Upon learning that the two had not been seen since early morning, Zhou Jianguo panicked: "I hope nothing bad has happened to them. I was hoping that Jianshan Brigade could be rated as an advanced production team this year!"
He hurriedly sent his three sons to inform the whole village to search for Zhou Shuhua and Shen Qingming.
Construction has been suspended, and a search for missing persons has begun.
Upon hearing the news, Ruan Miaomiao was overjoyed and happily joined the search team.
The entire village, even the few dogs in the village, joined the search. They searched every place, every haystack, and even every household's outhouse, from one end of the village to the other, but still couldn't find the two people.
A sense of foreboding arose in everyone's hearts. They grabbed their weapons for self-defense and began climbing up Qinglong Mountain.
Behind Qinglong Mountain lies a dense, ancient forest that blocks out the sky, and deep within it lies a primeval jungle rarely visited by humans.
Normally, the villagers would never dare to set foot in such a place.
Even experienced hunters rarely dared to approach.
However, today, in order to find someone, everyone took weapons in hand, encouraged each other, and headed deeper into Qinglong Mountain.
After walking for more than three hours, the dense canopy of trees overhead blocked out the sun, making it difficult to see anything. Zhou Jianguo and the others even lit torches and searched carefully, but they still couldn't find the two figures.
An ominous premonition rose in everyone's hearts: Could these two have been carried off by a leopard in the deep mountains?
Even the Zhou family, the accountant, didn't want to go any further inside.
They doted on their daughter, Zhou Shuhua.
However, they love themselves even more.
On the way, they had already encountered wild boars twice and leopards once. Luckily, there were many of them and everyone was armed, which allowed them to escape unscathed.
Who knows what lies hidden further ahead?
So, without any objection from the Zhou family, the group began to return to the village.
By the time they finished their trek, it was already dark, and all they had gained were three wild boars and a leopard.
When the people who went up the mountain came down, they carried three wild boars and a leopard. When the people who stayed behind in the village saw this, their faces lit up with joy: Hehe, we can have meat to eat.
However, seeing that the Zhou family didn't look too good, he forced himself to hold back: it seemed inappropriate for them to look like they wanted to eat meat while others were grieving for their daughter!
"Tiemin, why don't we report this to the police at the commune? The police are more professional than us and have some methods for finding people."
Zhou Jianguo took a deep drag on his pipe, cursing inwardly: "Forget about the advanced production team, let's find the people first!"
Accountant Zhou knew what reporting to the police meant, but for his daughter's sake, he selfishly agreed.
However, thinking that everyone in the village, including the dogs, had helped his family search from morning till night and were all exhausted, he considerately offered:
"Brother Jianguo, everyone's tired today. Why don't we wait until we've had a good night's sleep before reporting it to the police?"
Anyway, my daughter disappeared early this morning. Even if I report it to the police now, I'll still have to wait until dawn to look for her.
Everyone was exhausted, so how could they not agree after hearing what Accountant Zhou said?
However, no matter how tired I was, I still missed that little bit of meat.
In the end, there were still some shameless people who mustered up the courage to bring up the matter of dividing the meat.
As soon as she finished speaking, she looked nervously at Accountant Zhou.
Seeing that the other person's face had indeed darkened considerably, the speaker wisely shut his mouth.
However, once someone spoke up, the others who had been itching to do so joined in.
With no other option, Zhou Jianguo organized everyone to divide the meat together overnight.
Some of the more impatient ones, after receiving their share of meat, would immediately cook it as soon as they got home.
For a moment, the murky night sky above Jianshan Brigade was filled with the aroma of meat.
As someone who helped search for the missing person, Ruan Miaomiao herself received one and a half pounds of wild boar meat.
Carrying the meat back home, Ruan Miaomiao planned to take advantage of the opportunity of the whole village eating meat to cook a big meal and use up all the meat stored in her space.
That night, Ruan Miaomiao showcased her culinary skills, preparing fried pork ribs, braised beef, stewed pig's trotters with white kidney beans, and stir-fried shredded pork with green peppers.
She even used the shepherd's purse she had picked up on Qinglong Mountain while looking for someone today to make a few big steamed buns with minced meat and shepherd's purse.
The delicious aroma of meat wafted from Ruan Miaomiao's courtyard, carrying far and wide, yet no one came to cause trouble or make a fuss about wanting a bite to eat.
After all, tonight, each person received more than a pound of meat based on the number of people. Even the elderly and children who didn't help with the search received a pound each. Every household received a lot of meat, and families with more members might even have received ten or twenty pounds.
Every household eats meat, so Ruan Miaomiao's eating meat doesn't stand out.
Even if others smelled the meat in Ruan Miaomiao's yard smelled even better, they would only think that Ruan Miaomiao ate meat often and was particularly good at cooking meat.
That night, Ruan Miaomiao worked until 1 a.m., and only after the noisy village gradually quieted down did she finish cooking all the meat she had stored in her space.
While the whole village was excited and tired and fast asleep, Ruan Miaomiao used lotus leaves she had bought in the county town to divide each type of meat into portions and quietly headed towards the cowshed.
Although the people of Jianshan Brigade wouldn't specifically target the intellectuals sent down to this cowshed, they also wouldn't give them any special treatment.
When they were looking for people during the day, they didn't call on the people from the cowshed. Even after searching the cowshed several times, they still didn't call on the people from this side. Naturally, when they were distributing the meat at night, they wouldn't remember the people from this side either.
So, that night, when the rich aroma of meat wafted from the village, the six people living in the cowshed tightened their belts even more, swallowing hard, tossing and turning in bed, unable to sleep.
Although Ruan Miaomiao occasionally provided subsidies, the six people, whose health had been compromised for a year or two, had long developed a deep craving for meat. The mere smell of meat would trigger their craving for it.
When Ruan Miaomiao arrived, the six people had just fallen asleep, exhausted by the aroma of meat.
She tiptoed into her parents' shack.
As soon as they entered, the parents, who had been subjected to criticism and struggle sessions, suddenly woke up.
Sun Deming instinctively shielded his wife behind him, pointed his dagger at the figure in the darkness, and demanded sharply, "Who is it? What do you want?"
Watching Sun Deming instantly switch from a deep sleep to a state of combat readiness, Ruan Miaomiao felt heartbroken: What kind of suffering did his parents endure to develop such muscle memory?
"Uncle Deming..."
Ruan Miaomiao remembered her parents' instructions and addressed the other party as uncle and aunt.
Qin Fengying, who was being protected by Sun Deming, immediately recognized the voice as her daughter's. She patted Sun Deming's shoulder and whispered, "It's Miaomiao."
Sun Deming recognized his daughter immediately and asked, "Miaomiao, did something happen to you?"
Sun Deming felt uneasy as his daughter never arrived before dawn.
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