A Willing Mistake, My Lady – Chapter 113
by Little PandaModern AU Extra 7
Massage
The heated brick kang1 in the little room was piping hot. The two of them scrambled from the west end to the east end before they could barely find a cooler spot.
They’d rushed out that morning, only grabbing two T-shirts to stuff into their bags. Now those came in handy, doubling as sleepwear.
Shen Hetang checked the big door and the small door, secured both rooms, and slipped under the covers.
Though the room was hot, dressed in just underwear and loose T-shirts, they couldn’t very well sleep exposed—and they’d catch a chill in the middle of the night anyway.
Jiang Chenyu sat up, her half-dried long hair cascading to her waist, setting off her skin like luminous white jade—only her little face was flushed red from the heat.
“It’s so hot, I can’t fall asleep!” She looked a bit tipsy, lashes fluttering, a damp gleam in her eyes.
“Then wait a while before sleeping. It’ll slowly cool down, but don’t open the window—you’ll catch a cold in the middle of the night.” Seeing her scratching at her hair from the heat, she wanted to crack the window.
“Want me to give you a massage? We can’t sleep anyway!” Her gaze kept drifting, intentionally or not, toward the slender waist faintly visible beneath the loose T-shirt.
“Alright. Here, here, and here.” She smiled like a cat that had stolen a fish2, pointing at her waist, legs, and arms.
Shen Hetang was fine—she had the physical conditioning, after all—but Jiang Chenyu wasn’t used to this kind of labor. She’d pushed herself hard today, and the soreness wouldn’t fully hit until tomorrow, when she’d barely be able to walk.
She lay flat on her stomach on the mattress, waiting to be pampered, even stretching both arms forward.
“Hurry up!” Seeing no movement behind her, she twisted her head to urge her on.
Her smooth, delicate calves lifted from time to time, round toes glowing with a soft pink—utterly adorable.
For some reason, Shen Hetang thought again of the scene she’d glimpsed during the bath. Her fingers traced along the smooth skin, gradually pressing deeper.
Pushing upward inch by inch, her two palms spread wide and clasped either side of her waist—she could practically wrap the entire slender waist in her hands.
“Don’t touch my stomach, it tickles.” Feeling those long, strong hands pressing and roaming across her back, occasionally brushing the sensitive skin of her belly, she couldn’t help but laugh out loud.
Shen Hetang didn’t let her mind wander further, simply working to ease the tension in her arms and thighs.
For half an hour she kneaded with just the right pressure—not too light, not too heavy. Jiang Chenyu peeked at her from the corner of her eye. Her hair had grown a bit longer; when she didn’t tie it back, it fell into her eyes. Her figure was sleek and well-defined, and even sitting casually, she was a pleasure to look at.
“That’s enough, much better now. Want me to massage you too?” The room had cooled down. The sunset blush on her cheeks had faded somewhat, but her face still looked fair as peach blossoms.
“You can manage?” Shen Hetang looked at her soft, delicate fingers—better suited to beauty treatments, she thought.
“Let me try!” Unconvinced, Jiang Chenyu scooted closer to her.
“Alright, then give it a try.” Shen Hetang lay down and prepared for Jiang Chenyu to massage her.
The two of them played and tussled, and the busy day came to an end.
On the third day, after making many phone calls, she finally managed to book a thresher and contacted a grain buyer. Taking advantage of the fact that everyone was still around, she sold the grain right then and there.
The harvested grain came to roughly 50,000 jin3, which at market prices would be about 50,000 yuan. More than ten people worked until dark. The grain merchant, seeing she was just a young girl, tried to cheat on the scale.
But she simply hauled out her own scale and insisted on weighing every sack, having Jiang Chenyu record each bag’s weight in a notebook with a calculator.
Besides, there were plenty of neighbors in the courtyard. The grain merchant didn’t dare tamper with anything outright. Under Shen Hetang’s sharp gaze, he ended up only shaving off the odd change—shorting them by about 200-something yuan.
The total sale came to 48,000 yuan. The merchant, with his small leather bag slung over his shoulder, went with Shen Hetang to the little room to settle accounts.
Shen Hetang counted each bill unhurriedly, running her fingers over every banknote that passed through her hands. This was a family’s hard-earned money—no room for error.
“Miss, how old are you? Got a boyfriend?” The short, wiry little boss was overly familiar, asking casually.
“Still in school!” Shen Hetang glanced up at him.
Once she confirmed the amount was correct, she opened her waist pouch and was about to stuff the cash inside. The short grain merchant’s eyes kept darting toward her fingers.
Suddenly he reached out and grabbed her hand, having the sheer nerve to say, “Miss, I see there’s no man of the house in your family. How about I introduce you to a good family? You could start seeing someone—it won’t interfere with your studies.”
The short man looked at her with eager anticipation.
Shen Hetang looked down at the claw gripping her hand, a cold smirk tugging at her lips. “Li-ge, what good prospects do you have? It wouldn’t happen to be you, would it?”
Saying this, she seized his wrist and squeezed—hard—locking it in a vice grip so he couldn’t move a muscle.
Caught out, the man looked a bit sheepish, but the crushing pressure on his wrist bones made his expression contort.
“Not me, not me!” He shook his head frantically.
“Oh? Then tell me in detail, Li-ge—what kind of family is this?” Shen Hetang still hadn’t released his wrist.
“Aiyah, well, this—how about we find a place to talk about it later?” The man was grimacing in pain, trying to maintain his composure. He struggled to break free of her iron grip, but couldn’t escape no matter how hard he tried.
“Oh, we’ll talk another time then. Thanks for your concern, Li-ge. You’re such a good man!” She narrowed her phoenix eyes4, a cold glint in them. Her smile didn’t reach her eyes as she exchanged pleasantries with the man surnamed Li. To express her “gratitude,” she even gave his wrist a little shake—still gripping tight.
“Let go, let go, let go! What are you, an ox? It’s like an iron vise!” After a standoff, he couldn’t help but howl.
“What’s wrong, Li-ge? Are you unwell?” Shen Hetang feigned concern, as if she hadn’t understood a thing.
“I said let go! Let go of my wrist—it hurts!” Sweat was beading on his forehead. He didn’t know if she was genuinely clueless or some kind of yaksha5—he never should have provoked her.
“Oh, oh, my apologies, Li-ge. I’m just used to being strong. Are you alright?” She released his hand with a look of sudden realization, her expression apologetic.
“I’m fine, just nearly had my bones broken. What’s a girl doing with that kind of strength?!” The man surnamed Li grumbled.
“Hehe, just habit, habit.” Shen Hetang played dumb with a smile. They were all neighbors from the area—best to save face when possible. After all, her grandparents still had to live here. Though the man surnamed Li was from a different village, they were from neighboring villages.
Jiang Chenyu, noticing Shen Hetang had been inside for a long time, poked her head through the window—and saw the two of them tugging at each other.
She immediately felt the urge to hack that man to pieces with a knife. But calming down and considering Shen Hetang’s capabilities, she figured she probably wouldn’t come out the worse. So she feigned nonchalance and pushed the door open.
“Ah Tang, are you done? Grandma’s looking for you.” Jiang Chenyu stepped in front of Shen Hetang, offering the man a polite smile that didn’t reach her eyes—her gaze was rather chilly.
“Mm, done. Let’s go.” She stuffed all four or five bundles of banknotes into her waist pouch, grabbed Jiang Chenyu’s hand, and headed out of the little room.
The merchant, having been bested by Shen Hetang, didn’t dare make a peep. When Jiang Chenyu walked in, he didn’t even dare to look at her too closely. That girl clearly looked like she’d been raised in the city—anyone in business had that much sense.
He’d only dared to push his luck with Shen Hetang because he knew her situation—no one to rely on.
After Grandpa saw the grain merchant off, Shen Hetang settled wages with the neighbors. Everyone had worked hard for three full days, and she paid every person on the spot.
Labor wages like these couldn’t be delayed—they had to be settled immediately.
The 48,000 yuan they’d just received was instantly reduced by 6,500 yuan in wages. Add in the cost of buying fish and meat and some vegetables, and the total expenses rounded up to about 7,000 yuan.
Sigh. It might be a bountiful harvest year, but without suitable labor at home, the costs from planting to harvesting added up to a considerable sum.
After all the additions and subtractions, there was roughly 30,000 yuan in net profit.
Everyone collected their pay, and one by one they left Grandma’s house with smiles on their faces.
She’d originally intended to leave 5,000 yuan for household expenses, but Grandma insisted she deposit the money—saying that a lump sum looked like more, and once it was broken into smaller amounts, it would only dwindle.
She couldn’t argue with the old lady, so she left just 1,500 yuan in Grandma’s hands.
Elderly folks shouldn’t keep too much cash at home—it wasn’t safe—and they didn’t know how to use mobile payments. So every time Shen Hetang came home, she left some cash behind.
But this time, having hauled the cotton back, it would at least generate some spending money when sold.
“Grandma still has some savings. Besides, what is there to spend money on in the countryside? Food and drink are all at home. My eldest granddaughter should go deposit it herself—it’ll be needed for college.” Grandma didn’t know how much college cost, but every time she sold something, she’d save whatever she could—turning five hundred into a thousand, a thousand into five thousand—putting it aside for her granddaughter’s tuition.
Jiang Chenyu watched the grandmother and granddaughter planning for the future, a pang of envy in her heart. Life wasn’t wealthy, but having someone who genuinely cared for you made everything seem beautiful and stable—a kind of down-to-earth happiness.
They were supposed to head back to the city that afternoon, but the autumn harvest work didn’t wrap up until it was dark outside. They’d have to catch the earliest bus tomorrow to get back to school.
After her granddaughter fell asleep, Grandma prepared a sturdy bag, filling it with sweet potatoes, chestnuts, peanuts, red dates, fragrant pears, pomegranates, hawthorn berries, and even a dressed little rooster, placed in the freezer to be packed up tomorrow.
A little bit of everything, whatever they had. Shen Hetang’s food expenses at school were minimal—she basically relied on Grandma’s monthly supply, only needing to buy some vegetables.
What seventeen- or eighteen-year-old girl should have to juggle so many random responsibilities? It was only because the two elders were no longer up to it that the burden had fallen on their granddaughter’s shoulders.
They could only lean on each other and hold the household together. Fortunately, their granddaughter was capable and level-headed—she’d been independent from a young age, saving the old couple plenty of worry.
Grandma went in to check on her sleeping granddaughter. These past couple of days had probably worn her out—it’d be good for her to go back to school.
Seeing that her granddaughter had such a close friend brought Grandma great joy. She looked at Jiang Chenyu with abundant fondness too.
If they could sell all the cotton they’d brought back, that would bring in over 10,000 yuan. Then she’d send another 10,000 to her granddaughter—the more money, the easier school would be.
It looked like she and her husband would need to drive the motorized three-wheeler to the market. Otherwise, when would they ever finish selling 500 jin of cotton!
The little old lady tallied things up, turned off the light, and went to sleep.
The night was quiet, save for the occasional crisp chirp of crickets.
After returning to school, everything fell into a routine. You could clearly feel the atmosphere in class grow more intense with academic pressure.
As a transfer student, Jiang Chenyu was given the cold shoulder by the girls in her class, who deliberately kept their distance and refused to warm up to her.
But since she was always sticking close to Shen Hetang, nobody went out of their way to make trouble for her—they just froze her out.
Jiang Chenyu couldn’t care less about her social standing. She’d never had any intention of fitting in.
Then one day, she suddenly received a call from Wu Daoyuan, saying he’d be coming to see her the day after tomorrow to discuss some matters.
She had no idea what he was really up to6—but it certainly wasn’t anything good…!
Footnotes
- Kang (炕, kàng): A traditional Chinese heated brick bed built over a flue system that channels warmth from the stove, serving as both bed and primary living space in rural northern homes.
- 偷腥的小猫 (tōuxīng de xiǎomāo): A Chinese metaphor comparing someone's sly, self-satisfied expression to a cat that has sneaked a taste of fish.
- Jin (斤): Traditional Chinese unit of weight equal to half a kilogram (~500 grams).
- 凤眸 (fèngmóu): Phoenix eyes—a Chinese aesthetic ideal for eyes with an elegant, slightly upturned outer corner and a narrow, elongated shape, suggesting beauty and sharp intelligence.
- 夜叉 (yèchā): Yaksha—originally a Buddhist guardian deity, used colloquially in Chinese as a term for a fierce, intimidating person, especially a formidable woman.
- 葫芦里卖的什么药 (húlú lǐ mài de shénme yào): A Chinese idiom literally meaning 'what medicine is being sold inside the gourd,' used to question someone's true intentions or hidden motives.
0 Comments