Sentencing

Because the child swap was a criminal case with all the evidence and witnesses, and Ye Min was still in confinement after giving birth, she did not attend the trial.

Meng Cheng did go, but he did not go as a witness. He simply wanted to see Li Wenxiu and Xu Haiyang being tried with his own eyes.

On this matter, the couple's attitude was very unified. They both hated the couple and hoped to see them suffer the consequences of their own actions. Ye Min couldn't leave the house and couldn't go to the scene, so he asked Meng Cheng to go and see it on his behalf.

The trial started at nine o'clock in the morning. Meng Cheng went out after breakfast and came back at about half past twelve.

After he entered the room, he had a stern face, and it was hard to tell whether he was happy or not. Seeing this, Ye Min felt hesitant. It was not until he came back from the cafeteria after getting lunch that she was ready to ask, "What was the result of the trial? How long was the couple sentenced to?"

Meng Cheng avoided answering and opened the lunch box and pushed it in front of her: "Eat first."

Ye Min had no mood to eat. Seeing that he didn't answer directly, she frowned and asked, "Is it because the result is not good? How long were they sentenced? Five years, three years? It can't be just labor reform, right?"

"no."

"How long is that?" Ye Min urged, "Tell me quickly!"

Meng Cheng finally stopped keeping the secret and said, "Li Wenxiu was sentenced to death, and Xu Haiyang was sentenced to ten years."

Ye Min was stunned: "Why is there such a big difference?"

"Xu Haiyang was an accomplice and had a relatively good attitude towards confessing his guilt," Meng Cheng explained. "Later during the interrogation, he revealed a lot about Li Wenxiu, so he was sentenced to a lighter sentence."

Ye Min suddenly realized what Meng Cheng meant and asked, "What else does Li Wenxiu want to say?"

"She has some ideological problems. She has established connections with foreign forces through the black market and has said a lot of things."

Although Meng Cheng's words were rather cryptic, Ye Min had learned a lot during the year she had lived in the military compound with the army, so she could probably guess what he meant.

People in the city were terrified when talking about being sent down to the countryside, thinking that after being sent down there they would have to live in a cowshed, have endless work to do, and that their lives would be similar to being in prison. But the actual situation was not that bad.

The so-called cowshed is not a real shed for cows, but a common adobe house in rural areas. Adobe is not as hard as bricks, and if the house is built too high, it will collapse easily, so it is usually lower than a brick and tile house, with smaller windows and very dim light inside.

After all, cattle were not cheap at that time, and a brigade might not have two, so there were not enough cowsheds for people to live in. But many things changed their meaning as they were passed on, and the transformation of adobe houses into cowsheds was one of them.

Life after being sent down to the countryside was indeed not easy. The task on the farm was generally to farm, and those sent down were generally intellectuals, most of whom had never farmed before. The workload assigned to them every day made them complain a lot, and the rations they received after the harvest were pitifully small.

In addition, because those who have been sent down are people who have been accused of crimes, their entry and exit will be restricted and they need to apply for permission.

But it's not that you can't go out at all, it's just that the number of times you can go out is relatively less. If you perform well, you may be able to get a job that allows you to go out.

In the eyes of the farm manager where she worked, Li Wenxiu was one of the people who had been reformed relatively well.

Originally, she was accused simply because of her family background. She had not said anything inappropriate, and her education level was not high, having only graduated from high school.

As for the couple, Xu Haiyang's problem was much more serious than hers. In addition to his class background, he also had a father living overseas. Li Wenxiu was demoted, and it was also because of Xu Haiyang's involvement.

Therefore, when Li Wenxiu's ideological transformation was effective, the manager would occasionally assign her some errands. In the process of running errands, she met people in the black market by chance, and then got in touch with foreign forces.

Because Yunnan Province is located in the southwest and borders several countries, it has always been a place where foreign forces have tried every means to infiltrate.

Although Li Wenxiu is just a small person and lives on a farm, her personal freedom is restricted, but a thousand-mile dam can be destroyed by an ant hole, and no one knows whether her development will affect the overall situation.

Ye Min's expression changed when he understood what was going on: "Is it serious?"

"Fortunately, she is just a nobody. Although she has been connected, she has been on standby. After she was arrested, the army sent people to follow the black market line and arrested a group of people. It is because of this incident that the case was delayed until today."

When Meng Cheng went to interrogate Li Wenxiu and her husband, the reports that he had people find were actually screened, and some of the situations were exaggerated during the interrogation process. If the substitution attempt had failed, Li Wenxiu might not have been sentenced to death, and she would have been more likely to be sentenced to life imprisonment.

But after learning from Xu Haiyang that Li Wenxiu's thoughts were not quite right, Meng Cheng, based on his years of experience, felt that the matter could be investigated further.

Zhao Zhenghua is an old policeman who has dealt with spies many times during his years of work. When he heard Meng Cheng's reminder, he followed this line of investigation and reported it immediately when he found any clues. In the end, he found out that there was indeed something wrong with Li Wenxiu.

The two charges were combined, which led to Li Wenxiu's death sentence.

Ye Min nodded thoughtfully, but soon she felt something was wrong: "She has such a big thing on her mind, how could she come and steal An An when she knew you were a soldier?"

"It is precisely because she is worried about such a serious matter and is afraid that it will be exposed one day that she wants to swap the child with us." Meng Cheng said with a cold look in his eyes, "If the swap is successful and the matter is exposed, An An will become her daughter and will definitely be implicated, while her daughter will be safe in our home. This way, not only can she save her daughter, but she can also complete her revenge on me as a soldier."

Even if they were kept in the dark and he could make achievements in the army, both children might become pawns of foreign forces. But the foreign forces have not been completely eradicated. This involves confidentiality and cannot be told to Ye Min.

However, what he revealed was enough to ignite the emotions of the barrage viewers, and the number of barrages skyrocketed instantly:

[Fuck! This woman Li Wenxiu is so vicious! ]

[I thought malicious substitution was the limit, but I never expected that Li Wenxiu would change my worldview]

[No, do you think this plot makes sense? The novel doesn't seem to mention this, right? And she wasn't punished in the end!]

[People who have read the novel three times said that this plot is indeed not in the novel, but putting this incident into the novel can indeed explain many abrupt places]

[For example, in the later part, the heroine's brother took revenge on them. At that time, the Xu family had Xu Haiyang's wealthy father as the investor, and the assets were already strong. Meng Zheng's career had just started, and the Xu family should not be afraid of him. But after he found out something, the Xu family quickly sold their assets and immigrated. And the thing he found out was only the tip of the iceberg in the end.]

[Yes, yes, this point is indeed very strange. At the time, many people said that the ending was bad, but until now the author has not revised the text to make things round. Thinking about it in connection with this incident, the logic does make sense.]

Ye Min was already very angry just by hearing Meng Cheng's words. When she saw the bullet screen saying that Li Wenxiu's family had immigrated, her anger instantly burst out and she said bitterly, "She deserves to eat peanuts!"

Then he thought of asking, "What will happen to her children?"

“They will be sent to an orphanage.”

Ye Min asked: "Will he not be adopted?"

"will not."

If Meng Cheng's previous statement that no one would adopt them was just a rational guess based on reality, then when he said this again today, his tone could be said to be very firm.

Ye Min didn't ask the reason, just said, "Okay."

…

Although most of the military wives in the compound had never seen Li Wenxiu and her husband, everyone knew about the baby-switch incident, so after the verdict was announced, everyone discussed it heatedly.

Liang Juan came to visit that day and also mentioned this matter.

Liang Juan didn't have much sympathy for Li Wenxiu and Xu Haiyang.

She was at the scene on the day the substitution took place and witnessed Li Wenxiu's eloquence with her own eyes. Moreover, she grew up amidst the gunfire and hated traitors the most.

Even if the baby swap had not happened, she still felt that Li Wenxiu's death was not a pity.

Although Xu Haiyang is not as hateful as Li Wenxiu, as an accomplice in the baby-switch incident, his ten-year sentence is not unfair, so there is nothing to sympathize with him.

But as a mother of three children, she couldn't help but feel sympathy for Li Wenxiu's two children. When she talked about it with Ye Min, she sighed: "You say that the couple didn't consider their children, and they did such a thing for their daughter. You say they considered their children, but they were traitors. They got caught because of what they deserved, but the brother and sister will be pitiful from now on."

[What's so pitiful about the brother and sister of the Xu family! The eldest brother of the Xu family has bullied the heroine since she was a child. After the poverty was removed, the Xu family was obviously not poor, but the eldest brother of the Xu family ate meat, and the heroine could only drink soup. The eldest brother of the Xu family went to school, and the heroine washed his clothes at home. When Xu's father was facing a promotion, the eldest brother of the Xu family failed to get into college and needed a job, and the heroine was directly sold to the son of Xu's father's leader.]

[Let alone the daughter of the Xu family. The heroine's mother treated her very well. She wore and used the same things as other children of the same age since she was a child. Meng Zheng was not treated as well as her at home. Meng Zheng was also good to her. He gave up his dream of going to college so that she could continue her studies. When she was harassed by gangsters, Meng Zheng rushed up to fight for her, injured the gangsters and went to jail.]

[But what about her? Because she was afraid of being embarrassed, she cut off contact with Meng Zheng after he went to jail. When his biological parents came to find her, she recognized him as her biological parent without hesitation. When Meng Zheng came to find her after he was released from prison, she had the nerve to ask him not to disturb her new life.]

[According to this statement, the Xu siblings grew up completely by sucking the blood of the Meng siblings! Damn, my fists are hard!]

[So the Xu family is a bunch of bad people, none of them is good. It’s better to sympathize with a dog than with them! ]

[What did the dog do wrong to be compared with them? ]

Looking at the content on the bullet screen, Ye Min couldn't help but clench his fists, and felt a deep disgust for the brother and sister whom he had never met before.

But no matter how hateful the actions of the brother and sister in the original book were, they were just children now, and she couldn't do anything to them.

At the same time, she couldn't show them any extra sympathy, so she said coldly: "No matter how difficult or hard it is, it is their retribution. Who made them have such parents?"

Liang Juan was stunned when she heard this, as if she had not expected Ye Min to say such a thing.

Ye Min didn't plan to explain further, she just rubbed her forehead and said, "Sister Liang, I don't want to talk about that family anymore."

"Oh." Liang Juan suddenly realized and vaguely understood what Ye Min meant.

She felt sorry for the brother and sister because she was just a bystander. But for Ye Min, whose daughter was almost switched, even though Li Wenxiu and his wife had suffered the consequences of their own actions, her hatred for them would not diminish in the slightest.

Ye Min hated the whole family, so it was impossible for her to sympathize with the brother and sister.

Thinking of this, Liang Juan said apologetically, "It's my fault. I shouldn't have told you these things." Then she changed the subject and asked, "How is the preparation for An An's full moon party going? Do you need any help?"

Speaking of her daughter's full-month banquet, Ye Min smiled and said, "We don't plan to invite too many people. We just want to have a good time among friends. Basically, everything is ready. We have also found two people to help. We will have to wait until the day to see the details."

"Okay, if you need help, just ask."

"become."

…

May 1st is Labor Day, and the troops had a day off.

Whether military wives have a holiday depends on their work unit. For example, Liang Juan, who works in the Women's Federation or schools, can take a day off on May 1. However, if they work in service industries such as supply and marketing cooperatives or canteens, they have to take turns to rest.

But generally speaking, there were many more people on vacation than working in the compound that day, so most of the people invited by Ye Min and Meng Cheng arrived before nine o'clock.

So that morning, except for An An, everyone else in their family was busy.

The busiest person was Meng Cheng, who not only had to greet his comrades, but also had to take care of the banquet. Ye Min and Meng Zheng were relatively relaxed, as they only had to greet the guests they were responsible for.

Well, although Meng Zheng is only three years old, he also received a task today, which is to greet children of similar age to him.

The little guy loves to show off. After receiving the task, he was very active. He shuttled among the children all morning, bringing food to one and pouring water for another.

The adults were all delighted when they saw this and kept praising Meng Zheng for being sensible. Some military wives couldn't help but ask Ye Min how she usually educated her children.

In fact, it is not uncommon to find sensible children these days. Children of poor families become independent early. If you go to the surrounding farms or production teams, you will see that many of them go to the fields to earn work points at a young age.

However, the army stipulates that only the families of soldiers at the deputy battalion level can accompany the troops, and those who live in the family compound are not too poor. These children in the compound may have worked in the fields when they were in their hometowns. After joining the army, it is estimated that they have only been to the fields to experience the atmosphere when they learn farming every year.

In other words, the older children were fine, but the younger children in the compound had basically never experienced any hardship. So most of these children were not very sensible.

Moreover, even older children may not be able to greet so many children of the same age by themselves like Meng Zheng and not be stage-shy at all.

This is what military wives really want to know.

Ye Min did not hide anything and spoke frankly about his own thoughts: "This matter is actually very simple to explain. It can be summed up in three words: praise him too much."

Some military wives don’t quite believe it: “Praising him will work?”

Another military wife felt the same way: "Yeah, that brat in my family would go crazy if he wasn't punished for three days. If you praise him a few times, won't he go crazy?"

"I think sometimes beating a child is not necessarily more effective than praising him. I can count the number of times I have spanked Zhengzheng since he grew up on one hand, but the number of times I have praised him is so many that I cannot even count them myself."

Ye Min thought for a moment and said, "Of course, sometimes I will prepare some rewards, which may be food or certificates. One time, Zhengzheng swept the main room clean. After I knew about it, I wrote him a certificate of merit for being a model worker in the family. After that, he was very active in doing housework. Now he is the one who sweeps the floor in our house."

Speaking of Meng Zheng sweeping the floor, a military wife immediately remembered: "It was the day you just came back from the hospital, right?"

“Yes, that day.”

With factual evidence, everyone believed it immediately. Some even asked Ye Min what the certificate looked like, planning to get it done for their own children when they got home.

"Just draw according to the award certificate issued by the school. If you don't know how to draw, you can go to the bookstore to buy a ready-made one and fill in the information yourself." Ye Min thought for a while and said, "If you don't see any for sale in the bookstore, you can just cut a small red flower. When the child does something, you can reward him with a small red flower. If you collect a lot of small red flowers, you can exchange them for food or toys. This will definitely increase the child's enthusiasm for work."

One military wife's eyes lit up when she heard this: "That's a good idea! Do we still need to praise our children normally?"

"It's better to praise them as much as possible. Children are very sensitive. If they are always not recognized, they will inevitably feel frustrated and their personalities will gradually become introverted. On the contrary, if they are always praised, their self-confidence will increase accordingly."

At this point, Ye Min changed the subject: "However, every child has a different personality. This method cannot be 100% applicable to everyone. We need to analyze the specific situation. What method to use to educate children depends on everyone's own exploration. What I tell you is just my personal experience."

Yang Mei, who visited Ye Min on the day she was discharged from the hospital, said, "I understand. We need to analyze specific issues specifically. We understand."

…

There were three tables in total for An An's full-month banquet, including adults and children. There was one table for Meng Cheng's comrades, one table for the neighbors in the compound, and one table for Ye Min's colleagues.

Of course, because the number of people was not exactly right, except that there were several unmarried young men among Mengcheng's comrades and two unmarried girls among Ye Min's colleagues, the standards for dividing the tables for others were not strict.

After all, whether it was Meng Cheng and Ye Min’s married comrades and colleagues, or their common neighbors, they actually all lived in the compound and saw each other every day. Even if they were not very familiar with each other, they at least knew each other. They just needed to keep a little distance between them, depending on whether they drank or not, and whether they were adults or children.

Some people also joked that they wanted to let Meng Cheng's unmarried comrades sit with Ye Min's unmarried colleagues. When Ye Min heard this, her face changed and she reached out to pinch Meng Cheng's lower back.

Although it is very common for officers to date nurses in the military, when these people get together, it is either because they develop feelings for each other naturally due to daily contact, or because they are introduced by the leaders of the organization. The process is very formal.

Today is her daughter's full-month banquet. To force all these people to get together would have nothing to do with the former and would not be formal enough.

Moreover, most people who can make such jokes do not think before doing anything. Who knows if after putting them together, they will come up with even more tactless suggestions, such as directly pairing two of them against each other.

If it works, then everything will be fine, but if it doesn't, her daughter's full moon party will be ruined.

She couldn't bear to see this happen!

Receiving the look from his wife, Meng Cheng half-jokingly said, "No, that won't work. Today's protagonist is my daughter. If you want to marry my daughter, go back and figure it out. Don't steal the limelight from my daughter!"

Someone said to him: "Since the protagonist is your daughter, why don't you bring her out and show her to us!"

Meng Cheng said calmly, "It's not time yet. We can see each other after the banquet. Don't worry."

After their banter, the possible disturbance was smoothly resolved. No one mentioned matchmaking for unmarried men and women anymore, and everyone sat in the assigned position unconsciously.

At that time, most supplies were in limited supply, so the banquets were relatively simple, with more vegetarian dishes and less meat and fish. It was considered good if a table could have two meat dishes.

Ye Min and Meng Cheng thought that the guests were all good friends, and this was their daughter's full-month banquet, so they didn't want it to be too shabby, so they prepared two more meat dishes.

Of course, they didn't try to be too pretentious. One of the two new dishes was stir-fried pork intestines. Although the price was not cheap, since it was offal, it didn't require a ticket.

The other dish was braised chicken nuggets. The live chickens were bought by members of the nearby brigade. Of course, we couldn't say we were buying them, we had to say we were exchanging them. The live chickens were not expensive. We spent four industrial coupons and six yuan.

The other dishes included braised pork and fish, and the rest were two vegetarian dishes, a soup, and a cold dish. Although there weren't many dishes, the portions were quite large.

Overall, this table is quite impressive.

Everyone who came to the dinner had a smile on their face. When Meng Cheng held the wine glass and led Ye Min and her daughter to toast at each table, everyone gave their gifts with great sincerity.

After the toast, the couple sat separately.

Meng Cheng held up a glass of wine and sat among his comrades, continuing to drink with them. Ye Min sat next to an unmarried female colleague. There were also several military wives who did not drink, as well as Meng Zheng's friends, at the same table.

Because this table was full of women and children, there was no wine prepared, but soda was placed on the table. There was no need to pour water like at other tables, so everyone ate faster.

In less than half an hour, everyone was full. The children could not sit still and left the table to play. The adults who had things to do went home first, while those who had nothing to do stayed at their seats and chatted with each other.

Because today was the full moon banquet, and Ye Min was holding An An in her arms, the topic basically revolved around the child. Seeing that the two unmarried colleagues were bored, Ye Min took the opportunity to finish the previous topic and whispered to them, "Are you busy with work recently?"

A young lady named Qin Fang said: "We are both doing well at work, but Feng Aiyun has been complaining recently, saying that she wants to take a long vacation after this busy period is over."

Although Qin Fang and Ye Min have a good relationship, the three of them are not actually in the same department.

Qin Fang and the other person were both in the emergency room, but Ye Min was arranged to stay in the ward after joining the army. However, since the local health center was not large, with only two departments, orthopedics and emergency, and all the nurses added up to no more than ten people, everyone knew each other.

In addition, the bathroom at the Jiangcheng Machine Tool Factory where Ye Min worked before joining the army was smaller, with only two doctors and two nurses, and the division of duties was not clear.

Although she was the daughter of the factory director, her father was well-known for his integrity in the factory, and she was also well-known for not being valued at home, so she did not receive any special treatment after entering the bathroom.

Even because of her young age and inexperience, she had to do all kinds of work. In addition to giving injections every day, she was also responsible for taking inventory of various medicines, getting medicine for patients, preparing medicines according to prescriptions written by doctors, and even sweeping the floor and cleaning.

After joining the army, she was assigned to a pharmacy. Although she had never worked in a pharmacy, her previous work content was quite relevant to the pharmacy, so she was assigned to the position.

But because she also has the skills that emergency department nurses need to master, she will be seconded there when the department is too busy. So even though she is in the pharmacy, she often interacts with people in the emergency department and is familiar with all the doctors and nurses in the department.

She and Qin Fang became familiar with each other during those secondments.

As for Feng Aiyun, who Qin Fang mentioned, she was Ye Min's colleague in the pharmacy. There were only two of them in the pharmacy, and she was on leave recently to have her baby, leaving Feng Aiyun alone at work.

Although the director would definitely arrange someone to cover for Feng Aiyun when it was time for a holiday, the health center only had so many staff members, and other departments were also busy, so Feng Aiyun was probably the only one in the pharmacy.

It would be fine if they had a good relationship, but even though they are in the same department and are of similar age, their relationship is far from harmonious.

Under such circumstances, it was normal for Feng Aiyun to feel resentful, and Ye Minsi was not surprised at all.

But if you ask her if she feels guilty.

Sorry, not at all.

Because the work in the pharmacy is not busy and one person can handle it in most cases, so before Ye Min went on vacation and was not seconded to the emergency department, Feng Aiyun often stood there and watched Ye Min work, relying on her status as a senior employee.

Besides, giving birth to a child is always given leave in any unit. The director didn't say anything when he approved her leave, so it was not Feng Aiyun's turn to have any opinion.

So after hearing this, Ye Min's expression did not change at all, and she said calmly: "She can go and discuss this matter with the director."

"How dare she? She's just good at talking." Qin Fang pouted, thought about it and added, "Oh, and she's also venting her anger on you."

"Don't worry, I won't bully others, but others shouldn't try to bully me either." Ye Min said, and then she saw the little girl in her arms whimpering. "Sit for a while. I'll go get An An some milk powder."

After saying that, he carried An An back to the house.

…

By the end of the full-moon wine party, most of the people at Meng Cheng's table were drunk.

Fortunately, there were quite a few sober people, and most of the drunk people lived in the family compound. The sober people carried them one by one and quickly got them back.

Meng Cheng was also helped to the second bedroom on the left. Meng Zheng was very dissatisfied with this. He covered his nose and asked, "Why do you put Dad on my bed? He smells so bad!"

Ye Min replied, "Because my sister is in our room. If you don't like the smell of alcohol, then my sister won't like it either, right?"

Meng Zheng accepted Ye Min's explanation, but was a little confused: "Then what should I do when I sleep at night?"

"Once the window is opened, the smell of alcohol will soon dissipate. There will definitely be no smell at all in the room at night." Ye Min said as he went to open the back window and made a suggestion, "You can stay in the master bedroom now. It's just right for you to take care of your sister. I'll go make some sobering soup for your father."

Meng Zheng pretended to think about it, and after a moment he said, "Okay." Then he skipped to the master bedroom.

Ye Min walked to the bed, reached out and pulled open the quilt that Meng Zheng usually covered himself with, placed it over Meng Cheng's belly, and then walked out.

The two military wives who were invited to help were very efficient. They had already cleared the dishes and washed them, wiped the table, and stacked the benches together.

Seeing Ye Min coming out, one of the military wives asked, "Xiao Ye, are we going to return the borrowed items now?"

"Let Meng Cheng deal with it when he wakes up. You don't have to worry about it." Ye Min said as she walked into the kitchen. Seeing that there were a lot of leftovers in the pot, she called the two of them into the kitchen and asked them to each take some back.

The two wanted to be polite and said, "Comrade Meng has already given us money, so we don't have the nerve to eat and take more."

"It's okay. We are all neighbors, and we have a small family. We can't finish so many vegetables in one or two days, and we are afraid that they will go bad if we keep them for too long. You can help us share the burden by taking them back." After saying that, Ye Min took a clean bowl and scooped a ladle of pickled mustard greens without waiting for them to speak.

Seeing that she was not just talking, the two stopped being polite and took the initiative to ask for more of each dish. In the end, they both happily went home with two bowls of pickled mustard greens each.

After they left, Ye Min went to the main room and got a can of sugar, added vinegar and boiling water, and stirred it for a while with chopsticks. When she saw that the sugar had melted, she took it to the master bedroom and fed it to the half-drunk Meng Cheng.

White sugar and vinegar are very effective in sobering up. Not long after Meng Cheng finished drinking, he became more sober. He sat up, rubbing his forehead and asked, "Where are Zhengzheng and An'an?"

"In that room."

Meng Cheng looked around and realized that this was the second bedroom. He said "oh" and asked, "Have all the others gone home?"

"Everyone has returned. There are a lot of food left in the kitchen. I asked Sister Wang and the others to pack some food to take away." Ye Min said as she remembered something. She went to the master bedroom to find the red envelopes she received during the banquet, then returned to the second bedroom with a pen and paper. "Do you remember who gave you how much money?"

“I only remember the outline.”

Ye Min also remembered some of it, so he said, "Then let's just do a quick comparison."

"OK."

Although there are no explicit regulations, the amount of gifts for weddings and funerals is generally larger, the amount for birthday and full-month banquets is relatively smaller, and the amount for moving into a new home and graduation banquets is even smaller.

However, this is not absolute. There are many factors to consider when deciding the amount of a gift. Moreover, for the same banquet, the amount of gifts given will be different for people close to you.

But in general, it's pretty much the same, so even if neither of them knows who the red envelope belongs to, by comparing the name list with the red envelope amount, they can basically determine who gave how much money.

There are exceptions.

The couple had no intention of saving money through the wedding banquet, so when inviting friends, they specifically told them that the gifts should just be a token of appreciation and not too much, so the gifts everyone gave were basically around 50 cents or 1 yuan.

Among the red envelopes that the two people opened, there were two large red envelopes, one for ten yuan and the other for twelve and eight yuan.

Ye Min held up two red envelopes and asked, "Who do you think sent these two red envelopes?"

Meng Cheng thought for a while and said, "Maybe Lao Ding gave one." Lao Ding's given name was Yang, and he was his best friend in the army.

After Meng Cheng proposed the possibility, Ye Min followed up with a second possible candidate: "Another possibility is that it was sent by Sister Liang and her husband."

Although it was Director Li who arranged for Liang Juan to go to the hospital to take care of Ye Min during her confinement, Liang Juan did put in a lot of effort during the hospitalization. After she was discharged from the hospital, she discussed it with Meng Cheng, and both felt that they should not let someone help in vain, so she packed a red envelope and gave it to the other party when the person came to visit.

At that time, Liang Juan did not refuse and accepted it reluctantly, but now that Ye Min thought about it, she felt that she might have planned it long ago and wanted to return the money during the full moon party.

"It could be those two," Meng Cheng analyzed. "Old Ding is a bit sloppy. He probably wouldn't think of auspicious numbers ending in six and eight. The twelve and eight dollars could have been given by Sister Liang and the others."

Ye Min thought it made sense, and holding the red envelope, she asked anxiously, "What do you think we should do now? Should we send the red envelope back to them?"

Meng Cheng didn't agree with Ye Min's idea. He shook his head and said, "If you send it back, Sister Liang probably won't accept it. Just leave it there. We can go shopping in the market some other day and use the money to buy things for her children."

"What you said makes sense. I'll keep the money in the red envelope first."

"Um."

"Where's Lao Ding's red envelope? Just ten yuan?"

"I'll ask him after work. If he accepts it, we'll pay it back. If not, we'll wait until he gets married." In fact, Meng Cheng felt that Ding Yang probably wouldn't accept it, so he could only wait until he got married.

Ye Min nodded, and then thought: "Is there any progress in Lao Ding's marriage?"

"No, I went home before the New Year and dated two people, but neither worked out. I don't know if it was because the other party didn't like him or he didn't like others."

"He's one year older than you, right? Isn't his family pushing him to get married?"

"I urged him, but it's useless to urge him since we are so far away." Meng Cheng said and then remembered, "Oh yes, he gave you such a big red envelope, maybe he wanted to bribe you."

"Bribe me for what?"

"Help him introduce someone to someone."

Ye Min had never been involved in matchmaking, so she instinctively wanted to refuse, but then she remembered, "Did he say that before, or did he say it to you today?"

“Is there a difference?”

"Of course. If he said it before, I don't know who he likes. But if he said it at the banquet, there are only two unmarried girls here today..."

Ye Min didn't say anything else, but the look he gave Meng Cheng made it clear that he understood.

"I mentioned it before." Meng Cheng recalled Ye Min, a colleague who came today. He didn't have a deep impression of him, so he said, "I'll ask him after work."

"Um."

After checking the gift money, plus two large red envelopes that were probably from Ding Yang and Liang Juan, the two received a total of 40.5 yuan in gift money.

The expenses for the full-month banquet included labor costs of six yuan, two chickens costing six yuan, and four industrial coupons. I also spent four pounds of fatty intestines at two and a half yuan, two pounds of pork at about one and a half yuan, and three fish, a total of about ten pounds, which cost three yuan.

Adding other miscellaneous expenses, the total cost was about thirty yuan, if the industrial coupons were calculated at one yuan each.

So all in all, this full moon party was a profit?

But this calculation is not accurate. During his one year in the army, they gave out many gifts. Moreover, those who came to attend the full-month banquet had to return the gifts when there were happy events in their families in the future.

Moreover, the betrothal money was 40 yuan because of special circumstances. It was not certain whether Ding Yang would return the 10 yuan or not. Anyway, they would definitely return the extra money Liang Juan gave them in other ways.

Ye Min thought about it and closed the account book: "Let's do this for now, you sleep for a while, I'll go over there to look after the two children."

…

The day after the full-month banquet is the day when An An officially turns one month old.

Ye Min finally carried her daughter out of the house, and together with Mr. Meng Cheng and his wife, the family of four went to the commune photo studio.

The photo studio is located next to the intersection of Gongshe Zheng Street. The front is not very big, with only two rooms inside and outside. There are two employees, a master and an apprentice. The master is responsible for taking photos, and the apprentice is responsible for registering applause and arranging the background.

But there are few people today, so the apprentice is not very busy.

After all, taking photos is not cheap these days. An ordinary one-inch black and white photo costs 1 cent each, and the larger the size, the more expensive it is. Therefore, ordinary people rarely go to photo studios except for further studies or work.

When Ye Min and his friends arrived, there was only a young man taking photos in front of them. The process was quick, taking less than ten minutes.

After the young man left, the apprentice went in to adjust the scenery and then came out to call them. The family walked in one after another and was led by the apprentice to sit on the bench in front of the red background.

When the photographer saw this, he adjusted the lens and asked, "Is this a family photo?"

The apprentice said, "They took three photos in total: one family photo, one photo of the couple, and one photo of the woman with her child."

The photographer nodded: "Okay, let's take a family photo first, and use the current background, okay?"

Ye Min looked back and saw the Capital Square in the background behind them. The Great Man was hanging on the city wall, looking majestic and solemn. This picture was a very popular photo background in this era and was suitable for various photo scenes.

"Okay." Ye Min said.

"Okay, let's start filming now. Boys, don't stand. Sit next to your dad. The two of you should get closer. Lean back. Yes, the lesbian is in front and the gay is in the back, that's it..."

After adjusting the pose, the photographer looked at it for a while and then shouted: "Men, smile, ladies... well, that's about it, that's it, I'll count to three, everyone keep the pose and don't move, come on, one, two..."

Before she could count the third sound, the camera took a picture and a bullet screen popped up above An An's head:

[Wow! A family photo! This family is all good-looking, the photos they take will definitely look good! ]

[It’s definitely beautiful, but according to the original novel, this should be their last family photo]

[Why is this the last family photo? Are the heroine's parents getting divorced? ]

[Haven't you read the original novel? The heroine's father died in 1974, so when they took a family photo, they couldn't make up the family of four.]

[Actually, this life is pretty good. In the original novel, the heroine was switched since she was a child, and the only baby in the family photo is the real daughter. It's so sad just thinking about it! ]

Seeing this, the smile on Ye Min's face stopped abruptly.