Chapter 103: Sister Song, What Are You Doing Here?

From the very first moment Chu Yue laid eyes on Li Jinhua, she had already made up her mind.

Since it was Li Jinhua who took the 100 yuan, she was going to get it back—from her, and no one else.

Li Jinhua was a petty, money-grubbing woman, someone who was always looking to take advantage without doing any real work. A person like her would never feel secure keeping 100 yuan lying around. She’d be too afraid someone would steal it, too afraid someone would find it—or worse, that she’d misplace it herself.

So instead of living in constant fear, the safest thing for her was to keep the money hidden on her own body, where she could feel its presence at all times.

Song Qi, who had been following Lu Zhanlin for a long time, was already used to taking orders and following commands. But even now, with Chu Yue giving the orders instead, he didn’t feel the slightest discomfort. Without hesitation, he followed her lead and pinned Li Jinhua down, making sure she couldn’t even move.

“What are you doing?! You little brat, what do you think you’re doing?! My son is Zhou Zhijian! He’s a soldier too! He’s a company commander! If you lay a hand on his mother, I swear—!”

No matter how loudly Li Jinhua shrieked or threatened, Chu Yue didn’t care. She lifted Li Jinhua’s cotton coat and shoved her hand straight into the innermost layer of clothing.

She searched left, then right, going for the least accessible, most concealed seams of her clothes.

Sure enough, she found it: an extra inner pocket sewn into the lining. Without hesitation, Chu Yue grabbed the fabric and ripped it clean off.

“Ahh—! AHH! My money! That’s MY money!”

Seeing her stash exposed, Li Jinhua let out an ear-piercing scream. But with her hands injured and Song Qi holding her tightly in place, she couldn’t move—couldn’t even struggle. All she could do was flail her legs, trying to kick at Chu Yue.

But Chu Yue was faster. Before Li Jinhua’s foot could lift, Chu Yue stomped it down hard with her own foot, pinning it in place.

“AHH—!”

“Tch. Only fifty yuan?” Chu Yue muttered, unimpressed.

Li Jinhua’s miserable scream was instantly drowned out by Chu Yue’s disappointed voice. But no one paid Li Jinhua any attention—all eyes were on the money in Chu Yue’s hand.

She passed the fifty yuan to Lu Zhanlin, asking him to hold it. Since she had found that much in the upper layers of Li Jinhua’s clothing, the remaining fifty had to be somewhere in her pants.

So, Chu Yue began a second round of searching.

She had no idea if Li Jinhua had even bathed recently. Digging through an old woman’s clothes like this was filthy, and she silently vowed to give herself a thorough scrub when they got back.

Soon enough, Chu Yue found another hidden pocket in the seams of Li Jinhua’s pants and pulled out the remaining stash.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t the full fifty. It was only forty-seven yuan.

Turned out, after taking the money, Li Jinhua had already spent three yuan on meat for New Year’s Eve. She figured if she was going to profit off this, she might as well treat herself to something good.

That meant the hundred yuan was short by three. Thankfully, Chu Yue had some of her own cash on hand. She didn’t bother counting it—just bundled up all of it and handed it over to the rural man.

“Here. This is more than one hundred yuan. Now, can we take the child with us?”

The man had been watching the entire time—how they searched Li Jinhua, how they dug out the money—and was both shocked and scared. After calming down, he didn’t dare make a sound. He didn’t even bother counting the money—just nodded stiffly.

Chu Yue breathed a sigh of relief and turned back to Wang Chunling.

“Sister Chunling, we can bring Nuan Yang home now.”

Holding her child in her arms, Wang Chunling was already weeping, her eyes swollen with tears of gratitude.

“Thank you… thank you. Let’s go home… we’re going home…”

The baby who had been crying nonstop in that house earlier—ever since being held in Wang Chunling’s arms—had somehow calmed down. Perhaps it was the familiar scent of her biological mother, but as she cried, she slowly drifted off to sleep, her tear-streaked little face nestled pitifully against Wang Chunling’s chest.

Chu Yue turned her head, her bright eyes looking toward Lu Zhanlin.

“Let’s go.”

Lu Zhanlin had always been the strongest support among their group. Chu Yue was the one charging ahead, but Lu Zhanlin ensured everyone stayed safe.

They had been running around all night.
This unique New Year’s Eve seemed like it was finally coming to a close.

But for Lu Zhanlin, this night wasn’t just any New Year’s Eve. It was supposed to be his wedding night—the most important one of his life. Yet, the warm bed was gone, replaced by biting cold winds and swirling snow that stung against his body.

Calling it “miserable” didn’t even begin to describe it.
If Xu Feng ever found out, he’d probably laugh at him for the rest of his life.

However, contrary to everyone’s expectations, Chu Yue’s New Year’s Eve was far from over.

As they were walking away from the middle-aged man’s house, they suddenly ran into—

“Sister Song? What are you doing here?”

Chu Yue was stunned to see Song Hongmei at such a late hour on such a special night. Her eyes showed clear surprise.

Their families were neighbors, and Chu Yue hadn’t heard any sounds from Song Hongmei’s house in the past few days. She had assumed Song Hongmei had gone into the city to spend the New Year with her children.

Who would’ve guessed that not only had Song Hongmei not gone to the city, but she was also out here in the mountains, rushing around late at night?

Song Qi was the first to explain:

“After we split up earlier, I took the path to the other side of the village, and I happened to run into Sister Song there.”

At that time, Song Hongmei had been busy with something. She briefly asked Song Qi a few questions. But the situation was too complicated for Song Qi to explain properly, so he simply told her:

“Lu Zhanlin’s here too. It’s an order.”

That alone told Song Hongmei the situation was serious.

She had urgent matters in hand as well, so she didn’t come right away. She dealt with her own business first, then hurried over—arriving a bit late.

Now, seeing Chu Yue, Lu Zhanlin, Wang Chunling—eyes red from crying—and the baby out in the freezing cold, Song Hongmei couldn’t help but sigh.

Song Qi hadn’t said much, but Song Hongmei, with decades of revolutionary experience and years of community work under her belt, already had a good idea of the conflict between Wang Chunling and Li Jinhua. Add to that what other villagers had said earlier:

“The blacksmith’s family at the west end of the village supposedly bought a child.”

Just that one sentence had connected everything in her mind.

Song Hongmei looked at Chu Yue and asked:

“Is everything resolved?”

“Yes, it’s all taken care of. Don’t worry, Sister Song—there was no major trouble,” Chu Yue replied.

Song Hongmei nodded, then turned to look at Wang Chunling. She patted her on the shoulder and said:

“Chunling, I know you’ve been through a lot lately. It’s freezing cold—we won’t talk about anything else right now. Just take your baby home quickly. She’s still so small—make sure she doesn’t get sick.
As for the rest, leave it to me. I’ll stand up for you. I won’t let you be bullied like this.”

“Sister Song, I… I…”
Wang Chunling’s eyes welled up with tears again. She nearly cried.

Song Hongmei gently wiped her face and took off her own scarf, wrapping it around Wang Chunling’s shoulders.

“Go now. Be careful on the road. Song Qi—take good care of them.”

“Yes, Sister Song!” Song Qi replied firmly.

Even though Song Hongmei told them to hurry back, Chu Yue still asked:

“Sister Song, did you run into some kind of trouble yourself?”