“Where did it go? Where did it go?!”
Qin Aiguo frantically leveled two small earthen mounds, even exposing the coffin boards inside.
But even so, he still couldn’t find the small gold bars he had hidden!
“No, that’s impossible… impossible… impossible.”
He collapsed onto the dirt, sitting in a heap, his face ashen as he stared at the flattened graves before him.
“My gold… where is my gold?”
Where had all the gold he had painstakingly hidden gone?
“Hey, Team Leader Qin?”
A surprised voice came from the side.
“What are you doing here?”
Qin Aiguo didn’t look up. He didn’t want to talk. He was completely devastated.
Three or four village women who had come up the mountain to collect firewood looked at the graves in front of him.
Just one glance and they were stunned.
“Oh my god, why were your parents’ graves dug up? Who would do such a heartless thing?”
“My heavens, who could be so wicked as to not even spare the graves of the elderly? Aren’t they afraid of divine retribution?”
“This is too cruel!”
“Yes, digging up ancestral graves is a curse on the whole family!”
They all spoke one after another, indignant on his behalf.
Qin Aiguo raised his bloodshot eyes and glared at them.
“Get lost!”
The women—some from the Second Production Team and some from the Third—had never seen Qin Aiguo this fierce before.
They froze in place.
“Didn’t I tell you to get lost?!”
He roared again.
Frightened, the women quickly turned and ran.
Qin Aiguo sat motionless by the graves until it was almost dark, then finally staggered down the mountain in a daze.
…
In the evening, the carpenter sent the bed over.
A solid wooden bed about 1.5 meters wide, two long benches, two small stools, a wooden bucket, and a wooden basin.
The extra items surprised Su Yun.
“Master Li, these are—?”
The carpenter laughed warmly.
“I know you just moved in and must be short on things. I just happened to have a wooden basin and bucket I hadn’t used yet, so I brought them for you.”
These were gifts from him—no payment required.
Su Yun didn’t quite know what to say.
Before she could respond, voices came from outside again.
Several aunts and older women walked in, each carrying something.
Some held cabbages, others bags of beans, others sweet potatoes, radishes, or coarse rice.
The once quiet courtyard suddenly became lively.
“So this is Xiao Su? What a good girl.”
A woman named Li Meiyue walked up first, looking at Su Yun kindly.
Su Yun didn’t recognize her.
Li Meiyue smiled and explained.
“You can just call me Auntie. My husband is Wu Jianguo.”
So she was the team leader’s wife.
Su Yun quickly greeted her.
“Hello, Auntie.”
“Come in and sit,” she said, moving to bring out benches.
Li Meiyue waved her hand with a smile.
“No need to fuss. We just came after work to see you. We won’t sit—we’ve got dinner waiting at home.”
“We don’t have anything good, just vegetables from our own plots. We brought you some so you can have a better meal.”
She placed about five jin of coarse rice and a small bag of sweet potatoes on the kitchen floor.
The others followed suit, leaving their goods in the same spot.
“Xiao Su, now that you’ve come to our First Team, don’t worry. We’re different from the others here.”
Li Meiyue held Su Yun’s hand reassuringly.
“If you ever need anything, come find me.”
“My house is a bit past Jiang Tao’s place. Just ask Jiang Tao or Xiao Yuan—they’ll know.”
“Thank you, Auntie,” Su Yun said sincerely.
After chatting briefly, they left.
Xiao Yuan stood at the doorway with crutches, seeing them off with Su Yun.
“Go back inside, don’t see us off.”
“If anything happens, come to our house—don’t be shy,” Li Meiyue reminded her.
“Alright, I’ll remember. Thank you, Auntie,” Su Yun replied.
After they left, the courtyard became quiet again.
Su Yun closed the gate and carried everything into the kitchen.
That night, they simply cooked rice porridge with sweet potatoes.
After eating, she washed the dishes and bathed with hot water.
Even though it required fetching water, she couldn’t sleep without bathing.
Fortunately, earlier that afternoon Xiao Zhao had delivered a washbasin, an iron bucket, and a large water vat for the kitchen. He had also filled the vat before leaving, enough for the night.
After washing, she also helped Xiao Yuan get water to wash up.
She then returned to the room to prepare the bed.
The torn mattress and old quilt had been rescued the night before, and she spread them out again for now. Tomorrow, she planned to make a new quilt.
While she was inside, she vaguely heard Wu Jianguo talking with Xiao Yuan outside, but she didn’t pay attention.
Soon, Xiao Yuan came in and handed her an old tin box used for biscuits.
“What’s this?” she asked.
“Inside is the money I saved from my time in the army, plus my disability discharge compensation.”
“Ah?”
She looked completely stunned.
“What do you mean… you’re giving all this to me?”
“There’s over four thousand yuan.”
She became even more confused.
At this time, four thousand yuan was a huge sum.
She pointed at herself, then at the box.
“You’re giving me all your money?”
“Yes.”
He answered without hesitation.
“I know what kind of person Xu Dongmei is, so when I was in the army, I didn’t give her all my allowance.”
Even the 2,500 yuan disability compensation from the military, he never gave to Xu Dongmei.
Because he had returned injured without money, Qin Aiguo used “rest and recovery” as an excuse to send him to live in the nearby straw hut…
Xu Dongmei had even tried to hint that he should hand over his money for her to “keep safe.”
But Xiao Yuan was twenty-six, not six.
He naturally didn’t believe a word.
So he left his savings with Wu Jianguo for safekeeping.
Now that there was a woman in the household, the money naturally belonged to her.
After explaining, he looked at her.
The dim oil lamp cast a warm glow over her face, making her look soft and beautiful.
“Xiao Yun, don’t feel pressured.”
“You should be the one holding this money.”