Chapter 27: Yearning

"Educated Youth Li! What happened to you?"

Li Yaoyao's crying finally snapped Wang Hongjun and Chen Yan out of their shock. Seeing the beautiful young woman weeping, they rushed over to comfort her in a fluster.

"I... I didn't mean to!" Li Yaoyao sobbed. Fortunately, Chen Yan, a graduate of the police academy, quickly reassured her: "Educated Youth Li, don't be afraid. They broke into your home to harm you; your resistance counts as legitimate self-defense!"

"That's right!" Wang Hongjun added quickly, "I guarantee you'll be fine!"

Hearing the officers' explanation, several villagers standing behind them chimed in to comfort her: "We can all testify for you!"

Old Lady Liu suddenly emerged from the crowd, speaking in a sarcastic tone: "Mrs. Wang, you really do love to spout nonsense. Look how you've frightened our Educated Youth Li! Why don't you hurry up and apologize!"

"I'm sorry! Little Li!" Mrs. Wang realized her loose tongue had indeed scared Li Yaoyao, so she apologized profusely: "I was just talking nonsense, please don't take it to heart!"

"I think you should bring your old hen over for Little Li to nourish her body!" Lady Liu continued to twist the knife: "If anything happens to Little Li, I'll tear your mouth open!"

"You! I didn't mean to say it either!" Mrs. Wang retorted, "Why don't you bring your own old hen to nourish her? Oh, wait, you don't have one!"

"You..."

After the bickering between the two old women, the atmosphere finally eased, and many people began to laugh, even Li Yaoyao couldn't help but let out a small laugh.

Now that the "bandit threat" was resolved, the villagers felt a weight lifted from their hearts.

"A few of you, come here! Help us tie these bastards up!" Wang Hongjun commanded loudly.

Since they didn't have enough handcuffs, they simply tore off some wire from the courtyard fence and tied the thugs up tightly.

As the villagers were binding the thugs, someone suddenly exclaimed: "Xue Ke'ang! Isn't this your uncle?"

"What?" Xue Ke'ang was startled and hurried forward. The thugs had been wearing masks earlier, making it impossible to identify them, but now that the masks were off, the man before him was none other than Old Man Xue!

"So it was you who brought them here!" Xue Ke'ang was furious and raised his fist to strike.

"Don't hit me!"

Old Man Xue was quite lucky; when they first stormed into the courtyard, he had stayed in the back. Seeing the thugs collapse, he had pretended to be shocked by the electricity and played dead. To this day, he hadn't suffered a single scratch!

Seeing everyone's anger, he knelt on the ground, begging for mercy: "Ke'ang! I didn't want to bring them here! It was Pi Liu who forced me! He even gave me a lot of money, but I haven't dared to spend a single cent of it!"

Old Man Xue wept and wailed, pulling a crumpled wad of bills from his pocket.

"Oh my! Old Man Xue is actually volunteering his money! He must be truly terrified!" The villagers mocked him mercilessly and bound him tight.

The night's turmoil finally passed.

With the help of the villagers, the two police officers escorted the thugs back to the village committee office. Several elders accompanied Yang Haiying and her husband Xue Ke'ang home, and Li Yaoyao's small courtyard fell silent once more.

By arrangement of Village Chief Yang, the head of the Women's Federation, Yang Haiyan, stayed behind.

"Educated Youth Li, it was far too dangerous tonight. We aren't comfortable with you staying here alone. Besides, the courtyard is a mess; the Village Chief said he'd bring people to clean it up tomorrow. Why don't you come stay at my place tonight?"

Yang Haiyan was in her forties and a relative of Yang Haiying. Her husband had passed away in an accident two years prior, and she had been raising her two children alone. She hadn't remarried, but instead, she had become deeply involved in village affairs and was elected head of the Women's Federation, commanding great respect.

Li Yaoyao was frightened as well, so after a moment's thought, she agreed.

"Sister Haiyan, I'll go inside and tidy up!"

Li Yaoyao returned to her bedroom, wrote a note for Ye Fan, grabbed her flashlight, and left with Yang Haiyan.

...

The cold moonlight spilled into the convenience store through the window. Ye Fan lay on his bed, staring blankly at the jade pendant.

Ever since his video call with Li Yaoyao, that lovely figure had been lingering in his mind. She didn't have fancy clothes or expensive cosmetics, and she didn't know how to use beauty filters, but that natural, unadorned beauty was a rare treasure in today's society.

Ye Fan felt he had fallen for Li Yaoyao.

"Ding!"

His phone pinged with a message. Ye Fan picked it up to see a message on Green Chat from a guy named "Bro Ji": "Seriously, buddy? How desperate are you? Chatting with a girl online and you're already falling in love?"

Bro Ji was his roommate from the bunk above him in college, named Wang Kaiji.

Ye Fan had been feeling restless, so he had told Bro Ji about his situation with Li Yaoyao, simply mentioning that he had met a girl online who was a village official doing poverty alleviation work in a poor village.

Bro Ji immediately claimed this was a common online scam, citing famous examples like the Daliang Mountains that had birthed countless "influencers."

Ye Fan was speechless. Since some things were hard to explain, he simply sent him a screenshot of his video call with Li Yaoyao.

"How about that? Pure, right? Have you ever seen an influencer who wears no makeup and dresses like this? Look at the room behind her—mud walls, wooden windows! You can't find that kind of thing anymore, can you?"

The reply came back quickly: "Brother Fan, has love addled your brain? These things can all be staged! You haven't seen livestream studios more realistic than this! If you're really lonely, I'll give you a few room numbers—guaranteed authentic!"

Ye Fan: "..."

He was speechless; there was no explaining it. Ye Fan tossed his phone aside and stared at the wooden box, his eyes losing focus.

Li Yaoyao went to eat; was she finished now? It was so late and she hadn't messaged back—could something have happened?

Just as Ye Fan was lost in wild thoughts, he noticed the lock on the box flickering. He rushed over and opened it. A note floated out.

"Ye Fan, after dinner tonight, the village ran into some trouble. Do you remember Pi Liu, the man we met when we went to town to sell instant noodles? He brought people to the village tonight to get revenge on me and Sister Haiying, but fortunately, I used the things you gave me to subdue them. The situation has calmed down now, but I'm afraid to stay alone. The village's Women's Federation head asked me to stay at her place tonight, so I won't be chatting with you tonight."

The note was short, giving only a rough summary of events.

Ye Fan read the note repeatedly, his heart aching more with each pass. He wondered if Li Yaoyao was injured and how she had managed to overcome the thugs.

"Is it really that dangerous over there? Thugs breaking into the village?"

Ye Fan suddenly remembered short videos he had seen. What weapons could be carried legally? Grain samplers, electric prods, iron rulers... What else was there?

Ye Fan scratched his head and bought a bunch of things, but he still felt uneasy. After all, they lived in two different worlds. If only he could go to that world in person!

"Ding!"

The Green Chat notification sounded again. It was Bro Ji, sending him a few compressed files.

"All my stock is here, take it! Stop obsessing over online chats! Be careful not to get scammed and end up having your kidneys harvested in Myanmar!"

Ye Fan stared at Bro Ji's message, lost in thought for a moment, until a decision suddenly occurred to him: Tomorrow, he would buy a chicken!