Chapter 51: A Love Affair Beyond the Wall

Tang Jiancheng left the hospital and went straight to the state-run restaurant. He spoke with the head chef, asking him to pass along a message to Huang Tianyue: if Huang returned today, he should send a tractor to Great Plain Village because there was prime merchandise waiting!

The chef looked at Tang Jiancheng in surprise. The restaurant had only just hauled a whole tractor's worth of wild boar meat from his place last night, and now there was more prime merchandise today?

Was this fellow some kind of legendary hunting deity?

Yet this guy was dressed in rags, indistinguishable from an ordinary peasant. Moreover, just ten or twenty days ago, this same fellow would frequently come to the restaurant to drink away his sorrows in silence, hobnobbing closely with a bunch of local ruffians. How had he managed to turn things around so drastically overnight?

Curiosity churned within the chef, but outwardly, his expression turned respectful. "Rest assured, I will deliver the message without fail."

Before he even realized it, he had slipped into using honorifics.

Tang Jiancheng paid little mind to the chef's sudden shift from arrogance to obsequiousness. He turned and left the restaurant, setting off on foot back toward the village.

As he neared the entrance of the village, he suddenly spotted a shadowy figure prowling around stealthily.

At this hour, the sky was already extremely dim. Had it not been for the thick layer of snow blanketing the ground, reflecting the pale moonlight, Tang Jiancheng would never have noticed the person at all.

Just as Tang Jiancheng was about to call out, he saw the figure suddenly dart away, heading in the direction of Tang Xingde's home.

Tang Jiancheng's heart skipped a beat. Could this person be coming to cause trouble for Tang Xingde?

He immediately began to trail the figure in secret.

The man was extremely cautious, stopping every so often to scan his surroundings. Only when he saw no one would he continue forward; if anyone appeared, he would duck into hiding until the coast was clear before resuming his advance.

Had Tang Jiancheng not been intimately familiar with every inch of the village, he surely would have been spotted and lost the tail.

After more than half an hour, the figure reached the vicinity of Tang Xingde's house, but instead of making a move, he concealed himself in the shadows.

"Is he really here to ambush Tang Xingde? Who on earth is he?"

Tang Jiancheng searched his memory, vaguely forming a suspicion, though hard evidence was lacking.

He glanced around the area, picked up a stone to hold in his hand, and prepared to step forward.

At that exact moment, Tang Xingde emerged leaning on a walking stick, carrying a basin of dirty water in one hand—likely wash water from himself or his children. After splashing it out in front of the threshold, he went back inside and latched the door behind him.

The man lingered in the shadows for quite a while, plotting some unknown scheme, before finally turning away.

Hmm? Just scouting the location?

The next second, Tang Jiancheng watched as the man took a detour and headed toward the house of the former village party secretary, Tang Deyi.

Oh?

Could this fellow be a relative of Tang Deyi's family?

If he truly was a relative of Tang Deyi, why would he be trying to make trouble for Tang Xingde? If anyone was a target, it should have been himself!

After all, he was the one who had slapped Tang Deyi twice across the face and exposed his identity as a brother-in-law.

If Tang Deyi's family held a grudge, their deepest hatred should have been directed at him.

Unable to make sense of it for the moment, Tang Jiancheng continued to follow.

Arriving outside Tang Deyi's house, the man bypassed the front gate entirely and scaled the courtyard wall.

Shortly afterward, a strange, bird-like call drifted out from within.

After another long moment, the deliberately lowered voice of Tang Deyi's wife rang out: "Damn you, why are you coming here at a time like this? Do you want to get me killed?"

"Don't worry, I was very careful along the way, no one followed!"

Then, an unfamiliar voice replied, "My beauty, I missed you so terribly, I just couldn't help myself!"

"Pfft! Shameless! I've already given birth to two sons and turned into a plain, weathered woman. What beauty am I?"

"In my eyes, you will always be a beauty!"

Following that, Tang Jiancheng heard the sound of hurried breathing and the rustle of clothing being stripped away.

"Not here! My kids haven't fallen fast asleep yet! Go to the pigpen out back!"

"Wherever you are, even a pigpen is an imperial palace!"

"Such a flirt!"

The two shameless individuals exchanged flirtatious banter as they made their way to the pigpen in the rear.

Tang Jiancheng was utterly dumbfounded.

In his past life, he had never heard rumors of Tang Deyi's wife stepping out on her marriage!

Of course, in his past life, Tang Deyi hadn't been arrested so early; it wasn't until a decade later, when the village's contracted breeding farm went under, that he was hauled away. By that time, Tang Deyi's wife was nearly forty, faded and aged, probably incapable of such affairs.

Right now, however, Tang Deyi's wife was only in her early twenties. Well-kept and vibrant, she was undeniably alluring.

Had that man not staked out Tang Xingde's house earlier, Tang Jiancheng would never have bothered with such sordid business. Furthermore, as an old man who had lived to seventy in his previous life, Tang Jiancheng was quite open-minded about these matters—it takes all kinds to make a world, and human nature was what it was.

Besides, if these two were actually exposed and arrested, what would become of Tang Deyi's two young sons, Stinky Egg and Second Egg?

In this era, the punishment for such offenses was terrifyingly severe!

Yet, the man should not have cased Tang Xingde's doorway. That single act left Tang Jiancheng with a profound sense of unease, a lingering suspicion that the fellow might subsequently target his own home. Therefore, this danger had to be nipped in the bud!

Even so, he could not be the one to catch them red-handed.

After a moment of thought, he turned and walked toward the home of Tang Deyi's older brother, Tang Deren.

"Deren, are you home?"

Tang Deren's house was dark and pitch-black, its front door tightly shut. When Tang Jiancheng gave a gentle knock, the sound echoed loudly in the quiet night.

"Who's there? Wandering about visiting people in the middle of the night in this freezing weather—don't you sleep?" an impatient voice called from within.

A moment later, Tang Deren opened the door. Upon seeing Tang Jiancheng, the annoyance on his face vanished instantly, replaced by a deferential expression. "Oh, it's Jiancheng? Is there something you need?"

"Didn't I capture a few wild cattle today? My third brother said those animals eat too much, and the forage at home is almost entirely gone. I heard your younger brother's family still has plenty of fodder left, so I wanted to buy some. But you know how it is—ever since your brother was locked up, it's just your sister-in-law and her two kids at home. For a grown man like me to go over there so late at night wouldn't be appropriate," Tang Jiancheng explained.

Hearing that someone wanted to buy fodder, Tang Deren chuckled heartily. "You're right, that wouldn't be appropriate. Wait a moment, I'll wake my wife and we'll go together."

"You and your wife go ahead first and have my sister-in-law get the fodder ready. I'll check around with a few other households to see if I can buy a bit more."

"Alright, go tend to your business then. We'll wait for you at Deyi's place."

Tang Deren went back inside to rouse his wife, and the two of them hurried over to Tang Deyi's house. As they passed by the pigpen, they heard scandalous noises drifting from inside, causing both of them to freeze in their tracks.

Straining their ears to listen closer, their complexions instantly morphed in rage.

Tang Deren swept his gaze around, snatched up a stone from the ground, and charged straight into the pigpen.

Meanwhile, Tang Deren's wife raised her voice and shrieked at the top of her lungs, "You damned Yang Xiuli! You shameless whore! Deyi hasn't even been locked away for a few days, and you're already taking up with another man? You shameless hussy! Come quick, everybody! Come catch the adulterers!"

The neighboring villagers were the first to hear the commotion. One by one, they threw on their clothes and rushed out into the night.

Inside the pigpen, Tang Deren and the paramour had already come to blows.

Tang Deren was no match; the man kicked him violently to the ground, hastily pulled up his trousers and gathered his clothes, and bolted away like a startled hare.