Chapter 55
"This is all Pan Zhiqing's analysis. Pan Zhiqing said that Cheng Zhiqing and Yin Zhiqing had a small conflict yesterday, and Yin Zhiqing ran away crying. Today, Yin Zhiqing asked Cheng Zhiqing to meet in front of the cliff, but for some reason they had an argument and Yin Zhiqing disappeared." Li Decheng said.
Meng Hua glanced at Pan Dongming and said in a cold voice:
"Pan Dongming, what are you sure about? It was Cheng Su who pushed Yin Xue off the cliff?"
Pan Dongming had disliked Meng Hua for a long time, and now seeing Meng Hua publicly defending Cheng Su, he became even more jealous.
He looked at Cheng Su with hatred in his eyes, "Who else could it be if not her? Yin Yin had an argument with him yesterday, and today she fell off the mountain. There were only her footprints at the scene. Does she still want to deny it?"
Cheng Su could hardly stand. She knew that Pan Dongming would never let her go. This man was always trying to make things difficult for her.
She made him omelettes, and he told her not to let her fantasies get to her.
She talked to Meng Hua, and he called her shameless.
She was so absorbed in her studies that she ignored him, but he asked her what she was up to.
She knew that he was in love with Yin Xue and had long since given up on their relationship, but he insisted that she had killed Yin Xue.
Since she met him, all the wind and snow were brought by him. This made her feel confused as if she was being dragged into a vortex of fate. She could only helplessly hide behind Aunt Zhen to protect herself from the wind and rain.
All the educated youth came here after hearing the news. Li Decheng ordered, "Everyone, follow me to the bottom of the mountain to search for him."
"Mom, I'll go down with Uncle De."
Meng Hua was afraid that Cheng Su would be implicated, so he wanted to go find Yin Xue, but was stopped by Zhen Zhen.
Meng Hua looked at her in confusion, and Zhen Zhen gave his son a soothing look.
"Wait, Uncle De!"
Li Decheng glanced at her and said, "Daguo's mother, do you have anything to say?"
Zhen Zhen nodded, "Uncle De, Yin Zhiqing had a conflict with Cheng Zhiqing yesterday, but today he took the initiative to ask Cheng Zhiqing out. Isn't this unreasonable?"
Pan Dongming frowned, "Yin Yin is very kind, she must not want to have a conflict with Cheng Su, and wants to take the initiative to reconcile with Cheng Su."
Zhen Zhen didn't know how to describe this male protagonist. No matter how she looked at him, she just didn't like him and wanted to slap him.
"Even if she wants to reconcile with Cheng Su, this place is still a mile away from our village, and the road is remote and difficult to walk. Yin Zhiqing only gets three work points a day. How can someone with poor physical strength like her be willing to walk such a long way? Why do they have to meet in such a place when they can reconcile anywhere else?"
"What do you mean?"
"What I mean is that Yin Zhiqing already knew that something would happen to him today." Zhen Zhen spoke slowly.
Pan Dongming's face turned pale when he heard this. "Do you suspect Yin Yin deliberately framed Cheng Su? She is not that kind of person. Don't slander her!"
This male protagonist is really confused.
Zhen Zhen laughed, "Uncle De, think about it carefully. This cliff is only a hundred meters high. Even if the trees block our view, we can still see a living person. I think Yin Zhiqing didn't fall off the cliff at all, but took the opportunity to escape and deliberately led us to think about the murder. If we go to the bottom of the cliff to search, we will fall into her trap. It is better to report to all the checkpoints and stop her as soon as possible."
In the original novel, Li Decheng was misled by Pan Dongming and took all his manpower to search the bottom of the mountain. After two days of fruitless searching, he found Yin Xue's bloody shirt in the back mountain. Only then did the police determine that Yin Xue was more dangerous than alive.
Technology was not well developed in those days, and the original novel was a sad novel for the sake of sadomasochism. It made sense that Yin Xue's disappearance was intended to give the male protagonist an opportunity to abuse the female protagonist.
Li Decheng was stunned by what she said. He really had never thought about it in that direction.
Although the educated youth in Batou Village were spoiled, none of them had ever thought of running away. But if educated youth Yin deliberately ran away in order to avoid farm work, that would be a different matter.
Li Decheng did not dare to delay and took a group of people to report the matter.
The police also came in the evening and called Cheng Su to be questioned.
The situation this year was already tense, and everyone was on edge. This incident has hit the nail on the head. The public security department is taking it very seriously and said they will bring Yin Zhiqing back as soon as possible.
Cheng Su has been troubled by this matter.
Seeing that she looked unhappy, Zhen Zhen took out some red dates and soybeans. She had soaked the soybeans yesterday and they had grown bigger now. She poured them into the stone mill, added some water, and turned the stone mill to grind out red date soybean milk.
Every household in the countryside has such a stone mill, which is very convenient for grinding soy milk and cornmeal when you have nothing to do.
The dates and soybeans of this year are more flavorful than those of later generations. The boiled soy milk has the sweetness of dates. One sip of it makes you feel satisfied from the inside out.
Zhen Zhen brought a bowl to Cheng Su and filled a hot water bottle, and waited until she fell asleep before leaving.
The next afternoon, Zhang Cuihua came to see her.
"The person has been found!"
"So fast?" Zhen Zhen put down the yarn in his hand and asked, "Where did you find it?"
"She was said to be at the port of the next city. She was really capable. I don't know when she hooked up with the bus driver, who put her in the luggage and took her to the next city. She was actually going to take a boat there to sneak to the port city! My good man, do you think she is brave? Fortunately, she was caught by the police before the boat set sail and was brought back."
This is the biggest gossip in Batou Village recently.
Not only did she run away as an educated youth, she also deliberately committed a murder and framed others. Her character is really despicable. No wonder Gou Zi's mother said that Cheng Su is a beautiful snake, whoever she gets entangled with will be in trouble.
Zhen Zhen suddenly understood what was going on. No wonder Yin Xue from the original story had become a famous movie star in Hong Kong when she suddenly reappeared many years later. She still found it strange how a young educated youth like Yin Xue could have gone to Hong Kong.
After all, the country's borders are closed these days, and it is very difficult to go in and out.
Zhen Zhen was from the future, and had no objection to Yin Xue's escape to Gangcheng, but Yin Xue ran away anyway, and before that she even tried to trick Cheng Su, which really showed her character.
Zhen Zhen threw down the ball of yarn and went out. The police had just brought Yin Zhiqing back, and Yin Zhiqing was staring at her with a numb expression.
Zhen Zhen didn't even lift her eyelids.
"Yin Yin!" Pan Dongming ran forward.
Look how anxious the male protagonist is. It seems that he didn’t sleep well last night. His hair is messy and he has dark circles under his eyes.
I don’t know what the author was thinking. Since the male protagonist already has a beloved female supporting role, why would he come to mess with Cheng Su?
Zhen Zhen is a person who knows how to help others achieve their goals. She stepped forward and said, "Comrade Public Security, I have something to report."
"You say." said the policeman.
Pan Dongming had a bad feeling, and sure enough he heard Zhen Zhen say:
"Yesterday Pan Zhiqing deliberately misled us into thinking that Yin Zhiqing committed suicide. I have every reason to suspect that he knew about Cheng Zhiqing's escape in advance, and he misled us just to buy time for Yin Zhiqing. You must investigate him thoroughly!"
Pan Dongming was stunned, "I didn't!"
"No? You and Yin Zhiqing had such a good relationship, and you always called her 'Yin Yin'. Yin Zhiqing just disappeared, and you said that Cheng Zhiqing killed her and wanted to send Cheng Zhiqing to the authorities. I don't believe you if you say you are innocent!"
The police officer's eyes turned cold, "Oh? Pan Zhiqing, is what she said true?"
"I didn't! I didn't know that Yin Zhiqing had escaped!" Pan Dongming defended.
"You know that it's not up to you to decide. You have to go back with us and help with the investigation." The police officer said sternly.
Pan Dongming couldn't describe the weirdness in his heart. Zhen Guizhi clearly didn't know him, but she seemed to have opened her clairvoyance and was able to control the direction of the whole incident. He wanted to send Cheng Su to the authorities for investigation and make Cheng Su pay for Yin Xue's death, but he only thought about this in his heart and never said it out loud.
How did she know?
Pan Dongming followed Yin Xue in silence.
When they were being investigated at the Public Security Bureau, due to limited space, the two were locked in the next room and could hear each other's conversation.
He clearly heard Yin Xue admit how she looked for opportunities to quarrel with Cheng Su and how she framed Cheng Su in order to create a chance for herself to escape.
Pure, innocent, and kind-hearted Yin Xue actually turned out to be a liar, scheming, and unscrupulous woman.
Pan Dongming's inner faith collapsed.
Zhen Zhen doesn't care what Pan Dongming thinks. Since he likes to send others to jail, let him experience what it feels like to be in jail first.
Don't you like Yin Xue? If you like her, then go to jail for her! You don't have to let her out to harm others.
After sending away all the people you don't like, the air becomes a lot fresher.
After a rain, the cucumbers grew a lot bigger. Zhen Zhen took a bamboo basket and a pair of scissors and went to the vegetable garden to cut a few cucumbers and five or six tomatoes.
Zhen Zhen especially likes tomatoes at this time of year. When you break them open, they are very sandy and taste great. You will never be able to taste such a flavor in later generations.
In the evening, Meng Zhaodi kneaded the dough and rolled out some steamed buns. She took out a piece of pork belly, marinated it, and fried it in a pan.
The pork belly is fried until crispy and fragrant, cut into thin slices, and wrapped in a flatbread with some lettuce. The taste is comparable to roast duck.
People in Batou Village generally like to eat noodles, but eating noodles in summer is too hot, so Zhen Zhen thought of cold noodles.
She only knew that cold noodles were made of alkaline noodles, which were cooked and then cooled and drained. The cooked chicken was torn into strips, some cucumber was cut, some mung bean sprouts were added, and then some peanuts, vinegar, sesame paste, and mashed garlic were added and mixed.
I have to say that eating cold noodles in summer is quite comfortable. Paired with steamed buns wrapped with pork belly, it is really a very good meal.
After the meal, everyone in the family felt relaxed.
Before it gets dark, the kids go outside to catch dragonflies.
Meng Daguo and Jiao Huilan heard that a movie was being shown in the county town, so they rode their bikes there.
These two people are getting better and better at enjoying life. Even though there isn't much romance, there is something there, and their life is pretty good.
Meng Eryong took Tao Aihong to catch eels.
As for Meng Hua, he was alone and could only stay at home and read books.
Zhen Zhen sighed that going to school really made people lonely, but there were still many people who proposed marriage to Meng Hua. It was not just Zhao Meilan who was interested in him. The people in Batou Village, based on the principle of keeping the wealth within, wanted Meng Hua to get married on the spot.
Even Li Decheng's wife couldn't help herself and wanted to introduce her daughter to Meng Hua.
Li Decheng treated this concubine as a jerk, and he felt as if his eyes were hurt. Before, he had always looked down on Meng Hua.
Although Meng Hua's father was a martyr, one cannot eat reputation. After all, marriage and life depend on the family background and the character of the man's parents.
This whole family, old and young, relied on Meng Daguo and Meng Eryong to farm and earn work points. You can imagine how hard their life was.
Besides, Zhen Guizhi has a bad reputation, and no one with any sense would marry their daughter to her.
But things are different now. Zhen Guizhi's bad reputation has long been cleared.
Anyone with a discerning eye could see how well the Meng family lived. They ate meat and noodles all day long, and there was a constant aroma from the chimney every night. Who wouldn't want to send their daughter here to enjoy the delicious food?
Li Decheng's wife had such an idea.
Meng Hua is a college student. If the girl can marry Meng Hua, she may become an official's wife in the future. That would be so glorious!
Li Decheng was a man of honor and he did not allow his wife to tell the Meng family about this. Li Decheng's wife did not listen and came to ask Zhen Zhen.
Zhen Zhen had no choice but to say, "The child is still young, there is no need to rush to find a partner."
"You're already 20, right? You're still young. In most countries, people have kids at 20."
Zhen Zhen smiled and said, "People who go to school get married late. At 20, they are still half-grown children. Meng Hua came from the countryside and has a heavy burden on his family. After graduation, he needs to find a good unit and get a house before getting married. It won't take five or six years. It's too early to talk about marriage now."
Li Decheng's wife couldn't say that her daughter could go to the capital first and wait it out. As long as Meng Hua didn't act like a ungrateful person, it wouldn't be a big deal to wait for a few years.
But it sounded as if her daughter was in a hurry to get married, and she really couldn't say it.
Li Decheng's wife laughed dryly: "Is your Meng Hua still planning to stay in the capital?"
"I haven't talked to him about this, but it should be similar. Who wouldn't want their child to move up in social status?"
Li Decheng's wife nodded, feeling a little emotional. She watched Meng Hua grow up. Later, Meng Hua stayed in the capital and seldom came back. Gradually, their feelings faded.
“How do we solve the household registration problem?”
"He transferred to that school after graduation."
The household registration system these days is much stricter than in later times. During the planned economy era, people with urban household registration could receive receipts every month, were eligible for recruitment, and the state would assign them jobs. Once a person had an urban household registration, the state would take care of his or her eating, drinking, defecating, and urinating.
However, the country's finances are tight and it cannot manage so many people, so it can only tighten the household registration system. Many large factories do not even have two or three quotas for household registration transfers a year. It is almost harder than climbing to the sky to transfer a rural household to an urban one.
But college students can be assigned jobs and transfer their household registration at the same time.
For rural people, going to university is equivalent to obtaining a city hukou and having a stable job.
Although the house prices are high in later generations, at least you can have a household registration after buying a house. Buying a house these days is of no use.
Although the sale of urban household registration was allowed in later generations, that was in the 1980s and 1990s. Nowadays, without an urban household registration, you are not even qualified to be a technician.
Li Decheng's wife was naturally jealous, and wanted to marry her daughter to Meng Hua even more. Zhen Zhen used a little effort to cover up the matter.
Old Lady Meng came over when she heard about this. "Does Li Decheng's wife really want to marry her daughter to Meng Hua? What do you think?"
"It's good enough that I can take care of myself, how can I take care of him?" Zhen Zhen said with a smile.
Can Mrs. Meng believe this? Everyone knows that the three sons of the Meng family are the most filial.
"Who can you control? You are his mother, so he has to marry whoever you tell him to marry."
Old Mrs. Meng is old-fashioned. She thinks her second daughter-in-law has vision and knowledge, and the girl she likes must be good. Meng Hua is still young, so he must listen to his mother. What if he marries a troublesome girl who makes the family restless every day? What should she do?
Zhen Zhen was amused by her words, "You think too highly of me. He doesn't even like the daughter of the second-in-command of the county. How can I control him?"
"What? Is there such a thing? Does he not like her?"
"Please don't say that. What are the conditions? Does Meng Hua have the right to look down on them? Even after he heard the conditions, he was unmoved. I think he has his own ideas."
Grandma Meng thought it was normal for her grandson to have his own ideas. He was a handsome man and a college student. With these conditions, what kind of partner could he not find?
When Mrs. Meng heard that her grandson had high standards, she felt relieved. "You are the one who taught well. If it weren't for you, there would be no college students in our Meng family."
Zhen Zhen didn't dare to take credit for it, "It's because his father loves him. I didn't do anything."
Old Mrs. Meng thought that her second daughter-in-law was too modest. Although her son's reputation was there, this matter would never have been accomplished without the second daughter-in-law's efforts.
In the middle of the month, when Meng Li returned to her parents' home, she brought another big news: she was pregnant.
Meng Li gave birth to her last child in September. Although it has been more than half a year, they were twins after all, and twins are the most harmful to the body.
"You're pregnant so soon? I thought you would take a few years to raise the baby before having another one." Zhen Zhen asked.
Meng Li had originally planned to do so, but when Jiang Dongping came back from his business trip, the two of them couldn't help but get angry...
She is the only one who can get pregnant easily.
Meng Li was a little hurt when she gave birth last time, so she had little confidence this time. It was Jiang Dongping's promise to take care of the child more that made her feel better.
"I don't want to, but now that I'm pregnant, I can't abort it, right?"
Not only is abortion harmful to your health, it is also unsafe.
More importantly, Zhou Changsheng left her with a psychological shadow, and she inexplicably wanted to prove that she could have children by getting pregnant.
Isn’t Zhou Changsheng infertile?
Then she'd better give birth to more children, so that they can only make the Zhou family angry!
Zhen Zhen could only wish them well, "You guys are paid and have no burden, so it's okay to have one more child. It would be even better if you could have a daughter."
Meng Liti's salary after work is not low. A family with two working parents is something that many people would envy. It is enough for her to live in the county town.
Not to mention raising three children, I can even afford to raise ten.
But having many children is more tiring. Meng Li might not be able to cope with working and taking care of the children at the same time.
"Fortunately, I have the help of Cao's parents. When I come back this time, I want to discuss with my family and let Dabao and Erbao recognize Cao's parents as godparents. However, we in the countryside have our own rules for recognizing godparents. It depends on whether the birth date is auspicious for the other party. I want to ask my mother to find a fortune teller to take a look. If it is suitable, I will mention it to Cao's parents."
Cao's parents are very kind to her child and love him wholeheartedly. They buy milk powder and clothes for the child without blinking an eye.
The old couple's retirement salary is very high, and the daughter-in-law doesn't think highly of their little money. She feels that she gets along well with the eldest and second child, so she is willing to spend money on the children.
But Meng Li felt it was not a good idea and declined several times, almost making Cao's parents angry.
Since she couldn't refuse, Meng Li thought about adopting them as godparents, and letting the eldest and second sons treat them as their grandparents and take care of them in their old age.
Zhen Zhen said with emotion: "That old couple is really rare and kind. It is fate that Dabao and Erbao met them."
Meng Li also agreed with this point, and she brought a few more pieces of cloth this time.
"Sister-in-law, I have five colleagues who want to order ready-made clothes, and four colleagues who want custom-made ones."
Meng Li's factory was big, but there were no shopping malls to go to at that time, let alone a variety of specialty store brands, so she could only make clothes by sewing.
But the tailoring skills are just so-so and cannot satisfy women's desire for beauty at all.
Meng Li is pretty, like a real clothes hanger. How could her colleagues in the workshop not be envious of her?
I wanted to hold back at first, but the more I looked at it, the more I liked it. So I gritted my teeth and ordered a new dress.
There is a reason why women always lack a new piece of clothing in their closet.
Zhen Zhen smiled and said, "The Huilan brand has been established, but after this wave of work, we can consider making some autumn clothes. We can make autumn clothes in August and wear them in September. It's better to make clothes earlier than later."
Jiao Huilan nodded and took her mother-in-law's words to heart.
Her mother-in-law also asked her to make an autumn outfit for Meng Li to advertise.
Although a piece of clothing costs several yuan, Meng Li also brings her a lot of business. She has just learned tailoring and does not expect to make a lot of money all at once, but Jiao Huilan will still calculate the account.
She worked hard and finished it in one day.
Jiao Huilan nervously gave the clothes to her mother-in-law.
This is a blue-green workwear-style jacket with a velvet texture. It makes your legs look very thin when you wear it, and is very suitable for wearing in the workshop.
Zhen Zhen felt particularly emotional when looking at the dress. She only provided a sewing machine and a bit of soil for growth, but it contributed to Jiao Huilan's transformation.
Three years ago, how could she have imagined that the timid Jiao Huilan would have such a talent?
Zhen Zhen patted his daughter-in-law on the shoulder and said with emotion: "Our Huilan has grown up."
Jiao Huilan's eyes were filled with tears when she heard this. If it weren't for her mother-in-law, how could she be where she is today?
She doesn't know how good she is.
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