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Lin Cheng felt that these recent days the atmosphere in the village was always strange, wherever he went, people were always pointing at him, making him confused.
This day, Lin Cheng had just come back from the field and sure enough, once again he received attention from the villagers. At first, he pretended not to see it. However, before he walked away, he passed by two women whispering about something. Lin Cheng was really annoyed. It was unpleasant to be poked and scolded for no reason. At the end of his patience, he said and cursed in a loud voice, “What do you guys mean by this? If you really want to scold me and are capable of it, do it in front of me! What’s the point of pointing behind my back like this?”
No matter what, the two middle aged women were Lin Cheng’s elder, so when they heard his impolite words (‘show no respect for his elders’ words), they were somehow unhappy about it. With one of Auntie Wan’s hand on her waist and her other hand pointed at Lin Cheng, she scolded him, “I’m scolding you, so what? This is my mouth, it’s up to me whenever I want to curse someone, what do you care? Do I need your permission to say something?”
“Your mouth is yours, of course I can’t control it, but the one you are scolding is me, so can’t I say something about it?”
Lin Cheng pulled up the sleeve of his shirt which was slipping down and he said amusedly, “Besides, are you my father or my Amu? What qualification do you have to scold me? You really take yourself too seriously.”
“I bah! Do you still want to be my son? Are you worthy of that?” Aunt Wan spat at him with a disdainful face.
Lin Cheng looked at her up and down before he sneered and said, “Heh, you still want to be my mom? Don’t waste your breath! I’m afraid I’ll be disgusted.”
Aunt Wan was furious at his words and wanted to go up and scratch his face, “It’s true that those who don’t have parents can’t behave well. What kind of words are you saying to your elders? No education!”
“Heh 
” Lin Cheng was angry about this but also found it laughable and laughed at this, “Auntie, it’s not your turn to worry about whether or not my father and mother taught me well before they died. However, I think I am less impressed by your upbringing, hasn’t anyone ever taught you that it’s very disgusting to speak ill of others behind their backs?”
“Bah! A person like you who only killed pigs has an upbringing? If it wasn’t for your Grandpa, would you have such a good life? It clearly means that you’re just a good-for-nothing. What are you doing here by pretending in front of me?” Auntie Wan was no slouch either and immediately scolded him back.
“Yes, I’m just relying on what my grandfather left behind, so what’s wrong about that? At least I am better than you. I was wondering before why your husband would run away
” Lin Cheng continued after a pause, “Now it seems that it’s not unreasonable.”
Aunt Wan has always been bold and vigorous in nature. At first, her husband was still able to tolerate her but who could bear it, when he just went home after a long day’s work and being so damned tired yet he still had to receive scolding from his own wife? Originally her husband thought that he could just divorced her (cast off her wife by sending her home) if he couldn’t stand her anymore. However, even though he tried to put up with her, she has many brothers in her family’s home. In the end, he had no choice but to pack ‘a bundle wrapped in cloth’ and leave.
Originally Lin Cheng thought that she was a good person. After all, it was really not easy for a woman to support a family and bring up her two children. He didn’t really want to argue with her. But the difficulty was that the other party was ‘a person he had given a face but she didn’t want it’ or in other words, she was fool enough to reject a face-saving offer. He also couldn’t help it.
“What did you say, you son of a bitch? !”
Aunt Wan hated it the most when people mentioned that her husband didn’t want her. Usually, she would be angry with anyone who said that. Lin Cheng, who was seeking death, hit her where it was hurt the most.
As soon as she rolled up her sleeve, she pounced on Lin Cheng and tried to grab his face. Fortunately, Lin Cheng was not slow to react and immediately dodged it. He looked at Aunt Wan who had pounced on the empty space and had fallen to the ground. He said in a cold voice, “Auntie Wan, I’m going to say it first here, I respect you as a woman who didn’t have it easy so I don’t want to fight you, but if you really pushed me to my limit
” Lin Cheng paused for a moment and laughed,”You know that I’m not good at anything, I just have the physical strength and the skill to kill a pig. You think if I get impulsive, will I go straight to your house with a pig killing knife?”
Lin Cheng was obviously laughing but Auntie Wan felt that at any moment this man would, as he said, come straight to her house with a knife. Aunt Wan couldn’t help but take a small step back, however she felt ashamed by doing so. She then said with a straightening neck, “You just wait! Later, I’ll get my brothers from my mother’s family to deal with you!” After saying that, Aunt Wan hurriedly pulled another woman and ran away without even looking back.
Lin Cheng was somehow speechless when he looked at the person who was as if she was being chased by some fierce beast. He sighed helplessly and continued to walk home. However, after seeing that scene, the people around who were gossiping about it did not dare to be so presumptuous anymore, which was a pretty good result for Lin Cheng. As a result, Lin Cheng did not go too far yet before he was stopped and called by someone.
Lin Cheng turned his head and saw that some women and some gers were sitting in front of the Village Chief’s house doing embroidery work. That ger who called him was also the village chief’s Fu Lang and he was usually good to him. Lin Cheng walked over and said with a smile, “Is there something wrong with Chen Ama?”
“Cheng Zi, come here, come here! Come and have a chat with Chen Ama.” Chen Ama immediately patted her daughter-in-law who was sitting next to her and asked her to bring out a chair.
Lin Cheng quickly waved his hand and said, “I don’t need to sit, I don’t want to sit down, I’ll just stand,that’ll do! No need to trouble you!”
The village chief’s daughter-in-law didn’t mind him, she went straight back and brought out a stool as she said with a smile, “I’ve already moved it out, you want me to move it back?”
“Thank you, Auntie.”
Lin Cheng said thank you to her and was dragged by Chen Ama to sit down, Lin Cheng was about to ask what he wanted to do when he heard Chen Ama ask, “Cheng Zi, tell Chen Ama honestly, what’s going on between you and that child Lin Mai?”
At first, several people weren’t bold enough to ask, after all they had seen the scene just now but when they heard someone speak first they quickly echoed the question, “That’s right ah, Cheng Zi what’s going on with you two?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Tell us quickly
”
“Me and Mai Zi? Nothing between me and Mai Zi ah!” Lin Cheng scratched his hair and said in his heart, ‘Indeed, right now nothing really happened between me and Lin Mai but whether there would be something between us in the future was still not certain
’  Lin Cheng thought cheaply but he was slapped on the back of his head by Chen Ama so he dared not fantasize more about it.
Chen Ama poked him on the forehead and said amusedly, “It’s still too early for you to lie to your Chen Ama, quickly tell us about it!”
Lin Cheng touched his forehead which was a little sore from the poke and said, “Why did Grandma Chen say with such conviction that I was having a relationship with Mai Zi? It would be really bad if Mai Zi heard about it.”
“If it weren’t because the villagers keep talking about these rumours in the village, would I still ask you about this?” Chen Ama gave Lin Cheng a sidelong glance and continued, “Are you and Mai Zi, that child really planning to become a couple? Don’t let it end up being bad for you and also hurting Mai Zi’s reputation.”
“That’s right.” The village chief’s daughter-in-law patted Lin Cheng’s shoulder and said, “It would be a good thing if it was true. Don’t let it be a fake one and ruin Mai Zi’s reputation.”
“Wait a minute, you guys still haven’t told me at all who exactly the one who told you guys that I have a relationship with Mai Zi!” Lin Cheng felt strange at this point, although he did have a bit of a crush on Lin Mai but normally he didn’t tell anyone about it. Even though he did help Lin Mai a little bit, but not to the extent that the rumors were like this, right?
One of the ger who had just married over to Zhao Jia village whispered, “I think my sister-in-law said that in the morning that she heard it from Aunt Yu.”
“Auntie Yu?” Lin Cheng asked with a frown: “Which Auntie Yu?”
“Uh
” The ger surnamed Zhao thought for a while before he said, “If I remember correctly what my sister-in-law said was supposedly talking about that ger Lin Zhen’s aunt.”
“Lin Zhen (林真)?” Lin Cheng thought for a while and said,”Yu Xiaoli?”
The ger surnamed Zhao slapped his leg, he laughed as he said, “Yes, that’s the name, I’ve been thinking about it for a long time but I couldn’t remember it.”
“Hey Cheng Zi, so is this true or not? Don’t keep us hanging, neither up and down (suspended in midair).” Chen Ama patted Lin Cheng again and told him to immediately give them an answer.
Lin Cheng simply didn’t have time to pay attention to him, his whole mind was thinking about why Yu Xiaoli told others that he had a relationship with Lin Mai. It could be a joke in the smallest sense but in the largest sense, it was an attempt to ruin Lin Mai’s reputation. He was a bachelor and still alright with it but Lin Mai was a ger, it was eventually always a bad thing to be rumoured like this by people.
“Chen Ama, I’m leaving first!” Lin Cheng couldn’t care less and left in a hurry as he dropped these words. The most important thing now was to go and ask Lin Mai if he knew about this matter or not.
“Eh
Cheng Zi! Cheng Zi!”
Before Chen Ama and others reacted, Lin Cheng had long run away without leaving any shadow behind. In the end, only several people were left as they looked at each other speechlessly

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