Chapter 550: Li Xia

Jiang Zhiyu requested two days of leave from the township. After the township learned of her idea, they were very supportive. On the first day, Jiang Zhiyu went to the county supply and marketing cooperative and then to Li Long's large courtyard, but she couldn't find him at either place.

Naturally, she couldn't find him; Li Long had driven the tractor over to the livestock team to distribute large brooms. Deputy Captain Adili over there was especially happy and then forcibly kept Li Long behind to eat a meal of Narin. It was autumn, and it was the perfect time to eat Narin.

On the second day, Jiang Zhiyu got smart and rode her bicycle to the county early in the morning, running first to Li Long's large courtyard. Li Long was currently feeding those roe deer, planning to catch them and load them into the tractor after finishing, then send them back to the old horse corral in the team.

They were too big now; they were no longer cute and had started butting people. They had even bumped into Gu Xiaoxia a couple of days ago.

Jiang Zhiyu's arrival disrupted Li Long's plans, but he did not refuse the interview with Reporter Jiang. At this time, the overall situation was relatively complex, and having a certain level of exposure was actually a good thing.

Even if he really encountered sensitive matters, if the relevant departments wanted to take any measures against him, they would also consider the influence.

Jiang Zhiyu's purpose was very clear: she wanted to ask Li Long about how that Professor Wu provided him with technology.

Li Long started from the beginning, when he bought the seeds; that was where the connection was formed. Later, he went to Wucheng for a meeting and then went directly to the August First Agricultural College. He talked about how Professor Wu answered his questions at that time, taught him knowledge about managing melon crops, and so on.

Li Long also stated very clearly that the melon crops his eldest brother planted really did encounter pest and disease problems, and they were cured by applying medicine according to Professor Wu's method.

This information was very important to Jiang Zhiyu; she recorded it earnestly, filling an entire page.

"Is there anything else you haven't mentioned?" Jiang Zhiyu asked Li Long again.

Li Long naturally couldn't say that he had sent jade to Professor Wu; that thing wasn't worth much at the moment. He only said that Professor Wu had told him that after the melon harvest, he should go over when he had time to tell her about the specific situation, which could be considered feedback for her extracurricular project.

At this moment, Li Long was thinking to himself that he currently had two pieces of feedback to complete: one for Professor Wu and one for Factory Director Du in Kuitun.

It was hard to say whether these two pieces of feedback were important to the other parties, but at the very least, they were still very important to him.

Although Jiang Zhiyu felt a bit regretful, as if she felt this hadn't been rounded off perfectly, it was already quite good.

She took her leave and departed, and Li Long continued to catch the roe deer.

These fellows were already quite large, with weights basically all above forty kilograms. If they hadn't been in the glass shed, and if Li Long hadn't been feeding them regularly, they would have been truly difficult to catch.

Li Long caught all four roe deer here, tied their legs, and placed them on the tractor. In any case, it was only a half-hour journey, not particularly long, so there was no need to worry about them having any problems. He then drove the tractor, *putt-putt-putt*, to the team's old horse corral.

Old Uncle Luo was very happy that the team he managed was growing, and he helped Li Long drive the few roe deer and the small deer into the enclosure.

Once these fellows entered the herd, they were still a bit worried, going first to the corner of the wall, but then they gradually adapted and became active.

After all, half of the enclosure here was an open-air pen, unlike in the large courtyard where, if Li Long and Gu Xiaoxia didn't let them out for air, they could only stay in the glass shed; although it wasn't exactly pitch black, they saw little sunlight.

Now, however, they could see the sky all day long, and it felt different.

Old Uncle Luo scattered some fresh grass into the enclosure, and those few newcomers immediately rushed up. In the large courtyard, they couldn't eat a few mouthfuls of fresh forage; they had almost forgotten what fresh grass tasted like!

Li Long chatted with Old Uncle Luo for a few more sentences and then hurried away.

Watching Li Long drive the tractor away, *putt-putt-putt*, Old Uncle Luo was also sighing that Xiao Long was getting busier and busier.

Li Long went home for a trip, and the family members were all on the threshing floor knocking sunflower heads. After seeing Li Long, Li Qing Xia said that he planned to return to his hometown after the sunflowers were harvested; this point had also been discussed with Chen Xingbang.

Li Long had no objections. He planned to send his father and brother-in-law to Wucheng together, and at the same time, go to the August First Agricultural College to report the harvest and sales situation of the melon crops to Professor Wu.

In this lifetime, Li Long's impression of his brother-in-law Chen Xingbang had completely changed. In his previous life, his brother-in-law was a slippery character; after he had cheated his own family, they had almost never had any dealings afterward. It wasn't until forty years later, when everyone was nearly sixty, that they started having contact again, but in any case, they weren't close.

They maintained a superficial relationship.

In this lifetime, Chen Xingbang was much more humane. At the very least, right now he was going back to pick up his wife and children to bring them over, and just for this point alone, Li Long felt it was quite good.

If he hadn't cared particularly much, he likely would have just sent some money to his hometown, used being busy with work as an excuse not to go back, and let Li Xia bring the children over, and that would have been the end of it.

This would have made sense, after all, he was currently a temporary worker, which could be considered a critical moment.

However, Chen Xingbang didn't do that, but instead went back directly. This could be understood as returning home in glory, or it could be understood as vanity, but at the very least, a portion of it was for his wife.

Li Long's impression of his sister Li Xia was extremely faint; he only vaguely remembered that when he was still small, his sister would go to the fields to work, and when she came back, she would pick wild fruits for him to eat.

At that time, wild fruits were not easy to find; after all, there were many people in their hometown, and almost everything edible in the wild would be visited by people as soon as it was ripe or even before it was ripe.

Li Long had even forgotten what his sister looked like when she was young; on the contrary, he still had an impression of her appearance after she had aged.

But this did not prevent him from believing that his sister needed respect.

After all, Chen Xingbang had been out for more than half a year, and Li Xia had been at home alone with the children, which was not easy.

After all, none of her maiden family was there. In this day and age, a wife's boldness was more than half given by her maiden brothers. If the maiden brothers were capable, a woman basically wouldn't be bullied in her husband's family, and might even bully others.

Of course, Li Xia wouldn't bully others in the past either.

Regardless of Li Qing Xia, Chen Xingbang, or Li Long, none of them would have thought that during this period, especially in the last few months of the second half of the year, Li Xia's life had been very agonizing.

Chen Xingbang was running a stall in Shicheng, busy from morning till night, almost never writing letters home, occasionally sending a telegram with just a few short words to report that he was safe, and he wouldn't even mention in the telegram that he was working as a temporary worker at the Shicheng Food Factory.

At most, he would wire some money, and not much at that.

Because he knew very clearly that if he wired too much, his father and mother would be biased, would go to his wife's place to make a scene, and would take the money away.

Chen Xingbang didn't have an older brother, but he had a younger brother. The younger brother had just gotten married and was living with their father and mother.

His father and mother, just like his father-in-law and mother-in-law, favored the youngest son. It was just that his own younger brother wasn't as successful as Li Long, and after becoming successful, he didn't take care of his own older brother like that.

Chen Xingbang's transformation in this lifetime might not have been without Li Long's influence.

Li Xia had to do work at home and take care of the children, and sometimes her father-in-law and mother-in-law would come to call her to help with work at their home.

She couldn't refuse; she didn't want to bear the reputation of being unfilial.

In this day and age, the power of speech was in the mouths of the elders; whatever the elders said, the villagers would believe—Li Xia's personality was a bit like Chen Li Rong's, both were somewhat introverted and didn't know how to be flexible.

The first two or three months after Chen Xingbang left were still okay. After all, Chen Xingbang had left last time too, but when he came back, he had brought back quite a bit of money, and he had bought a lot of things during the New Year, which everyone knew.

But this time Chen Xingbang had gone to the Northern Frontier, and the time was getting longer and longer. Although everyone knew he occasionally sent a telegram, not a single letter had been seen, and no goods had been seen sent over, so some people guessed whether he had run to the Northern Frontier and wouldn't come back, and didn't want this family anymore.

After all, in the village, everyone knew about Chen Xingbang being exploited by his father; if he really didn't want to have contact with his parents, that was also very normal.

This made Li Xia very passive; mainly because she didn't participate in the village's gossip circles, so she didn't know some things very clearly, and it was hard for her to refute, nor did she know how to refute.

Her personality was just like that: she only knew how to do her own work well, take care of her own children, and keep the family as well as she could.

It was just that recently, she discovered that her father-in-law and mother-in-law would come to the house to look around from time to time, and their tone would also be directly or indirectly asking what Chen Xingbang was doing in the Northern Frontier, when he would come back, how much money he had sent last time, and so on.

Li Xia was really not good at hiding things; she said whatever she had to say.

But the more clearly she spoke, the more her father-in-law Chen Zhanggui felt that there might be a problem.

It wasn't convenient for her father-in-law to visit often, so her mother-in-law would come over often to ask about these things from the side.

Li Xia could barely cope with these, but she couldn't cope with other matters.

Just a few days ago, rumors somehow spread in the village that Chen Xingbang didn't want this family and wouldn't come back. Before, it was just some people tentatively asking, but now it was spreading with vivid details, even directly saying that Chen Xingbang had found a wife in the Northern Frontier and had already remarried!

This matter eventually reached Li Xia's ears. Some village sister-in-law ran to her house to ask, and was retorted by Li Xia; she would absolutely not believe this.

Her parents, eldest brother, second brother, and younger brother were all in the Northern Frontier; even if, taking a step back, Chen Xingbang dared to do such a thing, with her eldest brother's temper, he could dismantle Chen Xingbang's legs.

Of course, having been husband and wife for several years, Li Xia also absolutely believed that Chen Xingbang wouldn't do such a thing.

But the villagers didn't care; in this day and age, there were few entertainment activities. The village's television wasn't as good as the one in the Fourth Team where Li Jianguo was, and there weren't many radios either. Some people could only listen to a few sentences of news from the village's large loudspeaker.

Therefore, the village's "news," regardless of whether it was true or false, would be enthusiastically sought after, and some false things could be said to be true.

The saying "three people make a tiger" was no joke.

Finally, after spreading back and forth, almost everyone in the whole village except Li Xia believed it. After all, when Chen Xingbang and the Li family came back last time, everyone looked like they had made a fortune.

Since the Northern Frontier was so good for making money, why would people still come back?

A considerable portion of those who were good at spreading rumors would substitute themselves into the protagonist of the rumor; if they were Chen Xingbang, would they stay in the Northern Frontier?

Then they would definitely stay, right?

So they all believed it.

Even Chen Xingbang's father Chen Zhanggui and mother Shen Yujuan believed it. The father-in-law and mother-in-law went to Li Xia's house together and asked her directly in front of the child Hongqin:

"If Xingbang doesn't come back, what will you and the child do?"

"It's impossible for Xingbang not to come back," Li Xia said firmly.

"What if he doesn't come back?" Chen Zhanggui didn't have much confidence in his own son. He wasn't unaware of how he treated his eldest son, but if he were to say he regretted it, he definitely wouldn't regret it; right now, he just wanted to grab that last little bit.

Li Xia's expression was very firm and also very calm: "If he really doesn't come back, then I will go find him."

Chen Zhanggui and Shen Yujuan looked at each other, and finally Chen Zhanggui said:

"We don't care if you go find him or not, we just want to tell you that this courtyard and the land belong to the Chen family. Regardless of whether you are going to the Northern Frontier to find Xingbang or remarry someone else, we don't care.

!.

But if you want to leave, we must take back this courtyard, and the land must also be returned to us. Hongqin is a little girl, you can take her, but as for the rest, don't even think about it."

Li Xia didn't expect her father-in-law and mother-in-law to say such things; she found it simply unbelievable.

She had always thought that even if her father-in-law and mother-in-law were biased, they should still believe in their own son; at the very least, at this time, they should be standing with her, firmly believing that Chen Xingbang would come back.

She didn't expect that what awaited her wasn't her father-in-law and mother-in-law's comfort, but ruthless isolation and impatient greed!

Chen Zhanggui might have also felt that what he said was a bit premature, so he left after saying it. Shen Yujuan still wanted to say something, but ultimately didn't say it and followed him away.

Hongqin didn't make a sound from beginning to end. It wasn't until she waited for her grandparents to leave that she asked Li Xia in a low voice:

"Mom, is Dad not coming back? Does he not want us anymore?"

"How could he not want us? Hongqin, you are so obedient, your dad treasures you so much; every time he sends a telegram, he asks about you," Li Xia endured the soreness in her heart and forced a smile to comfort her daughter:

"Don't worry, when your dad comes back, he will bring you toys, toys you've never seen before!"

"Hey! Then I'll go scold Ludan and the others right now; they said Dad doesn't want me anymore. They all said that, and I didn't know how to scold them back!"

After hearing her mother's words, Hongqin ran away excitedly.

Li Xia suddenly lost the motivation to work.

The power in the village was cut off at night, and Li Xia took Hongqin to lock the door and rest early. In the past, when Chen Xingbang was at home, there was no need to lock the door, but after he left, Li Xia developed the habit of locking the door.

Hongqin had just fallen asleep when Li Xia heard someone pushing the door. After it wouldn't open, they started knocking on the window, saying while knocking:

"Sister Li Xia, open the door! Your Xingbang doesn't want you, but I do. Don't look at my age; I'm older and know how to cherish people! Open the door, open the door and we'll be a family, I'll definitely treat Hongqin like my own daughter..."

Li Xia recognized that this was the village's old bachelor Wang Jinguang. She heard that he had been married once before, had beaten his wife away, and then never married again, and no one would marry him.

It was the first time she had encountered such a thing, and she didn't know what to do, so she had to cover Hongqin's ears, not daring to make a sound.

Wang Jinguang knocked for more than ten minutes. Seeing that no one opened the door, he left behind the sentence, "Sister Li Xia, I'll come back tomorrow night," and left.

It took a long time for Li Xia to recover.

At this moment, she was very angry, her anger rushing straight to her forehead, hating herself for why she hadn't taken a stick and gone out to beat that guy up at the time.

Looking around the room, there was nothing to hit with, so she thought she must prepare a stick tomorrow!

The next day, Li Xia found a stick from outside and put it in the room. She planned that if Wang Jinguang came again tonight, she would rush out and beat him up!

At this time, rural women were not physically inferior; they worked every day, and their strength was not small.

What Li Xia didn't expect was that someone had seen Wang Jinguang knocking on her door yesterday, and today, gossip about her had spread.

The gossip reached Chen Zhanggui, and not only did he not help Li Xia defend herself, but he instead said to his wife Shen Yujuan:

"Look, I said she was a loose woman. We only went to talk to her yesterday, and she couldn't hold back by night. We must persuade her to leave early, so as not to ruin the Chen family's reputation!"

Even his younger son and daughter-in-law felt this was inappropriate when they heard it, and the look they gave Chen Zhanggui was a bit strange.

Li Xia didn't know about this because, due to her husband's affairs, she rarely communicated with others in the village except for going to the fields.

She also looked down on the behavior of those sisters-in-law spreading gossip; if she had that time, it would be better to do some housework at home.

At night, after locking the door, Li Xia let Hongqin go to sleep early, and she held the stick and waited by the door.

After it was completely dark, Wang Jinguang really came again. Li Xia hadn't gone to his door to argue during the day, so he felt there was a chance, thinking he should be able to get in tonight.

The door was still locked, so he went to knock on the window. As a result, he had only knocked twice when the door opened.

Wang Jinguang was overjoyed and was just about to reach out to hug her when he was met with a stick!

Li Xia hated him to the extreme, and that stick was swung with all her strength. Wang Jinguang dodged in a hurry, and the stick hit his shoulder. He let out a miserable scream and turned to run.

Li Xia chased after him, swinging the stick, and smashed a few more sticks onto his back, feeling very relieved. Seeing him running fast, and worrying about Hongqin in the room, she turned back.

The next day, the way people in the village looked at Li Xia was different again.

This was a fierce woman!

It was just that some gossiping women started saying: Why bother?

Someone couldn't stand it and retorted to those few people:

"Are you uncomfortable seeing others living well, or do you think others are fierce and not like you? No matter what she does, you have gossip to spread; are you just idle with nothing to do?"

Li Xia didn't know about these things. After driving Wang Jinguang away, she lived in her own world.

Only when facing Hongqin would Li Xia smile a little.

Until one day, the village director's voice came from the team's large loudspeaker:

"Li Xia, Li Xia, come to the team headquarters to pick up a telegram!"

Li Xia knew this was a telegram sent by Chen Xingbang. She put down the work at hand and hurried to the team headquarters.

This telegram was her only connection with her husband; she really wanted to go to the Northern Frontier to find Chen Xingbang. Chen Xingbang had left her enough money, so buying a ticket or something wasn't a big deal.

Besides, her parents, older brother, and younger brother were all over there.

When she arrived at the team headquarters, the village director handed her the telegram slip with a rather strange look:

"Take a look, Xingbang is coming back."

"What?" Li Xia had originally thought it was still a slip reporting safety and wiring money; she didn't expect Chen Xingbang to be coming back!

She lowered her head and looked carefully:

"Xia: I will return home around the Mid-Autumn Festival."

The word count wasn't much, but the content was what she had been longing for for a long time.

She looked up at the village director, and the village director smiled:

"Xingbang is coming back, your suffering hasn't been in vain after all!"

Li Xia endured her tears, turned around, and walked out. After wiping her face in the team headquarters courtyard, she hurried to the large tree at the entrance of the village.

Seven or eight women were still there, chattering about this and that. Seeing Li Xia, they were a bit surprised.

"You bunch of people who don't do human things, listen clearly: my Xingbang is coming back in a few days!" Li Xia said loudly:

"Xingbang doesn't not want the two of us, and he didn't marry anyone else over there! From now on, whoever spreads rumors again, see if I don't tear your mouths apart!"

A bunch of gossiping women were stunned there. For a moment, they were at a loss.

This was Li Xia's highlight moment! (End of chapter)