The two of them weren’t familiar with modern wedding procedures, let alone the ones of this era, so the entire process was rather clumsy. Whatever everyone told them to do, they did. Fortunately, the procedures were simple—mainly just making vows—and it was over before long.
Li Baoling was taken into the room, and everyone else went to prepare for the banquet.
“Ahem.”
She cleared her throat once, and Lin Mingyuan immediately turned back and gave a subtle signal—he understood.
After everyone had left, she began carefully examining the room in front of her. Although she had seen it before, it felt a little different today. Red “double happiness” characters were pasted on the window, as well as on the washbasin and the thermos.
The room wasn’t small, probably around twenty square meters. Rural houses were truly spacious. They were living in the east room; next door lived Lin’s eldest brother’s family. On the other side was a small room used specifically for storing odds and ends, and beyond a wall was the abandoned house left behind by a former landlord.
Wait—could the two of them secretly use that place later? With a bit of effort, climbing over wouldn’t be a problem.
The more Li Baoling looked around, the more satisfied she became. Mainly because there weren’t many things here. With only two people living together, she could just treat it as sharing a place with a male roommate.
All her belongings had already been moved over. Of course, she didn’t have much to begin with. Everything was neatly arranged by the bedside. Most of the bedding on the bed had been newly changed; even if it wasn’t brand new, it had been washed thoroughly. Li Baoling didn’t bother taking out her own pile of old stuff—all of it was single-sized anyway. The bed had to be about 1.8 meters wide; splitting it down the middle would be just right for the two of them.
She had never thought of making Lin Mingyuan sleep on the floor. After all, it was his home—she knew her place.
Listening to the noisy chatter outside, it seemed the meal had already begun. She wondered if they might bring her some food.
No sooner had the thought crossed her mind than Sun Zhaodi came in from outside carrying dishes. “Quick, Mingyuan specifically told me to save this for you.”
Li Baoling lifted the lid and saw lots of meat inside. Her eyes immediately lit up.
Sun Zhaodi wasn’t foolish—good food was, of course, kept for family. Taking advantage of everyone not paying attention, she had filled a large bowl for Baoling, with both meat and vegetables.
“I didn’t bring you any steamed buns,” Sun Zhaodi instructed. “Either I or Mingyuan will come in again later. If you’re not full, I’ll get you some then.”
Li Baoling nodded obediently. “Okay.”
With such a big bowl, she would definitely be full after finishing it.
“Eat quickly.” Sun Zhaodi still had to go back out and keep an eye on things, afraid that if she looked away for even a moment, people like Liu Heini would start making trouble again.
Sure enough, as soon as Sun Zhaodi went out, Liu Heini and Liu Fengying started arguing again—this time over a piece of meat.
“You’re such a grown person, why are you fighting with a child for food?” Liu Fengying was just about to pick up the last piece of meat for her grandson when Liu Heini snatched it away.
“How ridiculous. This isn’t your house—whoever grabs it gets to eat it,” Liu Heini said, deliberately smacking her lips afterward.
Meat snatched from Liu Fengying’s hands just tasted better.
Seeing Liu Fengying about to snap back and say that Liu Heini didn’t even have a grandson, Sun Zhaodi immediately stepped forward. “Enough. I’m telling you both—if you dare keep arguing, I’ll throw you out right now. Believe it or not.”
It wasn’t that Sun Zhaodi meant to speak harshly. The problem was that these two couldn’t tolerate gentle words. If you spoke nicely, they wouldn’t take it seriously—fights would still break out. After living together for so many years, how could she not know?
Once Sun Zhaodi got angry, Liu Fengying didn’t dare make trouble anymore. After all, she was eating someone else’s banquet food, and Sun Zhaodi always followed through on her words—she really would throw her out.
Even though Liu Heini was seething with hatred inside, she behaved herself. In her view, Lin Mingyuan and Li Baoling were a pair of brats born of a mother but raised without one—how were they worthy of such a fine banquet? But who told them their father was the village head?
Heaven truly had no eyes, letting this family live so well.
“It’s fine, it’s fine. Zhaodi, go ahead and get busy. I’ll watch this table—I guarantee they won’t start fighting,” Mei Yufen chimed in immediately. She could handle something this small.
Sun Zhaodi shot Mei Yufen a glance. This one was also clueless. Though she didn’t cause trouble herself, once something happened in front of her, it only ever escalated.
Liu Heini and Liu Fengying also shot Mei Yufen a simultaneous look of disdain. That short little thing—how could she possibly manage the two of them?
“Just eat properly. There’ll be more later. Xiaoshuang, keep an eye on your mother,” Sun Zhaodi said. Among everyone at this table, the only one she could somewhat trust was Lin Xiaoshuang, who had nearly cut ties with her parents.
“Okay,” Lin Xiaoshuang nodded. She liked watching drama, but only within her own family. This wasn’t the place. Back when she had run into trouble, Lin Guoqing and Sun Zhaodi had helped her a lot, and she had always remembered that kindness.
“As if a dead girl like you could control me,” Liu Fengying muttered under her breath.
On the other side, Lin Mingyuan drank only a token amount of alcohol. He had several childhood friends and two older brothers backing him up. Although those two brothers didn’t usually help him take beatings, they were reliable in other matters.
These days, alcohol was diluted with water, so it was impossible to get drunk anyway. Even so, Lin Mingyuan pretended to feel dizzy. Rather than sitting there listening to people brag, he would rather go check whether Li Baoling had eaten her fill. If not, he could bring her more. They had agreed to share blessings together.
Lin Mingyuan said he was going to the toilet, but actually slipped back to the room while no one was paying attention—just in time to see Li Baoling gnawing on a big chicken leg.
She was eating without the slightest concern for appearances. When she looked up and saw the door open, she was just about to pretend to be more reserved, but upon realizing it was her partner-in-crime, she simply continued eating.
“Are you full?” Lin Mingyuan asked.
Li Baoling nodded. “Full, full—I’m stuffed.”
Sun Zhaodi had barely given her any vegetables; it was almost all meat.
Seeing her put down the bowl, Lin Mingyuan immediately pulled her to the foot of the bed, excitedly saying, “Quick, look—I put all the snacks here.”
Like he was presenting a treasure, Lin Mingyuan took out a pile of things from the cabinet behind the bed.
They were all things the two of them had painstakingly saved up. Every time they went into the city, they would bring a little back—candies and biscuits.
“Eat some, eat some. I’ve been craving these.” Even though she had just eaten, everything had been salty. Something sweet would be perfect now.
As she spoke, Li Baoling tore open a pack of biscuits and handed one to Lin Mingyuan. The two of them ate and chatted at the same time—finally able to sit openly in the room and talk.
“What do you think about hanging a curtain to block off the bed—just this back section?” Li Baoling suggested. “That way, if someone comes in, the first thing they’ll see is the cabinet in front.”
She always felt that a bed was a very private thing and shouldn’t be casually seen by others.
“Then we can put my small cabinet together with yours behind the bed—one for snacks, one for valuables like money. How does that sound?”
“I think it’s good.”
They acted immediately. Li Baoling had originally planned to set aside the bedsheet she used at the educated youth compound—now it came in handy.
Lin Mingyuan had nails in his room, ones he had carefully saved up. He took out four—two on each side—then punched two small holes in the bedsheet and hung it up. Just like that, a simple partition was finished.
“Let’s work hard and fill up this little chest,” Lin Mingyuan said. “That way, whenever we’re hungry or craving something, we’ll have food!”
“Just thinking about it makes me happy,” Li Baoling said expectantly.
“Exactly. And we’re at the very eastern end. Go further east and there’s nothing but fields and a stretch of forest. There are rabbits and wild chickens in there. I’ll take you hunting sometime—though we might not catch anything. They run really fast.”
When Lin Mingyuan mentioned the forest, Li Baoling suddenly remembered a plot point from the book. “Wait—that forest, isn’t that where there were lingzhi or ginseng or something? Anyway, Shen Xiangyang found it and sold it for a huge sum of money.”
“No way. In a few days, let’s secretly go check it out ourselves and see if we can intercept it. If we do, we’ll go eat at a state-owned restaurant.”
“Sounds good to me.”
No matter how big the world was, for the two of them, eating was the most important thing!
“Oh right—why hasn’t Fang Daming come to ask for the money?” Lin Mingyuan suddenly thought of it.
Li Baoling found it strange too. “Even though we’re getting married today, judging by Fang Daming’s personality, he wouldn’t skip coming to ask for money. Why hasn’t there been any movement at all?”
“Who knows. Maybe he’ll come tomorrow. I’m really sick of him. Do you think we could just pocket those twenty yuan?”
Li Baoling was tempted too. “I want to, but what if he goes to the police?”
She wasn’t afraid of lying to others, but police officers were a different matter.
“Forget it. We won’t take ill-gotten gains. But if he comes again, how about we put a sack over his head and beat him up? Enough is enough.”
Li Baoling said it casually, but Lin Mingyuan actually found it reasonable. After thinking it over, he said, “You know, that could really work. He rides his bike on the main road—we take the small path. Halfway there, we sack him. Can’t let him be the only one scheming against us.”
“Deal!”
Meanwhile, the Fang Daming the two of them were talking about was currently behaving himself at the Revolutionary Committee. He had already been there for a full day. When would his uncle finally get him out?
It was all that bastard Lin Mingyuan’s fault. He never showed up, and Fang Daming waited for ages. He had actually wanted to leave, but the more he thought about it, the angrier he became. If it weren’t for Lin Mingyuan, his job wouldn’t have fallen through.
Although his uncle hadn’t said it outright, there was probably no hope anymore.
Damn it—then what had he gone through all that trouble for? No, Lin Mingyuan had to be arrested, otherwise the resentment in his heart would never be soothed.
With that thought, Fang Daming began to wonder whether Lin Mingyuan had already entered the black market. He hesitated, then went in himself—what if he could catch him? Besides, the Revolutionary Committee was run by his uncle’s people; nothing could happen to him.
And then—he really did run into people from the Revolutionary Committee. The bad news was that they belonged to his uncle’s sworn enemy.
What was more, it wasn’t until he was arrested that he learned that Zhang Dazhuang, that animal, had defected!
Recently, it was a critical period for his uncle and that bastard surnamed Sun to compete for the position of director of the office in charge of cracking down on speculation and profiteering. The two were locked in a secret struggle. Because his uncle had been there longer, his chances were high, so Sun started resorting to dirty tricks, using money to buy off people around his uncle.
He then had them expose some of the noncompliant things his uncle had done in the past. Among those who were turned was Zhang Dazhuang. No wonder he had asked that day whether Fang Daming had told his uncle—Sun’s side had been desperate to find leverage against his uncle, and Fang Daming had delivered himself right to them.
If they could catch Fang Yuejin’s nephew at the black market, wouldn’t that be ready-made leverage? Then it would come down to whether Fang Yuejin wanted his nephew—or his position.
And so Fang Daming ended up inside like this.
Since being arrested yesterday, the people on Sun’s side had done nothing but interrogate him again and again. The rare time he saw his uncle, it was only to be scolded.
“You think this is easy for me?” Fang Daming was on the verge of tears. “Wasn’t I just trying to get Lin Mingyuan arrested to help our family vent some anger? How was I supposed to know that dog Zhang Dazhuang had defected? Uncle, hurry up and get me out of here—I can’t stay in this place another day!”
Fang Yuejin looked at his nephew, stupid as a pig, and his blood pressure shot up even higher.