After Xu Ping said this, Yunli remembered that after harvesting the potatoes, he had not seen her, and the salary had not been settled to her. Looking up, in the potato field in the distance, there was a figure bent over, as if picking up something.

Yunli turned around and just wanted to ask for an explanation, but Xu Ping had already ridden the motorcycle, waved his hand to him, started the car and left.

After waiting for a while, Lu Ci walked back from the field, and the bamboo hat he had worn before was held in front of him with both hands, filled with large and small potatoes.

After taking off her hat, Yun Li saw her true appearance, a very standard face, a wide forehead, slender willow eyebrows, black round eyes, a capable shoulder-length short hair, coupled with her cold temperament, it can be described as heroic and charming.

If you want to pick out a little flaw, it means that the skin is slightly tanned, and there are some small red spots on both sides of the face, which are faint and inconspicuous, but it is still easy to distinguish, I don't know if it is freckles or what. However, the flaws are not hidden, and the first impression that Lu Ci gives people is cold and glamorous.

Neither of them is the kind of enthusiastic and cheerful character, and they don't know each other, and they are somewhat awkward to stand face to face.

"Thank you for helping today, this is your salary, and there are some small potatoes, please don't dislike it." In the end, Yun Li spoke first, and handed over the money and the bag containing the potatoes.

Lu Ci still didn't say anything, I saw her put away the money, then poured all the potatoes in the hat into the bag, and finally sent the bag full of potatoes back to Yunli's hands.

The atmosphere fell silent again, and Yun Li was carrying a heavy bag of potatoes, looking a little overwhelmed. Let's talk, I don't know what topic to talk about, turn around and leave, it will look very rude.

He even had a strange thought, and the two of them froze like this, comparing to see who could not help but talk first.

"Well, if you need to recruit someone in the future, can you call me?" Just when Yun Li was thinking wildly, Lu Ci took the lead in breaking the silence and said his request.

Under the effect of conditioned reflex, Yun Li almost blurted out the words he promised, but as soon as he remembered Xu Ping's instructions, he swallowed the words back into his stomach and looked embarrassed.

Lu Ci saw it in his eyes, didn't say anything more, shook off the sand in the bamboo hat, put it back on his head, and went to retrieve the old bicycle placed on the side of the road.

"What's your phone number?"

Lu Ci, who had just ridden the car, was forced to stop by this sentence, she pushed the car, and once again came to Yunli, and said with a sad face:

"I don't have a cell phone, and the phone line at home has been out of service for a long time."

"So how can I get in touch with you?"

Yun Li's words once again stumped Lu Ci. However, she quickly thought of a countermeasure, took out a long blue cloth from her sleeve, handed it to Yun Li, and then pointed to a protruding bamboo pole on the roof of the small building, explaining:

"If you need workers the next day, hang this blue cloth the day before, and my house is at the corner of the terraces, so it's easy to see."

"Good way, that's it." Yunli took the blue cloth and nodded in agreement.

"My name is Lu Ci, and they all call you Teacher Yun, can you tell me my full name?" Lu Ci hesitated for a moment, but still asked.

"Yun Li, if you leave, you don't need to call me Teacher Yun, just call me by my name, or call me Ah Li." Yun Li replied with a smile.

"Okay, thanks."

After a brief thank-you, Lu Ci rode away.

It's hard to imagine what secrets are hidden in such a good girl, so that everyone stays away, not only Xu Ping, but other farmers are also deliberately keeping their distance when they see Lu Ci.

Yunli did not regret his decision to help Lu Ci, not because of her beauty, but because he didn't want to see a stubborn and unyielding heart in his heart, and was cooled and indifferent by the cold reality.

In Lu Ci's body, he saw the shadow of his past.

After a busy morning, although Yunli didn't feel very tired, the sweat on his body still made him very uncomfortable, and after carefully rinsing it, he got on his bicycle and ran in the direction of the town.

At this time, the sun had already risen overhead, wisps of cooking smoke wafted from the farmhouses along the road, and occasionally familiar villagers would greet Yunli warmly.

After coming to the town, Yun Li first went to the farmer's market, ordered a batch of potato seedlings in a familiar store, and ordered some vegetable and fruit seeds, and then bought a few boxes of cooked food, some braised meat, roast duck and the like, a big bag, and rushed to the direction of Luzhen Middle School.

Summer vacation has begun, and the school seems very deserted. The whole middle school consists of four parts, with a grass playground in the middle, and three houses are built around the playground, two large bungalows are classroom areas, and a small two-story building with teachers' offices on the ground floor and dormitories on the second floor.

Yun Li carried the cooked food bag, went straight to the second floor of the small building, and walked into a dormitory at the end of the corridor.

"Brother Chen, the debt collector is here!" As soon as he entered the door, Yun Li shouted at the top of his voice, and his mood seemed to be very good.

"Let me see what delicious food I brought first, I haven't had a good meal in the past few days." Outside the balcony of the room, there was a sound of complaining.

After a while, a tall and thin old man walked in from outside the balcony with a stool, beckoned Yunli to sit down, and opened the bags brought by Yunli on the low table one by one.

"Braised pork knuckle, the parts are well chosen, the heat is enough, the roast duck in sauce, the aroma is strong enough, but the color is slightly lacking, the ginger, shallots and eggplant, soft and ripe just right, and this cool piece of tofu skin, you have a heart." The tall and thin old man ordered the food on the table and commented one by one.

"Hehe, if you don't spend some money, how can you coax me to give me the baby." Yun Li took out the dishes and chopsticks in the bag and handed them to the tall and thin old man first.

"Alas, brother, I'm also blind, among the little guys who came this year, you seem to be the most honest, and in fact, you are the most shrewd and have the most ghost ideas." Brother Chen was not polite, took the dishes and chopsticks, and the two of them feasted around a table of food.

This tall and thin old man is the oldest teacher in Luzhen Middle School, everyone calls him Brother Chen, he is sixty-three years old, and he has long passed the retirement age, but because the school has not been able to find a new teacher to take over, he has to continue to "serve over age".

"Tell me, how much worse is it than I guessed before?" Picking up a piece of braised pork, Brother Chen put it in his mouth with satisfaction, and asked casually.

"I bet before, you guessed 10,000 catties, and the final result was."

Yun Li paused, put down his chopsticks, raised his index finger with his left hand, spread out his right palm, and shook it a few times in front of Brother Chen.

"Fifteen thousand, I'm so speechless to lose this time, I've got you in one place, boy." Seeing the number drawn by Yun Li, Brother Chen, who was well-informed, was also shocked.

Half a year ago, when Yun Li first came to Luzhen to teach, he received a lot of help from Brother Chen, and the two also talked very well and became close friends.

At the beginning, Yunli decided to contract Xiaolushan, and Brother Chen was very supportive, and then the two made a bet that if this batch of potatoes could produce more than 10,000 catties, he would give him the string of Zizhu wind chimes that Yunli had coveted for a long time.

"I'm going to set the wind chimes, but I won't take it over until the bamboo building is built, by the way, the drawings for the bamboo building have been drawn, I plan to hire someone to cut the bamboo in two days, and other materials must be bought in advance." Yun Li asked while picking up vegetables.

"Young people after all!" Brother Chen sighed, and took out a drawing from the messy counter behind him and threw it to Yunli.

After receiving the drawings, Yun Li didn't care about eating, so he immediately spread the drawings in his hands and studied them.

In the center of the drawing is a three-dimensional three-story bamboo building, with stairs, doors, and windows all marked, each edge marked with a precise length, and a large section of neat pencil writing on each side, listing the quantities and requirements required for various materials.

"I can't imagine that your old man is not only good at handicraft, but also so professional in drawing architectural drawings." Yunli exclaimed.

"Hey, what is the origin of the bamboo row written here, and how much is needed?" Seeing what he didn't understand, Yunli immediately asked questions.

"You have seen the bamboo buildings in the township, most of the current bamboo buildings are not inhabited, but used to store items, and this bamboo row is used in the bamboo building where people live, covering the outside wall, rainproof, moisture-proof, dust-proof, with it the whole bamboo building will be much more comfortable to live in." Brother Chen patiently explained.

"So that's the case, where are you going to get this, is there a place to sell it in town?" Yunli continued to ask.

"The bamboo raft is made of bamboo skin, and the women in the township can make it with a little money." Brother Chen ate almost the same, so he got up and went to make tea, and reminded:

"If you are not satisfied, you should put forward it as soon as possible to modify it, and once the construction starts, it will not be so easy to change."

"It's settled, and when I go back at noon, I'll start preparing." Yunli was very satisfied with the design of the drawings, so he did not hesitate to make a decision.

The food on the low table was almost eaten by the two of them, and Yun Li helped clean it up, and at this time, Brother Chen also made the tea, and the two tasted fragrant tea and enjoyed a short rest after the meal.

"I think I heard you say that you lived in Shanglu Village for a while?" Yunli chatted.

"I lived there for a while, almost ten years, and just after the operation, my niece in the township took me over to take care of me." Brother Chen recalled, but from his tone, he didn't seem to be willing to talk about this topic more.

It is no secret that Brother Chen's wife died of illness more than 20 years ago, and he has no children under his knees, and he has been living in the school dormitory since he was alone.

Perhaps because of his sadness, Yunli stopped continuing the topic and asked instead:

"There is a man named Lu Ci in the village, do you know him?"

"Black girl? Her name seems to be Lu Ci, not to mention the village, even in the town, there are few people who don't know her. As soon as Yun Li said Lu Ci's name, Brother Chen replied as if reflexively.

"Black girl? She's a black household? Yunli asked.

"It's not just a black household, their family used to be a big merchant in the town, doing export trading, and later they were involved in a serious smuggling case, and it was found out that their identity was fake, and the entire household registration was cancelled. Her family members had fled abroad before the incident, and she was still in college at the time, her hukou was gone, she was dismissed from the school, sent back here, and detained for a while, but she didn't know anything before she was released. ”

Brother Chen told all the information he knew in one go, and added without hurrying:

Later, it was found out that she was just the adopted daughter of that family, and they also had a nanny, who was from Shanglu Village. After the black girl was released, she lived with the nanny, but providence, she just loved to play tricks, and soon after, the nanny fell ill, and she was not cured after spending all her savings, so she went a few months ago, and she still owed a lot of debts. ”

After listening to Brother Chen's story, the mystery that had plagued Yunli for a morning finally had an answer.