Chapter 38.2

After dressing, she ran her fingers through her hair, and then a sudden realization hit her. She understood why she had dreamt about these things.

Just now, when the man had said goodbye, he mentioned that he would return by the end of the month.

—If she wasn’t mistaken, according to the memories, those people were supposed to find the old house at the end of this month and raid the home!

At this thought, cold sweat rolled down from Yin Xiaoman’s forehead.

Although she knew that in this lifetime, the events from the dream hadn’t happened yet, she couldn’t help but feel the original owner’s fear and sorrow. She felt it so vividly that she couldn’t ignore it.

No matter what, she couldn’t let the same thing happen again!

But perhaps because the original owner had been so frightened at the time, she was too afraid to remember the details of those scenes.

Whether in the dream or in her memories, those people’s words were always without sound, so Yin Xiaoman had no way of knowing what they had said.

Why had they gone to such lengths? What were they looking for?

Without understanding these things, she couldn’t find the real solution.

Yin Xiaoman thought for a long time before deciding to start with the simplest approach.

She took out paper and pen and began to write a letter to her father-in-law, Shen Mancheng.

In the letter, she inquired about the well-being of the elderly couple and described the situation of their family over there. She then mentioned that she had been out to the sea, catching some fish and shells, which had already been dried, and that she was planning to send some of them with the letter.

She wrote a mix of things that the elderly couple would likely enjoy hearing.

Only at the end of the letter did she casually mention that she had left in such a hurry that she hadn’t decided what to do with their old house.

Having stayed here for a longer time and undergone education from the Military Unit, she had increasingly realized the importance of aligning everything with the organization.

So, she decided to lend the house to the brigade for free, so they could use it to accommodate the female Educated Youth.

She said that this was something she had thought about for a long time, and she had made up her mind. She didn’t want anyone to try to persuade her otherwise.

She also added that this arrangement would benefit his reputation in the brigade, and the villagers would only respect him more.

Finally, she asked Shen Mancheng to help deliver the additional letter she had enclosed to the village’s Party Secretary and to urge the matter to be completed as soon as possible.

In the other letter to the Party Secretary, she expressed the same sentiment, but with more revolutionary and formal language.

She conveyed her decision to align herself with the revolutionary organization with the greatest enthusiasm.

She said that her actions to assist the brigade in solving problems would demonstrate her determination.

In the end, she specifically mentioned that she was willing to sign a lease agreement with the village, with a ten-year term, ensuring that no public funds would be collected during that time, and the brigade could use it completely free of charge.

Her only request was that the village take responsibility for the house’s repairs and maintenance to ensure that neither the residents nor anyone else would damage the house.

When it was returned in the future, it should be in the exact same condition, ready for someone to move in at any time.

She asked the Party Secretary to serve as a witness to this agreement.

After all, it was her ancestral home, left by her parents, and she would want to take it back someday.

After finishing the letter and reading it over carefully, Yin Xiaoman took an empty envelope from Shen Qingyun’s drawer and placed the letters inside.

She was preparing to head into the city as quickly as possible, to personally send the letter and the dried goods together.

This was the most effective way she could think of to prevent anyone from occupying or damaging the house.

The house was occupied by a single girl with two young children who knew nothing. With the house entrusted to the brigade for safekeeping, and housing the Educated Youth sent to support rural construction and the revolution, it was clear who would be prioritized.

Moreover, if the brigade signed a lease agreement and promised to take care of the house, anyone attempting to sabotage it would have to be stopped, wouldn’t they?

At the very least, in order to prevent the Educated Youth from being homeless again, the house should not be turned into a ruin. She didn’t want a repeat of what had happened in her dreams, where there had been such a huge uproar, and yet, no one in the village had even tried to intervene or offer any help.

Once this task was done, Yin Xiaoman felt much lighter, and the sky was already bright.

She quickly got herself ready and went to the backyard to pick two freshly grown eggplants, then began preparing breakfast.

She made a pot of cornmeal porridge, and while steaming the pancakes, she also steamed the pumpkin and eggplant.

Then, she shredded the cabbage and mixed it with the sea jellies that Da Bao and the others had collected during their trip to the sea, making a cold salad.

Next, she mashed some garlic and poured the juice over the steamed eggplant.

Although it sounded like a lot of work, it was all second nature to Yin Xiaoman. Although she had spent some time writing the letters in the morning, making all of the dishes only took about half an hour.

By the time Engineer Ning and Old Hua arrived, their faces tired from the night shift, she had already finished everything and even arranged the dishes on the small square table in the yard.

The night before, the two elderly men had worked overtime until late. They had been so busy that they had forgotten everything. It wasn’t until they woke up in the morning that they suddenly remembered what Wang Jun had told them the previous day about Liu Chuang causing a scene at the Shen family home.

This immediately made them uneasy.

Especially Engineer Ning. After all, Liu Chuang had the title of his assistant, and he had caused trouble at the Shen family under his name.

He was afraid Yin Xiaoman would be upset.

So, on the way to breakfast, Engineer Ning felt uneasy in his heart.

What he didn’t expect was that as soon as he walked in, the first thing he saw was Erniu’s smiling face.

“Grandpa, hurry up and come eat! Mom made a bunch of delicious food and even specially boiled eggs for you!”

Erniu had become quite familiar with them by now, and wasn’t as formal as she had been at first. She ran over affectionately, pulling at their sleeves and leading them to the table.

Once they sat down, she leaned in and whispered: “Mom won’t let us eat them yet. She said we should wait until we’re done with breakfast so you can take them with you in case you get busy and feel hungry.”

“Mom also said.” the little girl mimicked Yin Xiaoman’s serious expression, saying in a scholarly tone: “People who study a lot get hungry easily. You Grandpa are busy, so you can’t just run home when you’re hungry like us!”

After saying this, Erniu blinked her big eyes and looked at them with great admiration: “When I grow up, I want to be like Grandpa and become a learned person! That way, I can eat eggs every day!”

Her words made the two elderly people, who had been moved to the brink of tears, unable to help but laugh out loud.

Old Hua even smiled and ruffled Erniu’s little bun: “Just eating eggs won’t do. In the future, our Erniu will have to eat a fried dough stick with two eggs every day!”

“What’s a fried dough stick? Is it tasty? Grandpa, have you eaten it? What does it taste like?”

Having spent so much time with Yin Xiaoman, Erniu had now become a true little foodie. The mention of something clearly delicious made her little face light up.

Old Hua realized his slip of the tongue.

In these times, even oil was a luxury. Who could still afford to fry dough sticks?

Worried that mentioning it might cause trouble for Yin Xiaoman, he quickly laughed it off and made sure not to bring up fried dough sticks again.

At that moment, Yin Xiaoman came out of the kitchen carrying a wooden tray with two bowls of cornmeal porridge she had prepared for the elderly couple.

Seeing her daughter cuddling up to the elders and making some sort of fuss, she couldn’t help but glare at her: “Get up, don’t get in Grandpa’s way while he’s eating!”

Hearing this, Old Hua quickly smiled and explained: “It’s nothing, I’m just chatting with Erniu.”

As he spoke, Old Hua instinctively turned his head and looked at Yin Xiaoman.

The moment he did, the smile on his face suddenly froze. His gaze was fixed on the old wooden pendant hanging from Yin Xiaoman’s neck.

Since the weather had been warming up day by day, and Yin Xiaoman had been busy in the kitchen for quite a while, she had not put on an outer coat, wearing only a small collared shirt she had altered to resemble Cui Yan’s.

The collar of the shirt was slightly open, revealing half of her fair neck and the wooden pendant hanging from a red string.

Old Hua’s gaze lingered on the pendant for a long time, his expression growing more serious. He seemed to be in a daze, and even when Yin Xiaoman handed him his bowl of porridge, he remained lost in thought.

It wasn’t until Engineer Ning gave him a nudge that he snapped out of it.

“Oh, thank you.” He took the porridge bowl but didn’t, as usual, joke with Yin Xiaoman. Instead, he silently lowered his head and began drinking.

Engineer Ning couldn’t help but give him a few extra glances. His behavior was far too unusual.

However, to Yin Xiaoman, this was nothing out of the ordinary. She knew that the two elderly men had probably stayed up late the previous night, and it was completely reasonable for them to be feeling a bit weary.

Once everyone sat down after the meal was served, Yin Xiaoman turned to the elderly couple and said: “Engineer Ning, Old Hua, I’m planning to go to the county town today. I haven’t written to my parents since I left, so I want to send them a letter, and also send some things back home.”

She intended to discuss the issue of lunch with them, but before she had a chance to speak further, Old Hua interrupted her.

“小Yin, where is your hometown? Are your parents still alive? Are they still in the countryside? Is your family local?”

The rapid-fire questions caught Yin Xiaoman off guard.

She paused for a moment, not speaking. But she noticed that Old Hua’s gaze on her was a bit intense, as if he was seriously waiting for her response, not just casually asking questions for the sake of conversation.

Fortunately, there was nothing to hide in what he was asking, so Yin Xiaoman didn’t pay it much attention.

She shook her head and said: “Both my parents have passed away. When I mentioned my parents earlier, I was referring to Qingyun’s parents, my in-laws.”

At those words, Old Hua’s hand holding his chopsticks trembled slightly.

“Then, are your parents from C Province?” he pressed again.

Seeming to realize that his questioning might raise some suspicion, he quickly added with a laugh: “Don’t worry, Little Yin. I’m just a little curious after hearing you mention this. From what you’ve said, your whole family is from C Province. We’re familiar with C Province—it’s a flat area, with no large rivers nearby. How did you learn to make seafood dishes? You even know how to go to the shore to collect seafood and recognize so many types?”

Hearing his question, the doubt in Yin Xiaoman’s mind faded away, and his inquiry was something she had already prepared an answer for.

So, without hesitation, she gave a straightforward response.

“My family isn’t originally from Shuanggui Village. My parents fled here from another place before the liberation. My mother’s family used to be fishermen. Although I was born and raised in Shuanggui Village, my mother loved telling me stories about her hometown when I was little. She even drew many pictures of different kinds of seafood for me and taught me how to identify them. The cooking methods for these foods were also taught to me by my mother.”