86.086 Caught red-handed

Su Yu also suspected the possibility of other people. Since they couldn't catch the person, the most direct way to determine was whether Liu Quan was sleeping at home last night, so they could only ask Liu Quan's wife.

Su Yu hesitated. She didn't know what kind of person Liu Quan's wife was, and whether asking such a private question rashly would cause her other trouble.

She squatted on the back of the tree. Liu Quan's house was only a hundred meters to her side. She thought about it and decided to leave. If she went to ask the man if he was sleeping at home at night, his wife might mistakenly think that she was having an affair with him. If that really happened, it would disgust her to death.

As soon as she stepped out of the village, she heard someone shouting something. Su Yu turned around and walked back, only to see Liu Quan being chased out by a woman wielding a knife. There were people around trying to break up the fight, but none of them dared to approach the woman with the knife.

"Where did you go last night, you little bastard? Which woman's bed did you sneak into? Huh? You roll your eyes at me even when I eat an extra bowl of rice. I'm carrying your child and you're still out messing around. Don't you want to live with me anymore?" The woman, her hair disheveled and face flushed with anger, brandished a kitchen knife and chased after Liu Quan, no matter how he explained, she shouted that she would report him for having an affair. "You were the one who chased after me with a bunch of sweet words, wanting to marry me. If I had known you were like this, I would have married a cowherd rather than you. You just ruin me. I'm carrying your child and you still ask me for money for a piece of candy. What you said before marriage about letting me manage the money was all bullshit. I thought you were just stingy, but I didn't expect you to be a whore. I can't live with you anymore. You can wait to be sent to the cowshed."

Liu Quan was furious and annoyed. Looking at the people around him who were laughing at him, he wanted to tear the woman's mouth off. He pulled out a wad of money from his pocket and threw it at the woman, loudly protesting, "All you care about is money. You think you can make me feel bad and happy when I go home? Here, take the money, take it all. Don't try to pin this on me. Think about the children. You can't make up stories for their sake."

He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the woman squat down to pick up the money. He walked over, picked up the kitchen knife, and said to the villagers, "Aicao's mother is talking nonsense. She just wants to control the family finances. Don't listen to her lies."

Standing at the back of the crowd, Su Yu chuckled. Several years had passed, and his reactions had become more astute. If he had focused his petty scheming on his work, he wouldn't have remained stagnant.

Su Yu did not show herself and left quietly.

"Mom, who was it last night? I didn't sleep well at all," Xiao Yuan asked during dinner.

"I don't know whose it is. Maybe it's secretly delivering goods to people on the black market," Su Yu replied naturally.

"Oh, I thought there were bad guys around. I was quite nervous last night." Xiao Yuan smiled shyly. "I even had nightmares in the middle of the night."

"There are so many bad people there. With our little black and little flower here, you can sleep soundly. Anyone who dares to break in will be left with two big, fleshy legs." Su Yu's expression was relaxed, not letting the two children see anything amiss. They were tall but couldn't handle things, but with their parents, the children should grow up cheerfully without fear.

“I slept just fine, Xiao Yuan. Next time you’re scared, come sleep with me. I’ll protect you.” Ping An patted Xiao Yuan’s back mischievously, acting like a big brother.

Xiao Yuan spat at him and refused to acknowledge him as his brother.

After dinner, the two children took a bath and went back to their room to sleep. Su Yu saw that the water in the room was off, so she took a kitchen knife from the kitchen and went back to her room. This time, she was wearing pajamas when she lay on the bed, instead of sleeping naked.

Two dogs were tickling each other under the window. She touched the other side of the bed and smiled silently. If her husband knew something had happened at home again, he would probably change jobs and come back no matter what she did. But she really didn't want him to change jobs because of this. Staying at home would easily wear down a person's ambition. She liked men with ambition and wildness, and she was used to him coming home twice a month.

It might seem a bit selfish, but she is indeed more comfortable with this kind of life where she is in charge. She has children at home and a man outside. Her stable and harmonious relationship makes her feel at ease. If Ning Jin were home every day, she couldn't guarantee that she wouldn't get tired of him or find him annoying.

It's better now. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. She can have at least twenty-four new marriages a year and never get tired of it.

So all this sudden trouble fell on her shoulders, but she didn't feel wronged at all, nor did she complain to Ning Jin. These were all additional conditions that made her choose this lifestyle.

She tossed and turned in bed, unable to fall asleep. Her clothes were too tight and uncomfortable. Thinking about today's farce, she was sure Liu Quan wouldn't come again, otherwise his wife would have stripped him of his genitals. She sat up, took off all her clothes, and lay back down on the bed. She fell asleep almost immediately.

As she expected, Liu Quan did not come to her door again until dawn.

Su Yu went to the supply and marketing cooperative in the morning to buy some cotton cloth. She planned to make a nightgown and fill the chest area with cotton padding so that she could put it on and go out when she got up at night.

"Master, the trees are thirsty. You need to water them, or they'll die of thirst," Shumanpo suddenly said on his way to work.

Su Yu got out of the car and walked to the tree to check the situation. The tree trunk was covered with a layer of black ash, which was scraped over from burned grass. There was also a pile of ash at the tree roots.

"With so many trees and no river, how am I supposed to get water to water them?" Su Yu scratched her head and asked, "Why is there a water shortage? Did you use firewood to warm them before?"

“Yes, the grass also retains water. Your man burned the fire carefully before, drying out the top two millimeters of soil.”

Su Yu: "..."

She went to the orchard and asked Yu Yuan'an if he knew how to check the weather, "Will it rain in the next two or three days?"

"I can't look at the sky, I can only look at the ground." The man shook his head and asked her why she was asking that.

“The burning of weeds in Ningjin burned the trees on both sides of the road, and now there’s a water shortage. If it doesn’t rain in the next few days, I’ll have to ask someone to help me water the trees.” Su Yu didn’t plan to go through the trouble of carrying water to water the trees by bicycle herself. She borrowed an oxcart from Qiu Fuli for half a day and asked the village’s unemployed workers to fetch water from the village and drive the oxen to transport the water to the road. It cost five cents per tree, and half a day’s work cost her nearly thirty yuan, almost half of the bonus she received for grafting fruit trees.

"Su Yu, come here." Qiu Fuli came up the mountain with a radiant face. He said, "The fruit from the grafted trees tastes good. The leaders in our county have all praised you, especially knowing that you only graduated from junior high school. Write an article about how you came up with the idea and how you implemented it, including any difficulties you encountered. Then show it to me. If there are no problems, submit it to the ** newspaper under the name of our orchard, but the main praise will be for you."

"Wow, Brother Qiu, you're quite capable, delivering fruit to the boss's desk." Su Yu joked. She never expected that grafting fruit would bring such an unexpected surprise; her name was about to become known by many people.

"Hey, thanks to you! Without your grafting, even if I had the connections, I'd be just a bunch of ideas. I'm really benefiting from your success." Qiu Fuli beamed. He had managed the orchard for years without making any significant achievements or mistakes, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't make a good impression on his superiors. Now, he finally saw a glimmer of hope. He clapped his thick hands and urged Su Yu to go home and work on it, instead of waiting for him to finish get off work. "Write it down before you come back. No rush. Your brother Yu is looking after the orchard. If all else fails, I'll have Liu Quan run errands to you. You don't need to come over right away."

"Okay, I'll be going now." Su Yu was happy to leave work early.

After she left, Qiu Fuli patted Yu Yuan'an on the shoulder and said, "Old Yu, you have a good eye. If you hadn't been willing to keep Su Yu, I would never have hired such a greenhorn. You're good at recognizing talent and helped me retain it. I have to thank you."

Yu Yuan'an laughed and tapped Qiu Fuli's face with his finger from a distance. "Qiu Fuli, stop talking about how great you are. I, Lao Yu, am not the kind of person who can't stand seeing others better than me. Stop trying to sweet-talk me. If you really want to thank me, treat me to a nice meal."

"Please, go home and kill a chicken later, and come to my house for dinner tonight."

The two left, laughing and chatting. The once lively place was now only occupied by Liu Quan. No one paid any attention to his feelings from beginning to end. The only people who mentioned his name were those who called him out to run errands and deliver messages.

He didn't understand why this was the case. He was also a proper university graduate. He was not as good as Yu Yuan'an because he was too old, but why was Su Yu, who only graduated from junior high school, better than him?

If he's really that amazing, then why is the woman in his house such a wicked person?

This is truly bizarre.

That night, after the pregnant woman in the house had fallen asleep, Liu Quan quietly left, gently pushed out his bicycle, and left the village amidst the barking of dogs.

After he left, the woman on the bed opened her eyes, touched her belly, turned over, thought about the few hundred yuan in her hand, closed her eyes, and continued to sleep.

Su Yu opened her eyes immediately when Xiao Hei made a warning sound in its throat, as if she hadn't been asleep at all. She sat up and was about to put on her nightgown, but seeing that the two dogs hadn't gotten up, she got out of bed and put on the clothes on the stool. Just as she finished dressing, the dog outside the window darted out and fiercely pounced on the door, barking.

Su Yu walked out happily, but the barking of dogs masked her footsteps. When she reached the door, she could still hear the provocative barking of dogs outside—a person imitating a dog's bark.

She deftly pulled off the door bolt, and Xiao Hei and Xiao Hua rushed out as soon as the door opened a crack, but they were caught by the door that hadn't been fully opened yet. In that short time, the person who heard the commotion outside had already ridden his bicycle to the middle of the alley. The two dogs rushed over and bit his legs. Liu Quan was bitten twice on the thigh, but he didn't care. He couldn't imagine what would happen if he got caught.

Su Yu chased after him, grabbed the back seat and kicked the bicycle to the ground. Xiao Hei pounced on him and bit his arm.

Screams echoed through several alleys in the night.

"What's wrong? What's wrong?" The neighbors in the alley all opened their doors and came out. Some of them rushed over with electric lights. Su Yu also saw the situation on the ground. She was worried that someone might die. She pushed aside the dog that was still biting her shoulder bone and shouted for Xiao Yuan to bring a rope to tie the dog up.

"Liu Quan, it really was you. I knew it." She stomped her foot on the man's face.

"Su Yu, what's going on?" someone asked.

"That disgusting maggot, my colleague at the orchard, who knows what's wrong with him, coming to my door in the middle of the night to tease my dog. The night before, my dog ​​was barking like crazy, it was probably him too. I don't know if he's trying to scout out the place and steal something, but luckily I have a dog, so he didn't succeed. Don't worry, everyone, I'll take him to the police station when it's light, and I promise he won't bother you to sleep again."

"Su Yu, I was wrong, please let me go. I was bewitched and pretended to be a ghost. I will never do it again." He struggled to prevent Ping An from tying his hands. He didn't care about the slap Ping An gave him. He moved over to beg for mercy, but was bitten by the dog again before he calmed down. He cried and shouted, "Su Yu, we've known each other for years. Give me a chance to make amends. Don't send me to the police station. I have a wife and children to support. I can't lose my job. Please, please let me go. I'll give you money. I'll give you my entire year's salary."

"Pah, who wants your dirty money?" Ping An stomped on him and tied him up in a cocoon with rope. "Mom, where do we throw this thing?"

"Pull it inside and tie it behind the door."

Su Yu found his cowardly and terrified behavior disgusting and had no desire to curse him. She had thought he had become bolder when she saw him turn around and blame his wife, but it seems he was just playing favorites.