When Lin Shengxia returned to the back entrance of the ruined temple, Dong Wanqiu opened the door for her with her usual calm expression.
Even so, Lin Shengxia immediately sensed that the atmosphere at home was somewhat strange today.
Lin Qizheng was alone in the courtyard mixing mud. Along the wall of the ruined temple, he had already laid a foundation with clay. Once he gradually added more mud and completed the structure, they could try lighting a fire beneath it and heating the kang bed.
Lin Shengxia noticed how her parents were deliberately pretending that everything was fine, but she didn’t ask them directly.
Instead, when Dong Wanqiu went out to help in the courtyard, she quietly asked Lin Handong whether anything had happened at home while she was away.
Dong Wanqiu had repeatedly warned Lin Handong not to tell his sister about Yang Defu.
But in Lin Handong’s heart, his older sister was the most capable person in the world!
He secretly glanced outside. After making sure that Lin Qizheng and Dong Wanqiu weren’t paying attention to them, he lowered his voice and told Lin Shengxia everything that had happened that morning.
Lin Shengxia’s heart ached for him. She gently stroked his fluffy little head, then took out the picture book he had only finished halfway from her storage space and told him to continue reading on the pile of straw.
She then went outside and carefully looked around.
Sure enough, she spotted traces of blood remaining on top of the courtyard wall.
Lin Shengxia’s heart sank.
But remembering what Li Xiangqin had told her, she forcibly suppressed the uneasiness in her heart.
She quickly walked over to Lin Qizheng and lowered her voice.
“Dad, today I asked an auntie I’m close to about something. She said the national examinations will be reinstated next year.”
The instant Lin Shengxia finished speaking, the iron shovel in Lin Qizheng’s hands crashed to the ground.
“Y-You’re telling the truth?!”
“Dad, I have no reason to lie to you about something this important, do I? But Auntie also said that even though the examinations will be reinstated nationwide, not everyone will necessarily be eligible to take them…”
Lin Shengxia had graduated from high school, but nearly three years had already passed since then.
The reinstatement of the examinations next year was undoubtedly wonderful news.
Unfortunately, as things stood now, that wonderful news had almost nothing to do with her.
But to Lin Qizheng, the restoration of the examinations next year represented something much greater.
A signal.
“If the auntie you know wasn’t mistaken, then once the examinations are reinstated next year, I’m afraid even greater changes will follow.”
If the authorities had decided to restore the national examinations, then many other problems would inevitably have to be confronted as part of those changes.
More importantly, once the examinations were restored, schools would undoubtedly face a shortage of teachers.
When that happened, people like them might finally have an opportunity to clear their names and seek justice for what had happened to them.
Lin Qizheng took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.
Then he began mixing the mud with even greater determination.
Lin Shengxia couldn’t quite understand her father.
He had been so excited just moments ago, yet in the blink of an eye, he had somehow regained his composure.
Naturally, Lin Qizheng noticed the confusion on her face.
After thinking for a moment, he said, “If you earn money tomorrow, go buy books. Ask the people over there whether you can find study guides from our era. If you can, buy every one you can get your hands on!”
He knew very well that because university entrance examinations had been suspended, many high school graduates were selling their study materials as if they were worthless scraps.
Some people even used those books as kindling for their fires.
Even if they could find such books in this era, with their current status, simply going down the mountain was difficult enough, let alone traveling into town to buy them.
Lin Shengxia understood what her father meant.
With a serious expression, she said, “I’ve already found someone willing to buy the wild violets on the mountain. I’ve also stored enough vegetables in my space to sell for several days. I won’t go up the mountain tomorrow. I’ll treat it as a day of rest.”
The moment she finished speaking, she clearly noticed Lin Qizheng’s hands pause.
Lin Shengxia knew that her father had already understood what she meant.
Compared with earning money in the future, her family’s safety mattered far more to her.
“Dad, why don’t I buy a few rat traps tomorrow? Or maybe I could buy some rat poison and smear it on the wall!”
Those bastards who wanted to kick her family while they were down deserved whatever happened to them!
If one of them died from the poison, then so be it!
Hearing his daughter’s outrageous suggestion, Lin Qizheng lightly flicked her forehead.
“Forget that idea immediately. We only need to endure for another year before things start getting better. If you make enemies of the villagers now and turn this into a fight to the death, are you afraid they won’t target our family enough?”
Lin Qizheng wasn’t particularly worried about Yang Defu alone.
From his wife’s description, he could already guess that the man probably wasn’t anyone important in the Maisui Production Brigade.
Otherwise, at that hour of the day, all the able-bodied villagers would have been working in the fields to earn work points.
Who would have so much free time that they would climb the mountain just to make trouble for them?
The last time those people had come, it was only because they had gone up the mountain to gather firewood after finishing work. They happened to notice that the ruined temple’s door was open, so they came inside and bullied Lin Qizheng.
The unfortunate truth was that when someone had fallen to the bottom, everyone seemed eager to step on them.
Even people Lin Qizheng had once known in the capital had treated him that way.
So what could he possibly expect from the villagers of Maisui Production Brigade, people who had never known his family in the first place?
Dong Wanqiu saw the father and daughter huddled together, whispering quietly.
She simply turned around and went inside to prepare lunch.
The dough she had kneaded in the enamel basin had already finished rising.
Dong Wanqiu glanced at the stove Lin Qizheng had built. After thinking for a moment, she scooped out a spoonful of lard and spread it across the bottom of the clay pot.
She divided the dough into pieces of roughly equal size and rolled each one into a thin sheet.
Then she spread her homemade oil paste and chopped scallions over the dough before rolling it back into a ball, flattening it into a pancake, and placing it in the clay pot to cook.
Before long, more than a dozen evenly sized flaky scallion pancakes were stacked beside her.
Lin Shengxia and Lin Handong waited eagerly nearby.
The moment the freshly cooked pancakes came out of the pot, neither sibling bothered with manners. Despite the risk of burning themselves, each grabbed one and immediately stuffed it into their mouth.
The fluffy, crisp yet tender pancake released a rich aroma of oil with every bite.
By the second mouthful, the fragrance of the flaky layers blended perfectly with the aroma of freshly cooked dough.
Lin Handong was so captivated by the taste that he completely ignored his reddened, scalded fingertips and continued stuffing large bites into his mouth.
Seeing how satisfied her two children were, Dong Wanqiu couldn’t help laughing.
With the pancakes ready, she sliced the braised beef Lin Shengxia had brought back.
She paired the beef with a cold vegetable dish she had seasoned herself, wrapped everything inside one of the pancakes, and handed it to Lin Qizheng, who had just finished his work.
In their era, beef was extraordinarily precious.
After all, cattle were essential for working the fields and were among a village’s most valuable assets.
That was why, when Lin Shengxia first told her mother that she had bought two jin of braised beef, Dong Wanqiu’s immediate reaction was that her daughter must have been cheated!
It wasn’t until the braised beef was placed directly in front of her that Dong Wanqiu finally believed it was real.
And when she heard at the dining table that the national examinations would be reinstated next year, the smile never left her face.
She felt exactly the same way as Lin Qizheng.
This was a positive sign.
After the entire family had eaten their fill, Lin Shengxia stored away everything that didn’t belong in this era.
Then she casually tossed some dried mugwort into the fire.
Before long, the strong scent of mugwort completely covered the lingering aroma of meat inside the ruined temple.
Just then, someone knocked on the temple’s front door…