Sun Qinghui then mentioned that a girl named Wang Xiao would take the teaching job.

She was physically weak and couldn’t do hard labor.

She couldn’t support herself and had to rely on money sent from home every year.

Her family was also struggling.

Jiang Lin originally thought of giving the job to Ye Jing because she had spoken up for her.

She was surprised that Ye Jing didn’t seek personal gain.

Jiang Lin had a good impression of Sun Qinghui and Ye Jing and thought about building a relationship with them in the future.

After dinner, she happily played with the two children for two hours, told several stories, and then put them to bed.

The two children fell asleep quickly between her and Yan Runzhi.

Jiang Lin lay on the bed, her mind racing, unable to sleep.

So much had happened in the past few days, and it was all too unbelievable.

Thinking about herself, the original owner, Meng Yiyi, and those diaries and letters, she felt a surge of anger.

She suddenly sat up.

Yan Runzhi asked, “What’s wrong, dear?”

Jiang Lin replied, “Nothing, Mom, you go ahead and sleep. I’m going down to write a letter to my parents to tell them about Meng Yiyi’s bad deeds.”

Yan Runzhi helped her light the kerosene lamp.

Jiang Lin moved the small suitcase out, placed it on the Eight Immortals table in the main room, took the lamp out, and closed the door.

She first flipped through the two diaries of the original owner, summarizing most of the content into two things.

One, her good friend Meng Yiyi, how good their relationship was, how happy they were, how…

Two, her lover Bian Haitao, how good their relationship was, how considerate, talented, and handsome he was…

In the diary, there was hardly any mention of her parents, who were treated as foils to Meng Yiyi, like “The most indifferent people in the world are not enemies, but relatives. They are so cold and ruthless to me, forcing me to go to the countryside against my will. Only Yiyi is the best to me. Oh, Yiyi, my good sister.”

About Bian Haitao, it was all like, “Oh, my lover, my pure lover, my love that is as fragile and fleeting as a night-blooming cereus. No, I was wrong, although my lover has left me, my love is eternal!”

Jiang Lin almost vomited at the sight of it, never having seen such sentimental and cheesy stuff before.

Da Bao and Xiao Bao were mentioned as stains, burdens, and evidence of sin, with Cheng Rushan being that person, naturally also an antagonist.

Yan Runzhi was directly referred to as the landlady.

This whole family was like a huge quagmire, slowly swallowing her up.

Jiang Lin raised her hand, wanting to give herself a slap again, but then remembered Da Bao and Xiao Bao, so she gently tapped her face, not using much force, and twisted it a little.

Originally, she thought she could find something to prove that Meng Yiyi came here to freeload, but there was nothing at all.

It was all about how her good sister treated her well, cared for her, and was melancholic and sorrowful, which was really depressing!

This was too different from Jiang Lin’s values!

How could such a beautiful person end up being someone else’s appendage?

Even if she lost this friend, so what?

With self-respect, self-love, and self-reliance, would she still have no friends?

Feeling angry, Jiang Lin tore up some of the overly cheesy parts in the diary, as well as the parts about her family. It was really infuriating.

Still upset, she pinched the other side of her face.

The letter started with something she didn’t know what to write.

She no longer had any feelings for her parents in the provincial capital.

She could only dryly say, “After careful thought, I realize I was wrong before. Now that I see Meng Yiyi’s true face, we have severed ties,” and then mention the money scam involving Meng Yiyi and tell them not to be deceived by Meng Yiyi’s family.

Early the next day, Duan Chang’an drove a tractor to the village to pick up Jiang Lin.

Jiang Lin wanted to go by herself, but Cheng Dabao insisted on going with her, and even bribes didn’t work.

Jiang Lin: “Dabao, you’re still young…”

“Who’s young?” Cheng Dabao was unconvinced. “Dad’s not home, so I’m the man of the house.”

“I’ll just go take a look. I won’t have to work, and I’ll be back soon.” Jiang Lin thought the tile factory was too dirty.

It wouldn’t be good for the child to go and get all dirty.

Wouldn’t it be better for him to play at home with his brother? Or to follow Grandma?

Cheng Dabao refused to budge.

Seeing Jiang Lin still trying to coax him, he resorted to a trump card: “I’ve never even slapped myself.”

Jiang Lin: “!!!!!” Can’t get past this black history, huh?

Cheng Xiaobao scratched his nose with his finger, looking embarrassed.

Yan Runzhi covered her face pretending not to hear, so as not to embarrass Jiang Lin.

Helpless, Jiang Lin had to take Cheng Dabao on the tractor to the tile factory.

After hearing Cheng Dabao’s words, Duan Chang’an, out of curiosity, secretly glanced at Jiang Lin several times and indeed noticed yellowish-green marks on her snow-white cheeks.

What’s going on here?

But seeing Jiang Lin act as if nothing had happened, he naturally felt embarrassed to ask.

They weren’t that close yet.

Leading Dabao around the tile factory, Jiang Lin found it to be a simple place with three tile-making machines, over a thousand molds, and seven or eight workers.

She immediately understood the tile-making process.

These were not baked tiles but cement and yellow sand tiles!

The production process was very simple. Cement and yellow sand were mixed with water in a certain ratio, poured into the tile molds on the tile-making machine, and after drying, they became simple gray tiles, waterproof and windproof.

The downside: heavy. The advantage: no need for firing, simple and easy to operate.

After looking around, Jiang Lin had a good idea.

She just needed to familiarize herself with it once.

In the future, she wouldn’t need to come again.

When she needed tiles, she would just have Xiao Duan bring them over.

When he had no tasks from the commune, he would do odd jobs like this, pay the commune’s dues, and the rest would be his.

He was actually very busy, but because Jiang Lin was a educated youth and Cheng Rushan’s wife, Duan Chang’an gave her priority in bringing the tiles.

The first cart of tiles returned to the village, and Jiang Lin arranged them in the order of payment before distributing them.

If families could lay the tiles themselves, they did so, otherwise, they would ask her or someone else.

She didn’t need to worry about meals; eggs, grain, or money were sufficient.

Most villagers asked her for help, and those with some skill tried it themselves.

Jiang Lin found Shang Baozhu, Cheng Yulian’s man, who was strong, and also found Shang Zonghui, a young man who was gentle and skilled, whom she quite liked.

Laying tiles wasn’t difficult, but the technical problem was putting them on the roof.

Since the roof wasn’t very high and there weren’t many tiles, it wasn’t worth building a scaffold.

One person stood on top and another below threw them up.

It required strength and skill, and everyone needed to practice.

Shang Baozhu threw them from below with strength, and Shang Zonghui, being nimble, caught them above, and with a little practice, they cooperated well.

Jiang Lin laid them on top, supervised the work, gave instructions, and checked the quality.

So Jiang Lin was busy every day laying roofs for people.

In the blink of an eye, it was the beginning of autumn, and the Mid-Autumn Festival had passed.

The weather was cool and refreshing, and the air was clear, with a clear view for miles.

….

Meng Yiyi caught a cold these days.

Before this, Jiang Lin had humiliated her, the educated youth had ostracized her, and they had interrogated her about remitting money as if she were a criminal.

She was disheartened and desperate, and her mind was on the brink of collapse.

The teacher’s job was also taken back by the brigade and given to Wang Xiao, so she had to go to the fields.

It was not like before when she went to do some farm work to show off.

She really had to fertilize, hoe, and harvest sorghum.

In just a few days, she was so tired that her whole body ached, and her hands and feet were covered in blisters and bleeding.

She couldn’t stand it at all.

Her originally plump baby fat had all but disappeared, and her chin had become angular.

So, she decided to deliberately catch a cold and get sick in the rain.

After the barefoot doctor examined her, he allowed her to take a break.

However, the educated youth said she was faking it and forced her to continue working.

Meng Yiyi pretended to be mentally confused and fell into the water, where a fellow villager rescued her.

Sun Qinghui, fearing for her life, relaxed his attitude towards her slightly.

Today, everyone went to work, and she was lying sick at the educated youth center.

She had thought for a long time but couldn’t figure out why the Zhao family had changed their story.

She gave them money, implying that they didn’t sell their son to Jiang Lin because they thought the amount offered was too low.

Liu Honghua, Ma Kaihua, and others who had conflicts with Jiang Lin would definitely use this against her.

They would definitely frame Jiang Lin for trying to sell her son, arguing that the reason she didn’t sell was because the money was too little, which didn’t prove that she didn’t intend to sell him.

This fact alone was enough to make Cheng Rushan hate Jiang Lin.

Why did the Zhao family change their story?

She just couldn’t figure it out.

She paced around the yard, outside of which was a riverbank and a small vegetable patch.

There were no tall obstructions, and her line of sight was unobstructed.

She looked over the low wall and saw a Liberation truck parked on the village’s main road.

They had been sent to the countryside in such military trucks, each person wearing a large red flower, with drums and gongs blaring, holding up the Little Red Book, shouting Chairman Mao’s slogans.

That was five or six years ago.

Originally, their future was bleak, but now she had been reborn, with a brightness that others did not have.

The college entrance examination would end in October this year, and there would be policy reforms.

The next year, the college entrance examination would be restored.

If she studied hard, could she get into university?

But her academic performance was not good, and she had forgotten all the content of the college entrance examination.

Even if she started studying now…

it was easier said than done.

It’s not just about moving your mouth; it’s about memorizing bit by bit, doing question after question.

How boring, tedious, and torturous the process was, only those who did it would know.

Moreover, in her previous life, out of millions of people who took the college entrance examination, only about three hundred thousand were admitted.

Furthermore, although many of her classmates were successful in the college entrance examination and got into good universities, what about afterwards? Life is not always smooth sailing.

After getting into university, they faced crackdowns, layoffs, reforms of state-owned enterprises, stock market crashes, and another round of turmoil…

Even those who had once gone into business and made a fortune encountered various challenges, with wave after wave crashing upon them, leaving them dead on the beach.

Who would have the last laugh?

Cheng Rushan!

After much deliberation, Meng Yiyi concluded that Cheng Rushan was the most reliable.

Being with him meant a future full of brightness without hardships.

Of course, she decided she still wanted to go to university.

Getting into university would give her more leverage.

Lost in her thoughts, she saw a man coming down from the truck in the distance, walking towards the village along the road, getting closer and closer.

She could see clearly that he was a tall and handsome man.

Even though he wasn’t yet the tycoon in the transportation industry, he had a unique aura.

Dust-free and towering like a mountain, he seemed to have a huge magnetic force, attracting her heart.

Cheng Rushan had returned!

She was just thinking about him, and he had returned! Meng Yiyi’s heart started beating faster, a rush of blood making her face flush.

She quickly adjusted her clothes, ran her fingers through her hair, rubbed her face, and bit her lip hard, then rushed out.

…

Cheng Rushan had been so busy for the past half month that he hadn’t been able to sleep until dawn even for a day.

He first went to the provincial capital to the Political Committee, which was responsible for handling the cases related to class status.

Fortunately, he went; otherwise, the cases wouldn’t have been settled next year either.

Because there were so many documents in the office, even if they followed the process, it would probably take several years to process them all.

In this way, he had to spend money to beat up a fat-headed office director before completing the rehabilitation process.

Then, as arranged by Captain Cen, he went to the logistics department of the provincial military region to contact the transportation team and obtain his work permit.

From then on, he became an unofficial member of the transportation team and was responsible for transporting materials other than military/fire-related items for the army.

He then went to the special district, got various seals, and completed the rehabilitation process for his family.

Finally, he went to the local military district, submitted his work documents, and applied for a transport truck.

Since he hadn’t been assigned a special vehicle yet, he temporarily shared one with Dai Guohua.

After finalizing his work arrangements, he returned to Tang County to continue getting stamps from the Political Committee, then went back to the commune and brigade Political Committees, and finally went to the farm to get stamps, all to bring his father and cousin back.

Passing by his home, he decided to get off the car and go home for a while before going to the commune the next day.

He was eager to get home, thinking about things, and walking fast, with a hint of wind.

When he passed a small intersection, suddenly a person rushed out, seemingly about to collide with him.

Cheng Rushan heard the movement and forcibly stopped his leg that was about to step out, quickly stepping back a step.

The person fell under his feet with a thud.

Cheng Rushan frowned slightly and didn’t reach out to help. To be honest, he wasn’t a warm-hearted person.

His first reaction to strangers was suspicion.

Or rather, it was a survival instinct. His special experiences in the past had taught him that some women and children were the most deadly.

They appeared weak, making people lower their guard, but if you showed them sympathy and let your guard down, it would be seeking death.

If in a dangerous place, when someone suddenly pounced on him like this, Cheng Rushan’s first reaction would be to kick back.

In the village, he kept himself restrained.

Meng Yiyi exclaimed in pain, waiting for Cheng Rushan to come and help her, only to find that the pair of short canvas boots beside her remained motionless, as if nailed to the ground.

Her gaze followed the two straight long legs up, but met Cheng Rushan’s dark, cold, and impatient eyes.

Seeing him so cold and ruthless, she had to get up by herself, unable to hide her excitement. “Cheng Rushan, you’re back? I have something to tell you.”

Cheng Rushan: “Who are you?”

“I’m Meng Yiyi, the one who greeted you when you left.” She tried to show her sweetest smile.

Cheng Rushan remembered the woman who had spoken to him the morning he went to find Qian Bo.

At that time, he was thinking about asking Qian Bo some questions and didn’t pay much attention.

“Meng Yiyi? I happen to have something to ask you.”