When Jiang Yuping asked him about his child's age, the man immediately answered.

"Twelve years old".

After answering, the man rubbed his hands together sheepishly.

Jiang Yuping thought for a moment, looked at the man in front of her, and decided to buy all the eels.

"Fellow villager, here's what we'll do. Tell me how much these eels cost, and I'll take them all. You'll have to come with me to the clinic. I'm the doctor at the Hongqi Factory clinic. I'll prescribe some fever reducer for you to take home. Give it to your child, and the fever will go down quickly."

To everyone's surprise, the man shook his head and refused.

"Doctor, I appreciate your kindness, but I'm not a worker at your factory, so I can't get the medicine. Besides, there's a barefoot doctor in our brigade. If I need medicine, I'll go back to the brigade and find the barefoot doctor. Also, this isn't the first time my child has had a bout of illness. If I cover him with a blanket to make him sweat, he'll get through it in two or three days. Thank you."

Jiang Yuping was incredibly intelligent. She understood that this man didn't want to spend money on medicine. He just wanted to sell the eels in the basket as soon as possible so he could go home. He knew that children with malaria usually wouldn't die; they could recover after two or three days when the fever subsided. Many villagers already knew this, so he didn't want to spend money on medicine at all.

Thinking of all this, she didn't say anything, opened her wallet, took out two yuan, and handed it to the man.

"These eels, two yuan should be enough, right?"

The man took the two yuan, then returned one yuan to the man.

"That's plenty, just one yuan is enough! Thank you."

You have to understand that in those days, even one or two taels of silver were considered money.

The monthly salary of frontline workers at the Hongqi Factory was only twenty or thirty yuan. For the nearby villagers, before the distribution of production to individual households, each laborer only earned a few work points, which, when converted into RMB, amounted to just a few cents.

Therefore, the man felt that he was already very satisfied and content that he could sell the eel he caught for one yuan.

In fact, Jiang Yuping deliberately gave the man more money, probably because she saw that the middle-aged man in front of her was a very honest and upright person.

Furthermore, she heard that his child was sick and thought she should give him more money so that the family might be able to make ends meet. After all, she was a mother herself and knew how her parents felt. She also knew that the villagers in the vicinity were not as well off as the employees of the military-industrial enterprises, and that their lives were not easy, and were even very difficult.

The man took the money and immediately stood up to thank him.

"Doctor, please take this bamboo basket home with you. If you can't finish them in one meal, you can keep them in a foot basin and eat them again next time. These eels were all caught by hand, unlike those that were hooked and injured. They should be fine after a few days of care."

Jiang Yuping smiled at the man, revealing two beautiful dimples.

"What are you going to do with this bamboo basket? Don't you want it anymore?"

The man blushed and smiled when he saw the two pretty dimples on Jiang Yuping's face.

“I’ll take them. You can’t take these eels home anyway. Here’s what we’ll do: I catch eels almost every day, and I have a basket at home. You can go home and keep the eels in a basin or a foot tub so they don’t swim out. Tomorrow, or a couple of days later, you can bring the basket to your clinic, and I’ll come find you there.”

At this point, the man looked at Jiang Yuping and asked:

"Doctor, how should I address you?"

"My surname is Jiang, just call me Dr. Jiang."

"Okay, Dr. Jiang, thank you for buying my eels. I need to hurry home."

Jiang Yuping thought this country man was really considerate, so she picked up her basket and the man quickly left the small market.

Unbeknownst to Jiang Yuping, the man turned back to look at her beautiful back after walking more than a hundred meters away.

Besides buying eels, Jiang Yuping also bought several lively crucian carp to braise at home. She also bought tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and loofah, which is enough to make a whole table of dishes.

My son, Qiu Yang, hasn't been home for dinner in a long time, and my husband, Qiu Jingwen, is right. Tonight is a rare family reunion dinner.

Jiang Yuping rode her bicycle back to the clinic, almost at the end of her shift.

Wei Hong had already left the office. Jiang Yuping knew in her heart that she should go to the guesthouse with the forensic doctor from the Municipal Bureau to report the autopsy results of Niu Dajiang to Shao Jian.

She didn't want to think about it too much for the time being. Niu Dajiang's case had nothing to do with her and her husband. She hoped that the homicide conclusion would be true, so that the investigation team would not suspect the couple in Liu Han's murder case for the time being.

However, this was just wishful thinking on Jiang Yuping's part.

In fact, she was unaware that Shao Jian had already arranged for people to secretly observe, or even monitor, her and Qiu Jingwen.

The reason is simple: all three members of their family were connected to the deceased, Liu Han.

The suicide note left by Niu Dajiang confirms that Liu Han was a veteran Kuomintang agent who had been lying in wait.

Therefore, in Shao Jian's eyes, the murder of Liu Han might be a breakthrough in uncovering the Kuomintang's spies lurking in Duliang.

now,

Wei Hong and Cheng Xiaoming, a forensic doctor from the Municipal Public Security Bureau, were sitting in the investigation team's office at the guesthouse, reporting to Shao Jian on the autopsy results of Niu Dajiang.

Wei Hong's conclusion has been reached, and the conclusion regarding Cheng Xiaoming's body is also that Niu Dajiang committed suicide, not murder.

Shao Jian believes that since both a former forensic doctor and a forensic doctor from the municipal bureau have concluded that Niu Dajiang committed suicide, there shouldn't be much of a discrepancy.

After the report was finished, Wei Hong took the initiative to ask:

"Director Shao, didn't you say you had other things to ask me?"

"I have something to ask you."

"What is it?"

"Dr. Wei, you and Dr. Jiang seem to have a very close relationship?"

“Boss, it’s not just that we seem close. We’ve always been very close. We joined the factory around the same time, worked in the infirmary, and shared an office for many years. Yuping is my best friend.”

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