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墨書 Inktalez
Spring passed and autumn arrived. The corn here had ripened, but Shen Mingyuan, considering Shen Nian, had not yet planned to accept the blind date that Shen Mingyu had introduced. However, Shen Mingyu could hardly wait any longer.
Having long held the financial power of her brother's family, Shen Mingyu was currently "at war" with Shen Mingyuan.
"Shen Mingyuan, I have shares in your Pig Farm. When you wanted to start a business, I contributed a third of the funds. Now you say you don’t want me to manage it anymore? There’s no such logic in this world!" Shen Mingyu exclaimed, hands on her hips, her voice sharp and full of indignation.
"Sis, don’t treat me like a fool!" Shen Mingyuan retorted as she pulled out an iron box from her pocket. Inside lay Wanqiu's diary, opened to March 17, 2005: "Today I discovered that Elder Sister-in-law misappropriated funds from the Pig Farm to renovate her lover's house..."
Shen Mingyuan's nails dug into a moldy remittance slip from 2003—Construction Bank cash payment slip No. 0046872, with the recipient's name being Zhao Jianjun, who was indeed Shen Mingyu's lover.
Under the dim light of a fifteen-watt bulb, the words "house renovation fee" bled into a dark brown stain, reminiscent of the bloody phlegm coughed up by sick pigs back then.
"Sis, this is the money you said was for buying a disinfectant machine for the Pig Farm!" Shen Mingyuan slammed the receipt onto the file of pregnant sows.
Shen Mingyu's voice softened slightly. "If it weren't for me finding Jian Jun to smooth things over at the quarantine station back then..." She suddenly fell silent as Shen Mingyuan raised a bag of expired veterinary medicine, its production date stamped March 2005—exactly coinciding with the completion date of Zhao Jianjun's two-story house.
"Smoothing things over? Smoothing it right into his prefabricated panels?" Shen Mingyuan ripped open the medicine bag and shook out a yellowed construction receipt—the quantity of rebar differed by a full two tons from what had collapsed in the Pig Farm’s production room.
"Even Zhao Jianjun’s toilet was charged to the Pig Farm’s account!" Shen Mingyuan crushed a calcium gluconate bottle, glass shards mixing with pig feed. "Sis, you said this batch of medicine cured swine fever..."
"And that year you said you took Wanqiu to the provincial capital to see an expert. But little did we know, you pocketed Wanqiu's pregnancy check-up fees and skipped several tests, causing Wanqiu to be unable to have more children after giving birth to Nian Nian..."
Shen Mingyuan threw the manual into the sewage pit, the yellowed pages unfurling in the filth like lotus petals. The amount listed for construction materials conveniently covered the out-of-pocket expenses for the pregnancy check-up.
"I know, Sister, you've worked hard all these years. Just because I don't say much doesn't mean I'm unaware. Zhao Guizhi is Zhao Jianjun's cousin; do you think I don't know what he's up to? From now on, I'll take full charge of the Pig Farm. I'll give you some money, so just take a good rest," Shen Mingyuan said before striding away.
...
The sun beat down on Ji Xia's cornfield, turning it into a steamer. Chen Shuisheng swung his sickle with a rhythm more urgent than the cicadas' calls. As sweat rolled down his spine and pooled at his waist, something cool suddenly pressed against him from behind.
Lin Wanqiu pressed a towel soaked in well water against the back of his neck, her fingers teasingly brushing against the scab behind his ear. That wound was from the previous night when he had fallen from a haystack in the barn; at that time, she had insisted on looking at the Big Dipper while corn silk stuck in her hair.
"In this damn heat, my sweat is so salty it could go straight into a jar of sauce," Chen Shuisheng said as he grasped her wrist, the corn silk sticking to their intertwined skin, releasing a fresh and sweet scent under their body heat.
She traced circles on his chest with his palm's sweat. "Why didn't you complain about the heat last night?" The corn leaves left fine scratches on her calves, and droplets of water that had pooled in the leaf channels from the previous day's heavy rain dripped down, soaking her pants and clinging to her skin.
Suddenly, Chen Shuisheng snapped off a piece of corn cob and stuffed it into her lower back. The golden silk tickled her, making her laugh and scold him as she tried to escape. In retreat, she accidentally knocked over three or five stalks of corn, startling dozens of sparrows into flight.
The thresher roared a hundred steps away, shaking loose beads of sweat from under his straw hat. Chen Shuisheng suddenly pushed Lin Wanqiu down onto a freshly cut pile of corn stalks; the cut ends oozed juice that soaked through her Moonlight White Shirt.
"Thirty-seven and still a bachelor..." she said as she bit open a Saltwater Bottle and poured it over his collarbone. The water flowed over his muscular chest like rivulets across valleys. "You’re more vigorous than those young lads."
In the distance, a Tractor rumbled as it approached to haul corn, its bed filled with golden kernels bouncing with each bump—just like the fragmented moonlight that had leaked through the barn roof that night.
As dusk settled over the field, urgent calls suddenly echoed from afar.
"Brother Shui Sheng, are you in the field?"
The two were suddenly startled, exchanging glances. Chen Shuisheng hesitantly replied, "It sounds like my sister's voice?"
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