Chapter 183 The Judgment
"A precious pearl..."
The captain's lips trembled, his face deathly pale. "This...this...what are we going to do? The sky is falling!"
Seeing the captain, who was completely disoriented and almost collapsed to the ground, Lin Baozhu quickly stepped forward, firmly supporting his trembling arm, and comforted him, "Captain! Calm down! Listen to me!"
"I know you're panicking, but we can't afford to panic now! Qin Haifeng has already reported the situation to the organization immediately! What we need to do now is pretend we know nothing and continue with what we're doing!"
She paused, her tone becoming even more certain:
"Lin Asi's cave is hidden in the middle of nowhere, and the villagers can't even get there! We just need to take care of what's in front of us—catch the rabbits if we need to, and sell the hairpins if we need to! If the sky falls, the tall ones will hold it up, and the organization will make arrangements. Don't scare yourself."
Who would have thought that Lin Asi, who was usually so honest and quiet, was actually a spy planted by the Japanese in the village?! Moreover, who knows how many other venomous snakes like him were lurking among the people, unseen and inconspicuous!
However, this incident has served as a warning to the surrounding villages—the more unassuming and honest a person seems, the more careful you should be!
Listening to her clear and logical analysis, the captain's violently heaving chest finally calmed down slightly. He shakily pulled out his pipe, stuffed it with tobacco, struck several matches before lighting it, took two deep drags, exhaled a thick cloud of smoke, and his voice was hoarse:
"Sigh... Alright! We'll do it your way! But... this matter is extremely important! Baozhu, you'd better keep your mouth shut! Don't let a single word slip out, or you'll ruin the organization's important plans!"
"Don't worry!"
“I know what’s important, I won’t say a word! As for… the matter of going up the mountain to hunt rabbits…”
"Fight! Of course we must fight!"
The brigade leader straightened up abruptly, his eyes regaining their sparkle: "Although this rabbit infestation is that beast's doing, are we going to let the easy prey fly away? Let your third brother lead the team! He knows where we can go and where we can't! The rabbits we hunt, let the accountant's wife lead the village's clever wives to make dried rabbit and braised rabbit! We'll take them to the supply and marketing cooperative and factories to sell during the New Year! This year, our village must have a prosperous New Year!"
"Alright! I'll go back and tell Third Brother the good news right away!"
A smile appeared on Lin Baozhu's face.
Go!
When Lin Baozhu returned home, her mother was laboriously taking things out of her basket, muttering with heartache as she did so:
"Oh dear, if I had known you were only staying for one day, you wouldn't have needed to carry so much stuff up the mountain."
After saying that, she turned to look at Lin Sanlang, who was squatting in the corner, carefully wrapping the barrel of his homemade gun with coarse cloth, and asked:
"San'er, have you found out anything about what happened on the mountain? Why are there suddenly so many rabbits?"
Lin Sanlang's hands, which were wrapping the cloth, suddenly paused, but he continued as if nothing had happened, clearing his throat:
"Cough... What could it be? It's just that the wolves and foxes in the mountains got beaten up badly! Without anyone to control them, the rabbits are multiplying like crazy, and the grass is growing so fast, it's bound to become a plague!" He lowered his head, not daring to look into his mother's eyes.
Lin's mother glanced at him suspiciously, but didn't ask any further questions. However, her brows furrowed slightly, and her expression became noticeably more serious.
"Mother... I'm back!" Lin Baozhu called out at the right moment.
Lin's mother immediately composed herself and put on a smile: "My darling is back? How did your talk with the brigade leader go?"
"The talks went very well!"
Lin Baozhu sat down excitedly next to her mother, "The brigade leader sent my third brother to lead a team to hunt rabbits in the mountains. They'll get full work points for a day! He also said that the accountant's wife will lead everyone to make dried rabbit and braised rabbit with soy sauce! Once we sell them after the New Year, our village will definitely have a prosperous year!"
"Oh my! This is such a wonderful thing!" Lin's mother slapped her thigh and beamed with joy.
Suddenly remembering something, she mysteriously pulled Lin Baozhu close, lowered her voice, and spoke with barely suppressed schadenfreude:
"Oh, right! The verdict from your aunt's side is in! Exactly as you predicted! That old woman from the Li family got eleven years of hard labor! Her son, Li Da, sixteen! Li Da's wife and her lover, those two shameless bastards, having an affair and spreading superstition that killed people, one got twenty-one years, the other twenty-three! As for that old widower... humph, death penalty! I heard he'll be 'eating peanuts' in a couple of days!" As she spoke, she made a shooting gesture with her hand.
Lin Baozhu felt a surge of satisfaction upon hearing this: "Serves them right! This family is a menace; their lives are doomed to rot on the farm!"
"that is……"
Lin's mother's smile faded slightly, replaced by worry. "But what if your aunt's family... I mean, what if the brigade leader doesn't agree to let them move to our village? What will we do then?"
"Don't worry about it!"
Lin Baozhu smiled confidently, "Right now, the brigade leader needs us! As long as my uncle-in-law settles the hair accessory deal, what can those gossipy villagers say? Besides..."
She blinked and laughed, "Even if we can't come to the village, people can still live in the town, right? As long as my uncle is clever enough, he can easily make a living by selling some things!"
Mentioning the hair ornaments, Lin's mother's eyes lit up instantly: "Yes, yes, hair ornaments! Dani and I have been working on them as fast as we could, and we've made more than thirty different designs! It's too late today, so tomorrow morning, you can take them to town to find your uncle and ask him to help you decide what to do!"
"Okay!" Lin Baozhu agreed, "Then I'll go check on Dad's leg."
"Go ahead, he's in the inner room."
Lin Baozhu entered the inner room and saw her father sitting against the headboard, engrossed in reading a copy of the People's Daily. Hearing the noise, he looked up from the newspaper, his slightly furrowed brow instantly relaxing into a loving smile.
"Oh my! My eldest daughter is back! Let Dad see if she got into any trouble on the mountain yesterday!"
"It's nothing, I'll be back after the investigation. Dad, how's your leg? Is it still hurting a lot?" Lin Baozhu sat down on the edge of the bed.
"Hey! Isn't that weird?!"
Lin's father put down his newspaper, looking astonished: "When I was in the hospital, the pain kept me up all night! But as soon as I got home, I ate well and slept soundly, and my leg doesn't hurt at all anymore! If your mother hadn't been watching over me so closely, I think I could have gotten out of bed and walked around a couple of times!"
Hearing him say that, Lin Baozhu finally felt relieved.
"The medicine I'm giving you is...highly effective," she said vaguely, "and you can't find it on the market. Just relax and rest at home for now; you don't need to worry about anything!"
"Father knows! Father knows! This leg is very precious!" Lin's father nodded repeatedly, cherishing his injured leg. He couldn't let it become crippled, otherwise his wife would be laughed at to death by the whole family.
Lin Baozhu stayed inside with her father for a while, then couldn't help but let out a big yawn, tears welling up in her eyes.
"Dad, you should rest first. I... I really can't hold on any longer."
"Hey! Go to sleep! Go to sleep!" Lin's father urged with concern.
Lin Baozhu greeted her mother in the outer room, then practically floated back to her own room before collapsing onto the kang (a heated brick bed).
Two days and one night! Yesterday she traveled all day in the mountains, and just as she closed her eyes at night she was awakened by that deadly insect whistle. Then she tracked the insect swarm, found Lin Asi, and went through a life-or-death battle... All in all, she slept for less than an hour!
Even with the spiritual spring water supporting her, her head felt like it was filled with lead, she was dizzy and lightheaded, and her eyelids were so heavy they were practically drooping. The exhaustion in her body overwhelmed her completely like a tidal wave…
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