The Brigade Leader said, “You ride fast and maybe you can still… catch a glimpse of the leaders.”

At least he managed to correct his earlier slip about smelling the leaders’ presence.

Lu Shaocai was anxious, “Why didn’t they call me back when the leaders came? Why did they let Qin Director and the others leave without any regard for the meal?”

The Brigade Leader replied, “The police officers are here to investigate the case. What do you need to accompany them for? Hurry up and settle the accounts.”

Lu Shaocai had deliberately gone to the production team to handle the accounts to avoid work.

He had been bossy in front of the team’s accountant, but when he heard that people from the county and the commune were visiting the Lu family, he hurried back.

Unfortunately, even though he pedaled furiously, he still missed them.

It was infuriating!

He turned around, intending to blame Lin Shu for not keeping the guests waiting for him, but he only saw her graceful and enchanting back, making him stomp his feet in frustration.

He had missed a great opportunity to ingratiate himself.

As the onlookers left, Lin Aidi was still in a daze, staring at the teapot and teacups on the table with disbelief.

“Little sister, you… how did you become so smart?”

In Lin Aidi’s memory, Lin Shu used to sulk and cry, and certainly wasn’t this clever.

Lin Shu replied, “By reading books. My father-in-law teaches us to read, and the more you read, the smarter you get.”

Lin Aidi looked at her as if she had seen a ghost.

Reading books?

Who used to say that girls didn’t need to read, that they should just focus on sewing, cooking, and serving their in-laws and husbands?

Reading books?

That seemed completely unrelated to Lin Shu.

Lin Shu didn’t elaborate.

She went to pick six peaches, washed off the fuzz with a loofah, and cut them into pieces with Old Man Lu’s small knife, inviting Lin Aidi and the children to eat the peaches.

The young girls, having played with Panpan for a while, understood the limits and only took one or two pieces each.

Huzhi stuffed his cheeks with peaches and said, “Wow, these peaches are so sweet, just like Tiantian.”

Panpan took the peaches back to her mother and Lin Aidi to share.

Huzhi, munching on his peaches, circled around Tiantian, “Tiantian, do you want to know what it was like in that big well? It was so stinky down there.”

Tiantian was interested, “Yes, tell me quickly so I can write it down.”

Although she couldn’t write many words, she could at least jot down the general details and later write a story about how Huzhi got abducted.

If it was good enough, it might even be read on the radio by Grandma Jinhua.

That would be quite an honor.

Panpan…

Surrounded by the little girls, Huzhi was asked to tell stories.

However, he always felt that Huzhi still smelled bad and hadn’t been properly cleaned. “Did you really have to relieve yourself inside that place?”

Huzhi looked quite proud and said, “Yes!”

He truly had a big heart.

The young girls expressed their disgust with a “Yuck!” “So dirty!”

The children didn’t understand those things.

Anyway, Huzhi had been found and wasn’t missing any limbs.

He was still cheerful, so they just thought he had been out playing for a couple of days.

Lin Shu listened to the kids chattering about Huzhi’s adventure and felt a mix of amusement and sadness.

After all, the details that Huzhi was telling were all experiences that Panpan had endured in the original plot.

This child, unlike Huzhi, wasn’t so carefree. If someone had asked him to call them “father,” he would have been absolutely stubborn and refused.

Poor kid.

Lin Shu’s heart ached.

She went up to hug Panpan and Tiantian, kissing them and softly saying, “My dear, you’ve suffered. Don’t be afraid.”

Everything has changed.

It won’t happen again.

Huzhi looked at her enviously. “Auntie, I… I suffered.”

He also wanted a warm, soft hug.

Before Lin Shu could open her arms, Panpan kicked Huzhi away, making sure he stayed far from her mother and Tiantian, and not allowing him to hug their mother, lest he taint her as well.

The young girls immediately gathered Huzhi. “Let’s go! We’re going to play in the town. Don’t disturb Auntie’s work!”

Tiantian and Panpan said goodbye to Lin Shu and ran off with their friends.

Lin Shu saw that Lin Aidi was lost in thought and handed her a peach. “It’s quite sweet.”

She then took a few ears of corn, put on work gloves, and started using an iron rod to scrape off the corn kernels.

She needed to take them to the mill to be ground into flour in the next couple of days.

Lin Aidi helped her peel the corn kernels and smiled, teasing Lin Shu for being so delicate, wearing gloves while working.

She could see why her mother-in-law might say something about her.

Lin Shu replied, “It prevents my hands from getting sore.”

Lin Aidi sighed, “Time really flies. It feels like just yesterday that we were…”

She fell into reminiscence.

Even then, Lin Shu’s beauty was undeniable—fair and tender.

With large, sparkling eyes, she always looked particularly captivating because of her shy habit of looking down slightly.

At that time, Lin Aidi had really liked Lin Shu, wanting to protect her and prevent any dirty boys from bothering her.

Years had passed, and they had both become wives and mothers. Lin Shu was still as… delicate, tender, and fresh, while she had become… dry, rough, and exhausted.

At that time, the aunts always said that Lin Shu would definitely have a hard life in the future, and that she would definitely be disliked by her in-laws and husband.

But now, it seemed that she was living quite comfortably and pleasantly, not having to work in the fields or endure the wind, sun, and rain.

Lin Shu was living better than she and most women.

Lin Aidi suddenly felt a pang of envy, feeling that Lin Shu was living better than herself and that her own life wasn’t going well.

However, thinking about it again, Lin Shu’s husband had passed away, and without a man to care for her or support her financially, she would no longer have the comfort she once had.

With this in mind, Lin Aidi felt somewhat reassured.

She sighed and said to Lin Shu, “Don’t be too upset. You’re still young. Once things settle down after a year, you can find someone else.”

A woman always needs a man to support her, especially a beautiful woman like you.

Without someone to support you, you’d wither away in no time.

“Since your in-laws have allowed your younger sister to be a stepmother, they probably won’t stop you from remarrying either.”

Speaking of Lin Shu’s younger sister, Lin Aidi found another point to highlight Lin Shu’s misfortune. “Has your younger sister made you take care of her stepdaughter again? I’m telling you, you shouldn’t indulge her. She herself…”

Lin Shu replied, “No, my younger sister hasn’t been back for a while. She must be quite busy.”

Lin Aidi and Lin Shu’s younger sister were both from the Back Tuan Production Team.

Lin Aidi said, “Busy doing what? I see her all day with Xu Shihua, not doing proper work. They’re even writing poetry. Tsk tsk… how cheesy.”

Xu Shihua was the teacher at the brigade’s primary school and a poet who had been published in newspapers and magazines, attracting the attention of literary women.

Lin Shu’s younger sister-in-law, Lu Hefan, was infatuated with him, constantly saying he was lonely and melancholic, like a camel wandering alone in the desert or a fox walking alone in the snowy plains.

---

This, of course, was not what Lu Hefan said but what the poet himself wrote.

Lu Hefan’s romantic obsession and her sister-in-law were entirely different species, and she was quite unyielding.

Lin Shu didn’t want to discuss her.

However, Lin Aidi felt that Lu Hefan was a major trouble in Lin Shu’s life, and she was enjoying the opportunity to complain.

Lin Shu looked at the position of the sun, thinking of cooking early so that the food wouldn’t be too hot by the time her mother-in-law came back with it.

At that moment, the unique sound of the mailman’s bell was heard outside, and soon a group of children surrounded the mailman, heading towards the Lu family’s doorstep.

Panpan rushed home ahead of everyone, with Huzi running even faster.

Huzi shouted, “Mom, Mom, there’s a remittance slip!”

Panpan exclaimed, “……！！！???”

Lin Shu turned to Lin Aidi and said, “Sister, you’re really my good luck forecaster. You come over today, and everything’s coming up roses!”

She was also curious about the remittance slip.

Previously, only Lu Shaotang had sent money.

Her elder sisters-in-law had always given financial support in person, usually three to five yuan at a time, which was not worth the hassle of handling fees.

She hurried outside, and Lin Aidi, even more puzzled, followed her out.

The mailman presented an urgent remittance slip and asked Lin Shu to place her thumbprint on it.

Ordinary remittances took seven to ten days to arrive, but urgent ones took about four days.

The slip listed three names: Lu Laoda(Old Lu), Fang Dihua, and Lin Shu’s.

Previously, Lu Shaotang’s military remittances worked like this—three names, and any of the three could collect the money, though usually it was Fang Dihua who went.

Lin Shu looked at the remittance slip and saw the remitter’s name: Chen Yanming.

Chen Yanming?

Isn’t that Lu Shaotang’s comrade?

The same comrade whom Old Lu had invited to find Panpan in the book?

He was also the uncle Lu Pan relied on later, and the original book’s male lead’s maternal uncle.

Chen Yanming was someone who…

Her thoughts were interrupted by Lin Aidi. “Sister, who is this Chen Yanming? You have such a relative? How come I didn’t know about him?”

Her tone was surprised and a bit accusatory, as if Lin Shu was responsible for detailing every aspect of her situation to her.