After the Du family tidied up, it was already broad daylight.
Early in the morning, the Du family went to the cafeteria for breakfast, while Du Yuhan stayed at home and did not show her face.
After the Du family finished eating and returned home, Du Lianqiao and his wife went back to work to earn work points so as not to attract attention, while the three Du brothers stayed at home with Du Yuhan to pack their things.
They plan to leave tonight.
After having lunch in the canteen, Du Lianqiao and his wife quietly went to the village party secretary to tell him about their plan to seek refuge with relatives.
Wang Yuqiao, still crying beside her, said, "Secretary, we really had no choice. You saw how the people at the old house bullied us."
Yuhan's dowry money has already been exchanged by them, and even after the family split up, they haven't let our second branch off. Please, have mercy and let our family leave.
The village party secretary also knew about the Du family's situation and disapproved of the way the Du family was acting at their old house. If the Du family was pushed too far and something happened, he, as the village leader, would also be implicated.
Now that the second branch of the Du family wants to leave, there's no need for him to stop them.
Xikou Village has a large population but limited land. If Du Lianqiao's family leaves the village, there will be fewer people and less food to feed them.
The village party secretary not only readily issued a letter of introduction, but also calculated and paid out the work points for Du Lianqiao's family.
Because the Du Lianqiao family would no longer need to consume grain rations, the village secretary converted all the work points into money, which amounted to over eighty yuan. The Du Lianqiao couple were overjoyed; now they could buy some grain when they went there.
The village party secretary also promised to keep it a secret from Du Lianqiao's family, allowing them to leave quietly.
Holding the letter of introduction and more than eighty yuan, Du Lianqiao and his wife happily returned home and told Du Yuhan the good news.
Du Yuhan didn't expect things to go so smoothly. She said, "This village secretary is quite kind. Tonight, we'll give them some things we can't take with us. To avoid attracting attention, Mom and Dad, you can continue working this afternoon. My brothers and I will prepare some dry food for the journey at home."
Du Lianqiao nodded and said, "Okay, let's do it this way. We'll leave after dark when everyone is asleep. I'll quietly tell the village secretary that we'll give the rest of our things to him."
After Du Lianqiao and his wife went to work, Du Yuhan led the three Du brothers, Du Haifeng and Du Yuhan, to prepare dry rations.
They're eating from the same pot now, and there's basically no food left at home. Fortunately, Du Yuhan took some food out of consideration.
Du Yuhan took only wheat flour, not any other grains.
She steamed two batches of buns with wheat flour and also made a lot of flatbreads. Flatbreads keep longer than buns and don't spoil as easily. Since the weather is still quite hot, Du Yuhan didn't dare make too many.
Du Yuhan used the only dried rabbit she had at home to make rabbit meat sauce, which would be perfect to eat with steamed buns or flatbread on the road.
Du Yuhan asked Du Haifeng and Du Haichao to pick all the edible vegetables growing in the yard.
Du Yuhan packed cucumbers and tomatoes to eat on the road, and used the rest that could be used as filling to make dumplings.
As for the other vegetables in the yard, we'll leave them be; it's up to the village secretary to decide how to handle them.
The three Du brothers ate a hearty meal of dumplings. Du Yuhan also packed two large lunchboxes to eat on the way.
Du Yuhan packed up all her bedding and other belongings, ready to take them with her that night.
After having dinner at the cafeteria that evening, Du Lianqiao and his wife also brought food for the three Du brothers.
After dark, Du Yuhan took out two pieces of cloth from the fabric she had brought back and handed them to Du Lianqiao, saying, "Dad, please secretly take these two pieces of cloth to the village secretary to thank him for taking care of us. Do you think it would be possible for the village secretary to drive us there in the village cart, so that we don't have to carry so much stuff and be too slow?"
Du Lianqiao took the fabric, nodded, and said, "I'll go find the Party Secretary now."
Du Lianqiao returned shortly afterward, excitedly saying, "The Party Secretary promised to personally drive the horse-drawn carriage to take us there. He'll pick us up at the gate at midnight, when most people will be asleep, which will be perfect for us. This will save us a lot of effort and make our journey much faster."
The whole family was very excited to leave this place and start a new life. At eleven o'clock, Du Yuhan cooked the dumplings that she had deliberately left out, and everyone ate their fill.
At noon, the village secretary quietly drove his horse-drawn carriage to the gate of Du Lianqiao's courtyard.
Du Lianqiao and his group had already moved all their belongings to the gate of the courtyard. As soon as the village secretary's carriage arrived, everyone worked together to quickly load everything they wanted to take onto the carriage.
The entire Du family also boarded the carriage.
Under the pale moonlight, the carriage carrying Du Lianqiao's family quietly left Xikou Village.
The village secretary knew the moment he saw Du Yuhan that the Du Lianqiao family had gone to stay with their daughter; it seemed Du Yuhan had made something of herself, at least she had secured a foothold in her husband's family.
The village secretary was also very pleased with himself for being lenient with Du Lianqiao's family. He knew that Du Yuhan had married into an extraordinary family; hadn't he noticed that they had picked her up in a car?
Du Yuhan was unaware of the village secretary's inner thoughts, and even if she did, she wouldn't explain anything.
Du Yuhan took out a flashlight and sat in front of the carriage to light the way. Although she couldn't see very clearly, it was much better than before.
On the way, two of the three Du brothers, the younger ones, couldn't stay awake and fell asleep. Du Lianqiao and his wife each carried one of them.
No one spoke on the way, and they only dared to speak after they had traveled more than ten miles away from Xikou Village.
The village secretary asked Du Yuhan some questions, but Du Yuhan evaded them all. In the end, the village secretary still couldn't find out where Du Lianqiao's family was going to move to.
For safety reasons, the carriage did not travel very fast along the way, and it was almost dawn when they arrived in the county.
Du Yuhan asked the village secretary to drive the horse-drawn carriage directly to the bus station, where they unloaded all their luggage and waited for the bus to the city to arrive so they could board easily.
Du Yuhan bought a large bag of meat buns for the village secretary at the state-run restaurant as a way of thanking him for his hard work along the way.
The village party secretary was very happy to receive a package of meat buns and drove off in his horse-drawn carriage.
Du Yuhan asked her adoptive family to wait for her, and then she found a place with a telephone and made a call to her family in Kyoto.
He Chenglin was having breakfast when he received a call from his daughter. He was very happy to learn that the Du family had already set off and promised to let them know so that they could prepare to welcome them.
With everything arranged, Du Yuhan felt relieved and waited patiently for the car to arrive.
After the car arrived, the Du family boarded it early, found seats, and waited for the bus to depart once there were enough passengers.
Once in the car, Du Yuhan took out the dumplings she had packed in her lunchbox yesterday and said, "Let's just make do with these dumplings, they'll spoil on the way here."
It's fine to eat cold dumplings in hot weather; two large lunchboxes of dumplings were completely devoured.
Du Lianqiao's family rarely gets to eat dumplings, let alone dumplings made by Du Yuhan that are so delicious and filled with plenty of ingredients that there are never any leftovers.
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