Chapter 30.2

At the dinner table, the family sat around together.

Cao Qiuhua took a few bites of her rice, then seemed to remember something. She asked the fourth son, “Why have you been staying at home lately? Aren’t you going to the county to learn how to drive?”

Caught off guard, Chen Jun, who had been fighting with Little Sister Yuyu for some sugar persimmons, froze for a moment. He subconsciously looked at his brother and stammered, “Uh… yeah, why… why aren’t I going to learn to drive?”

Chen Yi, amused, replied, “Didn’t we say the driving teacher went on a long trip and gave you a break a few days ago?”

“Right, right, look at my brain, I totally forgot, that’s it, that’s the reason.”

Seeing that something was clearly off with her fourth son, Cao Qiuhua furrowed her brows and stopped eating. “Why do I feel like something’s strange with you?”

Meeting her mother’s and Little Sister Yuyu’s suspicious gazes, Chen Jun held his neck high and said, “I… I’m not strange at all.”

“Not strange? Then why are you stammering?”

“Who… who’s stammering?”

Chen Yi sighed inwardly and reached out to serve a piece of dish to both his mother and Little Sister Yuyu, trying to change the subject. “I heard something in the village today, not sure if it’s true or not.”

Upon hearing this, Cao Qiuhua was immediately intrigued. “What is it?”

Chen Nongmo also looked over, curious.

“Third Grandma somehow got hold of a weird remedy. She says if you peel a boiled egg, put it in hen’s mouth, cover it with their saliva, then take it out, it’s supposed to be a great tonic. If that’s true, you should go talk to her. Who has ever heard of such a strange remedy? If she keeps at it, she might make her body worse instead of better.”

Although this was an attempt to divert his mother’s attention, it was actually true. Chen Jun, being younger, didn’t want to directly visit Third Grandma, and he figured if he mentioned it to her, she wouldn’t listen, so he thought it would be better for his parents to handle it.

Hearing of such an odd remedy for the first time, Chen Nongmo was stunned. Forget about the part of the egg being placed in Hen’s mouth—what about the saliva?

As far as she knew, the saliva of Hen had trace amounts of toxins, didn’t it?

Thinking of this, she quickly turned to look at her mother, who had already turned pale. “This isn’t good. I think I read somewhere that Hen’s saliva is toxic. A small amount won’t have much effect, but long-term use is definitely harmful. If Third Grandma doesn’t listen, you should tell Old Secretary about it.”

Third Grandma was over seventy years old and was very kind, but her thinking was stuck in the past.

She didn’t believe in banks to save money, preferring to stash it away and take it out to air every year.

When her child fell ill, she wouldn’t go to the hospital, but instead would spend all her energy searching for remedies.

Not long ago, it was said that she had been going door to door looking for cockroaches.

Though cockroaches could be used in traditional medicine, they should never be consumed recklessly without medical advice.

No matter what, everything should be treated according to the right diagnosis.

At that time, Old Secretary had scolded her severely and managed to convince her to stop, but now, less than two months later, she had come up with another bizarre remedy.

Upon thinking of this, Chen Nongmo’s face turned green. He had no idea what kind of strange remedy Grandma would find next.

To be blunt, the grandson that the doctor had said just needed to move his shins more and eat more nutritious food to get better had turned pale well into his teens. It was possible that it was due to the excessive use of folk remedies.

“No, I’m going now.” After barely suppressing the feeling of nausea, Cao Qiuhua didn’t even bother to finish her meal. She put down her chopsticks and headed towards the kitchen.

Seeing this, Chen Zong wiped his mouth and went to the corner of the yard to push his bicycle.

By the time he took the bike out of the yard and mounted it, Cao Qiuhua was already walking out holding a few pieces of mung bean cakes.

Chen Nongmo raised his head and shoveled down some rice. After eating a few bites, he quickly ran out and nimbly climbed onto the back seat. “Daddy Zong, I’m going too.”

Cao Qiuhua, holding the mung bean cakes, stood by and glared at him. “What are you getting on for?” She was about to pull him off the bike.

Chen Zong smiled and stopped her. “My daughter wants to watch, so let her come along. You can sit on the front bar.”

Chen Nongmo hid behind Daddy Zong. “Yeah, I’ve never seen hen swallow an egg before.”

“What’s so interesting about that?” Cao Qiuhua was speechless. She poked her daughter’s forehead with her hand before sitting on the front bar.

The twins left behind exchanged glances. Chen Jun scratched his nose. “Aren’t we going?”

Chen Yi sped up his eating. “No need. Dad’s here, and I’ll call Shao Zheng.”

“Then I’ll go too!”

“You go fishing with Er Zhuzi.”

“…Oh.”

——

738 Military Unit.

After receiving information about Liu Kai from a friend, Shao Zheng went to find Old Chen.

Since his sister-in-law was pregnant, Old Chen had been spending most of his time, aside from work, with his small family.

Before confirming whether Liu Kai actually had a problem, Shao Zheng hadn’t thought of distracting him.

But now… it couldn’t be ignored.

“Why are you here? Want to go to the cafeteria for a meal?” The two of them were now in charge of the First and Second Regiments, and the offices were quite far apart compared to before.

Shao Zheng waved his hand. “Tell Xiao Liu to bring us two portions when he goes to eat. I have something to discuss with you.”

Upon hearing this, Chu Wuwen furrowed his thick brows but didn’t immediately ask anything. Instead, he took two empty lunch boxes from the lower cabinet and went outside to call the steward.

Once the person was out of earshot, he returned to his seat, crossed his hands, and asked seriously, “Go ahead, what’s going on?”

Shao Zheng then relayed the matter that Chen Yi had brought to him a few days ago.

Finally, under the stern expression of his brother, he continued, “My friend checked it out. After cross-referencing the information provided by the village and the household registration, it turns out that Liu Kai died last year. His family just never went to get the death certificate.”

In this day and age, the management of household registration wasn’t strict. Some families weren’t unwilling to go, but simply didn’t understand that such a procedure existed.

There were also many people who didn’t grasp the concept of marriage registration. In their view, a marriage was official only if a banquet had been held at home.

Chu Wuwen controlled his rising anger and asked in a deep voice, “How long did your friend say it would take to figure out that grandson’s true identity?”

“He said it shouldn’t take more than a few days. The person has rare items like a camera, so the family should be fairly well-off, and most people know the real Liu Kai. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have borrowed that identity. If they follow this line of investigation, it won’t take long. I’m telling you this now because, since we can confirm that the imposter from the village is indeed suspicious, we need to clear things up with the family first.”

Chu Wuwen also agreed with his suggestion. “We should talk to Fifth Brother Yi about this. By the way, you said you scheduled the next call with Fifth Brother Yi?”

“Yes, it’s today.”

“Then we’ll wait for him to call.” Chu Wuwen didn’t want his mother and Little Sister Yuyu to worry about such messy matters. “Thanks for this, brother!”

Shao Zheng waved his hand. “We don’t need to say that between brothers.”

Upon hearing this, Chu Wuwen’s solemn expression softened a little. But before he could say anything else, the man across from him chuckled and said:

“Yuyu is also my Little Sister Yuyu. She cares about me, and in the last two or three years, she’s sent so many things. As her older brother, it’s only right that I care for her.”

“…If you can’t say anything good, just keep quiet.”

Meanwhile,

Chen Zong, along with his wife and daughter, pedaled their bicycle all the way to Third Grandma’s house.

Only then did they realize that they weren’t the only ones who had come—many villagers had gathered as well, all packed into the yard to watch the commotion.

Some people even had their rice bowls with them, eating as they watched.

Chen Nongmo, being led by Mother Qiuhua, entered the yard.

Then they saw Third Grandma, her wrinkled face hanging low, ignoring Old Secretary’s scolding, as she casually picked something out of a chicken’s mouth.

Chen Nongmo… ugh…

“…Alright, Third Sister-in-law, I don’t care where you got that remedy from, but if you keep recklessly messing with the child, I’ll just take Er Bao home to raise.” Old Secretary, usually the one to smile at everyone, had been pushed to the point of making a harsh threat.

After saying this, he looked regretfully at the white, cooked egg that had been pulled out of the chicken’s mouth, silently lamenting that eggs were such a good thing.

It had to be said that after dealing with each other for decades, Old Secretary’s words hit Third Grandma’s weak spot directly.

Er Bao was her lifeblood; how could she bear to let someone else take him away to raise?

In her panic and frustration, Third Grandma grabbed an egg and was about to put it into her mouth, shouting, “I’ll eat it in front of you all! I’ll eat it right now! What poison? Er Bao is my heart and soul! How could I harm him? This is a remedy I got from Master Zhou, and I paid a large sum for it! It will definitely cure my Er Bao!”

As the egg, covered in the chicken’s saliva, was about to enter Third Grandma’s mouth,

Chen Zong reacted swiftly. At the sound of gasps from the crowd, he quickly stepped forward and snatched it away.

Then, taking the other egg from the bowl as well, he turned and handed them over.

Chen Nongmo, who had been following Daddy Zong closely, instinctively reached out to grab them and then quickly ran outside.

Only when she was sure that Third Grandma hadn’t followed her did she breathe a sigh of relief.

However, looking at the hot potatoes in her hands, Chen Nongmo scrunched up her little face again.

Though the eggs had no particular taste, she still felt nauseous and really didn’t want to hold them.

Filled with disgust and not wanting to touch them for even a second longer, Chen Nongmo glanced around. Finally, she stood on tiptoe and placed the bowl on the courtyard wall where Third Grandma couldn’t reach it.

Fearing that the children watching the scene in the yard might be tempted to eat the eggs by mistake, she didn’t go back inside but stood by the wall, waiting for her parents to come out.

But as often happens in life, there are some things that are just too coincidental.

Just then… outside the courtyard wall, Liu Kai, who had been planning to go to the Educated Youth store to buy some food, noticed a bowl suddenly appear on top of the wall from a distance.

He hadn’t thought much of it at first, but as he walked past the wall, his curiosity got the better of him, and he gently took the bowl down.

When he saw what was inside, the man who had been eating coarse grains for a week without much appetite didn’t care about anything else. He devoured the eggs ravenously, then carefully placed the empty bowl back.

While savoring the taste of the eggs, he suddenly heard a few voices nearby.

The first voice to reach his ears was a deep male voice: “Yuyu, where are the two eggs that were taken out of the chicken’s mouth?”

“They’re on the wall, I hid them up there.”

“Take them down and toss them into the fish pond to feed the fish.”

“Okay… huh? Where did the eggs go?”

Thinking he had been caught, Liu Kai, who had covered his mouth and was running away, didn’t realize what had happened until he had swallowed all the eggs. Only then did he belatedly understand the meaning of the conversation he had just overheard.

Behind a desolate haystack, the man, looking disheveled, kneeled on the ground, clutching his throat. “Ugh…”