The 1960s: The Story of a Country Girl's Journey to the City

"I don't know, they covered it up very well."

Bao Ya opened her eyes wide and said with great seriousness, as if she had discovered something extraordinary.

"Oh, I don't know why it feels strange. How did you find out? Can you take us to see it?"

Fang Mingda, still with that same smiling expression, continued to negotiate with Lin Baoya.

Bao Ya looked around. Old Man Lin and Lin Dahe had the same expression, both thinking that she was referring to Su Daqiang, and that their family didn't have the thing Bao Ya was gesturing about.

"My grandfather and my eldest uncle were always secretly talking around that box inside the house, and they would quickly put it away whenever they heard a noise. I saw it from outside the window."

What? Old Man Lin and Lin Dahe were stunned, but then they came to their senses. This girl was causing trouble again. She hadn't stopped since she returned to the Lin family, and now, just a few days later, she was at it again.

"Bao Ya, what nonsense are you talking about? There's no such thing in the house."

Lin Dahe quickly scolded Lin Baoya, and Old Man Lin hurriedly stepped forward to agree. Then, putting on a smiling face, he said to Fang Mingda:

"Boss, don't listen to her nonsense. There's nothing suspicious in my house. Baoya, don't you agree?"

Bao Ya immediately hid behind Fang Mingda, as if she were frightened. She muttered softly:

"If it's not suspicious, why be afraid of people seeing it?"

Although the sound was soft, everyone who needed to hear it heard it.

Xu Mingda and Wang Xiao observed the expressions of the three people. The little girl was pouting, as if she was angry, and the Lin father and son looked very nervous.

"Don't be nervous, folks. We'll find out if it's suspicious once we see it."

"Yes, we'll just take a look, and then we'll return it to you."

Wang Xiao also chimed in, speaking politely but with an air of utter authority.

"Uncle Lin, please show this to everyone."

Secretary Yan stepped in to smooth things over, saying that this stalemate couldn't continue, and he didn't think the Lin family had any problems. Since they were already here, they might as well take a look.

"Secretary Yan is right, leader, why don't you come and visit my home?"

Bao Ya quickly chimed in, then shouted to the crowd, "Si Mao, take the militia and go help the leaders!"

"Okay!"

Si Mao responded and began to gather the militia. Lin Baoya led the way, and a large group of people went to the Lin family.

Old Man Lin nearly choked; it looked like they were about to ransack his house. Luckily, those things weren't at home. He steadied himself and followed them home.

A group of people arrived at the Lin family's house. There were quite a few people in the Lin family at this time. Granny Lin and Li Jinxiang were indeed quite ill and were resting on the kang (a heated brick bed).

Lin Xiaoquan and his wife, along with Lin Xiaowen, had diarrhea so badly yesterday that their legs were weak. They asked someone to give them a day off today, and they are resting at home. Lin Xiaowen also didn't go to school. Only Lin Siya, whose condition isn't too serious, is left to take care of them.

When people arrived at the Lin family's house, Xu Mingda first asked someone to invite everyone out of the house. At this time, the people at home did not know what had happened.

Secretary Yan and the commune cadres all arrived. Everyone looked at each other, unsure of how to begin.

Bao Ya instructed Simao to keep an eye on the Lin family and prevent them from coming in and causing trouble.

Xu Mingda asked Lin Baoya, "Which room did you see it in?"

Bao Ya pointed to Old Man Lin's room: "That room!"

Then Xu Mingda gestured to the people he brought, and several people went into the house to start searching.

When Granny Lin saw this, she became anxious. She and Li Jinxiang supported each other and were about to speak when Old Man Lin, who arrived later, pulled her back and signaled her to be quiet.

A young man came out and said, "Captain, all the cabinets are locked."

Xu Mingda then looked at Old Man Lin and said, "Fellow villager, may I borrow your key?"

Old Man Lin dared not refuse and immediately asked Old Woman Lin to get the key.

The person took the key and went inside, then came out again a moment later, shaking his head at Xu Mingda.

"Boss, should I go in and take a look?"

Bao Ya said to Xu Mingda, who thought for a moment and nodded. Lin Bao Ya then went directly into Old Man Lin's room.

It felt like every corner of the room had been searched, but it was still relatively tidy, and things weren't scattered everywhere.

Bao Ya first opened the food cabinet, which was full of fine grains. She saw a bag, picked it up, and put it on the kang (a heated brick bed).

Then she climbed back onto the kang (heated brick bed) and rummaged through the cabinet. The old couple had quite a lot of things; there were even a few pieces of fabric in the cabinet. She picked up the piece Jiang Yuan had brought and put it with the grain sack, then asked Fang Mingda, "Did you look in the stove hole?"

Fang Mingda was staring blankly at what she had taken out when he heard her speak. He turned around and asked the person behind him, "Did you find the kang hole?"

"We looked, but there was nothing."

Lin Baoya lifted the mat on the kang (a heated brick bed) and carefully examined the gaps in the bed; indeed, there were none.

"That's impossible." After searching for a long time, it's impossible that there isn't a single penny in the house. In the original owner's memory, Old Man Lin had a box for keeping money.

Fang Mingda looked grave. How come this girl had searched even more thoroughly than they had?

"You guys move this."

Bao Ya pointed to the kang cabinet.

Moving the cabinet aside, sure enough, there was a wooden board on the kang (heated brick bed) under the cabinet. Pulling back the board, there was a wooden box underneath.

Bao Ya was delighted to see the box. She took it out and said to Fang Mingda, "Here, this is it."

Fang Mingda looked at the box and was a little disappointed; it was obvious at a glance that it wasn't a telegraph machine.

Bao Ya didn't care about any of that. She opened the box and exclaimed, "Wow, it's really rich! And a lot of rich!"

She immediately suppressed her surprised expression, put the box, flour sack, and cloth together, picked them up, and walked out.

"Hey, you..."

Bao Ya threw a sentence at him:

"Search my uncle's room too. He's always using letters of introduction to run away, and nobody knows what he's doing. Fine, search the whole house, don't let anyone escape."

Fang Mingda was a little stunned. What did this mean? Wasn't this her house?

I wanted to leave, but I was afraid of missing something, so I decided to search for everything at once.

"Si Mao, watch over these things, don't let anyone touch them."

"Okay, I got it."

Old Man Lin and Old Woman Lin were taken aback when they saw what she took out: "Bao Ya, you..."

Bao Ya didn't even glance at them, then turned and went back into Lin Dahe's room.

Once inside the house, she was ruthless, even more so than when ransacking the house. She dug out the kang (heated brick bed), threw out everything from the cupboards, shook out all the clothes, and practically turned upside down the rat holes.

Finally, I actually found something: two pieces of cloth, sixty-five yuan, and some snacks and candies. I found an old piece of clothing, rolled up the things, and took them to the yard.

Once in the courtyard, he called out to the crowd, "Auntie Pang, Auntie Pang, look, isn't this the grain sack we borrowed from you?"

Hearing the call, Aunt Pang quickly ran over and searched the edge of the pocket, where a moon character was embroidered with red thread.

Everyone had their own markings on the cloth bags used to store grain, so you could tell at a glance whether it belonged to them or not.

"It really is; this is the one your aunt borrowed from me."