Lu Zhengting nodded slightly, "Anyway, I'm not in a hurry to find a partner."
"So, you're willing to wait for Sister Qingyan. Cousin, don't go back on your word and go find another girl to date."
"Won't."
Aside from Lin Qingyan, he had never met a girl he felt good about; this was probably fate ordained by heaven.
Li Qinqin continued, "Now that we know what flowers Sister Qingyan likes, let's go to the county town to buy embroidery needles and thread after the autumn harvest. I'll finish embroidering that handkerchief as soon as possible so I can return it to Sister Qingyan."
Lu Zhengting calculated his vacation time: a total of seven days. He had been here for four days, and it would take him one day to return to the army. He only had one day left to stay here.
"Qinqin, I'm going back to my unit the day after tomorrow, so I'll leave the embroidery to you. Don't give it to her right away after you finish it. I'll give it to her myself when I come back."
"Cousin, your next holiday shouldn't be until Chinese New Year, right? Aren't you going back to Beijing for the New Year?"
His cousin usually takes leave to come here the first time, and then goes back to Beijing the second time, alternating between the two. It's impossible for him to not go home for the New Year just because of a handkerchief.
Lu Zhengting pondered for a moment: "I don't know yet, let's talk about it when the time comes."
“Okay, I’d be overjoyed if my cousin could come here for the New Year.”
The autumn harvest is the busiest time for the entire brigade, and also the busiest time for the brigade leader.
During the day, he had to inspect the autumn harvest situation of each team. When he had free time, he would work in the fields like the ordinary commune members. In the evening, after the commune members and educated youth had finished work, he would still check the harvest for the day. He would only have time to rest when it was almost dark.
Today, the educated youth settlement was robbed, and he still needs to go there to check if the money there has been returned by the thieves.
As soon as he entered the educated youth settlement, Wang Qiang came to greet him.
"Captain, it's still the same old story; none of everyone's money has been returned."
Seeing that most of the educated youth were in the courtyard, the brigade leader waved his hand and said, "Either the thief wasn't picked up by an educated youth, or he's determined not to return the money. Don't worry, it's late today. Tomorrow I'll go to the police station myself and report this to the police officers."
But when he said that, no one seemed to panic.
He then asked, "Are there any markings on your money?"
Everyone looked at each other in bewilderment.
“You should mark the money, but I didn’t.” It was Du Xiaohong who spoke. She sighed, “If I had known it would be stolen, I would have marked it.”
"I didn't do it either."
"Me too, who knew it would get stolen?"
Most of the educated youth did not make any marks.
“I have mine,” Xu Dazhi raised his hand. “I have my name written on every single bill I have.”
“I have one too. My money has the number eight written in red pen. It can’t be erased at all. Even if you try to erase it, it will still leave a mark.”
Are there any other markings?
“One of my bills is missing a corner,” Niu Kuncheng said. “Captain, why don’t we search the educated youth settlement? Whoever has the money found is the one who did it.”
"What if the thief also thought of this and hid the money somewhere else?" Lin Guanghui said.
"That's just one possibility; it's possible he hid it on his person."
The captain nodded: "Alright, let's search then."
He asked Wang Qiang to help him search the male educated youth's dormitory and their bodies, while Chen Lu was responsible for searching the female educated youth's dormitory and their bodies. After working for more than an hour, they found nothing.
Everyone stood in the courtyard again. The captain said, "Since we can't find anything, let's leave it at that. Everyone has worked hard all day and is tired. Have a good rest after dinner. We'll report it to the police tomorrow, and the police will handle this matter."
After saying these comforting words, he turned and left the educated youth settlement with his hands behind his back.
Seeing that Lin Zhiheng remained unmoved while the captain was speaking, Lin Guanghui walked up to Lin Zhiheng and said coldly, "Little beggar, if you still won't admit it, I'll wait until the police arrest you tomorrow, and you'll stay in prison and eat prison food forever. Ha, you used to eat leftovers, and now you'll eat prison food. Little beggar, you're destined to eat dishonest food for the rest of your life."
Lin Zhiheng glared at him: "It's still uncertain who will be arrested."
"Then let's wait and see tomorrow."
"Hmph, let's see."
The educated youth who lost their money were still very anxious, fearing that the police would not be able to catch the thief, and even if they did, they would not be able to recover their losses if the thief squandered all the money.
"Sister Chen Lu, if we can't catch the thief, or we can't get the money back, are we just going to accept our fate?" Jiang Meihong asked, having lost fifteen yuan from her box.
Chen Lu looked dejected: "There's nothing we can do about it. We can only learn from this experience and try to keep our money on us and take good care of it in the future. It's best to make a safe inner pocket inside your clothes and put the money in it; that will make things much better."
Lin Sisi immediately touched the inside of her pocket and felt something hard inside.
Fortunately, she had taken precautions beforehand and hid the phoenix jade pendant in her inner pocket; otherwise, it would have been stolen along with the money.
Therefore, she became even more convinced of the connection between the jade pendant and herself; otherwise, it wouldn't have been such a coincidence that the money was gone but the jade pendant remained.
She was even more convinced that the jade pendant would protect her and bring her good fortune in the future.
This was the most comforting thing for her after losing the money.
The female educated youth nodded in agreement after listening to Chen Lu's suggestion.
After it got completely dark, Wang Qiang told the other educated youths that he was going to the brigade leader's house to find out about the theft of money, and then left the educated youth settlement.
As Song Qingfang watched Wang Qiang leave, she pretended to be calm on the surface, but her heart was in turmoil.
She secretly prayed that nothing went wrong over there. If nothing unexpected happened, she would be able to pay back the money she owed the Bai and Chen families. She hoped that nothing else would go wrong.
Around nine o'clock, Erlaizi took the money he had stolen from the educated youth settlement and was about to go out to gamble and pay off his gambling debts when he was stopped by someone before he even left the house.
It was pitch black, and he couldn't see who the other person was. He only knew that the person was very strong, and he was easily pinned to the ground. He tried his best, but he couldn't put up any resistance.
"Who...who are you?"
"I am the embodiment of justice, here specifically to arrest you, a lawbreaker," a deep, magnetic male voice rang out.
Erlaizi frowned: "Who exactly are you?"
You'll find out soon enough.
Then, the captain and Wang Qiang approached, and Wang Qiang and Lu Zhengting tied up Er Laizi together.
Erlaizi resisted fiercely: "What did I do wrong? I, Erlaizi, have always been well-behaved. Why are you tying me up?"
The captain said, "If you could behave yourself, pigs could fly. Since we arrested you, it means we have evidence of your crimes. You'd better behave, or we'll add more charges against you."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
