Windfall

This program was produced by Tomato Listening.

Lin Yuzhu was speechless. Thinking about how such a lonely little girl had been bullied like that, she did feel a little pitiful. When I left home, the system only gave me ten yuan. What about the twenty yuan?

Sigh, she'd suffered continuously. She hadn't even borne any children, and who knew how she'd survived those days with that bandit? Even candy tasted bitter to her, and whatever money she asked for was taken by her mother.

Only later did she learn that Doctor Luo usually went up the mountain to gather herbs, yet he never charged the villagers for treatment.

"Then did you break up with him?"

"Everyone in the village said I was shamelessly throwing myself at him. They said he was going to become the son-in-law of a girl from town, so how could he possibly take a liking to me?"

At this point, Wang Xiaomei said through gritted teeth, "Only later did I find out that he already had someone in the city."

"I almost... I almost..." Before she could finish, she threw her arms around Lin Yuzhu and burst into loud sobs.

Lin Yuzhu patted Wang Xiaomei absently. Why was this gossip making her a little angry?

The rest of the story was predictable. That young man from the village eventually married the town girl, inherited his father-in-law's job, and went to work as a miner. He went from scratching out a living in the fields to eating from the public grain supply overnight. When one man rose to power, even his chickens and dogs ascended to heaven.

After the father-in-law died, his parents immediately moved into town. Whenever the neighborhood committee cracked down on vagrants, they returned to the village. Once the inspections stopped, they went back to town. After several rounds of this, even the neighborhood committee could not be bothered with them anymore.

Lin Yuzhu figured that the town girl's life probably was not easy either. With such a terrible mother-in-law, it was easy to imagine.

The little bit of ambiguity between Wang Xiaomei and the young man had not spread around. His family must have deliberately covered it up, afraid the town family would find out. If Wang Xiaomei had not held onto her last line of defense, she might have ended up losing both her money and her reputation.

In the latter half of the night, Huang Xiaomei developed a slight fever again. Lin Yuzhu mixed some warm water and fed her fever medicine. The fever did not return, and everyone slept well through the night.

When they got up the next morning, Wang Xiaomei was already able to bounce around a little.

Young really was wonderful!

After getting dressed and folding her bedding, Lin Yuzhu pulled over a stool and sat down, speaking with great authority.

"Come on, Wang Xiaomei. Let's settle the accounts between us."

Wang Xiaomei was speechless. It was hard enough to get a chance to rest, yet the educated youths were all preparing to go into town.

Huang Xiaomei was sick and did not want to go. Seeing that she was fine, Lin Yuzhu went with everyone else.

There were quite a few people on the road, as though they were all rushing into town together.

The sight stirred Lin Yuzhu's blood. She wanted to go sell goods at the Black Market, but her gaze drifted to Li Xiangwan. After thinking it over, she decided against it. The Black Market still seemed rather unsafe at this time.

After arriving in town by Ox Cart, Li Xiangwan could not even be bothered to make up an excuse. She simply left, looking exceptionally carefree.

Lin Yuzhu claimed she was going to mail a letter, then slipped away too.

Zhao Xianglan stared at the two women's retreating backs, her eyes gleaming maliciously. She said in a strange, sarcastic tone, "When you had that fever, he did not even come to take a look. But look at Wang Xiaomei yesterday—he even specially took someone like her into town to see a doctor. Who knows how much money he spent? Do you think someone like Wang Xiaomei can pay him back?"

"Who knows what he sees in her."

"If the villagers saw this, they'd probably think you're not even as good as Wang Xiaomei."

Remembering how he had claimed he had no money when she borrowed some during the autumn harvest, Zhang Yanqiu clenched her fists, her face full of hatred.

The Dong Sisters sneered inwardly. They exchanged a glance, found an excuse, and separated from the others.

Before they had gone far, they began complaining.

"Bah!"

Zhang Yanqiu spat in the direction of the Dong Sisters. She no longer cared that she was becoming increasingly crude. All she could think was that there was not a single good person in the Educated Youth Dormitory.

Zhao Xianglan watched Zhang Yanqiu coldly, thinking that the more she hated them, the better. It would be best if she hated those people enough to go mad.

Lin Yuzhu was not in a hurry to sell her goods. She first went to the post office and mailed the family letter she had written to Lin Jia.

She had originally planned to get some walnuts, hazelnuts, red dates, pine nuts, or similar things to mail home later. But after thinking it over, she decided to send a letter first. Given Mother Lin's personality, she must have been eagerly awaiting her reply. If she did not write back soon, Mother Lin would probably worry every day that the package had gotten lost in the mail.

When she bought stamps at the post office, Lin Yuzhu paused. She hated that she knew nothing about stamps; otherwise, piles of money would be waving at her.

So she decided to cast a wide net and buy more stamps. Every time she came into town, she would buy a few. Who cared how much room there was for appreciation?

She never expected that once she started buying them, she would continue for many years. After she passed away, her descendants would carry on the collection.

After mailing the letter, Lin Yuzhu remembered that she still had one letter she had not had time to read.

It was fine when she had forgotten about it, but once she remembered, not reading it made her unbearably curious.

So she sat outside the post office, opened the letter, and read it closely, her eyes flying over the lines.

Based on her many years of reading novels, Lin Yuzhu more or less guessed Qiu Ming's identity.

This Qiu Ming might have been something like the Lin Family's young brother next door. Maybe he had even been a childhood sweetheart.

Lin Yuzhu had gone through the original owner's belongings and had never seen any letters. The original owner must have hidden them somewhere Mother Lin could not find them—and by the same logic, somewhere she could not find them either.

Qiu Ming's letter was filled with grievances. He had not received a reply from her for so long. Could she have changed her heart?

Unwilling to accept it, Qiu Ming had written to a childhood friend and asked him to look into it. Only then did he learn that Lin Yuzhu had gone to the countryside. After many twists and turns, he finally found out the address of the place she had been sent to, so he specially wrote her a letter. It was very simple: he asked what she meant. Did she have some difficulty, or had she changed her heart?

At least she should say something. She should not leave him waiting endlessly, waiting until he could neither eat nor sleep, until he grew thin and even his stomach grew thin.

The rest was entirely made up by Lin Yuzhu herself. She truly had not expected another person like this to appear.

Lin Yuzhu felt a little awkward and did not know what to do next. While she was thinking, she accidentally looked up and jumped in fright. There was another head above her own.

"Hm?"

"Aren't you going to deliver the mail?"

When had this guy appeared behind her? How had she not heard a single sound?

And... had he been peeking at her letter?

Shen Bojun rubbed his nose and said with slight embarrassment, "I just picked up the newly arrived mail. I was about to deliver it."

Shen Bojun was embarrassed for only a moment. Soon, he spoke as if they were old acquaintances. Lin Yuzhu blinked. "Then... take care. I won't see you off."

Seeing the little girl across from him clearly trying to send him away, Shen Bojun chuckled. In a cool, clear voice, he asked, "Do you need to borrow a pen and paper to write a reply?"

Lin Yuzhu had only ever heard the saying that a beauty's smile could enchant all living things. She had never known a man could have the same effect. Gathering her thoughts, she shook her head. "Ah, no need. How am I supposed to reply to this letter?"

She truly had not noticed the problem before. This was not easy to handle.

What was she supposed to do? The key was that the handwriting would not match. Come to think of it, the highest realm of breaking up was disappearing from the other person's world.

Yes, that was it. She would not reply. She would ignore it.

Shen Bojun looked at the little girl still squatting on the ground and began pondering again. He shook his head, got on his bicycle, and rode away. Even after he had gone quite far, he was still thinking about it.

Shen Bojun smiled. That little girl, whose feathers had not even fully grown in, was already considering a breakup. Meanwhile, he was a young man in his twenties who had not even managed to get a girlfriend. He was far behind these young kids. What in life could be happier than making money?

Putting aside her immediate troubles, Lin Yuzhu wandered into an empty corner. No one passed by here, there was a wall behind her, and this side was a dead end. It was quite safe.

After looking around, she was about to enter her space when she seemed to hear footsteps approaching from behind the wall.

Before she could listen closely, a backpack fell from the sky and smashed directly toward her. At the same time, the system's voice sounded in her ear: "Danger detected. Host, please enter the space immediately."

The backpack fell too suddenly. By the time Lin Yuzhu reacted and tried to dodge, it was already a little too late. It struck her at an angle. She felt certain that a bump had risen on the side of her head. Holding back a cry of pain, she cursed inwardly as she clutched the backpack and quickly flashed into her space.

It all happened in an instant. Two men climbed over the wall from the other side. When they landed and saw the empty ground, they were shocked.

"Chu He, you threw the backpack here just now, right?"

"Big Brother, I threw it behind this wall. That's right. Where's the backpack?"

The two men looked confused and a little angry. Some little bastard must have carried off the bag.

Looking at the empty alley, where there was not even a shadow of a person, and hearing the footsteps of people pursuing them from behind, they looked conflicted.

"Go!"

The two men ran off as though the wind were under their feet.

Not long after they had run off, several more people climbed over the wall. Seeing the men had already gotten far away, Zhang Dayou, who was in the lead, shouted.

"Damn it, those bastards can really run!"

The man using the alias Li Goudan was panting a little from exhaustion.

"Quit talking nonsense and hurry after them. Those two sons of bitches really are something."

Wang Dazhu spat out a string of curses.

"Uh, don't let them really get away!"

Fatty Chen said worriedly.

"Make it look convincing. Chase them a little longer."

Then several people rushed past. Hiding in her space, Lin Yuzhu did not have time to check the bump on her head. Instead, she quickly opened the backpack in her hands.

There was something unusual about this backpack. It was heavy with gold. The moment she opened it, golden light flashed everywhere, nearly blinding her.

Lin Yuzhu thought that it was truly fortunate she had not been smashed to death.

Luckily, luckily, she had dodged a little, so it had hit her at an angle.

If it had struck her squarely, she might have become the first woman in the world to be crushed to death by a bag of gold.

She had no mood to count the gold bars right now. Lin Yuzhu was more concerned about what was happening outside.

After the system investigated the situation outside and reported back, Lin Yuzhu felt that she might have encountered a black-on-black robbery. Her mind raced as she analyzed the situation. The two men who had thrown the backpack were likely carrying all their belongings and preparing to flee. With pursuers behind them, they had no choice but to abandon the search for the backpack and leave. But there was no guarantee that they would not shake off those people and return to search for clues.

So she had better leave her space and get far away as quickly as possible, lest she run into them head-on. She could not even spare the time to disguise herself; she might as well run first.

By the time Lin Yuzhu returned to the town's main street, ten minutes had already passed.