This time they brought back a lot of things, half a bag of dried sweet potatoes, a few pounds of fine grains, and various wild vegetables, greens, and spring buds.
First they took Lu Tianjun to school. By the time Feng Qingxue and the others returned to the big courtyard, the afterglow had receded, and night had just appeared. Chen Xueniang said goodbye to them at the back door and went straight into her own house, paying no heed to Wang Erniu’s cursing sounds after hearing the commotion.
Mother Cheng had saved some rice for them and specially cooked egg noodles for Xibao. While feeding Xibao, she said, "I smell the scent of toona buds, I haven’t eaten them for a long time. Tomorrow let’s buy a piece of tofu and we can mix it with the tofu for dinner. Oh, I also smell the scent of locust buds. We relied entirely on these to survive a few years ago! However, they made everyone’s body swell up from eating too much, alas!"
"The swelling didn’t come from eating locust buds." Feng Qingxue swallowed her food, "The swelling was caused by extreme malnutrition due to hunger, lack of protein and vitamins, which led to edema."
Mother Cheng sighed, "This year is finally a bit better than previous years."
Feng Qingxue deeply agreed.
Although hunger is still the biggest challenge, it’s much better than those three years.
After eating, she and Wang Cuilan cleaned up the bowls and chopsticks, locked the grain they brought back into the cabinet, and put the fresh vegetables in the kitchen. While they were busy, they heard a knock on the door outside.
"Who could that be." Wang Cuilan went to open the door, and it turned out to be the parents of Zhang Yi.
The secretary of the standing committee, Zhang Tiezhu, and his wife Hong Damei, both straightforward people. As soon as the latter saw Wang Cuilan, she clutched her hand, "Cuilan, you must testify for my son Zhang Yi! Don’t let him be harmed by malicious people! Why is our Yi so unlucky? It’s just a meeting, isn’t it normal for young men and women to meet and not go further? How come he’s been involved in trouble!"
As tears streamed down Hong Damei’s face, her voice was quite loud, and Feng Qingxue heard it clearly in the kitchen.
It must have been Zhao Mingfang who came back and caused trouble. The most likely thing would be her going around claiming that Zhang Yi had molested her.
Wang Cuilan had a clear understanding and quickly invited them in to talk about it.
When Hong Damei saw Cheng Baoguo, Father Cheng, and Mother Cheng, she couldn’t help but pour out all her grievances.
"Mr. Cheng, Mrs. Cheng, Secretary Cheng, Mayor Cheng, tell me, isn’t our Yi wronged?" Hong Damei wiped a tear, "Zhao Mingfang went home and told her parents that Zhang Yi had molested her, that her clothes were torn open, and her buttons had fallen off! Zhao Yide and Wang Fengmei came to us to settle the account, insisting that Zhang Yi marry Zhao Mingfang. But how could this be possible? We’re not stupid to marry such a daughter-in-law. Unfortunately, some nosy people reported Zhang Yi to his unit, accusing him of having a problem with his lifestyle and molesting female comrades. It’s most likely someone who saw their argument at the time. Zhang Yi was literally defenseless and is now detained! Fortunately, he said that Cuilan and Chen Xueniang, as well as a female comrade who seems to be Zhao Mingfang’s cousin, could testify for him, so I came to find you!"
Wang Cuilan immediately said, "Damei, don’t cry. I saw the whole thing from start to finish. Don’t worry, I’m going to testify for Zhang Yi first thing tomorrow morning, and I’ll also call Xueniang and my Qingxue. We’ll ensure that Zhang Yi gets out safe and clear."
Hong Damei immediately expressed her deep gratitude, "I’ll bother you when the time comes, Cuilan."
"Thank you, Comrade Cuilan and this lady. We’ll go first. We need to find Secretary Huang to testify for Zhang Yi too and prove that nothing happened after their meeting." Zhang Tiezhu was also very angry now. Zhao Mingfang was introduced by Secretary Huang. After the two of them didn’t work out, Secretary Huang introduced Zhou Yulan to Zhang Yi.
...As long as there are votes, including monthly tickets and recommendation tickets, there will be updates. As for rewards, it’s up to you. I prefer you all to subscribe to my writing. Grinning, I ate some chive dumplings today. Let you also see chive dumplings. The chive dumplings my mom makes are super delicious.