Lin Aidi was so envious that she couldn’t close her mouth.

She had never even held five yuan at once!

Back when she got married, her parents had taken care of all the dowry and wedding gifts.

The little bit of money she had as a keepsake was soon taken by her mother-in-law, so she had never had more than two yuan in her hands.

The Lu family was definitely going to be named the County and Commune’s Five Good Family of the Year!

Others were envious too and started clapping.

In the crowd, a young woman with short braids, looking youthful and vibrant, walked over.

She was dressed in an old military uniform, looking sharp and confident.

She raised an old mechanical camera and smiled, “Comrades, how about I take a photo of you?”

Li Guodong and Zhou Jianguo recognized her and were surprised, “Comrade Wei, what brings you here?”

They introduced her to Fang Dihua and Lin Shu.

The young woman was a journalist from the city’s Liberation Army Newspaper.

Her name was Wei Ling.

She took out a few newspapers from her bag and handed them to Lin Shu, saying, “Comrade Lin Shu, I’m here to interview you, and I’ve brought the newspapers that featured your story.”

The people around them, curious, came over to take a look.

Lin Shu was also surprised. She hadn’t expected there to be five different newspapers—provincial, city, and Liberation Army Daily.

There were also two others that didn’t seem as high-profile, more like small local papers, but they had official publishing numbers.

These papers had articles about the tinker’s kidnapping case, mainly covering the criminal activities of the tinker and a general overview of the victims.

A large portion of the articles detailed how the Public Security Bureau and the militia, under the wise leadership of a retired soldier, carefully searched for clues and conducted a thorough search until they finally rescued the victims.

As for Lin Shu and the children’s involvement, the articles…

There was a mention of some “enthusiastic citizen” providing a tip.

Tiantian was reading very carefully, and Panpan was eagerly searching for news about his own family, but there was no mention of them.

He muttered, “Enthusiastic citizen?”

Lin Shu patted his head and explained, “That’s to protect us. The identity of the enthusiastic citizen can’t be made public; otherwise, it could cause trouble.”

The content of the police interviews wasn’t directly published in the newspaper—they were for case records only.

Wei Ling said, “That’s right. Comrade Lin Shu, I’m currently working on a series of interviews with military wives. I’ve heard about your story and wanted to interview you.”

Lin Shu modestly replied, “Reporter Wei, I just cook at home every day; there’s nothing particularly outstanding about that. You should interview those women who are at the forefront of production, like my mother-in-law or my sister-in-law.”

Wei Ling explained, “The main focus is on military wives.”

Lin Shu immediately tried to shift the spotlight to her mother-in-law. “Reporter Wei, my mother-in-law is also a military mother, which makes her even more deserving of an interview.”

Wei Ling reluctantly agreed, “Of course, that’s possible.”

At this time, the interview questions were more formal, primarily focused on the theme of class struggle, highlighting the selfless dedication of heroic mothers and wives who supported their families from behind the scenes.

It wasn’t so much about the individual as it was about portraying a collective image.

Lin Shu felt that this didn’t quite fit her, and that it suited her mother-in-law better.

Fang Dihua, on the other hand, wasn’t nervous at all.

She was naturally bold and straightforward, unafraid to speak her mind.

Whatever Reporter Wei asked, she answered honestly.

Sometimes, her answers were so direct that Reporter Wei had to soften them a bit.

For example, “Aunt Fang, how did you raise such an outstanding son?”

Aunt Fang replied, “Our third son didn’t need much raising—he was born excellent. Our eldest, no matter how much we tried, just couldn’t be made excellent, so we gave up.”

Wei Ling initially wanted to ask about how the loss of a son had affected the family, but seeing that they didn’t seem to be grieving too much, she decided not to bring it up.

She figured if she wanted to do a special interview with a family of a fallen soldier, it would be better to focus on that theme specifically in the future.

After the interview, Wei Ling took some photos of Fang Dihua and Lin Shu together.

Noticing that Tiantian and Panpan were eager to join in, and knowing they were Lu Shaotang’s children, she invited them to join for a group photo.

This photo wouldn’t be used in the report but would be sent to the Lu family later as a keepsake.

Fang Dihua and Lin Shu warmly invited them to stay for a meal, but they declined.

Li Guodong and the others had to return to report their work, and Wei Ling had other interviews to conduct, so the three of them headed to the county.

Just after they rode off on their bicycles, the team leader and Lu Shaocai arrived together.

Watching the others walk away, the brigade leader was frustrated that he had arrived too late.

Although Lu Shaocai was annoyed that his second aunt didn’t let him share in the spotlight, seeing that the brigade leader was just as disappointed made him feel better. “Now you understand how I feel, huh?”

The brigade leader glanced at him and remarked pointedly, “I just wanted to stop by and say hello, but you were looking to suck up.”

Lu Shaocai retorted, “I was just being considerate since you’re older… I’m only a few years younger than you.”

The brigade leader snorted and walked away.

News that the Lu family was praised and awarded a certificate spread throughout the brigade in no time.

Old Chang, upon hearing the news, felt a sting of jealousy.

Though he outwardly said, “This is a good thing, a good thing,” inwardly, he wondered why nothing like that ever happened to his family.

Determined, he thought to himself that he needed to achieve something notable too, so that he could make an appearance at the county level and have his family awarded a certificate as well.

Lin Aidi was envious and jealous, wondering if she was Lin Shu’s good luck charm. Did Lin Shu only have good fortune when she came around?

But then she thought, I didn’t come here on purpose. I came to see Lin Shu because I was upset after arguing with my husband and mother-in-law. So was it her own discomfort that brought good fortune to Lin Shu?

If that were true, it would be too much! She had been uncomfortable so many times—how much good luck would that bring to Lin Shu?

She decided she couldn’t keep being the one to suffer.

With that thought, Lin Aidi headed over to the Xu family to find Xu’s mother.

Since Lu Hehuan and Xu Shihua were at work, Xu’s mother was home looking after the children.

As soon as she walked in, she bluntly said, “Auntie, did you hear? Your dear in-laws had another stroke of luck.” Without waiting to see if Xu’s mother was interested, she continued, “They did something good, and the county Public Security Bureau came to award them another certificate. I wonder which poor soul they managed to catch this time.”

Seeing Xu’s mother’s expression change, Lin Aidi felt a wave of satisfaction and left, her mood lifted.

Ah, passing off her discomfort to someone else and seeing them share in her misery instantly made her feel better.

Xu’s mother wasn’t usually one to feel jealous.

After all, she was always focused on showing how hard-working and diligent she was, believing that others having a good life was as it should be, and her suffering was also as it should be.

But Lin Aidi had come over specifically to tell her this, and it made her feel like Lin Shu had sent her to show off.

She wasn’t jealous, but she was definitely angry!

When Lu Hehuan came home for lunch, she found that her mother-in-law hadn’t cooked anything.

There were only two hard cornbread buns and a bowl of water for each person—not even a bit of pickles.

Everyone else had nothing, but Xu Yaoyao got to eat steamed egg custard!

Lu Hehuan was unhappy about this but still spoke carefully, “Mom, why didn’t you cook today?”

Xu’s mother sighed, “I’m not feeling well. I was thinking that the firewood from the team is running low. If you go out to gather more, it’ll be too tiring for you, so I thought I’d save you the trouble by using less. Besides, it’s not cold, so eating something cold won’t hurt.”

But Lu Hehuan knew that wasn’t the real reason.

Her mother-in-law was the best at beating around the bush—this was just her way of expressing displeasure and making things difficult on purpose.

Without Xu Shihua around, Lu Hehuan’s mind was clearer.

“Mom, can’t you just tell me directly if something’s bothering you? Otherwise, I don’t even know how I’ve upset you again.”

As soon as she said this, she regretted it because Xu’s mother immediately started tearing up.

Xu’s mother sniffled, “Don’t be mad, I’ll go cook for you right now.”

Lu Hehuan quickly said, “No need, Mom, I’m fine with just cornbread.”

Xu Yaoyao, holding a spoon, glared at Lu Hehuan and suddenly shouted, “Bad! Bad!”

Bad stepmom!

Mean to grandma!

Lu Hehuan felt both angry and wronged—what had she done to deserve being called bad?

..

Meanwhile, Lin Shu, Fang Dihua, and the kids were happily counting the reward coupons at home.

“Wow, meat coupons!” Panpan, who loved money, immediately widened his eyes.

They had received a full five pounds of meat coupons!

Additionally, there were two pounds of snack coupons, two pounds of sugar coupons, and twenty pounds of grain coupons.

Tiantian’s eyes crinkled with a big smile. “Grandma, Mom, the leaders were so generous! They’re really good people!”

Xu Xiaoyou nodded enthusiastically.

She wanted to become a leader too, so she could give Fang Grandma and her little aunt meat coupons.

No, not just coupons—she wanted to give them actual meat!

She imagined carrying a big chunk—or no, even better, a whole pig—to reward them for being so kind, so good, and so gentle to Xiaoyou!