The very morning Ding Yun mailed most of the dried vegetables she had obtained through the exchange to her mother, the first package she had sent out eight or nine days prior finally reached her biological mother, Xiao Yunying.
Not her stepmother, but her actual mother.
After the divorce, she had moved to the vicinity of the Reclamation Farm, intending to help out her parents and younger brother who worked on the farm.
In case anything happened or they lacked clothing or medicine.
Outside the farm, she could at least help arrange things.
Receiving a letter from her own daughter was not unusual for Xiao Yunying, as her relationship with her daughter had always been quite good. Although they didn't write every day, they exchanged one or two letters a month.
But receiving a large package was quite rare.
It could even be said to be unprecedented.
When she, out of curiosity, confirmed the sender and the return address, and clearly saw the new address of Dawang Village, her face immediately turned very grim.
She then lost the mood to chat with the mail carrier. After thanking him, she immediately took the package and headed back with a dark expression.
On the way back, she was still muttering curses:
"Damned beast, how could he let Fenfen go to the countryside? Fenfen is his own daughter! Even if the family had to send one child to the countryside, it shouldn't have been Fenfen! Damned it, I shouldn't have let Fenfen follow him back then. No matter how hard she suffered following me, it wouldn't be as tough as going to the countryside alone!
What if she's bullied? What if there's danger?"
The moment she saw the new address, Xiao Yunying had considered the possibility of a mistake, that someone in Dawang Village with the same name as her daughter had mistakenly sent it.
But she quickly dismissed this conjecture.
While it was possible for someone in Dawang Village to share her daughter's name, and a mistake in delivery was also possible, the probability of a misdelivery to her, whose daughter shared the same name and address, was as low as a meteor strike.
So, by eliminating all impossibilities, only one remained: her daughter had gone to the countryside, to this place called Dawang Village, and was suffering there, yet still remembered to send her something.
When they divorced, she had explicitly told her ex-husband that he must guarantee their daughter would not be sent to the countryside, or she would take the daughter away.
Her ex-husband had promised.
Only then did she leave on her own.
But how could she not be angry and regretful when, after such a short time, he had gone back on his word, and hadn't even told her?
After venting her anger for a while, Xiao Yunying finally managed to calm her emotions. She then proceeded to read the letter her daughter had sent her. Upon finishing it, she was stunned. She reread it word for word, from beginning to end, and only after confirming she hadn't misread, did she hurry to open the package.
After opening the package, she was even more bewildered.
Because the package contained only meat: cured meat, salted meat, smoked meat, packaged braised meat, various sausages, dried beef jerky, chicken jerky, and so on. There was nothing vegetarian.
Besides these, there were all sorts of canned goods.
Fruit cans, meat cans, fish cans...
It was no wonder she found the package heavy when she moved it earlier. This large pile of items, roughly added up, weighed seventy to eighty catties. How could she not find it heavy?
As for why she was so bewildered, it was because these were things she and her ex-husband, even as a dual-income household, could not afford. Now, her daughter, whom she believed was suffering in the countryside, was sending so much without regard for cost. How could she not be stunned?
"Am I going crazy, or is the world going crazy? Or am I dreaming? What on earth is going on? Where did she get so many good things? Did she rob a meat processing plant somewhere?
What has Fenfen experienced in the past two years?"
Although Ding Yun had vaguely written in the letter that she had obtained these items through acquaintances via legitimate channels, Xiao Yunying still found it hard to believe. She couldn't understand what kind of connections her daughter could have to know such capable acquaintances.
Most importantly, even if it were true, as stated in the letter, that these items had a limited shelf life and would spoil soon, no matter how much their prices dropped or how cheap they became, they shouldn't have fallen below cost price.
Even at one yuan per catty, that would be seventy to eighty yuan.
Not to mention the postage along the way.
Where did her daughter get the money?
For a moment, Xiao Yunying genuinely feared her daughter might have done something wrong, something bad. Yet, she also felt her good daughter wouldn't do such things, leaving her internally conflicted.
In the end, feeling completely unable to figure things out, she decided to take the letter, a few cans of fruit, meat, and cured meat and sausages from the package, and go to the Reclamation Farm to find her father for advice.
She wanted her father to decide what was going on.
Xiao Yunying had gone through the process of entering the Reclamation Farm countless times, so it wasn't long before she gained entry. She didn't have to wait long before her parents and younger brother returned from work.
Naturally, she then showed the letter Ding Yun had sent to her father, and while murmuring her worries to her mother and brother, she also displayed the cured meats and canned goods Ding Yun had sent.
Indeed, her mother and her brother were also extremely surprised, finding it hard to believe that their granddaughter could be so capable and possess such great abilities.
"Dad, what do you think is her situation?"
"I'm worried she might have done something wrong. Otherwise, without a job, how could she be so capable?"
Xiao Yunying didn't dare to voice any more unpleasant or extreme suspicions, only asking if her daughter had done something wrong.
"Don't worry. I read Fenfen's letter.
It's likely not a major issue, but she definitely hasn't been properly going to the countryside to farm and earn work points. My guess is that she might have found some connections through unknown channels, allowing her to obtain food that has been stored for a slightly longer time and is no longer fresh.
And by reselling those items,
She earned some money.
Then, worried about us suffering, she specifically sent a lot of things for us to eat. However, some things are difficult to write down explicitly. After all, she can't directly write in a letter that she's engaging in profiteering. She could only describe it vaguely.
How about this, I'll write the reply. I'll advise her to be careful and to stop as soon as she accumulates some money. It's not as hard here as she imagines, so tell her not to worry."
This is why they say the old are wise. From Ding Yun's very vague letter, her maternal grandfather, Xiao Hui, had largely guessed what Ding Yun had been doing and how she was making money.
However, this matter still carried risks.
Therefore, he immediately decided to write a letter and subtly advise his granddaughter to stop in time.
For now, her own safety was the most important thing.