Volume One, Chapter 51: Midnight Knock on the Door

"Cuicui, let me be honest with you!"

"The car was bought by Guo Dong, and the fish pond was also funded by Guo Dong!"

"You asking me to borrow money was a mistake from the beginning. If I really had any money, I wouldn't be working for Guo Dong!"

Qian Cuicui just looked at Li Tianhu like that.

Night had fallen, and the two stood facing each other.

The feeling was as if Li Tianhu had wronged her deeply, leaving the young girl heartbroken.

"Li Tianhu, if you didn't want to lend it, you could have just said so. Why pull this stunt?"

"Even if you told me the fish pond and that car were bought by someone else, I would have believed it!"

"As for Guo Dong, I only need to ask around casually to find out the truth clearly."

"Before his father died, he was drowning in debt. What could he possibly use to lease a fish pond?"

"What could he possibly use to buy a car worth hundreds of thousands?"

Li Tianhu smiled bitterly, looking at the teary-eyed girl before him, momentarily at a loss for how to explain.

It was easy to lie, but when he told the truth, no one believed him.

"Believe it or not, that's just how it is. If I really had money..."

Li Tianhu couldn't finish his sentence.

Even if he really had money, without knowing her true intentions, he wouldn't necessarily have lent it to her.

Now that she realized they were classmates, when she was going on a blind date with Guo Dong, did she ever think about being classmates then?

Although feelings cannot be measured by money.

Just from the fact that Qian Cuicui stood at the entrance of the village today, not daring to enter to find him, one could tell.

When she rejected Guo Dong back then, it certainly wasn't very tactful!

Otherwise, why would she be so terrified of seeing Guo Dong?

"If you don't believe me, I'll call Guo Dong right in front of you."

"I'll have him drive the car right over here, and you'll see if I'm lying!"

"Guo Dong's name is signed on the purchase certificate. I bought the car with him, there's no way it's a mistake."

As he spoke, he took out his phone, only to find that it was still recording a video.

In this situation, someone truly in desperate need of money might agree.

They might even shift the target of their request for money to Guo Dong.

Because when people are desperate, who still cares about saving face?

As long as the urgency is real, even kneeling before the other person would be completely normal!

Yet hearing this, Qian Cuicui shook her head, her eyes filled with tears.

She stepped forward and gave Li Tianhu a hug, kissed him on the cheek, and then turned and walked away angrily.

Li Tianhu stood frozen in place for a long time, unable to react.

He still couldn't figure it out.

Their relationship wasn't even that close, right?

What was the meaning of this sudden hug?

Sniffing the lingering fragrance on his body, Li Tianhu let out a bitter laugh. He touched the spot where she had kissed him and began walking toward his home.

He swore to himself that he had to make money—a lot of money.

If he had money, perhaps today, this old classmate would have been his.

However...

It was all just wishful thinking, simply because he was poor!

That entire night, Li Tianhu's mind was filled with the image of Qian Cuicui.

That night, Li Tianhu felt as if his heart had been pierced by needles—it hurt terribly!

That night...

The front door of Li Tianhu's house was suddenly kicked open!

The incident happened so abruptly, right in the middle of the night.

Several young men, holding steel pipes, caused such a commotion that the entire village of Lijiatou ran over to watch the excitement.

In the village, every household had their lights brightly lit as people gathered outside Li Tianhu's front door to rubberneck.

"Li Tianhu, if you're a man, get your ass out here!"

"Don't have the guts to do it and not own up to it. If you dare touch my woman, I'll change my last name to yours if I don't beat you to death!"

Bang!

An iron rod smashed directly against the courtyard gate!

Seeming unsatisfied, someone delivered a flying kick, trying to bash the gate open!

Inside the courtyard, Li Huasheng was completely bewildered!

Li Tianhu's mother was so terrified that she rushed to shove a table against their house door to block it.

"Tianhu's father, what are you standing there like a fool for? Call the police quickly!"

Call the police?

Li Huasheng's face was full of bitter anguish!

With the situation unclear, how could he dare make a reckless call like that!

If it really was as those thugs outside claimed, his son had committed a crime and would end up in prison!

Li Tianhu was also spinning around in panic, racking his brain for a long time, utterly unable to figure out where he had gone wrong!

What woman? What nonsense about women?

He had been busy with the fish pond these past few days; when would he have had the mind to fool around outside?

Even in the past, he had never messed around with other women!

At most, he would go out to play cards and drink a little alcohol with people!

As he was thinking, he saw that Li Huasheng had already taken out his phone and dialed a number.

It was too noisy outside, making it impossible to hear anything clearly.

Huasheng turned and ran into the house, slamming the main room door shut.

Meanwhile, in Xiantao Village, inside Guo Dong's vegetable garden.

Guo Dong and Meng Xiaohan were sitting in front of the small wooden cabin, chatting.

In the moonlight, the two could barely make out each other's faces.

Not far away, Heizi was lying flat on the ground, fast asleep.

It was already past ten o'clock at night, and the villagers had long since gone to sleep.

As for the two of them coming here to date, the villagers turned a blind eye, pretending not to notice.

As they were talking, a phone ringtone broke the silence.

Seeing an unfamiliar number, Guo Dong furrowed his brow.

The moment he pressed the answer button, a familiar voice came through from the other end.

"Guorodong, let me ask you something, and you better tell your uncle the honest truth!"

The voice was anxious, with faint sounds of shouting and arguing coming from the background.

Guo Dong switched on the speakerphone and glanced at Meng Xiaohan.

"Uncle, go ahead!"

"It's about Tianhu. In the past two days, besides being in your village, has he gone anywhere else?"

"Tianhu? He's been well-behaved these past two days, guarding the fish pond every single day and going nowhere."

"Really?"

"Could that be fake? Everyone in our village knows about it."

At that moment, the sound of a heavy crash echoed through the phone.

Hearing that noise, Guo Dong was startled.

"Uncle, did something happen?"

"It's all because of Tianhu. A few people came to my house to make trouble, claiming Tianhu ruined one of their women."

Guo Dong's eyes narrowed.

He had known Li Tianhu since childhood; how could he not know what kind of person he was?

Out of the four vices—drinking, gambling, whoring, and smoking—Li Tianhu dabbled in a few, but he would never proactively provoke a woman.

Otherwise, he wouldn't still be an innocent virgin at his age!

The guy was all bark when it came to a verbal argument, but the moment a real critical situation arose, he would immediately fold!

"Uncle, don't panic yet. Did you ask clearly? Did those people make a mistake?"

Li Huasheng let out a heavy sigh and said loudly, "How could I ask? My door is blocked right now, I can't even get outside!"

Exchanging a glance with Meng Xiaohan, Guo Dong stood up and said, "Don't panic, you guys hold on. I'll go over and check out the situation!"

With that, he started walking down the mountain.

"I'm coming too!"

Meng Xiaohan immediately followed behind him.

Behind them, Heizi suddenly shook its head, looked around left and right, spotted the two figures rushing down the mountain, and quickly scrambled to catch up.

"Guorodong, should we wake up people from the village?"

Guo Dong didn't slow his pace as he replied, "No need, their village has people too. With such a big commotion, they can't just ignore it."

"We're just going to see what's going on, not to get into a fight."

He said it lightly, but inside, he was quite worried.

If it really was a misunderstanding, that would be easy to resolve. But if those people were deliberately looking for trouble, things could genuinely get troublesome!