Chapter 157

Qin Huairu really went all out for Bang Geng, biting the bullet and asking for three days off. Given Qin Huairu's special situation, even if the Workshop Director was angry, he had to grant it.

After getting leave, Qin Huairu headed straight for her hometown.

Upon returning to her hometown and learning that Qin Jingru and He Yuzhu had registered their marriage, Qin Huairu was shocked.

"No wonder that dead girl Qin Jingru wanted to cut ties with me; it turns out she found a backer. It must have been He Yuzhu's doing," Qin Huairu thought to herself.

At the same time, Qin Huairu also resented her mother-in-law, Jia Zhangshi, in her heart. Qin Huairu agreed with the Deaf Old Lady's words from the bottom of her heart, believing that Jia Zhangshi had been too aggressive, causing He Yuzhu's strong backlash and thus causing a great situation to fall short of success.

Like the Deaf Old Lady, Qin Huairu never thought she was wrong, and she also stubbornly believed her own guesses were correct.

If they were not wrong, then the only one who could be wrong was Jia Zhangshi.

Qin Huairu continued to scout for information. Upon learning that He Yuzhu had not only bought Qin Jingru a watch but also a women's bicycle, she was filled with envy, jealousy, and hatred.

Qin Huairu had originally thought that bicycle belonged to He Yushui; she hadn't expected it to be bought for Qin Jingru. Who told He Yuzhu to buy bikes that looked exactly the same, causing Qin Huairu to misunderstand?

Qin Huairu gritted her teeth in hatred. Back in the day, she, Qin Huairu, was not only the village beauty of Qin Family Village but also a beauty for ten miles around. Although she couldn't say she was the number one beauty, she was confident she ranked in the top three.

Such a beautiful woman naturally had people thinking about her, but in order to marry into the city, Qin Huairu had flatly rejected even the son of the town leader.

Qin Huairu did indeed marry into the city, but as a result, she was scammed. When Qin Huairu was on a blind date with Jia Dongxu, it wasn't that she hadn't inquired about Jia Dongxu's situation, but she had inquired about the Jia family's situation from people in the Siheyuan.

If Qin Huairu had asked about the Xu Damao family or the He Yuzhu family, this marriage might have fallen through, but unfortunately, Qin Huairu asked other people.

This marriage had been arranged by Yi Zhonghai, and they didn't dare offend Yi Zhonghai, so they could only speak as well as possible.

Come to think of it, Jia Dongxu's conditions were quite impressive.

Jia Dongxu's outward appearance was still decent. Although there was a Jia Zhangshi in the family who was quite shrewish, in Qin Huairu's eyes, this was a good thing. Since Jia Zhangshi was so shrewish and could still raise Jia Dongxu to adulthood, it showed she had ability and schemes; marrying into this family meant she wouldn't be bullied by outsiders.

Furthermore, Jia Dongxu's job was quite good, and he had a senior worker as a master; no matter how you looked at it, he had a boundless future and a bright tomorrow.

As a result, Qin Huairu's life after marrying in was miserable.

Qin Huairu indeed wasn't bullied by outsiders after marrying in, but she was bullied and ground down by Jia Zhangshi.

Fortunately, the first child was a boy, which allowed Qin Huairu to stand firm in the family. Qin Huairu had hoped the second child would also be a boy, but it turned out to be a girl.

Before the third child was even born, Jia Dongxu kicked the bucket, and then the third child was also a girl, who wasn't favored by Jia Zhangshi.

Qin Huairu had finally managed to obtain Jia Dongxu's pension by relying on her knowledge of the law, but she hadn't expected it to be scammed away by her parents.

Come to think of it, He Yuzhu had a hand in this too. If He Yuzhu hadn't torn apart the great web Yi Zhonghai and Jia Zhangshi had set for Qin Huairu, Qin Huairu wouldn't have known anything and could only be manipulated by Yi Zhonghai and Jia Zhangshi.

Qin Huairu could be said to have had a life full of hardships.

Without comparison, there is no harm.

Qin Huairu had thought she was very glorious marrying into the city, but she hadn't expected Qin Jingru to be even more glorious. How could Qin Huairu not be jealous?

If Qin Jingru were prettier than Qin Huairu, Qin Huairu might have felt better, but Qin Jingru was not as pretty as Qin Huairu, which made Qin Huairu even more depressed.

Qin Huairu was almost twisted.

Qin Huairu began to think about the possibility of sabotaging Qin Jingru and He Yuzhu. The plan was simple: take advantage of the banquet to get He Yuzhu drunk. It would be best to have him stay the night, or even if he didn't stay the night, he had to sleep for a while, and then she would take Qin Jingru's place in the bridal chamber.

Then, she would have people come to catch them in the act. The people coming must be Qin Huairu's family; this kind of thing couldn't be left to outsiders.

The only people Qin Huairu could use were her father, Qin Dali, and her brother, Qin Huaishan. To pull this off, she first had to convince her father and brother.

Then, they would find helpers. They didn't need to reveal the plan; they just needed to find people to keep Qin Jingru's family drinking.

Qin Huairu knew the difficulty of this and knew it was immoral, but jealousy had twisted Qin Huairu's psychology. Qin Huairu had always believed that everything in He Yuzhu's home belonged to her.

Now, Qin Jingru had actually married He Yuzhu; this was no different from stealing her things. How could Qin Huairu let Qin Jingru have her way?

Qin Huairu immediately summoned her father and eldest brother to discuss this matter.

"Nonsense! How can we do such a thing? If we do this, what face will our family have to stand in the village?" Qin Huairu's father, Qin Dali, roared angrily.

"That's right, sister. We absolutely cannot do this. If we really do it, our family won't be able to hold our heads up in the village," Qin Huairu's brother, Qin Huaishan, also said.

"What face? If we can't hold our heads up, then we won't. After the deed is done, I'll find a way to get Big Brother into the Rolling Mill as a worker. By then, our whole family will move to the city and won't stay in the village anymore." Qin Huairu knew that talking about anything else wouldn't move these two, so she simply talked only about benefits.

Qin Dali and Qin Huaishan were instantly tempted upon hearing this. Who didn't want to go to the city? It was just that they had no path and could only stare blankly. In these times, the city was safer; the tragic scenes during the difficult period had scared both Qin Dali and Qin Huaishan.

No matter what, the city had rations, while in the countryside, no one cared at all.

"Are you sure you can get your brother into the city as a worker?" Qin Dali asked.

"I'm sure! I don't have that ability, but He Yuzhu does. As long as my plan succeeds, I will try every possible way to get you into the city. If I can't do that, I'll give my job position to my brother," Qin Huairu promised, patting her chest.

"You won't work anymore?" Qin Dali asked in surprise.

"Zhuzi earns so much money a month, it's enough for the whole family to use," Qin Huairu said.

"Aren't you afraid He Yuzhu will settle scores later?" Qin Dali asked.

"His leverage is in our hands. If he dares to settle scores, we'll go report him. The crime of harassment is not light. Zhuzi has finally reached this point today; he won't dare to gamble," Qin Huairu said firmly, knowing Qin Dali and Qin Huaishan were tempted.

"This matter can't be done by just me and your brother. If your mother were here, it would be fine, but even if she were here, it wouldn't work. There are so many people at the banquet; not only do we have to block Qin Jingru's whole family, but we also have to keep Jingru aside. We don't have enough people," Qin Dali sighed.

"My mother can't come back; she has to take care of Huai Hua and Bang Geng. If my mother isn't here, we can find others to help. Convincing them is simple; everyone in the Qin Family Village owes me."

"Don't think I don't know about you guys taking my money to the black market to buy grain. You could say that without me, who knows how many people in the village would have starved to death? This favor must be repaid; let them repay it now!" Qin Huairu said in a deep voice.

Qin Dali thought for a long time, finally nodded, and said, "Fine, let's calculate it together."

Qin Huairu then discussed it with Qin Dali and Qin Huaishan. The three of them discussed from noon until evening before they came up with a feasible plan.

The Qin Huairu family was prepared; as long as the big event could be accomplished, they would have a bright future.

At the same time, in the Siheyuan, the Yan family was also prepared. Yan Bugui had already taken care of everything that needed to be handled; the house, furniture, and such were all sold to the Street Office, and even the flowers he raised were sold off, just waiting for the people from the school and the Street Office to come and see them off tomorrow.

The train tickets and such were naturally the school's responsibility. To send the Yan Bugui family away, the school even specially borrowed a large truck from the Rolling Mill to take the Yan family to the train station.

Yan Jiecheng was also prepared after these few days of rest and recuperation.

Yan Jiecheng knew that his stingy father must have saved a huge sum of money. Since they were leaving early tomorrow morning, he would definitely take the huge sum out tonight.

Based on Yan Jiecheng's understanding of Yan Bugui and his wife, this huge sum of money would definitely be kept in the safest place by their side, and it would be divided into two places, with each of them taking half.

Because Yan Bugui didn't trust the four Yan siblings; the only one Yan Bugui trusted was San Dama.

Yan Jiecheng had been sleeping during the day and staying awake at night these past few days, all to reverse his sleep schedule, all for this night.

At night, the Yan family went to sleep as usual, with various snores rising and falling, but Yan Jiecheng kept his eyes open, listening intently.

Yan Jiecheng had wanted to close his eyes and listen for movement, but he was afraid of falling asleep, so he simply kept his eyes open. Anyway, it was pitch black at night; without turning on the light, one couldn't tell if his eyes were open.

Yan Jiecheng waited silently like this for about three or four hours before he finally heard movement.

An oil lamp lit up, the light extremely faint.

"Old woman, get up." After Yan Bugui lit the oil lamp, he first listened carefully for a while, and after finding no movement, he pushed San Dama and said softly.

The oil lamp's light was very poor; Yan Bugui didn't notice at all that Yan Jiecheng was lying on the bed with his eyes wide open, staring at him.

After San Dama woke up, the two of them began to lift the wardrobe. Because the wardrobe was too heavy, Yan Bugui couldn't lift it alone, so they had to lift it together.

After the two of them lifted the wardrobe, they pried up the bricks under the wardrobe legs and continued to dig deeper, digging for a while before they unearthed an iron box from the ground.

Yan Jiecheng couldn't see clearly how much money was in the iron box, but he knew there was quite a lot. Yan Jiecheng also understood why Yan Bugui would hide the money here; money hidden under the floor tiles at the legs of the wardrobe would show flaws if anyone had moved it.

Next, Yan Bugui pried a brick off the wall and took out an iron box from behind the brick in the wall;

Then, Yan Bugui and San Dama moved the table to the middle under the roof beam. Yan Bugui stepped on the table, felt around on the roof beam, and took down a small bag.

This wasn't the end; Yan Bugui went out to the kitchen for a stroll and came back with an iron box from the kitchen.

At this moment, Yan Jiecheng had to admire Yan Bugui's calculations, personally experiencing what it meant to have "a wily rabbit with three burrows."

After finishing all this, Yan Bugui and San Dama gathered the money together under the faint light. In the end, they divided the money into three parts: one part was sewn into the quilt, and the other two parts were kept on their persons.

Among them, the part in the quilt was the largest, and the money on their persons was the least, because it was summer now, and it was hard to hide money on one's person. Even if you hid money in your crotch, how much could you hide?

After Yan Bugui and his wife hid the money, they began to sleep. They never thought that Yan Jiecheng was watching them like a tiger; they only thought about getting enough sleep so they would have energy after getting on the train.

The two had already divided their work: one would sleep during the day and keep watch at night, while the other would keep watch during the day and sleep at night, taking turns to rest.

Yan Jiecheng began to think about how to steal the money from the quilt. Taking money from Yan Bugui and his wife was too difficult; not to mention that they hid the money too secretly, just the fact that people have reactions—any touch on their bodies would trigger a reaction.

It is said that no matter how much you guard against others, it's hard to guard against a thief within the family.

Yan Bugui and his wife had thought of the difficulties they might encounter and made preparations, but they were the only ones who didn't think to guard against their own family.

After Yan Bugui and his wife were both asleep, Yan Jiecheng quietly took the package wrapped in the quilt and then observed it carefully.

Yan Jiecheng didn't rush to act because he knew that although Yan Bugui and his wife didn't guard against their Yan siblings, they guarded against outsiders. Sure enough, through the faint oil light, Yan Jiecheng saw two long hairs wrapped around the package; needless to say, these hairs were San Dama's.

Yan Jiecheng first carefully removed the hairs, then cautiously untied the package, and found the bedding containing the money. Yan Jiecheng observed it carefully again, removed two more long hairs, and began to cut the thread, silently taking out the money.

Yan Jiecheng didn't take all the money; he took most of it, leaving only a few real bills on the outside. The money inside was practice coupons; these practice coupons were bought by Yan Jiecheng over the past two days for this very moment.

After Yan Jiecheng took the money, he restored the bedding and the package to their original state and then silently put them back in their original place.

After finishing all this, Yan Jiecheng divided the money into two parts: one part was hidden on his person, and the other part was hidden by Yan Jiecheng in a wall outside the Siheyuan.

Going out in the middle of the night was normal. After Yan Jiecheng finished everything, he returned home and began to sleep, but no matter how he tried, he couldn't fall asleep.

Yan Jiecheng thought for a moment, then took out the old household registration book and hid it on his person. Yan Bugui and his wife would naturally have a new household registration book when they went to the Third Front. Yan Jiecheng didn't want to leave, so he kept the household registration book.

Anyway, the school only sent Yan Bugui to the Third Front and didn't mention Yan Jiecheng's matter. Everyone just assumed the Yan family was going to the Third Front together, unlike Xu Damao, whose family of four was forced to go.

Come to think of it, Yan Jiecheng was blessed by misfortune, benefiting from not having a job. If Yan Jiecheng had a job, he would also have gone through the process to the Third Front. If the paperwork had really come down, Yan Jiecheng wouldn't have been able to stay in the city.

Early the next morning, Director Wang from the Street Office and people from the school came to the Siheyuan to see the Yan family off. At the entrance of the Siheyuan, the Street Office lit a string of firecrackers according to custom, and then the Yan family got on the large truck and went to the train station.

Director Wang from the Street Office and the people from the school breathed a sigh of relief after seeing the Yan family get on the large truck; they only sent the Yan family to the truck and didn't go to the train station.

When they arrived at the train station, just as the train was about to leave, Yan Jiecheng suddenly held his stomach and said, "Dad, Mom, my stomach hurts. I'll go to the restroom first; you guys get on the train first."

After Yan Jiecheng finished speaking, he shoved his luggage to Yan Jiekuaung, turned around, and ran toward the restroom on the train, and subsequently, Yan Jiecheng ran back.

"Dad, Mom, the restroom on the train is locked. I'm going to the restroom downstairs," Yan Jiecheng said, then squeezed out of the carriage and ran off the train.

"A lazy donkey on the millstone has many bowel movements! Go quickly and come back quickly!" Yan Bugui said with a cold face and a bad attitude.

After Yan Jiecheng got off the train, he couldn't help but sneer twice and said to the train, "Goodbye to you all."

Yan Jiecheng left the train station leisurely.

Yan Bugui and the others waited until the train started moving, but they didn't see Yan Jiecheng return, which made them a bit nervous.

"Could it be that Jiecheng didn't catch the train? What should we do?" San Dama said anxiously.

"Don't worry. Even if he didn't catch the train, it's fine. Jiecheng has a ticket in his hand; he can find someone at the station to coordinate. At worst, he can go back to the Street Office and have Director Wang buy another one," Yan Bugui said calmly, not worried about Yan Jiecheng at all.

After more than ten minutes, Yan Bugui's face changed, and he said in a deep voice, "Old woman, check if there's any problem with the bedding."

"Are you suspecting that Jiecheng took the money and ran home?" San Dama's face also changed drastically.

(End of chapter)