“Everyone just got back too. Who knows where she went? When she gets hungry later, she’ll come back on her own.”

Old Madam Jiang didn’t think much of it. Lately, she had even started feeling annoyed with Jiang Yujiao for no reason.

If Yujiao hadn’t accidentally fallen into the river, none of this mess would have happened, and they wouldn’t have had to spend so much money.

Old Madam Jiang’s heart ached over it.

Meanwhile, Jiang Yujiao was squatting outside the educated youth residence, waiting.

She was waiting for Zhou Qianming. Ever since he rescued her from the river that day, she hadn’t seen him again.

If she wanted to become the future wife of the richest man, she needed to leave a good impression on Zhou Qianming.

As long as they weren’t married yet, she couldn’t feel at ease.

Jiang Ling definitely still had feelings for Zhou Qianming. Who knew what tricks she might secretly pull behind the scenes?

By the time Zhou Qianming finally returned to the residence, Jiang Yujiao’s arms and legs were covered in mosquito bites.

“Educated Youth Zhou!!”

Jiang Yujiao called out shyly.

A trace of surprise flashed through Zhou Qianming’s eyes. It was already getting late—why was Jiang Yujiao still looking for him?

Quite a few educated youths had just returned from work too. If people saw them together, it wouldn’t look good.

Still, he braced himself and walked over.

“Comrade Yujiao, what do you need from me?”

Hearing him address her so intimately filled Jiang Yujiao with secret delight.

“You just got back from work. Are you tired?”

Zhou Qianming thought, What kind of nonsense question is that? Who wouldn’t be tired after working?

But he still answered gently, “A little.”

Jiang Yujiao took out a cloth-wrapped cornmeal pancake she had made herself and shyly stuffed it into his hands.

“You must be hungry, right? I made this corn cake myself. Brother Qianming, I hope you don’t dislike it.”

She deliberately called him “Brother Qianming.” If he didn’t object, she would keep calling him that from now on.

Warmth rose in Zhou Qianming’s heart. Yujiao was prettier than Jiang Ling, gentle and considerate, and she treated him well.

He had made the right choice switching fiancées.

Being silver-tongued, sweet words came naturally to him.

“How could I dislike something you made yourself?”

Jiang Yujiao lowered her head bashfully.

It seemed Zhou Qianming had a pretty good impression of her too. Now she finally felt reassured.

“Brother Qianming, then get some good rest. I’ll head back first.”

“Alright.”

Zhou Qianming nodded. Watching her leave, he took a bite of the cornmeal pancake.

After pausing for two seconds, and following the principle of not wasting food, he casually tossed the pancake to the side of the road for the village’s big yellow dog to eat.

…

Late at night.

After making sure the door was locked, Jiang Ling entered her space.

Inside the villa in her space was a large bed. Compared to the rusty iron bed in her room, the big bed was obviously much more comfortable.

She also grabbed two medical books from the study and reclined against the bed while reading, slowly growing sleepy.

In her previous life, she had studied medicine too. After earning some money selling antiques from her space, she stayed home preparing for self-study college exams and chose medicine as her major.

She herself was a doctor, yet she never realized Zhou Qianming had secretly instructed the maid to mix contraceptive pills into the soup she drank.

This must have gone on for many years, until eventually he stopped coming home altogether.

For Jiang Yujiao’s sake, Zhou Qianming had deceived her for so many years.

Could Jiang Yujiao have actually been his true love all along?

The more Jiang Ling thought about it, the angrier she became. Back when she chased after Zhou Qianming, she had given him all her remaining food coupons and money.

There was no way she was letting him take advantage of her for free. She had to get everything back.

The moment she decided, Jiang Ling left the space and searched through her cabinet for the IOUs Zhou Qianming had once written her.

Back then, Zhou Qianming acted noble and was embarrassed to simply accept the food and fabric coupons Jiang Ling gave him, so he wrote IOUs instead.

But after they got engaged, he completely forgot about it.

After all, they would become husband and wife eventually. What belonged to Jiang Ling would belong to him too, right? Why bother keeping track so carefully between spouses?

Luckily, Jiang Ling had pressed those two IOUs inside a book. Otherwise, she might have accidentally thrown them away as scrap paper.

Tomorrow morning, she would go find Zhou Qianming and demand everything back.

If he had coupons, he could repay with coupons. If not, then he could pay with money.

After finding what she wanted, Jiang Ling extinguished the kerosene lamp. Just as she was about to return to her space to sleep soundly, she suddenly heard rustling sounds outside the window.

Her ears perked up in suspicion.

Could there be a thief in the house?

Without wasting another second, Jiang Ling flashed into her space.

Fortunately, from inside the space, she could still see what was happening outside while remaining safe from danger.

The moment Jiang Ling hid inside the space, she heard a creaking sound from her bedroom window—it had been pried open from the outside.

The Jiang family probably wasn’t bored enough to pry open her window in the middle of the night. Whenever they wanted her to work, they simply knocked or kicked the door open.

That left only one possibility.

There really was a thief.

Outside the window, the Li brothers—Li Qiang and Li Zhuang—were crouching nervously beneath it, their hearts pounding wildly.

As soon as they pried the window open, they immediately ducked down, terrified of being discovered.

In a hushed voice, Li Zhuang asked, “Brother, did you see anyone inside? Jiang Ling isn’t still awake, right?”

“It’s pitch black. How the hell could I see anything?”

Li Qiang steadied himself. Even though this wasn’t his first time sneaking around stealing, he was still nervous.

If Jiang Yujiao hadn’t approached the brothers and asked them to steal the six hundred yuan, promising each of them twenty yuan for their trouble, they would never have come to the Jiang family in the middle of the night for this.

Under the cover of darkness, the Li brothers snuck into the Jiang household. Before coming, Jiang Yujiao had already told them which room Jiang Ling stayed in.

After confirming the room, they crouched outside the window waiting.

Only after the room fell silent and the kerosene lamp went out did they dare pry open the window.

Li Qiang cautiously peeked inside again.

After confirming no one was there, he climbed in.

Even if Jiang Ling was awake, they weren’t afraid. There were two of them. They could simply knock her unconscious and make things easier.

Li Zhuang glanced warily toward the other rooms before following his brother inside.

The room was pitch black.

The brothers fumbled their way to the bedside.

The blanket bulged like a small hill. Li Qiang nervously swallowed, gripping the knife in his hand tightly as he slowly lifted the blanket.

But underneath…

There was only a long pillow.

Li Qiang and Li Zhuang both relaxed inexplicably. Thankfully no one was there, otherwise they would’ve had to stay on edge while searching.

They didn’t care where Jiang Ling had gone. Jiang Yujiao had said the money was hidden in this room.

The brothers lit a match and quickly started rummaging through the room.

Meanwhile, Jiang Ling calmly watched them from inside her space as they turned her room upside down. She even grabbed a handful of melon seeds and moved over a stool to enjoy the show.

These brothers were well-known hooligans in the village.

Lazy and unwilling to work, they survived off petty theft and pickpocketing.

But they usually stole only from neighboring villages. They never dared target people from their own village, afraid someone would report them to the production team leader and get them kicked out.

So why were they suddenly this bold tonight, sneaking into her room to steal?

Could it be they heard during the day that she had six hundred yuan, and came specifically for that money?