Many families worked hard all year and only had a few tens or hundreds of yuan in cash income.

Going to the hospital or getting married required selling grain or borrowing from others.

They simply couldn’t afford hospital visits.

This was the case for the Lu family, which was more capable and had Lu Shaotang earning a salary.

Other families who only farmed and earned labor points couldn’t even come up with five yuan.

Even the two yuan school fee for their children required scrimping and saving.

In the countryside, people generally concluded that hospitals were useless and just a money trap.

Lin Shu thought, “So now I’m being forced to think of ways to get you to the hospital?”

Seeing that Lin Shu wanted to use the ointment on Panpan, Fang Dihua immediately gave it to her without hesitation.

Lin Shu noticed that even though Fang Dihua’s eyes were still uncomfortable, she seemed much more gentle and no longer so stern.

It looked like she had come to believe that Lu Shaotang was indeed fine.

She took the ointment to apply it to Panpan and also looked for bites on herself and Tiantian to apply some.

Interestingly, the anti-itch effect was really good, better than spending over a hundred yuan on similar products in modern times.

She thought of finding an opportunity to ask her father-in-law to make some more, so she could secretly give it to her eldest sister to sell

This was a little secret recipe for getting rich.

Second Sister-in-law Lu, who got up from the west room to go to the bathroom, smelled the strong scent of lithospermum ointment coming from Lin Shu’s room and was immediately jealous.

Mother-in-law was getting more and more biased!

After breakfast, the adults went to work, and the little girls outside started calling for Panpan again.

Lin Shu put a small water bottle on Panpan’s back and a cloth bag on Tiantian’s back.

They were still young, and it was fine for them to happily play with their friends every day.

These two children were relatively easy to manage.

From the time they could remember, Grandpa had taught them not to go near the river, the well, or the deep ditch, not to play with fire or knives, and to stay in the village with their friends, playing on the streets.

They were very obedient.

After sending off the children and the family’s chickens and ducks, Lin Shu, taking advantage of the still mild sun, planned to first tend to the vegetable beds and then continue making shoes for her mother-in-law.

When she looked up, she saw her mother-in-law returning from outside.

Fang Dihua wiped her tearful eyes with a handkerchief and said to Lin Shu, “I borrowed a cart to go to the county. Come with me.”

Whether she was buying seeds or just taking a break, it would be good for her to go out and relax.

Lin Shu was delighted, “Mother, are you going to the hospital?”

Fang Dihua replied, “To buy books.”

They had discussed it last night and found Master Ma’s methods really effective!

She and her husband were now at peace, no longer feeling uncertain.

Although going out for a day would mean losing work points, everything was worth it for their son’s safety.

Lin Shu sighed inwardly.

Not going to the hospital for eye pain but eagerly buying books for their son—ah, the hearts of parents are truly pitiable.

While changing into cloth shoes, Lin Shu suddenly recalled a plot from the original story: the villain Lu Pan’s grandmother had an eye problem.

Her son and daughter-in-law were gone, her husband was paralyzed and passed away, and she had to struggle with her grief while continuing to work.

Her eye pain worsened, and later she lost sight in her left eye.

Because of her impaired vision, she accidentally fell into a well and drowned while working!

Lin Shu: “!!!”

They had to go to the hospital, immediately!!!

No matter if it meant pretending to be ill or foolish, Lin Shu knew she had to find a way to get her mother-in-law to the hospital for an examination.

To the south of Lu’s village was a road, built in the late 1950s during a major construction effort.

This road made transportation much more convenient.

There were rare buses that passed through, coming from Qing County to Rongcheng in the west.

There was only one bus in the morning and one in the evening, so if you missed one, you’d have to wait until the next day.

As for traveling from the commune to the county, there were no buses.

People had to hitch rides, either with tractors hauling coal or sand, or with ox carts carrying fertilizer and crops.

Without a ride, walking was the only option.

Fang Dihua borrowed a bicycle from the village secretary and took Lin Shu to the county town.

Old Man Lu went to discuss Lu Shaotang’s situation with the brigade leaders.

He and Fang Dihua had agreed that since their son had a secret mission and his superiors used “sacrifice” to protect him, they needed to cooperate and get things done as soon as possible.

Funerals were much simpler now compared to the past.

Instead of setting up mourning tents, holding wake services, and notifying all relatives to come and mourn, people now only had to go to the county to have the body cremated.

Close family members would mourn briefly, and friends and relatives would come to pay their respects if they were nearby.

The ashes would then be buried in the family cemetery.

Public employees or military personnel would have memorial services, but if it was a simple affair, a memorial service wasn’t even needed.

The old couple was convinced their son wasn’t dead, so they didn’t want to waste money on a public memorial or funeral.

They only needed to have a couple of gravesites prepared in the ancestral cemetery for Lu Shaotang and his wife.

In the countryside, people usually prepared their burial plots in advance.

When Old Man Lu discussed this with the brigade secretary and the brigade leader, they agreed on the spot.

Considering the past help Lu’s family had given to everyone, and the fact that Old Man Lu’s elder brother was still being honored in the capital military district, and his second nephew was still an officer, even though their son had sacrificed himself, he was considered a martyr.

The county and the commune respected Lu’s family, so the brigade couldn’t obstruct them.

The brigade secretary handed Old Man Lu a cigarette and said, “Second brother, sit down for a while.”

Old Man Lu replied, “I have a bad throat, smoking makes me cough in winter. You all should smoke less, too.”

He had tried smoking when he was younger but had stopped after getting married.

The brigade leader said, “Second brother, try to stay positive and don’t be too sad.”

Old Man Lu waved his hand, “Yes, I’m trying to stay positive. You two rest, I’ll go to work.”

After Old Man Lu left, the brigade leader sighed and said to the former brigade secretary, “The world is truly unpredictable. Who would have thought it when we were young?”

Back then, Second Master Lu was a handsome young man, riding a tall horse and holding a whip.

He managed a large inn and cart yard with a group of cart drivers, and the goods coming and going piled up like mountains.

At that time, they all looked up to him, always feeling that Second Master was like someone from the heavens, unattainable.

Now… the brigade leader smiled, thinking, “Thirty years on the east side of the river, thirty years on the west side.”

However, the Lu family patriarch, the first master, and the second master were not greedy or malicious.

They were wise and also kind-hearted, which allowed them to live well even during turbulent times.

Smart people, indeed.

“Hey, what’s my busy second uncle doing at our brigade office?”

As they spoke, Lu Shaocai walked in, smoking a cigarette.

He was Old Lu’s nephew and the current brigade accountant.

However, his skills were mediocre.

In his first two years on the job, Old Lu had to help him with the accounts.

He only got the hang of it in the last couple of years, but still made occasional mistakes.

If not for the respect for his father and uncle, the brigade secretary and brigade leader would have liked to fire him.

The brigade secretary was smoking and didn’t respond to him immediately.

The brigade leader said a few simple words.

Lu Shaocai said, “Dividing cemetery land? That’s not possible. The land is all allocated now, and we’ve leveled the graves to make farmland. How can we allocate such a large piece for that?”

The brigade secretary rolled his eyes, thinking, “You little brat, lawless and parentless rascal. So many people from the Lu family village are buried there, including grandparents and parents. Do you think you can just level the graves?”

If you want to seek glory for yourself, go ahead.

You can step on your uncle to get attention, but don’t drag us down. We’ll make sure you pay for it!

This rascal had gone to the capital with his mother to join his father, who was an officer, when he was a child.

Everyone thought he would become a national cadre at least.

Who knew he would suddenly return in the winter of 1965 with his family in tow?