Time flies, and it's already May.

The pomegranate flowers in Li Xiangdong's yard were blooming beautifully, like fire.

The grapevines on the trellis are laden with small bunches of grapes, while the larger grapes are already a mix of green and purple.

Li Jin's injuries have healed, and he can eat and walk around normally, but he still cannot do heavy work.

With the Dragon Boat Festival just around the corner, everyone is busy making zongzi (sticky rice dumplings).

To make zongzi (sticky rice dumplings), you need glutinous rice, red dates, candied dates, and bamboo leaves.

Some clever people bought a large quantity of zongzi leaves early on, in bundles of twenty, for one cent each.

Unlike in the south, Huichuan uses dried bamboo leaves to wrap zongzi (sticky rice dumplings). Before wrapping, the bamboo leaves need to be soaked in hot water to soften them.

Good quality bamboo leaves will produce a yellowish-green water when soaked, and they will also have a pleasant fragrance.

Place two bamboo leaves together, bend them in the middle, and connect the ends. Put in a handful of soaked glutinous rice, a few dates, and a candied date. Cover with another layer of glutinous rice, wrap the bamboo leaves tightly, and tie them with white string. A zongzi is now wrapped.

Some thrifty families, unwilling to spend money on zongzi leaves, would instead pick reed leaves from the reservoir.

The leaves of the thick reeds are as wide as two fingers, and two or three of them stacked together can be used to wrap zongzi (sticky rice dumplings).

However, this method requires skill from the person wrapping the rice dumplings, as they will fall apart when cooked if not wrapped tightly.

At that time, instead of cooking zongzi (sticky rice dumplings), we'll cook a pot of porridge.

Li Xiangdong was in a good mood for this year's Dragon Boat Festival and started making zongzi (sticky rice dumplings) early on.

In addition to making the red date and jujube rice dumplings that everyone is used to eating, Li Lan also prepared red bean paste filling, salted egg yolk filling, and cured meat filling.

The whole family looked at the two bowls of savory fillings and were skeptical. Could they even eat this?

Li Ping was completely baffled. "Brother, this isn't steamed buns. Everyone's zongzi is sweet!"

Li Jiabao chimed in, "Exactly! Salty rice dumplings, that's so weird!"

Li Yan asked curiously, "Is this edible?"

Li Xiangdong sighed, “Of course you can eat it. Southerners usually eat savory zongzi.”

The children stared wide-eyed and asked in unison, "Really?"

"Of course! Not only zongzi, but mooncakes in the South are also savory, tofu pudding is sweet, and we don't eat dumplings during the New Year, we eat tangyuan!"

"Oh dear, how could that be? Their tastes are so strange!"

"Oh my god, oh my god, they don't even eat dumplings for Chinese New Year!"

"How can you eat tofu pudding if it's sweet?!"

The children were startled, while Zhao Sufang and Li Lan laughed as they wrapped the zongzi (sticky rice dumplings).

The Li family's zongzi (sticky rice dumplings) are quite elaborate; they are wrapped with colorful ropes, and each one is the same size and beautifully shaped.

While the mother and son were wrapping zongzi (sticky rice dumplings), Li Xiangdong took his younger siblings to hang gourds and mugwort outside the gate.

Artemisia argyi is a type of Chinese herbal medicine. The moxa wool made from it can be used for acupuncture.

Artemisia grows lush and green in May, emitting a rich fragrance.

In rural areas, a few clumps of grass are often planted at the base of walls and entrances. They can repel mosquitoes in the summer and be used for firewood when they dry out in the winter.

Li Xiangdong used scissors to carefully select the thickest stems of mugwort and cut them down. He cut a total of forty or fifty stems, divided them into three bundles, and tied them tightly with colorful thread.

He first picked a long sprig of mugwort and hung it upside down on the upper left of his front door, then took a red paper gourd and hung it on the upper right of the door. This was all about "warding off evil spirits and poisons, and praying for good fortune and luck".

Inside the house, after the water in the large iron pot boiled and the rice dumplings were cooked, everyone took turns tasting them. The most popular fillings were red dates and red bean paste.

Apart from Li Xiangdong, who ate two zongzi with salted egg yolks and cured meat, no one else touched it.

It seems that inherited tastes can't be changed overnight.

After they finished eating the zongzi, there were still many left in the bowl. Zhao Sufang divided them into several small piles according to different types, and then instructed the children, "You can take these zongzi to your second aunt, Aunt Chunhua, great-grandfather, third uncle, and fifth uncle's house later."

Eating too many zongzi (sticky rice dumplings) can be hard to digest, so I won't keep so many at home!

Li Xiangdong also sent some zongzi (sticky rice dumplings), mugwort, and gourds to the families of Factory Director Yan, Chen Yigan, He Guang, Wang Jianguo, and Feng Bing.

Factory Director Yan peeled a salted egg yolk rice dumpling and slowly savored it. "Hmm, this rice is good, crystal clear and chewy. The egg yolk is also good, it's sandy!"

Li Xiangdong gave a thumbs up, "I've finally found a kindred spirit! They all said it wasn't good!"

"They have no taste!"

Huang Guimei, holding a hot jujube rice dumpling, said with a smile, "You two have such good taste!"

Factory Director Yan readily agreed, "That's right!"

After exchanging a few jokes, Factory Director Yan asked Li Xiangdong, "How's the case with the mental hospital going?"

Li Xiangdong mentally calculated the days, "We should hear news in a few days!"

...

In May of this year, Zheng Guoyuan felt that things were going exceptionally badly.

Xu Zhonghou's affair was escalating rapidly in a way Zheng Guoyuan hadn't anticipated. Like a powder keg constantly piling up, he felt it was about to explode!

It's not that no prisoners have been released before, but even if they commit crimes, they are simply sent back. No one has ever held the mental hospital accountable, let alone sought compensation!

This is absolutely outrageous!

Zheng Guoyuan felt he had eliminated all the potential risks and decided to privately compensate Li Jin with a sum of money to get him to drop the lawsuit.

The people behind him have already given him a stern warning: no matter what method they use, they must quell this storm as soon as possible. The mayor is already paying attention to this case!

Now all he needs to do is find Li Jin, negotiate the terms, and exchange money for withdrawal of the lawsuit.

Of course, this money is nominally only a personal compensation for mental distress, not compensation from the mental hospital.

However, he tried to meet the person several times through the Huichuan County Public Security Bureau but failed, which made him somewhat angry.

Normally, someone from the countryside would be begging for a meeting, but now he's putting on airs!

Wu Zhiming reassured him, "These people have never seen anything like this before. They just want to take this opportunity to extort more money. The more anxious we are now, the more smug they will become. I think we should let them cool off and see who gets anxious in the end!"

Zheng Guoyuan snorted coldly, but in his heart he couldn't help but think that what she said made sense. "It's all your fault for causing this trouble!"

Now that things have come to this, it would be a lie to say that Wu Zhiming doesn't regret it.

When her eldest nephew begged her to release Xu Zhonghou, she didn't take it seriously.

Who could have predicted that Xu Zhonghou would commit murder as soon as he left the hospital!

We've also gotten ourselves into trouble with the Li family, who's like a stubborn leech; if we want to get rid of them, we'll have to peel off a layer of skin!

These days, Zheng Guoyuan hasn't given her a kind look at all, and she feels very aggrieved.

Fortunately, judging from her husband's expression, this matter is probably going to be resolved...

The fifth day of the fifth lunar month, sunny.

An article in the provincial newspaper titled "On Whether Mental Hospitals Have Become Paradises and Lawless Zones for Lawbreakers to Escape Legal Sanctions" ignited this long-simmering powder keg.