Zhang Pingping said with a smile: "Jingqiu, you are finally back. We missed you so much. Did you receive the letter we wrote to you?
You left in a hurry and we didn't know what happened. The next day, a few of us went to the town to ask Director Gu, and only then did we find out that grandpa was sick.
We were so worried about you that Lin Zishan even took a day off just for this."
Zhang Pingping looked around and lowered her voice, "We took the nuts and some dried persimmons to the supply and marketing cooperative to sell the next day. I was worried you'd need the money urgently, so I quickly sent it to you."
Shi Aihong then remembered Xiao Yihan and Qi Yue who were following behind Chu Jingqiu, and hurriedly said, "Sister Pingping, let's go inside and talk. Look, my brother-in-law is still carrying so many things!"
Zhang Pingping said embarrassedly, "Look at me, I'm busy talking to Jingqiu. Captain Xiao, Comrade Qi, come sit inside with us for a while!"
Chu Jingqiu whispered, "Sister Pingping, we are already engaged. You don't have to be so polite. Just call him by his name."
Zhang Pingping and Shi Aihong were delighted when they heard the news: "That's great! This is truly a great event. Brother-in-law, you haven't even given us candy yet!"
Xiao Yihan smiled, "It's in the package. I'll ask Xiaoqiu to get it for you later."
Several people carried things into Chu Jingqiu's room. Xiao Yihan put several large bags on the box. Chu Jingqiu asked the two to sit on the kang.
Shi Aihong hurriedly brought over a thermos, and Chu Jingqiu made a pot of black tea for the two of them. "You two didn't drink much water on the road. Drink some tea quickly, and don't get too angry."
Zhang Pingping brought the quilts that had been hung out to dry in the yard into the house. "Jingqiu, we'll be drying your quilts and mattress every other day for the next couple of days. We're afraid you'll have to sleep on a cold quilt when you come back."
Chu Jingqiu took the quilt, bent down to smell it, and said with a smile: "Thank you, Sister Pingping, I like the smell of the quilt after it is dried in the sun the most, it is the smell of the sun."
She put down the quilt and took out a bag of White Rabbit milk candy, a bag of preserved fruit, some dried meat, cakes, and fruits from her bag and divided them between the two of them.
“Thank you sisters for helping me sell the nuts and dried persimmons and doing so many things for me. These are for you.
First, thank you for taking care of me, and second, it's to congratulate Yihan and I on our engagement. It's wedding candy for both of us."
Qi Yue asked curiously, "Are those lantern-like strings of dried persimmons that you're drying in the yard and on the roof really dried persimmons? They look pretty good. You guys may not be very old, but you seem very capable!"
Shi Aihong pointed at Chu Jingqiu and said, "This was all Jingqiu's idea. We've made a lot of money selling nuts and persimmons in the past two months!"
Chu Jingqiu picked a bunch of persimmons from the yard, put them on a plate, and brought them over to the two of them. "Qi Yue, Yi Han, try some. We made these ourselves. They're clean and delicious."
Both of them took one to taste. They took a bite of the persimmon cake covered with white frost. It was sweet, soft, sticky and chewy. They couldn't help but eat several.
Chu Jingqiu was afraid that they would continue eating, so he quickly took the plates away from them and said, "You two are not allowed to eat anymore. Eating too much is not good for your stomach.
I'll get some for you two later, so you can keep it and eat it slowly. When you return to Beijing, I'll bring some back for you so that everyone in your family can try it."
Xiao Yihan smiled and said, "I don't really like sweets, but this is so delicious that I couldn't help but eat more."
Shi Aihong interrupted, "Jingqiu, you don't know that Qin Yilan and Wu Shuangshuang also stole the dried persimmons we dried. I caught them that time, and Qin Yilan tried to argue, but I slapped her hard, and she became much more honest."
When Chu Jingqiu heard her mention Qin Yilan, she asked, "Aihong, has Qin Yilan done anything abnormal recently?"
Shi Aihong thought for a moment and said, "A few days ago, she seemed to have received a telegram, and then she cried all day long, for several days! During those times, I saw her eyes were swollen like peaches."
Zhang Pingping whispered, "Hu Mingyue asked her, and she said something happened to her family, but she didn't say what it was.
Last week, several people from the Revolutionary Committee came to see her and talked to her for a long time before leaving her room. Aihong only heard people in the room talking about who was a spy and a counter-revolutionary.
Later, the Revolutionary Committee left, and Qin Yilan was fine, so we thought we might have misheard.
Chu Jingqiu snorted coldly and told the story of how the Qin family, under the instructions of the spies, poisoned his grandfather, leaving him on the verge of death.
Shi Aihong and Zhang Pingping were shocked, as if they had heard something out of the Arabian Nights. Shi Aihong's eyes widened as she exclaimed in amazement, "Are there really such mad people in real life? I thought I only saw people like that in stories. This is too shameless!"
Zhang Pingping raised her eyebrows and said angrily, "You are a complete wolf from Zhongshan. You don't know how to be grateful, but instead you poisoned your benefactor. You are worse than an animal.
Qin Yilan is not a good person either. When such a big thing happened at home, she didn't even go back to check on it. She is an ungrateful person."
Shi Aihong glanced at Xiao Yihan and said, "Look, we are so busy talking about ourselves that we don't even care about our brother-in-law and the others. Let's not talk about this for now.
Oh, by the way, Sister Pingping and I also learned how to dry a lot of sweet potatoes from Widow Zhang. They are delicious. I'll go get some for my brother-in-law and his family."
Xiao Yihan waved his hands hurriedly, "Don't be polite, we are all family, there are no outsiders, don't bother."
Zhang Pingping handed Shi Aihong a plate and said with a smile, "Let her go! She eats this every day. It's really delicious. We can't really get this in the city."
We boil the smaller sweet potatoes, then put them in a basket to dry. After they dry, they are delicious as a snack.”
As she spoke, Shi Aihong brought over the dried sweet potatoes and placed them on the kang table.
Qi Yue took one and tasted it first. "This one is a little tough on the teeth, but it tastes good. Brother, you should try it too."
Xiao Yihan looked at the dried sweet potatoes they had dried themselves and they didn't look very good, but when he saw Qi Yue eating them so happily, he picked one up and tasted it. It was hard to chew, but it tasted sweet and was very addictive.
Qi Yue jokingly said, "You guys are living such a hard life so happily. I am so tired of eating that I don't even want to leave."
Although Qi Yue said this, he and Xiao Yihan had already stood up. They still had to go back to the town to deal with some things.
Chu Jingqiu packed two bags of persimmon cakes and dried sweet potatoes for the two of them and sent them away.
The three of them watched the jeep go away and were about to go back when Qin Yilan and Wu Shuangshuang walked in from outside.
When Qin Yilan saw Chu Jingqiu, her facial expression instantly became distorted. Her eyes were red and she stared at Chu Jingqiu fiercely.
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