Chapter 46: Revoking Surveillance on the Jiang Family

“No, no, no, not a young intellectual,” Lin Meiru shook her head vigorously, determined to prevent her younger daughter from repeating the tragedy of her eldest daughter.

Zhou Yinghuai was handsome and capable, indeed a good candidate for a son-in-law, but he was a young intellectual, destined to return to the city.

Jiang Degui said coldly, “Just break his leg.”

Lin Meiru: ?

“As long as he breaks a leg and becomes a cripple, city jobs won’t find him, he’ll be stuck in the village for life, relying on An’an to support him. We’ll farm a bit more to supplement our income, we won’t be rich, but we’ll be able to eat and wear warm clothes.”

Lin Meiru: ???

Her expression changed instantly, thinking that her husband was even crazier than she was. He was practically testing the boundaries of crime!

“That’s not appropriate at all, let’s see…”

Deep in the mountains, Zhou Yinghuai was completely unaware that he had saved his leg.

These days, he had found the pits dug by those people, but there was no trace of the equipment. However, he did find an abandoned grave, standing alone in the jungle.

There were no inscriptions on the tombstone, perhaps the inscription had been worn away by wind and rain over the years. The surrounding weeds were neatly trimmed, and there were burnt incense sticks in front of the tombstone, as if someone came to pay their respects regularly.

Strange, there was no one around, whose ancestral grave was built here?

“Captain, the expert team dispatched by the higher authorities has arrived in H City, and they will arrive in Yunzhou County at the earliest in early next month.” The thin and dark man frowned, “Should we send a few brothers to stop them?”

Zhou Yinghuai: “No need to scare the snake, let them come.”

The equipment was not enough to attract the higher authorities to send an expert team to investigate, could there really be gold? During this time, he had found out that sixteen years ago, someone had exchanged a small gold bar for a large amount of rice in the black market, but unfortunately, too many clues had been lost due to the passage of time.

The only thing he could confirm was that the person was still doing some buying and selling business.

“The expert team has excellent equipment, if they find something, we’ll act then.” Whether it was gold or equipment, he was determined to get it.

If these things fell into the hands of the expert team, they would probably be divided up by those people.

But for the military, whether it was used for scientific research or buying advanced weapons overseas to strengthen national defense, it was more valuable.

The thin and dark man handed over a stack of documents: “By the way, the information you requested about Jiang An’an’s family is all here, their ancestors have no problems. Jiang An’an was indeed adopted, during the famine that year, there were many abandoned girls.

As for Jiang An’an’s martial arts skills… her three uncles used to perform lion dances, the youngest one was the closest to the Jiang family, he must have taught her some self-defense techniques.”

That could explain it.

Zhou Yinghuai pursed his thin lips. After his investigation and inquiries, the Jiang family was indeed clean. And Jiang An’an’s efforts for the Women’s Federation were also admirable.

“Revoke surveillance on the Jiang family and focus on investigating who sold the gold bar.”

—

A few days later, Jiang An’an met the Peking Opera performer.

Dong Lijuan was a performer of the “zhengdan” role, also known as “qingyi” in the north. Her whole figure was thin, revealing a quiet beauty. Even her voice was gentle and pleasant: “I will contact my former opera friends to sing “The Red Lantern”, and after the evening party, you will help me get a divorce.”

The word “divorce” came out of her mouth as if it were nothing.

Jiang An’an had already learned from her uncle that Dong Lijuan was a person of misfortune. Her parents arranged a marriage for her, and after marriage, her husband loved gambling and squandered all their family fortune. Her mother-in-law disliked her for being a “hen that doesn’t lay eggs”, so she often beat and scolded her.

If Dong Lijuan hadn’t been able to stand on her own two feet, she would have been worn down to death by her husband’s family. It wasn’t until her parents passed away one after another that she proposed a divorce.

Divorce was not easy these days, she had gone to the county several times and was persuaded to come back. She had already lost hope, but the news of Jiang Shulan’s successful divorce spread throughout the brigade, giving her hope again.

What made Jiang An’an admire Dong Lijuan was that after she decided that she could not continue the marriage, she had been trying to find ways to prevent pregnancy, so that her children would not suffer from birth.

“Don’t worry, maybe the divorce will be very easy at the end of the month.”

Dong Lijuan opened her mouth, but didn’t say anything discouraging. No matter what, Peking Opera was her lifelong love, and she was already very satisfied to be able to sing again openly.

She was full of fighting spirit, once she decided on anything, she would devote all her energy to it. She quickly contacted her former opera friends and began rehearsals.

There was one last skit left, Jiang An’an took the script and gave it to her mother. The skit was performed by local commune members, and the effect would be better.

The structure was based on the Spring Festival Gala skits of later generations, telling the trivial matters of neighbors in the commune, and finally reconciling, with the whole village making dumplings together.

Of course, Lin Meiru’s role was the villain who took advantage of her neighbors, and the reversal was at the end when the neighbor was in trouble, she helped them without hesitation, first suppressing and then elevating, in short, it would be a likable role.

Having the opportunity to take advantage of the commune, Lin Meiru was not afraid of going on stage at all, she was eager to try: “Don’t worry, I may not be good at playing a good mother, but this role is tailor-made for me, who are you going to find to play the other two roles?”

“Zhu Po and Lao Zhu’s husband and wife.” Jiang An’an explained, “Although Zhu Po is gossipy and loves to gossip, she looks kind and amiable.”

Lin Meiru had fought a few battles with Zhu Po in the early years, and she had never lost, so she confidently assured her: “Mother won’t cause trouble.”

With the promise of pork hanging in front of her, Zhu Po also calmed down and cooperated with the rehearsals. Only a fool would make trouble, this was a chance to show her face in front of the commune leaders, everyone else was hoping she would make a mistake so they could take her place.

Everything went smoothly, day after day, and soon it was the end of the month, the day the lecture was officially held.

Before seven o’clock, Jiang An’an arrived at the commune early.

Just as she parked her bicycle, she saw two workers carrying things out of the auditorium. She rushed forward in a panic, “Stop! Stealing public property is a crime!”

They had gotten up before dawn to work and hadn’t even had breakfast, they were already starving. Jiang An’an’s shout scared them so much that their legs went weak, and they fell to their knees.

The atmosphere was quiet and awkward.

Jiang An’an softened her voice, “Secretary Yang is going to hold an event in the auditorium today, didn’t you receive any notice? Why are you emptying the tables and chairs?”

The workers cried out that they were innocent, “Secretary Zhang assigned the task yesterday, saying that Director Chen ordered it to be cleared out before 7:30.”

“Secretary Zhang?” Jiang An’an tried to recall this person, she remembered that the commune secretaries all looked at her with disdain, she couldn’t remember who it was specifically.

But she couldn’t help but be grateful that she had arrived an hour earlier than usual, otherwise, when the leaders and commune members arrived at the auditorium, she would not only lose face but also be criticized.

“You move the tables and chairs back in and restore them to their original state. My name is Jiang An’an, I’m a cadre sent from the county to our commune, I’ll take responsibility for anything that happens.”

She had two sweet potatoes in her pocket, which her elder sister had specially steamed for her as a snack in the morning. Seeing the workers’ stomachs rumbling, she handed them the sweet potatoes.

“They’re still warm, eat them while they’re hot. The leaders will be holding an event in the auditorium at eight o’clock, please hurry up.”

The workers were very moved, they had food in their stomachs and energy to work, and within half an hour, they had restored everything to its original state.

“Director.” Secretary Zhang deliberately took a detour and went to work with Director Chen.

Chen Xingtong looked at him suspiciously, “What are you up to, kid? Your eyes are darting around.”

Secretary Zhang said mysteriously, “I helped you get rid of your anger.”

Chen Xingtong: ???

When he told him what had happened, Chen Xingtong’s heart sank, he slapped him in the face angrily, and cursed, “Damn it, you bastard, you’re going to kill me, I heard the county magistrate might come.”

Secretary Zhang’s face turned pale instantly, “Wh-what?”