Taking advantage of the break while seeing Xu Ningyan out, and seeing that no one was around, she whispered, "Everyone knows that Xu Changfeng is entitled to a pension for his sacrifice! Now a lot of people are eyeing that pension! It's already been spread throughout the whole of Dajiang that Xu Changfeng is dead, and Aunt Xie doesn't have many days left to live. She's trying to figure out how to get her youngest son adopted under Xu Changfeng's name."
"They say his wife and Xu Changfeng are siblings, and his youngest son is Xu Changfeng's nephew, making him the most suitable for adoption! But Uncle Xu also has brothers. Who wouldn't want a piece of such a juicy prize? And when they say it's even more legitimate since they both have the surname Xu, they also want to have their child adopted by Xu Changfeng!"
"Both sides are now eyeing each other covetously, fearing that the other will gain an advantage!"
"You'd better not go. If you do go, have someone accompany you. Otherwise, if something goes wrong, both sides might think you said something that ruined their plans!"
Qian Chunlan curled her lips. Both families now regarded Xu Changfeng's pension as their own and would not allow anyone else to touch a single penny of it.
No one in the brigade with a modicum of sense wanted to get involved in this mess.
Both sides are just waiting for Aunt Xie to close her eyes. Once the military personnel leave, they'll probably beat her to a pulp.
Xu Ningyan hadn't thought of this yet, but it wasn't surprising.
After all, people die for wealth, and birds die for food.
Xu Changfeng's compensation will not be small; at the very least, for the villagers who work hard all year round in the countryside and can barely make ends meet, it will be an astronomical sum.
Who wouldn't be tempted?
After thanking Qian Chunlan for the reminder, Xu Ningyan carried half a basket of vegetables and eggs back to her small courtyard.
Passing by the cowshed, it was quiet inside. Everyone else had finished work and gone home, but the people living in the cowshed had not yet returned.
Their assigned areas are relatively far away, and the work is quite heavy. In addition, they are not good at farming and want to avoid suspicion, so they usually decline to finish work after about half an hour.
However, when they got to the gate of their own yard, they found a small basket with a few ears of tender corn and a few washed sweet potatoes.
Xu Ningyan turned around and saw that the half-open door of the cowshed was suddenly slammed shut.
She pursed her lips, knowing that this was a small token of her appreciation from the people in the cowshed.
After a moment of silence, he picked up the basket, walked into the yard, and slowly closed the door behind him.
Just as the door was about to close, it gently opened a crack again, and a head with withered yellow hair emerged. The thin neck made the head look even more pitifully large, as if the neck would collapse under the weight of the head with the slightest force.
Standing on tiptoe, he noticed that the small basket at Xu Ningyan's door was gone, and the big head and thin neck quickly shrank back.
Since it's just me and my lackey at night, it's easy to cook for one person and one dog.
If she weren't worried about arousing suspicion by not seeing any smoke rising from her yard, she wouldn't even need to cook, since there's plenty of food in her space.
Just a little bit is enough to fill your stomach.
The Tuanjie Brigade is located near the mountain. Although it is still hot during the day, once the sun goes down, a cool mountain breeze blows and the temperature drops, making it just the right temperature.
Xu Ningyan casually prepared two side dishes, boiled the tender corn, and took out a salt-baked chicken from her spatial storage. Dinner was ready.
The lackey entered the courtyard in the last rays of the setting sun. He had been running around in the forest and was covered in bits of grass and leaves. There was a little blood on the corner of his mouth, which meant he had probably caught and eaten some small prey in the mountains.
With its belly bulging, Xu Ningyan tore off a chicken neck and tossed it to the dog's henchman. The dog sniffed it, then slowly picked it up and nibbled at it listlessly.
After finishing dinner with their dog, Xu Ningyan tidied up and took a shower.
She had intended to cool off in the cool night air, but the mountain breeze was so chilly that it made her shiver, and she hurriedly went inside.
I didn't sleep very soundly; I kept having dreams and couldn't sleep peacefully.
I suddenly woke up from my dream and realized I was covered in a cold sweat.
The night wind blew in through the window, making Xu Ningyan shiver. She quickly got up, closed the window, wiped away the cold sweat, changed her clothes, and wrapped herself tightly in the quilt again.
I was in a daze in the latter half of the night, half asleep and half awake.
When dawn finally broke, Xu Ningyan woke up and felt that this sleep was worse than no sleep at all.
I went out yawning, brushed my teeth and washed my face. I took out the leftover corn from last night, boiled two eggs, and added a washed cucumber. I was just about to have breakfast.
There was a knock on the courtyard gate.
"Comrade Xu, are you ready on your end?" It was someone from the Northwest Military Region.
Xu Ningyan opened the courtyard gate, gesturing for them to wait a moment. She quickly finished her breakfast, then, after thinking for a moment, pulled out a bag of pastries and a bag of brown sugar from the house and said, "Alright, let's go!"
The person from the Northwest Military Region smiled apologetically: "The military region has been urging us, so we—"
Xu Ningyan didn't pay much attention. The military region wanted to complete the mission as soon as possible, and since she had agreed, she wouldn't say anything.
As they passed the cowshed, the people there were about to go to work. When they saw several people in green military uniforms, they all silently moved aside.
They couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief when they saw several people in green military uniforms and Xu Ningyan walk past without looking to either side.
After walking quite a distance, the leader in the green military uniform quietly reminded him, "Comrade Xu, at this time, it's best to avoid contact with those people!"
Xu Ningyan nodded: "I don't come back often, so I don't know them! I heard from the brigade leader that they are quite sensible and avoid our brigade members, so we can't get in touch with them."
The man in the green uniform fell silent.
Xu Ningyan's courtyard was not far from Aunt Xie's house; it only took six or seven minutes to walk there.
Compared to my last visit to Aunt Xie's house, this time Aunt Xie's house looked much more dilapidated, perhaps because the owner was ill.
Upon entering, one could see two women in the courtyard besides Xiong Mingxia.
The two women's eyes lit up when they saw the green military uniforms, but their expressions turned sour when they saw Xu Ningyan behind them.
The two women looked somewhat familiar; they were from the Unity Brigade.
Their faces, which had initially darkened, immediately lit up with smiles when they saw what Xu Ningyan was carrying. The two exchanged a glance and squeezed forward, saying, "Oh, isn't this Siya? It's only been a few months, and she's grown even more beautiful! You've come to see Aunt Xie, haven't you? Oh, how thoughtful of you! Come in, come in—"
As he spoke, he reached out to take the things from Xu Ningyan's hands.
Xu Ningyan gently twisted her body to avoid the two outstretched hands.
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