Pretty idiots are born to be played with and ruined by their husbands.

Chapter 5: If a cockroach stays even one step too late, it'll end up in your mouth.

Zhou Gangxun works as a construction worker carrying bricks during the day and unloads goods and moves boxes at the market at night.

At 11:30 p.m., Zhou Gangxun finished moving the boxes, held his daily wages in his hand, leaned against the wall, pinched a cigarette butt between two fingers, and put it into his mouth with slight trembling. His senses were completely occupied by fatigue and soreness.

Cargo handling is based on piecework. For more than 30 pieces, you get 1 yuan per piece, and for pieces taller than half a person, you get 2.5 yuan. So if you want to earn more, you have to keep moving.

White smoke billowed from his mouth until it was less than a centimeter long before he extinguished it.

He walked towards the fruit shop at the entrance of the market across the street.

There were wreaths and white flowers on both sides of the fruit shop, and an iron basin on the ground containing burning paper money and ashes, indicating that someone in the family had passed away.

As soon as Zhou Gangxun entered, Uncle Wu, the owner of the fruit shop, greeted him, took out a plastic bag from his small black bag at his waist, and said as he opened it, "These are all fresh fruits that just arrived. What would you like? How about some mangoes? This batch of small mangoes is very sweet."

"Do you have cherries?" Zhou Gangxun's gaze swept over the bananas, apples, mangoes, and oranges in the room. They were all common fruits, with about two or three of the same kind. "Or cherries."

"Cherries?" Uncle Wu was taken aback for a moment, then smiled. He had indeed heard of cherries.

Imported from abroad, the price per kilogram could be tens of yuan. It's something that wealthy people eat, and they order it directly from abroad.

He's just a small vendor, how could he have that kind of channel?

"Cherries are expensive, and there aren't many buyers in this small town, so I didn't stock them. Otherwise, they would just rot if they weren't sold. Cherries are almost out of season, so I haven't stocked them these past few days. If you want some, I can get you a few pounds separately next time I stock up."

"Hmm." Zhou Gangxun responded, his dark eyes pausing before landing on another sign with the character for "peach" on it. "Peaches, one pound, please."

"There are three kinds: 1.8 yuan per catty, 3 yuan per catty, and 12 yuan per catty." Uncle Wu felt heartbroken when he talked about the 12 yuan per catty peaches. He said they were new products, purely sweet, and he didn't stock many. He was thinking that there was a building development nearby, and maybe some rich boss would come to buy them.

But no one has asked about it since I came in this morning, and the peaches next to me have been replaced several times.

Uncle Wu looked at Zhou Gangxun, who was covered in dust and sweat, and it seemed that he had finished his work.

This young man is handsome, but he doesn't look like someone who can afford peaches that cost 12 yuan a pound. He must be someone who does manual labor, so naturally he wouldn't want to spend money on overly expensive fruit.

With that money, you might as well buy a slightly better pack of cigarettes, which would last you about half a month.

He just smoked that cigarette, and you could tell from the smell that it wasn't good quality; it was pungent and spicy, the kind that costs three or four yuan a pack.

Uncle Wu thought about it and then added a word of advice, "You should take care of your health when you're young, or you'll suffer when you're old."

He knew many manual laborers who, relying on their youth, worked recklessly and ended up with a host of ailments before they even turned forty, suffering from backaches, leg pains, and shoulder aches—all of which were prematurely mortgaging their future lives.

Uncle Wu picked out some peaches from the middle that were reasonably priced and of average quality. "These peaches are quite delicious, sweet and sour. Lots of people buy them. I'll pick out a few sweet, red ones for you, and a few pink ones. Eat the red ones as soon as you get home, the pink ones can be kept a little longer..."

Zhou Gangxun grunted in agreement and called out to him, "I don't want that one, I want the big one next to it, it's 12 yuan a pound."

The peaches next to them were as big as one and a half or two, and were pink and white.

Uncle Wu was delighted to hear this, thinking that someone was finally buying these expensive peaches. He immediately turned his hand around and said, "These peaches are even better, purely sweet and juicy."

Is this something you're taking back for your wife? That's quite generous of you.

Three sets of fifteen yuan each.

Zhou Gangxun paid the money, and as he looked up, he happened to see the back room of the shop, which was not closed. Inside was a portrait of an old man.

She appears to be the shop owner's mother.

He looked away, picked up the bag, and stepped forward. He reached inside and grabbed one, squeezing it in his palm, trying to alleviate the destructive urge he had felt when he saw Ruan Zhijuan's dirty, exposed chest and belly.

"Plop!" The flesh was squeezed out of shape, broke open, and sweet peach juice flowed out.

Zhou Gangxun looked down at the rotten peach in his hand and couldn't help but let out a soft snort. This rotten peach really did look like his wife.

As a result, Zhou Gangxun crushed all three peaches in the bag to varying degrees.

Inside the rental house.

As Ruan Zhijuan slept at home, he had that dream again—a dream where his limbs were incomplete and he was floating in the sink. He even saw his skin wrinkled and grayish-white from being soaked in the water.

It's like...he's been dead for a long time.

Then he saw Zhou Gangxun, who was smoking. However, he was in a low position, so Zhou Gangxun had to bend down to look at him.

Zhou Gangxun's face seemed to be smiling, but his eyes were cold as he looked at him, making him feel terrified and unfamiliar.

Then Zhou Gangxun bent down and squatted down, as if he were holding his head in his hands. With a mocking smile, he raised his hand and patted his face, mouthing, "You slut, you bitch."

As he spoke, he pried open his mouth with his fingers, pressed the lit cigarette wick onto his tongue, and the cigarette butt sizzled a few times before going out.

"Ouch, that hurts!" Ruan Zhijuan, who was lying on the bed, sat up with a start and quickly stuck out her pink tongue to check if she had been burned by Zhou Gangxun.

Once she confirmed that her tongue was fine, Ruan Zhijuan immediately began cursing the culprit, "Zhou Gangxun is definitely sick! Seriously sick!"

What you think about during the day, you dream about at night. It must be that Zhou Gangxun hit him today and didn't wash his underwear, which made him so angry that he had this nightmare tonight.

He wants to take revenge on Zhou Gangxun!

Ruan Zhijuan thought to herself, angrily got up, went to the foot of the bed and turned the fan completely in his direction, so that Zhou Gangxun would be hot at night!

Although Zhou Gangxun didn't actually get much cool air anyway.

But Ruan Zhijuan felt that she had gotten her revenge and her anger subsided.

Then he lay back down on the bed, satisfied, and fell asleep comfortably with the fan blowing.

Unsure how long she had slept, Ruan Zhijuan, in her hazy sleep, began to hear the sounds of a man and a woman arguing.

At first, they were talking normally, but then it turned into a loud argument. It was hard to understand what they were arguing about, but they seemed very agitated, as if they wanted to kill each other with a knife.

Mixed in with the loud "bang, bang, bang" sounds of chopping meat coming from who-knows-where, it was quite noisy.

It's so noisy.

Ruan Zhijuan couldn't open her eyes, so she raised her hand to cover her ears. The neighbor... seemed to be Zhou Gangxun's coworker. Was his coworker's relationship with his wife really that bad?

He buried his head under the pillow and drifted off to sleep again.

When Zhou Gangxun got home, it was already past midnight.

He placed the bag of peaches on the kitchen counter, turning off the main light and only turning on the bathroom light.

Ruan Zhijuan ate the boxed lunch on the table clean, almost licking the box clean as well. There was an empty milk bag on top.

Zhou Gangxun stared quietly at Ruan Zhijuan, who was lying on the bed in a starfish position, drooling in her sleep. The shadow cast by her completely enveloped him. He recalled Ruan Zhijuan's disgusted face earlier, "Didn't you say it was leftovers? Why are you eating it so cleanly? If a cockroach hadn't left a moment later, it would have ended up in your mouth."

He pushed the lunchbox into the kitchen trash can, grabbed a change of clothes, and went to take a shower.

Ten minutes later, Zhou Gangxun came out, drank two full glasses of water, then took the pillow and mat that Ruan Zhijuan had either thrown on the ground or kicked down, spread them out on the ground, and lay down.

The bed in the rented room was only 1.2 meters long, just enough for one person to sleep on, so the bed naturally became Ruan Zhijuan's, and he slept on the floor.

But less than half an hour after lying down, Zhou Gangxun got up and went to the bathroom twice.

He's very active and expends a lot of energy every day, so he gets hungry quickly. But when he gets back around 1 a.m., Ruan Zhijuan is already asleep, and he has to get up again before 5 a.m. the next day, so there's no need to cook another meal.

So usually, people just drink water to stave off hunger, and then they feel better once they fall asleep.

"Zhou Gangxun..." Ruan Zhijuan, still half asleep, rolled over to the edge of the bed like a big white worm, and stomped on Zhou Gangxun's lower abdomen with dissatisfaction, scolding, "You always get up at night, which really affects my rest."

Ruan Zhijuan woke up as soon as Zhou Gangxun returned, and she had been dozing off for who knows how long, but Zhou Gangxun was still not asleep.

He urged anxiously, "So you're not allowed to go to the toilet anymore, hurry up and go to sleep."