Chapter 44: Hunter? Actually the Prey!
Wang Tiezhu and his men were rebuilding the school's load-bearing wall, and beads of sweat covered his bronze back.
He was a die-hard fan of Xiao Bai and would not tolerate others talking about her, so he said, "You are all bored, aren't you? Instead of talking nonsense, why not give me a nail?"
The beam slammed heavily into the mortise and tenon joints, and dust fell down.
Wang Tiezhu wiped the sawdust off his face, and his eyes like copper bells swept over the whispering crowd: "Commander-in-Chief Xiaobai said--"
He deliberately imitated Xiao Bai's usual mocking tone, "No matter how difficult it is, we can't delay children from learning to read, so that they won't be like you in the future, unable to even understand the instructions for pesticides!"
Song Wan looked up and down at Xiao Bai in surprise, "Did you say that? Why doesn't it sound like that to me? Last time you took a look at my book, you fell asleep in a second."
"Yes!" Xiao Bai stuffed a piece of chocolate into his mouth. It would be a waste if he didn't eat it. Food is not a sin. "I don't like reading, but I didn't say that reading is useless..."
"Add another crossbeam here!" shouted the old carpenter Li Laohan, standing on the crooked frame of the house. "Use that batch of cypress wood!"
Upon hearing this, several men immediately ran to the corner of the threshing ground, where dozens of high-quality cypress trees were piled.
Several men trotted towards the corner.
Old man Li stroked the smooth cut surface of the wood with his rough palm, and suddenly narrowed his dim eyes: "This material..."
He scratched the wax mark left deep in the wood grain with his fingernails. "Too good."
"Indeed."
A soft female voice suddenly sounded behind him, startling Old Man Li so much that he almost bit his tongue.
Yang Xueying stood next to the pile of wood without knowing when. Her white gloved hands stroked the annual rings of the cypress wood and stayed on the mark of a certain business for two more seconds.
"Specially supplied by Xu's Company." The corners of her lips curled up meaningfully, "Last year, it was specially supplied to the provincial capital auditorium..."
Her glove was suddenly caught on a wooden splinter. She took it off gracefully and threw it away. "Why are you here?"
"Military Doctor Yang has good eyesight."
Tang Jingmo's voice came from behind the crowd.
The cuffs of his military uniform were stained with lime, but in his hand he held a document covered with red seals: "This is a special allocation order for disaster relief supplies approved by the province."
He deliberately turned the document to a certain page and asked, "Do you need me to read it to you?"
Yang Xueying's smile froze on her face.
She didn't notice that Xiaobai's fingertips were tapping the saber at his waist not far away.
In the next few days, Yang Xueying seemed to be full of curiosity about Longshan Village, taking pictures everywhere with her Seagull camera. It didn't seem like she was here to support disaster relief, but rather to go on vacation and collect folk songs.
"What on earth is this girl planning?" Gu Zhongzhang withdrew his gaze from the office window and slammed the enamel pot heavily on the table. "She brought a camera with her to help with disaster relief? Is she here to work or collect folk songs?"
"You have to thank them for sending you several truckloads of relief food and medical supplies that you couldn't even ask for."
Tang Jingmo was mocking with a hint of sarcasm. He slowly flipped through the list of supplies and circled "Five tons of Northeastern refined rice" with his fountain pen. "County Magistrate Gu, these are all in-demand supplies."
He raised his eyes, his eyes were deep, "The Yang family is now in the capital... and has quite some weight."
Outside the window, Yang Xueying was bending over to give candies to the children. The sunlight shone on her carefully tied hair, gilding it.
"Yang Zhongxiu has risen too fast in recent years." Gu Zhongzhang narrowed his eyes. "When he was in the army, everyone called him 'Yang Yongren'. How come he suddenly..."
"In 1969, we uncovered a spy organization that had been lurking for five years; in 1970, we protected General Zhang Hu from being assassinated by the enemy; in 1971, we shot down the long-wanted undercover leader codenamed 'Nighthawk'; in 1972..."
Tang Jingmo's pen tip pierced the paper, and the ink smudged into a spider web. "If these things are compared to exams, he always seems to know the standard answers in advance."
Gu Zhongzhang's fingers trembled: "You mean... collusion? Impossible?"
No one could bear the charge of treason, and he did not believe that Yang Zhongxiu had the courage and ability to do so.
"Did anything happen to the Yang family in 1969? It sounds like everything started to change in that year. I remember that we were only 19 years old at that time, and we were in the army... We didn't pay attention to what happened in the compound..."
"That year, Yang Xueying was 16 years old," Tang Jingmo pushed open the window, and the autumn wind blew in the fallen leaves. "She had a high fever for three days and was given a critical illness notice, but she miraculously woke up the next day..."
There was a sudden cry from the distance.
Yang Xueying caught the child falling off the wall with amazing agility, her movements were so smooth that she didn't look like a military doctor.
"After waking up, I became Professor Chen's disciple through connections. In less than two years, I became the military doctor Yang, who is praised by everyone in the army!"
When Tang Jingmo saw the investigation report, he immediately thought of his own experience with Xiaobai, and became wary of Yang Xueying, but he could not find any evidence.
——
In the makeshift darkroom late at night, the red light reflected Yang Xueying's pale face. The photo in the developer gradually became clear.
...
"Sure enough..." Her trembling fingers stroked the photo, and suddenly she pulled out a notebook with a red cover from the lining of her clothes. Inside was a list of supplies, signed "Xu".
The wood in the photos, the Lin family's blue bricks, Xiaobai's saber, and even most of the relief food types from Longshan Village all matched the list that the Xu family secretly gave them.
No wonder, after the Xu brothers got into trouble, the seized items did not match the numbers in the account books in their hands. It turned out that the lost supplies were in Lin Xiaobai's hands!
Well, I really underestimated a country girl like you. You are actually robbing your fellow thieves!
There were footsteps outside the door. Yang Xueying hurriedly hid her diary, stood up and tried to leave the darkroom, but turned around and bumped into a pair of amber eyes.
"Nice photo." Xiaobai leaned against the door frame and pointed at the photo on the table.
"It turns out that it was your Yang family who held the umbrella for the Xu brothers. The case has been solved, the two of you should come out and give your statements!"
Tang Jingmo and Gu Zhongzhang emerged from the shadows, the former with an expression of helplessness and doting, the latter trying not to laugh.
"You, you guys... have been eyeing me for a long time?" The confused expression on Yang Xueying's face could not be faked.
"Is it hard to understand why they targeted you? If you use your brain to think about it, you will know that you are wrong."
She suddenly took action and pulled the diary out of Yang Xueying's arms as fast as lightning, "For example, this one."
The yellowed pages rustled in the air, and finally stopped at a certain page -
"At 3:42 AM on July 28, 1976..."
The handwriting is so powerful that it seems to be engraved into the bone marrow.
"Interesting." Xiaobai tilted his head like a curious cat.
"At this time..." She suddenly approached, her nose almost touching Yang Xueying's pale face, "Are you planning something? Or is something big going to happen that day?"
Yang Xueying's pupils suddenly contracted. This precise time point was not officially confirmed until three days after the disaster in her previous life! She was afraid that she would forget it, so she specially recorded it...
"I...I don't know what you're talking about..." She took a half step back, her back against the cold wall.
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