90.090 is suspected

Reports about Su Yu grafting two or even more types of fruit onto a single tree were published in the agricultural section of a newspaper under Qiu Fuli's influence. In this major agricultural country, planting is a highly regarded and popular activity, and many people also had doubts about her.

In this era of food and clothing scarcity, being able to cover one's body and fill one's stomach is the most important thing. As for pursuing the subtle differences in taste between the same kind of fruit, many people disdain it, and talking about it too much is just a step towards labeling it as bourgeois.

Even professionals in the field have discussed grafting, saying that grafting is not a rare technique. There are records of grafting in ancient my country. It's just that people in the countryside are less knowledgeable and have published this well-established technique in newspapers.

Especially since Su Yu only had a junior high school education, her job and the attention she received in the newspapers made people envious. For a time, many people wrote to her to criticize her for fabricating stories. The orchard repeatedly mentioned in the newspapers was the destination of the letters. Qiu Fuli did not expect that his attempt to use this opportunity to create momentum and claim credit would backfire. Instead, he was criticized for being short-sighted and deliberately mysterious.

"Just burn these letters from now on, there's nothing worth reading." Qiu Fuli cursed while holding a stack of letters: "They're such shallow-minded and foul-mouthed bastards. They have no ability themselves but can't stand seeing others do well. If they had that ability, I would take them if they came begging for a job."

Su Yu took it and said with a smile, "Then I'll take it home and use it as a match."

"You can still laugh?" Qiu Fuli was surprised. If he received a stack of letters cursing him every day, he could stand on the mountaintop and curse from sunrise to sunset.

"What else? Am I supposed to cry?" She took the letter and stuffed it into her bag, saying indifferently, "Anyway, if they're not satisfied, all they can do is write letters to curse. I don't even read them. They're just wasting their postage."

"It's good that you're taking it easy." Qiu Fuli breathed a sigh of relief, not needing to comfort Su Yu. He didn't have such a good attitude. He didn't know which bastard started this trouble, but now their orchard was infamous for being criticized. His hopes of gaining fame and experience were dashed again. Now, even when he went to a meeting, he would be asked if he had been instigated by someone.

Sigh, it was he who encouraged Su Yu. If he hadn't been so eager to profit from getting Su Yu to write the article, this mess wouldn't have happened.

"Why are you sighing? No one's going to come and beat you up, and the boss hasn't questioned you. Besides, a lot of people have come to you asking about the grafted fruit. In short, we haven't lost out, it's just not as perfect as we expected." Su Yu didn't take the blame for this sudden fault-finding. As long as she didn't admit it, no one else could pin this storm on her.

"That's the only way."

The letters were fine, just a few dozen extreme people. The unanswered insults would eventually be defeated by the postage. However, the number of letters she received decreased day by day, while the number of people around her who doubted her increased, especially those who had graduated from junior high school like her. They all said that they had not learned this kind of knowledge in junior high school.

When one person says something and a group of people agree, Su Yu's grafted fruit tree results become questionable. That day, she even accidentally encountered someone asking Yu Yuan'an about this matter.

"Technician Yu, did you teach Technician Su how to graft fruit trees?"

"No, I learned it from her. I only found out when the grafted branches blossomed. There's no need to doubt it. She said it was a lucky accident. She has ideas, talent, and luck. Besides, there are records from ancient times that grafting fruit trees isn't too difficult." Yu Yuan'an frowned as he looked at the person in front of him. He remembered that this young man belonged to someone in the village. He seemed to have graduated from high school and was just loafing around at home without finding a job. He was too lazy to pay attention to him and left in a hurry.

"Pah, what's so great about him? He's been completely dominated by a woman." He spat in the direction Yu Yuan'an had left.

As Su Yu watched the fat, pig-like scoundrel leave, she silently thought that arguing with such a scoundrel was beneath her dignity and would only make her a target for such a petty person, just like Liu Quan, who was always up to no good and could easily get bitten by a maggot if she wasn't careful, ruining her mood.

She left after everyone had gone far away. When she returned, she found the house in a mess, as if bandits had raided it. Ning Jin and her two children were tidying up.

"What's going on?" Su Yu pushed aside the dog that was tripping her and walked into the house.

"The Revolutionary Committee came and said someone reported you for reading banned books and foreign books. They searched the place thoroughly, inside and out, and even pulled out your cotton quilts." He cursed angrily, "I don't know which vicious dog reported it."

Su Yu looked at the two children and asked, "The 'Journey to the West' you were watching wasn't found in the search, was it?"

"No, even if they found it, you wouldn't be here when you came back." Ning Jin put his arm around Xiao Yuan, his anger turning to joy, and praised, "Xiao Yuan is clever. He was in the house when they came, and he stuffed all the comic books into his crotch. When the little red soldier came, he found the high school textbook you were reading, and he even scattered the straw in the doghouse. He left without finding anything."

"Good lad." Su Yu patted Xiao Yuan's shoulder and said, "Be careful when you read in the future. Put the book away and hide it after you're done so that no one can come again."

The Revolutionary Committee's visit not only wreaked havoc on the family, but also severed the hard-won harmonious neighborly relations. Even when Su Yu's dog went out, people would stare at them, fearing that if they got involved, they would be dragged down with Su Yu when she was sent to the cowshed.

But this also has an advantage: no one bothers Su Yu anymore to find out how she learned grafting techniques. Few people believe that she had ideas, talent, and luck and stumbled upon this result by trial and error. Some even ask her why she went to work in the orchard in the first place, and why the people in the orchard would hire someone who only graduated from junior high school as a technician.

In an era when information traveled slowly, an event could remain a hot topic for months, until the heavy snow fell and the disputes in the newspapers and the suspicions of neighbors and colleagues were finally put to rest.

Ning Jin carried a large bowl of red date and white fungus soup into the room and handed it to Su Yu, saying, "Here, drink some to warm yourself up, rest for a while before reading."

Su Yu rubbed the back of her neck, rested her head on his waist, and said lazily, "Give me a massage for my neck, it's a little uncomfortable."

Ning Jin turned around and put the bowl on the table, glared at his clueless son, and sent them away: "There's still some white fungus soup in the pot, you two go get it yourselves."

"Go ahead, I don't like that slippery stuff. I'll just have a banana." Ping An pushed Xiao Yuan's hand away, tore a banana from the straw-lined basket, and sat on the table to continue watching the old couple's affectionate shoulder and back massage, ignoring his father's warning.

"Take a break if you're tired of studying. There's still no news about the college entrance exam, and you're working like a donkey. Don't get tired of studying before the exam even starts." Ning Jin stopped laughing at Su Yu's talk of going to university. The doubts about Su Yu's education and character over the past six months, along with that anonymous letter of complaint, had left him angry and powerless. He even had several sleepless nights from anger. After that, he went to the school and asked Su Yu if he could get a high school diploma if he took the second-year exam. The school had no precedent for this and kept giving vague answers. Later, he arranged for someone to treat him to a meal, and said that Su Yu could take the second-year exam next summer, and if he passed, he could get a high school diploma.

"Spit it out twice already, don't give me any discouraging words." Su Yu slammed her fist on the table, making the math book on it shake. She had to admit she was getting old, and had been out of school for too long. Picking up the textbooks again, she couldn't make sense of anything. Many concepts looked familiar, but she couldn't recall the cause and effect. Now she not only had to memorize politics, but also the definitions in the math book. Physics, chemistry, and biology were even more difficult. She had chosen humanities in high school and rarely paid attention in science classes.

"I feel like I started reading too late. I should have started reading two years ago," she wailed, but at the same time felt fortunate. If He Qing hadn't reported Liu Quan after he was sent to the police station, she wouldn't have buried those books in the ground, and she wouldn't have started reading at the beginning of autumn this year. If she had waited until next summer to launch her study plan, even if she had passed the exam, she wouldn't have been able to get into a good university.

Ning Jin was unaware that the college entrance examination would be held at this time next year. He didn't take Su Yu's wailing seriously and even listened with great interest as she recited Chinese, then politics, then math. He even acted as her human venting machine. When she got tired of doing problems, she would go to bed and toss and turn. He was more than happy to do that. He would sit at the door all day long, waiting for the person inside to call him so he could take off his clothes.

Outside in the warm and cozy house, Er Ya helped a haggard-looking woman walk out. Snow fell on their heads, and the woman's tears cut down her cheeks like blades, but she seemed oblivious.

"Er Ya, you go back, I'll go back by myself." Daya raised her chapped and swollen fingers to rub her face, shrank her neck and walked back.

Er Ya watched as this woman, who looked to be in her early twenties but older than Aunt Su, staggered away in the snow. She remembered how, half a year ago, Daya was happy that her period wouldn't hurt, and she didn't even need toilet paper. Her period would come and go in the time it took to pee, and it would be over in a flash. She could just wash it off with water. Now, however, she was desperate because of the light bleeding and short duration of her period.

Da Ya kept putting it off until after the autumn harvest when she finally had time to see a doctor. The doctor said she had severe uterine coldness, making it difficult for her to conceive, and she was also too thin, so there was a high chance she wouldn't be able to keep the pregnancy. She had come to ask her parents for money to treat her illness, but after being ridiculed for about ten minutes, she left empty-handed, keeping it a secret from her in-laws.

Er Ya hesitated and hesitated, but still didn't lend her sister the last twenty-one yuan and eight jiao. Da Ya felt sorry for her, and she felt sorry for her too. She had saved up for so long, but she couldn't bear to buy even a hard candy. Giving her sister five yuan before was already the best she could do.

She reached into her sleeve and pinched the flesh on her arm. It was just skin. After turning around, she roasted two sweet potatoes. She buried herself in her food during dinner and pretended not to hear the scolding. If she wasn't given any food, she would sneak a few bites while cooking. When Xiao Yuan offered her food again, she didn't refuse. She wanted to gain weight and not follow in her sister's footsteps.