Chapter 212 Chapter 212 Reprimand

The captain's words were not pleasant to hear. Although he spoke in a low voice, the people who were close to him heard it. Uncle Zhang wanted to say something, but was stopped by Zhang Yuandong.

This matter was not explained clearly. His rank was not very high, but once it was announced, it would be suspected of being ostentatious and would also cause him a lot of unnecessary trouble. He had explained it to his uncle's family, so the Luohe Battalion only knew that he was an active soldier, but did not know what his military rank was.

Uncle Zhang thought that this might involve some kind of military discipline, and fearing that it would cause trouble for Zhang Yuandong, he kept his words to himself, waved his hand, and went back to the house.

Aunt Zhang patted him on the body and complained to Lin Yue and Zhang Yuandong: "This old man has been afraid of officials all his life. He cares about trivial matters. Don't worry about him. Let's go inside. It will be time for dinner soon!"

She had just successfully introduced someone to someone, and she was very happy, so she walked briskly to the kitchen.

Because I had to go to the Public Security Bureau in the afternoon, I was in a hurry and had a simple lunch.

When Lingling and the other children were found, they were still very reluctant. She hadn't played with her friends from the Luohe Brigade for a long time. Knowing that they would have to go back in the afternoon, she was reluctant to leave. She twisted her body in Lin Yue's arms and begged, "Mom, can I stay at Grandpa's house for a few days?"

Lin Yue disagreed and asked, "What about your schooling?"

"I can go to school here. There is also a primary school in the next village."

Lin Yue refused firmly: "No, the learning progress of the two places is different, and you can't go to school wherever you want. You can come back during the holidays."

Lingling is not a child anymore. She knows that summer vacation is the busy farming season. It is impossible for her to come to her grandfather's house, otherwise it will cause trouble. When she has winter vacation, the mountains will be blocked by heavy snow, and it will be even more impossible for her to come.

She calculated in her mind that if she missed this opportunity, she might never be able to live in her grandfather's house again. She secretly winked at Little Stone, but Little Stone kept his head down and didn't receive her wink at all.

Ling Ling was unwilling, but she knew it was hard to change her mother's decision, so she finally gave in and said, "Then let Xiao Shitou go to our house. He doesn't go to school anyway."

She had already said so. According to the past, Little Stone should have actively cooperated with her, but Little Stone seemed as if he didn't hear her. He still kept his head down and said nothing.

Lin Yue watched the interaction between the two children. She observed secretly and saw that Xiao Shitou didn't dare to raise his head and look at Lingling. She guessed that the adult might have said something to him.

Normally, she would have asked Xiao Shitou directly if he was willing, but she didn't want to ask him this question now. She just said, "Then you have to discuss it with Xiao Shitou, your aunt, and your uncle. Only if they agree can we take Xiao Shitou with us."

Lingling looked at her uncle expectantly. Her uncle was the best person to talk to. She believed that as long as she begged, her uncle would definitely agree.

Before she could even open her mouth, her uncle said with a smile, "Little Shitou won't go this time. He's going back to grandma's house with your aunt tomorrow. Let's wait for next time. Let him stay a few more days next time!"

Lingling was disappointed and wanted to say something more, but Wanli grabbed her sleeve. The two children had a tacit understanding, and she knew that Wanli wanted to remind her of something, so she had to hold back her words, said "oh" in a muffled voice, and ate her meal obediently.

The atmosphere in the room was a little subtle. Aunt Zhang glared at her second daughter-in-law and changed the subject, saying, "Wanli and Lingling are both in primary school. Grandma is getting old and confused. She even forgot to ask you if it's difficult to go to school. It must be very tiring, right? Such a young child is going to school. It's really amazing!"

Wanli nodded, "Grandma, going to school is not difficult. We are not tired at all."

Seeing that Lingling was still in a depressed state, he poked her secretly. Lingling reluctantly said, "It's just the last school term. We already know all the knowledge taught in school. It's meaningless."

As soon as she finished speaking, she received her father's stern gaze and stopped talking immediately, not daring to say anything more.

The other people in the room were completely unaware, nor did they think Lingling was showing off. They all joined in praising the two children for their intelligence. Even Liu Cuixia complimented them several times with a stiff smile.

Xiaoji bit her chopsticks and looked at Lingling and Wanli with envy. She had not even gone to kindergarten. Although her grandparents had said that all children in the family could go to elementary school, if she went to elementary school there would be no one to take care of her younger brother. Her mother would probably not agree.

Liu Cuixia knocked over the person with her chopsticks immediately, "Where did you learn this bad habit? Why are you biting your chopsticks while eating?"

She was already unhappy, and knocking was mainly to vent her emotions. But she also knew that she was in the wrong, so she suppressed her voice.

Uncle Zhang said sternly, "This is not a good problem. Don't you know that you can't discipline your children during meals?"

Being scolded by her father-in-law in front of so many people, Liu Cuixia felt so embarrassed that she retracted her hand and whispered, "I know, Dad."

Now she had no hesitation at all and was only looking forward to dividing the property as soon as possible. Whether she bought an old house or built a new one in the future, it would be better than the current one.

The look on her face was not good, and she was somewhat resentful. Aunt Zhang said, "I wanted to save some face for you, thinking that I'm busy at home these days, and we can talk about anything later. Since you still can't figure it out, I'll tell you straight out today."

Liu Cuixia couldn't sit still any longer and said awkwardly, "Mom, I didn't..."

Aunt Zhang interrupted her and continued, "I know what you are angry about. You feel unbalanced because Xiao Shitou can live with his uncle, but your precious son can't. You think that we and his uncle are biased towards your eldest brother's family, right? Why don't you think about how old Xiao Shitou and Shulin'er are? They have many children, but Xiaoyue'er is the only one to take care of them. If you send a three-year-old child there, won't it cause trouble for Xiaoyue'er?"

What's more, Shulin'er is the baby of the second family. She is spoiled to death. Who knows what kind of trouble she will make when she goes there. Besides, she is angry that Shulin'er has never been to her uncle's house. She is jealous that her family didn't get the advantage! Aunt Zhang has to be proud and cover up for the second family. She can't say these words openly, but can only criticize them secretly.

She looked around and said sternly, "Today, in front of Xiao Huizi and his wife, I'm making this clear. If any of you want to cause trouble for Xiao Huizi and his wife, this relationship will be severed from now on!"

Zhang Yuandong advised: "Auntie, don't say that, it's not that serious!"

Aunt Zhang waved her hands and said, "Don't worry about it. It's fine for relatives to get along normally, but even if they are brothers, they can't be so tactful, otherwise the friendship will be worn out sooner or later!"

Lin Yue originally wanted to give some advice, but now he remained silent.

Lingling stared at the people in the room, not understanding how the topic had come to this. She looked at her mother's expression in confusion, feeling a little uneasy, thinking that it was her fault that everything was so unpleasant.

Lin Yue patted her head soothingly and whispered, "Eat quickly. We have something else to do later, so we have to leave early."

Lingling becomes particularly obedient at this time. Not only does she eat very quickly, but after the meal she also takes Xiao Mushroom and Sisi with her to check if there is anything left behind.

Aunt Zhang prepared a lot of things for them to take back. Seeing that they were all common local specialties, Lin Yue did not refuse and accepted them all.

She was not shy, and Aunt Zhang was also happy. She took out the box of ginseng and handed it to the couple, saying, "I don't know much about this either. Go back and find out where I can buy it. Please help me sell it!"

"Auntie, if it's not urgent, you can ask your sisters-in-law to help you. They are locals and should know more."

Aunt Zhang shook her head. "It's not that I don't trust them. It's a matter of money. Even brothers would get angry, not to mention the three of them. Your uncle and I mean that they should not get involved in this matter. After the property is sold, we can just give them a share of the money."

Zhang Yuandong asked, "Auntie, have you and Uncle decided to split up?"

"Divide, the family has grown in number, and people's hearts are not united. If we don't separate the family quickly, the previous affection will be exhausted." She seemed to have aged a lot when she talked about this. Probably for all parents who love their children, it would be hard to see their children, whom they raised, drifting away from themselves.

Zhang Yuandong took the box and nodded, saying, "Okay, I'll help you find out when I get back and transfer the money to you."

When we went back, we still had the same mule, but later we changed to a bigger cart, which was used to transport people when the village went to the market. It could easily hold eight or nine people.

Brother Zhang did not go with them. The one driving was old man Zhao. His son Zhao Feng and the girl were sitting among a group of children. They were both very obedient.

It was still early before departure, so they went to the county public security bureau to register the girl.

Lin Yue had not seen the girl's face clearly before. He thought she was a woman in her thirties or forties, but she turned out to be very young, only in her early twenties. She had been wandering for too long, and her life was not easy, so she looked particularly haggard, especially the many frostbite on her face and hands, which looked a bit scary.

Putting all these aside, Lin Yue always felt that this person looked familiar, but he couldn't connect the dots for a while.

Although the control over the floating population is very strict these days, life is hard and this kind of situation has happened before. With a certificate issued by the brigade, the county public security bureau did not make things difficult for them.

It was a bit difficult when registering information. The girl was a fool and could hardly get much useful information from her. She only remembered that her name was "Ahui" and knew nothing about her hometown, family members, and age.

Zhang Yuandong suddenly asked: "What's your zodiac sign?"

Ah Hui looked at him blankly. Everyone thought this question was useless. Unexpectedly, when Zhang Yuandong asked again, she actually said one word slowly: "Monkey."

Everyone looked at her in surprise; they didn't expect that she could actually answer this question.

The police officer who registered her silently calculated and said, "That means she is 24 years old. You guys come up with a name and I'll register her."

Old man Zhao said anxiously: "You can't use the surname Zhao. It won't sound good if it gets out!"

The policeman looked at the group of people, and his eyes fell on Zhao Feng and Ah Hui standing side by side. He said "tsk", and understood. However, this kind of thing is not uncommon, so he pretended to know nothing and just said: "Then you should think of something else!"

Old man Zhao turned to look at Zhang Yuandong and pleaded, "His nephew, why don't you think of one for him? You are a military officer and you know more than us ordinary people."

How could Zhang Yuandong think of any good name? If asked, he could only think of "Lin Hui" or "Zhang Hui", one with his wife's surname and the other with his own.

The police officer asked him without waiting for him to say anything, "So you are a soldier?" He gave his unit number and said with a smile, "My last name is Chen, and I just got discharged from the military. No wonder I felt so friendly when I saw you."

Zhang Yuandong also reported his own number and rank. The profession of public security is either a college graduate from a public security school or a retired soldier from the army. As soon as Zhang Yuandong finished speaking, the rest of the people in the office looked over, obviously having heard the conversation.

Not only did these people notice it, but Old Man Chen also remembered his rank, and used it as a topic of conversation along with what happened at the Public Security Bureau today, and talked about it with others over and over again after returning home. So when the captain found out that Zhang Yuandong was the head of the group, he was angry and anxious. He was angry that the Zhang family had kept it a secret and didn't tell him earlier, and he was anxious that he had lost an opportunity to make friends with them.

Later, when Zhang Yuandong went to Luohe Brigade again, the brigade leader was very active every time and accompanied him during meals. In his words, he was the highest-ranking person in the village and he had to be present when Zhang came. This also led to Zhang Yuandong's visits to Luohe Brigade becoming less and less frequent. But that was all later.

Chen Gongan's eyes lit up. "I never knew you were already the head of a regiment at such a young age. That's amazing! By the way, you must know a lot about guns. Can you help me take a look at the new batch of guns issued to our county?"

As he spoke, he pulled out a gun from his pocket and was about to hand it over when he heard a sharp cry. Everyone looked in the direction of the sound and saw Ah Hui looking at the gun in his hand in horror, squatting on the ground with her head covered, shouting something in horror.