Transmigrated as the Husband of a Vicious Villainess - Chapter 9

With Ji Wei and the Village Chief coordinating beforehand, Shen Niannian and Pan Hongxia were assigned a separate plot for weeding that had to be finished before the end of their shift.

Lu Yan and his group were sent to haul water. While it didn’t smell as foul as hauling manure, the nearest river was a significant distance from the fields. A few round trips were enough to leave a grown man utterly exhausted.

Wen Miao was assigned to cut hogweed. Once Ji Baiqing finished her own tasks, she went looking for her. After circling half the village, she finally spotted her on a field ridge.

Wen Miao was wearing a white dress with ruffled edges, covered by a navy blue cardigan. Her long, curly hair fell over her shoulders. Even without a touch of makeup, she was strikingly beautiful. She was currently leaning over, head down, focused on something.

Ji Baiqing’s heart stirred. She strode forward and, catching her off guard, draped an arm over Wen Miao’s shoulder. “Wen Miao, what are you doing?”

Startled by the sudden intrusion, Wen Miao relaxed only after hearing the familiar voice. She pointed at something wriggling on a leaf. “A snail.”

Ji Baiqing gave a playful “tsk.” “Aren’t you supposed to be cutting hogweed? You haven’t even started.”

Wen Miao gave her a cunning smile. Her peach-blossom eyes curved like those of a clever fox—vivid and enchanting. “I got some of the little kids to help me.”

She opened her palm to reveal a chocolate. “This is a chocolate. It’s a bit bitter, but it has a liquid center.”

Ji Baiqing took the chocolate without ceremony, her fingertips lightly brushing against the soft palm. As she peeled the wrapper, her gaze accidentally fell back on that hand, and she noticed the blisters.

The taste of the chocolate was instantly forgotten. Ji Baiqing swallowed it whole and took the woman’s hand in hers, inspecting it with heartache. Several pale blisters had formed on the fair, delicate palm.

Ji Baiqing felt a wave of self-reproach. She had known the “villainess” was a pampered lady, and yesterday was her first time doing manual labor; how could she have failed to anticipate this? For someone who had never done rough work, the body’s reaction was always more severe.

She gently blew on Wen Miao’s palm and asked, “Does it hurt?”

Wen Miao was amused by the way Ji Baiqing’s face was scrunched up in worry. She laughed lazily. “Actually, it’s alright.”

It certainly hurt a little; her skin was far too delicate. But despite being close friends now, Wen Miao was naturally strong-willed and wasn’t used to showing weakness to others.

Having a good grasp of Wen Miao’s personality from the book, Ji Baiqing simply sighed inwardly. “Come to my house. I’ll help you pop them, otherwise, they’ll just keep hurting.”

Wen Miao hesitated, pulling her hand back behind her. Looking into the slender woman’s clear eyes, she felt a bit guilty and muttered slowly, “Let’s just forget it. They should go away on their own in a few days.”

She seemed to be afraid of pain. Seeing the trace of fear in her eyes, Ji Baiqing felt both amused and sympathetic. Who would have guessed that the formidable “villainess” of the original story was actually afraid of a little pain?

Ji Baiqing’s heart ached momentarily as she remembered the abuse the character suffered in the original plot. She silently grasped Wen Miao’s wrist and led her toward her home.

After disinfecting a needle with a flame, Ji Baiqing gripped Wen Miao’s wrist firmly. Finally, she spoke.

“Sister (Jiejie), be good. It won’t hurt much. If we don’t pop them, it’ll only get worse later.”

With Ji Baiqing putting it that way, Wen Miao had no room to refuse. She could only turn her head away, trying her best not to look at the “cruel” scene.

Once the blisters on both hands were dealt with, Ji Baiqing let out a breath of relief and applied crushed dandelion juice to the wounds. Seeing Wen Miao’s eyelashes damp from the pain, she reached out to soothe her hair. “There. Keep your hands still and don’t move until the juice dries.”

Ji Baiqing stared at Wen Miao’s face for a long moment before sighing again.

Wen Miao, tired of her sighing, rolled her eyes. “What now?”

Ji Baiqing answered honestly, “I just feel like you’re a bit… accident-prone, Wen Miao.”

Fainting on the first day, a fever on the second, and now blisters.

Wen Miao looked down at her hands covered in green juice and whispered, “I’ll get used to it eventually.”

Ji Baiqing looked at her in shock, her voice rising. “How can you think like that?!”

Wen Miao looked back, confused. Was there something wrong with what she said?

“You… I can see your family background is excellent. Why force yourself to be like us ‘mud-legs’ in the countryside?” Ji Baiqing found it hard to accept that Wen Miao was entertaining such a “ridiculous” thought.

Wen Miao didn’t know how to respond and remained silent for a while. “But I’ve already been sent to the countryside. I have to do the work.”

If she had a choice, she wouldn’t be here. The transition from a pampered heiress to a dusty “educated youth” was a massive fall from grace. But she was swept along by the era; the only thing she could do was complete her assigned tasks. If a youth didn’t work hard, they risked being sent to a labor farm, where life was even harsher. Wen Miao had no intention of going there.

Ji Baiqing felt sad again. She looked at Wen Miao with melancholy eyes, her words catching in her throat. “Wen Miao, things will get better.”

Right now, the “villainess” didn’t fully trust her. Even if Ji Baiqing made a promise, Wen Miao likely wouldn’t believe it. She suppressed her thoughts. She had to find a way to make Wen Miao’s life better—to send her home and return her to the life of a pampered lady.

The atmosphere grew heavy. Wen Miao looked at her hands, which were now dry, and broke the silence. “Look, are they better now?”

Ji Baiqing pinched her fingertips to check. “Yes, but don’t wash it off yet.” She then recalled their conversation from the previous night. “By the way, Wen Miao… have you thought about it? Do you want to move in with us?”

Seeing the expectation in Ji Baiqing’s eyes, Wen Miao worried that if she refused, the other woman might start crying again. She chose her words carefully: “Ji Baiqing, I want to consider it for a few more days.”

Though Ji Baiqing was a bit disappointed, it was expected. She nodded.

Popping the blisters had taken quite a while. Someone knocked at the door; Ji Baiqing opened it to find a little girl in patched clothes, standing barefoot. She pointed at a large basket full of hogweed behind her.

“Manman, why are you here?” It was Li Man, the eldest daughter of Li Dajiao from the end of the village.

“Sister, have you seen the Fairy Sister?”

Fairy Sister? Is she talking about Wen Miao?

Ji Baiqing looked back at Wen Miao. Hearing the conversation, Wen Miao walked to the door. Looking at the basket packed tightly with hogweed, she smiled at the little girl. “Thank you.”

With her hands still stained with green juice, Wen Miao gestured for Ji Baiqing to take a handful of candies from her pocket for Li Man. “Give her the candies and crackers. Not the chocolate, though—that one has alcohol in it, children can’t eat it,” she reminded.

Li Man clutched the sweets and crackers, grinning widely. “Thank you, Fairy Sister! Can I help you with your work tomorrow too?”

Wen Miao was more than happy to agree. “Of course.”

Content with the answer, Li Man ran off.

Ji Baiqing looked at Wen Miao with mock jealousy. “Why won’t you let me work for you? ‘Fairy Sister,’ I can work for you too~” She teased, mimicking the child’s nickname for Wen Miao.

Wen Miao glared at her. “No. Let the kid have a chance to earn some snacks.”

Ji Baiqing didn’t actually mind, but seeing Wen Miao show such patience with the child made her slightly jealous. It took her a while to coax herself back into a good mood.

In the following days, life settled into a routine. Wen Miao left the hogweed cutting to Manman, whose parents were happy that she was bringing home food and snacks. Wen Miao ate at Ji Baiqing’s house every day and even learned how to tend the stove. When she had free time, she would read or sketch at Ji Baiqing’s desk, only returning to the station at night to sleep.

She ignored the dirty looks from Shen Niannian and Lu Yan. Ever since the public apology over the radio, the group had grown even more hostile toward her. But Wen Miao was used to being independent; she didn’t care. After all… she had Ji Baiqing.

A few days ago was the Qingming Festival. It happened to pour with rain, so the Ji family hadn’t been able to visit the ancestral graves. Policies had loosened lately, and the villagers tacitly went up the mountain in secret. Wen Miao wasn’t a member of the Ji family, so she didn’t go. Feeling out of place staying at their house alone, she took two mugwort rice cakes made by He Xiangyue and headed back to the station.

As she entered the compound, she saw Pan Hongxia using her soap to wash her hands under the eaves. Once she finished, Fang Haiyang took a turn.

Watching them coldly as they secretly used her soap, Wen Miao waited until Fang Haiyang tossed it back into the dish before speaking up.

“Is my soap working well for you?”

Both were startled. Normally, Wen Miao wouldn’t be at the station at this hour; otherwise, they wouldn’t have dared. Noticing Pan Hongxia’s eyes dart toward the women’s room and back, Wen Miao quickly entered the house and pushed open the ajar door.

Shen Niannian was wearing a bright red dress, applying cream to her face in front of the mirror. Hearing a sound at the door, she said without looking back, “Hongxia, bring me that fox’s necklace.”

Tap. Tap. Tap.

At the sound of low-heeled leather shoes, Shen Niannian realized something was wrong. Usually, the taciturn Pan Hongxia responded whenever she spoke. Why was she silent today?

She turned around, and her eyes widened in terror. “Wen… Wen Miao! Why are you back!”

Wen Miao forced a smile. Looking at the seductive face reflected in the mirror, she flattened her lips. “What, am I not supposed to be back? Am I interrupting your fun?”

“I thought I was living with respectable youths from Beijing. I only now realize I’m living with a pack of thieving rats.”

Shen Niannian flushed with shame and anger, her eyes bulging. “Wen Miao, you’re too selfish! You have so many good things; why hide them instead of sharing? If we didn’t use them, you’d never finish them all! You should be thanking us!”

The other youths, hearing the commotion, flocked to the doorway. Wu Yanqing, who already held a grudge against Wen Miao, nodded vigorously in agreement. “That’s right, Wen Miao! You don’t fit in with us anyway, hanging around that village girl all day. If you let us use your things, we might actually accept you a little.”

Wen Miao gave a cold sneer, scanning the room. “Is that what you all think?”

Under her gaze, Pan Hongxia bit her lip and nodded stiffly.

Lu Yan looked at her with a complex expression. “Wen Miao, I won’t hold the previous incident against you, but you need to realize you’re always too aggressive. It’s just some soap; how much could it be worth? As for the clothes, if Niannian wore them, just give them to her. You have so many.”

Wen Miao tilted her head, her eyes unreadable. “If you like sharing so much, give your clothes to others. You don’t get to decide what happens to my things. I’ll do whatever I want with my property.”

Lu Yan was momentarily speechless. “How could I… no one else can even fit in my clothes.” Besides, Wu Yanqing and Fang Haiyang were always sweaty from labor; he had a bit of a germaphobia streak.

Wen Miao stopped talking and began taking inventory. Shen Niannian, seeing her go quiet, smiled, thinking she had been persuaded. The other youths felt the same and dispersed once they saw Wen Miao wasn’t making a scene.

Wen Miao always kept a record of her belongings. After a full check, she found quite a bit was missing. A bar of soap was gone; her face cream, which had barely been touched, was now nearly empty; and several dresses and skirts were missing. She found four with Shen Niannian and one with Pan Hongxia. The snacks she brought were also nearly gone. Fortunately, her box containing money and coupons was locked, and no one had been able to open it.

She calculated the total value and tossed a piece of paper onto the table in front of Shen Niannian and the others. They were currently eating—bowls packed with rice and green vegetables.

A flimsy piece of paper landed on the table. Lu Yan frowned and picked it up. His brow furrowed deeply.

“This expensive?! Why don’t you just go rob a bank?!”

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