Back to 1978: Getting rich starts with treasure hunting

Xiaohe Village is a typical southern village with blue bricks and black tiles, houses connected to each other in an orderly manner, and alleys paved with bluestone slabs.

Liu Xiao'e was sitting on the stone pier in front of the gate, shelling broad beans and chatting with her neighbors. When she saw her niece coming around the corner, she smiled and asked, "Meizi, why are you here? Are you here to see our Lin Shu?"

"Aunt, I'm here to see you." Lin Mei said, and smiled at the neighbor aunts sitting at the door.

Liu Xiao'e was stunned: "Looking for me?"

"Yes." Lin Mei sat down on the grindstone next to her. "I recently discovered that Lin Shu and the educated youth Zhu have been getting along quite closely, so I wanted to ask, Auntie, are you planning to take Zhu as your son-in-law?"

When Liu Xiao'e heard this, she glanced nervously at the neighbors sitting at the door. Her face darkened and she warned, "Meizi, you are about the same age as Lin Shu. You are not an ignorant girl. You should know what you can and cannot say. Our Lin Shu is a well-behaved girl. How could she possibly associate with the educated youths at the educated youths' camp?"

This means that she doesn't understand anything. Lin Mei suppressed her anger and frowned slightly and asked, "But I just saw Lin Shu and Zhu Zhiqing go to the forest in Woniu Mountain together..."

Wow!

Hot news!

The women who were chatting about picking vegetables nearby suddenly became excited. There was nothing new in the countryside, and everyone's usual entertainment was probably gossiping about other people's private affairs. If they could dig out some secrets of other people's families, they would not be afraid of having nothing to talk about in the next few months.

"plum!"

Liu Xiao'e was secretly annoyed that the girl had no sense at all. She was afraid that she was deliberately trying to ruin her Lin Shu's reputation. "Maybe you are dazzled and saw it wrong."

Aunt Niu, who was close to Liu Xiao'e, assisted and asked, "Xiao'e, where is Lin Shu?"

Liu Xiao'e gave Lin Mei a look and replied, "I went to the private plot to pull weeds."

"Really?" Lin Mei asked uncertainly, scratched her head, and said with pretended concern: "Auntie, don't be angry. I'm just worried that Lin Shu will go the wrong way. After all, Lin Shu and the Jie family are engaged."

The eyes of the spectators nearby suddenly lit up. After this reminder, they also remembered that Lin Shu seemed to have some connection with the eldest son of the Jie family.

Many people, regardless of whether they believed Lin Mei's words or not, had already begun to despise Lin Shu in their hearts.

If what Lin Mei said was true, then Lin Shu was playing both sides, having his cake and eating it too.

"We are a reconciled family..."

Liu Xiao'e didn't know how to answer for a moment. Deep down, she wanted to become relatives with the Jie family, but now that this had happened, she was not sure whether her daughter was really having an affair with the educated youth.

"My engagement with the Jie family is not valid!"

A clear female voice came from the corner of the street.

Everyone looked in the direction of the voice and saw Lin Shu, who Lin Mei had just mentioned was dating Zhu Zhiqing, walking towards them from the corner of the street.

"The Hejie family's engagement is invalid. Could it be that Lin Shu really likes Zhu Zhiqing?"

This is the first thought everyone had after hearing this.

So, someone was not afraid of trouble and asked it face to face.

"Lin Shu, Lin Mei said that you and Zhu Zhiqing were dating in Woniu Ridge. Is that true? Are you and Zhu Zhiqing dating?"

"How is that possible!" Lin Shu denied it immediately.

She was afraid that if she paused for even a second, these people would link her to Zhu Zhengliang.

"I was just pulling weeds in my private plot. How could I have the time to interact with the male educated youth? You know that the educated youth at the educated youth camp look down on us country folk."

When everyone heard the explanation, they realized that Lin Shu and Liu Xiao'e's words matched each other. Perhaps Lin Shu really had gone to the private plot to pull weeds.

"Lin Shu, you went to pull weeds in your private plot, how come you got yourself so dirty?"

There was a flash of resentment in Lin Mei's eyes, and her words reminded everyone, so they noticed that Lin Shu's shoes and pants were all wet.

"Oh, this." Lin Shu stamped his feet nonchalantly and waved a few plantains in his hand: "Just now on the way back, I pulled a few plantains and accidentally slipped into the paddy field."

"Tsk, Lin Shu, you are so unlucky. You even slipped into the paddy field while pulling a grass, and you were slandered for dating a man." Aunt Niu assisted.

Lin Shu smiled coldly: "It's so unlucky. I got into trouble without doing anything."

Liu E looked at the plantain in her hand and asked unhappily, "Why are you pulling this stuff back instead of doing your work? There are stalks of plantain everywhere on the barren slopes. It will get stuck in the pigs' throats if you pull it back to feed them!"

The plantain in this season is old, and the stem in the middle has already produced plantain seeds.

It cannot be eaten cold, but it can be boiled in water and drunk to clear away heat, remove dampness and act as a diuretic, which is just right for Lin Shu who has a few pimples on her face.

"I have a few pimples on my face, so I boil some water with this and drink it." Lin Shu explained.

"Lin Shu, if you boil this in water and drink it, your acne will be cured?" asked Aunt Liu, the neighbor next door.

Aunt Liu's son is in puberty, and probably because of his skin condition, he has a lot of acne on his bumpy face.

At this time, villagers call pimples "acne".

“Severe cases can be alleviated, and minor cases should be able to get better.”

Lin Shu's meaning was very clear. The acne on her face healed after she drank the drink a few more times and washed it with the water boiled with plantain for a few days, but the same might not be true for Aunt Liu's son.

But there is no harm in drinking plantain as it can clear away heat and dampness.

Just as everyone's attention shifted to the plantain, Lin Mei looked at Lin Shu in surprise and suspicion. Logically speaking, given their relationship, something was bound to happen when they went into the woods.

But now that Lin Shu has returned, it seems that he cannot achieve his goal this time.

At Liu Xiao'e's urging, Lin Shu was about to go into the house to wash up and change clothes. The moment she stepped over the threshold, she stopped.

Lin Shu turned around and said casually, "Oh, I almost forgot, cousin, if you like Jie Chunlei, just ask my family to propose marriage to him. Don't use me as a scapegoat next time. You should know how important a girl's reputation is. Is it fun to link me with other men?"

Lin Mei seemed startled when she heard her words, and shook her head in panic: "I don't mean anything else, I just care about you..."

"Thank you for your concern!" Lin Shu laughed in anger, with a hint of sarcasm on his lips: "It's just that I am not blessed enough to bear your concern. Next time, don't care about my affairs. If you have time, you might as well care about your own affairs."

"What are you talking about, kid? How can a girl take the initiative to propose marriage?" Liu Xiao'e listened to the verbal battle between the two children and was almost mad at her own daughter.

Xie Chunlei is the son-in-law he favors, so how could he give him up to his niece from his brother-in-law's family?

Lin Shu was dragged back into the house by Liu Xiao'e, and was isolated from outsiders. She asked him bluntly, "What did you mean by what you said just now? You don't like such a good guy like Jie Chunlei?"