Lian Xiaomin was chatting with her aunt when Yufang came back, followed by a little girl she had never seen before. The girl had only a braided hair and was wearing a gray scarf. She also came into the house.

Lian Xiaomin took a closer look and found that the girl was quite pretty, with bright red eyes, but her skin was a little dark.

He was not short and looked a little stronger than me. He was wearing a half-new dark red cotton-padded jacket with flowers. He looked energetic and did not look timid at all, but very confident.

As soon as Yufang came in, she said, "Xiaomin, this is Xiaolingzi, she's always thinking about practicing with you."

Xiao Lingzi smiled, showing her small white teeth, and said, "Xiaomin, I finally see you. I heard that you defeated Brother Sanyong? You are really amazing. He looked like he didn't want to talk to anyone, but he finally fell. You did a great job."

Lian Xiaomin let Xiao Lingzi sit on the kang, laughed and said, "We were just joking. If you want to practice in the future, I'll teach you a few tricks, and you can treat it as exercise."

The three little girls were huddled together on the kang, chatting. Lian Qiuping, who was sitting at the end of the kang playing with her little girl, asked, "Xiao Lingzi, is your family stable now?"

Xiao Lingzi said, "Well, my parents went to Uncle Shengli's house again today. We have to thank them very much. If they hadn't helped me get the accurate information and evidence about my eldest brother's case, my family would have been in trouble. The consequences would be unimaginable. If I had married a sister-in-law like that, I would be terrified just thinking about it."

Yufang puffed her cheeks and said angrily, "That's right. The Cheng family is so wicked. They just returned the betrothal gift to your family at the beginning. That's enough. Do they want to keep it a secret and continue to cheat people? Don't they have any idea? Why do they want to cancel the engagement?"

Lian Qiuping shook her head. "Alas, now your two families are enemies."

Xiao Lingzi pouted and said, "Yes, I went there that day too. I looked at the short, fat guy from the Cheng family who was protecting Cheng Baoru. The way he stared at my eldest brother was so vicious... He also stared at me viciously, which scared me to death. It's true that ugly people are more likely to do evil."

When Yufang heard this, she said, "Why don't you arrest him too? He was the one who instigated this."

Xiao Lingzi said: "That Cheng Zhiwei and his elder sister wanted to come down and attack my father and snatch the test report, but my elder brother held her down and beat her up. The beating was not light. She had to lie down for two days. It can be said that evil will be punished."

There was a sigh among the people in the room, but no matter what, the matter was over.

After a while, Xiaofu ran in and said, "Jiejie, I want to take Digua to play with the little dog Guoguo~"

Lian Xiaomin said to a few people happily: "Look how my brother shows off with just this little thing." She bent down and pinched Xiaofu's little face, coaxing him: "Now your little brother Xiaogouzi's house is full of people, so there must be a lot of people. Let's go play tomorrow."

Xiaofu raised his little head, looked at his sister, nodded, and obediently continued to play with Xiaofeng.

Lian Xiaomin said, "Yufang, you and Xiaolingzi should just come to my house. I'll teach you martial arts and make you delicious food at noon. My yard is far from the Zheng family next door, so you can't smell the food."

Yufang smiled and said, "You? You want to make delicious food? I've never seen you do anything serious. Do you want me to do hard labor for you and make it for you?"

Lian Xiaomin was exposed, and hugged Yufang's arm and said, "You are too smart, you can't get married, so stay at home and cook!"

Xiao Lingzi was embarrassed to go and wanted to go home to get her own rations, but was stopped by Lian Xiaomin.

Lian Qiuping said, "You three little demons, go quickly. Xiaofu and Xiaoya, stay with me. I will feed them at noon."

Lian Xiaomin knew what was going on. She put a small bag in the backpack, carrying the baby's milk powder, diapers, etc. She stood up and put on her hat and scarf, saying, "Auntie, Xiaoya's things are all in the backpack. I'll pick them up in the afternoon."

"Okay, go ahead."

Lian Xiaomin said something to Xiaofu again, telling him to have fun at his aunt's house and that his sister would pick him up in the afternoon, and then she went out with the other two.

When passing by Xie's house, Xiao Lingzi slipped in, told her family, and took two cakes with her as her own food.

The three little girls walked shoulder to shoulder, arm in arm, toward the foot of the mountain.

Lian Xiaomin's house is at the very edge of the village. If you walk from here and get close to the foot of the mountain, you will first pass the cowshed. Next to it is the educated youth site, then the old carpenter Xue's house, Zheng Laowu's house, and the last house more than 50 meters away from the Zheng family is Lian Xiaomin's house.

When passing by the cowshed, if you look carefully, you can notice that there is a very small yard at the back side, right next to the empty pigpen. There is no wall, just a simple fence made of branches.

There was a shabby little adobe house inside. The door was about to fall off, half-open and leaning against the door frame. It felt like it could be kicked away with one foot.

This place looks like a room where people who used to work on the pigsty used to store their sundries. I guess the pigsty is empty now because no one in the village has raised pigs for a long time and the room is no longer used.

As Lian Xiaomin was walking, she suddenly noticed that the broken door was moved and it seemed like someone was living inside.

It’s winter, is this habitable?

She had noticed this place before, but the door didn't seem to be broken like this before and was always closed tightly.

She raised her hand and pointed, then casually asked the two people next to her: "Whose shed is this? Is anyone living there? Doesn't it look abandoned?"

Yufang looked over, frowned, and said softly, "Xiaomin, these are the people who used to live in your house. They are the two remaining children of the landlord Ma... Later, a group of people from above came and held a meeting to criticize and denounce them. The two children were driven out and have lived here for quite a long time."

Xiao Lingzi also whispered, "They look quite pitiful, an eleven-year-old boy named Ma Cheng and a six-year-old girl named Ma Jing. Last time, my mother felt sorry for them and gave the little girl half a cake. What do you think those people did to the children? If it weren't for my uncle who was secretly protecting them in our production team, who knows what would have happened."

Lian Xiaomin understood.

The three of them talked as they walked, and soon they arrived home.

Xiao Lingzi first helped Yufang carry firewood, went to the stove to light a fire, boiled some hot water in the pot, and the big kang in the east room was soon heated up.

Lian Xiaomin pretended to go into the utility room outside, closed the door, and took out seven frozen swallow fish and a bundle of wide vermicelli from the space.

The swallowtails were placed in a small enamel basin. Each swallowtail was not very big. The swallowtails were stewed in a large iron pot. These seven swallowtails were about the same size.

This was what she found in a cold chain insulated warehouse at the port warehouse when she was checking in the space. There were other seafood as well. Anyway, there were all kinds of them and in large quantities.

She took a little more peppercorns, salt and soy sauce, which were in the kitchen. That was enough. She couldn't show off more. Then she took another green onion.

She brought these back to the kitchen, put them on the stove, patted Yufang on the shoulder, and said, "Comrade cook, the food for the leaders today depends on you. Serenger, follow the order - stew swallow fish vermicelli in an iron pot!"

Yufang pursed her lips to hold back her smile, and even saluted: "I promise to complete the task!"