During this brief respite, Su Qiaoqiao finally managed to stand up, albeit unsteadily.

She realized Ding Liming was in charge, and immediately grabbed him, crying, "Boss! Who are you? You have to help me! I didn't steal the money! I'm not a thief!"

Ding Liming shoved her away, his face stern: "Don't call me that! I'm acting captain Ding Liming! Your name is Su Qiaoqiao, right? I'm asking you, what kind of feudal superstitious activities are you going to do with all this yellow paper in your bundle?!"

"Yellow paper?" Su Qiaoqiao stared blankly at the two bundles that had been rummaged through. "These yellow papers aren't mine!"

As she spoke, she pointed fiercely at Su Ruyi: "It was her! She's the one who put it in there to frame me! My bundle was in her room before, and she was the one who took it out for me! She must have put it in there!"

Su Ruyi looked surprised:

Why are you still being so stubborn?

Are you trying to smear me?

Su Qiaoqiao, everyone wants to help you, and no one has given up on you yet!

However, you can only accept help if you admit your mistakes!

I personally searched your pockets and found my money, and everyone else personally searched your bag and found these yellow papers!

You can't get away with just saying it's not yours!

"Exactly! What kind of attitude is that?" Guo Tianya rolled her eyes and chimed in.

"Speak, what do you want with all this yellow paper?!" Ding Liming stared intently into Su Qiaoqiao's eyes.

“I…I don’t know…maybe it was last night…” Su Qiaoqiao tried to recall carefully.

"Su Qiaoqiao!!!"

"Su, the educated youth!!!"

Li Wenjuan and Feng Hui, who had been silent until now, both let out a loud shout.

"Last night? What happened last night?" Ding Liming keenly sensed that something was wrong.

“It’s nothing. Yesterday, the four of us new educated youth waited at the train station all day, but no one came to pick us up. We spent the night in the open air in an alley near the educated youth office,” Feng Hui said quickly. “Su Qiaoqiao was wondering if it was possible that we were all asleep last night and someone slipped it into her bag?”

"Yes, yes, yes!" Su Qiaoqiao snapped out of her daze and quickly chimed in, "That must be it!"

"Ahem!" Ding Liming immediately realized that he had forgotten to send someone to pick them up.

But he certainly won't admit it.

He glanced around and said, "The four new educated youths who arrived yesterday, come here!"

Li Wenjuan, Feng Hui, Su Qiaoqiao, and Zhong Misu, who still seemed to be lost in thought, all stood in front of him.

Ding Liming frowned and looked at the group: "Originally, you new educated youths were supposed to have three days off! But the harvest starts tomorrow, so your days off have to be canceled! I'll find a few people to teach you how to harvest rice later, and you can start work first thing tomorrow morning!"

All four of them were a little confused.

Seeing that no one objected, Ding Liming felt a little better: "As for this female comrade's...stealing money, engaging in feudal superstitions, etc., I'll write them down first, and when your new brigade leader takes office, we'll hand them over to him to deal with, okay?"

Ding Liming, that old fox, only wanted to exploit the labor of these educated youths, without wanting to offend anyone.

After all, he was just the acting captain, and there was no need for him to make enemies with these greenhorns.

Before he could finish speaking, Guo Tianya blurted out, "No way!"

Ding Liming frowned again as he looked at her: "No?!"

"I mean, we don't want her! She can't live in our house!" Guo Tianya explained anxiously. "We're so busy with the harvest, we can't stand sharing a room with a thief!"

“Yes, we don’t want her!” Ai Shengnan added.

Wang Chuntao spoke up at the right moment: "Captain, there are already three people living in our room. If another one comes, we definitely won't have enough room!"

Shulan added in a low voice, "If another one comes, they'll have to sleep on the floor!"

Everyone looked at Su Ruyi.

Su Ruyi said with a straight face, "She stole my money, I don't want to live in the same room as her."

Ding Liming knew of Su Ruyi's abilities and had seen her entering and leaving the village several times in a car and a jeep.

He would naturally not offend such a talented young girl who also had intricate connections with General Shen.

He forced a smile and said, "Don't worry, Su Zhiqing, I won't force this thief on you!"

As he spoke, he looked at Su Qiaoqiao with disgust in his eyes: "Since no one wants you, there's nothing I can do! Find somewhere to stay yourself!"

"etc!"

Zhong Misu finally snapped out of his reverie. He walked over to Guo Tianya and Ai Shengnan and pleaded in a low voice, "Comrades, Qiaoqiao can only stay in your middle room now. Please, be kind enough to do me a favor! I'm willing to pay!"

As soon as he mentioned money, Guo Tianya and Ai Shengnan exchanged a glance.

Seeing that things were looking promising, Zhong Misu quickly looked at Ding Liming.

Ding Liming curled his lip: "Why are you looking at me? If you have money, just pay up!"

Zhong Misu hurriedly took out all the money on her body. In addition to the dozen or so ten-yuan bills in her pants pocket, there was another stack in her shirt pocket, which she estimated to be another dozen or so, all ten-yuan bills.

Ding Liming felt a pang of pain—so rich?

Zhong Misu stuffed all the money into Guo Tianya's hand: "Consider this money as my apology to you on behalf of Qiaoqiao!"

Unexpected windfall!

Guo Tianya and Ai Shengnan's eyes widened in disbelief, as if they wanted to count the exact amount of money with their eyes.

They looked at each other and nodded.

Li Wang clicked his tongue and said, "Zhong Zhiqing, is this Su Qiaoqiao your sister? Your family must be really rich! Are you a capitalist?"

Zhong Misu said awkwardly, "We... are not siblings."

Li Wang asked in surprise, "What? Then why are you protecting her like she's your own eyeball?"

Sun Shengtian chuckled and said, "They're not blood siblings, they're lover brothers and sisters!"

Zhong Misu blushed: "We are both educated youth from Haicheng. I am older than Qiaoqiao, so it is only right that I take care of her."

Sun Shengtian made a whispering gesture to Li Wang, but his voice didn't lower at all: "He's saying he hasn't succeeded yet, no wonder he's acting like a grandson!"

"Ha ha ha ha!"

The male educated youth burst into laughter.

The female educated youth couldn't help but cover her mouth.

Unexpectedly, at that moment, Su Qiaoqiao rushed up and snatched all the money from Guo Tianya's hand, stuffing it into her own pocket: "I'm not staying here! I don't want to live with these two nasty people!"

Zhong Misu was so angry that her blood pressure soared: "Then where do you want to stay?"

"I have money! I want to build my own house!" Su Qiaoqiao glanced at everyone with disdain. "I'll live in it myself!"

Upon hearing this, Su Ruyi had a sudden thought—she should build her own house to live in too!

New educated youth will always be coming to the educated youth compound, and one day I will not be able to keep my own secluded west room!

"Heh!" Ding Liming looked at Su Qiaoqiao and sneered, "You want to make money and build a house, no one's stopping you! But the harvest season starts tomorrow, so you can only wait until the harvest is over and everyone has had enough rest before someone will be available to build your house!"