After Xu Ning left Grandpa Wang’s house, she reached into her pocket and first stored the items in her space.

As she walked onto the main road, she spotted Lin Miao and Gu Wenping approaching from the direction of the supply and marketing cooperative. The three exchanged glances for a moment before turning their eyes away from each other.

Xu Ning rode her bicycle past them with an expressionless face. Lin Miao glanced in the direction Xu Ning was riding, sighed, and thought that if she hadn’t gone to the black market that day, her bicycle wouldn’t have been lost.

Noticing her sigh, Gu Wenping understood that she was upset about losing her bicycle. He comforted her, saying, “Next month, my family will send over the bicycle tickets. We can just go buy another one then.”

Lin Miao smiled and nodded, but in her heart, she was thinking that they weren’t married yet; the bicycle he bought was his. It would be much more convenient to have her own.

When Xu Ning returned home and put away her items, she took out the things Grandma Wang had given her from her space. Unwrapping the old cloth revealed two large yellow croakers inside.

She picked up two large yellow croakers and looked at them, thinking that it was now impossible to keep track of the accounts. Since they had treated each other sincerely, there was no need to be so calculative. After wrapping the gold, she placed them in her storage space.

Li Fengjiao left the next day after being discharged from the hospital. No one was notified. Lin Qiuhua, who had been sleeping beside her, woke up in the morning and saw that her spot was empty, assuming she had gone to the bathroom.

When everyone was finally up, they still hadn’t seen her. Lin Qiuhua began to panic and hurriedly told the others in the youth camp that Li Fengjiao had been missing since the morning.

They all lived together, and although there were some usual conflicts, it was nothing serious. Everyone feared that she might have become despondent and taken drastic measures, so they searched everywhere. In the end, it was Chunhua who discovered that all of her luggage was gone.

If she had left with her luggage, it meant she must have gone far away, and she would definitely need a letter of introduction. The village chief should know where she had gone.

Sun Hao and Ge Hongbin went to ask the village chief, and as everyone calmed down, they began to piece together the situation.

Sun Hao and Ge Hongbin returned not long after, and everyone could tell from their expressions that their guesses had been correct. The atmosphere was heavy, especially among the few male youth who had taken her to the hospital and Lin Qiuhua, who had cared for her there.

It was Sun Hao who broke the silence, saying, “She went back to the city. In the hospital, Chen Jianbing told her he wanted to marry her, but she refused. She demanded that Chen Jianbing find a way to arrange for her return to the city. If he didn’t, she threatened to accuse him of harassment.”

“Chen Jianbing was at a loss. He told his parents about the situation, and his father beat him up. Now, he’s still lying on the kang,” he continued.

The village chief intervened and found a youth from the neighboring village who had just received a permit to return to the city, pleading with him to give up his spot in exchange for a hundred yuan. The youth had many siblings and was already involved with someone here, so he wasn’t keen on returning and decided to give up the spot.

Ge Hongbin added, “Not only did she make Chen Jianbing help her return, but she also demanded a hundred yuan from his family, insisting that not a single cent less would do.”

The faces of those present turned grim. A few years ago, when some youths had conflicts with villagers and escalated matters to the township, the villagers had started to distance themselves from the commune. It seemed they would face even more exclusion in the future.

“She used my ration tickets in the hospital and hasn’t returned them yet,” Lin Qiuhua’s words made the youths feel even more disgusted with Li Fengjiao.

Suddenly, they recalled that several male youths had covered her medical expenses when she was first hospitalized…

Wei Lanlan angrily complained to Xu Ning, “…How could someone like that even exist? How will the villagers look at us youths in the future?”

Although Xu Ning knew Li Fengjiao would return to the city, she found it hard to believe it would happen in such a way. Some people’s moral limits truly seemed non-existent.

A month later, Xu Ning received a letter from Lu Xiaoran. Inside the letter was a photograph of a woman in military uniform wearing a red scarf, and a man in a military coat. They both wore identical cotton work shoes, which Xu Ning had sent them. It must be Lu Xiaoran and her husband.

After dinner, Xu Ning took the letter and the photograph to the cow shed.

When Uncle Lu and Aunt Lu saw the letter and the photograph, their eyes reddened. Understanding that they needed some private space, Xu Ning handed the letter to them and went to her parents’ room.

Xu Mo was playing in Grandpa Qi’s room. When he learned his sister had arrived, he dashed into her arms like a little cannonball and said, “Sister, why do you just draw water every day and leave? Why aren’t you using the secret code we agreed on?”

Xu Ning…

You run over there every few days; when do I have the chance to use our secret code? And barking like a dog or meowing like a cat—what was I thinking wanting to communicate like that with you?

Xu Ning picked him up and set him on the kang, asking, “What story did Grandpa Qi tell you these days? Tell me about it.”

Once he started talking about stories, he became lively, standing on the kang with the little wooden sword Lu Xiaotang had made for him. He enthusiastically acted out the tale, rolling and tumbling around. The kang was small, and with him flipping and flopping, Xu Ning and their parents could only sit on the edge and watch his amusing performance.

Just as Uncle Lu and Aunt Lu walked in, Xu Mo had just flipped over and climbed up. He picked up the sword next to him and pointed it at Xu Ning, declaring, “Bold little thief! Do you know who I am? I am the famous hero of the martial world, known as the Jade-Faced Little Tiger!”

Everyone burst into laughter at his words.

Xu Ning chuckled, “Jade-Faced Little Tiger? That’s the nickname you gave yourself!”

Xu Mo, feeling indignant, retorted, “What are you laughing at? Jade-Faced Little Tiger sounds great! Grandpa Qi said that the tiger is the king of all beasts, very impressive!”

Seeing that he was about to get angry, Xu Ning quickly soothed him, “It’s a great name! Jade-Faced Little Tiger sounds powerful just by hearing it. From now on, I’ll call you Jade-Faced Little Tiger, okay?”

Only then did Xu Mo smile and say, “Grandpa Qi said this name I came up with is great, very imposing!”

Seeing Xu Mo still making a fool of himself, Mother Xu laughed and scolded, “Sit still! Let your Uncle Lu and Aunt Lu sit on the kang.”

Aunt Lu waved her hand and said, “We won’t sit down. I brought the letter for Xiao Ning to take back with her.”

She then held Xu Ning’s hand and said, “Xiao Ning, your sister Xiaoran mentioned in her letter that she really likes the things you bought for her.”

Xu Ning smiled and replied, “Aunt Lu, as long as Sister Xiaoran likes them, that’s all that matters. I don’t know much about these things; I had Sister Hongying from the supply and marketing cooperative help me choose.”

After returning home, Xu Ning took out the letter again to read it. The more she read, the more she wanted to laugh. To ease her parents’ worries, Lu Xiaoran described the family she was marrying into.

Lu Xiaoran summarized that her parents-in-law were the local bullies no one dared to provoke, and her man was also quite formidable. Her two older sisters-in-law were especially fierce, but they treated her well, and both were married within the village.

She particularly mentioned an incident from last year during the busy farming season when the school was on break, and the teachers had to work in the fields. A young wife in the village, unaware that she was dating Song Mingyuan, saw how easy Lu Xiaoran’s work seemed and wanted to swap tasks with her. She obviously refused, which led to an argument between the two.

When Song Mingyuan’s mother found out, she would come every day after work, sit in front of that family’s door, and scold them for several days. In the end, it was the young wife’s mother-in-law who brought a few eggs to the youth camp to find Lu Xiaoran, and that was how the matter was finally settled.

Thinking about Aunt Lu’s expression just now made Xu Ning want to laugh; she probably never expected her daughter to find such a family to marry into.

Xu Ning felt that the old lady was quite interesting and likely not the unreasonable type. If she were truly like that, her two daughters would not have married within the village. Who would dare to become relatives with someone known for a bad reputation? That would be like asking for trouble.