Chapter 98: Picking the Fruit

“The money is all there...” Lin Yuru neatly stacked the bundles of cash and slipped them into her pocket, then glanced at Xie Jian with a hint of disdain.
“We agreed, just this once!”
“Don’t get any ideas and start pestering me every day!”
“I’ll tell Xie Hui, and he’ll beat you to death!”

Xie Jian chuckled lecherously,
“Just once is just once...
If I get to be with Yuru even once, I’d die happy...”
“Oh~ Yuru, my dear!”
“Oh! My dear, my dear!”

As Xie Jian eagerly groped and shouted with intoxicated delight, Zeng Xiaofan felt goosebumps crawl up his skin.
This guy was far too sleazy, far too shameless!

Though Lin Yuru disliked his crude antics, the teasing stirred a faint blush on her cheeks.
Some spark of desire was kindled within her, after all, things were different now.

Her husband, Xie Hui, had once been the village’s prosperous man—first to buy a tractor, first to own a television.
But as time passed, the village's fortunes declined, and the people there struggled.
Making money now meant leaving home to work elsewhere; Xie Hui had to work in the south all year round for wages.

Lin Yuru, left alone at home, had endured long years of loneliness. To say she didn’t feel any emptiness would be a lie.
Though she deeply despised Xie Jian, his provocations gradually loosened the long-suppressed emotions within her.

“Oh my!”
“You’re such a monkey... can you be a little gentler?”
“So impatient, so impatient...” Lin Yuru pouted, half scolding him.

“All right, Yuru, the scent of you is driving me crazy!”
“How could I not be eager... a single night of passion is worth a thousand gold...” Xie Jian pressed.

Lin Yuru’s face flushed.
“Right here?”
“Well... there’s not even a place to sit...”
“What should we do?”

Xie Jian grew anxious, muttering,
“At a time like this... who cares about sitting...”
“Don’t worry about anything else, let’s just get down to business!”
“There’s mud all over the ground, definitely no sitting, unless you don’t mind getting dirty...”
“Come on... I can’t hold back!”

Without waiting for her reply, Xie Jian pushed her against the nearby melon trellis, yanking her clothes in a frenzy.
In an instant, a patch of snowy white flesh was exposed.

Unluckily, the angle just happened to be where Zeng Xiaofan and Chen Lini were hiding.
They both tensed, peering through the row of vines.

Especially Zeng Xiaofan, whose breathing immediately grew heavy and ragged.
He had always held Lin Yuru in great respect,
And she had always been upright and honorable.
He never imagined today he would accidentally witness her committing such a scandalous act...

More crucially, her breathtaking figure was so stunning that all three of them were dumbfounded.

Xie Jian swallowed hard, trembling with excitement.
“Heavens!!!”
“Oh my god!!!”
“Yuru! You’re absolutely stunning!!!”
“I can’t take it, I just can’t!”

In his excitement, Xie Jian hurried to undo his pants, but perhaps due to his flustered state, he fumbled and couldn’t get them undone.
He glanced at Lin Yuru’s swaying, glorious figure again, his face flaming red, teeth clenched tight.

He tried to restrain himself but failed, deciding to forgo removing his pants and lunged forward instead.

Xie Jian embraced Lin Yuru tightly, trembling as if he had lost his soul, lost in a haze...

“Whew...”
“Whew...”
“Yuru, you are so beautiful...”
“I never expected your exquisite figure to be so breathtaking...”
“You’ve completely dazed me...”

Xie Jian panted heavily from exhaustion.

Lin Yuru frowned, turning suspiciously to him,
“What?”
“You... you’re done already?”
“You haven’t even taken off your pants?”

Xie Jian gave an awkward smile,
“Well... Yuru, you’re just too beautiful~”

Lin Yuru rolled her eyes, half exasperated, half amused, and pulled her pants back up.
“I don’t care, just this once!
All right? And no one is ever to mention this again!
Keep it buried in your heart, got it?”

“Ah???” Xie Jian panicked upon hearing this,
“No... Sister Yuru, that doesn’t count~!
Does that really count as once?
I didn’t even touch your body!”

“What do you mean you didn’t touch me? Didn’t you just hold me?”
“You’re useless!” Lin Yuru snapped, shoving Xie Jian away.

At that moment, Chen Lini, who had been hiding in the dense vines, could no longer hold back and let out a stifled laugh.

“Pfft~”

Zeng Xiaofan quickly covered Chen Lini’s mouth, but it was too late—the sound caught the attention of Lin Yuru and Xie Jian, who both turned sharply in their direction.

Lin Yuru’s face instantly drained of color.
“Who’s there?”

Xie Jian opened his mouth to speak but was slapped by Lin Yuru, who motioned for him to leave quickly.

Realizing the urgency, Xie Jian grabbed his waistband and fled, disappearing into the melon trellis in the blink of an eye.

“Who is it?”
“Who’s hiding there? Come out!”
“Are you human or ghost???”

Summoning her courage, Lin Yuru shouted several times, picking up stones from the ground as she advanced.

Seeing no way to avoid confrontation, Zeng Xiaofan forced himself out of hiding,
“Oh, it’s you...
What are you doing picking fruit here?”
“What a coincidence... haha...”

Zeng Xiaofan forced a smile that looked more like a grimace.

Lin Yuru was startled to see them emerge from the vines,
Instinctively tugging at her waistband and smoothing her bangs, lowering her head with a flushed face.
“Xiaofan...
What are you doing here?
Did you... did you see anything just now?”

Chen Lini smirked mischievously, about to speak, but Zeng Xiaofan quickly pulled her behind him.

He laughed awkwardly and said,
“Well... I was just gathering some herbs on the mountain, and I brought this little girl along...
She saw some fruit on the way and wanted to pick a few passion fruits to eat...”
“We’d just arrived here when we heard you calling out. Did you see anything?”
“I only saw you by yourself~
Did something happen?”

Lin Yuru visibly relaxed at his words but still looked uncertain, tentatively asking,
“You... you only saw me alone, right?”

“Yeah~ Who else would there be?” Zeng Xiaofan scratched his head and grinned sheepishly.
“Sorry for picking your fruit without asking...”