Chapter 56

Su Xinghui suddenly didn't know what to say. After a long time, he squeezed out a sentence: "Someone is here, I won't talk to you anymore."

Lu Xiaoya said softly, "Mm, come over to play when you have time!"

After Su Xinghui agreed, he hung up the phone.

The person who came was Yao Xuexin. He always came quite early, afraid that a leader might need a car. He nodded and smiled at Su Xinghui, "Director Su, you're here quite early!"

Su Xinghui said, "Someone called me."

Just as Yao Xuexin was about to say something, the phone rang again, which startled Su Xinghui. He quickly picked up the receiver.

This time, it was Xue Qin calling. When she heard Su Xinghui’s voice, she said, "I just called you, why was it always busy?"

Su Xinghui could only say that someone had just called, and then asked Xue Qin if there was anything the matter.

Xue Qin said, "Nothing much, just that whenever I called you during the day, you were never there, so I called earlier today, and sure enough, I found you."

Su Xinghui didn't know what to say to Xue Qin, so he said the professors were calling him in the courtyard and he had to leave.

Xue Qin then told him to let her know the next time he returned to the county seat, as she wanted to treat Su Xinghui to a meal.

Su Xinghui said he would definitely look for her next time he went back, and then hung up the phone.

Su Xinghui went out to the post office to send a registered letter. He carefully folded the painting, put it in a large envelope, and mailed it to Lu Xiaoya’s new address.

Leaving the post office, Su Xinghui caught sight of Luo Ming’an. He was still followed by a few thugs and was walking toward a breakfast stall. However, this time they didn't have their usual arrogance and seemed much quieter.

Come to think of it, Su Xinghui hadn't seen Luo Ming’an and his gang on the street for a while, and he couldn't help but glance at Luo Ming’an.

Luo Ming’an was looking down, not knowing what he was thinking. A thug behind him poked him, and he looked up. Seeing Su Xinghui, he immediately stopped in his tracks subconsciously, the expression on his face as if he had seen a flood or a wild beast.

Su Xinghui’s gaze swept over, and the flesh on Luo Ming’an’s face twitched. He squeezed out a fawning smile and nodded toward Su Xinghui.

Su Xinghui ignored him, just glanced at him, and walked toward the township government.

A thug behind Luo Ming’an said, "Brother An, are we really that afraid of him?"

Luo Ming’an said irritably, "Then what do you suggest we do? If you can beat him, go up and fight him; I won't stop you!"

That guy shrank his head and didn't speak, but the other thugs were all looking unconvinced. Why did they follow Luo Ming’an? Wasn't it to be impressive in the township? They could collect protection money, and sometimes they didn't have to pay for food.

Now, it was the opposite; they were as honest as good children, not daring to speak loudly on the street, not daring to collect protection money, and even having to pay honestly for breakfast. This, of course, made them extremely unhappy.

Luo Ming’an said, "My uncle said, don't provoke him for now. We'll deal with his people when there's an opportunity."

This sentence immediately excited the thugs.

Su Xinghui, of course, didn't know what Luo Ming’an and the others were saying behind his back. Today he had time to go to Yezhugou because Professor Rao and the others had gone back. Now their school had also started, and they had gone back to prepare to bring a few students to participate in the inspection, so Su Xinghui had a day off.

Arriving at Yezhugou, Su Xinghui first went to the breeding farm to take a look. The animals in the breeding farm were all very lively, and their growth was good. The few Landrace pigs that had been mated were all pregnant, which made Su Xinghui very gratified.

Subsequently, Su Xinghui went to Xia Zhu’s house. Xia Zhu was still practicing sketching. Seeing Su Xinghui arrive, she was both surprised and happy: "Brother Xinghui, you're here!"

Su Xinghui said, "Mm, I'm here to check your sketching."

Su Xinghui looked at the sketch Xia Zhu was working on and nodded, "You're progressing very quickly. It looks like in a while, I can teach you how to paint Chinese painting."

Xia Zhu was very happy to hear this. Su Xinghui then looked at the "Eight Horses" painting Xia Zhu was weaving. After weaving for so long, this bamboo weaving painting was more than half finished. Xia Zhu’s learning of sketching had indeed been effective; the spirit of this painting was already much stronger than it had been initially.

During this period, besides learning sketching and weaving some simpler bamboo items, Xia Zhu had spent all her other time and energy on this "Eight Horses" painting. After all, this painting was worth a thousand yuan. After selling it to the craft store, even if the village kept a portion of the profit, she could still get a few hundred yuan, which was undoubtedly a huge sum of money.

Last time Song Qiaoli came to collect the bamboo weaving, Xia Zhu had only received twenty yuan because she hadn't woven much. This was only because she taught others how to weave every day, and Xia Lan had given her a bit more; otherwise, she wouldn't have even had that much.

Xia Zhu’s family situation was not good, so she was naturally looking forward to this "Eight Horses" painting bringing her more income. She was also speeding up her progress during this time, hoping to finish the painting before the craft store came to collect bamboo weaving for the second time.

Su Xinghui was very satisfied with Xia Zhu’s progress and asked, "How is your father doing?"

Xia Zhu said, "Not bad. My mother is accompanying him for a walk; you'll be able to see him when they come back in a while."

Xia Shisheng had been lying in bed for almost a year before. Although it was mainly due to nerve compression, after such a long time, the nerves had suffered some damage, and the muscles had also atrophied slightly. Now that Yu Maode had eliminated his hematoma, if he wanted to recover, he had to put in tremendous effort to do rehabilitation training.

This daily walking was a very effective form of training.

Since Su Xinghui was here today, he started teaching Xia Zhu sketching again. Halfway through, Xia Shisheng returned, accompanied by his wife.

He was leaning on a crutch, moving his steps with difficulty, his forehead covered in sweat, but there was a hope and vitality on his face that hadn't been there half a month ago.

Su Xinghui stood up and said, "Uncle Xia, you're back!"

Xia Shisheng had put all his energy into walking and hadn't noticed Su Xinghui sitting in front of his house. Suddenly hearing him speak, he said pleasantly, "Cadre Su, you're here!"

Su Xinghui said, "Uncle Xia, looking at you, your situation is quite good now!"

Xia Shisheng smiled and said, "Yes, I never dreamed that I would be able to walk in this lifetime! Thank you, Cadre Su. If it weren't for you, I don't know what would have happened to me."

Su Xinghui said, "How long do you have to exercise every day? How many days will it take to recover?"