Chapter 433 - 431: Sentenced
After Zhou Shitou and Zhou Dashu left, Wu Shufang and her daughter-in-law, Xu Hongju, also ran a spring roll stall at the Limin Street intersection for about ten days.
Selling ice jelly with brown sugar and fermented rice for ten cents a bowl, small spring rolls for ten cents apiece, as well as mung bean jelly and cold noodles, the mother-and-daughter-in-law duo could earn about ten yuan a day.
In late July, Zhou Shitou and his father came to East Market, carrying two burlap sacks of dried mushrooms on their backs.
Zhou Shitou told Lin Lan that the food, clothes, and necessities had all been distributed to the villagers. With grain to eat, clothes to wear, and blankets for warmth, everyone was settling into the wooden sheds they had built outside the team’s sunning ground.
When everyone heard that the father and son were coming to East Market, they insisted that they bring the mushrooms as a gift for Lin Lan and the others who had helped them.
Before Zhou Dashi left, he had passed the job of collecting pumpkins, beans, and other local produce to Zhou Dashu. The team leader asked him to tell Lin Lan that once he and the villagers finished rebuilding their houses, he would come to East Market to thank everyone.
Lin Lan and Li Xiangyang were relieved to hear that everyone was doing well. She gave portions of the dried mushrooms to Li Aihong and Director Su from the clothing factory, as well as to Li Wu, Hou Bing, and Liu Da.
In early August, Lin Lan, Zhou Xiaohong, and the other business owners who had been robbed received their restitution from Xu Huan, Liu Jinbao, and the others. They learned that all of them had received criminal penalties.
Liu Jinbao was sentenced to one year and two months for organizing the thefts. Xu Huan received a one-year sentence for receiving and selling stolen goods. Zhang Hua, Zhang Yazhen, Huihui, and Jiang Xiu were sentenced to six months, three months, and detention for Shen Hao, respectively.
Because Jiang Xiu was breastfeeding, she was exempted from imprisonment and would serve her sentence outside of prison.
The people of Lexing Team secretly clapped and cheered when Liu Jinbao and Zhang Hua were sentenced, but they sighed in dismay over Zhang Yazhen and Huihui.
No one had expected that the two of them would land themselves in prison over a petty argument.
After Liu Jinbao was sentenced, Liu Guozhi felt he had lost too much face to continue as the team leader and voluntarily resigned. After an election, He Xianghua became the new leader of Lexing Team.
In the blink of an eye, it was late August. The twenty-fifth of the month was the Ghost Festival.
Lin Changyou planned to take Lin Guoliang and his brothers back to Shilian to burn joss paper for their ancestors. Lin Lan and Li Xiangyang also went to the East City Restaurant, and as everyone chatted, the conversation turned once again to the matter of Lin Guozhu finding a partner.
Wu Shufen looked at him irritably. "You said your girlfriend would come to East Market when it got hot. The Start of Autumn was on the twenty-seventh of the sixth lunar month, and today is the thirteenth of the seventh. The fifteenth is almost here! Where is this girlfriend of yours?"
Lin Guozhu scratched his hair and said with a frown, "Mom, she’s busy with work. She’ll come when she’s not so busy."
Wu Shufen glared at him, fuming. "I don’t care! Stop making up excuses to fool me. After the Ghost Festival, you’re going on blind dates. If you don’t find someone, you can just be a bachelor for the rest of your life!"
Lin Changyou, who had been sitting at the entrance smoking his leaf-tobacco pipe, finished his last puff. After cleaning the pipe, he walked over and sat in front of his son. "You said your girlfriend would come when it got hot, and we’ve waited a whole season. That girl we were going to introduce you to is already about to have her wedding banquet."
"Guozhu, it’s time you found someone. Look, guys your age already have two or three kids, and the oldest ones are in the second grade. You don’t even have a girlfriend. If you keep putting it off, you’ll be thirty. It’ll be much harder to find someone after thirty."
Lin Guozhu stood up and paced around anxiously. He looked at his parents, gritted his teeth, and said, "After the Ghost Festival, I have to go on a business trip. When I get back, if I still haven’t brought a girlfriend home, I’ll do as you say and go on blind dates."
’He knew his parents’ patience had reached its limit. There was almost no one his age who wasn’t married. If he didn’t find someone soon, he’d never hear the end of it from his mother.’
"Good. A man keeps his promises," Lin Changyou said. "If you come back this time and still haven’t brought your girlfriend home, don’t blame us for being unreasonable and arranging your marriage."
Lin Guozhu nodded. "I’ll keep my word."
Wu Shufen finally relaxed a little, then turned to Lin Lan. "When your brother and the others get back from Shilian, they’ll help you harvest your rice. Yang Meihua gave me the grain tax booklet a few days ago. She said you’ve never turned in the grain tax before, so you should go with them to do it this time."
Lin Changyou added, "Yang Meihua means well. If you go with the team cadres, your grain will be rated a higher grade, and no one will give you a hard time."
"Okay." Lin Lan looked at her parents. "Should we use a threshing bucket or a threshing machine?"
Lin Changyou thought for a moment. "Just use a threshing bucket. We have plenty of able-bodied workers in the family. We can harvest a few acres of rice in less than two days."
Lin Lan nodded. "I’ll listen to you. We’ll use the threshing bucket."
Wu Shufen looked at Li Xiangyang. "Are you planning to burn joss paper at the old house or over on Yucai Road?"
Li Xiangyang replied, "We’ll do it on Yucai Road. We’re planning to tear down the old house and rebuild it after the rainy season next year. Xu Dong plans to tear down his old house too, so we’ll start construction at the same time."
"That’s a great idea. Once we save up some money, we’ll fix up the house in the Eucalyptus Forest too." Wu Shufen said, then asked, "Xiangyang, what do you two plan to do with that plot of land?"
Li Xiangyang smiled. "We haven’t decided yet. We’re thinking of waiting a bit, until the government policies become clearer, before we make any plans." On his trip to Yangcheng City, he had looked around, and Old Zhang had even taken them to see a cold storage facility. He thought that selling meat products and running a cold storage facility seemed like a pretty good idea.
After he came back and discussed it with Lin Lan, the two of them asked Xu Dong about it. They felt that things were too restrictive at the moment, and running a factory was less flexible than being self-employed. So, they put aside the idea of starting a cold storage facility.
Lin Changyou nodded. "Money is hard to earn, so it’s better to be cautious. I took a walk in the woods yesterday. The pumpkins are growing pretty well. I even ran into a resident from near the vehicle factory stealing pumpkin shoots."
"If no one’s watching, some theft is inevitable," Lin Lan said, glancing at the time. "Dad, Mom, we should get going."
"Alright. We’re leaving tomorrow morning. We’ll help you thresh the rice when we get back."
The family of three left the restaurant and rode their bike toward Yucai Road. Halfway there, Little Douzi fell asleep, slumped over the handlebars.
Li Xiangyang squeezed the brakes and stopped, saying to Lin Lan, "Look at him. He went wild playing with Little Jun and the others, and now he’s asleep the moment we stop."
Lin Lan stepped forward and picked up Little Douzi. "It’s almost ten. He’s usually asleep by now."
When the three of them returned home, they saw Old Li still in the front room, sitting on a small stool. He was using a wooden mallet and a paper chisel to make joss money, and the large basket beside him was already more than half full.
Lin Lan greeted him, then carried Little Douzi to their room.
Li Xiangyang brought a small square table into the front room and took out a stack of pre-cut white paper. "Dad, let me help you seal the joss paper packets."
"Alright." Old Li glanced at him. "Are your in-laws leaving tomorrow?"
Li Xiangyang picked up a stack of joss paper. "Yeah. And when they get back, they’re going to help us thresh our rice."
Old Li smiled. "It’s a good thing your wife’s family has so many able-bodied men."
Lin Lan gave Little Douzi a quick wash, covered him with a terrycloth blanket, then put on her slippers and went downstairs to help pack the joss paper.
She had already taken Little Douzi and the old madam to deliver the joss paper and offerings for the Yang family that afternoon.