Upon hearing this, Ning Yuan's round face stiffened slightly: "Dr. Rong, you're joking. Secretary Li and I are just ordinary comrades. We can't trouble him like this. You're overthinking it."
Rong Zhaonan looked at Ning Yuan and said calmly, "Is that so?"
The little spy did indeed have a secret; he wasn't telling the truth.
Ning Yuan didn't want to be entangled in past emotions anymore.
She raised her hand and wiped the sweat from her face haphazardly: "Let's not talk about that anymore, Dr. Rong. The old Party Secretary promised to get us some old furniture. We need to go to the warehouse of the old classrooms in the village primary school."
Rong Zhaonan looked at the large flatbed cart she had dragged over and raised an eyebrow: "Alright, let's go."
He wanted to see how long this little spy could keep up the act.
Meanwhile, Rong Zhaonan pulled the cart and went with Ning Yuan to the old classroom of the village primary school.
Meanwhile, Tang Zhenzhen returned to the educated youth settlement with a belly full of questions.
Before she even entered the courtyard, she saw two male educated youths carrying a person with a bruised and swollen face and a head wrapped in a blood-soaked bandage back on a stretcher.
"Oh dear, Jianhua, you have to be careful next time, don't fall off the riverbank!"
"That's right, your head is broken and your ribs are fractured. You need to recuperate, so you can't earn work points anymore!"
The two male educated youths started complaining all at once.
Tang Zhenzhen looked at the injured man on the stretcher with a look of astonishment and anger. Who else could it be but Wang Jianhua?
This morning she told him that Ning Yuan was leaving the educated youth settlement and going to live in the cowshed.
After leading the ox to the fields early in the morning, no one passed by the cowshed. As long as he went there to ambush Ning Yuan, he could turn that slut into a genuine slut.
So Wang Jianhua is really that useless? Ning Yuan, who is so petite, managed to beat him up like this?
Wang Jianhua also saw Tang Zhenzhen, Huang Xuehong, and Qin Xiaoxia.
He glared at Tang Zhenzhen, then awkwardly turned his head away, while simultaneously tugging at the injury on his head.
He winced in pain: "Ouch, you two, be gentle when you lift him!"
The two male educated youths quickly moved even more gently and carried Wang Jianhua to the male educated youths' house.
Seeing this, Huang Xuehong counted on her fingers and muttered, "Wang Jianhua is injured, and he only gets 3 work points a day on sick leave. We have to work more to make up for it, otherwise we'll all be affected if we don't get enough work points for our year-end pay..."
At the end of the year, the grain rations of the educated youth team were calculated collectively.
Tang Zhenzhen rolled her eyes inwardly, but smiled helplessly: "Alright, let's go. We still need to take some food to see him later, after all, he's our comrade."
She needs to ask that idiot Wang Jianhua what exactly happened.
Huang Xuehong shook her head and sighed, "Zhenzhen, you are such a good person."
The three female educated youths entered the room one after the other.
As soon as Tang Zhenzhen entered the room, she instructed Qin Xiaoxia: "Xiaoxia, don't you still have some oil tea sent from home? Take some oil tea and let's go see Wang Jianhua together."
Qin Xiaoxia's expression darkened.
She was from northern Guangxi and was sent to the countryside. Her family sent her oil tea, but she couldn't bear to eat it herself.
Huang Xuehong's eyes lit up immediately: "That's right, Qin Xiaoxia, take some out. We're all comrades, don't be stingy like capitalists. We'll give you some scallions, ginger, and garlic!"
Qin Xiaoxia brought out some things so that they could share some too.
Under their gaze, Qin Xiaoxia reluctantly took an old biscuit tin from her box.
I carefully took out some fried rice and local tea oil from inside.
She said reluctantly, "I don't have any meat bone broth. This oil tea doesn't taste good without meat bone broth."
Tang Zhenzhen smiled generously and said, "I have brown sugar in my box. I'll take some brown sugar to make oil tea and stir-fry rice."
Huang Xuehong immediately fawned over Tang Zhenzhen and helped her drag out the suitcase: "Zhenzhen is so generous."
But Tang Zhenzhen noticed something was wrong as soon as she opened the box—
Her cookie box was moved.
She opened it and found that apart from the five yuan that was untouched, the entire bag of cookies and candy inside was gone!
"My White Rabbit candy and Evergreen biscuits!!" Tang Zhenzhen's vision went black.
Evergreen Cream Scallion Biscuits and White Rabbit Milk Candy were both high-end and sought-after items in Shanghai. In the provincial capital, you needed ration coupons, and even in the countryside, the wealthy couldn't buy them despite having coupons.
"Ning Yuan must have stolen my things!" Tang Zhenzhen's face was contorted with rage.
She couldn't bear to eat that bag of cookies; once she got it, she only ate one a week!
That shameless slut not only seduced the men she fancied, but also stole her things!
Huang Xuehong frowned, her indignation evident: "She really did become corrupt and degenerate as soon as she got close to that exiled reformer; now she's a thief!"
Qin Xiaoxia, who had just been forced to take out the items, muttered under her breath, "Those cookies and milk candies were sent by Ning Yuan's family, weren't they?"
But she dared not speak out loud.
Huang Xuehong said indignantly, "Zhenzhen, let's go to the village committee and report her. She should be paraded through the streets with a sign hanging up her face for being a thief!"
The movement had just ended, and in the countryside, it was still customary to parade thieves through the streets when they were caught, and educated youth were even more likely to be documented.
Tang Zhenzhen stood up through gritted teeth: "I heard that Deputy Secretary Li Yan is here. Let's go find him and seek justice!"
She would never let Ning Yuan go; today she was going to force Li Yan to deal with Ning Yuan personally.
...
After spending the afternoon rummaging around, Ning Yuan and Rong Zhaonan finally dragged a cart full of "junk" they had salvaged from the abandoned storage room of the village primary school back to their dilapidated cowshed.
She was holding a large stack of old newspapers, watching Rong Zhaonan effortlessly drag a large cart full of broken cabinets, tables, and stools along the side of the road.
"Wow, she's so strong..." Ning Yuan muttered softly.
This man looked thin and tall, like a weak scholar who was clearly starving, yet he had such great strength.
Rong Zhaonan placed the cart in front of the house and adjusted his black-rimmed glasses: "Should we move the things inside now?"
Ning Yuan shook her head: "Let's paste newspapers and repair the roof first. These pieces of furniture need to be taken apart, pieced together and repaired before they can be used. The room is too small to move around much."
Rong Zhaonan watched as Ning Yuan carried the newspaper into the room and then came out and skillfully took out the repair tools she had borrowed from the village team.
He narrowed his eyes: "You can fix it?"
Ning Yuan rolled up her sleeves and nodded, "I know a little bit, let's fix it first."
Rong Zhaonan: "You're quite daring and decisive..."
He was halfway through his sentence when he suddenly looked up sharply at the path in front of the cowshed, a wary glint in his eyes: "Someone's coming."
Ning Yuan happened to see his cold and menacing aura, and her breath caught in her throat.
But the next moment, Rong Zhaonan lowered his head and stood behind her, instantly becoming that taciturn, inconspicuous weak scholar again.
Ning Yuan almost suspected she was hallucinating. Before she could react, she heard footsteps.
She looked towards the end of the path.
Sure enough, Tang Zhenzhen, Li Yan, Huang Xuehong, Qin Xiaoxia, and several red armband-wearing people we saw at noon, as well as some villagers who had come to watch the commotion, also came over.
Ning Yuan frowned slightly: "They actually all came together."
Li Yan actually hung out with Tang Zhenzhen's group.
Huang Xuehong, always Tang Zhenzhen's henchman, started shouting as soon as she saw the furniture on the cart next to Ning Yuan from afar—
“Hey, hey, I told you she’s a thief. Look, she not only steals things from us educated youth, but Ning Yuan also steals things from the team. Aren’t those desks and chairs?”
Li Yan didn't say anything, but walked closer and looked at the truckload of things.
Although they are all broken, they are indeed office desks and chairs.
Upon seeing this, the red-armbanded villagers who followed also began to whisper among themselves.
Tang Zhenzhen glanced at the cartload of goods and sneered inwardly, "What a thief!"
A helpless expression appeared on her face: "Sigh, Ning Yuan, how could you associate with bad elements and start stealing the team's public property? You'll go to jail and be sentenced."
Ning Yuan looked completely bewildered: "What are you talking about? These are all old office furniture that I borrowed from the team. The old Party Secretary even has a written IOU, and I promised to repair them and return them later!"
Some villagers who were watching the commotion also spoke up: "We did see the village accountant, Lai, go to the village primary school warehouse with Ning Yuan this morning."
Li Yan immediately felt relieved and looked at Tang Zhenzhen: "I knew Ning Yuan wasn't that kind of person."
Tang Zhenzhen choked for a moment, looking aggrieved: "I only misunderstood because I heard Xuehong say that."
Huang Xuehong met Li Yan's gaze, her dark, chubby face flushed red, and she subconsciously scolded Ning Yuan: "That...that's because you stole Zhenzhen's money and things, that's why we misunderstood you!"
Ning Yuan suddenly grabbed a large water ladle from the side and splashed a ladleful of stinky water, smeared with cow dung, directly onto Huang Xuehong's dark, chubby face.
That was the dirty water from scrubbing cows that Rong Zhaonan hadn't had time to clean up this morning.
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