Chapter 23: Get the Evidence

The border town is an autonomous region, and Chaoyang Farm is located in E'er County of the border town. There is only one bus from Chaoyang Farm to the county town every day. It departs from the 11th branch farm at 6 o'clock in the morning and picks up passengers along the way. In fact, the distance is not far, but it stops and starts all the way, and it takes at least 12 noon to reach the county town.

The shuttle bus has now left Farm No. 1. If you want to take it, you have to hurry to the main farm.

"Hurry up, or we will miss the bus to work." Su Xiangyu said.

Ye Xiangdong walked on the road slowly and leisurely, and he looked confident: "Why do we have to take the bus to the county town?"

"We have to get married. Didn't you say we need to get a marriage certificate?" Su Xiangyu said.

Ye Xiangdong said: "Since we are going to get married, I must find a car to take you there. How can I let you squeeze into the bus?"

"How can you find a car when you're like this?" Su Xiangyu was skeptical, after all, he was so sloppy.

Ye Xiangdong was dressed very handsomely today and was very tall. Although there was no one else on the road, Su Xiangyu felt a little embarrassed to look at him for even a second.

The young man was so handsome, and she, who was fifty or sixty years old in her three lifetimes, always felt that she was poisoning a grown man.

"Wait a minute, the car will be here soon." Ye Xiangdong said.

Sure enough, after a while, a car really drove over from the direction of the headquarters.

It was a very old military jeep with almost all the paint peeling off. However, the car was washed very cleanly and there was not a speck of dust on the only bit of paint that was broken.

The car stopped just before we got there, and a man got out and went straight to the back door of the car: "Engineer Ye, you must be anxious. Our leader needs to go out this morning and needs the car urgently."

Ye Xiangdong opened the car door and asked Su Xiangyu: "Do you want to sit in the front or the back? Will you get carsick or vomit?"

In this day and age, most people have never ridden in a bus. Once they get on one, it's like a disaster scene. On every bus, there are heads sticking out of every window, vomiting.

Industrial changes have also triggered changes in humanity. In the future, in just forty or fifty years, there will be almost no one suffering from motion sickness. But at present, motion sickness is the top priority that everyone needs to pay attention to when riding in a car.

"I'm not dizzy. Let's sit in the back together." Su Xiangyu said.

Of course, as of now, there may be plenty of tractors in the border town, but such jeeps are very rare. Feng Mingxun has one, and he would like to drive the male educated youth on the farm to help him wash it three times a day.

"Whose car is this?" After getting in the car, Su Xiangyu asked Ye Xiangdong in a low voice.

According to her intuition, cadres below the county level cannot afford to drive such a broken jeep.

"Is this female comrade scared? This is the only public bus in our county. Five leaders are vying to use it. But no matter who it is, none of them is as important as Comrade Xiao Ye. If he wants to use the car, he just needs to say hello, and the leaders will let me drive the car to him." The driver said with a smile in the front.

Su Xiangyu frowned and looked sideways at Ye Xiangdong.

Ye Xiangdong said quickly: "I have helped several county leaders. When they heard that I was getting married today, they specially lent us their car for use."

"Of course. When they heard that our Engineer Ye is getting married, the leaders are very happy. Look, female comrade, this is a special gift from our secretary to you, a scarf ticket. In a while, you can buy yourself a big scarf in a state-owned store." The driver held the steering wheel with one hand and took a ticket from the car frame with the other hand, then turned around and handed it to the back.

What kind of background does this have? When Ye Xiangdong got married, the county secretary actually gave him a scarf ticket?

"I can't help it. I have helped the leaders a lot." Ye Xiangdong sat upright and said.

The driver smiled and said, "Our Engineer Ye has nothing else to offer, except that he is very sorry!"

"Master Wang, what kind of meeting did Secretary Wu hold today, and where did he go?" Seeing that the driver was talking more and more nonsense, Ye Xiangdong quickly changed the subject.

If you take the bus, it will take at least four hours. If you drive a jeep, it will only take 40 minutes at most. This is when the driver only dares to drive at 80 miles per hour. If he dares to go faster, he can probably reach the county town in half an hour.

Su Xiangyu had everything planned out. After the two of them arrived, they would first find a place to get a cup of water, eat some dry food, go shopping in the department store, and then go to get their marriage certificate. However, she didn't expect that the driver would drop them off directly at the door of the department store.

"How about two o'clock in the afternoon? I'll send my leader off first and then come to send you off. What do you think?" said the driver, rolling down the window.

Ye Xiangdong shook the driver's hand, offered him a cigarette, and let him go.

"Aren't we here to get the certificate? Why are you going into a department store?" Su Xiangyu said.

It was originally just to help, and Su Xiangyu had no intention of taking advantage of Ye Xiangdong. Of course, she would not accept anything he bought, right?

"It's just a red scarf. Your leader said he wants to give it to you. You have to accept it, right?" Ye Xiangdong said.

The two of them then entered the department store. The sales clerks in the store seemed to be very familiar with Ye Xiangdong, and they smiled particularly warmly.

"Engineer Ye is here. Do you want milk powder or biscuits? The peach biscuits in our department store are so crispy that they are falling apart. If you want to weigh them, I'll open a new box for you."

"Do you want to eat peach cakes?" Ye Xiangdong asked Su Xiangyu.

Su Xiangyu originally wanted to say she didn't want to eat it, but suddenly she recalled her first life when she followed Zhu Xiaojie and Yu Weiwei to the county town to attend the market, and then she saw the girls from the art troupe each carrying a piece of peach cake and eating it.

The peach pastry in Border Town is made with butter and flour. No sugar is used to knead the dough. Honey is used directly, and raisins are also mixed in it. Although the peach pastry is not too crispy, it actually feels like a stringy texture when eaten.

"How about this, you don't have to unpack it, just give me a box." Ye Xiangdong said, taking out a handful of food coupons from his pocket, counting out a stack of non-staple food coupons, and handing them to the salesperson.

This didn't look like he had robbed a bank yesterday, but it definitely looked like he had robbed a credit union. He was so poor, yet he could actually take out a handful of food coupons.

Then, Ye Xiangdong asked for two cans of milk powder and two cans of biscuits. This was not enough, so he weighed himself two kilograms of brown sugar and two kilograms of white sugar. He had a handful of bills in his pocket, and he kept counting them out.

Compared with him, the two big unity tickets that Su Xiangyu asked for from the system, which cost twenty yuan, were so little that she felt embarrassed.

Just then, she saw a pair of small fur shoes in the glass cabinet. The fur inside looked so tempting to touch.

Although she could get herself a pair of self-heating insoles every day, they were much harder and not as comfortable as a pair of leather shoes.

"If you want it, I can buy it for you?" Ye Xiangdong said.

He turned to the salesperson and asked, "How much is this pair of leather shoes?"

The salesperson held up two fingers and said, "If you want to count the money, it's twenty. If you want to count the ticket, it's also a twenty-yuan leather shoe ticket."

Ye Xiangdong was about to take out the ticket when Su Xiangyu handed him her twenty yuan bill: "Take my money."

"We are getting married soon, why talk about yours and mine?" Ye Xiangdong said, stuffing Su Xiangyu's twenty yuan back and searching for the ticket in his pocket.

The salesman, who looked to be in his early twenties, laughed and said, "Oh, Mr. Ye is getting married, so he needs to weigh some candy. Aren't you going to give out some wedding candy?"

"Weigh it. What kind of candies do you have? 20 kilograms of each," said Ye Xiangdong.

The salesperson pointed out one by one: fruit hard candies, White Rabbit, and red shrimp cakes. If it weren't for this particular era, Su Xiangyu would never have craved sweets. But in this old wooden house, in each wooden cabinet, the candies actually exuded an enticing aroma.

"Come on, put on your leather shoes first." Ye Xiangdong said, kneeling on the ground, preparing to take off Su Xiangyu's shoes.

The salesperson was watching, and Ye Xiangdong had already knelt on the ground. Su Xiangyu was not the kind of person who was petty. She took off her rubber shoes and put on felt leather shoes.

It's like walking on a carpet, soft and warm.

This pair of suede leather shoes only costs twenty yuan, and Su Xiangyu thinks it is worth it.

Ye Xiangdong grabbed another handful of candy and said, "Put the other things aside for now. When the driver comes, ask him to carry them directly to the car. We're leaving first, Xiao Wang."

"Goodbye, Mr. Ye." Salesman Xiao Wang watched Su Xiangyu and Ye Xiangdong leave the door, still waving.

Each person peeled a White Rabbit candy, and as Su Xiangyu ate it, she unexpectedly tasted the sweetness of the rare candy she ate in her first life.

But that was nothing. When Su Xiangyu arrived at the Civil Affairs Department in the county, her eyes were opened.

Ye Xiangdong is a man of chivalry. There are only three employees in the Civil Affairs Department. It turns out that Su Xiangyu also accompanied the educated youth from the same farm to get married. I remember that their nostrils were all facing the sky, but today, these middle-aged women are so enthusiastic.

"I really didn't expect that Mr. Ye would really get a marriage certificate in our E'er County?" The head of the Civil Affairs Section said as he personally went to fill in the film, preparing to take pictures of Su Xiangyu and Ye Xiangdong.

"Will it take half a month to get this photo?" Su Xiangyu asked.

The section chief, who was in his forties, smiled and said, "How can that be possible? Just go out for a walk and we'll have the photos developed in an hour."

Su Xiangyu thought to herself, who on earth is Ye Xiangdong? Why do everyone there know him? Why is it so easy to get things done?

You know, for most people who come to get a marriage certificate, it would take at least half a month for the photo to be developed. But for him to get married, it only took him an hour to develop the photo?

After the two of them took photos and submitted their personal files, they had to wait for the marriage certificate.

Today's marriage certificates are still made of wax plates. The words have to be carved on the wax plate and then printed with ink.

"Let's go out and have a meal." Ye Xiangdong said.

It was almost twelve o'clock in the afternoon and it was indeed time to eat, but Su Xiangyu gave all the twenty yuan to Ye Xiangdong, and she had no money left in her pocket.

She couldn't ask the system to make buns for her in front of Ye Xiangdong, right?

However, even if Ye Xiangdong did not rob a bank, he must have robbed a credit union. He even had a meal ticket from a state-owned restaurant in his pocket. As soon as he entered the door, he shouted, "Comrade, give me two pounds of hand-caught fish."

Nowadays, all state-owned restaurants have open counters. In places like Ershi, not many people eat there, so the chef sits at the door.

"Okay, Mr. Ye, two pounds of hand-grabbed food. Do you want anything else?" said the cook.

Ye Xiangdong hesitated for a moment and said, "Let's have another plate of stir-fried vegetables. Any vegetables will do, but not Chinese cabbage."

"Only city people like to eat vegetables. As for us, we only eat meat and don't want vegetables to fill our stomachs." The fat and big-eared cook said and went into the kitchen.

When it is served, it is the best ribs, with fat and lean meat, the skin is browned, and the meat inside is oozing with oil.

"Eat it, why not?" Ye Xiangdong said as he picked up a piece of mutton with chopsticks.

Su Xiangyu, who was used to eating the meat buns that the system got from somewhere, maybe even with cardboard, hadn't eaten a piece of real meat for a long time, and her hands were shaking a little when she picked up the mutton.

As I took a bite, the delicious flavor of mutton, which I had only eaten once in my first life, already overflowed on my tongue.

"Ye Xiangdong, are you really from Tieling?" Su Xiangyu said a little incredulously.

Ye Xiangdong nodded: "I am from Tieling. What's the matter? You should have looked at my file just now. It says my home address is Tieling."

Su Xiangyu inexplicably felt as if she had been fooled by this little guy, but she couldn't tell exactly in what way he had fooled her.

Seeing how neatly dressed he was today, Su Xiangyu simply couldn't connect him with the young man wearing a tattered felt hat and worn-out rubber shoes when she first met him.

However, the aroma of the meat overwhelmed everything, and the two of them actually finished almost all of the two kilograms of meat.

There was still a little left, and Ye Xiangdong was a thrifty person. He asked the cook for a piece of oil paper, wrapped it carefully, and held it in his hand. Su Xiangyu guessed that he wanted to take it home to eat.

We're going to pick up the marriage certificate with the photo on it at 2 o'clock. Now it's only 1:30, so we still have half an hour.

Ye Xiang suddenly seemed to remember something. He arranged for Su Xiangyu to stand at the door of the state-owned hotel and went towards the post office.

Whether they were educated youth or workers, there were actually very few locals in the county town of Er'er. Almost all of them were from other places. Of course, when everyone came to the county town, the two places they often went to were the post office and the department store, or the black market in the alley next to it.

"System, give me some more money. I want to buy some things for myself on the black market." Su Xiangyu said.

[Sorry, the balance in the host's account is now 0.]

"I don't remember spending money indiscriminately, so how come I have no money now?" Su Xiangyu was very surprised.

[You requested a set of Estee Lauder cosmetics. Did you forget? ] The system said dully.

Oh my God, she just bought a bottle of day cream and a bottle of night cream, but she spent all the money she had saved in the system?

"Is there anyone I can rescue quickly? For example, is there anyone who wants to commit suicide or jump into the river? Please give me fifty dollars first." Su Xiangyu said.

A woman is addicted to shopping, but what can she do without money?

She saw that the black market was not far away. She wanted to buy some elastic, buttons, and wool and give them to Zhu Xiaojie and Yu Weiwei.

[Sorry, the educated youth and the common people in the border town have been living and working in peace and contentment recently. Even if someone died, it was their destiny. There is no task for the host.] The system is still so cold.

And just at this moment, Ye Xiangdong came back again.

Not only did he come back by himself, he also brought their freshly-issued marriage certificate.

The photo looks really good. Su Xiangyu is wearing a big scarf and two long braids, and Ye Xiangdong is wearing a Mao suit with a stand-up collar and the buttons are tightly fastened. They look like a perfect couple and their smiles are particularly bright.

"There are two copies. You keep yours, and I have sent mine back to my dad." Ye Xiangdong said with a smile.

Just like that, Su Xiangyu got a marriage certificate. Was she getting married?

Everything went perfectly, as if Ye Xiangdong had planned it many times before. It was exactly two o'clock at this time, and they had finished all their work. When they arrived at the door of the department store, the driver had just parked the car and was loading things into it.

At this time, the educated youth who came out from the farm to go to the market got off the bus one by one, staggering, and walked in the county town with their heads raised and looking around.

As soon as the driver saw the red scarf around Su Xiangyu's neck, he knew that the two of them must be linked.

Along the way, Ye Xiangdong and the driver talked about the work situation of the county leaders, such as which leader was doing what today and which leader was doing what today.

The two men sat side by side. There was a letter in Ye Xiangdong's shirt pocket, with only the tip of the letter sticking out. However, there was a name on the tip of the letter that looked particularly familiar.

It happened that Ye Xiangdong and the driver were chatting happily, so Su Xiangyu took out the letter while Ye Xiangdong was not paying attention.

The letter was signed from the Department of Politics of the Capital University of Workers, Peasants and Soldiers, and the sender's name was Han Shen.

Su Xiangyu stared at the letter for a long time, and suddenly called out, "Dongzi?"

"Ah?" Ye Xiangdong was chatting with the driver and responded subconsciously.

"Do you have another name called Han Dong?" Su Xiangyu asked again.

It just so happened that the words "Han Dong Shou" were written on the envelope. Ye Xiangdong smiled and said, "My mother's surname is Han. When I was a child, I refused to take my father's surname and insisted on taking my mother's. So when I was a child, everyone called me Han Dong."

Su Xiangyu handed the letter back to Ye Xiangdong, moved to the side, sat down and looked out the window.

"What's wrong with you? You were fine just now. Are you angry or something?" Ye Xiangdong saw that Su Xiangyu looked a little unhappy, so he asked.

Su Xiangyu paused for a long time before saying, "It's okay, drive to the farm first, I have to get off first."

"No, I just hired a dormitory for our class. It's a dugout, very comfortable. Don't you want to go and take a look?" Ye Xiangdong said with a smile.

He was still laughing. He could actually still laugh.

In Su Xiangyu's first life, she had more than one scumbag ex-boyfriend named Feng Mingxun.

More importantly, she had a scumbag ex-husband, who became a professor in the future and went into business. He took all her money and did a very successful business in Shencheng. The guy's name was Han Shen.

Han Shen has a nephew named Han Dong.

Han Dong's original surname was not Han, but he was in the society and did a lot of bad things, and he used the name Han Dong everywhere.

If Su Xiangyu remembered correctly, Han Dong's father's surname was Ye, and he was one of the top figures in the capital. More importantly, the wife of Mr. Ye was Feng Mingxun's eldest sister Feng Mingyan.

It was really an accident and a surprise. Fortunately it was just a joke, otherwise, Su Xiangyu would have to call her two exes uncle at the same time.