Chapter 17

“I’ll tidy up this corner of the wall. If you want to plant flowers, you can do it in the corner,” Lu Weiguo suggested.

After this, Shi Tingyu didn’t say anything more. She had the Spirit Spring water; not planting flowers she liked felt like a waste to her.

The yard wasn’t fully cleaned up yet when Shi Tingyu proposed heading back. She had to cook dinner tonight.

Lu Weiguo cleaned up the hoe and then took Shi Tingyu back to her parents’ house.

As they left the family compound, without Lu Weiguo saying anything, Shi Tingyu took the initiative to wrap her arm around his waist.

Lu Weiguo wasn’t as nervous as the first time; instead, he felt a sense of joy growing inside.

Although Lu Weiguo wasn’t skilled in cooking, washing vegetables and preparing ingredients were within his capabilities. Coming from rural backgrounds, they wouldn’t peel potatoes into strips, and they knew how to handle the necessary ingredients, which was helpful to Shi Tingyu.

When Shi Tingyu’s parents came home from work, they were greeted by a rich aroma of food, lifting their previously somber mood.

Sitting together at the table, Shi Tingyu kept serving her parents with food, noticing that their mood seemed off today.

But, when it came to mealtime, they avoided discussing unhappy matters at the dinner table.

After dinner, Lu Weiguo helped with the dishes.

Shi Tingyu’s parents then addressed their daughter sitting on the sofa, “Xiao Yu, your mom and I won’t have to go to work tomorrow.”

Shi Tingyu knew what was coming. Lu Weiguo, sensing the change, put down the dish he was washing and joined them.

Shi Tingyu’s parents were quite downcast. After returning to the country, they had been working at the research institute, which was like their second home. The news they received this afternoon felt like a shoe finally dropping.

Melancholy was inevitable. They also knew that the day of parting with their daughter was approaching.

“How did the institute respond?” Shi Tingyu inquired.

Her father sighed, “The institute said they received orders from above to stay at home for the next few days and wait for an investigation.”

Shi Tingyu held her parents’ hands and reassured them, “It’s okay, our home is clean and tidy.”

Shi’s mother felt relieved, knowing that everything unnecessary in the house had been cleared out, even the plaster figurine on her daughter’s desk.

Lu Weiguo didn’t expect things to escalate so quickly. He didn’t stay long at Shi’s house, leaving Shi Tingyu to accompany her parents while he went back to the camp to gather information.

Shi Tingyu saw him off at the door, advising, “Be careful on the dark road.”

Lu Weiguo nodded towards her, wasting no time as he rode away.

In the early hours of the morning, the door of Shi’s house was knocked on.

Lu Weiguo had returned.

At that moment, nobody in Shi’s family felt sleepy. They all gathered in the living room upon Lu Weiguo’s return.

“I inquired with the Commander, and the Red Committee will be coming tomorrow. Since there’s nothing to be concerned about in the house, you don’t need to worry during the search,” Lu Weiguo assured them.

Seeing the relatively calm expressions of Shi Tingyu’s parents, Shi Tingyu also felt relieved.

After Lu Weiguo left, she added Spirit Spring water to the water she poured for her parents. She wasn’t worried about their health.

Her concern now was a different issue: “If the Red Committee doesn’t find anything during the search, will my parents still be relocated?”

Lu Weiguo responded gravely, “This time, relocation might be unavoidable.”

Shi Tingyu bit her lip, realizing her parents would indeed be relocated. She hoped the conditions at their new place wouldn’t be too harsh, allowing her to send them things and visit occasionally.

Understanding their worries, Lu Weiguo reassured, “Don’t worry, there’s a high probability they’ll be relocated to my hometown this time.”

Shi Tingyu and her parents’ eyes lit up hearing this.

Lu Weiguo said, “I mentioned to the Commander last time, and they’ll make an effort to select a suitable place for relocation. It should be fine.”

After some thought, he briefed Shi Tingyu’s parents on the situation in their hometown.

“My hometown is in the former West Brigade of Huai County in the Eastern Province. The current Brigade Leader is my second uncle.”

“I’ll inform my family in advance, and they will take care of you. If you encounter any difficulties that you can’t solve, just go to my second uncle and the others.”

“Now we’re all family, so don’t hesitate to ask them for help.”

Shi Tingyu’s parents appreciated their son-in-law’s thoughtfulness, and they felt more at ease about their daughter’s future.

Knowing that Shi Tingyu’s parents would likely be relocated to the former West Brigade, Lu Weiguo explained the family situation to them. Besides mentioning that his grandfather was the former village head, he also introduced his two nephews from Uncle Lu’s family.

These were Lu Weiguo’s two younger cousins.

The elder cousin, Lu Weibing, aged twenty-seven, worked as a policeman in the Huai County Public Security Bureau. The genes for his villainous face all came from their grandfather, Lu Shijin.

Inherited the exclusive genes for a villainous face from their grandfather, there were three people in total: Lu Weiguo and his father, and the third person was Lu Weibing, his elder cousin.

Of course, this cousin also inherited their grandfather’s tall stature.

Back in the day, Grandfather Lu Shijin became the village head not only because of his righteousness but also due to his imposing physique and villainous face that kept order.

Especially during the years of famine, without someone to maintain order, the villagers would have had a tough time.

Lu Weiguo’s other younger cousin, Lu Weijun, had a decent education because he had graduated from high school. He was now the accountant in the brigade.

After this understanding, Shi Tingyu finally realized what it meant to be a local bigwig.

Families like the Lu’s, if placed in novels, would be portrayed as tyrannical landlords acting like petty emperors.

However, why did the name of the brigade sound so familiar?

Former West Brigade?

Suddenly, she remembered a historical fiction novel she had read before.

It told the story of a female protagonist who reincarnated back to the 1970s, making money and achieving success. The protagonist seemed to be named He Ping, a native of the former West Brigade.

In her previous life, the female protagonist encountered a scumbag, suffered greatly, became ill, couldn’t conceive, and eventually died alone in bed due to illnesses. After her rebirth, she married an orphan from the former West Brigade who had grown up eating from a hundred families.

The orphan was once from a landlord family, clever-minded. With the reform and opening-up policies, he used a few large yellow croakers secretly hidden by his ancestors as startup capital to venture into business, eventually becoming the richest man in the Eastern Province.

In the novel, the female protagonist and the male lead, who had been poor since childhood, healed and supported each other, inspiring and heartwarming.

Although at times the female lead’s methods of revenge against her scumbag ex-husband were harsh, she had her limits. While she could be somewhat self-serving at times, she never hesitated when faced with major moral issues.

This is also why Shi Tingyu was able to finish reading the entire novel in one go.

She tried to recall the plot of the novel but couldn’t remember the involvement of the Shi family.

However, the Lu family appeared frequently in the novel. The Lu family held high prestige in the former West Brigade and provided significant help to the male and female leads.

In the novel, this lonely wolf cub from childhood would have starved if it weren’t for the help of the Lu family. Even now, with no surplus food, who would be willing to share their food with an outsider?

The role of the Lu family became evident at such times.

As a part of the good faction that helped the male lead in the novel, the Lu family had a good ending.

She remembered a line from the novel about the youngest son of the Lu family, who had outstanding military achievements, held a high position, but remained unmarried his whole life!

The youngest son of the Lu family, wasn’t that Lu Weiguo?

So, Lu Weiguo had never married?

Why?

She thought of Lu Weiguo’s face and his many unsuccessful blind dates, and suddenly it all made sense.

Perhaps he was hurt by the attitudes of the women he met. As his status rose, he might have lost interest in pursuing marriage.

【Not blackening the original female lead, the original female lead is not a perfect character, but her image is positive.】