After the frail beauty went to the countryside, she went crazy with scientific research.

Chapter 44, Episode 0044: Aunt Wu Brings a Melon

The plan for the second day remained the same: to go up the mountain to gather wild produce. In this era, no one complained about having too much food at home; they were only afraid of not having enough food to go hungry.

What does it matter if it's tough or tiring? Only when the house is full of supplies can we have hope for survival.

Little Qingqing is very capable and has good luck. Every year around this time, she has a good harvest when she goes up the mountain. Sometimes she can even wait for the rabbit to come to her. She earns more than 50 cents a day.

After Lin Yuexi learned of this, she asked Leng Xingran to inform Xiao Jingjing that she didn't need to come anytime soon. It was already easy to be criticized for hiring someone to take care of her, and if she encountered someone with ill intentions, they might accuse her of being a capitalist hedonist. Although they weren't afraid, it would still be troublesome.

Of course, most importantly, her space contained medical equipment she had acquired during the apocalypse, including several medical pods she had purchased for free from a research institute in a certain country, along with matching medicines and nutrient solutions.

The medical pod was a treasure developed just before the apocalypse. It is said that even someone with congenital deficiencies like hers could be treated through the medical pod.

There were always people at home, so she never had a chance to go into the space to take a closer look. They were all people with excellent observation and keen insight. Even when she was alone in her room, she didn't dare to go into the space.

She's already special enough. If the existence of her space is discovered, well, she'll never be free for the rest of her life.

Taking this opportunity, she could drive everyone away and go into her space to see if the 'rumored' thing was true; she had truly had enough of this crippled body.

Unfortunately, plans don't always go as expected. Not long after Leng Xingran and Ren Yan left, Liu Huai also leisurely went out for a stroll. Lin Yuexi was eating breakfast when Aunt Wu limped over, carrying a vegetable basket.

"Is Lin Zhiqing here?"

Aunt Wu, who usually just pushes open the door and goes straight in no matter whose house she goes to, greeted people politely at the door for the first time today.

Lin Yuexi had a good memory and recognized the voice immediately. She wanted to be polite, but her body wouldn't cooperate, so she could only say, "Yes, I'm here. The door isn't locked. I walk too slowly, so please come in, Aunt Wu."

This time, Aunt Wu didn't stand on ceremony and pushed the door open, laughing loudly as she went in, "Don't come out, I'll come in by myself."

She walked quickly to the main room, put the basket on the table and sat down. "I heard from Guihua that Lin Zhiqing wanted to exchange eggs. My family happened to have some saved up, and they were all fresh, so I brought them over for you."

The basket looked to contain about thirty items; it's unclear how long Aunt Wu's family had been saving them.

Since the person had kindly brought it over in person, and even washed the eggs clean, and it was Aunt Guihua who had introduced them, Lin Yuexi had no reason to refuse. "Does Aunt Wu want to exchange them for money directly, or for something else? But I might not have everything I need for that."

Aunt Wu rubbed her hands awkwardly. “I want to exchange some cloth coupons and cotton coupons. My youngest daughter is leaving home at the end of the year, and I want to give her two eight-pound cotton quilts as a dowry. My eldest grandson just got married at the beginning of the year, and all the flour coupons and cotton coupons we had saved up were used up then. After saving for a year, I only have two feet of cloth coupons left, and I don’t have any cotton coupons at all.”

She's so worried.

Her youngest daughter was her only child in her old age, so she naturally doted on her. Her husband was a city dweller who was a soldier, and she didn't want her to suffer any injustice when it came to her dowry.

She had been saving up for her youngest daughter's dowry since she was born. She was already quite beautiful, but who would have thought that her eldest daughter-in-law would do something like stealing her mother-in-law's money?

She dotes on her youngest daughter, but she can't neglect her eldest son either. She can't really tear their house apart and demolish it, can she?
Lin Yuexi didn't know about Aunt Wu's family affairs, but every family has its own problems, and as an outsider, she didn't need to know about other people's affairs.

She had all sorts of coupons—cloth coupons, cotton coupons, you could say she had every kind. But in this era, the most taboo thing was being "rich." Even if you were already wealthy, you couldn't show that you lacked nothing. Otherwise, what awaited you wasn't the envy of others or your own comfortable life, but the committee coming to confiscate your property. After a moment of awkward silence, and as Aunt Wu's palms were sweating with nervousness, Lin Yuexi finally spoke: "I still have six feet of cloth coupons. As for cotton coupons, I used them all after I found out the rural area was in the Northeast."

Aunt Wu was somewhat disappointed, but also somewhat relieved. It was already good enough that she could exchange for six feet of cloth coupons. She would look for cotton coupons again, and if all else failed, she would ask her fourth son to risk going to the black market to see if he could get cotton.

After Lin Yuexi went inside to get the money and exchanged it with her, Aunt Wu did not leave immediately. As a leading figure in the gossip army, how could she come to the door without bringing gossip?

While munching on the melon seeds and peanuts Lin Yuexi had brought out and drinking sweet soup, Aunt Wu enthusiastically recounted a major event that had occurred in the village that day.

Sun Hua was not only stuffed with a sack last night, but was also stripped down to just a strip of bitter tea leaves and hung from the big banyan tree at the village entrance.

"Originally, we couldn't find the person who beat Sun Hua. Sun Hua didn't recognize the person when he was beaten. He said he only knew that more than one person beat him. Later, he fainted and when he woke up, he was hanging from a tree."

“Sun Hua said it was the educated youth station that did it, saying that the people he offended yesterday were from the educated youth station. Anyway, even a fool could understand what he meant. He was talking about Li Bin and the others.”

"The brigade leader was so annoyed by him that he called everyone at the educated youth settlement for questioning. Li Bin and the others said they hadn't left the house last night. The door to the educated youth settlement was still locked from the inside. Da Niu, who went to call people, could also testify that the door was locked from the inside when he called people. The other people at the educated youth settlement didn't hear any noise last night either."

"On one hand, they insist on making accusations without any evidence, and on the other hand, they simply refuse to admit it. In any case, it's impossible to explain."

Suddenly, Aunt Wu slapped her thigh, her face flushed with excitement. "The widow Sun from the second brigade was called over by someone, and she rushed up, crying and shouting to the brigade leader and the others to demand justice for Sun Hua."

This is quite a dramatic story: a young intellectual sent to the countryside and a widow.

The captain's face turned visibly black at that moment.

Widow Sun's surname was Sun. She was the only daughter in her family. Back then, she was not married off but rather recruited a son-in-law.

Not to mention the countryside, even in the city, it's pretty much the same; sons-in-law who marry into the family are generally not very well-off.

It's either because the family is too poor, or the boy himself has some kind of problem, or he's from a family with stepparents who dislike him.

Widow Sun's husband was a complete scoundrel. With a stepmother, he also had a stepfather. As the eldest son, he was essentially raised on the charity of many families. He was also in poor health and was constantly supported by the villagers, so he could only live in a cowshed.

Not long after their marriage, Widow Sun's husband died. She never remarried, but gossip about her has continued to circulate for years.

However, Widow Sun's reputation among widows was quite good. She was good-looking, hardworking, and from a well-off family. She lived in a large house with six rooms and wasn't the kind of person who couldn't support herself and acted recklessly.

Many people advised her to find someone else, saying she was still young.

But no one expected that she would get involved with educated youth, especially someone as despicable as Sun Hua.

My darlings, something urgent comes up tomorrow, so updates will be irregular. I'll try my best to update, but if I really can't make it, I'll have to apologize and ask for a day off!