RYEY -Chapter 424 Building a Small Wooden Cabin

“Oh, right—your master told you to use the Ye family’s acupuncture technique to treat Li Huan. That way it’ll be easier to draw out the yin toxin. Follow it up with moxibustion fumigation and the effect should be even better.”

Cheng Qiao’s eyes lit up. Of course! She had only thought of soaking Li Huan in the water from her space—how had she not thought of using acupuncture and moxibustion to force the toxin out?

“Thank you, Uncle Lata. I’ll go try it right away.”

Cheng Qiao turned and went into her room. But when she saw Li Huan sitting cross-legged on the kang, meditating, with wisps of steam already rising from his head, she quietly backed out, not daring to disturb him.

“What’s wrong?” Hu Lata asked.

“Uncle Lata, Li Huan is meditating, and I saw steam coming off his head. I didn’t dare interrupt him.”

Hu Lata’s lips curved into a smile. If this guy really managed to get his true qi to enter his body, then he’d take him as a disciple. After all, he was all alone in the world—having someone to care about by his side wouldn’t be a bad thing.

Originally, Hu Lata had been very resistant to having family. To him, family meant restraints on his actions. But ever since he’d met Cheng Qiao and her family and felt the warmth of a household, he’d inexplicably developed a faint sense of loss in his heart.

Watching Cheng Qiao stride toward the kitchen, he knew mealtime was approaching. His stomach suddenly growled, and he quickly grabbed some mung bean cakes from the table in the main hall and started eating them in big bites.

Ye Xiaolin came out as well—he was hungry too. Seeing Hu Lata eating mung bean cakes, he casually picked up one himself. Normally, he didn’t like sweets, but the treats Cheng Qiao brought out tasted completely different from what you could buy at the supply and marketing cooperative. Not eating them would just be stupid.

“Take this money for the little Japanese. Be careful once you get there. Oh—almost forgot to tell you, they have a secret contact point in the Northwest. You can speak bird language anyway, so just play it by ear when the time comes.”

Xiaolin took the money and a simple contact map, listening and studying it very carefully, committing every word to memory. When he learned that their contact time was approaching and that he had to set off immediately, he returned to his room at once and began packing his luggage.

That very night, Ye Xiaolin went to the county town and stayed at Cheng Qiao’s old house there, preparing to take the long-distance bus early the next morning to Spring City, then transfer to a train heading to the Northwest.

Li Huan felt a bit regretful. In just two months, the long-distance bus line jointly invested in by his family and Zhao Hui would be up and running. Yet as the young master of the Ye family, he had no chance to ride it—quite a pity.

“Cheng Qiao, we should be leaving soon too. The longer you stay here, the more unsafe it becomes for you and the villagers. And your man—this time, he should leave with us as well.”

Cheng Qiao nodded. She finally truly understood that ever since she’d made it possible for wheat in the north to yield two harvests a year, those other countries worried about our development had started to feel unbalanced and wanted to sabotage things.

First, they sent people to steal the double-cropped wheat to take back and experiment on. But no matter what they did, they couldn’t identify any special components in the seedlings, so they had no choice but to steal soil instead.

This time, they finally got some data: the soil here was more nutrient-rich than the soil in their own country’s fields. But they still couldn’t figure out what kind of fertilizer could make land so fertile.

If they couldn’t get it, then they would destroy it. But they couldn’t just destroy it outright. Wasn’t this Li Huan’s hometown? They needed to lure Cheng Qiao back, then take her to their own country for experiments.

So the original group of four, who had planned to return home after losing one member, received a new mission: they had to bring Cheng Qiao back alive and unharmed. The merit would be huge, and the rewards plentiful.

The remaining three began to devise a plan. That was how, on such an important day as New Year’s Eve, they burned the fields in the middle of the night. Sure enough, Cheng Qiao took the bait and rushed back in a hurry.

What they hadn’t accounted for was that the leaders of our country’s special departments had long seen through the spies’ intentions. They simply played along, having Hu Lata protect things secretly and aiming to wipe them out in one decisive move.

The result was excellent. The notorious four-man Japanese team was completely destroyed. Hu Lata completed the mission brilliantly, and Ye Xiaolin was even able to infiltrate their camp under the guise of a spy poisoned by cold toxin, giving them a taste of their own medicine while gathering intelligence.

Cheng Qiao also returned to her room to pack. Just as she pushed the door open, Li Huan finished his meditation. His whole body was slick with sweat as he opened his eyes.

With a slight wave of her hand, a steaming bathtub appeared in the room. Li Huan quickly jumped in. While his pores were open, the hot space water forced the yin toxin out of his body, driving it out through his opened pores.

“Why are you packing? Are we leaving?”

“Yes. Uncle Lata said the longer we stay here, the more disadvantageous it is for us and the villagers.”

“That makes sense. But we should at least say something to Secretary Hao.”

“No need. Uncle Lata already explained it for you. Secretary Hao submitted a recuperation report for you yesterday—you’ll come back whenever you’ve recovered.”

“I see. Honestly, wouldn’t it be better to just resign outright?”

“If you resign directly, you lose a lot of benefits. Secretary Hao has gone to such lengths for you—don’t be so ungrateful.”

Li Huan laughed. All these years of effort had paid off after all. At least someone remembered his contributions. That was more than enough.

“Then when are we leaving?”

“Tomorrow. I need to set up a wind-proof little cabin for you on the truck—one where we can keep a charcoal fire burning and soak in hot baths. Otherwise, your body won’t be able to handle it.”

“I’ll listen to you.”

Xiao Dan felt reluctant when he learned they were going back. These days, living with Chen Xiaoniu’s family had made him genuinely happy.

Although his future father-in-law was a bit stern, his future mother-in-law was wonderful—always worrying that he wasn’t eating enough or wasn’t wearing enough clothes. Even Xiaoniu was starting to get jealous.

Then there was his future brother-in-law, Chen Ermao, who was also extremely warm-hearted. Every day, he took Xiao Dan around to meet people in the village. By now, everyone knew he was the future son-in-law of Chen Weidang’s family.

“Ermao, I’m leaving. I’ll come back this summer to marry Xiaoniu. I’ll leave things at home to you.”

Chen Ermao was also reluctant to part with Xiao Dan. Despite his nickname, the guy wasn’t troublesome at all. He was busy every day, doing many of the things that ought to have been done around the house.

“Don’t be extravagant. Making money isn’t easy. And my dad said our family is marrying off a daughter, not selling her. Save your money and build your own little family properly.”

“Alright, I’ll listen—to you, and to Mom and Dad.”

Ni Qiu ran over, saying he needed to measure the truck’s cargo area. As soon as Xiao Dan heard this, he understood what Cheng Qiao was planning. He immediately hopped on his bicycle, took Ni Qiu with him, and went to measure the dimensions.

The truck bed had a military-green canvas cover, but in such cold weather, once the truck started moving, icy wind would slip in through the gaps in the canvas. Wouldn’t that freeze Brother Huan to death?

So after taking the measurements, Xiao Dan followed Ni Qiu to Uncle Niu’s place to help rush the construction of the wooden cabin. It was then that he realized just how superb Uncle Niu’s craftsmanship really was.