Chapter 10: Accountant

“This lady, the exam papers for yesterday’s test were randomly selected by me at the school that morning. Your brigade leader hadn’t even seen the test paper, so how could he possibly have leaked the questions? If we’re talking about cheating, there indeed was someone who tried to cheat—but it wasn’t Lin Qingmei.
Originally, there was another set of papers prepared for the exam, but last night when I was counting them, I found one was missing.”

As Teacher Feng spoke, he shot a deep look at Lin Qinghua.
This was the only thing he could do for his nephew now—he hoped that after this, she would start behaving properly.

“But isn’t it still possible that Lin Qingmei was the one who stole it?” Li Chun’ya refused to let go. She could only feel better if Lin Qingmei was completely crushed.

“That’s nonsense!” The brigade leader was furious. “Qingmei hasn’t left Linjiawan at all during this time!”

“Brigade Leader, no need to be angry,” Lin Qingmei spoke up, seeing that his face had turned red from rage. She didn’t want him to hurt his health over something like this.
“These days, everything has to be proven with evidence. She can’t just accuse me of stealing the test papers. If that’s how it works, then I’ll say she—Li Chun’ya—stole money from my house!”

At the mention of stealing, Li Chun’ya’s expression changed awkwardly. After all, she had indeed been caught red-handed stealing from Lin Qingmei’s home before.

“Exactly! Brigade Leader, we all believe you didn’t leak the test questions!”

“With how freakishly good Lin Qingmei’s grades are, why would she even need someone to give her the questions? If you said it was someone else, maybe I’d believe it.”

Everyone in Linjiawan respected and trusted the brigade leader. He had always been fair and impartial—it was impossible that he’d do something like leaking test papers.

It was obvious to everyone that Li Chun’ya was just stirring up trouble. Everyone knew her husband had been eyeing the brigade leader’s position for a long time.

“Alright, I now officially declare that our new village accountant will be Lin Qingmei.”
The brigade leader paused and added coldly, “And as for you, Li Chun’ya—you’ll be on manure-hauling duty starting tomorrow. Meeting dismissed!”

He didn’t want to say another word. Li Chun’ya had made him lose so much face today in front of the commune leaders and the teacher from County No. 1 High School. He’d remember this grudge.

Teacher Feng, seeing Lin Qinghua walking off with Li Chun’ya, decided that he would go home and have a serious talk with his older brother and sister-in-law.
Lin Qinghua was absolutely not suitable to be anyone’s daughter-in-law. She couldn’t be allowed to ruin Feng Nan’s future.

The commune leaders offered a few words of consolation to the brigade leader before leaving.
They had been just as shocked by Li Chun’ya’s shamelessness.

“As expected, poor mountains breed troublesome people,” they thought.
“Good thing we’re not the ones running this village, or we’d go mad from dealing with these old crones.”

As they were leaving the brigade office, someone quietly slipped a note into Widow Huang’s pocket.

On the other side of the country, while Lin Qingmei was joyfully stepping into her role as the new village accountant, cries of grief echoed from the Lin family in Northeast China.

“Lin Jianshe, how could you be so heartless, leaving the three of us behind? What are we supposed to do now?!”

“Be strong, Jianshe’s wife. You still have two kids to raise.”

“Commander Lin was a hero. As his widow, you should feel proud of him.”

Yao Yanfang stared blankly at Lin Jianshe’s memorial tablet, completely lost.
What was she going to do now?

A widow with two children, surviving on just thirty yuan a month—how could they possibly live?

After marrying Lin Jianshe, she had never had to worry about survival. But now, the pillar of the family was gone, and the burden of the entire household had fallen on her shoulders.

Yao Yanfang was inherently selfish and spoiled. She had grown used to living in comfort, and she couldn’t accept the idea of a hard life ahead.

“Mom, what are we going to do now?”
“The house we live in belongs to the army. Now that Dad is gone, we’ll probably have to move out soon.”

Lin Qinglan’s eyes were swollen from crying. Ever since receiving the news of her father’s death, she had been unable to stop crying.

She now felt completely lost about the future. With her father alive, they had lived carefree. But now that he was gone—and knowing her mother’s personality—she was certain her mom would remarry, unable to bear hardship.

But then what would happen to her and her younger brother?

After thinking it over, Lin Qinglan felt that returning to their hometown would be safer. Although their grandparents were no longer around, her younger sister was still there.

And she had to secure the compensation money from her father’s death. If it was left with Yao Yanfang, she’d definitely squander it in no time.

Sometimes, Lin Qinglan even envied her younger sister.
At least being sent back to the countryside meant being loved by their grandparents.

Everyone thought it was a blessing that she got to stay with her parents, but the truth was—having a mother like hers was worse than having none.

Yao Yanfang only gave birth—she didn’t raise.
When Lin Qinglan was little, she often went hungry, sometimes skipping entire meals.

Lin Jianshe was always away on missions, completely unaware of how miserable his daughter’s childhood had been.

When she was eight, Lin Qinglan fainted from hunger at school.
That was when Lin Jianshe finally realized how unreliable his wife was.

After that, in order to make sure his daughter ate well, Lin Jianshe started giving rations to Auntie Jin, their neighbor, and arranged for Lin Qinglan to eat meals at her house every day.

After Yao Yanfang gave birth to her son Lin Zheng, she got even worse.
Lin Qinglan became a maid in her own home, forced to do all the chores and wash her baby brother’s diapers every day.

It was because of Yao Yanfang’s neglect that Lin Qinglan lost all hope.

Meanwhile, Lin Qingmei was still unaware of Lin Jianshe’s death. She was busy settling into her new role as the village accountant.

The previous accountant had kept very clean and detailed records, which made it easier for Lin Qingmei to audit the books.

This host’s brain really was amazing. Just glancing at the numbers once, Lin Qingmei could memorize them.
Her mental math skills were excellent—faster than using an abacus.

It only took her two days to go through all the records, and today, she planned to do a final cross-check with the former accountant.

“Little girl, your mental math is pretty impressive—faster than my abacus!”

The old accountant used to be a private tutor before his school closed.
Afterward, he took the village accountant job in Linjiawan.

“You flatter me, sir. It’s just a minor skill,” Lin Qingmei replied respectfully.

She really respected the old accountant. During their handover, he had taught her everything—even shared his years of experience, coaching her step-by-step on how to manage the accounts.

Now that the books were sorted out, things quieted down.
Being a village accountant was actually a pretty easy job. The only busy times were when the fishing boats went out to sea.

After working hard for several days, Lin Qingmei decided to give herself a short break.
The job was flexible—when there was no work, she could stay home and do her own things.

Thinking that it had been a few days since she went down to the sea, she grabbed a bucket and headed to the shore.