Jiang Yuning froze for a moment, almost thinking she had misheard him.

“…Did he just say I carried him onto the bed?”

After a second of silence, she snapped irritably,

“Why don’t you listen to the nonsense coming out of your own mouth? With my size, you think I could carry you?”

“Then tell me what trick you used.”

The moment Xiao Liye finished his shamelessly unreasonable reply, Jiang Yuning became so angry she didn’t even know how to respond.

Honestly, nobody else in the world could say something this absurd.

She pointed at him furiously, wanting to argue but unable to find the words. Yet if she let it go, she’d feel completely suffocated with frustration.

Xiao Liye’s gaze wandered over her face. Her cheeks were flushed red with anger, and her waist-length black hair spilled messily down her back. Even fresh out of bed, disheveled as she was, she still looked strikingly beautiful.

A faint, almost imperceptible smile tugged at his lips as he deliberately teased,

“I already suffered such a huge loss from holding you all night and didn’t even complain. How are you the one getting mad?”

Jiang Yuning was so angry she nearly laughed.

Grinding her teeth, she said,

“Have some shame. I don’t care about being held by you at all. If I ever catch you lying next to me again, I’ll slap your face swollen—or I’ll take your surname.”

Xiao Liye deliberately replied,

“You say that now, but I bet you’re secretly hoping to sleep your way into falling in love with me.”

Jiang Yuning choked on her words, her neck instantly turning red. She realized she simply couldn’t reason with Xiao Liye. He was completely unreasonable.

Unable to hold back, she retorted,

“If sleeping together could make people fall in love, then Jiang Zhiming wouldn’t have thrown himself into the river. I slept beside him for years growing up and he still never developed feelings for me—let alone you.”

“Slept together since childhood?”

The moment Xiao Liye processed those words, his face darkened instantly. A vein twitched at his temple.

Throwing her a sideways glare, he angrily pulled on his clothes and got out of bed.

“If you two were so close, then go be with him. ‘Slept together since childhood’—you really proud of that, huh?”

Jiang Yuning fell silent again. The man was already dead—how was she supposed to “go be with him”?

Ignoring his sudden burst of anger, she finished getting dressed. After washing up, she stripped off the bedsheet.

The bottom layer was made of red, green, and white striped fabric wrapped around a bright red peony-patterned velvet cloth.

After undoing the stitching along the edges, she tossed it into the basin containing her dirty clothes from yesterday and prepared to leave.

Then she noticed Xiao Liye’s dirty clothes mixed inside the basin.

She paused.

Thinking about the unpleasantness from that morning, she angrily picked his clothes out and deliberately tossed them onto the floor before carrying the wooden basin to the stream.

At the creek, Li Chunyan and Wang Xiangmei were already washing clothes.

The moment Wang Xiangmei saw her, she immediately spoke coldly,

“Third brother’s wife, instead of cooking this early in the morning, what are you doing washing clothes?”

Jiang Yuning didn’t indulge her at all.

“Second sister-in-law cooked dinner last night, and I washed the dishes. This morning it’s your turn to work. Worst case, I can wash the dishes again.”

Wang Xiangmei immediately became unhappy.

“I’m noticing you really keep score, huh? This family is supposed to help and understand each other—not for you to nitpick every little thing.”

Jiang Yuning scrubbed the clothes without even sparing her a glance.

“Fine then. From now on, you do everything. Since you’re so understanding.”

Wang Xiangmei planted her hands on her hips.

“I gave birth to three sons. You and Chunyan? One can’t give birth to a healthy son, and the other can’t have children at all.

When the time comes, Liye’s factory and all the family land will belong to my sons. You’ll still be relying on my boys to support you in old age. Is that any way to speak?”

Li Chunyan seemed to have her sore spot struck. Lowering her eyes, her face filled with sadness.

But Jiang Yuning wasn’t nearly as easy to bully.

She snorted coldly.

“Xiao Liye can have children with any woman he wants. As long as it’s not benefiting your family.”

Wang Xiangmei gritted her teeth.

She had spent the whole night figuring out the advantages of Xiao Liye marrying Jiang Yuning.

If Xiao Liye really ended up having children with some woman outside the family, then it would actually be worse than letting her cousin marry in.

Grinding her teeth, she sneered,

“No wonder your first man got driven to suicide. The way you talk is unbearable.”

Jiang Yuning paused mid-motion.

“Oh? And you speak nicely? Your scheming is practically slapping people in the face. Taking advantage of others every single day and you still have the nerve to talk.”

After saying that, she didn’t want to stay around her any longer and picked up the basin to leave.

But Wang Xiangmei had been waiting for a chance.

Carrying her own basin, she hurried ahead to the alley entrance. Spotting Xiao Liye preparing to head into town, she immediately began complaining,

“Liye, it’s not that your sister-in-law wants to criticize her, but your wife is really something. Chunyan and I both work at the factory—you know how busy we are.

We just asked your wife to cook breakfast first and wash clothes later, but she insisted on making a fuss and refused. She doesn’t care about this family at all.”

Jiang Yuning stood about ten meters away. She didn’t even want to look at either of them.

Since they already didn’t get along, she had no interest in complaining to Xiao Liye either.

Tightening her grip on the wooden basin, she had just taken a step when she suddenly heard Xiao Liye scolding Wang Xiangmei.

“She cooks for you, so when you’re washing clothes, do you know how to wash mine and hers along with them?

You’re the selfish one—can’t even do one extra thing. At least she still knows to help wash my clothes. How do you even have the nerve to complain?”

Jiang Yuning froze.

This morning, in a fit of anger, she had deliberately… taken his clothes out.

She glanced at the basin, which now didn’t contain a single piece of Xiao Liye’s clothing.

“…If he realizes I never planned on washing his clothes at all, he’ll probably join his sister-in-law in attacking me.”

Meanwhile, Wang Xiangmei couldn’t save face but also didn’t dare argue with Xiao Liye. Furious, she carried her basin back home.

Now only the two of them remained facing each other in the long alley.

Jiang Yuning didn’t dare walk over, afraid he’d notice the contents of her basin. She could only wait for him to keep up his angry mood from earlier and leave on his own.

But Xiao Liye seemed to think of something. His ears reddened slightly as he walked toward her.

“When I changed yesterday, I forgot about you being around, so I covered my underwear under the shirts on purpose.

If you accidentally tossed them into the basin together, then don’t wash them. We’re not that familiar yet—it’d still be a bit awkward.

And if you don’t want to wash my socks either, that’s fine.”

The more he spoke, the guiltier Jiang Yuning felt.

Silently, she hid the basin a little farther behind her.

Actually, considering she’d be eating and living in his house for these six months, it did seem reasonable that she should wash his clothes too.

Thinking that, she was just about to brush the matter over, but Xiao Liye probably also found the idea of her sorting through his underwear embarrassing.

He directly grabbed the basin from her hands.

“I’ll be more careful next time. If you already washed them, then fine. I’ll hang them up myself, so you don’t need to feel awkward about today’s—”

Before he could finish, he rummaged through the basin.

Forget underwear and socks—there wasn’t even one obvious shirt or pair of pants belonging to him inside.

His face cycled red, then white in humiliation and disbelief.

“This entire basin of dirty clothes… doesn’t have a single piece of mine in it?”

Jiang Yuning wanted to explain, but considering she had literally removed his clothes from the basin, any explanation now felt pointless.

Thinking about how self-conscious and sentimental he’d just been moments earlier, Xiao Liye was so embarrassed he almost laughed from anger.

“So you deliberately picked out your man’s clothes and only washed your own?”