"Mother, what brings you here?" Seeing that Lin Chunying's basket contained many eggplants and green beans, Qiao Qiqi quickly reached out to take them.

Lin Chunying wiped the sweat from her forehead. "Before Qin Huai went to work, he made a special trip home. He said that there were strangers appearing in the village these days, and he was worried that it wouldn't be safe for you, a woman, to be at home with two children. So he asked me to come and keep you company. I thought that we had too many eggplants and green beans at home, so I brought them over to cut them into strips, dry them, and save them for winter."

Qiao Qiqi placed the basket against the wall. "My eggplants and green beans have also grown a lot. I'll pick all the ones I can, cut them into strips, and let them dry."

"Okay, the weather's been good these past few days, so they'll be dry in two days."

Without hesitation, Qiao Qiqi immediately went to the kitchen, grabbed another basket, and went into the vegetable garden to start picking eggplants.

The eggplants were big; less than ten filled an entire basket.

Qiao Qiqi went out twice but hadn't finished picking them all. The last few beans filled half a basket, so she turned around and continued picking green beans.

Lin Chunying went into the kitchen and brought out a basin and a bucket.

After washing the green beans and eggplants, I brought out a stool, cutting board, and knife and started chopping.

"Mother, I don't like eggplant skin. Could you peel the eggplant skin before cutting it into strips?" Qiao Qiqi said quickly when she came out to put out the green beans and saw Lin Chunying about to start cutting them.

"I'm your mother, how could I not know your tastes? Do you need to specifically tell me?" Lin Chunying rolled her eyes at her, then picked up an eggplant and began to peel it.

Eggplant can only be cut into strips, while green beans can be sliced ​​in half and shredded in half.

Make two kinds, with different shapes, and they will taste different when you eat them.

Qiao Qiqi prefers green bean strips, and stir-fried with vermicelli in winter—it's incredibly delicious.

Green bean slices can be stir-fried with meat or stewed with potato strips, which are also very delicious.

So she wants both.

Eggplants are wet and don't dry easily, so cut them first.

Then come the green bean slices.

Cut the green bean strips, which are the easiest to dry, last.

Because there was only one kitchen knife at home, Qiao Qiqi would let the beans dry while Lin Chunying chopped them, and whenever she had a spare moment, she would move the green beans closer to Lin Chunying's hand.

When Xin Xin saw this, she also came over to help, doing what she could.

Chenchen became even more anxious, since the whole family was working while he was the only one idle.

Qiao Qiqi saw what the little guy was thinking, so she picked more than twenty cucumbers, had Chenchen wash them, and gave them to Lin Chunying to slice.

She didn't like eating dried cucumber slices, but Lin Chunying and Qiao Weiguo did. It was just the right time to finish making them at noon, so Qiao Qiqi asked Lin Chunying to take all the cucumber slices out to dry so they could eat them.

Lin Chunying knew her own daughter well and knew she didn't like to eat, but she asked, "If you don't eat, won't Qin Huai eat too? You should save some to dry in the sun."

“There are still some in the garden, and there’s no more room to dry them. Once these are all dried, we can dry the cucumbers in time,” Qiao Qiqi said.

Upon hearing this, Lin Chunying didn't insist any further. She ate a steamed bun that Qiao Qiqi had brought over, chatted for a while, and then, seeing that it was almost noon, got up and went back.

Qiao Qiqi also started preparing lunch.

Because she had been busy all morning and was a bit tired, she just decided to make do with something for lunch.

I made a steamed egg custard with three eggs, and then made a soup with slices of two old cucumbers. When it was done, I sprinkled a few drops of sesame oil and some spices on top, and the aroma immediately wafted up.

Finally, pick out a few small fish from the dried fish you prepared a few days ago, fry them, and you'll have a plate of golden-yellow, fragrant grilled fish.

Just as Qiao Qiqi had finished serving everything and washed her face, Qin Huai returned from work.

Qiao Qiqi immediately asked, "Have you finished all the steamed buns I brought you?"

When this was mentioned, Qin Huai's eyes immediately turned cold. "Two were given to Zhang Qing."

Zhang Qing had brought two cornbreads with him, but when he saw that the other man had brought fragrant steamed buns with meat filling, he couldn't help but drool over them.

Seeing how greedy he looked, Qin Huai had no choice but to give him two, even though it was painful.

When they got hungry later, he and Zhang Qing each ate one of the cornbread he had brought.

For some reason, Qin Huai used to eat cornbread all the time, but recently he hasn't eaten it and he finds it incredibly unpalatable, hard and scratchy on the throat.

Even Zhang Qing himself said, "It's really easy to go from frugality to extravagance, but difficult to go from extravagance to frugality. After eating just two meat buns, I can hardly swallow this cornbread."

Qin Huai felt the same way. He didn't finish the cornbread either, leaving half of it, which he brought back with him.

Upon hearing this, Qiao Qiqi took the lunchbox and glanced at it, only to find that the cornbread was particularly hard, clearly because no wheat flour had been added.

However, it's understandable, since white flour is expensive.

"Hurry up and wash your hands and eat, the food is all ready."

After taking out the steaming hot buns, the family began to eat.

Three days passed in the blink of an eye.

That day, Qin Huai returned with a piece of news: "The villagers are saying that a leadership team from Beijing is coming to observe the people's conditions. They arrived in the county today, but we don't know if they will be able to come here."

"The leadership team of Beijing?"

Qiao Qiqi's eyes flashed, and she immediately pulled out a memory from the original owner's memories.

This isn't a big deal, since local leaders often send a group of officials to inspect the living conditions of ordinary people every year or two.

Whenever this happened, the commune brigade would immediately get busy, borrowing grain from each village to pretend that they had no worries about food and clothing, putting on a show in front of the leaders, and engaging in formalism.

After receiving this memory, Qiao Qiqi's first thought was that Chenchen had said he came from Beijing...

Could it be that this leadership team suddenly came here because of Chenchen and Xinxin?

Qiao Qiqi felt uneasy, as if something big was about to happen.

To get a clearer picture, she decided to go find Su Shangjin after dinner and ask him if he had actually gone to the police station.

Qin Huai glanced into the room and suddenly said, "In addition, Zhang Qing finally found out that a family at the village entrance saw three or four strange men enter the village two days before Chenchen was injured, but they only saw them once and never saw them again."

Ever since Chenchen was injured, Qin Huai had Zhang Qing inquire in the village whether anyone had seen a stranger or two injured men.

Of the four people that day, two were also stabbed by Qin Huai, and their injuries were no less severe than Chenchen's, so they definitely needed medical treatment.

However, after spending several days at the town hospital, no patients with knife wounds appeared, so Qin Huai suspected that they had consulted the village doctor.

He himself didn't have much contact with the villagers, so he entrusted this matter to Zhang Qing.

After asking around for so many days, I still haven't received any news.

Only today have I finally managed to find out a little bit of news.