Chapter 54 : Anonymous Letter

Before Jiang Li could respond, she saw Qin Xiaoting quickly pack the leftover food into an aluminum lunch box and stealthily follow Zhuang Guoliang.  

Zhuang Guoliang walked briskly, navigating through several alleys and turning multiple corners before stopping at a dead-end.  

A bald man leaning against the alley wall, smoking a cigarette, looked up as Zhuang Guoliang approached. He flicked away the cigarette butt, crushed it underfoot, and asked, “Did you sell the goods?”  

Zhuang Guoliang nodded.  

“Where’s the money?”  

Silently, Zhuang Guoliang pulled out the earnings, counted a portion, and handed it over.  

The bald man spat on the ground and smirked. “What did I say? Sick pork is still pork. Who can even tell the difference?”  

“I’m only helping you this once. Next time, you handle it yourself,” Zhuang Guoliang said coldly.  

The bald man chuckled, pulling a bill from the stack he held and tossing it to Zhuang Guoliang. “You’d be a fool not to take the profit when it’s right in front of you. I’m giving you a 30-cent commission for every kilogram you sell. If you weren’t an outsider, I’d be keeping all this money for myself. Don’t act so self-righteous. Selling sick pork once is no worse than me selling it five or eight times. It’s all the same in the end.”  

Clenching his jaw, Zhuang Guoliang accepted the money. Earlier, when the waitress at the state-owned restaurant had belittled him for being untrustworthy and rural, he had brought only five kilograms of the twenty kilograms promised.  

Still, he had relented and handed over the diseased pork from his basket after her insistence.  

Zhuang Guoliang worked at the slaughterhouse, where he processed two pigs daily, receiving 20 kilograms of pork as payment.  

But recently, swine fever had ravaged the pigs at the farm. With 30–40% of the livestock dying, his portion of pork had dwindled significantly.  

He’d tried explaining to the restaurant staff, but the waitress had been unreasonable, even searching through his belongings. Blaming her greed, he justified his decision to sell the tainted meat.  

Meanwhile, Qin Xiaoting, hiding with Jiang Li nearby, overheard the entire conversation. Her shock was evident as she instinctively covered Jiang Li’s mouth to stifle any reaction.  

Jiang Li, her expression calm, responded swiftly by covering Qin Xiaoting’s mouth in turn.  

The two exchanged glances and quickly left the scene.  

After walking a safe distance, Qin Xiaoting finally broke the silence. “Lizi, how can they do something so dangerous? Eating sick pork could kill people! And where do they even get so much pork?”  

Jiang Li explained everything she knew about the private slaughterhouse: “That pig farm is hidden deep in the mountains. They raise and slaughter pigs in the middle of the night, keeping everything secret. The workers are Yongge’s gang members, and they ensure no outsiders approach. Anyone who stumbles upon the operation either gets scared off or worse… Some have disappeared forever, buried in the forests of Xiaoxingling.”  

Horrified, Qin Xiaoting whispered, “Lizi, are you saying they’ve even killed people?”  

Jiang Li nodded grimly. “They’re gangsters. It’s not safe for us to get directly involved. They wouldn’t hesitate to retaliate against us. The best way is to report them anonymously.”  

“I’ll do it,” Qin Xiaoting volunteered. With her special abilities, she felt confident she could stay safe.  

“We’ll do it together,” Jiang Li insisted. “I don’t feel right leaving you to handle it alone.”  

That night, the two, masked and cautious, slipped an anonymous letter under the door of the state-owned restaurant and left another at the county revolutionary committee.  

Unbeknownst to them, a figure had been following their every move.  

When Jiang Li finally returned home, the house was quiet. Qi Shaoqiang lay motionless, his breathing steady.  

She patted her chest in relief, carefully stepped over him, and climbed back into her sleeping spot.

Although Jiang Li had accomplished something significant today, she didn’t feel any excitement and soon fell into a deep sleep.  

In the quiet of the night, Qi Shaoqiang opened his eyes, his gaze clear and thoughtful.  

What were Lizi and that educated youth Qin doing at the Revolutionary Committee so late at night?  

He brushed aside the damp hair clinging to Jiang Li’s forehead, his heart heavy with a mixture of bitterness and unease.  

They were already husband and wife, yet it felt as if Lizi still didn’t trust him. What troubled him even more was the thought of her walking such a long distance to the county with Qin Xiaoting.  

What kind of pressing matter could compel them to deliver a letter in the middle of the night?  

The discomfort churned within Qi Shaoqiang. He reached out and loosely wrapped his arm around Jiang Li, as if by holding her, he could draw her closer to him in both body and spirit. Breathing in the soft fragrance of her hair, some of his tangled emotions began to ease.  

His thoughts drifted to their marriage. At first, he had been puzzled when Lizi suddenly proposed. They had agreed on a probation period, so he had assumed she was beginning to feel something for him.  

But later, he discovered it was because Er Laizi, a boy from their village, had been harassing her.  

Could it be that Lizi had no feelings for him at all and had only married him as a temporary solution? The thought was like a knife to his chest.  

His breath quickened, veins standing out on his forehead as he gripped her a little tighter.  

No matter what her reasons were, Qi Shaoqiang had already decided, Lizi was his wife. He would never let her go.  

The next morning, Jiang Li woke up early despite staying up late the previous night. Before parting ways with Qin Xiaoting, she had received a small pot of water, described as mountain spring water. But Jiang Li knew it was spiritual spring water.  

She drank a careful sip, and almost immediately, most of her fatigue disappeared.  

Meanwhile, Qi Shaoqiang was preparing to head out for work. Smoke wafted from the kitchen as Chen Xianyun had already finished cooking breakfast. On the menu were thick millet porridge and golden egg pancakes.  

The egg pancakes were soft and flavorful, enhanced with fresh green onions from their garden. The millet porridge, sprinkled with chopped red dates, was steaming hot. Jiang Li relished the meal, finishing three bowls in one sitting.  

After breakfast, she set to work making hairbands. She took out the fabrics she had bought the day before and began cutting them into strips, 12 cm wide and two feet long.  

While the ideal length would have been 70–75 cm, Jiang Li didn’t have enough fabric this time, so she settled for making slightly smaller hairbands.  

She first sewed the short sides of the fabric strips to form a circular loop, then folded the fabric, wrapped it with another layer, and stitched along the long sides. Finally, she turned the fabric inside out, inserted a 20 cm rubber band, and sewed up the opening.  

In just 10 minutes, a basic hairband was complete.  

Jiang Li tried one on, admiring herself in the mirror. The blue and white plaid pattern looked fresh and elegant, enhancing her gentle features. It truly was beautiful.  

Fueled by the energy from breakfast, Jiang Li used the momentum to finish all the hairbands with the fabric she had bought.