Fourth Brother, could you send this over to the neighbors next door?

"good"

"Third brother, these are things prepared for the family compound. You and fourth brother take them back and let Aunt Zhou distribute them. These are letters for Aunt Zhou and Uncle Shen. There are two letters inside, one for our own family and one to keep in case any elders in the military region want to see them."

"Okay, I'll take it with me, but forget about the stuff."

"Third Brother, there's nothing valuable in here. It's all mountain produce I picked myself, like wood ear mushrooms and other mushrooms, and dried peaches. When I came here, I found a patch of unpicked peaches on the mountain, so I slowly picked them and made them into dried peaches. They're nothing valuable, just take them back and share them; it's a small token of my appreciation."

Okay.

"Remember to write to your second sister later. You know her address now. She's quite worried about you."

"Don't worry, I'll send letters to my older brother and Sister Nan when I go to the county town to collect my subsidy in a few days."

"That's fine."

"Oh, right, Third Brother also prepared some dried peaches for you and Fourth Brother. Don't take the wrong ones; they're marked, you know what they are."

"Why prepare this for us? Keep it for yourself."

"Anything else?"

"Oh well"

Fourth Brother, you're back!

"You're back. I also brought the bowl back with me."

"Alright, now that we're back, let's go."

"OK"

"Come here quickly, these two bags are yours."

"Ah, you came with two bags, and you're going back with two bags too. Mianmian, you love your brother so much!"

"Alright, stop being coy, hurry up, time's almost up."

"Okay, coming right away."

"Mianmian, don't send it over."

"It's alright, Third Brother. It's not far. I can just see you off."

"Then go to the brigade to ask for leave later, and when you come back, pack your things out," Third Brother said in a low voice.

"I know, Third Brother, don't worry," I thought to myself. I didn't plan to take leave. After Third Brother and Fourth Brother left, I would come back and put the two wild boars into my spatial storage, and then deal with them there in the afternoon. If I couldn't finish dealing with them, I could leave them in the kitchen and deal with them slowly. However, Third Brother's suggestion to dig a cellar was definitely necessary. Otherwise, if they came back someday, it would be difficult to explain where some things came from.

After seeing off his third and fourth brothers, he continued to work as a farmhand as usual. He did not encounter Gu Cuicui coming to his house after starting work, but when he came down from the mountain in the evening, he happened to meet Grandpa Wang, who told him about it.

Grandpa Wang digs medicinal herbs at the foot of the mountain every day, and he doesn't dare to go to far places for fear that someone from the village will come looking for him.

Sometimes, when I made something delicious for lunch, I would put it in an earthenware pot in a basket on my back and carry it to the foot of the mountain. When I met Grandpa Wang, I would give it to him. This wasn't the dumpling I made that morning; it was freshly made when I came back from work at noon. I would give it to him when I saw him. Grandpa Wang didn't take it home; instead, he sat down and ate it right there. It wasn't much, just a large bowl.

After Grandpa Wang finished eating, he said, "This morning after you went to work, I saw Secretary Gu's daughter loitering around your house. Be careful."

"Oh, why is she here again?"

"What? She's here again? What happened? Did she bully you?" Grandpa Wang was shocked and asked.

"They didn't bully me, and nothing happened, it's just that..." She then recounted how yesterday afternoon she had inexplicably come to her house to invite her third brother and the others over for a visit.

After hearing this, Grandpa Wang said, "So that's how it is. She's got her eye on that young man from the west."

"Ah, she likes Third Brother, but when has she ever seen him?"

"Didn't those two brothers visit Xiao Zhou in the county town a few days ago? It must have been around that time."

"That's right. I heard from Fourth Brother that they went to Uncle Zhou's place again and bought a few bottles of wine from the supply and marketing cooperative."

"That matches up."

"No wonder I felt something was off about Gu Cuicui yesterday."

"That's nothing. Who can blame us for having such a handsome young man? And she's not the only one in the brigade who likes him. Look at the brigade leader lately, aren't all the young girls of marriageable age hanging around this area every day?"

"But even she wouldn't be this bold!"

"That's because her father is the brigade secretary, her older brother is the brigade leader, and she's a high school student; she feels more confident than others."

Okay, she's impressive.

"What's so great about them? No matter how great they were, those two brothers are still gone, aren't they?"

"You're right."

"Alright, that's enough. The old man's going home now, you should go home early too."

"Okay, you can go now, but you can leave in fifteen minutes."

"Fine, you figure it out yourself."

After Grandpa Wang left, I didn't waste a single minute. Instead, I gathered firewood and put the rest into my spatial storage. It was too cold here in winter, so I had to have enough firewood. Even though my third and fourth brothers had prepared a lot of firewood, I didn't mind having too much. It was better than freezing.

At noon, when Grandma Gu saw her daughter return looking unhappy, she knew she hadn't seen her. She said, "The Li brothers have been going up the mountain to gather firewood for their sister lately. Go and wait for them on their usual route."

"Okay, Mom."

As evening approached and darkness fell, Gu Cuicui was seen there, but the other women who had been waiting there for the past few days were nowhere to be seen, and no one knew why.

When Gu Cuicui saw me arrive, she didn't see Xinxin Nian Nian herself, so she mustered up her courage and went up to ask, "Li Zhiqing, why are you alone? Where are your brothers?"

"You mean them? They're leaving now, aren't they? They said they'd prepare more firewood for me to get through the winter, and they'll have to wait a while before they go down the mountain."

"Did they say when it would be coming down?"

"It'll take at least an hour or two."

Hearing this for so long, she asked worriedly, "But there are wolves and bears on the mountain, it's very dangerous."

"It's alright, they're all soldiers, they're not afraid of this."

"Oh, that won't work either! A lot of things have happened on this mountain. Should I have my dad take a few people to pick them up?"

"No need. They've gotten used to the mountains lately; they might be able to find a shortcut back."

"Oh, okay."

"Comrade Gu, I won't talk to you anymore. It's getting dark, I need to go home and cook. We'll eat when Third Brother and the others get back."

"Okay, I'm fine too, let's go together." Gu Cuicui wanted to wait here a while, but she was afraid of wolves and bears, and she didn't want anyone else to know what she was thinking.

But why doesn't she realize that on her way to Li Zhiqing's house this afternoon, everyone in the village knew that Gu Cuicui had taken a liking to that person's brother?

Some people who had been planning to wait for Li Zhiqing to become their son-in-law put their minds at ease, while others were just waiting to see him make a fool of himself.

Li, the educated youth, said that his older brother was a college student, so his wife had to be a college student too. Even if she wasn't, she'd definitely be an educated city girl. How could this be?