FIMA Ch111: Listen to Me

“Ring, ring, ring…”

The familiar bell signaling the end of work rang out.

In a certain conference room at the agricultural repair factory, everyone began chatting and shooting the breeze while packing up their things.

“I suddenly know what it feels like to be enlightened (have one’s head anointed with pure water/have a sudden realization). It’s exactly this feeling right now,” Ling Zhi said exaggeratedly.

The people beside him also chimed in without feeling awkward:

“Yeah, I feel like all the things I couldn’t figure out before are completely clear now.”

“This kind of technical work can also be learned by analogy and applied to other things, ah!”

“I feel like in the future I’ll be able to confirm mechanical problems faster, and then carry out targeted maintenance accurately and quickly.”

Fang Jie sighed: “Just heard from the Section Chief this morning that the new type of engine designed by Comrade Siyuan has already passed preliminary project establishment after multiple rounds of meetings and reports over at the City Machinery Factory. Next is the normal review and launch preparation work. Probably after another period of time, he will be leaving the agricultural repair factory to go to the city.”

Everyone’s eyes flickered; inside there was both envy and reluctance to part, but no jealousy.

During the contact over these past days, they had also deeply understood Gu Siyuan’s abilities, knowing that they themselves truly couldn’t catch up even if whipping a horse, and superfluous emotions were really unnecessary.

“Sigh, in that case, who will be here to save a useless me when the time comes?” Ling Zhi cried out loudly with a mournful face.

“Haha…”

Everyone was amused by this playful tone and laughed out loud.

And as the master of the topic, Student Gu Siyuan, upholding the principle of absolutely not delaying class for a second and absolutely not working overtime for a minute, exited the gate of the agricultural repair factory courtyard with agile speed.

From the agricultural repair factory to the dormitory he currently lived in was about a two-kilometer journey. With Gu Siyuan’s walking speed, he finished walking it in a dozen minutes or so.

It was already August now, the sun in the sky was blazing fiercely, and the cicadas chirped deeply in the trees.

In the vast dormitory large courtyard, quite a few grandpas and grandmas sat under the shade of trees enjoying the cool and chatting. Meanwhile, in the empty space beside them, a group of children seemed completely unable to feel the sweltering heat, fighting, playing, chasing, and laughing.

“Little Gu, got off work?”

Seeing the figure coming in from the entrance of the large courtyard, everyone smiled and greeted him.

Gu Siyuan also nodded politely: “Mm.”

It had been over a month since he and Xie Yiyang moved into the agricultural repair factory dormitory in the county town.

Gu Siyuan naturally had strong adaptability, and Xie Yiyang loved the prosperity of the county town even more. The young couple closing their doors to live their lives was much more comfortable than when they were in the countryside.

Ever since the first day of moving, after scaring the Xie family away using the excuse of borrowing money, they hadn’t come to disturb them again.

Occasionally when going out, if the two families accidentally met on the road, Xie Yiyang would immediately put on a pitiful expression, looking as if he wanted to speak but hesitated, ready to borrow money.

With this, without needing to say anything else, the Xie family would automatically hide three rods away from them.

Every time after that, Xie Yiyang would always be amused by their performance, laughing so hard he swayed back and forth.

The rest of the time, Gu Siyuan still went to work and got off work during the day, while Xie Yiyang studied and read books at home, cozy and sweet.

And during this period, news also came for Gu Siyuan from the Public Security Bureau.

It was regarding the handling of Gu Lili, Feng Keng, and the others.

The two of them truly participated in two cases: a hooliganism case and a theft case. However, neither caused serious consequences.

Although the laws were harsh now, under this situation, they couldn’t just directly execute them either. So, following the convention of the era, they simply sent them down to the farm for labor reform.

Regarding this handling, both Gu Siyuan and Xie Yiyang couldn’t resist smiling.

What kind of place was a farm? It held people who had committed extremely grave mistakes, and the bitter hardship and fatigue within were indescribable.

Gu Lili grew up being held in the palms of Mother Gu and Father Gu’s hands since childhood. Not to mention never having gone down to the fields to earn work points, even at home he did absolutely nothing.

And Feng Keng came from a wealthy background even more so. Even when he went down to the countryside to be an educated youth in Yunxi Village, he did the easy job of driving a tractor.

Now, making these two people who were used to ease and enjoyment go to the farm for reform, that truly was not much better than directly dying.

…

As he was thinking, Gu Siyuan had already gone upstairs. When he opened the living room door, Xie Yiyang, who was sitting at the desk, abruptly looked up and called out: “Husband, you’re off work, ah! I was too engrossed in looking at the questions…”

Saying so, he straightforwardly threw down his pen and pounced toward Gu Siyuan.

“Don’t you find it hot?” While coldly roasting him verbally, Gu Siyuan honestly reached out his arms to hug the person.

Squeezing in his embrace, Xie Yiyang hummed and grumbled: “Not hot, my heart is as cool as water right now.”

Leading the person to sit down on the sofa, Gu Siyuan asked: “What’s wrong?”

Puffing his cheeks, Xie Yiyang said unwillingly: “Hmph hmph, I find that high school knowledge seems a bit difficult. In the notebook you picked up a few days ago, there are quite a few math questions I don’t really know how to do. I was just looking at them, making me even forget to go downstairs to pick you up…”

“Very difficult?” Raising his eyebrows, Gu Siyuan was slightly puzzled.

Weren’t those just very normal questions? A few conventional example questions he casually wrote based on the knowledge points in his memory, ah?

Just casually applying the formulas would do.

Narrowing his beautiful eyes, Xie Yiyang glared at him: “Classmate Gu Siyuan, what do you mean?”

Knowing what was good for him, Gu Siyuan shook his head: “Nothing, Teacher Xie is so smart, looking at it for a while longer you should be able to understand. Once you finish looking, you can come teach me. Teacher Xie found it so difficult to read, it will definitely be even harder for me to understand later.”

“Hmph…” Baring his teeth at him, Xie Yiyang revealed a mouthful of neat white teeth, “That’s more like it.”

Little idiot!

With a trace of an almost imperceptible smile hooking the corners of his mouth, Gu Siyuan silently gave him a look.

Being swept by this gaze, Xie Yiyang couldn’t help but blush slightly, feeling a bit embarrassed.

Tsk…

Speaking of which, his husband’s IQ truly went without saying.

Coming back every night, supposedly having him explain questions, but actually, no matter what question it was, his husband basically only needed to look at the corresponding formula once, and then immediately understand it, even occasionally inadvertently inspiring him.

Having stayed in the county town for over a month, Xie Yiyang was nourished even better than when in the countryside. His face was fair and clean, his lips red and teeth white. At this moment, his cheeks were tinged with a faint pink, like a strawberry daifuku.

Probably because he hadn’t drunk water since coming up, Gu Siyuan felt quite dry in the mouth and tongue.

He was always someone who did as he thought. Exerting a slight force with his palm, he pulled the whole person into his embrace, leaned over, and gently kissed that tender pink face, then slowly moved down to the dark red lips.

“Teacher Xie, the taste is really good.” His usually deep and magnetic voice was slightly muffled, yet even more dangerously charming.

“Mm wu…” Xie Yiyang let out a soft moan.

So annoying, ah.

Every time at this kind of moment, he still deliberately called him Teacher.

The fair toes stepping on the sofa curled mischievously, yet his slender arms hugged the neck of the person in front of him even tighter.

Who knew how long passed before the two lips separated.

Leaning on Gu Siyuan, Xie Yiyang’s mouth was slightly open, panting softly.

Raising his hand to stroke his sweat-dampened forehead, Gu Siyuan said faintly: “Teacher Xie, it’s been so long and you still haven’t learned how to breathe?”

Raising his face, Xie Yiyang glared at him: “Not allowed to call me Teacher anymore.”

Gu Siyuan nodded: “Okay, Mister Xie, Master Xie.”

“…” Xie Yiyang.

Will his husband ever learn to yield to him!

Watching his wife’s angrily pouting appearance, Gu Siyuan felt amused in his heart. Reaching out, he pinched the soft cheek flesh: “We’ll do the questions later, and discuss the form of address later. Let’s go cook first!”

“Okay!”

Xie Yiyang’s eyes shone brightly, his attention immediately diverted. Getting up, he held the person’s hand and happily trotted toward the corridor, still showing off as he walked: “When I went to the supply and marketing cooperative this morning, although the fatty meat was all snatched away, there was still a pair of pig trotters left that I managed to snatch.”

Gu Siyuan nodded, casually saying: “Pig trotters? Then let’s braise them in soy sauce, it’s just that the time will probably take a bit longer.”

Xie Yiyang’s eyes grew even brighter, swallowing his saliva: “Mm mm, it doesn’t matter, braising is good, braising is good, the most flavorful.”

The fire on the coal stove hadn’t been extinguished since Xie Yiyang lit it in the morning, and was currently warming a kettle of water.

Gu Siyuan carried the kettle away, held the pig trotters with tongs, and turned them over the coal fire to scorch them for a while, burning the hair clean.

Like a curious baby, Xie Yiyang took the two pitch-black burned pig trotters from Gu Siyuan’s hands, soaked them in water, and excitedly took a knife to scrape off the black greasy ash.

After he finished scraping the pig skin, Gu Siyuan chopped the pig trotters into small pieces, threw them into the pot to blanch them, and turned around to prepare a few spices for braising.

Xie Yiyang squatted in front of the stove, staring without turning his eyes. Seeing that the blood foam in the pot had floated up enough, he immediately skimmed it off, and fished out the pig trotters to wash them clean.

Sugar was too precious at this time; ordinary families didn’t have the concept of stir-frying sugar color.

Gu Siyuan put a bit of oil in the pot, directly threw the pig trotters in to stir-fry. When the pig skin turned slightly yellow and scorched, he threw in ginger, star anise, and bay leaves, then poured in a bit of yellow wine and soy sauce.

With this, the aroma thoroughly scattered out.

Xie Yiyang scooped a ladle of water and handed it over, then, like a little dog, squatted beside the stove constantly sniffing his nose.

Gu Siyuan poured the water he handed over into the pot, put a bit of salt in, and stirred it with the spatula.

Xie Yiyang looked up at him: “Husband, smells so good, ah.”

Gu Siyuan picked up the pot lid from the side and covered it. Turning back around, he grabbed this worthless fellow in one go and casually asked: “Who smells good?”

“…” Xie Yiyang.

Is there a problem with his husband’s way of asking?

Xie Yiyang’s eyes rolled. Getting close to Gu Siyuan’s body, he sniffed fiercely, and then looked up at the person with a smug smile: “Hehe, Classmate Gu Siyuan, your body is stained with a thick aroma of pig trotters right now. So, you and the pig trotters smell the same, you guys are equally fragrant, both are my big treasures…”

“…” Gu Siyuan.

Tsk, the little thing reacts quite fast.

He hoisted the person up in one go and walked toward the bathroom: “Let the pig trotters simmer for now, I’m going to teach the pig trotters’ papa a lesson first.”

Xie Yiyang was slightly dazed: “Who is their papa? Big pig trotter? Old pig trotter?”

Gu Siyuan said faintly: “Of course it’s a certain stupid live little pig who doesn’t know how to advance or retreat.”

“…” Xie Yiyang.

Definitely not talking about himself, after all, he is so smart.

By the time the bathroom door opened again, Xie Yiyang’s entire person had softened into a puddle of water.

Not from tiredness, but from shyness.

His husband truly was a ruthless person.

Just taking a bath together, yet he could still come up with so many tricks.

He glared fiercely at the person: “Classmate Gu Siyuan, in the future you cannot treat your own teacher like this anymore. This is the behavior of deceiving the master and destroying the ancestors, understand?”

Gu Siyuan sneered: “Oh, Teacher? Didn’t Teacher Xie say previously, not allowed to call you Teacher anymore?”

“…” Not embarrassed, Xie Yiyang coughed lightly, and said self-righteously: “That depends on the situation, decided according to the circumstances. Anyway, in the future, Gu Siyuan, you cannot bully me like this anymore.”

Too lazy to pay attention to this troublemaking fellow, Gu Siyuan put the person on the sofa, went out himself, and brought in bowls of rice and the pig trotters that were already cooked soft and glutinous.

Xie Yiyang immediately sat up straight, instantly recovering his dragon spirit and tiger ferocity (vigor and vitality).

The pig trotters were stewed to the extreme, melting in the mouth yet not loose, the special aroma of meat juices instantly blooming on the taste buds.

Gorging himself, Xie Yiyang ate until his mouth was dripping with oil: “Husband, your cooking skills are absolute perfection, I love you super invincibly much!”

“Tsk…” Gu Siyuan was very disdainful.

This reaction was too much of a realistic human.

…

After finishing the meal.

At that time, the sun had completely set, and the scorching heat in the air gradually dissipated.

Bright stars hung in the night sky. The staff dormitory large courtyard was close to the Qingshui River, and the evening breeze brought a burst of coolness carrying moisture.

Having eaten too full for dinner, after washing the dishes, Xie Yiyang instigated Gu Siyuan to go out for a walk by the river to digest the food.

As the two walked downstairs, quite a few people were sitting in the large courtyard chatting. Seeing them, they greeted enthusiastically: “Little Xie, Little Gu, going out for a walk, ah!”

“Mm, Grandma Zhou, hello ah…”

“Ah, Grandpa Wang, you’re still playing chess…”

Xie Yiyang’s social butterfly syndrome flared up, his mouth not stopping once along the way.

It wasn’t until they reached the Qingshui River side, where there were more strangers, that he quieted down a bit.

The Qingshui River flowed around the terrain of the mountains. The waterway was clear, and the river shape was long, narrow, and beautiful.

On the side close to the county town, there were large expanses of river meadows, with willows, poplars, and various other trees planted at intervals.

It was both a good place for families to stroll in the evening, and a resort for couples to have secret rendezvous.

Holding hands, Gu Siyuan and Xie Yiyang walked aimlessly around the river. The stars twinkled in the sky, the river breeze blew gently beside them, and various sounds of playing and laughing occasionally drifted over from afar, making people’s hearts clear and bright.

Seeing a few children squatting by the reeds, staring fixedly at frogs, Xie Yiyang giggled: “When I was young, I also used to play by this river often.”

Gu Siyuan glanced at the slender, white, and soft fingers in his palm, and asked faintly: “Also dug for earthworms and caught frogs?”

“Hehe… only caught them once. Frogs are so cute, and I’m so kind, how could I casually catch them.” Xie Yiyang was completely righteous and stern in his words.

Looking at him, Gu Siyuan said without any sincerity: “Teacher Xie is an exemplar of virtue and learning, extremely kind and full of love.”

Xie Yiyang glared at him.

Then, remembering some past event, he said indignantly: “That one time I caught frogs also had a reason. When I was young, there were a few little boys in the large courtyard who were particularly mischievous, insisting on dragging me to play with them. I wasn’t willing, so they deliberately caught frogs and threw them at me to scare me.”

Narrowing his eyes, Gu Siyuan asked in a low voice: “So you caught one and threw it back?”

Xie Yiyang nodded, then shook his head, giggling: “How could one be enough? I caught frogs for a whole night that day, probably around twenty or so. Then the next day, I went to school early and stuffed them all into his desk before he entered the classroom. Then, when he came and opened the desk, a group of frogs jumped all over his face… That scene was too funny! Haha…”

Looking at his adorable appearance, laughing unscrupulously, Gu Siyuan also nodded in agreement: “Indeed did a good job. Must take revenge for enmities, repaying malice with uprightness.”

Xie Yiyang gave him a look, then hugged his arm and started acting spoiled: “Husband, you are so good.”

Gu Siyuan was long used to this guy’s sugar-coated bullets that came out of nowhere every now and then, his tone extremely indifferent: “What is it now?”

Xie Yiyang was also used to his own husband’s cold face.

He hummed and grumbled to explain: “Husband, you support me every time, and never make me reflect on myself, hmph! But back when I was in the Xie family, every time, even if it wasn’t my fault, the adoptive father and adoptive mother would say, why do those little boys only provoke you and not others? It must be that you did such and such again…”

Hearing this, Gu Siyuan was stunned for a moment.

Then, his heart softening slightly, he reached out to pinch his cheek flesh, and said indifferently: “Regarding statements like this, you completely don’t need to pay attention to them. Evildoers have tens of millions of reasons, victims absolutely do not need to be flawlessly perfect.”

“Mm, I know.” Staring at him with moist eyes, Xie Yiyang answered heavily.

Watching the little wife’s well-behaved appearance, Gu Siyuan narrowed his eyes, deciding to say a few more words, his tone stern and majestic.

“Beyond taking action, if you already have a conclusion of right and wrong in your heart, then just listen to your own heart. If not, then just listen to me.”

Hugging his arm with both hands, his head resting on his shoulder, Xie Yiyang could easily feel the slight vibration of his chest and the relaxing of his muscles when he spoke and breathed.

Especially during the last sentence, his voice was even deeper, full of magnetism, carrying an indescribable, resolute sexiness of a mature man.

In an instant, Xie Yiyang felt as if his entire being was almost floating up like an immortal.

Then, he clearly heard his own answering voice: “Okay!”

The two’s hearts were connected, and their moods became even more relaxed and comfortable, holding hands and walking along the river for a while longer.

At a certain corner, the embankment extended into the middle of the river. There were several willow trees planted by the water on both sides, and the scenery was quite excellent. Xie Yiyang enthusiastically pulled Gu Siyuan to walk over.

There were already several figures standing by the trees, all in pairs, presumably also young couples coming to stroll and have a rendezvous.

Gu Siyuan narrowed his eyes to look at the river surface.

The stars in the sky reflected in the water, surprisingly making the river surface show a bit of bizarre sparkling in this night, extremely beautiful.

Just at this moment, a burst of noisy arguing suddenly rang out by their ears.

Turning his head to look, just a few steps away, several people gathered in a circle, seemingly having some conflict.

The fingers in his palm moved slightly.

Gu Siyuan looked at the person beside him: “What’s wrong?”

Puffing his cheeks, Xie Yiyang raised his chin slightly toward the place where the incident occurred, and said in a low voice: “I seem to have seen a stinky hooligan just now, let’s go over and help testify.”

“Mm.” Gu Siyuan nodded.

Since the little wife wanted to be Black Cat Detective (Black Lion Sheriff), he naturally had no reason to refuse.

Walking closer, it was two groups of people arguing. And the center of the argument was a girl wearing a plaid long dress, and a young man wearing a white short-sleeved shirt and dark green straight-leg pants.

“Stinky hooligan, you dare to touch me…”

“This lady, is there some misunderstanding?”

“Misunderstanding what? Stop putting on an act here!”

“Lady, calm down a bit, don’t be too sensitive and wrongly accuse a good person…”

Earlier they were far away, and Xie Yiyang only saw the rough movement and contact between the two.

Now walking closer, seeing the young man’s appearance at a glance, Xie Yiyang’s expression suddenly became especially weird, half-smiling yet not smiling, half-angry yet not angry.

Although Gu Siyuan hadn’t seen this person before, seeing Xie Jinyu standing beside him, he roughly had some guesses: “Is that your former fiancé?”

Xie Yiyang nodded, sneering coldly: “Truly a dog that can’t stop eating shit. From childhood to adulthood, Chen Zexin has always had this kind of virtue. Even now that he’s about to marry Xie Jinyu, his true nature still hasn’t changed.”

While speaking, the scene at the incident location became even more intense.

“You must apologize to me! Which work unit are you from? I’m going to report your behavior to your work unit!” That girl clearly had a fierce temper, extremely enraged.

“Lady, you really misunderstood. I was just passing behind you just now. Looking at so many willow branches hanging down, could it be they touched you? Besides, my fiancé is still standing right beside me, how could I possibly do such a thing.”

Chen Zexin looked quite gentle and refined, and dressed decently.

Once these words were spoken, quite a few people around nodded as if it were a serious matter.

The girl still glared, however: “Do you take me for a fool? I’ve been standing by the river for a good while, it’s not like I haven’t been touched by willow branches before. Can I not tell the difference between a willow branch and a human hand? Is a willow branch warm, ah? Does it have the strength to pinch someone?”

Only, once these words came out, for some unknown reason, it instead made several male onlookers giggle in low voices.

Narrowing his eyes, Chen Zexin immediately raised his voice: “Lady, look at what you’re saying. I only brushed past you with a momentary contact. You’re saying warm and hot, pinching and kneading, where did you get so many detailed feelings? Could it be you yourself are too sensitive, or… thinking too much when you have nothing to do?”

Standing beside him, Xie Jinyu also reacted, immediately clamoring at the girl: “Exactly! Do you really think you are some peerless beauty? Looking like this, and surprisingly saying my fiancé touched you? Is it worth it? Don’t tell me you’ve gone crazy thinking about men yourself?”

The malice in the words of these two people was simply hard to conceal.

And subsequently, the laughter in the crowd of onlookers also became increasingly hard to conceal, even having various whispers.

The young girl’s face instantly turned crimson, and a crystal-like color suddenly appeared in her eyes.

Being stubborn with her neck, she gritted her teeth: “What nonsense are you talking about? You will suffer retribution, I’m going to the Public Security Bureau to report the case…”

Chen Zexin smiled, saying indifferently: “Go ahead, go ahead. I also can’t wait to go, I can’t wait for you to have some evidence, so as to return my innocence, huh?”

Xie Jinyu also nodded along: “Right, don’t think about wrongly accusing people!”

The girl’s expression changed.

She indeed had no evidence.

However, she turned to look at the onlookers beside her, asking softly: “Comrades, did any of you see? Just now this person, he…”

Everyone immediately retreated a few steps backward.

Some of them indeed didn’t see it.

While others, it was because they knew Chen Zexin’s identity. He was the son of Committee Member Chen from the County Revolutionary Committee. Who dared to offend a deadly place like the Revolutionary Committee?

Even the Public Security Bureau had to somewhat regard the face of the Revolutionary Committee now, let alone them.

Although acting like a hooligan was a major crime nowadays, ultimately it was just a touch. Even if Chen Zexin was caught and taken to the Public Security Bureau, he wouldn’t possibly be shot, at most educated and criticized for a few days.

But afterward, they themselves might be sought out at their doors from time to time by that group of red armbands from the Revolutionary Committee’s picket team?

“Didn’t see, didn’t see anything, ah.”

“Don’t tell me there’s a mistake, it’s pitch-black…”

“Aiya, little girls are young and ignorant, this kind of thing.”

Listening to these various noisy sounds.

The girl’s face was completely deathly pale. Under the sky full of moonlight, it seemed almost transparent.

Looking at the river surface, she felt as if her heart was also plummeting straight down.

Just at this moment, a clear and cold voice rang out: “I saw it.”

The girl abruptly raised her head.

Meeting her gaze, Xie Yiyang instantly felt that the hope and expectation loaded inside seemed to almost crush him.

However, he naturally wouldn’t be crushed.

Tightening his grip on the large hand of the person beside him, he took a few steps forward, his voice clear: “I saw it. I saw this gentleman, when passing behind you, deliberately reached out and pinched your buttocks.”

The girl widened her eyes, her breathing slightly tight: “You…”

Xie Yiyang nodded: “If needed, I am willing to accompany you to the Public Security Bureau. Striking at hooligans is everyone’s responsibility.”

The girl nodded fiercely, almost crying out loud: “Thank you! Thank you!”

Just now, Xie Jinyu and Chen Zexin to the side were dazed by the sudden change of events.

Now seeing Xie Yiyang’s face clearly, what followed was boundless anger.

Pointing at him, Xie Jinyu raged: “Xie Yiyang, even if you don’t have blood relations with me, even if you have some enmity and resentment against me, you can’t deliberately frame and wrongly accuse us like this now!”

Chen Zexin also narrowed his eyes: “Yiyang, is it because you blame me for being together with Jinyu?”

“…” Xie Yiyang.

What kind of pair of idiots feeling good about themselves is this.

He was too lazy to pay attention to them.

Chen Zexin stared at him, however, refusing to let go: “Yiyang, only you alone said you saw it, and you still have enmity and resentment with us. Do you think your testimony is useful? The Public Security comrades won’t adopt it.”

Xie Jinyu immediately smiled, narrowing his eyes: “Right, don’t even think about using this to harm us.”

Frowning his brows, Xie Yiyang gritted his teeth.

That girl also slightly withdrew her expression, what to do?

Sweeping a glance over the few people, Gu Siyuan said faintly: “No need to worry, just go ahead and report the case. Although there is only one copy of Xie Yiyang’s testimony, as long as the case is reported, the Public Security comrades will start investigating.”

“How many people are present, how many people saw it, how many people kept silent. Once the Public Security comrades begin to interrogate and investigate one by one, under the radiance of the national law, can these people possibly still continue to keep silent? Do they still dare to give false testimony in front of the Public Security comrades? Dare to forcibly test the law with their own bodies?”

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