The person in the Lin family who lost the most private savings was Old Master Lin, Lin Zhong.
The old man had run out of tobacco yesterday. He asked his wife for money to buy more, but she refused. When his craving hit and he couldn’t stand it anymore, he had no choice but to use his own hidden stash.
But no matter how hard he searched, he couldn’t find it.
He searched every corner of the house, but there was nothing there. He couldn’t find even a single cent.
He was furious.
He suspected his old wife had taken it, but unfortunately, he had no proof.
Speaking of which, Lin Qiaoyun had gone a little too far. She should have at least left him some money for cigarettes.
As for the others, they had also discovered that their private savings were missing.
But they couldn’t openly make a fuss about it, so they could only suffer in silence.
As a result, every one of them looked unhappy, and their moods were terrible.
So when Lin Qiaoyun and Zhao Tiezhu arrived, only Lin Youshui and Xu Nian’en came out to greet them. No one else came to welcome Lin Qiaoyun.
She wasn’t surprised that the others hadn’t come, but why hadn’t her grandmother, Wang Chunhua, come either?
“Mom, where’s Grandma?”
As she handed the things she was carrying to her mother, Lin Qiaoyun asked.
“Your grandma took your little aunt and Qiaofeng to your eldest aunt’s house. She said there was something important. Someone came to call for them yesterday. I wasn’t home at the time, so I’m not very clear on the details.”
Whenever something happened in the Lin family, nobody ever told her parents. It was probably something good.
It was actually better that those three weren’t home. It saved her some trouble.
Otherwise, if she really went crazy, she might scare her newly acquired husband.
Zhao Tiezhu was returning to the army tomorrow.
Once he left, she would come back and deal with these people properly.
Xu Nian’en pulled Lin Qiaoyun aside to talk and left Lin Youshui to entertain his son-in-law.
“Yun’er, were you alright last night?”
“I was fine. Don’t worry, Mom. Do you really think your daughter would suffer a loss?”
“I’m just worried. The son-in-law is already so old before finally getting married. I can’t help worrying.”
“Alright, Mom. I’m fine.”
“And another thing, Yun’er. Your father and I discussed it. We’ve agreed to move into the Zhao family home with you. It’s just… your father said we’d wait until after the son-in-law leaves tomorrow. Today, let’s have a peaceful family meal here at the Lin house.”
“Okay. That’s exactly what I was thinking too.”
Since his grandson-in-law had come, Old Master Lin came out of his room despite his bad mood.
The moment Zhao Tiezhu saw him, he immediately took out two packs of cigarettes from his pocket and handed them over.
“Grandpa, I know you like smoking. I bought these especially for you.”
Old Master Lin had been suffering from nicotine cravings and feeling uncomfortable all over.
Now that he suddenly had two packs of cigarettes, he smiled so broadly that his eyes nearly disappeared.
At that moment, he forgot everything.
He even forgot that before leaving, his wife had told him to make things difficult for Lin Qiaoyun.
“Second son’s wife, make a few good dishes for lunch. I’ll have a couple of drinks with my grandson-in-law.”
“Alright, Father.”
Among the gifts Zhao Tiezhu brought for the return visit was a five-jin piece of wild boar meat.
Xu Nian’en immediately cut half of it and prepared it for cooking.
The family also had a three-jin grass carp that Lin Youshui had managed to get from outside.
Together with vegetables grown at home and wild mountain produce they had gathered, Xu Nian’en managed to prepare a table full of dishes.
The original Lin Qiaoyun knew how to cook.
This Lin Qiaoyun knew how as well.
But she didn’t like cooking.
So while her mother worked in the kitchen, she stayed in her room organizing their belongings.
She had already discussed everything with her parents.
Tomorrow they would take their clothes and valuable possessions and leave.
As for everything else, they didn’t want it.
None of it was worth much anyway.
When she transferred her household registration yesterday, she had already transferred her parents’ registrations as well and registered them together under the Zhao family.
Since they lived in the same village and production team, the transfer process was extremely simple.
A single word from Zhao Tiezhu was enough.
As long as the household registration had been moved, that was all that mattered.
Honestly, if her mother hadn’t been reluctant to part with some things, Lin Qiaoyun wouldn’t have wanted any of them.
After packing up the entire household, everything together wasn’t even worth two yuan.
Her father’s and mother’s clothes were covered in patch upon patch.
Even the money for her schooling had been borrowed by her father.
To this day, several yuan of that debt still hadn’t been repaid.
Thinking about the private savings she had collected from everyone in the family, Lin Qiaoyun felt that her parents were simply too honest.
Just Old Master Lin alone had hidden a hundred yuan.
With that much money, why was he unwilling to spend any on his granddaughter’s education?
Instead, he kept it all to buy cigarettes for himself.
Why hadn’t smoking killed him already?
Lin Qiaoyun thought bitterly.
And then there was Wang Chunhua.
Although Lin Qiaoyun hadn’t taken her money, she knew the old woman had several hundred yuan hidden away.
The Lin family was actually quite interesting.
In such a poor village, with nobody in the family working outside, they somehow had so much money.
The others also had private savings.
But the most anyone else had was her eldest uncle.
And he only had eight yuan.
There was definitely some secret between Old Master Lin and Old Madam Lin.
But no matter what that secret was, the money would eventually become hers.
Haha…
Lin Qiaoyun laughed proudly to herself.
Anything she set her sights on would eventually end up in her hands.
Unless she decided she didn’t want it anymore.
Not a single person helped with the work.
But when it was time to eat, every member of the Lin family, young and old, appeared at the table.
Fortunately, Zhao Tiezhu had an extremely imposing presence.
The Lin family members were intimidated by his tall and powerful build.
No one dared to act recklessly in front of him.
Lunch passed fairly peacefully.
Mainly because the other three women weren’t home.
After lunch, Zhao Tiezhu took Lin Qiaoyun back to the Zhao family home.
When she left, she carried a small wooden box in her hands.
Inside were all the books left behind by the original Lin Qiaoyun.
Lin Qiaoyun intended to attend high school and take the university entrance examination.
It had been a long time since she had touched a textbook.
She planned to bring the books back and study hard.
Although she hadn’t graduated from any prestigious university in her previous life, getting into an ordinary college in this era wouldn’t be a problem.
The main reason was that she didn’t want to work in the fields.
If she wasn’t going to work, then she could only go to school.
She had to choose one of the two.
Naturally, she chose the easier option.
If possible, she could keep studying forever…
When Zhao Tiezhu brought Lin Qiaoyun back home, Jinhua, Yinhua, and Caihua were making dried meat.
Four wild boars sounded like a lot.
But the Zhao family had many people.
All six sons were serving in the military away from home.
Zhao Tiezhu had said that he could contact Erzhu and Sanzhu, so he could mail packages to them.
Therefore, Mother Zhao had her daughters make dried meat from the wild boar so they could send some to their brothers.
As soon as Lin Qiaoyun returned to the Zhao household, she began processing the pig organs.
She planned to braise all of them.
Her mother-in-law had already handed over the key to the cellar.
From now on, she truly had the final say in this household.
She could braise the meat, store it in the cellar—or rather, secretly put it into her space and eat it slowly over time.
After all, nobody knew where the meat was being kept.
The Zhao family’s kitchen was much larger than most people’s.
Other households had two cooking stoves.
Their family had four.
One stove was specifically for cooking rice and steaming sweet potatoes.
Two stoves were used for cooking dishes.
The remaining stove was used for heating water.
The Zhao family had hot water available almost all day long.
At the moment, one stove was being used to make dried meat.
So Lin Qiaoyun used another stove to braise the meat.
First, she boiled a large pot of water and blanched all the pig organs.
The organs from all four pigs had already been cleaned and cut up by her younger sisters-in-law.
All Lin Qiaoyun had to do now was put them into the pot and braise them.