Life was very hard these days. Although it was better than in the 1950s and 1960s, people still couldn’t get enough to eat.

Supplies were not particularly abundant, and it was not until the 1980s and 1990s that people could barely get enough food.

So this was a particularly great and also particularly difficult era.

Because being hungry is really uncomfortable, but at that time, being hungry was a common occurrence.

Rao is so,

A few grass carps were cooked carefully by everyone and tasted delicious.
It caused everyone to praise it again and again.

Han Chunming took his enamel bowl and sat down next to Cai Xiaoli with a smile. He also smiled at the other female educated youths.

Maybe they knew something about Cai Xiaoli’s feelings for Han Chunming.
They all stepped aside with a sly smile, leaving the space for the two.
“Xiao Li, hehe.”

“what?”

Cai Xiaoli was obviously a little embarrassed, but the uncontrollable smile on her lips was very clear.
Han Chunming took the initiative to talk to her, and she was actually very happy in her heart!
“Can I ask you something else? Do you remember where you found the stone you gave me at noon?”

Cai Xiaoli’s expression froze immediately as she had never expected Han Chunming to ask this.
Good God! It seems that I am not as attractive as a piece of broken stone?
So, Cai Xiaoli simply didn’t even look at Han Chunming, lowered her head and replied indifferently,
“You’re asking me this? Sorry! I don’t know! I forgot!!!”

After finishing speaking, he would take the bowl and leave.

Seeing this, Han Chunming shrugged angrily.

He knew he was a little anxious.
But there’s nothing we can do about it, right?
He quickly chased after her to the wall at the entrance to the yard, and shamelessly continued to get close to Cai Xiaoli.

“Xiao Li, don’t be angry! We are all having a meal now and there are so many people watching us. I can’t tell you anything else, right?”

“Does that mean you have anything else to say to me?”

Han Chunming nodded heavily.
“Of course! I have to thank you for the work at the saccharine field as well!”

Cai Xiaoli’s expression finally eased a little. She was not angry for any other reason.
The main problem is that Han Chunming is just too unromantic!
He clearly knew what I felt in my heart, and he also agreed to go to work with me in the saccharin factory. Doesn’t that mean he accepted my feelings in disguise?

But! He still acts like nothing happened!
Still caring about that broken stone!

Therefore, this made her feel a little uncomfortable!

“The work is still uncertain right now, you don’t have to thank me!”

“How can that be possible? Regardless of whether it succeeds or not, you have always had that intention. Just for this, I, Han Chunming, have to thank you!”

“That’s pretty much it~”

Cai Xiaoli seemed to be a little happy after being coaxed, and pointed to the door angrily:
“Put the bowl back, will you walk with me?”

“No problem! Just wait!”

Han Chunming quickly cleaned up the remaining rice. He now understood something.
That is, Cai Xiaoli is obviously the kind of person who responds to soft words and not hard ones. If you can make her happy, everything will be easy to talk about.

Xiaoqinghe Village is extremely quiet at night.
Walking on the path outside the village,

The bright moonlight stretched the shadows of the two people very long.

After walking quietly for a few minutes,
Cai Xiaoli stopped and turned to face Han Chunming.
“Han Chunming, what kind of person do you think I am? I really want to know!”

Looking at Cai Xiaoli’s hazy face, Han Chunming remained calm on the surface.

But I was already nervous.
This girl! She obviously doesn’t play by her usual rules. She starts with a fatal question!
But there is no way, after searching all the words in my mind,
Han Chunming began to praise without shame.
“As for me, I think you are generous, kind, and considerate. It’s not difficult to get along with you. You are much better than other female educated youth!”

“Really? I don’t believe it!”

“It’s absolutely true! I, Han Chunming, never tell lies!”

“Oh then. Do you like me?”

It’s coming! What’s coming has finally come!

Although Han Chunming had expected this to happen, he did not expect that once Cai Xiaoli got serious, she would be so ferocious!

“this one”

Han Chunming was speechless for a moment. It was obviously irresponsible to say that he liked her. He was deceiving the girl’s feelings.

But it is not appropriate to say that I don’t like it. After all, I still need help from others.

“Hey! What are those two people doing over there?!”

At this moment, a shout came from not far away.
The two of them were shocked!
In the conservative era, even if young men and women had a tryst, they would do it secretly.
Cai Xiaoli was obviously panicking and didn’t bother to listen to Han Chunming’s answer.
He pulled him and started running.

“Xiao Li, it shouldn’t be that serious. We didn’t do anything. Why are you running?” Han Chunming was very puzzled.

“You are shameless, but I still want you. Stop talking nonsense and hurry up!”

After panting around the grove near the village,

Until I hid in a cowshed,
Cai Xiaoli then realized that she had been holding Han Chunming’s hand the whole time.

She wanted to quickly pretend to let go accidentally,

But Han Chunming didn’t react at all and just held on tightly.

“Xiao Li, we really don’t have to run away! We haven’t done anything bad!”

“What do you know? I’m just afraid that others will gossip about us and say bad things about us.”

Han Chunming nodded. Although he was somewhat disdainful of this as he came from a new era,

But people nowadays are so conservative, there is no solution.

“They didn’t catch up with me. I’m going back now. You can leave later. Do you hear me?”

Cai Xiaoli stuck half of her head out to observe.
After making sure that there was no one around, he didn’t bother to continue asking the same question, which actually saved Han Chunming from a disaster.
“I understand! I’ll stay here for a while.”

Before leaving, Cai Xiaoli took out a small item from her pocket and put it into Han Chunming’s hand.
“I gave it to you specially. I have never been willing to eat it. And you asked about that stone. I found it behind the ruined temple in Beishan. I am leaving now!”

Holding the thing in his hand, Han Chunming gently squeezed it.
It looks like a layer of paper wrapped around something hard.
I picked it up and looked at it under the moonlight, and it turned out to be a piece of fruit candy!

Seeing this, Han Chunming was somewhat stunned.

Although sugar cubes are not a particularly rare thing,

But you have to know that we are in a village in the countryside now.

The value of a candy suddenly increased a lot.

Han Chunming put it carefully in his pocket, then changed direction and walked towards the yard where he lived.

“Hey, Chunming, where have you been? We can’t find you after such a long time!”

After entering the door, Cheng Jianjun was wearing a pair of thongs and leaning on a chair to enjoy the cool air.

After seeing Han Chunming coming back, he quickly closed the door.

Then he took out a lotus leaf package from the drawer of the table.
Before opening it, Han Chunming smelled the aroma of meat. “What is this? Roasted chicken?”

Cheng Jianjun nodded quickly and made a shushing gesture.

“Speak softly, don’t let anyone hear you. You were injured today, so I got you a chicken to nourish you. It’s obviously not good enough to make soup, so just make do with it!”

Looking at the shiny roasted chicken in the lotus leaf,

Han Chunming swallowed subconsciously.

After just two big-pot meals, he was already a little tired.
So the smell of meat is more tempting than ever before.

“Jianjun, this chicken? Was it stolen?”

Thinking of this, Han Chunming asked cautiously,
“Yeah, but it’s okay, no one should notice.”

Cheng Jianjun patted Han Chunming’s shoulder, then pulled off a chicken leg and handed it to him.
“Didn’t you say you wanted to eat some meat? Anyway, we’re leaving soon, so don’t think too much!”

Looking at Cheng Jianjun’s sincere eyes at this time,

Han Chunming was touched but also helpless.
He could take the risk to steal chickens for himself.

This means that Cheng Jianjun and I are still as close as they were when we were kids, and he hasn’t shown any bad intentions towards me yet.
But in the matter of stealing chicken,

He was indeed a little reckless.

I remember who stole a chicken last time. The incident became a big deal and everyone came forward to collect two dollars to compensate the owner.
If there is a commotion this time,
This group of educated youth had almost lost face.
Thinking of this, Han Chunming also felt a headache.

“Chunming, eat quickly, it’s already cooked, there’s no point in being afraid!”

Han Chunming shook his head, then nodded.

In the end, he didn’t waste any time and started to eat the chicken leg with relish.

Never mind, just eat first!
It took the two of them more than ten minutes to finish the whole chicken.
Cheng Jianjun collected the remaining bone residue, etc.
He ran to the stove in the yard, lit it on fire, threw everything in and burned it all.

“Jianjun, whose house did you steal this chicken from?”

“Um, I’m not sure, it seems to be from Old Man Sun’s family. His chickens are the only ones that can grow this big in that area!”

“Oh got it!”

Seeing Han Chunming’s worried look, Cheng Jianjun seemed to have thought of something and said with a surprised expression,

“Chunming, you don’t want to expose me, do you?”

“How is that possible! What are you thinking? I’ve already eaten the chicken. Are you crazy enough to expose you? I’m thinking about something else!”

After sending Cheng Jianjun away, Han Chunming touched the fruit candy in his pocket and fell into deep thought.
There was absolutely no way that Cheng Jianjun would tell anyone about stealing a chicken.

But he also knew the situation of Uncle Sun’s family.
Especially with Aunt Sun saying by the river that Uncle Sun went to town to sell chickens in exchange for wine to see him off.

Let him feel that he must find a way to solve this problem.
Otherwise, my conscience will be uneasy.

Thinking of this, Han Chunming stood up and took out his pen.

After searching for a long time without finding the paper,
I might as well peel off the candy Cai Xiaoli gave me.
I drew something quickly on the candy paper.
“Hey? Chunming, where are you going?” Cheng Jianjun asked.

“Oh, I’m just going out for a walk, I’ll be back soon”

Early the next morning,
Han Chunming took a sheep whip and a sheep shovel to the sheepfold at the entrance of the village and drove out all 36 sheep in the village.
Along the way, I felt the damp dew and the strong smell of sheep dung.

Han Chunming is also ridiculous.

In my entire life, I never thought that one day I would be herding sheep. It seems too dreamy!

Driving the sheep around the Xiaoqing River, we climbed up the sunny slopes to the north.

Then my work will be easy.

Just watch them and don’t let them run around and eat the grass.

The dilapidated temple that Cai Xiaoli mentioned is on the top of a mountain not far away.

But now it has become a pile of ruins.
It is said that it was demolished during the Four Olds Campaign a few years ago.

After Han Chunming took care of the sheep, he walked to the ruins of the dilapidated temple.
As expected, only the remaining bricks and wood were left.

Occasionally, some dull and faded fragments of Buddha statues can be seen inside.

According to the villagers, this temple was built at least five or six hundred years ago.
If it can be preserved, it will definitely become a cultural heritage in the future.
But there was no way out, and Han Chunming felt it was extremely regretful.

Comparing the jade seal fragment in his hand, Han Chunming searched around for a long time but couldn’t find a similar stone.

Since Cai Xiaoli could find it easily, it means that the jade seal could not be buried deep in the ruins.

According to this speculation,

The jade seal for the other half should be easy to find.
But a morning passed,
Han Chunming never found anything.

Could it be that? Not here at all?

Thinking of this, Han Chunming felt somewhat desperate.

It is too difficult to find a small stone in such a big Xiaoqinghe Village!
Just when Han Chunming was about to give up and go back,
Cheng Jianjun’s shouts could be heard from a distance.
“Chun Ming! Chun Ming! This is incredible! Chun Ming!”

Cheng Jianjun panted, ran over in a panic, grabbed Chunming’s hand, and asked excitedly:
“Chunming, you did it, didn’t you?”

“What did I do?”

“That chicken!”

As Cheng Jianjun spoke, he stared into Han Chunming’s eyes, as if he wanted to see something.
“Discovered? No, you mean I betrayed you? How is that possible! Am I that kind of person?!”

Han Chunming pushed Cheng Jianjun’s shoulder hard.
This sudden outburst startled Cheng Jianjun.
He quickly shook his head and explained:
“I’m not saying you betrayed me. What I mean is, did you give me that ten dollars?”

Hearing the words “ten dollars”,
Han Chunming finally understood what was going on.

Even though he was somewhat surprised that Uncle Han would actually say it, but now! He could only pretend that he knew nothing about it.

“Ten dollars? What do you mean by ten dollars? Don’t be impatient, tell me what’s going on first!”

“It’s really not you who gave me the ten dollars?” Cheng Jianjun asked again.
“Do you think it’s possible? That’s ten dollars! Not fifty cents a dollar! Besides, can we come up with one dollar now?”

Cheng Jianjun thought about this and nodded:

“Yes, if you had ten dollars, you would have used it to improve your life. Who is responsible for this?”

“No, can you tell me what’s going on first?” Han Chunming continued to play dumb and asked.

“Hey! This morning before everyone went to the fields, Uncle Han and Aunt Han ran to the commune and said that someone stole a chicken from their house in the middle of the night, and left a note and ten yuan. Uncle Han felt that the amount of money was too much, and he was not at ease with it, so he went to find Secretary Wei to see how to solve the problem.” (End of this chapter)