Chapter 184
Lin Shuyue brushed her body with willow branches, washed her face and body with water boiled from pomelo leaves and peach branches. Yin Xin was cooking, she was cooking. Because Lin Shuyue was leaving, she used up all the good things in the house to make this dinner.
Lin Shuyue walked out and sat in front of the stove to warm herself by the fire. Yin Xin was cooking and talking to Lin Shuyue about Cao Manjin.
"Manjin's Erya was sent to Beigou Village in Badi as a child bride. There was a fool who was two years older than Erya and knew nothing. After Erya was sent there, she lived a miserable life. She didn't have enough food to eat or clothes to wear. She had to work from the age of three. No one knew what a three-year-old could do. She didn't have any strength at all."
When Hang Yuhua came back, she often asked Yin Xin about how Erya lived in that house.
Lin Shuyue also didn’t understand what a three-year-old child could do. She had seen many three-year-old children, many of whom couldn’t even speak clearly. It was already a very good baby if they could manage themselves well and not wet their pants. Can a three-year-old child do laundry and cooking?
Because Lin Shuyue had never seen such a thing, she couldn't understand the three-and-a-half-year-old children in novels who could do everything from buying groceries to cooking.
Just as he was about to speak, Hang Jiabai came out from next door, with a little moisture on his head. Yin Xin immediately got angry: "How many times have you come here? Don't you know how cold it is in winter? You washed your hair but didn't even wait for it to dry before coming out? You'll have a headache!"
Hang Jiabai was not afraid of Yin Xin's cold face at all. He moved a small stool and sat next to Lin Shuyue. Lin Shuyue moved to the side.
He told Yin Xin about Zhang Xiaohu coming back for revenge. Yin Xin threw the spatula into the pot and said, "You're still looking for revenge on us!"
"We haven't taken revenge on him yet. Moli is such a nice girl. She always came to our house before." Yin Xin looked sad when she talked about Zheng Moli.
She didn't continue the topic. The dead are gone, but in Yin Xin's heart, Zheng Moli is no different from her daughter-in-law.
If Hang Jiaqing never gets married in his life, there will be nothing she can do. She has no other thoughts now, she just hopes that the relationship between Lin Shuyue and her Ah Bai will be smooth.
Neither Hang Jiaqing nor Hang Yuhua came back that night. The kang in the west room where Lin Shuyue slept was very warm. Apart from a dry throat when she woke up in the morning, there was nothing wrong with her.
She glanced at the time and it was already seven o'clock. She opened the curtains and looked outside. It was white outside and the snow was very thick, but a walking path had been cleared in the yard.
Lin Shuyue lowered the curtains, allowing light to pass through, so the room was not dark. There was a newspaper on her pillow. Lin Shuyue looked at the newspaper for a long time before reaching out to pick it up.
She knew without even reading the newspaper that Hang Jiaqing and his men would not be able to escape yesterday's battle. It’s not that Hang Jiaqing and his men are not powerful, it’s just that there is a huge gap in strength between our two sides.
Sure enough, the front-page headline of the newspaper was an article about this incident.
The article was published on January 4, 2005, with a picture of Chuzigou as the illustration. It said that no one, including Hang Jiaqing, survived. After committing the crime, Zhang Xiaohu and others fled overnight.
Based on reliable intelligence, they left the country directly.
The report ended here. Lin Shuyue continued reading. The following reports all talked about this incident at different time periods.
One of the reports was written in 2018, which said that poachers including Zhang Xiaohu had all been arrested. In the report, Zhang Xiaohu confessed to the crimes he had committed, including a brutal massacre of an entire family, that of Jin Wangsheng.
"Ayue, are you up?" Hang Jiabai's voice came from outside the door. Lin Shuyue let go, and the newspaper turned into stars and disappeared.
"Get up." Lin Shuyue turned over and got off the kang. Next to the water tank in the outer room, there was a toothbrush with toothpaste squeezed in it. Under the toothbrush was a pink toothbrush cup, and next to it was a towel of the same color.
That was what Yin Xin asked Hang Yuhua to buy at Baxia overnight after knowing that Lin Shuyue was coming.
Lin Shuyue brushed her teeth, and Yin Xin also came back with a small basket in her hand. She lifted the towel hanging on the basket, and the things inside emerged.
It was a bunch of green, tender leeks.
It is no exaggeration to say that seeing such vibrant green in the northern winter really makes people feel refreshed.
"Mom, whose house did you get these leeks from?" Hang Jiabai couldn't help but show some joy on his face.
"It's in your aunt Deng's house in the south of the yard. This stuff is grown on the kang in her family. There aren't many, so I had to harvest them all." Yin Xin didn't harvest them for nothing, she paid a lot for these vegetables. ▓
That money can buy a garden of leeks in spring and summer. But Yin Xin gave this money willingly.
"Next year, let's plant some on the kang." Hang Jiabai put the basket on the cutting board next to the water tank.
"Okay, let's plant it next year." This autumn, Yin Xin also wanted to plant something in the house, but she fell ill in the autumn and failed to plant. Now that I think about it, it’s a good thing I didn’t plant it, otherwise when Lin Shuyue came, I would have no place to live.
"I made dumplings with leek and meat filling in the evening. Your father came back in the middle of the night, and I choked him down the dam at dawn." Yin Xin didn't like dumplings with leek and egg filling. She liked those with meat filling. She always felt that leek and meat were a perfect match.
The meat that had been bought before was also placed in the snow outside, but Yin Xin felt that this was the first dumpling that Lin Shuyue had eaten since coming to their home, and using frozen meat was not solemn enough, so she had to use fresh meat.
"Then we'll wait and eat." Hang Jiabai smiled.
The smile on Yin Xin's face never faded. She opened the pot, which contained the steamed buns she had made before going out.
"Try it. I made several kinds of fillings. There are white sugar and sesame, brown sugar and sesame, pork, mushroom, pork and green onion. Try them all."
The pork-filled buns are wrapped and frozen in advance, so you can just make them when you want to eat them.
Yin Xin got up at three o'clock to make the two kinds of buns with brown sugar fillings.
The buns were white and soft, and the filling inside was sweet with the aroma of sesame. Lin Shuyue gave a thumbs up while eating, "The buns are delicious."
Yin Xin was so praised that her eyes were filled with smiles: "Drink the pimple soup."
The dumpling soup is made of tomatoes, with some green vegetable shreds floating in it, which are also dried vegetables in the fall. Tomato sauce is also made in autumn. Adding enough salt can prevent the tomatoes from deteriorating, and the sour taste will not diminish when it is time to eat.
Yin Xin does these things every year.
It was the first time for Lin Shuyue to eat salty tomato sauce, and it tasted really good.
After dinner, Lin Shuyue went out with Hang Jiabai fully armed. They were going to the Sanlian Forest Farm 20 kilometers away.
The young tour guide that Lin Shuyue had met at the gate of the Forbidden City in the capital before was from the third company.
It snowed heavily yesterday, so the two of them went there in a ox cart from the Sandhan Forest Farm. The driver was Hang Jiabai.
"I didn't expect you to have this skill." Lin Shuyue was sitting in the cart wrapped in a quilt, with Hang Jiabai, the driver, sitting in front of her.
Hang Jiabai flicked his whip with great pride: "When I came here, I happened to encounter farming one year. I thought driving a bullock cart was fun, so I learned it. Later, I came here for the winter vacation, and I drove the bullock cart wherever I wanted to go."
There is heavy snow and strong wind in the winter on the dam, so ox carts and horse carts become everyone's means of transportation.
"Great, great." Lin Shuyue's praise made Hang Jiabai even more proud.
The two men were talking loudly as the ox cart swayed. They left the house at eight o'clock and didn't arrive at the Sanlian Forest Farm until eleven o'clock.
The Sanlian Forest Farm is larger than the Sandan Forest Farm. Lin Shuyue went there according to the address given by Xiao Tong. The person who opened the door was Xiao Tong's brother. He is now also a member of the forest patrol team and was wearing exactly the same clothes as Hang Jiaqing.
After Lin Shuyue introduced herself, he smiled and said, "Xiao Tongzhi
I called home a while ago, my parents have been looking forward to your coming. ”
"Sorry to bother you." Lin Shuyue said as she went into Xiao Tong's house with his brother.
His house is bigger than Hang Jiabai's and much wider inside. The three rooms in the front are the east and west rooms and the living room in the middle. There is a door in the living room leading to the back, where are the kitchen and another bedroom.
Hang Jiabai said to Lin Shuyue: "This house should have been built in recent years. The previous houses did not have this layout."
After a pause, Hang Jiabai continued, "My parents said that when the spring thaws, they will tear down the house and rebuild it with this layout, and then build a toilet at home. This way, it will be much more convenient when we come back later."
Yin Xin and Hang Yuhua’s intentions were very clear; they built this house mainly for Lin Shuyue and Hang Jiabai. It is also the parents' earnest expectation for their son.
Even though they all knew that Hang Jiabai would never leave Guangdong Province to live here, they still wanted to reserve a wedding room for their son and daughter-in-law in their home here, even though they knew that after the house was built, Lin Shuyue and Hang Jiabai might not live in it for even a full month after their marriage.
Lin Shuyue felt that Yin Xin and Hang Yuhua built this house to express their expectations for the future.
"Then we'll get some electrical appliances for the house, including a washing machine and refrigerator."
"Okay." The two talked and sat down in the living room. After a while, Xiao Tong's parents came back from outside.
Xiao Tong's brother still had a job, and he left after his parents came back. The news of the Third Station had already spread throughout the entire forest area, and the patrol teams of the Third Company had all increased their patrol routes and times.
At the same time, each forest area is also conducting a secondary check on the identities of everyone in the yard. Things like what happened to Li Xiaohe and Jin Wangsheng must not happen again.
After Lin Shuyue had pre-interview communication with Xiao Tong's parents, she started today's interview. After the interview, Lin Shuyue gave the photos of Xiao Tong that she took in the Forbidden City to Xiao Tong's parents.
Xiao Tong's parents hadn't seen their daughter for half a year, and they couldn't wait to look through the book.
"The girl has become whiter and thinner. That kid must not have eaten well." After Xiao Tong's father made his comment, he kept thanking Lin Shuyue.
Xiao Tong's mother went to the cellar and took out some of the sand apples that she had stored last fall, and added those that she had prepared for Lin Shuyue and the others, and gave them to them.
Lin Shuyue had no choice but to accept it. After leaving Xiao Tong's house, the bag of sand apples was put into the quilt on the ox cart.
After interviewing Xiao Tong's parents, she gave a brief interview to the family who died with Zheng Moli six years ago.
She also met Zheng Moli's parents. Zheng Moli's mother was old with gray hair. She looked at Hang Jiabai and then at Hang Jiaqing.
She couldn't help but hold Lin Shuyue's hand, tears streaming down her face: "You are a good child, but it is our Jasmine who is unlucky."
Lin Shuyue didn't know how to reply for a moment. She went to see Hang Jiabai, who was also talking to Zheng Moli's father. Zheng Moli's father talked a lot about family matters with Hang Jiabai. At this moment, he said, "Ask your brother to find someone else. You don't need to send us anything anymore, ok?"
Hang Jiabai didn't nod: "Sister Jasmine is gone, this is the only thing my eldest brother can do for her."
Zheng Moli's father didn't speak for a long time, and her mother couldn't help but use a little strength to hold Lin Shuyue's hand.
When Lin Shuyue left, the two elders sent her to the gate of the yard. Lin Shuyue and her friends had walked a long way, but the old couple had not returned yet.
Hang Jiabai glanced at them and said, "Zheng Moli is their only child. Without Zheng Moli, they have nothing."
Lin Shuyue wrapped herself in the quilt. In her pocket were eggs that Zheng Moli's parents had forced into her. She felt very uncomfortable.
All the sufferings in the world are like a hemp rope that breaks at its thinnest point.
When the two returned to the Sandan Forest Farm, it was already past three in the afternoon, and wisps of smoke were rising from the roofs of every household.
Yin Xin had already made the dumplings and put them in the pot as soon as they entered the yard.
After eating dumplings, Lin Shuyue went into the west room. They had to rush back to the capital in the early morning. If they didn’t sleep now, they would not be able to get up at night.
Lin Shuyue had been outside all day and was cold and hungry. Now that she had a full meal and was lying on the warm bed, she fell asleep in a short while.
She was woken up by Hang Jiabai at two o'clock in the morning. Yin Xin cooked dumplings for them to go out. Today's dumplings were filled with potatoes, meat and wild mushrooms, which had a unique flavor.
At three o'clock, Lin Shuyue got into Hang Jiabai's car, and the two started walking down the mountain.
It took them from three to four o'clock to reach the bottom of the dam. The road at the bottom of the dam was clean, obviously there was no snow. It was much easier to walk towards the capital.
At the moment when the morning light shone on the earth, Lin Shuyue received a long-awaited call from Li Weisheng.
Lin Shuyue pressed the connect button, and Li Weisheng's proud and energetic voice came over: "Thank you for fulfilling your mission, Yue, I heard you are in the capital? Did you pass by me on your way back? If you do, bring two kilograms of braised meat to come to see me at the Gan Provincial People's Hospital."
"I've had a harder time than an African refugee in the past month. I'm so hungry, but the doctor won't let me eat meat."
Lin Shuyue greeted him with a smile and said, “Okay, I’ll bring more when the time comes and eat in front of your bed.”
Li Wei hung up the phone angrily. After a while, Li Mingfang also called and said that the newspaper had received the undercover report sent back by Li Weisheng. This report was already on the front page this morning.
Wang Mingzheng called the Public Security Bureau in Gan Province and confirmed that Li Weisheng was safe.
But Li Mingfang was still worried about him, so she wanted to go to Gan Province to see him in person.
Lin Shuyue said: "Then you go to Pengcheng, and I will leave from the capital tomorrow. We will meet at Li Weisheng's ward."
"Okay." Li Mingfang wanted nothing more than to agree.
Lin Shuyue hung up her phone, and the smile on her face lasted for a long time.
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