The wind blew gently across her face, bringing a hint of coolness, but it couldn’t dispel the irritation in Lin Aiyun’s heart. She looked coldly at the man before her. He was tall, and whether intentional or not, his position happened to block the harsh sunlight from her eyes.
“Aiyun, thank you for still being willing to talk to me.”
This was the first time in this life that the two of them stood face to face. Meng Baoguo fidgeted nervously, clasping his hands together. His voice carried a hint of tension, and his head hung low—he didn’t even have the courage to look her in the eye properly.
“If you have something to say, say it quickly. I have a lot of things to do.” Lin Aiyun cut off his melancholy tone directly, telling him to state his purpose plainly. At the same time, she couldn’t help but glance toward the riverbank—and caught Zhang Wenhua’s prying eyes.
Clearly not expecting Lin Aiyun to suddenly turn around, Zhang Wenhua froze for a second, then quickly ducked her head and continued beating the quilt in her hands. But not two seconds later, she was sneakily peeking at them again, her gaze practically trying to glue itself onto them to eavesdrop.
Lin Aiyun sighed helplessly, but she understood Zhang Wenhua’s concern. After all, she had once been so infatuated that she insisted on marrying Meng Baoguo. If he came now to ask her to change her mind, who knew if she might get bewitched again and agree?
So Zhang Wenhua was worried she might waver. If she saw even the slightest sign of that, she would stamp it out immediately—hence why she no longer cared whether it was appropriate to keep staring.
Lin Aiyun withdrew her gaze and refocused on Meng Baoguo.
But her mother was overthinking things. Setting aside the fact that she was now married to Xiao Cheng—a married woman who would never do something as morally reprehensible as abandoning her family—just comparing the two men, she would have to be blind to choose Meng Baoguo over Xiao Cheng.
Seeing him still hesitating and unable to get the words out, Lin Aiyun’s patience wore thin. She said with displeasure, “If you came here just to waste my time, then I’m afraid I can’t stay.”
At that, Meng Baoguo’s face turned pale. He stammered for a moment, then quickly called out to stop her. After mentally psyching himself up for a moment, he finally mustered the courage to look up at her. But the moment he saw the charm and allure shimmering on her fair, beautiful face, he took a step back, looking even paler than before.
He seemed deeply shaken.
Lin Aiyun took it all in and curled her lips into a mocking smile. Where was this when he had the chance? What was he playing at now?
Late-coming affection was worth less than weeds.
But if it weren’t for Meng Baoguo voluntarily revealing it, she would never have known that he, too, had been reborn into this life. And it was precisely because of that—and because he said he had something important to tell her—that she was standing here at all. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have given him the time of day.
“Aiyun, does it have to be like this between us?”
Meng Baoguo looked at her obvious impatience, and deep inside him, it felt like a knife had cut open a wound, leaving an indescribable ache. He wanted to spit out that pain and bitterness, but thinking of all the mess from their previous life, he forced himself to swallow it back.
“Otherwise? If you were still the twenty-year-old Meng Baoguo, then maybe I could hold back and give you a pleasant face—but unfortunately, you’re not.”
The twenty-year-old Meng Baoguo knew nothing of the grievances between them and had done nothing wrong—he was just an enthusiastic young man. So she could try not to blame him for the mistakes of the past.
But the man before her was not that person.
His mind was clearly filled with all those memories. And yet he still had the nerve to ask her why she was treating him so coldly—how laughable.
Meng Baoguo clenched his hands tightly, suppressing the turbulent emotions within, before slowly speaking: “Is that person good to you in this life?”
At the mention of Xiao Cheng, Lin Aiyun couldn’t help but think of that morning when he had clung to her for a kiss before leaving, acting like a child, saying he would bring her something delicious when he came back from town. A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth, unbidden, and she nodded without hesitation: “Of course.”
Seeing that, Meng Baoguo felt as if something were lodged in his throat—painful and stinging. It took him a long while before he took a deep breath and said, “He’s not a good man. Aiyun, don’t…”
Before he could finish, the woman who had just been smiling lightly suddenly darkened her expression and cut him off.
“Meng Baoguo, shut up. What does Xiao Cheng’s character have to do with you? What right do you have to say that about him?”
That unreserved defense—he had once had it too.
Meng Baoguo couldn’t help but recall their marriage in the previous life. One day, while he was working in the fields, he was falsely accused of stealing someone else’s dried meat. The onlookers, seeing how poor his family was, jumped to the other person’s side without bothering to distinguish right from wrong and joined in verbally abusing him.
At that time, Aiyun had stepped forward—someone who had never raised her voice at anyone—and argued until she was red in the face, all to prove his innocence.
In the end, the dried meat was found in a patch of weeds by the roadside. The accuser had accidentally dropped it.
It was a misunderstanding. He had wanted to let it go for the sake of peace, but Aiyun insisted on an apology, saying that if they let it slide so easily, anyone would be able to bully them in the future.
An indescribable ache churned in his chest. Meng Baoguo clenched his palms and couldn’t help raising his voice. “It’s all an act! He was just as unscrupulous in the previous life, and he’s just as ruthless in this one!”
“I know my husband’s character better than you do. Meng Baoguo, have you lost your mind? What good does slandering him do you?” Lin Aiyun’s brows knitted together, and her beautiful apricot eyes shot out sharp, piercing glares.
Noticing the words “my husband” from Lin Aiyun’s mouth, followed by her accusations, Meng Baoguo’s face twisted with discomfort. The corners of his eyes reddened, and his voice trembled as he spoke: “Aiyun, I’m doing this for your own good.”
“Those words make me sick.” Lin Aiyun’s eyes were filled with undisguised disgust.
Stung, Meng Baoguo let out a bitter laugh and instinctively stepped forward, blurting everything out in a loud voice.
“Aiyun! There are things you simply don’t know.”
“In the previous life, the reason my mother and the others came all the way to the capital was because Xiao Cheng was pulling the strings behind the scenes! He sent people to instigate them! If it weren’t for him, my mother would never have traveled so far to make trouble for you—and then gotten beaten up by Xiao Cheng’s men!”
“After that, he even had a bunch of thugs camp outside our door, not letting us have a single peaceful day!”
“He did it all to stop me from coming to find you—to crush any hope I had of winning you back!”
“Xiao Cheng is nothing but a two-faced hypocrite! In this life, he somehow found out about us and sent people to threaten my family again—they nearly came to blows! Is that something a good person would do? He’s guarding against us getting back together! He doesn’t trust you at all!”
“Can you really be happy with him?”
Hearing this, Lin Aiyun paused for a moment, then latched onto the key point. So the reason Xiao Juan and her lot had gone quiet recently was because Xiao Cheng had sent people to warn them. No wonder they hadn’t dared to come around.
As for the previous life… she truly hadn’t known about that. But so what? The decades of genuine devotion that followed couldn’t be faked. Everyone’s heart was biased—and she was no exception.
“Reborn into a new life, and here you are, still making excuses for your mother and the rest. Meng Baoguo, you’re such a filial son.” Lin Aiyun looked at him with eyes full of disappointment, stepping back two paces.
Hearing that, Meng Baoguo’s heart jolted violently. In the previous life, it was precisely because he couldn’t see clearly and endlessly took the Meng family’s side that Aiyun and the children had suffered alongside him—living in frustration for most of their lives, ending in divorce. He himself had been milked dry until his death, serving as a beast of burden for his so-called good parents and older brother, dying miserable and alone.
And now, he had unconsciously uttered words defending the Meng family again—right in front of Aiyun. Wasn’t he just twisting the knife in her heart?
He had resolved to start over in this life and break free from the Meng family—so how had he ended up back at square one? Was human stubbornness really so insurmountable?
He didn’t want it to be like this.
Meng Baoguo opened his mouth, wanting to explain himself, but for a long time, he couldn’t get a single word out.
“If your parents had no intention of continuing to bleed us dry, then no amount of outside instigation would have mattered. It’s your family’s greed that’s to blame—you deserve it!”
“I, Lin Aiyun, can honestly say I never wronged your Meng family in the slightest. You wanted to be filial, so I went along with it—and what was the result?”
“Twenty years of being treated like a free servant! And you, Meng Baoguo, were nothing but a cowardly turtle hiding in its shell—you couldn’t even protect your own wife and children. All you ever did was obey your parents—a complete mama’s boy, daddy’s boy.”
“You say Xiao Cheng had people watch you so you couldn’t come find me? Ha! Do you even have the face to come find me? Aren’t you ashamed?”
“Do you know why Xiao Cheng sent people to watch your family again this time? It wasn’t because of anything between us—it wasn’t because Xiao Cheng was guarding against some illicit affair—it was because your precious mother and sister-in-law came to extort me! They demanded three hundred yuan!”
“You didn’t even bother to find out the truth before coming to accuse me. We both know exactly what your intentions are—I just can’t be bothered to expose you.”
“And besides, my relationship with my husband is none of your business to meddle in. We love each other, we trust each other. You can talk until you’re blue in the face, and I’ll still only believe in him.”
“Would I be happy with you if I wasn’t happy with him? Pfft. From now on, we go our separate ways. If you dare come near me again, don’t blame me for being rude! In your eyes, my husband isn’t a good man—and as his wife, I’m naturally no good person either. I’ll beat you every time I see you from now on.”
Lin Aiyun raised an eyebrow in mockery, finished speaking in one breath, and turned around without sparing him another glance, regardless of the expression on his face.
The moment her words ended, Meng Baoguo’s body swayed. His vision went dark, his knees buckled, and he collapsed onto the ground. It took him a long time to come back to his senses. He raised a hand to cover his eyes. Even after Lin Aiyun and Zhang Wenhua had finished washing the clothes and left, he remained there.
The next day, news spread that Meng Baoguo had gone home the night before and, in a frenzy, smashed everything in the house. He had caused a huge scene for one or two hours—no one could talk him down. In the end, he even dragged the village chief into it and signed a formal declaration severing ties with his family.
A few days later, Meng Baoguo disappeared completely from Fengyuan Village. No one knew where he had gone.
But Lin Aiyun paid no attention to any of this—she only heard it as idle gossip. She had more important things to do: moving the entire family to the capital.
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