He Xianghua sighed. He thought about how Liu Guozhi treated that good-for-nothing Liu San better than any of his daughters. Who could have known he would spoil the boy so rotten?
The boy gambled and womanized, and on top of being lazy and greedy, he had now beco a petty thief. How furious would Liu Guozhi be when he found out?
When the three of them arrived at Lin Lan’s house, Zhou Xiaohong nodded at Lin Lan. "It was them!"
Lin Lan said, "We’ll just wait for them to show up again and catch them red-handed."
"Right!" Zhou Xiaohong cursed. "Those bastards are just awful. I worked my ass off to bring that rchandise back from so far away, and they stole four pieces at once. They’re despicable."
Wu Shufen said, "Luckily, you were able to recognize them. Otherwise, we’d have no idea who was doing the stealing."
Zhou Xiaohong nodded. "You’re right, Auntie." She sighed. "Now that things have opened up, there are opportunities to make money everywhere if you’re willing to work hard. But so people just won’t learn, insisting on resorting to petty theft!"
Everyone nodded in agreent.
After discussing how to catch Liu Jinbao and his gang, they left Lin Lan’s house and went ho to rest.
The next morning, Li Xiangyang went to the commune office and bought the land in the Eucalyptus Forest for 1,300 yuan per mu.
Lin Changyou’s family was allotted three mu, Yang Dingbang and Xu Dong partnered up for one mu, Shuiqing and Zhou Shisong partnered for another, and two mu were set aside for Mayor Xu’s family.
After having the surveyors mark off the plots for the other families, the rest of the land was all for Lin Lan and Li Xiangyang.
Mayor Xu took Li Xiangyang and the others to the Land Managent Bureau to obtain their land use certificates.
Zhou Shisong gazed happily at the land use certificate in his hand. Pulling along Li Xiaofeng, who couldn’t stop wiping away her tears, he bowed deeply to Lin Changyou and Li Xiangyang.
"Uncle, Xiangyang, thank you so much. We wouldn’t be where we are today without your help."
Lin Changyou and Li Xiangyang hurried to help them up. "This is because you’re willing to endure hardship. Now you have to keep working hard, save up the money to build your house, and then bring your parents over to let them enjoy a comfortable life."
Zhou Shisong nodded again and again. "I know. We’ll take good care of them."
When Li Xiangyang got ho, he gave the land use certificate to Lin Lan. "Here, put this sowhere safe."
Lin Lan held the land use certificate, grinning foolishly at him for a long mont. Then she thought for a bit and asked, "It’s such a huge piece of land. What kind of building do you think we should put up?"
Li Xiangyang looked at her. "What about building a marketplace?"
Lin Lan thought for a mont. "We can’t do that for at least the next two years. Let’s wait a couple of years for governnt policies to loosen up a bit more. We’ll make our plans then."
Li Xiangyang nodded. "All right. It’s your call."
The two of them hadn’t even finished speaking when Qiaohui called from outside, "Cousin, your father’s here to see you."
The pair ca out of their room to find Lin Changyou had already made his way to the workstation in the backyard.
Lin Lan smiled. "Dad, what brings you here?"
Lin Changyou looked at the two of them. "I ca to ask when you’re planning to start construction on the Eucalyptus Forest land."
Li Xiangyang brought a chair over for him. "In a couple of years. When are you all planning to build?"
"We don’t have the money right now either, so we’re also planning to wait a couple of years," Lin Changyou said, looking at Lin Lan. "I went to take a look, and you can plant pumpkins in the woods. It’s a huge space, you could plant quite a few pumpkin seedlings."
The woods spanned dozens of mu, but so parts had been illegally logged, leaving clearings. It would be a sha to let that space go to waste, and since pumpkins are typically planted along the edges of fields and in wooded areas, it was the perfect solution.
Lin Lan’s eyes lit up at his words. "That’s a great idea! You really think of everything, Dad. I have so selected pumpkin seeds here. We can sprout the seedlings first, and then I’ll hire people to do the planting."
Lin Changyou nodded. "Go get them for . Once the rapeseed is harvested, we’ll need to flood the fields and transplant the rice seedlings. I can get the pumpkin seeds sown in the next two days while I’m not busy."
"Okay, Xiangyang and I will go get them." Lin Lan got up, and together she and Li Xiangyang carried out a burlap sack filled with pumpkin seeds. "Dad, this whole bag is full of them."
Lin Changyou opened the sack, grabbed a handful of seeds to inspect them, and said, "I’ll take these back to soak. This afternoon, after I close up the stall, I’ll go plant them."
"Let get that, Dad." Li Xiangyang stepped forward, shouldered the sack of seeds, carried it to the shop’s entrance, and hung it on the bicycle’s rear rack.
Lin Changyou grabbed the handlebars to steady the bike. "I’ll head back first, then."
Lin Lan replied, "Ride carefully."
At dusk, after closing up the shop, Lin Lan and Li Xiangyang took Little Douzi back to Lexing. The field of rapeseed near the entrance had been fully harvested, leaving the ground covered in stalks.
Lin Changyou and Wu Shufen were in their private plot planting pumpkin seeds, placing two in each hole before covering them with soil.
Little Douzi ran over to them. "Grandma! Grandpa! We’re here!"
Wu Shufen bead at him. "My sweet grandson, did you co to help Grandma plant the seeds?"
Little Douzi said with a giggle, "Yup! Mama said we’re going to plant giant pumpkins."
When she saw him actually start to walk into the tilled soil, she quickly stopped him. "Don’t co in here! It’s all mud; you’ll get it all over your shoes."
"It’s okay, Mom, let him go," Lin Lan said, then smiled at Little Douzi. "Go on, help Grandpa plant the seeds. Watch and learn."
"Okay," Little Douzi said and walked over to Lin Changyou.
Lin Lan and Li Xiangyang helped haul compost and cover the seeds with soil. They worked until it was completely dark, and only then were all the pumpkin seeds finally planted. Afterward, the family of three rode their bicycle ho.
For the next two days, Little Xue and her sister, along with Zhou Yongi, stayed at the clothing store. Old Li frequently loitered outside the entrance, and Yang Zhigang, after closing his at stall for the day, would go over to help at the departnt store.
After closing the shop, Lin Lan and the others would go to the fields where the rapeseed had been harvested to pull up the stalks. They carried the stalks back, stood them against the base of the walls to dry, and would later use them as firewood.
After another two days, the rapeseed harvest for the entire Lexing Team was complete. Lin Lan’s family was allotted over thirty jin of rapeseed, plus the stalks from four mu of their fields.
The stalks from the last of their fields were also completely cleared, and the area under the eaves was piled high with them.
The next day at noon, Li Xiangyang, who was sitting on watch at the entrance of the departnt store across the street, saw Zhang Hua and a woman carrying a child enter the clothing store opposite them. Less than two minutes later, Liu Jinbao, Zhang Yazhen, and two other won also went inside.
Yang Zhigang imdiately crossed the street to the clothing store. He pretended to browse the clothes, his eyes like a radar, vigilantly watching Liu Jinbao, Zhang Yazhen, and their companions.
There were already two other sets of custors in the store. Zhou Yongi was standing by to assist. As soon as Zhang Hua and Jiang Xiu entered, they began rummaging through the clothes, while Liu Jinbao and Zhang Yazhen feigned a casual interest, browsing idly.
As always, Little Song was the quickest to make a move. Spotting a newly arrived genuine silk blouse, they stuffed it under their own clothes. Next, their eyes landed on a printed georgette dress with a white background.
After a few successful snags, the group grew bolder. Even Jiang Xiu, the one holding the child, managed to conceal a wool cardigan.
Not to be outdone, Zhang Yazhen and Huihui also stuffed away two items before nonchalantly heading for the exit with Liu Jinbao.
Yang Zhigang, inside the store, and Old Li, standing outside the shop window, saw everything.
Old Li waved at Li Xiangyang across the street, then strode into the shop, blocking Liu Jinbao and the others. "Stop right there. Take out what you’ve hidden under your clothes."
Liu Jinbao cursed inwardly. ’Crap! I told you that little widow was trouble. Looks like they were waiting for us all along.’
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