jiang Yueqin struggled with the weight, her fashionable attire making the task even more difficult. She wobbled on her high heels, clearly uncomfortable and unsteady.
“You look ridiculous,” Jiang Ning commented bluntly. “If you can’t handle it, don’t offer help you don’t mean.”
Jiang Yueqin glared at her but didn’t let go. Together, they managed to lift the basin a short distance before Jiang Yueqin had to stop, panting and sweating.
“I can’t… I can’t do this,” Jiang Yueqin finally admitted, her face flushed with exertion and embarrassment.
Jiang Ning, seeing her struggle, sighed and said, “Fine, just hold it steady while I drag it. It’ll be faster.”
Jiang Ning took over most of the weight, and with Jiang Yueqin’s minimal assistance, they managed to move the tub closer to Jiang Ning’s home. When they finally reached the yard, Jiang Ning let out a sigh of relief.
“Thanks,” she said curtly, not meeting Jiang Yueqin’s eyes.
Jiang Yueqin, wiping sweat from her brow, muttered, “You’re welcome,” before quickly leaving, her high heels clicking on the pavement as she hurried away.
Jiang Ning watched her go to sit, shaking her head at the absurdity of the situation before turning back to her basin of fish, ready to get to work.
She was tall and walked behind, while Jiang Ning was short and walked in front, so most of the weight of the tub was on her side.
She had put on makeup, and the weather was already hot. After a while, sweat started flowing down her forehead, forming two ravines on her face.
After finally helping Jiang Ning carry the wooden basin home, she sat on the threshold of the Jiang’s house, too tired to move. She fanned herself, her face showing clear disgust. “You picked so many fish shit and river clams. What are you planning to do with these?”
She stretched out her fingertips and picked up a piece of river clam. “Is this thing even edible?”
Jiang Ning looked at her and asked, “You haven’t eaten it before?”
Jiang Yueqin shook her head, saying, “I haven’t.”
Jiang Ning stopped talking again.
Jiang Yueqin went to the chair in the main room and took out a big cattail leaf fan. She sat on the threshold, fanning herself, and pointed at Jiang Ning, who was covered in mud. “If you ask me, you might as well go with me to work. Look at you. You are too stupid.”
Jiang Ning fetched well water and washed herself briefly, then took a basket of river clams to the pond to wash them.
Jiang Yueqin quickly followed her with the cattail leaf fan. “Seriously, you are so beautiful. If you take good care of yourself, maybe a rich man will take a liking to you.”
There was a look of envy on her face. “Oh, you don’t know, there’s a young sister in our restaurant who a rich person got attracted to. You don’t know how happy her life is now.”
Jiang Ning stopped cleaning the clam shells and looked up at her.
Jiang Yueqin was only nineteen years old but had been working for several years.
She was taken out when she was fourteen or fifteen years old, maybe earlier.
That was how it was in rural areas: one person took another, usually to a factory to make clothes or to an electronics factory. It was rare to be taken to that kind of place like Jiang Yueqin. She didn’t know who was the first person to go there.
Before leaving the village, these young girls were really innocent. At that time, their worldviews had not yet been formed and they were ignorant. They only had the idea that had been instilled in them since childhood: to go out to work and earn money for the family.
When she was taken to that place, she worked as a waitress.
But after staying in a place like that for a long time, seeing the love affairs between men and women every day, they were so young and their worldviews had not yet solidified. It was normal for them to be tempted by the people around them.
They might even think that being hired by a rich man was something to be proud of. They thought that being able to make money easily while lying down was better than people like Jiang Ning, who worked hard all day long and still made no money.
Jiang Yueqin felt a little restless under Jiang Ning’s gaze. She reached out and touched her face and hair. “What are you looking at me for?”
Jiang Ning looked into her eyes, smiled, and asked her, “Didn’t you say that you built a large building for your family? Did the building have a room for you?”
Jiang Yueqin was momentarily taken aback, then blushed. “Of course I have a room.”
With the money she had brought home a few years ago, she had only managed to build a bungalow. The layout consisted of a main room in the middle, flanked by two smaller rooms. The one on the left was reserved for her brother’s future wife, naturally designated as his room. The one on the right was her parents’ room, where she and her brother slept, with a small kitchen nearby.
She imagined that when they added another floor, there would surely be a room for her. Her voice grew louder as she continued, “My house has multiple rooms; of course there’s one for me.”
Jiang Ning smiled at her response but remained silent.
Her own house was also a large building. Father Jiang enjoyed having his family close and purposely built a spacious structure with three floors and over ten rooms. Yet, on the day she returned after getting married, her bedroom door was already occupied by her sister-in-law and nieces and nephews. They declared it as her niece’s room from then on, not even waiting for her return for three days.
Jiang Yueqin was irritated by Jiang Ning’s implication and stormed off. Upon reaching home, she immediately confronted her parents, demanding, “Which room upstairs is mine?”
Her parents were taken aback and fell silent.
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