"Hey, have you heard? It seems Qian Wangcai has been arrested."
"What? Really? Who told you that?" She was just guessing; she didn't really know the specifics and didn't dare to ask around. What if she was caught as an accomplice?
She couldn't be sure if she would be the kind of hero who would never say a word, and what if she accidentally said something wrong and got herself into trouble?
"It's all over the village. They say that Boss Qian went out to inquire, but no one knows why he was arrested or where he was taken. The police station only said that he was arrested, and they wouldn't let us ask why."
"You didn't see it, Qian Wangcai's mother cried. She made a scene in the village for days. Now she says she's so sick she can't even get out of bed."
"Whose fault is it? It's all because she spoiled him. I remember Qian Wangcai's nephew is already eleven or twelve years old, and he still hasn't started school. Let alone school, he doesn't even have clothes that fit. The whole family is supporting a vampire. Now look what happened, he's backfiring."
"They're having a fight over dividing the family property. You can hear them arguing every day." He even went to listen out of curiosity, but it was always the same old story. After listening twice, he stopped going.
That's normal. In this day and age, if a family has a child who is crippled, the whole family's reputation is ruined, and the child can't hold his head up when he goes out.
Qian Xiao guessed that Qian Wangcai was being kept under the watch of the state. Given that he could conjure up so many supplies out of thin air, the state couldn't let him run amok outside. And those free supplies—if they could produce them, how many people could they help?
Serves him right. Who told him to be so ostentatious? These days, you can't hide anything, no matter what. You got those strange things and you didn't keep a low profile. You were so arrogant. Who else should we arrest if not him?
Do you remember that house next to the cowshed behind our village?
Gouzi talks about whatever comes to mind, and Qian Xiao is used to it, able to extract the information she wants from these fragmented words.
"I remember, so what? That house is about to collapse, isn't it?" That place is close to the mountains, but far from the village and other people's houses. People have died there before. Anyway, even if it's empty, no one would care about it.
“A while ago, they sent a few people there, saying they were people who had made mistakes and were sent for reform. They all looked quite old to me. What did they do wrong? My grandfather wouldn’t let me ask, and he wouldn’t let me go there and have any contact with those people.”
Qian Xiao paused, fanning herself with a palm leaf fan. So early? People have already been sent down to the countryside so early? They're all pitiful people, but you can't say they're all good people. It's hard to say.
"Since it's Grandpa's words, just listen to him. As long as we don't bully or contact him, that house is still habitable." She looked at the house, which could be blown down by a strong wind, and realized it was a dangerous building.
"I tidied it up a bit, and it's habitable, but it's terribly dilapidated. Just like what you said to Grandpa Tang, the village chief, we shouldn't contact those people or deliberately bully them. Just keep our distance."
"Just listen to what the village elders say. Don't go out and say everything. Things are chaotic outside now. Just live your own life."
The elders in their village are quite perceptive. It's not good to get too close to these people, but it's already good enough if they can avoid disturbing each other. This way, those who are truly innocent can live a more relaxed life.
"Why do you talk like my mother, so old-fashioned?" Gouzi felt that Erdan was not his age and spoke in a very old-fashioned way.
Qian Xiao raised his hand and smacked the dog: "What are you saying? Don't think you can make wild analogies just because you know a few idioms. Don't make me beat you up."
She's still a budding flower; how could she possibly like being compared to someone like that?
Gouzi patted the spot where Qian Xiao had hit him and chuckled foolishly: "Why are you still angry? I was just saying that. I understand everything you said. I'm just a little bad at studying, but I'm not stupid at all."
Okay, a fool never thinks he's a fool, just like a mentally ill person always says he's not sick.
"Can I go to the county town with you tomorrow?" That way I'll have an excuse to go out for a stroll.
"Don't you mind the heat? Why don't you go show me your grades and I'll wait at home?" There really are fools willing to go out in this sweltering heat.
“No way, there are other things to do. I can’t go. I don’t understand it either. We’re supposed to go to the commune to pick up the educated youth tomorrow. I want to go with them and see what they look like.”
"Is that so? I've never heard of it." How long has it been? The sent-down youth and educated youth are already coming in shifts? The village is going to be even more lively from now on.
"We were all fetching water a few days ago, so who would have thought about this? Anyway, my great-uncle came back and kept cursing for days, saying that those educated youth were just here to cause trouble."
Qian Xiao nodded, "That's right. We've been busy in the fields lately, so this matter is probably not as important as filling our stomachs: What's there to see? Those city people look just like us, one nose and two eyes. What if they have an extra eye?"
"We'll all be living in the village from now on, so you can see me whenever you want, right?" This dog is so eager to join in the fun; she's even more gossipy than me.
"Hehe, you're right. Then I won't go with you tomorrow. I'll just stay in the village and wait. They say many educated youth come from big cities. I'm just curious about what people in big cities look like."
“No matter how big the city they come from, once they come here, they’re just like us. They still have to work in the fields every day to earn a living.” The educated youth, who had always existed only in movies and TV dramas, she would see the real ones.
These enthusiastic educated youths who went to the countryside were a major representative of this era, but they were also quite troublesome. It's normal for them to have some trouble and find it difficult to adapt after coming from the comfortable environment of the city to the countryside.
There weren't many bad people in their village, and as long as the educated youth who came here worked honestly, their lives weren't too difficult.
Qian Xiao glanced at the dog: "Do you have a nail growing out of your butt? If you're going to talk, just talk. Why are you moving around like that?"
Does the puppy have hemorrhoids at such a young age? That's terrible.
"Erdan..." Gouzi's face turned red and his voice rose involuntarily.
He swallowed the rest of his words under Qian Xiao's fist, and could only change the subject with a wronged expression: "Well, Xiao Xiao, you said you soak your feet in water at home, why don't we just go to the river and soak our feet?"
"If you don't like going up the mountain, how about we go fishing by the river?"
To put it bluntly, this guy just can't sit still: "Fine, let's go fishing by the river. Go get the gear, and we'll head to the river right now."
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