Chapter 61: Lin Qiushui Runs Into Trouble

Ma Jian tried to force himself upon her once again!

At that moment, several other young men nearby could no longer stand by and watch.

They hurried over, blocked him, and pulled him away.

"Ma Jian! Stop causing trouble here. If you ruin the discipline of the educated youth team, all of us will be punished by the commune!"

"That's right! You can't just think of yourself and disregard the rest of us. Since we were assigned to the same room, we agreed we are a small collective! You need to think of the collective!"

Ma Jian said angrily, "Then why don't you guys help me persuade her instead!"

The two young men looked troubled. "This can't be rushed... Calm down and talk it over slowly later. Go back first."

After much effort, they managed to persuade Ma Jian to leave, and Lin Qiushui finally let out a sigh of relief.

She thought the matter had blown over.

Early the next morning, Lin Qiushui got up and went to the farm vegetable shed to feed the rabbits.

The moment she stepped inside, she realized something was wrong.

The place where the rabbit cages were kept was empty!

Her little rabbit was gone!

Lin Qiushui searched everywhere in a panic, asking everyone she met if they had seen her little rabbit.

Walking too fast as she passed by Du Shujun's dormitory, she crashed straight into Du Shujun!

"Are you blind?" Du Shujun gave her a fierce shove, sending Lin Qiushui stumbling into the corner.

Several other young women in the room rushed out and immediately fussed over Du Shujun.

"Shujun, are you alright?"

"Did you hurt yourself anywhere?"

After asking, they glared fiercely at Lin Qiushui. "Lin Qiushui, what madness have you got into early in the morning!"

Lin Qiushui paid no attention to their attitude. Right now, she only wanted to know what had happened to her little rabbit!

"Did any of you go to the vegetable shed last night? Has anyone seen my little rabbit?" Lin Qiushui asked, holding back her tears.

The female educated youths all gave her cold, hostile stares.

"Rabbit? You can barely feed yourselves, and you're still raising a rabbit?"

"In the middle of winter, goodness knows where you even got that rabbit from! We're doing you a favor by not reporting you for stealing public vegetable seeds to feed a rabbit, and yet you're making a fuss!"

With so many of them, every word felt like a glob of spit, almost drowning Lin Qiushui.

...

Zhang Yang led a team on a mountain patrol last night; it was calm and uneventful, peaceful all night.

The animal traps he had previously asked the Gao brothers, Gao Wen and Gao Wu, to bury had done their job.

When they went to check them, they harvested a full three wild pheasants!

However, the wild pheasants were not very large, each weighing only about four to five catties.

Adding all three together, the total was less than twenty catties, meaning they didn't need to be turned over to the commune!

Zhang Yang carried them back home first, saying he would have his mother butcher them later and then distribute the meat to the team members.

Seeing actual meat made everyone very happy!

Moreover, they hadn't put in much effort that night, yet they were able to get a share of the meat—entirely thanks to Zhang Yang's advance planning!

Therefore, they had no objections whatsoever to Zhang Yang's meat distribution plan!

Before dawn, Zhang Yang and Zhao Dongsheng came back with the chickens to rest.

They had barely slept for long when Daming and Xiaoming ran into the courtyard, anxious to find Zhang Yang.

"The educated youth team is having a big fight!"

"A lot of people are bullying Teacher Lin!"

"We're just kids, we can't help..."

"Uncle! You should go and check on Teacher Lin!"

Daming and Xiaoming scratched their heads in anxiety.

Zhang Yang asked, "What's going on?"

As he got up and dressed, he inquired about the situation.

Meanwhile, Li Huifang walked into the courtyard carrying half of a butchered wild pheasant.

"Yangzi, don't ask too much. How old are the kids? What do they know about adult matters? You brought back three wild pheasants yesterday, and I just butchered one. Here is half of it, take it with you when you go out—things get done easier when you carry a gift!"

Li Huifang was also worried about Lin Qiushui.

"Qiushui is a good girl, and she only wanted to help our family out of a tight spot... Now that she's in trouble, you must help her!"

Looking at the half chicken in Li Huifang's hand, Zhang Yang didn't say anything. He tied the chicken head with a straw rope, picked it up, and went out.

However, halfway there, he changed his mind and handed the chicken back to the two brothers, Daming and Xiaoming.

"Take the chicken back, have your mother keep it, and then ask her to make a trip to the educated youth team to see what's really going on with Teacher Lin."

Daming and Xiaoming were bewildered. "My mom? All she knows how to do is boil water, cook, and wash clothes!"

She didn't know how to fight!

Though anxious, Zhang Yang suppressed his feelings and persuaded the two children, "Just tell your mother exactly that! And ask her to hurry back and forth! I'll be waiting for her at Uncle Dong's house!"

Though they didn't understand, Daming and Xiaoming followed instructions.

Cuilan was both surprised and delighted to receive the wild pheasant.

Hearing her sons relay Zhang Yang's request, she grabbed a kitchen knife and marched straight to the educated youth team's quarters.

Shortly after, Cuilan brought back the news to Zhang Yang.

"You were right not to go!"

"Thank goodness you didn't go!"

"Internally, they claimed they were rectifying discipline and emphasizing the prohibition against improper relations between men and women... Falling in love is fine, but if you have your eyes on one bowl while eating from another, that's lacking self-respect and self-love!"

"Teacher Lin received severe criticism! Her eyes were swollen from crying!"

"Oh right, and that's not all."

"Someone reported her for using public grain to privately raise a rabbit."

"Now the rabbit is gone, and Teacher Lin was also forced to write a self-criticism."

As she spoke, Cuilan raised her hand to wipe the sweat from her brow.

Only when she raised her hand did she remember she was still holding the kitchen knife.

No wonder the people at the educated youth team looked at her just now as if they had seen a ghost coming for revenge!

Cuilan quickly put down the kitchen knife and continued, "Actually, I know a little bit about what goes on in their educated youth team..."

"Teacher Lin is indeed very well-liked, and that fellow Xiao Ma pays a lot of attention to her."

"When I got there just now, that fellow Xiao Ma rushed out claiming he was speaking up for Teacher Lin, but every word he said implied that Teacher Lin should be his girlfriend!"

"He said otherwise he had no official status or standing to defend Teacher Lin."

"Don't let his polite talk fool you, he's harboring bad intentions inside!"

"Yangzi, you're simple-minded, so you wouldn't know... That Xiao Ma is no good; every now and then he wanders around my doorway with or without reason!"

"I'm a married woman, so it wasn't easy for me to say anything to him."

"It was only after my mother-in-law splashed water on him a few times that he stopped!"

"I reckon that because you've been getting too close to Teacher Lin lately, it stirred up gossip, and that Xiao Ma has been driven to desperation and is deliberately tripping Teacher Lin up!"

Hearing Cuilan out, Zhang Yang was furious!

This fellow named Ma Jian was truly an idle troublemaker with too much time on his hands!

When Zhao Dongsheng had previously mentioned that Ma Jian was a flirt, Zhang Yang hadn't taken it to heart.

Yet he never expected this man to even hit on Sister-in-law Cuilan?

There's an old saying: a widow's doorstep has much gossip.

Yet Sister-in-law Cuilan's husband was still alive!

He was just paralyzed...

How on earth did Sister-in-law Cuilan end up on this man's radar?!

Furthermore, if Cuilan's analysis was correct, Ma Jian had already been plotting against Lin Qiushui for a while!

And Lin Qiushui's rabbit just happened to go missing at this time...

How could there be such a coincidence in this world?

This was clearly a huge trap, waiting for Lin Qiushui to become pitiful, helpless, and desperate, forcing her to jump right into it!