113: Chapter 113 Letters 113: Chapter 113 Letters Wuyang Town, Chenjiaping Village.
Beside the paddy fields, on the narrow ridges no wider than a few dozen centiters, Jiang ixian was harvesting the soybeans she planted there with a sickle.
The family only had a little over two acres of land, and the crop they grew just barely sufficed for rations; they definitely couldn’t save much extra money!
Most people wouldn’t waste even a bit of space on the field ridges, planting vegetables or crops like soybeans or mung beans.
“ixian, your son Hai, he didn’t get into university and is idling around at ho, right?”
“Why isn’t he seen helping out here?
If he doesn’t learn how to do fieldwork, what will he rely on to make a living in the future?”
On the field ridges, other people were also busy with farm work.
Speaking now was an auntie just a few ters away from Jiang ixian.
“Aunt i, our Hai, he’s gone to the county to look for work and make money!”
“Don’t be fooled by his poor performance in school, but when it cos to making money, he’s got skills.
The average university student, when it cos to making money, probably can’t beat my Hai!”
“It hasn’t been long since he left school, and he’s already brought back several thousand yuan.
You should know about the TV at our house; it was Hai who earned the money to buy it!”
Though it was casual chatter, Jiang ixian couldn’t help puffing out her chest a bit as she spoke.
“To earn that much money in just a month or two?”
“ixian, you’d better keep an eye on your Hai.
Don’t let him get mixed up with the wrong crowd!”
“In the county, it’s indeed better than the town, but ordinarily, it takes more than a month or two for soone to earn several thousand…
without doing anything shady.”
Aunt i said again, with a strange look on her face and a tone of solemn advice.
However, her words were cut off midway as Jiang ixian forcefully interrupted.
“Aunt i, I know very well what kind of person my Hai is!”
“You could say the Second Skins and those characters in the village do bad things in the county; I’d believe that.
But to say my Hai’s mingling with bad people?
That’s just bullshit!”
With a stern face, Jiang ixian rebuked Aunt i quite bluntly.
Aunt i let out a weird chuckle, completely dismissing Jiang ixian’s words.
“Group three, Chen Zhonghua’s Chen Hai, an express registered letter from the Capital City is waiting for you.
Please co to the village office to collect it imdiately…”
Just as Jiang ixian was about to retort to Aunt i, hundreds of ters away, the village’s specifically installed loudspeaker suddenly blared out.
In those days, communication was quite inconvenient.
If the village had notices to be delivered to the farrs, going door to door was sowhat troubleso.
Ever since the loudspeakers were installed, if there was anything the village needed to announce, a sound from the loudspeaker made it much more convenient.
When the loudspeaker first announced the ssage, Jiang ixian thought she had heard it wrong!
It wasn’t until the voice in the loudspeaker repeated three or four tis that she finally confird that indeed there was a letter from the Capital City at the village office waiting for her son to collect.
For most rural people at that ti, the farthest place they’d probably been to was the county.
As the capital of Yanhuang Country, just hearing about a letter from Capital City made it seem prestigious and impressive.
“Our Hai knows quite a few big bosses.
He’s even got acquaintances in Capital City.
Look, they’re even sending registered letters to him now!”
After giving Aunt i a sneer and a provocative look, Jiang ixian tucked the sickle into her waistband.
Puffing up her chest, she headed towards the village office.
Twenty minutes later, outside the door of the Chenjiaping Village office.
“ixian, you’re here to pick up Hai’s letter, right?
Please co in, co in!”
Today, Party Secretary Chen Erleng seed unusually enthusiastic.
As soon as Jiang ixian appeared at the entrance of the village office, he greeted her with a cheerful smile.
“Wow, has the sun risen from the west today?
You, Party Secretary Chen, actually know to call Sister ixian?”
With a stern face, Jiang ixian didn’t have any warm expressions for Chen Erleng.
It seed like just yesterday that this guy, along with a bunch of people, had been moving things out of her house.
“Sister ixian, there must be so misunderstanding between us!”
“The other day, the incident where we went to your house to collect debts, that was indeed our fault.
However, that was a task assigned by the higher-ups, and I had no choice but to follow through!”
“The people who went to your house that day, you saw it, they were not from the village, they ca directly from Wuyang Town.”
“You rember the guy who slapped you twice, right?
I’m telling you, that person has now been sentenced to death by firing squad with a ‘snap’!”
“People have already t with that fate, what else is there to be angry about?”
…
With a big smile on his face, Chen Erleng explained to Jiang ixian.
“Talking to is useless, I’m here at the village office to pick up Hai’s letter.
Where’s the item?”
With a serious face, Jiang ixian didn’t listen to Chen Erleng’s explanations at all.
Being from the sa village, they knew each other well enough to have an idea of what kind of person Chen Erleng was.
Today, with his abnormal behavior in front of her, Jiang ixian always felt suspicious, as if a weasel was paying a New Year’s visit to a chicken, clearly not with good intentions.
“Sister ixian, the letter is in the village office, just wait a mont, I’ll go get it for you right away!”
Chen Erleng continued to smile.
He wasn’t put off by Jiang ixian’s cool deanor in the slightest!
After seating Jiang ixian on a wooden sofa inside the village office, he personally poured her a cup of hot tea.
Then, excusing himself temporarily, he went out for a few minutes.
When he re-entered, in his hand, along with a letter, was an additional red envelope.
“Sister ixian, last ti, your family’s television set got a little damaged when it received a few knocks around here in the village office.”
“A few days ago, after I heard about this, I severely scolded the staff involved.”
“We grassroots officials must absolutely not take the common people’s possessions for granted.
A good television set getting knocked around in the village office—If we don’t offer compensation, people will point at our spines and curse!”
…
With a truly earnest and sincere look, Chen Erleng handed over the red envelope and letter, stacked together, to Jiang ixian.
Jiang ixian, with a suspicious look on her face, really doubted whether Chen Erleng had taken the wrong dicine today!
However, after hesitating, she still took the red envelope and the letter.
“Party Secretary Chen, you’re too polite.
As for our TV, it was knocked around a bit, but it’s still able to play programs without any problems—to take compensation from the village for it, how could I accept it?”
Though Jiang ixian hadn’t opened the red envelope, she discreetly weighed it with her fingers.
Once she sowhat determined that there really was a small stack of bills inside, her stern face finally softened a bit.
In this day and age, many organizations have their own customized envelopes.
After putting away the red envelope, when Jiang ixian’s eyes fell on the letter in her hands, her heart couldn’t help but start ‘thumping’ wildly.
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