Chapter 67: Chapter 67: Scheming Chapter 67: Chapter 67: Scheming “Brother Xiao Hu, I’m Lu Zhenjia from the neighboring village,” Lu Zhenjia squinted his triangular eyes, smiling at Foolish Hu with calculation.
“Lu Zhenjia? The name sounds familiar.” Foolish Hu frowned in thought, wondering where he had heard the name. “You’re not from our village.”
Didn’t I just tell you that I’m from the neighboring village? Lu Zhenjia thought.
But he still smiled and said, “Yes, I’m from Hexing Village next door. It sounds familiar because you must have heard your mom mention Lu Zhenguo and Lu Youxi.”
“Yes, yes, I’ve heard your names and how similar they sound.” Mentioning Lu Youxi, Foolish Hu became unhappy, “I heard she married someone else.”
“Yes, she didn’t want to marry you, so she just randomly picked a guy named Xu Mai from our village to register their marriage,” Lu Zhenjia said.
“Huh? She didn’t marry for love?” Foolish Hu, who had been eating chips, couldn’t eat anymore upon hearing this. “She looked down on me?”
“Yes, she’s been talking about it around the village, saying she looked down on you. She said you’re too old, and she said…” Lu Zhenjia stuttered, carefully observing Foolish Hu’s emotions.
Foolish Hu glared, displeased, “Did she call me stupid?”
Although people didn’t call him that to his face, he knew they all called him Foolish Hu behind his back!
Lu Zhenjia nodded, then quickly cleared himself, “I didn’t say it, it’s Lu Youxi spreading it around. I just feel for you, Lu Youxi is nothing special, unloved by her parents and grandparents. Your mom treated her so well, saying she would treat her like her own daughter and even give her a handsome dowry, yet she still didn’t want to.”
“That Xu Mai, who’s only been in the village for about twenty days, how well could he know Lu Youxi? And even if they did get along well, wouldn’t her parents know something? But this time, her parents really knew nothing. She hid it from her entire family. When your parents went to her house to ask for her hand, she suddenly brought Xu Mai back home, telling her family they just registered that very morning. Isn’t this intentionally picking the moment to humiliate your family? It’s nothing but…”
“It’s because she looked down on me!” Angered, Foolish Hu clenched the chips bag so tightly that he crushed the chips into smithereens and furiously threw the bag on the ground.
The crushed chips fell from the bag, scattering on the floor.
Foolish Hu, still not over his anger, furiously stomped on the chips bag, generating a rustling sound.
“I think those two didn’t really get married. That Xu Mai is just a shield for Lu Youxi.” Lu Zhenjia moved closer to Foolish Hu, “I heard they sleep in separate rooms.”
“You know all this?” Foolish Hu stopped stomping.
Of course, Lu Zhenjia didn’t know, but he still told Foolish Hu, “I am her uncle, how could I not know?”
“You didn’t know about her sudden marriage registration,” Foolish Hu blurted out roughly.
Lu Zhenjia: “…”
You didn’t seem to have such a good memory just now!
“That time was deliberately hidden from me, even her parents didn’t know, it’s normal for me to be unaware. But this time, everyone in our family knew,” Lu Zhenjia fabricated boldly.
“She deserves to die!” Fury filled Foolish Hu’s eyes as he spat the words through clenched teeth.
Lu Zhenjia looked around, seeing no one nearby, then grabbed Foolish Hu’s arm.
“What are you doing!” Foolish Hu was on guard, trying to shake off Lu Zhenjia’s hand.
Lu Zhenjia: “…”
This damned fool!
“Let me share a secret with you! Didn’t you say Lu Youxi deserves to die? I know how to get back at her,” Lu Zhenjia whispered.
“How?” Foolish Hu asked curiously.
“You’re 26 this year, right?” Lu Zhenjia smiled with ill intentions.
“Yes.” Foolish Hu nodded.
“In our neighboring villages, men your age are already married,” Lu Zhenjia spoke softly, “They even have kids, and you still don’t have a wife. It took so much effort for your parents to find you a bride, and she preferred to register with a man she barely knew for twenty days rather than choose you. As a man, how can you let a woman look down on you?”
“Here it’s not like the city; if a woman gets into trouble, everyone in every household will know, and she won’t be able to show her face,” Lu Zhenjia lowered his voice more, “You just need to… hehe…”
“What are you hehe-ing about? What should I do?” Foolish Hu looked puzzled.
Lu Zhenjia thought, what a fool – he had made it so clear, yet Foolish Hu still hadn’t understood.
Out of patience and remembering he was dealing with a fool, Lu Zhenjia whispered, “I can explain it clearly, but you must promise me one thing: you cannot tell anyone, and you can’t say it was me who told you.”
Foolish Hu looked at him, thought for a moment, then said, “Okay, I promise you.”
Lu Zhenjia, still not reassured, extended his hand, “Let’s pinky-swear!”
Foolish Hu: “…”
Who’s the real fool here?
He had long stopped doing things like pinky-swearing.
But Foolish Hu, to reassure Lu Zhenjia, still extended his pinkie, “Alright, pinky-swear.”
After they swore, Lu Zhenjia finally said, “All you have to do is sleep with Lu Youxi. That’s it.”
Foolish Hu blinked, confused, “Sleep? How? Should I just go sleep with her?”
“Oh dear,” Lu Zhenjia shook his head and clucked, realizing Foolish Hu meant literally sleeping, “Didn’t your parents explain this to you when they were finding you a bride? Once you have a wife, will you know what to do?”
“What are you really saying!” Foolish Hu became impatient.
Lu Zhenjia checked around again to make sure no one was there, then pulled out a USB drive from inside his clothes, “You have a computer at home, right?”
Foolish Hu nodded; his parents doted on him and had bought him a computer to play games when he had nothing else to do.
“Here, take a look at this.” Lu Zhenjia handed the USB drive to Foolish Hu, “By ‘sleep,’ I mean this.”
“You’re also a 26-year-old man; how come you’ve never experienced a woman?” Lu Zhenjia chuckled, “Let me tell you, once you’ve tasted it, you’ll be hooked.”
Foolish Hu looked at the USB drive in his hand, lost in thought.
Lu Zhenjia then said, “So what if Lu Youxi and Xu Mai are registered? It might not even be true. Even if it is, if you ‘sleep’ with Lu Youxi and she’s not ‘clean’ anymore, will Xu Mai still want her?”
“Wouldn’t I get arrested if I did this?” Foolish Hu frowned.
Lu Zhenjia thought, surprisingly, Foolish Hu wasn’t completely foolish after all, and sweet-talked him, “Your situation is different, you’re considered disabled…”