Suspect

Strangely enough, among the educated youths named Tian whom I had inquired about over a month ago, none of them matched the person who pretended to be a pregnant woman in the original novel.

But in April, Ye Min met two such people in succession, and the brigades of these two people were very close to the station.

In fact, it is not uncommon to be close to the station. After all, those who develop subordinates in Pingcheng are most likely to inquire about the news of the Donghe County garrison.

Moreover, transportation was very inconvenient at that time. Donghe County was not large in area, but because of the mountains, it would take at least one day to travel from southeast to northwest, even if you took the bus the whole way and did not have to wait when reversing.

But it is impossible to reverse without waiting. At this time, many places only have one or two buses a day. If you are not careful, you will make mistakes, resulting in delays of several hours or even a day. If you really want to go from the southeast to the northwest, you can get there within two or three days.

Writing letters or making phone calls might be faster, but spies are selling out the country, so they dare not communicate so blatantly.

Therefore, when spies want to develop subordinates, they usually choose people who are close to them.

This is also the main reason why Ye Min decided to conduct free clinics in Donghe County even though he thought the pregnant woman might have cut in line in other counties and cities.

She didn't want to miss any opportunity, especially since the chance of finding the man in the county was very high.

The two people that Ye Min found who met the requirements were a man and a woman. The woman was working in the Qisan Farm and her name was Tian Chunlan, and the man was working in the Shaling Brigade and his name was Tian Mengjun.

Yes, although Tian Mengjun's name sounds like a girl's, he is actually a real man. In order to confirm his gender, Ye Min specifically asked the female educated youth and learned that he had been living in the dormitory for male educated youth after going to the countryside.

Tian Chunlan and Tian Mengjun's situations are very similar. Both of their parents are capitalists with very bad backgrounds, so they were both excluded after going to the countryside.

But the two have completely different personalities.

Perhaps because of the misfortunes that had happened in her family, Tian Chunlan was very silent. After going to the countryside, in order to change her situation of being excluded, she married a local villager in less than two years.

But in her situation, no one with slightly better conditions would be willing to marry her. After all, at that time, marriage was based on background. If you marry a wife with a capitalist background, if something goes wrong, the whole family might be implicated.

So the man Tian Chunlan married was the poorest in the Qisan Farm. It wasn't because he was lazy and gluttonous, but because he was in poor health and couldn't go to work. His father had passed away, and there was only his old mother at home who earned work points. It was strange that they could live a good life.

After Tian Chunlan got married, the couple got along well, but they had been married for four years and still had no children. Her mother-in-law gradually became dissatisfied with her and kept making trouble about her background.

If Tian Chunlan had a good background, other people on the farm might have helped her mother-in-law bully her, but because of her background, no one wanted to be associated with her, and they would not say anything when they saw her being bullied.

So after getting married, her situation not only did not get better, but got worse.

Tian Mengjun has a different personality. He is very optimistic and good at interpersonal communication. Although his situation was not very good when he first went to the countryside, he has now become a warehouse manager in the team.

No matter how he looked at it, Ye Min felt that he did not look like a spy who surrendered to the enemy because he harbored hatred for his motherland.

But as the saying goes, "Don't judge a book by its cover; don't judge the depth of the sea by its depth." Ye Min has seen people who are two-faced before, such as He Ping, who looks gentle and kind on the outside, but secretly instigated his family to do that kind of thing in order to get rid of Wei Chunhua.

Maybe Tian Mengjun is also a sunny person.

In addition, Tian Mengjun is not tall, less than 1.7 meters, and thin, weighing at most 100 kilograms. He has a good appearance, delicate features, and fair skin. If he puts on women's clothes, wears a wig, and covers his Adam's apple, no one would think he is a man.

With the mentality of preferring to kill by mistake rather than let the criminal go, Ye Min told Meng Cheng about Tian Mengjun's situation without hiding anything on the night she returned from the Shaling Brigade, and asked him how the investigation into Tian Chunlan was going.

"Tian Chunlan's biological mother died in the early 1960s, and her father remarried soon after. She grew up under the care of her stepmother, and their relationship was not good. In 1968, she had the opportunity to stay in the city, but her stepmother reported her name, so she had to go to the countryside. In 1969, her father was labeled a criminal and sent down to the countryside. Her stepmother divorced and remarried, and she also published an announcement in the newspaper to sever ties with her father. In 1970, her father died, but she did not react to the news. To this day, her father's ashes are still in the farm where they were sent down to the countryside."

Ye Min recalled the original text copied by the audience, which mentioned that the educated youth surnamed Tian meant that his/her parents died during the Great Movement, and the youth went to the countryside alone to become an educated youth.

She repeated the original text and analyzed, "This sentence probably means that the person's parents died during the Great Movement, and then he/she went to the countryside alone, so Tian Chunlan doesn't completely fit the description?"

"That's what it means literally."

Ye Min asked: "Are there any other possibilities?"

"Captain Wang's son did not specifically inquire about the cause and effect, and he did not even know the specific name of the educated youth. It is normal that other information is different from the actual situation."

"Do you think the information he gave is wrong? If we follow this information, can we find that person?"

"I'm not sure the information he gave was wrong, it's just a possibility," Meng Cheng said thoughtfully, "In fact, I think what he said about the educated youth's surname being Tian should be true, and there is nothing wrong with his capitalist family background and his parents being orphaned, but it's hard to say what the relationship between this person and his parents is, and whether he hates the motherland because of his parents' death is also unknown."

Ye Min thought for a moment, "I see. What you mean is that we don't need to set the conditions too rigidly. As long as the two conditions of being a capitalist and having both parents deceased are met, we can't easily exclude them."

"Um."

"So is there something wrong with Wang Chunlan's behavior during this period?"

After learning from Ye Min that Wang Chunlan met the requirements, Meng Cheng took a leave of absence the next day and went to the Qisan Farm. He found the director and asked him to arrange for someone to monitor Wang Chunlan.

As for the reason, Meng Cheng did not make it up. He directly told the farm manager that he suspected there was something wrong with Wang Chunlan.

Anyone who can become the field manager must have good political sensitivity. The other party attached great importance to this matter and arranged people on the same day, but there was no problem with Wang Chunlan's movements in the past few days.

Meng Cheng said: "Her schedule was very simple. She went to work according to the team's arrangement during the day and stayed at home at night. The people assigned by Director Xu watched her for three nights but did not see anyone coming out of her house."

"Do you think it could be her?"

Meng Cheng shook his head: "It's hard to say for now. We need more evidence. I'll ask Director Xu to continue to find someone to keep an eye on it. I'll go to the Shaling Brigade again tomorrow night."

The Shaling Brigade is located in the Hongqi Commune, less than ten miles away from the station, so it is very convenient to go there, so Meng Cheng does not plan to take leave and prepares to make a trip there in the evening.

Although he had already found out about the two suspicious persons, Ye Min did not let his guard down. The next day, during the free clinic, he inquired about the team's information as usual, but he did not get much.

She gained nothing, but Meng Cheng gained a lot from this trip at night.

After returning, he said: "Tian Mengjun's parents died after the Great Movement. His mother had always been in poor health. After the Great Movement, she was paraded through the streets every few days. Her condition worsened and she died not long after lying down at home. His father always blamed himself after his wife's death. After being criticized and struggled again, he was so depressed that he committed suicide."

Ye Min asked: "So, he is more qualified than Tian Chunlan?"

Meng Cheng nodded: "Yes, but their captain had a very good impression of him. When he heard me say that he suspected he was a spy, he didn't believe he was a spy."

Ye Min quickly said, "I know. When I was doing the free clinic in Shaling Brigade, I heard people say that if he wasn't from a bad family, he might have become the son-in-law of the Chen family."

You have to know that now is different from the past. When the Up to the Mountains and Down to the Countryside Movement first started, many rural families were willing to let their children find educated youth. But with the change of the policy of returning to the city, educated youth began to promise marriage to the families of local cadres in exchange for a place to return to the city. Once their goal was achieved, they would abandon their wives and children after settling down in the city.

Therefore, in recent years, families with daughters have specifically warned their daughters to have less contact with educated youth to avoid being deceived.

Under such circumstances, Captain Chen wanted to recruit Tian Mengjun as his son-in-law, which shows that he is indeed a very capable person.

Ye Min asked: "Will Captain Chen reveal your suspicions about him to Tian Mengjun?"

Meng Cheng was not worried about this problem: "No, no matter how much Captain Chen admires Tian Mengjun, he would never bring trouble to his entire family just to help him. This is a matter of position, he would not dare to do so."

"That's good."

…

Although he admired Tian Mengjun, when Captain Chen first learned from Meng Cheng that he might be a spy, his first reaction was that it was impossible. But he did not intend to tell Tian Mengjun. Meng Cheng asked him to help monitor the other party.

After all, Tian Mengjun was just an educated youth from outside the city. Even though he wanted to recruit someone as his son-in-law, he gave up because he was concerned about the other person's background.

After Meng Cheng left, Captain Chen calmed down and reviewed their conversation. The more he thought about it, the more he felt that there might be something wrong with Tian Mengjun.

Because he felt that Meng Cheng and Tian Mengjun did not know each other, and the former was a battalion-level cadre, while the latter was just an educated youth who went to the countryside with a bad background. There was really no need for Meng Cheng to target Tian Mengjun.

Then he thought that if Tian Mengjun really had a problem, it would not be a bad thing for him.

Although he was the team leader and no one in the team dared to look down on him, he was still under the supervision of the team secretary, so he had to listen to the arrangements of the team secretary on major matters and could only take care of trivial matters.

Each brigade has quotas for recommending students to attend the Workers, Peasants and Soldiers University. Although you may not be able to get in after being recommended, it is always a chance.

His youngest son had good grades, but because there were no quotas, he had to come back to farm after graduating from high school. He felt sorry for his son and always wanted to send his son to the Workers, Peasants and Soldiers University.

But for two consecutive years, the person recommended by the team was the secretary's eldest grandson.

No, the team had recommended the secretary's eldest grandson once before his youngest son graduated, and this year's spot would most likely go to the secretary's eldest grandson again.

If the secretary's grandson was a promising young man, he would not have said anything, but the other party could not even catch up with the primary school students. He took up the quota every year, but was rejected every year.

How could Captain Chen not feel depressed?

The secretary is old and will retire in a few years. Normally, he will take over after the secretary retires, but nothing can be certain until the notice comes down.

If he was sure to be the secretary, he could endure it for a few more years. But what if someone was sent directly by the higher-ups? What would he do then?

If Tian Mengjun is really a spy, and he helps Meng Cheng catch this man's handle, then wouldn't his promotion to secretary be a sure thing? Maybe he can even dethrone the current secretary.

Captain Chen had a dream all night. The next day, after arranging the work for the team, he went to the field and called a young intellectual who lived in the same dormitory with Tian Mengjun to a deserted place and asked him to help keep an eye on the person.

The educated youth was puzzled after hearing this: "Captain Chen, why did you ask me to keep an eye on Tian Zhiqing?"

Captain Chen was afraid that he would reveal the secret, so he didn't tell the truth. He just said vaguely: "Isn't it because my daughter is old? Tian Zhiqing looks good, but you can't judge a person by his appearance. I want to find someone to help me take a closer look."

After hearing this, the man immediately thought of the rumors in the brigade. He thought he understood what Captain Chen meant, and asked with a sour tone: "Are you planning to recruit Zhiqing Tian as your son-in-law?"

"That depends. If he's not a good person, this won't work." Captain Chen said, "Please help me keep an eye on him. If you find anything wrong with him, you will definitely help my daughter avoid the fire pit."

The man thought for a moment and asked tentatively, "What are the benefits you are talking about?"

"The best is a quota to return to the city, the worst..." Captain Chen pretended to think, and after a moment, he said, "The warehouse manager job that Zhiqing Tian was doing will be yours."

The man's expression became excited, but he didn't really count on the quota to return to the city, because this quota was the same as going to university, with recommendations from various brigades and then the commune deciding who would return to the city, so the probability was too small.

It was good to be a warehouse manager. The work was easy and you could get full work points. It was much easier than working in the fields. Otherwise, Tian Mengjun would not have been so fair. Even though he was not tall enough and looked effeminate, many girls in the brigade still liked him.

He decided that it would be best if Tian Mengjun had a problem, but even if there was no problem, he would find a way to create one.

Thinking of this, he suppressed his excitement and said, "Don't worry, Captain, I promise to complete the mission!"

…

Although the person Captain Chen had found wanted to find fault with Tian Mengjun, this person was so meticulous in his work that ten days passed without him gaining anything, and he couldn't even find any basis to say bad things about him.

Captain Chen couldn't help but start to wonder if Meng Cheng had found the wrong person, and Tian Mengjun was not actually a spy?

When the two met again, Captain Chen raised this question.

Meng Cheng naturally had no answer. Tian Chunlan had been watching for half a month, but to no avail. The military hospital had already ended its free clinic, and Ye Min could not find a third person who met the requirements among those on the list.

There are many people with the surname Tian in the world, many people with bad backgrounds but whose fathers are capitalists, and many people whose parents have both passed away. However, Meng Cheng feels that there are not that many people who meet all these conditions and who happened to be sent down to Yun Province.

Therefore, Meng Cheng believed that one of Tian Chunlan and Tian Mengjun must be a spy, but they were very patient.

But no matter how careful they are, as the time of their previous life's action approaches, they will definitely not be able to continue hiding and need to contact their superiors.

And all he had to do was wait patiently.

Taking a step back, even if he really made a wrong judgment, he still had a second plan. The original plot is not irreversible.

Meng Cheng did not sit still and wait for death. He carefully inquired about Tian Mengjun's whereabouts in the past ten days, and Captain Chen told him everything he knew.

Tian Mengjun's whereabouts for the past ten days were very simple. He basically followed the team's arrangements every day and never went out.

Meng Cheng asked after hearing this: "He rarely goes out?"

"This..." Captain Chen couldn't answer, "I need to ask."

Meng Cheng nodded and asked Captain Chen to find someone.

The person Captain Chen had called was the educated youth he had arranged to monitor Tian Mengjun. When he entered the room and saw Meng Cheng, he stepped a little hesitantly: "Captain, are you looking for me?"

Noticing his gaze, Captain Chen pointed at Meng Cheng and introduced him, saying, "This is Xiao Zhang, my wife's nephew." Then he pointed at him and said to Meng Cheng, "This is Zhao, the educated youth. For your cousin's marriage, I asked him to help keep an eye on Tian Mengjun."

Meng Cheng extended his hand to Zhao Zhiqing and said, "Hello."

Meng Cheng was not wearing a military uniform today, and Zhao had heard from others that the captain's wife had a promising nephew, so he did not doubt his identity and shook hands with him: "Hello, hello!"

After a brief greeting, Meng Cheng got straight to the point and asked, "Does Zhao Zhiqing rarely go out?" Seeing Zhao Zhiqing's puzzled expression, he explained, "Xiaojuan is my cousin, and I care about her very much."

Xiaojuan is Captain Chen’s second daughter. Zhao had a conversation with Captain Chen before he came.

Zhao Zhiqing suddenly realized and recalled: "Not really, he used to go to the county often during his rest time."

"What are you going to do in the county?"

"I buy some daily necessities and sometimes I contact my family."

Meng Cheng asked, "Didn't his parents die?"

"Yes, he died, but there must be other living relatives, right?" Zhao Zhiqing asked uncertainly, "Do you think this is a problem?"

Meng Cheng did not answer, but continued to ask: "He used to go to the county every weekend?"

Zhao Zhiqing recalled: "It seems not. I usually go there on Sundays when I have a day off. I seldom go out at other times."

"Do you take breaks often?"

"No, we eat according to the weather. During the busy farming season, we rest after finishing our work. During the slack season, we rest on Sundays. If it rains, we also rest." Captain Chen thought for a moment and said, "But when it rains, they often hold newspaper reading activities at the educated youth camp, so it's hard to say whether we rest or not."

In other words, the Shaling Brigade takes a break together during the busy farming season, but the rest of the time they take a break is on Sundays or rainy days. It seems reasonable that they don't go out on rainy days.

Meng Cheng asked, "Are you going to have a day off this Sunday?"

Although Pingcheng is at a low latitude and has spring-like weather all year round, the terrain is high and rice can only be harvested twice a year. The work will only get busy around May. Captain Chen replied, "You need to rest."

Meng Cheng nodded and said to Zhao Zhiqing, "After you go back, you don't have to keep an eye on Tian Zhiqing anymore."

"Ah?" Zhao Zhiqing was stunned. "What do you mean?"

"Since there is no problem with Tian Zhiqing, I think this marriage can be settled," Meng Cheng said to Captain Chen, "Don't always think that Tian Zhiqing's background is bad. In life, character is important, and background is secondary. Tian Zhiqing's parents are both dead, so maybe he can settle down and stay after marriage."

Although Captain Chen didn't quite understand what Meng Cheng was going to do, his mind worked quickly and he pretended to think: "Your words make sense, so is this settled?"

Meng Cheng nodded and said, "Talk to your aunt about this matter, and wait for her to agree, and then settle it as soon as possible."

Seeing that they were about to settle the matter in no time, Zhao Zhiqing became anxious: "Captain, you promised me the job before," he rubbed his hands and asked, "When can I come down?"

Captain Chen glanced at Meng Cheng and saw him shaking his head imperceptibly, so he laughed and said, "Well, let's take a look at this later."

Zhao Zhiqing was unhappy and frowned, saying, "Captain, we had already agreed on this."

"It's agreed, but isn't there any problem with Tian Zhiqing? There's no vacant position in the team, and I can't do anything about it." Captain Chen thought for a while and said, "How about this, I'll wait and see for a few days, and if it works, I'll get you a scorekeeper first, what do you think?"

Warehouse managers don’t have to leave work. They just need to stay in the warehouse every day and register the hoes and sickles that everyone takes away in the morning, noon and evening to earn full work points. Scorers are different. Although they also have the word "member" in their title, their work can only count towards half of their work points, and the food they receive at the end of the year is not enough for them to eat. If they want to fill their stomachs, they can only work more in the fields after scoring.

But he was just a scorekeeper, and Captain Chen said he would take another look. His attitude was completely different from when he asked him for help ten days ago. Zhao Zhiqing was certainly unwilling to accept this.

But he was just a young educated youth, and he didn't dare to blame the captain, so he could only hold back his anger and say, "Then please pay more attention to this matter."

"Well, wait."

The captain spoke in a nonchalant tone, and it was obvious that he didn't care much.

Zhao Zhiqing returned to the dormitory in a depressed mood. Seeing that Tian Mengjun had already taken a shower and was sitting on the bed leaning against the wall reading a book, he couldn't help feeling a little jealous.

On what basis?

We were both educated youth sent to the countryside, and my background was better than Tian Mengjun's. How come he could be a warehouse manager and be chosen by the team leader to be his son-in-law, while I couldn't even be a scorer?

Thinking of this, Zhao Zhiqing couldn't help but speak up: "This person is really different from others. We have a good family background and a good education, but what's the use? We work hard every day but are not as good as some pretty boys who try to curry favor with the captain's daughter. After pleasing the captain's daughter, they can get a job and a wife, and maybe they can even return to the city before us in the future!"

Although Zhao Zhiqing did not mention any names, since they lived in the same dormitory, everyone knew each other. When others heard this, they all looked at Tian Mengjun.

But Tian Mengjun seemed not to hear the sarcasm in Zhao Zhiqing's words. Not only did he not look up, he also calmly turned a page of the book, making Zhao Zhiqing look like a little idiot.

Another Sunday came, and Tian Mengjun did not continue to rest in the dormitory. Instead, he got up early as usual, had breakfast, and went out.