Lin Shuyue brushed herself with willow branches, washed her face and body with water boiled from grapefruit and peach branches, and Yin Xin was cooking. Because Lin Shuyue was leaving, she used up all the good things in the house to make this dinner.
Lin Shuyue walked out and sat in front of the stove to warm herself by the fire. Yin Xin was cooking and told Lin Shuyue about Cao Manjin.
"Manjin's Erya was sent to Beigou Village in Badi as a child bride. That family had a clueless, two-year-old idiot. After Erya was sent there, life was a nightmare. She didn't have enough to eat or wear. From the age of three, she had to work. It was hard to imagine what a three-year-old could do; she had no strength at all."
When Erya came back, Yin Xin asked her life in that family.
Lin Shuyue didn't understand what a three-year-old could do. She had seen many three-year-olds, many of whom couldn't even speak clearly. If they could manage themselves well and not wet their pants, they were already very good babies. What could a three-year-old do, such as washing clothes and cooking?
Because Lin Shuyue had never seen such a thing, she couldn't understand the three-and-a-half-year-old children in novels who could do everything from buying groceries to cooking.
Just as she was about to speak, Hang Jiabai came out from next door, his hair still a little damp. Yin Xin immediately became angry: "How many times have you been here? Don't you know how cold it is in winter? You washed your hair and didn't even wait for it to dry before coming out? You're going to get a headache!"
Hang Jiabai was not afraid of Yin Xin's cold face at all. He moved a small stool and sat next to Lin Shuyue. Lin Shuyue moved to the side.
He told Yin Xin about Zhang Xiaohu coming back for revenge. Yin Xin threw the spatula into the pot and said, "He's still plaaning a revenge on us!"
"We haven't taken revenge on him yet. Moli is such a nice girl. She used to come to our house all the time." Yin Xin looked sad when she talked about Zheng Moli.
She didn't continue the topic. The dead are gone, but in Yin Xin's heart, Zheng Moli is no different from her daughter-in-law.
If Hang Jiaqing never gets married in the future, she will have no other choice. She has no other thoughts now, she just hopes that Lin Shuyue and her Ah Bai's relationship will go smoothly.
Neither Hang Jiaqing nor Hang Yuhua came back that night. The kang in the west room where Lin Shuyue slept was very warm. Apart from a dry throat when she woke up in the morning, there was nothing wrong with her.
She glanced at the time and it was already seven o'clock. She opened the curtains and looked outside. It was white outside and the snow was very thick, but a walking path had been cleared in the yard.
Lin Shuyue lowered the curtains, letting in light, so the room was not dark. There was a newspaper on her pillow. Lin Shuyue looked at the newspaper for a long time before reaching out to pick it up.
She knew without even reading the newspaper that Hang Jiaqing and his men were bound to be unable to escape from yesterday's battle. It wasn't that Hang Jiaqing and his men weren't formidable, it was just that the strength disparity between them was enormous.
Sure enough, the front page of the newspaper was an article about this incident.
The article, published on January 4, 2005, featured a photo of Chuzigou and stated that no one, including Hang Jiaqing, had survived. Zhang Xiaohu and his companions had fled overnight after committing the crime.
Based on reliable intelligence, they left the country directly.
The report ended abruptly here. Lin Shuyue continued reading. The following reports all talked about this incident at different time periods.
One report, written in 2018, stated that Zhang Xiaohu and other poachers had been apprehended. In the report, Zhang Xiaohu confessed to his crimes, including the murders of an entire family, Jin Wangsheng family.
"Ah Yue, are you up?" Hang Jiabai's voice came from outside the door. Lin Shuyue let go, and the newspaper turned into starlight and disappeared.
"Get up." Lin Shuyue turned over and got off the kang. Next to the water tank in the outer room, there was a toothbrush with toothpaste squeezed on it. Under the toothbrush was a pink toothbrush cup, and next to it was a towel of the same color.
That was what Yin Xin asked Hang Yuhua to buy at the dam overnight after she knew Lin Shuyue was coming.
Lin Shuyue brushed her teeth, and Yin Xin also came back with a small basket in her hand. She lifted the towel hanging on the basket, and the things inside emerged.
It was a bunch of green, tender leeks.
It is no exaggeration to say that seeing such vibrant green in the northern winter really makes people feel refreshed.
"Mom, whose house did you get these leeks from?" Hang Jiabai couldn't help but show some joy on his face.
"It's in your aunt Deng's house in the south of the yard. These things are grown on the kang in her family. There are not many, so I was asked to harvest them all." Yin Xin didn't harvest them for free. She paid a lot for these vegetables.
That amount of money could buy a garden of chives in spring and summer, but Yin Xin gave it willingly.
"Next year we'll also plant some on the kang." Hang Jiabai put the basket on the cutting board next to the water tank.
"Okay, let's plant something next year." This autumn, Yin Xin had wanted to plant something in the house, but she fell ill that autumn and didn't get to plant anything. Now thinking about it, it's a good thing she didn't plant anything, otherwise when Lin Shuyue came, she would have no place to stay.
"I made dumplings with leek and meat filling to eat in the evening. Your father came back in the middle of the night, and I asked him to go down to the dam at dawn to buy it." Yin Xin didn't like dumplings with leek and egg filling. She liked those with meat filling. She always thought that leek and meat were a perfect match.
The meat that had been bought before was also placed in the snow outside, but Yin Xin felt that this was the first dumpling that Lin Shuyue had eaten since coming to their home, and using frozen meat was not good enough, so fresh meat had to be used.
"Then we'll just wait to eat." Hang Jiabai smiled.
The smile on Yin Xin's face never faded. She opened the pot and saw the steamed buns she had made before going out.
"Try it. I made several kinds of fillings. There are white sugar sesame, brown sugar sesame, pork, mushroom, pork and green onion. Try them all."
The pork-filled buns are wrapped and frozen in advance, so you can just cook them when you want to eat them.
Yin Xin got up at three o'clock to make the two kinds of buns with brown sugar fillings by making the dough.
The buns were snow-white and soft, and the filling inside was sweet with the aroma of sesame. Lin Shuyue gave a thumbs-up as she ate, "The buns are delicious."
Yin Xin was so flattered that her eyes lit up with smiles: "Drink the dumpling soup."
The dumpling soup is tomato-based, with some green shredded vegetables floating in it, which are also dried in the autumn. The tomato sauce is also made in the autumn, with enough salt to prevent the tomatoes from spoiling, and the sour taste is still there when you eat it.
Yin Xin does these things every year.
It was the first time for Lin Shuyue to eat salty tomato sauce, and it tasted really good.
After dinner, Lin Shuyue went out with Hang Jiabai fully armed. They were going to the Sanlian Forest Farm 20 kilometers away.
The young tour guide Lin Shuyue had met at the gate of the Forbidden City in the capital before was from the third company.
The snow was so heavy yesterday that the two of them took a bullock cart from the Sanzhan Forest Farm. The driver was Hang Jiabai.
"I didn't expect you to have this skill." Lin Shuyue was sitting in the truck bed wrapped in a quilt, with Hang Jiabai, the driver, sitting in front of her.
Hang Jiabai cracked his whip with great pride. "When I came here, I happened to encounter farming one year. I thought driving an ox cart was fun, so I learned it. Later, when I came here for winter vacation, I drove an ox cart wherever I wanted to go."
In winter on the dam, there is heavy snow and strong wind, so ox carts and horse carts become everyone's means of transportation.
"Great, great." Lin Shuyue's praise made Hang Jiabai even more proud.
The two of them were talking loudly as the ox cart swayed. They left the house at eight o'clock and didn't arrive at the Sanlian Forest Farm until eleven o'clock.
The Sanlian Forest Farm is larger than the Sanzhan Forest Farm. Lin Shuyue went there according to the address given by Xiao Tong. The person who opened the door was Xiao Tong's brother. He is now also a member of the forest patrol team and was wearing the same clothes as Hang Jiaqing.
After Lin Shuyue introduced herself, he smiled and said, "Xiao Tong called home before. My parents have been looking forward to your coming."
"Sorry to bother you." Lin Shuyue said as she walked into Xiao Tong's house with Hang Jiabai.
His house is bigger than Hang Jiabai's and much wider inside. The three rooms in the front are the east and west rooms and the living room in the middle. There is a door in the living room leading to the back, where there is a kitchen and another bedroom.
Hang Jiabai said to Lin Shuyue, "This house should have been built in the past few years. The previous houses did not have this layout."
After a pause, Hang Jiabai continued, "My parents said that when the spring thaw comes, they will tear down the house and rebuild it with this layout, and then build a toilet inside the house. This way, it will be much more convenient when we come back later."
Yin Xin and Hang Yuhua's intentions were clear: they want to built this kind of house primarily for Lin Shuyue and Hang Jiabai, and it was also a parent's earnest hope for their son.
Even though they all knew that Hang Jiabai would not be able to leave Guangdong Province to live here, they still wanted to leave a wedding room for their son and daughter-in-law in their home here, even though they knew that after the house was built, Lin Shuyue and Hang Jiabai might not be able to live in it for even a full month after their marriage.
Lin Shuyue felt that when Yin Xin and Hang Yuhua built this house, they were also building it to express their expectations for the future.
"Then we'll get some electrical appliances for the house, like a washing machine and a refrigerator."
"Okay." The two talked and sat down in the living room. After a while, Xiao Tong's parents came back from outside.
Xiao Tong's brother still had work, and after his parents returned, he also left. The news of the Third Station had already spread throughout the forest area, and the patrol teams of the Third Company had all increased their patrol routes and times.
At the same time, each forest area is also conducting a secondary check on the identities and backgrounds of everyone in the yard. The kind of incident that happened between Li Xiaohe and Jin Wangsheng must not happen again.
After Lin Shuyue had a pre-interview conversation with Xiao Tong's parents, she began the interview. At the end of the interview, Lin Shuyue gave Xiao Tong's parents the photos she had taken of her at the Forbidden City.
Xiao Tong's parents hadn't seen their daughter for half a year, and they couldn't wait to look through the photos.
"The girl has become whiter and thinner. That kid must not have eaten well." After Xiao Tong's father made his comment, he kept thanking Lin Shuyue.
Xiao Tong's mother went to the cellar and took out some of the sand apples that she had saved last fall, and added them to the ones she had prepared for Lin Shuyue and Hang Jiabai, and gave it to them.
Lin Shuyue had no choice but to accept it. After leaving Xiao Tong's house, the bag of sand apples was placed inside the quilt on the ox cart.
After interviewing Xiao Tong's parents, she conducted a brief interview with the family who died with Zheng Moli six years ago.
She also met Zheng Moli's parents. Zheng Moli's mother was old and had gray hair. She looked at Hang Jiabai and then at Hang Jiaqing.
She couldn't help but hold Lin Shuyue's hand, tears streaming down her face: "You are a good child, it's our Zheng Moli who are unlucky."
Lin Shuyue didn't know how to reply for a moment. She went to see Hang Jiabai, who was also talking to Zheng Moli's father. Zheng Moli's father and Hang Jiabai had a lot of family conversations. At this moment, he said, "Ask your brother to find someone else. No need to send us anything anymore, okay?"
Hang Jiabai didn't nod: "Sister Moli is gone, this is the only thing my eldest brother can do for her."
Zheng Moli's father didn't speak for a long time, and her mother couldn't help but use a little force to hold Lin Shuyue's hand.
When Lin Shuyue left, the two elders sent her to the gate of the yard. Lin Shuyue and Hang Jiabai had walked a long way, but the old couple had not returned yet.
Hang Jiabai glanced at them sideways and said, "Zheng Moli is their only child. If she's gone, they'll have nothing."
Lin Shuyue wrapped herself in the quilt. In her pocket were eggs that Zheng Moli's parents had forced upon her. She felt very uncomfortable.
All the sufferings in the world are like a hemp rope that breaks at its thinnest point.
When the two returned to the Sanzhan Forest Farm, it was already past three in the afternoon, and wisps of smoke were rising from the roofs of every household.
Yin Xin had already wrapped the dumplings and put them in the pot as soon as they entered the yard.
After eating dumplings, Lin Shuyue went into the west room. They had to rush back to the capital in the early morning. If they didn't sleep now, they would not be able to get up at night.
Lin Shuyue had been outside all day and was cold and hungry. Now that she had a full meal and was lying on the warm bed, she fell asleep in no time.
She was woken up by Hang Jiabai at two o'clock in the morning. Yin Xin cooked dumplings for them to take out. Today's dumplings were filled with potatoes and meat and wild mushrooms, which had a unique flavor.
At three o'clock, Lin Shuyue got into Hang Jiabai's car and the two began to walk down the mountain.
They drove from three to four o'clock before reaching the bottom of the dam. The road at the bottom of the dam was clean, obviously there was no snow. The journey to the capital was much easier.
At the moment when the morning light shone on the earth, Lin Shuyue received a long-awaited call from Li Weisheng.
Lin Shuyue pressed the answer button, and Li Weisheng's voice, full of pride and energy, came over: "Thank you for fulfilling your mission, Yue. I heard you're in the capital? Will you pass by my location on your way back? If so, please bring two kilograms of braised pork and come to see me at the Gan Provincial People's Hospital."
"I've had a harder time this past month than an African refugee. I'm so hungry, but the doctor won't let me eat meat."
Lin Shuyue greeted the smile and laughed: "Okay, I'll bring more when the time comes and eat in front of your bed."
Li Wei hung up the phone in anger. A moment later, Li Mingfang also called. The newspaper had already received the undercover report sent back by Li Weisheng. This report had already been published on the front page this morning.
Wang Mingzheng called the Public Security Bureau in Gan Province and confirmed Li Weisheng's safety.
But Li Mingfang was still worried about him, so she wanted to go to Gan Province to see him in person.
Lin Shuyue said, "Then you go to Pengcheng, and I'll leave from the capital tomorrow. We'll meet at Li Weisheng's ward."
"Okay." Li Mingfang wanted it very much and agreed immediately.
Lin Shuyue hung up her phone, and the smile on her face lasted for a long time.