That noon, just as the villagers had finished lunch and were about to take a nap, the large bell at the brigade headquarters was rung.
This bell had originally been brought down from a temple up in the mountains. It was usually hung on the locust tree in front of the brigade headquarters. Whenever the brigade needed to gather the villagers for a meeting, this bell would be rung.
Yun Su had been about to head to the supply depot. Hearing the bell, she locked up the house with her family and went straight to the brigade headquarters.
The villagers arrived quickly. Still, many complained about being called together at noon in the middle of summer. What could have happened?
Standing on the steps of the brigade headquarters, the brigade captain listened to everyone’s complaints with a smile on his face. It was clear that good news was coming.
In fact, everyone soon found out what had happened.
“Oh my goodness! They really caught them! That’s wonderful!”
Yes, the brigade captain had gone to town for a meeting that morning and learned that after a week of effort, the thieves in the village burglary case had all been caught. Across the three villages, a total of 18 thieves had been apprehended. Most of them weren’t locals but had come from other parts of the island to commit the crimes.
In short, after the captain finished his announcement, everyone was delighted that the thieves had been caught.
Then someone asked about the stolen items. But most of the cash and ration tickets had already been spent by the thieves. In some cases, the thieves were so desperately poor that they’d rather be beaten to death than reveal where the money and tickets had gone.
So, there wasn’t much compensation to be gotten back.
“Don’t be too heartbroken, everyone. Although much of the cash and tickets won’t be recovered, our village’s fishing team caught a large haul of sailfish that day. When the proceeds are calculated, each household will get at least fifty-two yuan.”
At this, everyone was astonished.
—
The fishing team took turns going out to sea; they didn’t expect the fishermen to work year-round. Every catch brought in was recorded by designated personnel: the time, who was on the boat, how much was caught, and how much it sold for. Everything was clearly documented.
Of course, when each person went on board, their contribution points were recorded based on how much effort they put in. Those points were ultimately the key to converting their share into cash.
The captain’s words lifted everyone’s spirits, which had just been low. Then his next announcement made quite a few households cheer out loud.
“There’s another big thing to tell you.”
Taking advantage of everyone’s good mood, the captain uncharacteristically teased them a bit. But everyone was so excited about getting more money that not many played along. The captain looked a little sheepish. He stopped teasing and loudly announced:
“The recruitment results from the state-run seafood processing factory are out!”
Those who had just been chattering about how much money they might get froze at these words.
Then the families who had children go for registration all looked nervously at the captain.
During the registration, everyone had taken simple tests and interviews. Now that the results were out, who wouldn’t be excited? Those were factory worker jobs!
Seeing everyone’s reaction, the captain nodded with satisfaction. Without further delay, he announced directly: “Three people have been accepted. They are Yun Huaimin, Yun Huaiyu, and Yun Ximei.”
As soon as the words fell, the three families who had someone accepted jumped for joy. The other families whose children hadn’t been selected looked very disappointed.
Yun Su had long felt that her big brother could make it, but she was still excited to hear the news. As for Ximei, Yun Su was genuinely a bit surprised. That girl actually passed.
But someone suddenly shouted loudly: “This isn’t right, Brigade Captain! Everyone who got in shares the Yun surname. Did you pull some strings? And besides, the factory said it would take half a month to announce the results. It’s only been a week—how can the results be out already?”
At these words, Yun Su immediately looked over. Sure enough, it was someone from a non-Yun family in the village.
The truth was, in any village, there were always some conflicts between the dominant surname group and the smaller surname groups. Because in terms of interests, the smaller groups tended to get the short end of the stick.
But their village had never bullied the smaller surname families.
“If you don’t believe it, you can go to the processing factory and ask for yourself.”
The brigade captain had learned the list when he went to town for the meeting; the processing factory had called the town government to inform them. He heard it was because the registration scene in their village had been so massive that the news of the factory’s recruitment had leaked out. Too many people had shown up to register, so the registration period was closed early.
With fewer city people applying, it inadvertently gave rural applicants like them a bit more opportunity.
Regardless, the captain was very satisfied with the outcome.
—
No matter what others might say, the Yun household was overjoyed.
At the brigade headquarters, they didn’t want to celebrate too openly for fear of making others jealous. But once they got home and closed the door, they looked at each other and grinned.
Although they all believed their son/brother was capable, it was impossible not to worry when he was competing against so many others.
But now, the results were out. He had really been selected. No matter which position the factory assigned him to, he would definitely have a regular worker’s job.
Yun’s mother: “Ximei is also very impressive. And Huaiyu too.”
Ximei was the daughter of Aunt Lin next door. Huaiyu was a nephew of the brigade captain. Both had graduated from middle school this year. The fact that Yun Huaimin, who only had a primary school education, could compete successfully and get selected meant he must have performed excellently on the written test and interview.
Yun Su sat listening to her mother talk about how the other families had reacted, analyzing in her mind why her brother had succeeded.
“I wonder how Kangzi, from your elder brother’s family, is doing?”
Yun’s father let out a sudden sigh, earning a glare from Yun’s mother.
Calculating the timing, if Yun Huaikang was going to be sent to the countryside, he should have already received his notice by now. There would have been no time for him to participate in the processing factory’s recruitment drive. It remained to be seen whether he would resign himself to going to the countryside or make some other arrangement behind the scenes. In any case, Yun Su had been busy with her own family’s affairs lately, but she hadn’t heard anything more about Yun Huaikang.
…
While her family was celebrating, Liu Zhaodi across the way was once again green with envy.
“So unfair, so unfair. Heaven must be blind. Yun Su is lazy and useless, yet she’s marrying a doctor—that’s already unreasonable enough. And now that fool Yun Huaimin is going to be a factory worker! Heaven has no eyes!”
Second Uncle Yun couldn’t help pulling out a cigarette and taking a few deep drags. “Truly blind…”
Then he glared at Liu Zhaodi. “It must be your bad roots. Third Brother and I are born of the same mother—our Old Yun family roots are fine. So the problem must be with your Old Liu family.”
Liu Zhaodi was scolded like this by her own husband but didn’t dare to talk back. She could only vent her anger on her daughters.
Yun Feng bore the brunt of it and was cursed at quite harshly. Normally, Yun Feng might have ignored it. But with the gap between her and Yun Su widening, and with no news from Gu Zhengrong’s side, her mindset had become even more unbalanced. She shot her mother a glare and ran out without a word.
“You… Da Yang. Look, look at your eldest daughter. Is that appropriate? Is that how a daughter should behave? I only said a few words to her, and she gives me that look. A daughter like that—can we really count on her to support her family after marriage? Hah, might as well marry her off to whoever offers the highest bride price…”
As for Yun Feng, she didn’t go far. She wandered along the country path, hearing people around her talk about their bad luck, occasionally expressing envy for the three young people about to become factory workers.
Yun Feng thought to herself: if her mother hadn’t stopped her from continuing her education back then, none of those three would have had a chance now.
The more she thought about it, the more unbalanced she felt. Especially when she passed by Yun Su’s house and heard laughter coming from inside. Yun Feng gritted her teeth and walked out of the village.
She needed to go to town and make a phone call—to take these smug people down a peg.
—
No one paid much attention to Yun Feng’s little maneuver.
After celebrating her brother becoming a factory worker, Yun Su’s attention returned to the burglary case.
After dinner that evening, she took a walk and personally went to the brigade captain’s house.
“Have you eaten?”
The brigade captain was a bit surprised by Yun Su’s visit.
Yun Su nodded. “Yes, I have, Old Uncle. I came to ask about the details of the burglary arrests.”
The captain sighed. “The public security officers didn’t give specific details. But their message was that our village needs to be more vigilant in the future. Of the thieves who were caught, only one admitted to stealing from our village. Too many households in our village were robbed for just one person to have done it alone. There must be more who got away.”
Yun Su thought to herself that this was exactly as she suspected. Then the captain continued: “The thieves said they heard through the grapevine that our three villages would have very few people at home that day, so they came to steal. Now that the arrests have been made and the confessions compared, the public security comrades think the information might have originated from our village in the first place.”
Having asked this much, Yun Su knew her trip hadn’t been wasted.
“Alright, I understand, Old Uncle. At least you helped us apply for a batch of good locks. Our village probably won’t be in any more danger.”
That’s what she said, but after piecing everything together, Yun Su had discovered a startling fact.
There was a group of people secretly searching for something important. They had orchestrated such a large-scale burglary as cover. But clearly, they hadn’t found what they were looking for. The thieves who were caught were nothing but a smokescreen to conceal the ones behind it all.
After establishing this line of reasoning, Yun Su became even more convinced that the Li siblings were behind it.
When Ji Xiangtian came to visit that weekend to deliver the processing factory’s acceptance letter, Yun Su got even more detailed information from him.
—
“Someone is asking for the passenger list of the ferry from the day I fell into the sea.”
As soon as he arrived at Yun Su’s house, Ji Xiangtian didn’t even have time to drink his tea before telling her this.
Yun Su was shocked. “Are you sure?”
Ji Xiangtian nodded. He had been pushed into the sea for no reason and nearly lost his life, so he had been keeping tabs on the ferry company’s situation all this time.
Sure enough, he had heard that someone was inquiring about the passenger list from the day of the incident.
At the time, Ji Xiangtian hadn’t been able to make sense of it and had put the lead aside. But then the village burglaries happened.
Unlike the brigade captain, Ji Xiangtian had other sources of information. Soon, he discovered that among the villagers who reported losses, several had been on the same ferry as him.
Apart from the military district personnel, every single person on the passenger list had been burgled in this incident.
Such a coincidence wasn’t a coincidence at all—it was deliberate.
After Yun Su heard Ji Xiangtian’s analysis, she shared her own findings with him. By pooling their information, they both realized that there must be something more going on—something they didn’t yet know.
“In any case, we can be sure now that the Li siblings are involved.”
Of course, besides the registered ticket buyers, ferries in those days always had some un ticketed passengers—usually people the crew had secretly brought aboard. There wouldn’t have been many.
“Could it be… could it be that your fall into the sea was their doing?”
—
Ji Xiangtian put his arm around Yun Su as they sat together, listening to her quiet analysis. He shook his head uncertainly. “I’ve considered that possibility too. But I have no conflict of interest with them. Unless there’s really something I don’t know about.”
He had also replayed the details from the boat in his mind. From buying the ticket, to waiting, to boarding—everything had been perfectly normal and ordinary. Even the people he encountered hadn’t been particularly remarkable. He had also checked the passenger list; they were all ordinary people.
So, the suspicion still fell on the crew and the people they had secretly brought aboard. But that made the scope of investigation much broader.
Seeing the man frown in thought, Yun Su hesitated for a moment, then decided to share what she had previously thought.
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