Chapter 33.2

The night was windy and cold.

Jiang Nian saw Lu Yu rushing out quickly and shivered. “Are you okay?”

“Why are you here?”

They both spoke simultaneously, then froze together.

Jiang Nian pursed her lips and looked at Lu Yu’s pale face. She whispered, “I saw it was getting dark and you hadn’t come back. I was worried you might have a fever again and faint.”

A smile appeared on Lu Yu’s face. “I’m not that fragile.”

Thinking that Jiang Nian had come because she was worried about him, Lu Yu felt a warm current surge through him. Despite the cold and darkness, he didn’t feel cold at all. Seeing Jiang Nian shivering, he unbuttoned his coat.

“Wait!”

Jiang Nian was startled and looked up at him. “What are you doing?”

Lu Yu’s expression was a bit unnatural. “Giving you an extra layer of clothing. I can withstand the cold.”

Jiang Nian shook her head repeatedly, turned around, and started walking back. As she walked, she said, “You better keep your coat on. What if you catch a worse cold? My clothes are thick enough, and walking will keep me warm.”

She walked quickly, as if afraid that if she walked too slowly, Lu Yu would really take off his coat and give it to her.

Lu Yu, with his long legs, caught up with Jiang Nian in a few steps. Watching Jiang Nian run with her scarf tightly wrapped around her neck, a smile played on his lips. He casually followed Jiang Nian’s pace, looked at the moon in the sky, and asked, “Does Sister-in-law want to go home for the New Year?”

Jiang Nian was surprised by his question. After thinking carefully, she realized there was no need to go home. However, thinking of the letter her mother wrote a few months ago, mentioning marrying her off to an older widower, she felt resentful. The original owner had been married to the Xu family for four years. In the first two years when her father-in-law was still alive, the money given to the original owner was sometimes snatched away by Jiang’s mother and Jiang Guo.

Later, after her father-in-law died, Jiang’s mother and Jiang Guo became even more aggressive and snatched away all the money Lu Yu sent back. With the original owner’s death, Jiang Nian felt even more resentful towards her mother and brother. She didn’t know what Lu Yu thought about it all, considering his wages had benefited others all these years. But she was angry.

She had been thinking about visiting her family, hoping to reclaim the money the family had taken from the original owner over the years. Now was her chance.

“I want to visit home and burn some money for Dad and Xu Cheng,” Jiang Nian said.

Lu Yu glanced at Jiang Nian, who had her head down, and replied, “I’ll accompany you.”

The two walked all the way home, leaving long footprints in the snow. Snowflakes had settled on their shoulders and heads. When Jiang Nian reached the eaves, she brushed off the snow from her shoulders and hair. She was about to ask Lu Yu what they should have for dinner when she noticed his gaze suddenly turning sharp and cold toward the left.

Confused, Jiang Nian furrowed her brow and followed his gaze, seeing several snow footprints on the mud wall separating them from Xu Yan’s house. Her heart skipped a beat. Her first instinct was to check if the money and tickets were still there inside.

Those who dared to climb over the wall must be Gu Xia’s family.

Jiang Nian hadn’t expected the Gu family to be so audacious as to commit theft within the military base.

She pulled the light cord, and at first glance saw the snow footprints on the ground. Anger surged through her. She quickly opened the cabinet and searched. She kept her money very secret. The big money was sewn in a pair of worn and patched trousers. Most people would not think of it. The tin box was hidden in the corner of the cabinet, containing some everyday tickets and the seven yuan left over from last time; originally there had been twelve yuan, with five being her living expenses from this period and another five to show appreciation to Feng Mei for cutting a pound of meat.

Finally, Jiang Nian discovered that the money in the patched pants was still there, but the notes and money in the tin box were gone.

“Sister-in-law, did you lose anything?”.

Jiang Nian’s face grew cold as she said, “I’ve lost seven yuan and some tickets.”

She grabbed the tin box and was about to head to Xu Yan’s house when she saw Lu Yu walking straight to the window. Suddenly, Jiang Nian remembered her embroidery. The silk threads on the bed were tangled beyond recognition, and although the good fabric was intact, the threads she had used for her embroidery were pulled and twisted, with a small tear in the cloth.

Never before had Jiang Nian been so angry. She clenched the tin box tightly and turned to run outside. She was in no mood to check on the food in the kitchen; her mind was solely focused on her embroidery.

This job was her hard-earned livelihood in this era. It was due for delivery in twenty days, but the Gu family next door had ruined it!

She stormed out, forcefully pushing open the courtyard gate. Lu Yu reached out and grabbed her arm, looking at Jiang Nian’s furious face. It was the first time he had seen her explode with such raw anger.

“I’ll go find the security guards. You wait for me at home,” Lu Yu said.

Jiang Nian was consumed with anger at this moment. She didn’t care to hide her true nature anymore and spoke coldly, “You go find your security guards. I’ll settle the score with them myself!”

She finished speaking and tried to leave, but Lu Yu held onto her shoulder. At that moment, he felt how frail and delicate her shoulders were beneath the cotton jacket, as if he could hurt her bones with just a gentle touch.

Lu Yu loosened his grip slightly. “Let me handle this. If you go over there now and they refuse to admit or worse, they might even hurt you. I’ll find people from the security department to search their things. Once we catch them red-handed with the military-issued tickets, hiding them won’t do them any good.”

Jiang Nian calmed down a bit at Lu Yu’s words. Thinking about the recent conflicts with the Gu family and Xu Yan’s household—both unreasonable and troublesome—she relaxed a bit. Looking into Lu Yu’s deep black eyes, she nodded slightly. “Then I’ll wait for you.”

Lu Yu said, “Go back inside and wait. It’s cold outside.”

“Mm.”

Jiang Nian’s mind was still on her embroidery. She turned and sat back on the bed, smoothing out the embroidery. She stared at the tangled mess of threads, suppressing her anger and frustration, painstakingly unraveling them bit by bit. In the midst of this, she heard the loud arguments next door between Gu Xia and Xu Yan, where Xu Yan was calling the Gu family thieves and shameless bandits.

In addition to Gu Xia’s shouting and cursing, there was also the sound of Liu Erzhu cursing Gu Shan.

Jiang Nian listened to Gu Shan crying loudly, and suddenly the anger in his heart surged up again.

Jiang Nian’s face hardened with anger. She calmly laid out the threads and, taking the tin box, stormed towards Xu Yan’s house.

The door of Xu Yan’s house was wide open, and a crowd of people, large and small, were gathered in the courtyard due to the commotion at Xu Yan’s house. Even military wives from nearby had come out to see what was happening. Feng Mei was there too. Commander Song had just returned home when he heard that Liu Erzhu’s child had climbed over the wall into Deputy Commander Lu’s house, stolen money and tickets, and damaged Deputy Commander Lu’s sister-in-law embroidery and threads.

The situation was extremely serious. Although Gu Shan was only ten years old, his parents needed to be educated. They also had to compensate Deputy Commander Lu’s family for the lost money, tickets, and damaged goods. This incident would likely affect Liu Qiang as well. His future promotion prospects would be bleak, and their unit’s subsidies and rewards for the year would likely be forfeited.

Commander Song’s eyebrows felt like they were on fire!

“What kind of people are they!” he fumed.

In Xu Yan’s courtyard, Liu Qiang was so angry that his face turned blue. He beat Gu Shan in front of everyone. Gu Shan lay on the ground and cried loudly. Xu Yan and Gu Xia had a physical altercation that was broken up by the security guards.

Xu Yan pointed at Liu Qiang and berated him, “I told you to send them away earlier, but you insisted on delaying. Now look, trouble has come! You regret it now, but it’s too late!”

Gu Xia’s hair was a mess from the altercation, and she sat on the ground, slapping her legs and wailing, “My son is innocent! He just climbed over to see what their house was like. It was an accident that he damaged that woman’s fabric and silk threads. He didn’t take any money or tickets. My son is innocent, innocent…”

Liu Erzhu remembered seeing Gu Shan earlier, holding white flour steamed buns and a piece of meat, and whispering with Gu Xia about hiding it under the bed. Gu Xia also mentioned leaving early tomorrow morning, insisting they would not admit to anything.

Initially, Liu Erzhu thought it was just white flour steamed buns Gu Shan had taken from Xu Yan’s house, so he didn’t say anything. It wasn’t until he learned that Gu Shan had climbed over the wall into Deputy Commander Lu’s house, not only taking white flour steamed buns and meat, but also stealing their money and tickets, and more unforgivably, damaging the Deputy Commander Lu sister-in-law embroidery.

Liu Erzhu remembered Xu Yan saying that the embroidery was worth a lot. Their family couldn’t afford to pay.

Lu Yu scanned the scene coldly, shielding Jiang Nian behind him. He glanced at the security guards who emerged from the house where Gu Xia was staying, clutching a small paper bag. Gu Xia rushed forward like a madwoman, trying to snatch it back, but was held down by two other security guards.

Lu Yu spoke coldly, “Is this yours? The evidence will speak for itself.”

Jiang Nian, her face stern, watched Gu Xia’s antics, feeling the urge to go over and slap her.

The security guard laid out the contents of the small paper bag on the table. There was a roll of money, precisely seven yuan, and several tickets tied with red yarn, including sugar, meat, and cotton tickets, all stamped with the military seal.

In this era, military-issued tickets were stamped. Similarly, in the countryside, every commune captain distributed grains and tickets to farmers annually, each with the commune’s signature.

Commander Song saw this and angrily fixed his eyes on Gu Xia. “With the evidence right in front of you, you still claim innocence? How could these things fly into your pockets?”

The crowd burst into laughter at Commander Song’s words.

Gu Xia didn’t expect the security guards to find the small paper package. She had deliberately hidden it in the deepest corner under the wall, keeping all their fabric pockets and bags in plain sight, without expecting the guards to crawl under the bed and find such small items.

Gu Shan continued to cry and call for his mother.

Feng Mei was furious and began to berate Gu Xia. “We kindly took you in and helped you in our family quarters. The members of the soldiers are struggling with cold and hunger, rescuing you, yet you dare steal from others? At first, you cried and shouted that others had wronged your son. I think it was you who instigated your son to steal things. You’re both good-for-nothing!”

Apart from Xu Yan and Jiang Nian, the third most angry person present was Feng Mei.

She had been hoping to use Commander Song’s year-end bonus and subsidies to buy fish and pork to celebrate the New Year. Now, everything was ruined.

Commander Song shouted, “Enough!”

Liu Erzhu and Liu Li stood side by side, and both of their faces turned red and wished they could bury themselves.

Gu Xia took advantage of the situation to say, “I gave back your things. Isn’t that enough? Not a single ticket or bill is missing, you should be thanking me, not blaming me.”

Jiang Nian was so angry that she wanted to talk about the embroidery, but Lu Yu spoke for her. “Gu Shan damaged the high-quality cloth and precious silk thread that the state-owned embroidery shop gave to my sister-in-law to make embroidery. This account must also be charged.”

Feng Mei snorted, “The fabrics from the state-owned embroidery shop are not cheap, not to mention the silk thread, which is very expensive.”

Gu Xia began to shout and scream, “Even if you kill me, I can’t afford to pay back! What’s more, how much is that thread worth? The supply and marketing cooperative sells it all. That widow has so much money. Let her go and buy it again. Why make it difficult for us?”

This shameless word was truly infuriating Jiang Nian.

Lu Yu’s face was dark and cold. He looked at Gu Xia and said sternly, “Gu Shan damaged the property of the state-owned embroidery shop and committed theft. Although he is a child, you parents are responsible for what he did. It is not something you can refuse to pay.”

After that, he looked at the security guard and said, “We will report this matter and leave it to the police to deal with this matter.”

As soon as she heard that he would call the police, Gu Xia became anxious. She yelled for Liu Qiang to help, but Liu Qiang did not care. Liu Erzhu was also frightened. He whispered to Liu Qiang, “Please beg for mercy. Let us go home and collect some money to pay for the embroidery. We can’t let your second aunt and Gu Shan be taken away by the police.”

Liu Qiang was implicated by their actions, and now he was in a precarious situation: “Don’t come looking for me. You should bear the consequences of your mistakes.”

With that, he went back inside and stayed there.

Tonight’s big commotion not only deprived the entire unit of year-end subsidies and bonuses, but also made his future promotion prospects bleak. He restrained himself from pointing fingers at his second uncle and aunt and scolding them right there. Asking him to bow his head and beg someone was something he couldn’t do.

After this incident, it seemed that everyone in the unit had grievances against him. After all, everyone was counting on these subsidies to have a good New Year.

In the end, Gu Xia’s family was taken to the police station by security guards. Jiang Nian’s losses from the embroidery would soon be assessed and compensated.

The farce finally came to an end. Feng Mei sympathized with Jiang Nian over the embroidery and the silk threads.

Back at home, Jiang Nian sat gloomily on the edge of her bed, clutching the damaged fabric and threads. Footsteps outside caught her attention, and Lu Yu walked over to the bed. Seeing the neatly arranged threads, he squatted down and began sorting through another tangled bundle of thread.

“These threads, I’ll sort them out. You check if the fabric can still be used. If it can’t, I’ll go to the city tomorrow morning and buy a piece of the same fabric,” he said without looking up.

Jiang Nian squeezed the fabric in her hand tightly and turned to look at Lu Yu, who was carefully arranging the threads. Her voice was hoarse as she said, “Thank you.”

Lu Yu didn’t look up. “You don’t need to thank me for this.”

Jiang Nian temporarily forgot the unpleasantness from earlier. She re-examined the fabric, cut open the embroidered threads with scissors, and carefully examined the tears on the fabric. It wasn’t severely damaged. “When I embroider the pattern tomorrow, I should be able to fix it without any major issues. I’m just worried we might not have enough thread.”

Lu Yu set aside the small handful of sorted threads. “If we don’t have enough, I’ll go to the city tomorrow to buy more.”

Jiang Nian felt warm inside. If she could secure a long-term partnership with the embroidery shop owner in Hongcheng this time, she would definitely give all the money she earned to Lu Yu.

While Lu Yu was sorting out the threads in the room, Jiang Nian went to the kitchen to cook. She heard another quarrel coming from Xu Yan’s house next door. This time, it was because of Gu Xia’s family. Jiang Nian couldn’t be bothered to listen to them.

She made dumpling soup for dinner and fried a few pancakes. Occasionally, she heard Lu Yu coughing inside. After finishing cooking, Jiang Nian called out to Lu Yu. He responded, “You go ahead and eat. I’ll be done soon.”

The next morning.

Jiang Nian got up early, prepared breakfast, and began repairing the embroidered pattern. It took her the entire morning, but she managed to re-embroider the damaged parts seamlessly. Three days later, news came from the police that Gu Xia was jointly responsible for condoning Gu Shan’s theft. Because Gu Shan was a child, he was temporarily taken back by Liu Erzhu and handed over to the brigade for custody. Gu Xia was temporarily detained and might be sentenced to three years in prison.

Xu Yan also knew about the Gu family’s situation. The next day, she brought over ten eggs and apologized to Jiang Nian.

Jiang Nian knew this had nothing to do with Xu Yan, so she didn’t give her a hard time. They chatted for a while before Xu Yan went back home.

As Jiang Nian had guessed, there were several colors of thread that weren’t enough. The next day, Lu Yu took the military vehicle to the city to make purchases. He bought several colors of thread that Jiang Nian needed and returned late in the evening.

With three days left until the Lunar New Year, Jiang Nian finally finished the embroidery.

Ge Mei seemed to have timed her arrival perfectly. She came to the unit the day after Jiang Nian finished the embroidery. Seeing the completed embroidery, she exclaimed, “You finished it just as I expected!”

She picked up the embroidery and examined it closely. The more she looked, the more satisfied she became.

But Jiang Nian had something on her mind. She explained the flaws in the embroidery to Ge Mei in detail. Hearing this, Ge Mei stroked the flaws on the embroidery with her fingers, looked at it carefully, and smiled, “I wouldn’t have known if you hadn’t told me.”

She turned the embroidery over and added, “But even if you had told me, I wouldn’t have noticed. Your embroidery skills are truly impressive.”

As the director of the state-owned embroidery shop, she naturally knew how to embroider. But even she couldn’t detect the flaws, which means that the client from Hongcheng will also not notice the flaw.

As she was leaving, Ge Mei said,”I will tell the boss of Gangcheng the truth about the embroidery. Integrity is what matters in our business. I’ll leave now. When things settle down, I’ll talk to you about the reward. How does that sound?”

Jiang Nian was reassured and smiled, “Sister Ge, take care of important matters first. I’m not in a hurry.”

After lunch, Ge Mei left. Jiang Nian saw her off at the unit gate. When she was about to return home, she heard Feng Mei’s voice.

“Jiang Nian—”

Jiang Nian turned around and saw Feng Mei carrying vegetables, cornmeal, a fish, and a pair of couplets. “Are you preparing for the New Year, Sister Feng?”

Feng Mei smiled, “Yes, indeed. But since someone’s coming to our house on New Year’s Day, Old Song asked me to specially buy some meat dishes to cook tomorrow night.”

Jiang Nian was curious. “Is it Commander Song’s parents who are coming?”

“No.” Feng Mei’s hand was sore from gripping. She handed the couplets to Jiang Nian. “Help me hold these.”

As Jiang Nian took the couplets, Feng Mei continued, “It’s Commander Song’s cousin, Song Bai, who’s coming the day after tomorrow. I wanted to introduce you to him before.”