Reborn before the famine, kicking away the scumbag's family and living a carefree life.

26. Confidential

After a busy day, everyone went home with mixed feelings, carrying the stir-fried locusts prepared by the communal canteen.

Dingxiang and Jingui also returned home. They had been so busy that they could hardly breathe, and Jingui was particularly upset because of the heavy loss of grain. They had no time to think about anything else.

At this point, he breathed a sigh of relief and said, "I really regret it! If I had listened to Aru that day and harvested the wheat earlier, I wouldn't have suffered such a big loss."

Dingxiang: "I've been thinking about this too, Jin Gui! Don't blame yourself, who would have thought this would actually happen?"

Jin Gui sighed, "Yes! It was just a dream. Everyone dreams every day, and sometimes the dreams are really strange! If everyone took them seriously, wouldn't that be insane?"

Dingxiang: "But her dream actually came true!"

Jin Gui sighed again: "Yes! Who knows if it's true?"

Dingxiang: "Today, we also owe a lot to Aru for reminding us to catch the locusts quickly, which saved the grain of one mu of land. We also caught a lot of locusts, which was equivalent to three days' worth of grain for the whole brigade."

Jin Gui: "Yes! The other teams are in even worse shape. They have no food left and haven't caught any locusts! They're all stunned and can't react at all."

Dingxiang: "I heard that the whole county has been hit by a disaster. We have no food, and the township and county governments don't have any extra food subsidies. What will we eat in the future?"

Jin Gui: "I heard that the two neighboring counties suffered from drought not long ago and also had no harvest. They were just hoping that if we had a good harvest, they could get some subsidies from us! Now we can't even take care of ourselves, so we can't expect the neighboring counties to help us. I'm afraid the days ahead will be difficult."

Dingxiang suddenly grabbed her husband's hand: "Jingui, let's go find Aru now."

"What are you looking for her for?"

"Let's go! We'll talk after we find her."

Dingxiang led Jin Gui to Su Jinru's door and knocked.

"Who is it?"

"It's me, Dingxiang!"

Su Jinru came out of the house and opened the courtyard gate.

"Sister-in-law Dingxiang, Brother Jingui, come inside and sit down."

Dingxiang and Jin Gui went to Su Jinru's house.

Inside the room, two children were reading at a simple table. Su Jinru had just been telling them a story.

Because there were guests, Su Jinru asked the brother and sister to play in another room.

Su Jinru poured water for Dingxiang and Jin Gui.

My family was so poor that we didn't even have tea.

This is water boiled with sacred water.

Dingxiang took a sip: "Aru, this water is a little sweet."

Su Jinru joked, "I added sugar."

Jin Gui took a sip and believed it.

"This level of sweetness is just right; if it's too sweet, it'll be cloying."

Su Jinru smiled and said, "What I gave you was just plain water. Where would I get the money to buy sugar? I still owe a lot of money because I built the house!"

"By the way, Sister-in-law Dingxiang, is there something you two need?"

"Aru, your dream really came true. Your brother Jingui is blaming himself for not listening to you and harvesting the wheat ahead of time. If we had harvested it earlier, even if it would have reduced the yield a bit, at least we would have saved the grain!"

Su Jinru: "Brother Jingui, don't blame yourself. If you didn't believe it back then, the other members of the commune wouldn't have believed it either. Who would believe a dream? It's not your fault. You were just trying to get more grain for the team."

"Not to mention you, even I am half-believing and half-doubting, and I am not sure if this dream will definitely happen."

"If this hadn't happened in the end, you would have been punished by your superiors and blamed by your subordinates, so your choice was not wrong. The current situation is everyone's fate."

Dingxiang: "Aru, when you had this dream, besides telling us, who else did you tell?"

“I haven’t told anyone else except you guys. I didn’t tell anyone before because I thought it was just a dream and there was no need to spread it around. Even if it’s a strange dream, wouldn’t it be strange to talk about it everywhere? There’s even less need to tell anyone now. If I did, people would say I was bragging and wouldn’t believe me. If I said I had told Brother Jingui before, they would definitely blame Brother Jingui for not listening to me back then.”

Dingxiang excitedly grabbed Su Jinru's hand.

"Thank you, Aru. You're so thoughtful. We were just worried that the other members of the team would know that you had advised us about the locusts. Now that the locusts have really ruined the crops, some people might blame Jin Gui for not listening to you back then."

If the villagers knew that Su Jinru had advised Jin Gui to harvest the grain ahead of schedule, there might not be many people blaming Jin Gui now, but when the famine comes in the future, they might all blame him, and Jin Gui's future days would be very difficult.

Many people are unreasonable; they only consider their own interests when looking at problems, and blame others for anything that is not to their advantage.

Su Jinru: "It is better to avoid trouble than to have a heart to harm others. Sometimes, even if we have good intentions, others may not understand us. In fact, they may misunderstand us. There are too many examples of good intentions leading to bad outcomes."

Dingxiang: "Aru! You are so wise."

"Sister-in-law, brother, that night I said that we should pretend we never said those things, so we didn't say anything before!"

"Yes, they didn't say anything!"

Dingxiang said excitedly, "Aru, it's so comfortable and reassuring to be around someone as smart as you."

Su Jinru smiled and said, "You're not bad either. You're a good wife to Brother Jin Gui. Brother Jin Gui is so lucky to have married you."

Dingxiang laughed heartily.

After seeing Dingxiang and her husband off, Su Jinru recalled what Dingxiang had mentioned earlier and felt a lingering fear. She also realized that Dingxiang was not a simple woman. If she were a gossipy woman, she would have already told everyone about Su Jinru's dream two days ago.

If everyone knew that she had such a dream two days earlier, they might have been surprised and curious, and perhaps even regarded her as some kind of monster, because supernatural beings and strange phenomena were not allowed in that era.

At the same time, if everyone knew that Su Jinru had advised Jin Gui, Jin Gui would become the target of everyone's hatred and resentment during the famine.

Fortunately, Dingxiang was clever and didn't gossip like most women; otherwise, the consequences would have been unimaginable.

The following morning, county government officials, along with township government officials, arrived in Daben Village to assess the extent of the disaster.

Daben Village and Xiaoben Village were the most severely damaged, with not a blade of grass growing there.

However, I heard that the members of the third team of Daben Village managed to snatch three mu of grain from the locusts' mouths. Although most of the grain on those three mu was eaten, leaving only about one mu of grain, it's still better than a complete crop failure!

When the leaders heard that Jingui had led all the commune members to catch locusts to protect the grain yesterday, and even cooked the caught locusts to serve as food for the next three days, the county government leaders immediately praised Jingui for his quick thinking, decisiveness, and ability, calling him a good cadre.