Chapter 72 Someone Has Fallen into the Water
"Extra income?!" Everyone was stunned at first, then their eyes lit up instantly!
"I want to! I dream about it!"
Erzhuzi rubbed his hands excitedly, his face gleaming as he leaned closer to Lin Baozhu: "Baozhu, my dear sister! I still need a wife to warm my bed for me. The money to get a wife depends on your little bit of money!"
Lin Sanlang, standing to the side, glared fiercely and slammed his elbow into Erzhu's stomach, grumbling, "Erzhu! If you spout this shameless nonsense to my sister again, I'll beat you to death, you believe me?"
Erzhuzi clutched his stomach, wincing in pain, but showed no anger whatsoever. Instead, he chuckled apologetically, "Oh, Sanlang! I was wrong, I was wrong! I was just so poor I blurted out the wrong thing! I deserve a beating!"
He knew that Lin Sanlang was no longer the same person he used to be—the poor boy who couldn't even find a penny to his name before now had the money to treat them to a meal of greasy meat buns!
Lin Baozhu watched them laughing and joking, not angry at all. She just smiled and explained carefully, "The method isn't difficult. There are plenty of mushrooms on the hill behind our village, so we can make some 'mushroom spawn' ourselves! The method is..."
As she spoke, she gestured: "Crush the corn cobs into powder, then mix them with the rotten mud and leaves from picking mushrooms on the mountain, wrap them in thick plastic sheeting, and tie them into long cylindrical tubes..."
With a clear voice, she explained to the group of men in detail the intricacies of artificially cultivating off-season mushrooms using "mushroom bags".
As she went into more detail, the men's eyes gleamed with increasing intensity! If this really worked out... it wouldn't be just a small sum of ten or twenty yuan! Once winter came and vegetables were scarce, they could just put these tender white mushrooms on the black market... wouldn't they be making a fortune? The team leader turned a blind eye; everyone was struggling financially and knew how it worked!
"Baozhu, how do we do this? Teach us step by step!" someone said impatiently.
“It’s very simple! You split into two groups. One group goes up the mountain and looks for old tree stumps and rotten wood that have grown good, non-toxic mushrooms. Dig them up with the roots and soil intact! The other group goes and grinds the corn cobs into powder, the finer the better! Once you have all the materials, I’ll teach you how to ‘wrap the mushroom bags’!”
"It sounds like a sure thing!"
"That's easy! Leave it to us brothers. Baozhu, once we make money, we'll give you a share of the profits."
"Hey guys, let's get this over with! Let's get to work! Let's get all the stuff Mushroom needs first!" The group shouted excitedly and headed towards the main road, eager to get started.
Lin Baozhu didn't leave immediately. She lifted the thick plastic curtain and went into the newly built greenhouse. The originally uneven ground inside had been raked smooth, and shallow charcoal pits had been dug at intervals, obviously in preparation for adding firewood to keep warm when it got cold.
"Baozhu, what do you think of this shed? Is there anything else that needs to be changed?" Lin Sanlang and Gou Dan also came in.
"Very good! I can't find any fault with it for now." Lin Baozhu nodded in satisfaction.
Before the words were even finished, a series of intermittent, heart-wrenching cries for help suddenly came from the riverbank not far away! "Help...help...plop..."
The three men's expressions changed drastically, and they took off running towards the sound of water!
In the swift-flowing river, a woman was struggling desperately! The river was carrying her up and down, and she was about to be swept away! Seeing this, Lin Sanlang didn't think twice. He kicked off his shoes as he ran and plunged into the churning river!
"Third Brother! Be careful!" Lin Baozhu shouted urgently.
"Baozhu, hold on! I'm going to find some weapons!" Gou Dan turned around and ran wildly towards the village to call for help.
Lin Baozhu didn't dare to delay. Taking advantage of the fact that no one was around, she thought for a moment, and a sturdy long rope appeared in her hand! She aimed at the direction where Lin Sanlang was peeking out, and with all her might, she swung the rope down, shouting hoarsely, "Third Brother! Grab the rope! I'll pull you up!"
The river roared, its immense sound instantly drowning out her cries. Lin Sanlang desperately hooked his arm around the drowning man's neck, his other hand gripping a dry tree branch tightly. He looked around but couldn't see a rope!
Lin Baozhu was frantic. She quickly pulled back the rope and threw it again with pinpoint accuracy! It almost hit Lin Sanlang right in front of him! "Brother! Look here! Got it!!!"
This time, Lin Sanlang caught a glimpse of the dark figure! He immediately released the branch and, with all his might, gripped the end of the rope tightly!
Hold on tight!
Lin Baozhu gave a low shout and pulled desperately back on the rope! But the current was too strong! The rope was taut and creaked under the strain. The two people in the water were like leaves in a raging storm, tossed about by the current, on the verge of slipping away at any moment!
Lin Baozhu gritted her teeth, her nails digging into the rope, and tightened her grip. The longer it went on, the more dangerous it became for the two people in the river...
Just then, Gou Dan led a large group of men rushing over! The leading men, seeing the situation, rushed forward without a word, took the rope from Lin Baozhu's hands, and shouted, "One, two, three! Pull—!"
With the increased strength on the shore, they quickly dragged the exhausted Lin Sanlang and the woman who had fallen into the water to the riverbank!
Both men were soaked to the bone. Lin Sanlang's coarse cloth clothes clung to his body, outlining his taut muscles. The female educated youth who had fallen into the water was even more disheveled; her soaked clothes clung to her curves, almost transparent! Some of the men's gazes, open or covert, were involuntarily fixed on her shapely figure, their eyes harboring voyeuristic and lewd intentions.
Suddenly, Li Chunhua's voice rang out from the crowd. She slapped her thigh, her slanted eyes wide like copper bells: "Oh dear! This is Yu Jiangli, the new educated youth in our brigade. How did she fall into the water? And Lin Laosan even managed to pull her out? Now look what's happened! A man and a woman, soaking wet, embracing each other—their reputation is ruined! Oh dear, I heard that Lin Laosan and Yang Chunyan from the neighboring Yang Village... seem to have something going on? What are we going to do? That girl Yang Chunyan might try to kill herself! Laosan, this 'hooliganism' charge... you'll get shot!"
She kept saying she was "worried about the Lin family," but her eyes were practically brimming with schadenfreude. She'd been fighting with Lin's mother for half her life, and finally caught her red-handed; how could she not stab her in the back?
Lin Baozhu rushed ahead of Lin Sanlang, who was dripping wet, and glared at Li Chunhua with icy eyes, her words dripping with sarcasm: "Aunt Chunhua, my brother is an honest and upright young man! Don't try to smear his reputation!"
After saying that, she changed the subject and continued, "As for Yang Chunyan's family? Ha! What do they take their daughter for? A mule or horse for a marriage exchange! Go ask around the surrounding villages! Our Lin family would never do such a shameless thing as exchanging a sister for a sister-in-law!"
Yang Chunyan and her third brother's little affection was a secret; they just needed to deny it.
Even if the Yang family makes a huge fuss, so what? Accuse her third brother of indecent assault? In the past, without connections or background, the police might have used her third brother as a scapegoat to meet their quotas. But now, she's at least a respected figure in the bureau! They'll give her that much face, right? Unless there's solid evidence, nobody can touch her brother!
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