Luo Jingyan said, "Does Fang Zhiqing want to stay for dinner? It seems you don't just want to help us, you have other motives. However, I'm sorry, I only cooked for my brother and me. We don't have much food, so we won't let you stay for dinner."
"No, no. Don't misunderstand, Luo Zhiqing. I didn't want to eat anything from you."
"So you wanted to spy on me and take advantage of me, Fang Zhiqing, you scoundrel."
Fang Zhiyuan nervously explained, "Luo Zhiqing, this is a huge misunderstanding. I'm definitely not like that. Okay, I won't bother you anymore."
After saying that, he quickly left.
The next day, after breakfast, Fang Zhiyuan obediently went up the mountain to gather firewood under Luo Jingyan's warning gaze.
Fang Zhiyuan chopped four bundles of firewood for Luo Jingyan throughout the day, but he didn't get any benefit from it at all.
Jiang Manyue couldn't understand why Luo Jingyan would accept Fang Zhiyuan's favor. She asked Luo Jingyan, "Fang Zhiyuan is chopping firewood for you because he wants to get close to you, right? Didn't you say he's a bad guy?"
Luo Jingyan said, "Let him hit if he wants to. He said he's just trying to help other comrades. Anyway, I won't give him a chance to get close to me, and I won't stop him from doing his work."
Jiang Manyue smiled and said, "That's right, people like this should be taken advantage of."
Li Hongying found a matchmaker and went to Liu Aiguo's house to propose marriage. Because Liu Aiguo's family was poor, his father had passed away, and he had three younger brothers, it was difficult for him to find a partner. At the age of twenty-one, no girl was willing to marry him.
When a suitor suddenly came to propose marriage, Liu's mother was overjoyed.
The matchmaker said that Li Hongying had been bullied at the Taohua Brigade educated youth settlement and wanted to find someone to protect her. She also said that she didn't want to stay in Taohua Brigade anymore, so she came to Shengli Brigade to find a partner.
Liu's mother was so eager to find a partner for Liu Aiguo that she didn't bother to think carefully about Li Hongying's motives for marrying into the family.
In the afternoon, the matchmaker brought Li Hongying over to meet Liu Aiguo.
Liu Aiguo is nearly 1.8 meters tall, with a square face and an honest and simple appearance.
This perfectly met Li Hongying's needs; honest and straightforward people were easier to control, while those with more cunning minds were more troublesome.
Li Hongying was very polite to the Liu family in order to gain some space. Liu's mother was quite satisfied with her because she was also good-looking.
Her second son was nineteen, her third son was seventeen, and her fourth son was sixteen. They were all approaching the age to find partners. She wanted to get the eldest son settled so that it would be easier for her younger brothers to find spouses. She was afraid that Li Hongying would regret the marriage, so she urged the matchmaker to finalize the engagement.
They agreed to hold the wedding in seven days.
Li Hongying couldn't remember exactly when the woman would arrive, but it should be around seven days from now. She knew she would have to marry into the family sooner or later, so she nodded in agreement.
After the engagement was finalized, the Liu family began to busy themselves cleaning the house, preparing things for the wedding, and asking neighbors for help.
Lu Chengye's family is their neighbor, so they naturally need to ask Lu Chengye for help when they need it.
Liu's mother went to the Lu family to tell Lu's mother and Lu Chengye about her son's engagement and upcoming marriage, and asked Lu Chengye to come to her house to help on the day of her son's wedding and the day before.
Lu's mother was very envious of Liu's mother, who was now a mother-in-law. "Which family's daughter did you arrange the engagement with?"
“There was a young and beautiful female educated youth from the Peach Blossom Brigade next door. She was in a hurry to find a family to marry because she didn’t want to be bullied there. That’s when Aiguo from our family met her.”
The name sounded somewhat like Li Hongying, so Lu's mother asked, "Is her name Li Hongying?"
"Yes, yes, yes." Mother Liu asked in confusion, "How did you know?"
Only then did Lu's mother realize that Li Hongying was right; she just wanted to find someone to protect her, but unfortunately, her son didn't like her.
She didn't want to break up someone else's marriage, so she said, "I just said it casually because I knew a female educated youth from Taohua Brigade before. Her name was Li Hongying, and she should be the same person as your fiancée."
Liu's mother said, "You'll see when my daughter-in-law marries into the family."
Lu Chengye agreed to go and help when the time came, and then saw Liu's mother off.
Lu's mother: "Chengye, you didn't like that educated youth back then, and he'd almost become our neighbor. You're actually older than Aiguo."
Lu Chengye said, "Mother, that female educated youth either wants to marry into our family or marry the person next door." He always felt that something was amiss.
"It must be a coincidence."
"Maybe." That was the only way Lu Chengye could convince himself; otherwise, he couldn't find any other reason.
The weather has been quite nice these past few days. After washing their clothes by the river, the female educated youth hung them out in a sunny spot in the courtyard of the third educated youth settlement, including both outerwear and underwear.
Luo Jingyan would also symbolically join them in washing two of her own clothes and Luo Changtian's clothes. She washed all her other clothes and underwear in the space.
When drying clothes outside, I only hang my outer garments out to dry; I would never let my underwear show.
There are male educated youth here, and she has her own space, so why should others pry into her daughter's privacy?
In the evening, Jiang Manyue and Ning Peipei discovered that their underwear was missing, while the underwear of the other female educated youths had not been stolen.
Jiang Manyue was very embarrassed. Who exactly stole their underwear?
Ning Peipei is usually quite tomboyish, and she was even more furious than Jiang Manyue when her underwear was lost.
The two of them discussed it together and analyzed who might have stolen their clothes.
Besides men who steal underwear to satisfy their perverted desires, there are also women who steal underwear because they can't afford it.
The thought of the first one sent chills down their spines.
“Let’s go find Sister Ruyi and tell her about this,” Jiang Manyue said.
"good."
They went to find Shen Ruyi, who was terrified to learn that their underwear had disappeared. Was there a pervert at their educated youth settlement? Or had a greedy female educated youth stolen it?
None of them were paying attention to the clothes, so it was still unclear whether it was someone from outside who stole their underwear or someone from the educated youth settlement who committed the crime.
Sun Tiantian hesitated for a while before saying, "Actually, I lost it once a couple of days ago, but I didn't dare to say anything at the time."
Shen Ruyi said, "So this isn't the first time. This matter must be resolved, otherwise the thief will continue to steal our things. In the future, anyone who encounters such a thing should speak up immediately."
Jiang Manyue said, "Could it be that there's a pervert in our educated youth settlement?" She wanted to mention Fang Zhiyuan.
Lin Shanshan asked directly, "Are you referring to Fang Zhiqing?"
Her words undoubtedly drew everyone's attention to Fang Zhiyuan, since she had a grudge against him.
Shen Ruyi said, "This matter is of utmost importance. Let's investigate ourselves first. If we can't find him, let's go and look for him among the male educated youth. We must find this person."
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