Chapter 83: Let Me See Your Wound

Geng Haoshi pulled another large bag from his bundle and handed it to Miao Xiaohua.

“Mom, try this on.”

Inside the bag was a pink overcoat—a gift Geng Haoshi had bought at a major downtown department store after winning the championship prize at the joint autumn sports meet for ten schools.

“Son, why did you buy this? I have plenty of clothes already.” Miao Xiaohua stroked the pink coat gently. “How much did this cost?”

“Over two thousand,” Geng Haoshi replied lightly. In fact, this coat was the most expensive item the family had ever bought.

“So expensive!” Miao Xiaohua’s heart ached. “Son, can’t you return it? You should take it back.” She earned just over a thousand a month at best; spending over two thousand on a single coat was hard for her to accept.

“I can’t return it.” Even if he could, Geng Haoshi had no intention of doing so. “Mom, I’m a basketball player now. As long as I play more games, money won’t be a problem.”

Though he was stretching the truth, Geng Haoshi had made up his mind—he would train hard, join the national team, enter a club, and earn enough to give his family a comfortable life.

...

Geng Haoshi returned home the next day, the day before Lunar New Year’s Eve. That morning, Miao Xiaohua wore the pink coat her son had bought and set off early for the village market.

“Sister Miao, you’re up early!” Li Menglan, a vegetable vendor, greeted her warmly.

Nearby, Wang Xiaoyan, who sold eggs from her own hens, noticed the pink coat and teased, “Sister Miao, you’re dressed up today—going to a matchmaking, are you?”

“Matchmaking? Hardly.” Miao Xiaohua laughed. “My son bought this coat for me in the city.”

“But isn’t your son still at university? He’s earning money already?” Wang Xiaoyan’s life was a bit better than Miao Xiaohua’s, but she envied her—her son was the only university student from their remote mountain village.

“He said it was prize money from some competition... I don’t quite understand the details,” Miao Xiaohua replied, beaming at their envious looks.

“By the way, Sister Miao, your son is twenty-one this year, right? Does he have a girlfriend yet?”

“Not yet.”

“Well, you’d better get a move on,” Wang Xiaoyan said, pointing at Li Menglan. “Little Lan’s son is nineteen, and her grandson is already running around!”

In the countryside, especially in remote villages, children married early—many at sixteen or seventeen. Miao Xiaohua shook her head. “I worry about it too.”

“Sister Miao, what do you think of Xu Erniu?” Xu Erniu, the second daughter of Old Xu, was known as the village belle.

“That girl is not only pretty but hardworking, too.” Miao Xiaohua thought to herself that if Xu Erniu became her daughter-in-law, she’d have a capable helper at home.

“Sister Miao, shall I play matchmaker for you?” Wang Xiaoyan wasn’t a professional matchmaker, but she’d introduced quite a few couples who ended up together, and of course, a successful match meant a red envelope for her.

“Alright, I’ll trouble you to talk to her, then. If it works out, I’ll give you a big red envelope!” For Miao Xiaohua, who had raised Geng Haoshi single-handedly, nothing mattered more than her son’s happiness.

Around three in the afternoon, Wang Xiaoyan arrived at Miao Xiaohua’s home, brimming with excitement.

“Sister Miao, I think this will work!”

“Really? That’s wonderful!” Overjoyed, Miao Xiaohua went inside and woke her son from his nap.

Still groggy, Geng Haoshi was led outside.

“Is this Shiwa? He’s changed so much since going to university—I almost didn’t recognize him!” Wang Xiaoyan exclaimed.

She wasn’t alone; even Miao Xiaohua had needed a second look when her son first came home. When Geng Haoshi had left the previous September, he’d been chubby, but now he was lean and fit—a complete transformation.

Wang Xiaoyan had been worried at first, but seeing Geng Haoshi now, all her concerns vanished.

At lunchtime, Wang Xiaoyan had gone to Old Xu’s house to propose the match. At first, Xu Erniu wasn’t keen. After all, everyone in the village knew the once-chubby Geng Haoshi and, as the village belle, she wasn’t eager to see her own beauty wasted on someone known as the village’s “big lump.” But thanks to Wang Xiaoyan’s seasoned matchmaking skills and persuasive words, she managed to secure a meeting between Xu Erniu and Geng Haoshi.

In truth, Wang Xiaoyan’s claim that “this will work” was just a common matchmaker’s tactic.

PS: So don’t believe those tales about “city life is full of tricks, I’ll go back to the countryside”—wherever there are people, there are schemes.

...

At 3:26 p.m. in Wang Xiaoyan’s home, Geng Haoshi sat upright in his recently bought new clothes.

Unable to withstand his mother’s persistent persuasion, he’d reluctantly agreed to meet the village belle.

The meeting was set at Wang Xiaoyan’s house. Right now, only Geng Haoshi was inside, while Miao Xiaohua and Wang Xiaoyan chatted outside (PS: conveniently positioned to eavesdrop).

Geng Haoshi glanced at the clock on the wall from time to time, thinking, This village belle really knows how to make an entrance—she’s going to be right on time.

At exactly 3:30, a young woman in a fitted white down jacket entered. With a soft creak, Wang Xiaoyan gently closed the wooden door behind her.

This was Xu Erniu. She sat across the table from Geng Haoshi.

Willow brows, phoenix eyes, a delicate, upturned nose, and lips pink as cherry blossoms—Geng Haoshi silently admired her: So beautiful! She looked even better than he remembered.

“Have you seen enough?” Xu Erniu lowered her gaze shyly, her cheeks, already rosy, flushing deeper.

Only then did Geng Haoshi realize he’d been staring. “Ahem, I’m Geng Haoshi.”

Though it had been a while since they’d seen each other, they’d played together as children, but nervousness got the better of him, and he introduced himself anyway.

“Are you really Shiwa?” Xu Erniu bit her lip, her enchanting eyes blinking at him.

If Geng Haoshi didn’t already have his secret crush on his idol Minmin to steady his heart, facing those captivating eyes, he might have lost his soul entirely.

“If you really are Shiwa, then let me see your backside...”