"I don’t know either." Yun Xiaoxiao couldn’t say that the man had gone to the county town to inquire about her admission letter, could she?
Where could he have gone?
Mrs. Zhao didn’t feel comfortable asking about the admission letter either.
After all, Laosan had been admitted, but Laosan’s Wife had still not received her admission letter; she feared that it might make her overthink.
"Forget about it; don’t worry about him. You don’t need to put so much saccharin in the mint water."
With so many people in the brigade, it wasn’t possible to use white sugar.
So they had to use saccharin instead.
Several of the village’s young lads went to deliver water.
Yun Xiaoxiao also added mint and some lemon juice to it, making it taste sweet and sour.
Whether she was steaming corn buns or two-grain dough, Xiaoxiao always added yeast to make them fluffy, so they wouldn’t taste too dense.
"But if you don’t put in that much, it won’t be sweet."
"Too sweet, and you’ll drink even more water..."
"Mom, Dad gave me quite a bit of saccharin; we have more than enough."
But this saccharin-laced water was certainly tastier than plain water.
In the county town, Zhao Tianlei had been keeping an eye on the whole situation.
After those families made a fuss, an investigation began.
The Education Bureau cooperated as well.
One careless move could bring someone down.
Who would want to be removed from their post after so many years of hard work?
The investigation moved quickly, starting from the county town’s Post Office to find out where the admission letters had been taken and who had received them.
The Public Security’s response was swift; they took all the postal workers back to the Police Station for questioning.
Everyone was isolated; no whispering to one another was allowed.
"My admission letter, my admission letter, where is it, where?" An eighteen-year-old boy looked at them, ready to confront them with his questions.
This boy had done well in the preliminary exams, and some of his classmates had already received their admission letters, but there had been no word on his. Now, he had found out that even those who scored lower than him had received theirs.
"Son, son, don’t be , the Public Security will investigate, they will," an elderly woman said as she saw her youngest son ready to lunge at the officers; she held him tightly.
"Comrade, stay calm, we will definitely give you an explanation. We won’t wrongly accuse a good person, nor will we let a bad person go free."
The elderly woman pulled her son aside, "We trust you, we trust you; we’ll just wait here for the news."
"Son, you will definitely receive your admission letter, and you’ll be able to go to college..."
The woman continued to reassure her son.
Other parents were waiting for news as well.
In the end, it turned out that a junior leader at the Post Office and another postal worker had conspired to steal several admission letters and sold them to a few individuals desperate for university education.
"You’ve got some nerve to withhold the province’s top scholar’s admission letter." After they revealed who they had given the letters to, The Police Station Director immediately ordered the admission letters to be retrieved and returned.
Having the province’s top scholar in their small county was a point of pride, putting them in the provincial spotlight.
But these people, they had the audacity to withhold it privately.
That was the province’s top scholar.
The two culprits from the Post Office hung their heads in shame.
They had sold the letters for a high price, two thousand yuan each.
They were under scrutiny from their higher-ups.
As for the rightful recipients of the admission letters, they could take their letters home.