"My parents are the kind of people who only care about their own pleasure and happiness. To put it bluntly, they are selfish and cold-hearted. If it weren't for my grandparents and my uncle and aunt who were kind enough to take me home and raise me, I would definitely be a ball of disdain, kicked around by them."
Li Bin has no good feelings towards his parents, never visits his grandparents' house, and has basically cut off contact with his biological father.
He meets his mother more often, but the relationship between them is very weak. He never visits his mother's current family, and does not interact with his half-siblings. He is only close to his grandparents and uncle's family.
After hearing about his family's situation, Lin Shan sighed, "Every family has its own problems. Compared to you, I really grew up in a very fortunate environment."
They got along well with Li Bin, and since they had nothing else to do today, they invited him to have lunch at their home.
Li Bin arrived half a year earlier than them. He earned a lot of work points from his usual work and received a lot of grain from the autumn harvest. He did not take their grain, but went back to get half a pound of rice and picked some vegetables to share.
Jiang Yuan was cooking today. She made her specialty, noodles, the knife-cut noodles that everyone loves, as well as a plate of sauerkraut pancakes and a large pork bone stewed with radish soup.
"Jiang Yuan, your noodles are really delicious."
Li Bin hasn't eaten noodles for a long time. The last time he ate noodles was when Jiang Yuan taught everyone how to make dumplings. He is now accustomed to the rice and spicy dishes in the south, so he enjoyed today's noodles meal very much.
"My noodles are pretty good, after all, I've been making them since I was a kid. Yun Huaying and Lin Shan are both great cooks, and their dishes are delicious. They can make a lot of delicious dishes, even better than those made by the chefs at state-owned restaurants."
Li Bin had heard from others that there were many people living in their youth camp, and it was not easy to eat alone. Everyone's cooking skills were about the same, and they just made do with three meals a day to fill their stomachs. There was not much attention to detail, and the food was far worse than what they had here.
"By the way, Yun Huaying, where is your partner?" Li Bin knew that Han Zheng often came to their place for free meals, and since he didn't see him today, he asked.
"He's gone to visit relatives."
Li Bin knew that the Han family was not from this place. As for why the two elders of the Han family lived alone in the team, there were many different explanations in the team, and he did not bother to inquire about it, but he vaguely guessed that the two elders of the Han family were not ordinary people.
Li Bin had lunch here at noon and then went back. Around four o'clock in the afternoon, he came here again.
As soon as he entered the house, he told them the big news: "The captain is back, and Zhong Furong is dead."
"Ah? Dead?"
Lin Shan was so scared that the pen in her hand shook and some ink dropped on the paper.
Li Bin sat down on the bench, frowning as he spoke. "The team leader had just come to the educated youth and told them they rushed her to the city hospital as quickly as possible. She was already dying when she arrived at the hospital entrance. She was rushed to the emergency room, but couldn't be saved. The doctor at the city hospital also said she was bitten by a wolf and contracted rabies, which killed her."
Jiang Yuan felt incredibly sad as she thought about how a life had been lost. "So what should we do now? Should we let her parents take the body back for burial?"
"Her parents chose to cremate her and bring the ashes back home."
Li Bin had also heard what the team leader said. He noticed his expression was rather complicated, but he didn't ask any further questions. He continued, "The team leader is no longer involved in the rest of the matter. Let her parents handle it themselves. As for Zhong Furong's luggage, the team leader arranged for it to be mailed back to her home. Her death was an accident, and the production team fulfilled its responsibility. Her parents are angry and complaining, but there's nothing they can do. The county educated youth office will handle it."
The news of Zhong Furong's death had a significant impact on the Youth League Institute. The three young female youth, Wang Huiyu, Tao Jiao and Yin Mei, were the most emotionally unstable.
A few days ago, Zhong Furong was still alive, eating and talking with them, chattering non-stop, but in just a few days she became a corpse, and died so tragically. For them who did not know the truth, it was really hard to accept it for a while.
In addition, although the country has been promoting the elimination of feudal superstitions, they always feel that there is an intangible evil spirit lingering in the room, and they are so scared that they dare not stay in the house.
The team leader and Secretary Tian also understood that they were young and timid, so they asked them to talk to Yang Min and stay in the newly built house of the young couple for two or three days, and then move back after they had calmed down.
"Yunhuaying."
The captain's voice came from outside, and Yun Huaying immediately stood up and went out, "Captain, is there something wrong?"
"I want to tell you something." The captain pointed at the Han family and motioned her to go there with him.
The two elders of the Han family were both at home, both sitting in the main room, one reading a newspaper and the other knitting a sweater.
Seeing them coming, Mr. Han put down the newspaper and asked, "Xue Lin, is Zhong Furong dead?"
When he went to fetch water from the well, he heard the villagers talking about it. This was within his expectations, so he did not talk much about it with his neighbors. After he came back, he told his wife about it. Neither of them went to find the team leader to confirm the matter.
"Dead."
Zhao Xuelin sat down on the bench next to him, took the tea offered by the elder, and thanked him before saying, "When we rushed her to the city hospital, she was already on her last breath. Emergency treatment was ineffective. The doctors at the city hospital confirmed that she had been infected with rabies. She had not been vaccinated, and the combination of the virus and her injuries led to her death. In the end, her parents chose to cremate her body and bring the ashes back to Kyoto for burial."
"Is the county blaming you as the team leader?" Old Man Han asked him.
"No, the county defined her accident as an accident, and the main responsibility lies with Zhong Furong herself."
Zhao Xuelin knew that the county did not blame him this time, which was probably related to the last time the educated youth went to petition for him.
He specifically called Yun Huaying to the Han family today to discuss another matter. After carefully looking outside and confirming that no one was approaching, he whispered to them, "Zhong Furong has had a high fever for the past two or three days. She was talking nonsense before being sent to the city hospital this morning. I was by her side the entire time, and she was saying a lot of strange things. It seemed like..."
He didn't say the rest because the matter was of great importance and he was afraid that he had guessed wrong. His face was full of confusion and complexity.
He didn't say it, so Yun Huaying said it for him: "Japanese."
Zhao Xuelin's pupils shrank, "Yun Huaying, do you know?"
"Captain, Zhong Furong seemed to have given you two rice balls last time. Do you know what those rice balls are called?" Yun Huaying asked him back.
Zhao Xuelin shook his head. He had thought they were just two ordinary rice balls before, but they were made so delicately and beautifully. Could it be that these two rice balls had a special meaning?
"This rice ball is called sushi, a traditional Japanese food."
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