Chapter 15

Lan Xiruo was feeling a headache from all the noise and raised her voice, “Please make way! Let me put these things on the table first.”

“Yes, yes, everyone move aside!”

Lan Xiruo placed the wooden bucket on the table, then untied the bundle from her body and opened it on the table.

Seeing the long-awaited treasure, everyone from the capital city held their breath, staring intently, afraid that if they blinked, the treasure would disappear.

Lan Xiruo quietly stepped back from the crowd, but she immediately felt an uncomfortable gaze locked onto her.

She looked up and accurately identified the source.

It was him!

Zhang Yunli!

The man who, in her previous life, stole her achievements and even spoke about it with great righteousness.

The second-in-command of Wangyang Commune!

If she hadn’t been so foolish in her past life—saving people without expecting anything in return and considering Zhang Yunli’s position as a director—the credit for her work wouldn’t have been taken by this hypocrite.

What was even more infuriating was that he used the “merit of saving lives” to gain many benefits.

It allowed him to climb smoothly from being the second-in-command of a small commune to becoming a bureau chief in the capital.

“This comrade is a sent-down youth, right?”

Lan Xiruo, lost in thought with her eyes lowered, suddenly heard a voice beside her.

She snapped back to reality and realized that Zhang Yunli had somehow approached her.

Lan Xiruo gathered her thoughts and responded softly, “Yes.”

“Very impressive!” Zhang Yunli praised her with an unclear tone, then sighed, “If it weren’t for you recognizing these treasures, those illiterate fishermen would have ruined them.”

After speaking, he pretended to be curious and asked, “I’m a bit curious—how does Comrade recognize these treasures?”

Lan Xiruo looked at him, puzzled.

“If I remember correctly, none of the families of you sent-down youths are involved in cultural relics, right?”

Lan Xiruo didn’t want to entertain him, but since he still had the power to make things difficult for her, she casually gave a reason.

“Our former neighbor used to tinker with these things. I often played at his house, so over time, I picked up some knowledge.”

Zhang Yunli suddenly understood. “I see! No wonder you don’t know the rules.”

“When something is discovered in a place, it should first be reported to the local authorities, who will then report it upwards.”

Lan Xiruo: “…”

Couldn’t he just say she didn’t follow the rules instead of making such a long-winded speech?

Lan Xiruo remained silent, not responding to Zhang Yunli, and the atmosphere between them became tense.

“Lan Comrade, come over for a moment.” Jiang Aiguo’s call saved Lan Xiruo from Zhang Yunli’s awkwardness.

She smiled apologetically at Zhang Yunli and then turned to walk toward Jiang Aiguo.

Zhang Yunli watched her back with a gloomy expression. It seemed the information he had received was inaccurate.

No matter how he looked at it, Lan Xiruo didn’t match the harmless little white rabbit described in the report.

When Lan Xiruo reached Jiang Aiguo, she saw that the other five members of their team were also there.

Jiang Aiguo smiled at her and introduced the middle-aged man beside him.

“Lan Comrade, let me introduce you. This is Secretary Xu from our commune.

Secretary Xu, this is the Lan Comrade I mentioned—the one who discovered the treasure.”

“Hello, Secretary Xu!”

Secretary Xu happily patted Lan Xiruo on the shoulder and laughed. “Good, good! You’re a great comrade! Your group has made a huge contribution this time.

Once the commendation from the capital arrives, our commune will also prepare a reward for you.”

Hearing this, Lan Xiruo understood—whether or not the capital gave a reward, the commune would definitely give them something.

Because Secretary Xu was truly an easy-going official who focused on real work, unlike Zhang Yunli, who was a hypocrite—one face in public, another in private.

The men in their team grinned widely at the mention of a reward.

Sun Yuqing walked up to Lan Xiruo and whispered, “Did that Zhang guy just say something weird to you too?”

Lan Xiruo nodded.

Sun Yuqing sneered, “He’s a pretentious scumbag. You don’t need to bother with him.”

Lan Xiruo looked at her in surprise. “How do you know?”

“Once, I went to the commune and accidentally saw how he treated his subordinates—extremely harshly,” Sun Yuqing whispered.

Lan Xiruo: “…”

How did someone like that rise so high?

“It’s real! It’s real! This is the missing skull from our country’s past!”

A sudden exclamation drew everyone’s attention to the group of experts.

Their faces were flushed with excitement, their eyes fixated on the skull on the table, muttering to themselves.

“I never thought that after decades of searching, it would turn up on this small island.”

“This is great! Recovering this skull will allow us to study even more things.”

“We really have to thank Old Sun for informing us.”

“By the way, didn’t Old Sun say his granddaughter’s team salvaged this treasure? Which one is his granddaughter?”

The experts, engrossed in the treasure, suddenly realized they should acknowledge Sun Yuqing. Their eyes darted between Lan Xiruo and Sun Yuqing.

Lan Xiruo smiled slightly and quietly stepped back.

The experts’ eyes immediately lit up as they turned to Sun Yuqing, laughing.

“Haha, so you’re Old Sun’s granddaughter! Not bad, not bad, young lady, you look energetic.”

“You must have been the first to discover these treasures, right? Impressive! You’re truly Old Sun’s granddaughter.”

“With luck like yours, you can inherit Old Sun’s legacy.”

“Old Liu is right. In our field, luck is also important.”

They kept talking amongst themselves, leaving Sun Yuqing with no chance to interject.

She looked at Lan Xiruo helplessly. Seeing that Lan Xiruo didn’t mind, she felt relieved.

If she had encountered someone petty who held grudges over this, it would have been unjust.

—-

In the end, Sun Yuqing barely had a chance to speak to the experts, but at least she managed to clarify the situation.

The experts were surprised to learn that Lan Xiruo was the first to discover and recognize the treasure.

After speaking with her briefly, they eagerly left their contact information.

They told her that if she ever discovered another treasure, she must notify them immediately.

While they were chatting excitedly, Zhang Yunli was fuming. He felt that Lan Xiruo was slipping out of his control.

But he had no way to stop her from forming connections with those experts.

His gaze turned dark as he looked at Lan Xiruo again, making a decision in his heart.

Lan Xiruo had no idea that Zhang Yunli had been investigating her background or that she had been under his surveillance. She only found his gaze toward her oddly strange.

She touched her face. Could it be that this old man was interested in her looks?

—-

After sending off the experts from the capital, Lan Xiruo and her team returned to their normal routine.

Once their fishing boat was repaired, they set out to sea early every morning, hauling in their nets by evening and selling their catch.

A week later, each of them had only managed to save ten yuan.

Sun Yuqing clutched her money, leaned on Lan Xiruo’s shoulder, and wailed.

“Ahhh! A whole week of working without spending anything, and we only made ten yuan each! That’s forty yuan a month! We’ll need almost three months to pay off our debt!”

The fishing nets they salvaged after the typhoon were barely usable—only about one and a half nets in total. Jiang Aiguo did the calculations, and each person still owed 110 yuan.

Lan Xiruo was also feeling troubled. She glanced at the group and tentatively suggested, “Why don’t we apply to fish in a farther location?”