Chapter 42:  Bad Morality

Depravity The house belonging to his uncle’s family should have been repaired, but because of the flood and locust plague, the work had been delayed.

    Lin Yue and the others had been staying at Su’s aunt’s house for a long time, it wasn’t good to keep staying at other people’s houses, so they discussed with Zhang Yuandong and moved back to the small courtyard on the southeast side.

    Due to the heavy rain and flood a while ago, not only had the courtyard wall collapsed, but the house also had a musty smell.

    Zhang Yuandong checked it and said that it was leaking.

    He spent a day fixing the roof, and the family moved back.

    As for the courtyard wall, the brigade said they would find someone to repair it in a few days, so they just made do for now.

    Back in this cramped house, the biggest problem was sleeping at night.

    The last time Zhang Yuandong came back, the two nights he spent here were not pleasant memories, now the two of them were in the same space again, and they were both a little awkward.

    Fortunately, there were two children in the room, which made them a little more comfortable.

    The weather had been good these past few days, but there was still a musty smell in the house.

    Fortunately, Zhang Yuandong had already lit a fire and heated the kang during the day, and the kang was quite dry.

    Lin Yue was sitting on the kang, fanning the two children gently.

    At this time of year, mosquitoes were rampant, the two little ones were bitten with several red bumps, and at night they were even more harassed by mosquitoes, making it difficult to sleep.

    She gently fanned away the mosquitoes with her fan, her gaze involuntarily drifted to the window.

    They had been staying at other people’s houses for the past few days, it wasn’t convenient to take a bath.

    Now that they were back home, Zhang Yuandong was only wearing a pair of shorts that reached his knees, he stood in the yard and washed his body with cold water.

    In the moonlight, Lin Yue could see the smooth lines of his back, his broad shoulders and long waistline, reflecting the water light in the moonlight.

    After being splashed with water, his clothes were wet and clung to his body, making his buttocks look even more perky, his two long legs were strong and powerful.

    Lin Yue blushed and her heart raced, her sleepiness vanished.

    She felt like a child who had done something wrong, she felt very guilty, but she couldn’t control her gaze, she couldn’t help but glance out the window, her gaze lingered on his lean waist for several rounds.

    She resigned herself to her fate and thought: The moon is so bright tonight, he’s not even trying to find a more private place to wash, he has to wash outside the window, how can I be blamed for peeking? As for the fact that their courtyard was only this big, she deliberately pushed it to the back of her mind.

    Zhang Yuandong was facing away from the window, he didn’t think much of it, it was common to shower outdoors in the army, besides, he had deliberately worn a pair of shorts.

    But the gaze behind him was too blatant, the more he washed, the more flustered he became, his ears and neck were all red.

    In the end, he simply picked up the whole basin of water and splashed it all over himself, he quickly finished washing and ran into the kitchen as if escaping.

    He washed dirty clothes for a while, then tidied up things, he lingered in the kitchen for a while, finally even brushed Lin Yue and the children’s straw shoes, but he still wouldn’t go into the house.

    Lin Yue saw him peeking out, she couldn’t help but smile secretly.

    It seemed that he was more like a shy little wife.

    Lin Yue stopped teasing him, she turned sideways and lay down, pretending to be asleep.

    She closed her eyes and had an untimely thought: Should I prepare another pillow for him? Zhang Yuandong lingered outside the door for a while before quietly entering the house.

    The September nights were already a little cold, he had only taken a pair of spare pants when he went to wash, he was still naked at this time, he quickly rummaged through his travel bag for a shirt, he put it on in a hurry, and then carefully lay down on the edge of the kang.

    In the middle of the night, Lin Yue quietly got up and got off the kang.

    She made sure that she, her son, and her daughter were all still asleep, she went into the space and changed into a black outfit, she tiptoed out the door.

    Zhang Yuandong was lying on the very edge of the kang, because he didn’t dare to move, his whole body was stiff.

    Lin Yue had just gotten up, and he woke up.

    He thought she was going to the toilet, he didn’t want to embarrass her, so he didn’t make a sound.

    His senses were very sharp, as soon as Lin Yue entered the space, he immediately noticed that her breathing had disappeared.

    After she left the house, he also got off the kang.

    There was a wooden railing next to the kang, it was a railing that Lin Yue had made for the two children.

    Zhang Yuandong used it to surround the two little ones, and then hurried after her.

    In just a short while, he couldn’t find Lin Yue anymore.

    It was too dark, he couldn’t tell where Lin Yue was going, he could only search blindly in the village.

    Fortunately, not long after, he found her near the granary.

    Lin Yue had been wandering around outside the granary for a while.

    The grain had just been harvested these past few days, and there were still people guarding the warehouse, it was very difficult for her to get close, and in order to prevent thieves, the small windows of the granary were opened very high, she couldn’t reach them without help, it was even more difficult for Lin Yue to do anything.

    When Zhang Yuandong came over, he saw her pacing back and forth outside the granary, seeing that the patrolmen were about to come over, he quickly went over, covered Lin Yue’s mouth from behind, and whispered in her ear, “It’s me, come with me.”

    Seeing that Lin Yue didn’t resist, he pulled her back to a secluded place away from the granary.

    He asked in a low voice, “What are you doing here?” Lin Yue hesitated for a long time; she didn’t know how to answer.

    Zhang Yuandong quickly understood her purpose: “You wouldn’t be thinking of sending grain to the granary, would you?” Seeing that she still didn’t speak.

 “Didn’t you say you applied for relief grain? Don’t worry, wait a few more days, there should be news soon.”

    Speaking of relief grain, Lin Yue became angry: “In the past few years, the people in the village were almost starving to death, they applied for relief grain every year, but they never saw a single grain of rice, waiting for the relief grain to come, I don’t know how many people would starve to death!” If it wasn’t for this, she wouldn’t have risked being discovered to do this!

    In the moonlight, Zhang Yuandong saw her little face puffed up with anger, his heart couldn’t help but soften, he gently comforted her: “This year the harvest in the county is not good, it’s not just our village, so many people have been affected, and the policy has just been changed, the higher-ups won’t ignore us.”

    Lin Yue also thought of what Zhang Yuandong said.

    But she was afraid that the relief grain wouldn’t come in time, and wouldn’t be able to save those who needed saving.

    Thinking of this, her eyes became moist.

    When the original owner was still alive, she almost starved to death because she couldn’t eat enough.

    Zhou’s aunt saw that the original owner was pitiful, and she had given her food more than once.

    At that time, everyone was struggling, the little food that Zhou’s aunt gave was squeezed out of her own mouth, she was afraid that her son and daughter-in-law would find out, so she could only give it to her secretly.

    Not to mention that she was really good to the two little ones, Lin Yue still remembered it.

    She thought that if everyone found out tomorrow that there was a lot of extra grain, and they didn’t have to worry about food anymore, maybe Zhou’s aunt would have a chance to survive.

    Lin Yue sighed, “It’s all because of the lack of food, if everyone didn’t lack food, and a family lived together, even if there were some bumps along the way, they wouldn’t do something like this.”

    Zhang Yuandong heard that she was talking about Zhou’s aunt, he pondered for a moment and said, “Zhang Shouyu dared to do this, the brigade won’t let him off lightly.

    It’s just that his mistreatment of Zhou’s aunt doesn’t have much to do with the lack of food.

    Do you think their family looks like they can’t afford to eat? I was planning to find someone from the Bureau to investigate Zhang Shouyu tomorrow, and then arrest him and scare him, I’m not afraid that he won’t be honest.

    But now I have a better idea, how about we send food to everyone in a different way?” He leaned closer to Lin Yue and whispered his plan.

    Lin Yue felt a little ashamed after hearing this, but after thinking about it for a while, she agreed.

    Early the next morning, something big happened in the village.

    Almost every household’s courtyard had bags of different sizes, filled with hulled sorghum grains.

    The grain was divided according to the number of people in the family, the family with the most people received a whole sack of grain.

    However, what made everyone boil over was not this, the people of Xiaotuan Village also considered themselves to have seen the world, this was not the first time they had seen “divine grain”.

    But this time was different from the past, this time the “divine grain” not only appeared directly in their homes, but what was even more amazing was that both the cloth bags and the sacks had a line of words written on them in bold strokes: “Shouyu, in the east of the village, is depraved, and will not be given divine grain”.

    This immediately caused a stir in the village.

    This was practically the Snake God’s judgment on Zhang Shouyu’s family.

    Originally, everyone should have carefully hidden away so much grain that suddenly appeared in their homes, but who would have thought that there were such big words written on the bags, before they even had breakfast, the news had already spread throughout the village.

    Lin Yue had always ignored the influence of the “Snake God” in the village, every time she heard everyone discussing it, she was only ashamed, she didn’t have much of a feeling about it.

    But in fact, the Snake God’s influence in Xiaotuan Village was very great, until many years later, the children of that time grew up and had their own children, they had not experienced this period of history, when they heard their grandparents talk about it, they only thought it was a strange story, and gradually no one worshipped it anymore.

    At this time, Zhang Shouyu was also quite frightened.

    Zhang Yuandong had been following Zhang Zhiqiang and Liu Yiliang since early in the morning, and Su’s aunt was also with them, she was the women’s director of the brigade.

    Zhang Zhiqiang pulled Zhang Yuandong to the back and whispered, “The brigade will handle this matter, you’re just here to go through the motions today, don’t really make a fuss and go to the police station!” Seeing that Zhang Yuandong agreed, he led him to push aside the people who were gathered at the entrance of Zhang Shouyu’s house, and entered the house with some difficulty.

    Zhang Shouyu still insisted that his mother refused to eat.

    His wife, Liu Dehui, saw her own father, she didn’t dare to say a word, she just huddled in the corner and cried.

    Liu Yiliang glared angrily at his useless daughter and son-in-law, and scolded, “Your mother doesn’t want to eat, she’s just feeling sorry for you, why don’t you know how to persuade her! As children, you can’t just listen to whatever your parents say!” Zhang Yuandong sat by the old lady’s kang in the inner room, he heard him say this, he smiled sarcastically.

    He took advantage of the fact that everyone hadn’t entered the room yet, he secretly took out a small, round candy the size of a pea and put it in the old lady’s mouth.

    He and Lin Yue were outsiders after all, they couldn’t interfere with other people’s fate, they could only do this much.

    He sat for a while, seeing that they had finally finished their perfunctory words and were about to enter the room, he got up and said goodbye.

    Just as he reached the door, he heard Su’s aunt say excitedly, “Zhou’s wife opened her eyes! Shouyu’s wife, quickly bring some sugar water, see if you can feed her!” Zhang Yuandong stopped at the door, until he saw Zhou’s wife sitting up and actually finished a bowl of sugar water, then he went out and went home.