Her son's nervous face didn't seem fake. Widow Wang was so touched she almost cried. She quickly wiped her eyes and pulled her son's arm. "It's nothing, no one bullied me. It's just that Mike, the educated youth, he actually ran into our haystack to mess around."
"Honestly, that Mike is really different from us villagers, so pale and clean-looking."
Because of Widow Wang's scream, nearby villagers started coming out. After hearing what she said, someone joked, "Mike is pale? How do you know? Don't tell me he was messing around with you."
He didn't mean anything by it, just talking casually. In fact, he knew very well that Widow Wang didn't look like much. Mike came from the city and didn't even like Hailee, the granddaughter of the Su family leader. He broke up with her just like that. How could he be interested in a widow like Widow Wang?
Widow Wang glared at him and spat, "Nothing but nonsense from your mouth. You think I want to see Mike's naked butt? He's the shameless one, hiding naked in my haystack early in the morning."
"If you came just a minute earlier, you would've seen him too."
"Ugh, I'm done talking about it. If I keep going, I'll get a stye."
"If any of you want to see him, go run to the educated youth's dorm. Maybe you'll catch a glimpse. I've got to go home and cook for Dan and the boys."
She turned to her son, who had a dark expression. "Dan, that haystack was slept in by Mike. It's disgusting. Get rid of it later."
Dan didn't say anything. He just walked off holding the stick in his hand.
Watching Dan's back, Widow Wang felt bitter. She cursed in her heart: It's all that damn Zhina's fault. If she hadn't been gossiping behind her back, saying bad things, Dan wouldn't be acting so cold toward her now.
Hmph, that fake Yara always pretends to be nice in front of people. It's hard to catch any dirt on her. Fine, she'll get some payback from Mike instead.
After taking care of Mike, Hailee slept peacefully through the night. In the morning, she saw the Su family huddled together, whispering and looking excited.
"Good morning Grandpa Su, Grandma Su, Father, Mother, Cohen, Callan, Chase. Is something good happening in the village today?"
Cohen handed her a stool, and Hailee sat next to him.
His eyes sparkled, "We're talking about Mike. Little sis, you wouldn't believe it. That Mike is no good. Early this morning, he was caught messing around in a haystack."
"Now the whole village's probably heard about it."
People were spreading the story as if they had seen it themselves. Someone even said Mike's white butt and that thing of his was smaller than a toothpick.
"What?" Watching Cohen tell the story so vividly, Hailee was laughing inside. But she reminded herself she was now in a body that had been in love with Mike.
If it were the original Hailee, she probably would've defended him.
Hailee quickly wiped the smile off her face and said seriously, "Cohen, how can you be like those gossiping villagers? I believe in Mike. He's not that kind of person."
Cohen got anxious. "Little sis, people can fool you with their looks. You think you know Mike, but do you really? I heard he wasn't just close to you—he's also been sweet-talking the vice leader's niece and the village committee's daughter."
"Can't you see? He's using all of you. He doesn't really care."
Hailee stayed quiet. After a while, she said softly, "Still, I trust Mike."
She definitely believed Mike. Because she was the one who took his clothes off, and she was the one who threw him into the haystack. As for the rumor, that was something she hadn't expected.
No wonder she had carefully chosen this place, Widow Wang's help came at the perfect time, and she was surprisingly kind too.
Seeing his little sister nearly lose her life because of Mike, and still defending him now that his name came up again, Callan was so angry he ground his teeth.
He said, "Little sis, get your head straight. That Mike was caught red-handed fooling around. The commune folks are coming. They said the woman he was with hasn't been identified yet. Do you get what that means?"
Fooling around like that was considered a crime of indecency, something the authorities took very seriously. Whether it was Mike or the woman messing around with him, neither of them would end up in a good place.
Everyone else was already trying to distance themselves from him. He didn't want his own sister getting involved because she wasn't thinking clearly.
Hailee instinctively wanted to say she wasn't stupid enough to get involved with that kind of scum. But then she remembered her "character setting," and swallowed the words. She just lowered her head and stayed silent.
Grandpa Su suddenly took a drag from his pipe and tapped it against the table. "Girl, I'm going to Cangshan in a bit. Weren't you saying a couple of days ago that you wanted to pick some food? Come with me."
Cangshan was a well-known deep forested mountain in the area, full of natural resources and wild animals. But very few villagers dared to go in, and if they did, they only stuck to the base of the mountain in groups to dig up wild vegetables.
Grandpa Su was a retired soldier with rich experience in the field, and he still had his old hunting rifle from back in the day.
Though his legs weren't great and he didn't do field work anymore, he would sometimes go into the mountains. On lucky days, he'd catch a wild chicken or a rabbit to improve their meals.
Cangshan was collective property, but there were no rules against hunting. The only condition was that if someone caught large prey, it had to be turned over to the brigade. Smaller game like rabbits or chickens belonged to whoever caught them, and no one could say anything about it.
Of course, if someone brought back too much too often, that would be a problem too.
As she recalled all this, Hailee suddenly remembered her space. She had an entire grassland in there. Hunting wild chickens or rabbits, which was so difficult for others, was as easy as eating or drinking for her.
She had been wondering how to move things from her space out into the real world, and Grandpa's invitation was just perfect. Like getting a pillow when you're dead tired.
Hailee nodded her head like a pecking chick. If she hesitated even a second, that would be an insult to the golden opportunity heaven gave her.
She was so eager to go to Cangshan that she was shoveling down her food. If she could, she'd dump it all into her mouth at once, swallow it, and say, "I'm full. Grandpa, let's go!"
Her excitement was interrupted by a knock on the door. The village committee head walked in looking anxious. Seeing her father still eating, he was furious.
"Eat, eat, eat! There's smoke coming out of the house outside, and you're still eating?"
Father Su calmly swallowed his mouthful of porridge. "What house? It's not even time for work yet. Did you eat? Want to sit and eat something?"
The committee head was named Village Committee Zhang. Maybe it was because his name shared a character with Father Su, the two were very close, like real brothers.
Chase pulled a stool over for Village Committee Zhang, but he waved his hand and pulled at Father Su's arm.
"Stop eating. Something big happened."
"Mike, that educated youth, was caught red-handed with someone. Dan said he committed a crime of indecency and is yelling to get him arrested."
Hailee's lowered head suddenly showed a flash in her eyes. She thought to herself, something this good actually happened?