Chapter 2: 2. Chapter 2: The Female Lead?

Chapter 2: The Female Lead?

Zhou Chenglei walked to the bedside and looked down at Jiang Xia. His tall, sturdy frame, nearly 1.9 meters in height, made him appear like a towering mountain—cold, stern, and possessing an imposing, highly aggressive presence.

Jiang Xia looked back at him.

Zhou Chenglei noticed that the look in Jiang Xia’s eyes had changed. Before, it was filled with utter disdain, but now it was…

He couldn't quite put his finger on it. Was it unfamiliarity? But how could it be unfamiliar?

He didn't dwell on it. "I'm taking you to the health center to get checked out."

"Oh, okay, thank you." Jiang Xia didn't try to act tough. This body was likely still running a fever, and she ached all over.

Since she had already transmigrated here, she couldn't just lie there waiting to die. If the body was unwell, it had to be treated as soon as possible.

Zhou Chenglei glanced at her again. After they married, she had believed she was tricked into the marriage and wouldn't believe his explanations; she had never spoken to him so politely.

Jiang Xia pulled back the quilt and got out of bed. The moment her feet touched the floor, her vision went black, and the world began to spin…

A strong arm caught her.

"I can walk myself." She instinctively pushed him away and stood up, but her body wouldn't obey her; she was completely devoid of strength.

As soon as Jiang Xia pushed, he let go.

Jiang Xia felt another wave of dizziness and fell directly against him, as if she had collided with a wall.

Even though the dizziness hadn't passed, as her forehead rested against his chest, she clearly felt what it meant to be a "wall of bronze and iron." If it weren't for the slight warmth, it would have been just like leaning against a wall.

She tried to stand up again, but Zhou Chenglei frowned and scooped her up horizontally. Worried that she would be disgusted, he quickly placed her back on the bed.

"I'm going to the production team to borrow a tractor."

Having dropped those words, Zhou Chenglei strode out of the house, moving with such speed that he didn't even hear Mother Zhou asking him where he was going.

*

Ten minutes later, Jiang Xia sat on the rumbling tractor, wrapped tightly in a thin quilt.

The quilt had been wrapped around her by Zhou Chenglei, and she had been carried onto the tractor by him as well.

Tian Caihua watched Zhou Chenglei bustling about and pursed her lips, thinking: *The woman doesn't even care for him, yet he treats her like a treasure. He’s practically asking for abuse!*

She couldn't hold her tongue and couldn't help but say, "I think Jiang Xia looks quite spirited; is there really a need to go to the hospital? Who hasn't had a fever before? Just tough it out and it'll pass. Why go to the hospital and waste that money?"

Jiang Xia sat leaning against the tractor bed, weakly saying, "Sister-in-law is right. There's no need to go to the hospital for a fever; if I tough it out, I might get better. If I'm lucky, I'll save eight or ten yuan. If I'm unlucky and burn into a fool, then Sister-in-law can support me for the rest of my life. If I'm even unluckier and burn to death, Sister-in-law can just take my place in supporting my parents in their old age."

Tian Caihua: "…It seems she really is quite ill. Go! Hurry up and go, and don't come back until you're better!"

Anyway, it wasn't her money being spent!

The tractor rumbled and bumped along the potholed country road.

On the way, they encountered several women carrying hoes, vegetable baskets, or water buckets. Seeing Zhou Chenglei driving the tractor with Jiang Xia, they asked curiously, "Chenglei, it's so late, where are you two going?"

"Driving the tractor out, are you heading to the city?"

Everyone's gaze couldn't help but fall on Jiang Xia.

Jiang Xia didn't recognize any of them and didn't greet them, only maintaining a polite smile.

"Just heading out for a bit," Zhou Chenglei replied, and the tractor "put-put-putted" away.

The women behind them couldn't help but start discussing.

"Do you think Zhou Chenglei is sending her away in the middle of the night?"

"One hundred percent! Jiang Xia already ran off with someone else; Zhou Chenglei has been cuckolded to the point of greasiness, could he still want her? If it were me, I would have kicked her out long ago!"

"Just looking at that woman's face, you can tell she's not a well-behaved one. They're probably going to get a divorce."

"The Zhou family's situation isn't bad, they even built a new house and have a boat. Zhou Chenglei is a capable man, why does she still look down on him?"

"What does the Zhou family count for? It would have been fine if Zhou Chenglei hadn't given his job to his second brother, but now he's just a fisherman. Jiang Xia is a city girl; I heard her father is an official and her mother is a factory director. She's educated and her family is wealthy, so naturally, she looks down on Zhou Chenglei."

"That's why you should marry someone of equal status. Why would a fisherman marry someone educated? You can tell at a glance that an educated person isn't one for domestic life. You can't keep them even if you marry them. I wonder if they can get the bride price back if they divorce."

"I heard the bride price was two or three thousand?"

"Who knows, but it was definitely a lot. But Ah Lei is deaf in one ear, so he had no choice but to come back and fish. He called to ask her opinion back then; I happened to be at the production team and heard Zhou Yongfu ask him if he had consulted his father-in-law, mother-in-law, and Xiaoxia. I don't know what he said on the other end, but Zhou Yongfu replied at the time, 'As long as you've asked, that's fine, as long as Xiaoxia has no objections.' She agreed to him coming home to fish, but now that she's married over, she's disgusted by it. What is this? What's wrong with fishing? Is fishing shameful? We aren't stealing or robbing!"

…

The tractor rumbled on, and Jiang Xia didn't hear the gossip of the village women. She leaned against the edge of the tractor bed, admiring the vast fields on both sides of the village road under the sunset glow.

The air was wonderful; even the breeze was incredibly gentle, carrying a faint scent of the ocean.

Jiang Xia knew from the book that this was a fishing village, very close to the sea, and most villagers made their living by fishing.

Suddenly, the tractor stopped. A strong, pungent odor drifted on the wind, and Jiang Xia heard a chorus of "baa-baa-baa" sheep bleats.

She leaned out to look and saw a young woman in a white floral dress blocking a flock of black sheep on the path, preventing them from crossing.

The young woman stopped the flock and looked at Zhou Chenglei with a sweet smile. "Brother Zhou, you go first."

Zhou Chenglei stopped the tractor. He hadn't heard what she said, but he guessed it. He pointed to the other side of the path with his finger: "You go first."

After saying this, he instinctively looked back.

He almost forgot!

Jiang Xia hated encountering sheep flocks the most. Wherever the flock passed, they left behind a trail of black sheep droppings—one by one, leaving no place to step—and the smell of the flock was strong.

The last time they returned from visiting her parents, after getting off the bus at the station, he had walked her home and they encountered a flock once; she had almost vomited.

But the current Jiang Xia had grown up in the vegetable market with her grandmother since she was three; what smell hadn't she encountered? She didn't think anything of it, and instead curiously sized up the girl herding the sheep.

In the book, the female lead was a girl who herded sheep.

Her family raised a flock of black sheep.

She had to herd the sheep every day after school, and if she didn't take good care of them, she would be brutally beaten by her stepmother.

So, was this girl with fair skin and sweet features, who didn't look like a rural girl at all, the female lead of the book, Wen Wan?

She was worthy of being the female lead; she was quite beautiful, with a delicate and slender figure, and possessed an ethereal temperament, quiet as a maiden.

A flock of black goats, a girl in a white dress, the vast, rolling green fields behind her, and the magnificent sunset in the sky—it formed a beautiful pastoral landscape painting.

Even Jiang Xia felt the scene was stunning.

However, Jiang Xia knew that she was even more beautiful than her.

Because in the book, the original owner felt she was prettier than the female lead and had a better figure. After being abused by her family, she regretted it and turned back to find Zhou Chenglei, thinking he would surely have a change of heart, only to be slapped in the face by the female lead.

Jiang Xia sized up Wen Wan, and Wen Wan also sized up Jiang Xia.

She had been reborn yesterday and had inadvertently witnessed the scene where Jiang Xia eloped with Wu Qizhi and was caught by Zhou Chenglei.

She knew Zhou Chenglei would divorce Jiang Xia.

After all, what man could tolerate his wife wearing a green hat for him?

In her past life, Zhou Chenglei was the richest man, so she had heard many stories about him.

She also knew that after the two divorced, Zhou Chenglei never remarried and remained single until he was old.

But last night, she had dreamed that she married Zhou Chenglei.

She became the wife of the richest man, living the life of a wealthy woman that everyone envied—living in a western-style house, keeping foreign dogs, and riding in luxury cars.

She felt that dream was her "golden finger."

Today, she had deliberately changed her herding spot, thinking of coming to the Zhou village area to see if she could run into Zhou Chenglei.

She hadn't expected to actually meet him.

This proved that she and Zhou Chenglei were destined.

Seeing that Wen Wan wasn't moving, Zhou Chenglei, fearing that Jiang Xia couldn't stand the stench of the sheep, drove the tractor away.

Wen Wan watched the departing tractor: *Once Zhou Chenglei and Jiang Xia divorce tomorrow, she could openly pursue her own happiness.*

*This man is hers!*