Chapter 13: Thirteen
Cang Mang corked an eyebrow at her, clearly not expecting her to turn to him in such a moment. He honestly thought they would continue to play for a while.
Li Hua smiled, "ah! So the basket turned out to be for Xiao Mang."
Bai Yang Wei seemed to come back to earth at that moment. He looked between Li Hua and Cang Mang and his expression became sour. He didn't like the term of endearment used for Cang Mang by Li Hua.
This naturally fell in Dong Mei's eyes making her feel bitter. She hadn't painstakingly walked all the way to the Bai residence just to see Bai Yang Wei show his possessiveness and jealousy over Li Hua.
"Here!" she shoved the basket into Cang Mang's hands.
Cang Mang cautiously took the basket, wondering whether it was really his. He looked at her to find her crossing her arms against her chest.
He handed the basket back, "next time, don't give baskets with such a salty face. Otherwise, am I not afraid of taking other people's things?"
Dong Mei sneered inwardly. Bai Yang Wei had a right to refuse her things. But Cang Mang had always been forcing her into situations. Where did he think he could refuse the basket?
She glared at him.
Cang Mang scowled back at her, "fix your expression. You look like a bucket when you make such a face."
"Are you taking the basket or not?" Dong Mei didn't fix anything about her face.
Cang Mang pulled the basket close to himself, "then I'll take it. Who knows? You may have a massive facial expression and I'll really start to feel touched."
He meant that her facial expression might get uglier and he might start to think that her perfunctory acts actually mean a lot to her. Then he may start to take her seriously. Obviously, it was sarcasm and spite mixed together, because he would never believe her.
The way she looked at her brother Bai and the way she looked at Cang Mang had a clearer difference than black and white. But Dong Mei still believed that she was really good at concealing for the sake of the brighter future.
The difference was obvious to elder madam Bai, it was just that she would never directly point it out. Lu Feng was only looking for an opportunity to beat Dong Mei, so her matters with Cang Mang didn't concern her. Li Hua was oblivious and Bai Yang didn't care enough.
Like that, all the ridiculing was left to Cang Mang.
Meanwhile, Dong Mei had seen enough of the Bai couple. Since she hadn't achieved her goal, it was getting harder to ignore Li Hua.
Without looking at anyone in particular, she directly grabbed Cang Mang's hand, "let's go," she pulled him out of the bai residence.
Not long after, the small crowd of four in the bai residence also dispersed. They had only arrived because of the commotion and since the disturbance was gone, there was no need to stay.
On their way to their courtyard, Bai Yang Wei noticed that Li Hua didn't seem as jolly as she normally was.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
Li Hua sighed, "I thought I'd chat with her for a while but she turned out to be a bit busy."
"Then just chat with me," Bai Yang Wei offered himself up, "or do you find me boring?"
"When can I ever find you boring?" Li Hua smiled.
Dong Mei didn't stop pulling Cang Mang until she was a good distance away from the Bai residence. Only when she didn't see that residence would she have the mind to ignore them.
When they were a very safe distance away, did she let go of Cang Mang and show how completely unhappy she was.
Cang Mang ignored her and removed the cloth from the basket. On seeing what was inside, "Ah!," he nodded and said, "I really believe that this basket is for me."
Seated in the basket were a bunch of stones and in a small container in the middle of those stones was a single grape.
Cang Mang picked up the grape and threw it into his mouth. When he twisted his face and exclaimed, "sour!", was when Dong Mei's face became better.
Cang Mang dumped the stones onto the ground before handing the basket and the cloth back to her.
"Wouldn't it be better to just poison me?" He asked, "simple hatred won't kill me."
Dong Mei turned to him, "believe it or not, your death would hurt me the most, knowing that you escaped my hands."
"What are you looking for me for?"Cang Mang jumped straight to the topic at hand.
"If you've forgotten, then just forget it," was Dong Mei's reply.
"Speed dating?" Cang Mang asked.
"Whichever way you want to call it," Dong Mei shrugged.
"Then you're too early. All the men I know are working in their gardens," he said.
Most people in the village used morning hours to farm. Normally, one family member stayed behind to do house chores like washing utensils, laundry, cleaning the house and cooking. The first real meal they had was at noon. There after, they did a few tasks that were more relaxed than farming.
Most people rested from mid afternoon till evening when they started preparing the evening meal. Final tasks such as fetching water, small scale harvesting, herding animals back in where carried out. The day would then end with a meal and the family would go to bed.
So the most likely time for Cang Mang to find her would be mid afternoon to evening. But she needed Cang Mang to be away from the main couple for all hours of all the days to come.
"Since you're so willing to participate," he suggested, "how about I take you through what exactly is going to happen?"
Dong Mei nodded.
Seeing that she was so willing to learn, Cang Mang was a bit suspicious. He had never faced such an agreeable Dong Mei. Most of their conversations were confrontational. None of them had anything to do with Dong Mei carefully listening to him.
Weekly Power Status
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Ranking 
-- Power
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