Chapter 96
Su Min’s face did not change. “They got caught in the rain yesterday while taking wire and tools out of the trench. I think they caught a cold.”
“There’s cold medicine at Uncle Yi’s place. He’ll probably give some to himself and Uncle Shen.”
Wei Cheng broke open a cornbread bun. This child had been asking all morning what filling today’s buns had.
If there was meat, Guanguan would eat two extra!
“Look, it’s beef with radish sprouts.”
“Wow!” Guanguan grabbed a big bun and took a huge bite.
Swinging his little legs, he raised the bun and cheered, “Cheers, bun!”
“Cheers, bun!” Wang Xiaotiao leaned halfway across the table with his own bun to clink against Guanguan’s.
Grandpa Wang’s eyelid twitched. He tugged on Wang Xiaotiao’s sleeve. “These two still can’t sit still while eating. Your sleeve got oil on it.”
They were halfway through breakfast when Yi Qi finally strolled in.
Grandpa Wang had taken Sun Dali to the vegetable plot, the older boys had gone with Su Min to work, and only a few children who ate slowly were still at the table.
“Uncle Yi is here!”
Xiaoyue jumped down from her chair and ran into the kitchen to bring out a plate of steaming buns. She craned her neck to look behind him. “Where’s Uncle Shen?”
Yi Qi was in high spirits, his eyes curved in delight like an old cat that had finally stolen some fish. Smiling, he said, “Thank you, Xiaoyue. Uncle Shen isn’t feeling well, so I’ll bring these to him.”
Wei Cheng gave Yi Qi a once-over. He did not look like someone with a bad cold at all.
Guanguan swallowed his last bite of bun, wiped his face haphazardly with the tissue in his brother’s hand, and mumbled, “Uncle Shen, let Guanguan take a look and he’ll get better!”
“Guanguan, don’t go!” Yi Qi jumped, raising his voice. When he noticed smart Chengcheng and Mingming looking over, he hurriedly explained, “Your Uncle Shen has a really bad cold. He’ll infect people. If you catch it too, you’ll have to take bitter pills every single day!”
Guanguan jumped down from his chair too, puffed out his little chest, and bravely patted it. “Guanguan’s not scared!”
Even Guanguan, who hated medicine more than anything, was not afraid of being infected?
Yi Qi felt touched. He pulled a tissue from the table, bent down, and wiped the greasy marks off the little child’s round face. “Be good, baby. Uncle Shen is fine. I’m a doctor, so I can take good care of him. Don’t worry, okay? After he wakes up, he’ll be able to play with you.”
Guanguan folded his arms and frowned. “Really?”
Yi Qi chuckled. “Really. He just has a bit of a fever.”
When he crouched down, Wei Cheng happened to catch sight of the shallow opening of Yi Qi’s collar.
His brow lifted. He quickly pulled Little Guanguan over. “Alright, let Uncle Yi hurry and bring Uncle Shen his buns.”
Guanguan casually waved both his chubby hands. In the sunlight, the two shiny gold bracelets on his wrists nearly blinded Yi Qi’s eyes.
“Wow, Guanguan, you’ve even got big gold bracelets now?”
Guanguan lifted his chin slightly, his little mouth trying not to smile. “Yep. Brother gave them to Guanguan. Uncle, hurry back and bring the buns to Uncle Shen.”
Then he threw a punch with his meat-bun fist. “You can touch them too, if you want.”
This stingy little child would only let Uncle Yi touch one gold bracelet!
Yi Qi wanted to laugh, but the corner of his mouth hurt, so he just reached out and touched Guanguan’s bracelet. “Very nice.”
He stood up and grinned at Wei Cheng. “Get him a gold chain too, and he’ll turn into Brother Guanguan from the streets. Then he’ll be even more handsome.”
The moment Guanguan heard the word handsome, his built-in little dictionary lit up.
The plump child threw himself against his brother’s leg and looked up with starry eyes. “Brother, Guanguan wants a necklace too!”
Wei Cheng laughed helplessly. “Alright. I’ll alter one for you when we get back.”
By then, Yi Qi had already left leisurely with the plate of buns.
He even had the leisure to tease grumpy Gray Cub, who had just gotten up, making the irritable gray pup chase him in circles.
Even inside the wooden cabin, they could hear Gray Cub’s clear, adorable barking.
Smart and steady as always, Wei Cheng scratched his head awkwardly. In truth, he only understood this sort of thing a little.
In his previous life, by the time he was sixteen, he had already been working as a hunter in the Watcher Community for quite a while.
He was ruthless and quiet, never stealing credit and never harming others, so many hunters liked teaming up with him.
Once, there was a mission to go to the countryside near Fan City to search for vegetable seeds. Their group had to camp outdoors for the night.
Late at night, he heard some noises coming from the tent beside his.
Two men’s voices.
Wei Cheng did not understand and was not curious, so he shut off his five senses automatically, lay there with a calm, youthful but handsome face, hugged the backpack containing his little brother’s Ultraman shoes, and fell asleep peacefully.
The next morning, both men had marks on their necks, and he heard many people teasing the two men from the neighboring tent.
From what he gathered, those two men were a married couple?
Strange. How could two men be husband and husband?
Later, when he grew a little older, he discovered that there were many such “married couples” in both the Community and other bases.
So sometimes, looking at Yi Qi and Uncle Shen getting along, and thinking of how they ended in his previous life, he had vaguely guessed that one day these two would also become a “married couple.”
His other criterion for judgment was simple: as long as there was color on the neck, that meant they had become a couple.
Uncle Shen was not feeling well probably because there was too much color on his neck, so he was too embarrassed to come out.
Wise Chengcheng understood everything.
But until the moon was high, Uncle Shen still did not step out of the cabin.
.
The days were sunny one after another, and the farm’s walls and traps had finally been fully repaired.
Everyone felt relieved.
The temperature in the mountains was lower than in the city, so the whole farm, old and young alike, gradually put on sweaters and jackets. They began preparing food stores for winter.
“We’ve got a lot of flour at home, so let’s make some roasted flour. If anything special happens, everyone can still get by for several days with just a mouthful of it.” Grandpa Wang assigned tasks. “Yi Qi, A-Zheng, wash the rice and steam it. I’ll braise some beef too, then make some beef rice balls and freeze them in the fridge. Su Min, take the children to wash the pickled mustard greens and radish sprouts. After washing them, blanch them, cook them, add some salt, and while the weather’s nice these next few days, dry them into vegetable flakes and pack them into empty canning jars.”
The farm had many empty jars and had never thrown them away.
Su Min waved her hand. “Let’s go!”
Wei Cheng obediently led the little beans along with Auntie Su Min.
This winter they had planted only pickled mustard greens and white radishes. The two plots were lush and green.
Su Min said, “I’ll harvest vegetables with Chengcheng and Mingming. Xiaoyue, you take the little ones and Xiaotiao to carry the picked vegetables over to the big pots in the field.”
In the middle of the grassland stood two huge iron cauldrons. Chengcheng had “found” them in the “farm.”
“Maybe the previous owners were Northeasterners and liked iron-pot stew,” Yi Qi had joked at the time.
The whole world liked Northeastern food, so having two slightly out-of-place giant iron pots appear near the Nordic-style wooden cabins was nothing strange.
These two iron pots had really come in handy. You could not prepare winter food stores using the frying pans in the cabins. It wasted electricity, not to mention water and fuel.
Yi Qi and Shen Zheng had even gone up the mountain and cut down five large trees specifically to use as firewood.
Wang Xiaotiao hugged an armful of vegetables and was about to run to the grassland when Xiaoyue, who had just been about to carry hers, felt someone tug on her sleeve.
“Big sister, we can use the little cars to transport them!”
Xiaoyue’s eyes lit up. “That’s right, we still have the little cars!”
The two children dashed to an unused cabin outside the core zone. That cabin usually stored tools and the kids’ little cars.
By the time Wang Xiaotiao came running back, panting, he saw a beautiful black-and-red little car gradually appear on the slope.
At the wheel was a plump child wearing sunglasses and a gold chain around his neck, looking like one grin away from revealing a full set of gold teeth.
And his best friend Xiaoyue was sitting in the back.
Guanguan lifted his fleshy chin and nodded at Wang Xiaotiao, then vanished into the grass.
Wang Xiaotiao stared, mouth open.
Something about this was not right.
Guanguan and Xiaoyue also realized something was wrong and hurried to reverse back.
Xiaoyue shouted, “Xiaotiao! Go get your little car! Sit in your own car, not Guanguan’s!”
When Wang Xiaotiao heard this, he sprinted toward the core zone, shouting as he ran, “Xiaoyue, ride in my car, not Guanguan’s! Today it’s my turn to be the driver!”
Guanguan pushed his sunglasses up onto his forehead and folded his little arms. “That’s right. Guanguan’s car only carries vegetables, no passengers!”
A merciless vegetable-hauling kid had no room in his heart for passengers!
Watching the two children use the little cars to haul vegetables back and forth, everyone at the farm laughed until they doubled over.
Guanguan’s little car had more space in the back, so it could carry lots of vegetables. Piled high with mustard greens and radish sprouts, it nearly blocked the sight of the child driving in front.
“Beep beep beep.” The little one made honking noises with his mouth, his face rosy with excitement and seeming to steam with heat. “Where are the veggies? Where are the veggies?”
“The ones there are enough for us to eat for quite a while.” Wei Cheng took off his mud-covered gloves and smiled. “We still need to keep some of the mustard greens for deep winter, to stir-fry later. In a couple of days, when we pull up the radishes, you can use the little car again.”
Guanguan looked a little unsatisfied. “Alright then.”
He patted the steering wheel again. “Brother, get in!”
Xiaoyue planted her hands on her hips. “Guanguan, you said your car only carries vegetables, not people!”
Guanguan puffed his cheeks and said with perfect seriousness, “But… but Guanguan’s brother isn’t people!”
Wei Cheng: “…”
Just like that, his younger brother had stripped him of his human status.
“He’s Brother!” Guanguan explained earnestly. “He’s Guanguan’s brother!”
Su Min laughed beside them. “Alright, alright, Guanguan, hurry up and drive your brother back. Bring Auntie a bottle of mineral water.”
“Okay!” Guanguan patted the buttons twice to start the car. “Brother, get in!”
Before Wei Cheng could even settle his long limbs and big frame properly, the car had already swerved sharply away.
Luckily he grabbed onto the seat in time, or he really would have been “not people” anymore.
He would have landed like a flattened tabby cat.
The culprit was still huffing with laughter. “Brother, is Guanguan’s little car fast or not!”
Not far away, Yi Qi and Shen Zheng had already poured the washed rice into the iron cauldrons.
As Yi Qi stuffed firewood into the stove, he said, “Sister Min, Director Wang said we should wash the vegetables with the rice-rinsing water.”
Su Min smiled. “Sure. Rice-rinsing water’s got nutrients too.”
Water at the farm did not come easily, and everyone understood Grandpa Wang, the head of the household, being strict with household use.
The children helped wash vegetables, while Gray Cub and Little Apricot toddled over to join the fun.
Guanguan cupped rice-rinsing water in his hands. His fingers were so plump there were no gaps, so not a single drop leaked out.
Wei Cheng could tell what Guanguan was thinking. He gently pried open the child’s fingers and let the water pour back into the basin. “Don’t give the dogs rice-rinsing water. They have water to drink.”
Guanguan obediently said, “Okay then.”
The smell of steaming rice drifted far and wide. Then a screech of brakes sounded outside the farm gate.
Feng Xiaoli came running over, out of breath. “People from Rose Garden are here!”
Then he added, “I think Guanguan’s Teacher Xiao Mei is with them too!”
Teacher Xiao Mei!
