'What kind of man would Juhua have to marry for me to finally rest easy?'
'An old man is definitely not an option, and neither is someone too ugly—even though Juhua is ugly too, she's so capable that being a bit ugly is forgivable!'
'Why am I acting just like her father?' he thought with a bitter smile.
His mind wandered again for a while as he ambled aimlessly along the ridges between the paddies. He nearly fell into the ditches several times and soon had no idea where he had wandered off to.
Not until he ran into Shorty Zhou.
Shorty Zhou asked Zhang Huai in surprise, "Huai Zi, what are you doing? How'd you end up all the way out here?"
Zhang Huai was startled. "Huh?" he blurted out, looking all around—
He had somehow wandered to the banks of the Little Qing River, yet his family's land was nowhere near it. The gurgling sound of the flowing water seemed to mock him for being so dazed and out of it.
