Struggle Life in the 1970s

While the villagers were chatting animatedly about this matter, Chu Ye took advantage of the lunch break when there were fewer people around and walked leisurely up the mountain.

She planned to follow the path she had taken in her previous life and go to the mountains to pick some wild plants, then sell them on the black market and save some money for school fees.

Although Teacher Chu told her at the time that the country now encourages students to go to technical secondary schools to learn technology, and if they pass the exam, they will be exempted from tuition and given food coupons, she still wants to save more money while she has free time now, so that she can use it for emergencies in case she encounters any problems at school in the future.

Not to mention, she looked at the clothes she was wearing and if she had money, she would like to buy herself new clothes.

From childhood to adulthood, she has always been wearing her sisters' old clothes. When her sisters have worn them and they are too small, when it is her turn, the clothes will inevitably be patched.

It’s not that the family didn’t have cloth coupons, but every year Chu’s mother would take the coupons to the town and bring back new clothes for Chu Guangyao. But Chu Ye? Chu Ye had nothing.

In fact, at the beginning, she just wanted to be like Chu Guangyao and eat a white flour bun when she went home on Sunday. Later, she wanted to have a new set of clothes of her own.

After marriage, she wanted to get rid of the miserable life in the Zhao family. When she finally found that she could not rely on anyone and ended it all by herself, she finally understood that one has to get what he wants with his own hands.

Chu Ye shook his head, put aside the thoughts in his mind, and began to search carefully in the mountains and forests.

But today was unfortunate. Chu Ye had not been to the mountain for a long time and was not familiar with the situation in the mountain, so she did not dare to go deep into the mountain. Besides, time was limited and she had to go to work in the afternoon. She picked some wild berries along the way, wrapped them in a large leaf, and planned to give them to Mu Jiajun and Sister Deng to taste.

When she arrived at the educated youth compound, she happened to meet Mu Jiajun. Since the day he sent Chu Ye to the village entrance and left, the two had not met again. Chu Ye had just greeted him with a smile when he was pulled aside by Mu Jiajun.

There was no one outside at that time, and no one paid attention to the man and woman talking quietly under the willow tree.

Mu Jiajun said, "Have you heard? Zhao Xuesong, who came to see you earlier, was arrested this morning."

Chu Ye replied as a matter of course, "I know."

"You..." Mu Jiajun wanted to say that she didn't have to worry about this person coming to her again, but looking at Chu Ye's expression, it seemed that she had known about this for a long time. "You also knew about it this morning?"

Hearing this, Chu Ye pursed her lips and looked up at Mu Jiajun. She immediately understood the purpose of Mu Jiajun saying this to her. After thinking for a while, she asked, "Do you remember that day when I finished the exam and wrote two letters at the post office?"

Mu Jiajun nodded, then as if he had thought of something, he widened his eyes slightly.

Chu Ye nodded calmly, "I wrote two anonymous letters of complaint, one to the factory where Zhao Xuesong's parents worked, and one to the county public security bureau. The reason was that Zhao Xuesong was suspected of murdering his own brother."

She looked indifferent, and talking about sending someone to prison was like pouring a glass of water.

Mu Jiajun's eyes widened upon hearing this and he stood there in a daze, surprised that such solemn words would be spoken by the girl in front of him. This was very different from the image of Chu Ye that he had seen in the past.

"then you--"

Then why did you tell me? Chu Ye saw through what Mu Jiajun had not said, and before he could finish, Chu Ye answered.

"This is not something shameful. I reported anonymously because I didn't want to cause trouble for myself. Besides, even if I told you, would you tell others?" Chu Ye smiled and threw the question back.

"No." Although he felt in his heart that he seemed to have never seen this side of Chu Ye, Mu Jiajun still answered honestly.

If what Chu Ye reported is true, then it can be considered as getting rid of harm to the people.

But after a little thought, Mu Jiajun asked again, "Then how did you know about this?"

Logically speaking, the murder of one's own brother, no matter where the crime took place, was not something Chu Ye should know about.

Moreover, judging from Mu Jiajun’s previous attitude, he should not have known that someone else had the upper hand over him. Otherwise, anyone with a little bit of common sense would know how to treat others.

As for Mu Jiajun's question, Chu Ye naturally had her answer. "It was raining that morning, and he pulled me under a tree to talk. In a hurry, he let the cat out of the bag. Although he quickly said that it didn't happen, I know that his brother did disappear for no reason in early March this year."

"I just tried to report it, but I didn't expect it to be true." Chu Ye curled his lips, looking surprised himself.

This was half true and half false. Although Mu Jiajun felt that it was full of loopholes, looking at Chu Ye's expression, he knew that this was the answer she had determined, and if he continued to ask, this would be the only answer. Even though he was still confused, after a few months of getting along with her, he understood Chu Ye's character. He knew that she had some unknown little secrets, but she was still a good person at heart.

As for Mu Jiajun's thoughts, Chu Ye did not speculate too much. She just handed over the picked berries, asked Mu Jiajun to wash them and share them with Sister Deng, and then walked towards the field.

She was extremely grateful to the two of them for taking care of her over the past few months, but she had no way to repay them for the time being.

However, the mountain berries are sweet and sour and delicious. Although they are not valuable, they are seasonal wild fruits and can be picked and eaten immediately, which is something that educated youth like them do not have much contact with.

As for what she said, it was naturally false. The reason why she knew the truth about the disappearance of Zhao Xuesong’s four-year-old brother was because he let it slip in his previous life.

She still remembered that day was her son's fourth birthday, and she finally begged her parents-in-law to bring the child back home to celebrate his birthday.

It was also on that afternoon that Zhao Xuesong got drunk at home. After sending his parents-in-law away and cleaning up the house, he turned around and found that he had a fever for no reason. He lay on the bed, dancing his hands and feet, muttering to himself, as if something was bothering him.

Chu Ye was worried and moved closer to hear clearly what he was saying. However, the more she listened, the more frightened she became. When Zhao Xuesong finished speaking, she felt as if she had fallen into an icy cave and could not move an inch.

She actually heard Zhao Xuesong apologizing and begging, saying that he shouldn't have pushed him accidentally and shouldn't have thrown him into the dry well out of fear of taking responsibility.

From Zhao Xuesong's fragmented words, Chu Ye gradually pieced together the whole picture. It turned out that his younger brother, who had just turned four years old, was accidentally killed by him. Now he was happy that his own son was also four years old. Thinking of the evil things he had done in the past, he suddenly felt feverish.

Although Zhao Xuesong did not say why he killed his younger brother, she still heard the location of the crime and secretly memorized it in her heart.

On the other side, Zhao Xuesong miraculously woke up the next morning. There was no sign of anything unusual from last night. He also had no memory of what he said when he was drunk, which made Chu Ye feel relieved.

Later, she used this incident to test her parents-in-law, but their attitude was very strange. Every time Chu Ye brought up a reason, her mother-in-law would immediately interrupt her and severely reprimand her not to bring it up again.

As time went by, Chu Ye gradually figured out what was going on. Zhao Xuesong's parents must have known about this to some extent, but seeing that their younger son had died and their older son was about to be arrested because of this, the old couple would be completely left without anyone to take care of them.

They were reluctant to sacrifice their two sons at once, but were also worried about what Zhao Xuesong was doing, so after Zhao Xuesong's wedding, the couple moved to the staff dormitory in the city, using the excuse of making room for the newlyweds.

When Chu Ye gave birth to a son, the two were afraid that Zhao Xuesong would do something cruel. In addition, Chu Ye and Zhao Xuesong quarreled every day at that time, so they took their grandson back to take care of him.

Originally, after being reborn, Chu Ye had no intention of revealing this matter. Although she had a unhappy life in her previous life, she had not suffered much. If Zhao Xuesong dared to hit her, she would dare to fight back, which often led to fights between the two of them.

The ending of her previous life was that she strangled Zhao Xuesong to death with her own hands, and then she opened her eyes and saw it now. In her opinion, all the grudges between her and Zhao Xuesong had been written off, and they should never be involved in any way again in this life.

But things did not go as she wished, Zhao Xuesong kept pestering her. After warning her, she also hoped that Zhao Xuesong would know what was good for them and they could live their own lives.

Until a few days ago, Zhao Xuesong deliberately blocked her at the entrance of the village and found out that she was going to take an exam. She thought something was wrong. Then she heard him say that he was involved in gambling and half begged and half threatened her to raise money for him to pay off his debts. Chu Ye realized that it was time to get rid of this man completely.

So she first calmed Zhao Xuesong down and told him not to talk nonsense. Then she sent him two letters of denunciation, which directly cut off Zhao Xuesong's hopes and made him spend the rest of his life in jail.

As the second person who knew more about Zhao Xuesong's murder, she wrote in detail in the letter the location where Zhao Xuesong dumped the body into the dry well. This matter will probably have a result in a few days.

Because of this, Chu Ye has been in a good mood in recent days. In addition to going to work every day, she would go to the mountains to look for wild plants at noon.

As her search area expanded, she gradually explored deeper into the mountains, and today she actually found a wild ginseng!

Her eyes lit up as she crawled on the ground. She didn't care about the dirt on her fair little hands as she carefully dug at the roots, going down little by little, not missing a single ginseng beard, and finally dug out the wild ginseng that was as thick as a finger!
Although the ginseng was not big, it could still be sold for some money. She wrapped the ginseng carefully and then buried her head in a damp corner to pick fresh mushrooms.

The next morning, while Brother Jianwen was going to the town to buy nutritional supplements, she followed him to a black market in the town, spread out a piece of cloth, put the goods on it, and started selling.

The reason why she knew where the black market was was all because of her memories from her previous life. At that time, after marriage, Zhao Xuesong only knew how to play cards with money, and the work points she earned from working in the fields were not enough to support her family.

Out of desperation, she began to think of other ways to make money, and finally she found this method of picking wild plants in the mountains and selling them on the black market. Although it was not very glorious, it made money quickly and allowed her to successfully fill the hole in her home.

So she did the same thing in this life, and followed her memory to find the black market, but she didn't expect that the location hadn't changed at all!
(End of this chapter)