Chapter 46: Three Days – Do You Know How I Spent These Three Days?

As soon as the sun rose the next day, Ye Xin Ran went to find the village chief, carrying the drawing she had made.

Yesterday, they had discussed building a bridge over the mountain spring, and Ye Xin Ran had drawn a simple sketch of the water channel as she envisioned it.

“We can use stones to support the bottom and cover the top with bamboo strips. It’s best to reinforce the channel on the mountain with bamboo as well, otherwise, the stream will wash it away easily. The section here can also use stones…”

After Ye Xin Ran finished speaking, the village chief was enlightened.

“Ah, my niece is right! Let’s do it as she said!”

Ye Xin Ran was momentarily stunned, and then, realizing, pointed at herself: “Niece? Me?”

The village chief chuckled, “Yes, since you should also call me ‘uncle,’ I’ll call you ‘niece.’ It makes sense, doesn’t it?”

“Alright, Uncle Village Chief, I won’t be polite with you in the future.”

“Why would you be polite with me? After everything, I don’t even know how to thank you!”

With the plan settled, the village chief immediately began organizing the work.

The villagers were split into three groups: Er Zhu led a team of young men to the mountain to cut bamboo and make bamboo strips, Xiao Huai’an led a team to reinforce the channel, and the village chief himself took a few people to fill the pit and build the small bridge.

To prevent animals from digging through again, they moved several large stones to seal both sides of the bridge’s path tightly.

After yesterday’s events, many of the villagers had witnessed Xiao Huai’an’s abilities.

The young men working with him kept approaching, “Brother Xiao, you’re so amazing! Yesterday, you killed a wild boar with one strike. Can you teach us how?”

“Yeah, Brother Xiao, how did you run so fast yesterday?”

“Brother Xiao, you’re so capable, can you teach us something?”

Since Xiao Huai’an had not interacted much with the villagers since arriving, he coldly responded to all the questions:

“We’ll talk about it later.”

Ye Xin Ran, however, answered for him, “In the future, when my husband has time, he’ll teach you all.”

‘Husband.’

The word was both fresh and amusing. After Ye Xin Ran said it, Xiao Huai’an couldn’t help but glance at her.

“Let’s do it the way my wife said,” he added.

Everyone worked hard, and by the time the sun was setting, the entire channel had been lined with bamboo strips, and the water bridge had been built.

At the village chief’s command, the large stones blocking the spring were moved, and the water from the spring immediately gushed out.

The water flowed like a silver dragon, roaring down to the foot of the mountain. Chang Ping, Chang An, and the other children saw the water and immediately ran excitedly, hoping to deliver the good news to the adults before the water reached them.

Once they reached the foot of the mountain, the water slowed down. The sunlight reflected off the water’s surface, casting warm hues on the smiling faces and over the rice fields that had been dry for days, now finally receiving water.

The parched land, like a bottomless pit, absorbed the water as it poured in, and after some time, the fields slowly filled up. The excess water flowed into another field.

As they watched the rice fields drink up the water, the villagers, feeling like they had tasted a delicious meal, all wore happy smiles.

“This is great, there’s finally water!”

“The village chief really knows what to do.”

“It’s really thanks to the Xiao family!”

“Mom, when the new rice comes in this year, can we have some dry rice?”

“Of course, once the rice is ready, we’ll eat to our hearts’ content!”

…

No one noticed, as they all enjoyed this moment of joy, that a figure hurriedly left, running towards the village outskirts.

The village matters were finally settled, and Xiao Huai’an packed his things and left for the mountain the next day.

The night before he left, Xiao Huai’an hesitated for a long time before finally finding Ye Xin Ran. He hesitated as he spoke, “I’m sorry to trouble you, but the last time you made those cakes… could you make some for me again this time?”

“Do you like them?” Ye Xin Ran was a bit surprised. Didn’t Chang An say he didn’t care much about food?

“Mm!”

Xiao Huai’an turned his body slightly and nodded.

Ye Xin Ran couldn’t help but smile at his slightly awkward appearance. It seemed like he had thought about it for a long time before finally saying it.

Though she smiled, the next day, Ye Xin Ran still woke up early and made over twenty cakes for him: spring onion pancakes, sesame pancakes, and beef-filled pastries. To show her gratitude for the 200 taels of silver, Ye Xin Ran generously took out some abalone and prawns from her space and made him a seafood-filled pastry.

After breakfast, Xiao Huai’an didn’t go straight to the mountain, but walked a few extra miles to the town’s Wang family bakery to buy 10 donkey meat flat breads from Zhou Ji.

When he arrived at the cabin on the mountain, someone was already there waiting for him.

Lin Shu saw Xiao Huai’an and immediately snatched the bag from him, rummaging through it.

“I said, Xiao Da, where have you been! It’s been three days, do you know how I’ve been spending them? The dry food I brought was gone by the next afternoon. If you hadn’t shown up, you’d be finding my shriveled corpse!”

“Don’t worry, even three more days without food wouldn’t kill you,” Xiao Huai’an said emotionlessly as he took the spring onion pancake from Lin Shu’s hands and handed him the bag with the donkey meat flat breads.

Lin Shu took a bite of the flat bread but his eyes were still focused on the spring onion pancake in Xiao Huai’an’s hand.

“Xiao Huai’an, how about I trade my meat-filled pastries with you for your spring onion pancake?”

“No way!”

Xiao Huai’an immediately rejected him without hesitation.

“Last time, you gave me half, but this time you’re being stingy.”

“If you don’t like what you have, I won’t bring anything next time,” Xiao Huai’an said, taking a bite of the spring onion pancake with an unchanging expression.

Lin Shu quickly hugged the flat bread to his chest. “Alright, alright, I’ll just eat mine then. But why did it take you so long to come up? I thought something had happened over there!”

“I was helping the village find water.”

“You really see yourself as one of the villagers!” Lin Shu exclaimed in surprise.

“It was just a small thing,” Xiao Huai’an said, clearly not wanting to explain further. “Did you bring what I asked for?”

“Here it is!”

Lin Shu said, pulling out a few silver notes from his pocket.

“Brother, don’t blame me for not reminding you, but didn’t you say that this money shouldn’t be touched for now? You just got married and now you’ve already forgotten what you said. You’re not one of those who’s afraid of his wife, are you?” Lin Shu said with a teasing expression.

Xiao Huai’an wasn’t moved in the slightest by the remark: “You said that a man should marry a virtuous wife, and if she’s not virtuous, he should divorce her. Why is it now that you’re out here, not even daring to return home?”

Lin Shu had a look on his face as if he had eaten a fly, and the donkey meat flat bread suddenly didn’t taste as good.

“Don’t talk about my wife that way. Wait a minute, you’re doing this on purpose, right? I only mentioned it, did you really need to react like this?”

Xiao Huai’an finished the pancake in his hand and clapped his hands: “I’ve delivered the goods, now you can go back. I still need to go check something in the mountains.”

“Why the hurry!”

Lin Shu reached out to stop him: “Let me take a look at how your leg is doing.”