On the road inward from the village, members of the production team could be seen everywhere, busy sowing seeds in the fields. After the spring equinox, it was the perfect season for planting melons and beans.
As An Hao walked, she looked around and headed straight for the first production team’s plot once she found it.
She looked around the fields but couldn’t find any trace of Bai Xue Mei.
Neighbor Zhao, who was resting and smoking with his head bowed, saw An Hao carrying a basket to deliver food and waved her over, "Good girl, have you come to bring your mom her meal?"
"Mhm." An Hao nodded and looked around once more before asking, "Brother Zhao, where is she working? I can’t seem to find her."
"She went over to the Persimmon Tree Forest. It’s not easy for a woman like her to work in the fields, so the team leader lets her rest a bit more," Brother Zhao said with a somewhat odd expression on his face.
"Thank you, I’ll go over and deliver the meal to her." An Hao was puzzled but still thanked him and headed toward the distant Persimmon Tree Forest.
An Hao walked along the edge of the field and reached the forest Brother Zhao had pointed to, but saw no one. Tired and hot from walking, she simply sat down to rest against a persimmon tree for a while.
From not far off, the faint sound of conversation reached her ears. An Hao held her breath and listened for a few moments, her face gradually darkening.
"Team leader Li, how much strength can a woman from a household like mine have for work? If my man’s leg hadn’t been broken, leaving him bedridden, would I be out here in the fields? Just look at my hands, what have they become? Rough and coarse, not soft at all."
That voice belonged to Bai Xue Mei.
She had never cooed and flirted with her own father; the voice was so whiny, it gave An Hao goosebumps all over.
No wonder she ran out to the fields after every meal, complaining less than before. It turns out she was cuckolding her dad.
An Hao felt a lump of resentment in her chest, recalling Brother Zhao’s peculiar expression. He must have noticed something off between the two long ago.
It was just that Brother Zhao was an honest man, so he kept it to himself.
One reason was out of consideration for her father’s face, as, after all, in the village, a wife who dallied with other men made it difficult for the husband to lift his head in pride.
An Hao suppressed the fire in her belly, staying silent and listening. She was curious just how far Bai Xue Mei would go.
"Oh my, that’s so true! Such white and tender hands have become so rough." Lun Wangfu was a lecher who never missed an opportunity for a cheap touch.
Bai Xue Mei, who hardly ever left home or did any work, still had quite delicate skin. Though no longer in her prime, she still had her charm.
Her hands might be rougher than before, but they were still better than his own wife’s.
At the very least, she was gentle—the way she called out "Team leader Li" in such a soft, coquettish voice tickled his ear, exciting and pleasing him to his very core.
"So what should we do about it then?" Bai Xue Mei cooed at Li Wangfu, making An Hao feel sick to her stomach.
"Don’t worry, with a beauty like you, how could I, Li Wangfu, have the heart to make you do heavy work? From now on, when assigning tasks, I’ll give you the easier ones," Li Wangfu said while taking the opportunity to caress Bai Xue Mei’s hands, seizing another chance to cop a feel.
"That settles it. I’m reassured with your word," Bai Xue Mei said with a satisfied smile, followed by more flirtatious laughter, "Naughty, you’ve been touching my hands for quite a while now... always wanting to take your chances with me. Let me tell you, I’m not the kind of woman to sneak off into the woods with a man..."
The more An Hao listened, the angrier she got. She had gone to great lengths to bring Bai Xue Mei her meal, only to stumble upon this scene.