Chapter 16: Who is your cousin?

Tang Xiaoxiao followed Song Xiaolan to get the tools. Song Xiaolan got her a new sickle and registered her.

“Sister Xiaoxiao, keep this sickle. You can return it when the farming season is over. You have to take good care of it. If you lose it, you’ll have to pay for it yourself.” Song Xiaolan instructed.

“Okay, I understand. Thank you, Xiaolan.” She knew that Song Xiaolan had gotten her a new sickle because of Song’s mother.

In her previous life, whether it was in the black market or in Xu Shan, new educated youths always had to use old tools first. You only got to use new tools when you were good at your work.

“When you gather a basket of pigweed, just bring it to me to record the work points. If you don’t know how to recognize pigweed, my brother’s son is over there. His nickname is Stones. You can ask him to help you.” Song Xiaolan said with a smile.

“Okay, I know how to recognize them.” She had gathered pigweed in Xu Shan and Heilongjiang.

After saying goodbye to Song Xiaolan, Tang Xiaoxiao carried her basket and walked towards the back mountain.

There were indeed many children gathering pigweed on the back mountain. Everyone looked at Tang Xiaoxiao curiously. After all, even adults thought the work points were too few, so only children did this work.

At that moment, a boy of seven or eight years old ran up from the foot of the mountain. “Sister Tang, no, Auntie Tang.”

Tang Xiaoxiao turned around and looked at him, smiling. “Do you want to call me Sister Tang or Auntie Tang?”

“My cousin said I should call you Auntie Tang, but you’re clearly a beautiful sister.” The boy scratched the back of his head.

“Who is your cousin?” she asked.

“My cousin is Song Jingzhi. My name is Song Huaien, and my nickname is Stones.”

“So you’re Stones.” She smiled and patted Stones’ head.

“Auntie Tang, my cousin told me to give this to you.” Stones took a pair of gloves from his basket and handed them to her.

Tang Xiaoxiao took the gloves. “He’s quite thoughtful.”

“Did he say anything else?” She squatted down and asked him.

“My cousin also said that I should help you with the work. He also gave me candy.” Stones took a handful of fruit candies from his pocket.

“Auntie can do this work. You don’t need to help.” She said with a smile.

“Ah, then I can’t take the candy.” Stones was a little disappointed, but he thought that if he didn’t help Tang Xiaoxiao with the work, he would have to return the candy to his cousin.

“Keep the candy. Since your cousin gave it to you, it’s yours.”

“Really?”

“Of course.” Tang Xiaoxiao looked around. There were about a dozen children around. She took about twenty pieces of Great White Rabbit milk candies from her pocket.

“You can help Auntie distribute these candies to the children. One for each person. Keep the rest for yourself.” She put the candies in his basket.

“Okay.”

Tang Xiaoxiao smiled and went to gather pigweed.

“Auntie Tang gave us candy. Everyone, come and line up.” Stones shouted, and the children all ran over to line up.

The children in the village were simple. After eating Tang Xiaoxiao’s candy, they felt they had to help her.

Two children ran down the mountain, while the others put the pigweed they had gathered into her basket.

“Hey, you guys.” Tang Xiaoxiao looked at her full basket and couldn’t help but laugh.

She had just started, and her basket was already full.

“Auntie Tang, go and turn in the pigweed.” The children urged her.

“Auntie Tang, aren’t you going to take care of my cousin after you finish gathering pigweed? Go quickly.” Stones pushed her.

“Then I’ll go down the mountain. Be careful.”

“Goodbye, Auntie Tang.”

She turned back and looked at these lovely children, feeling touched.

Song Xiaolan looked at Tang Xiaoxiao, who had just come up the mountain, in astonishment. “Sister Xiaoxiao, you’re so fast.”

“It’s not that I’m fast.” She smiled and told her about what happened on the mountain.

“These children are the best. They help each other every day. They all go up the mountain together, gather a full basket of pigweed together, and then go down the mountain together.” Song Xiaolan said with a smile.

“So that’s how it is.” She took a few candies from her pocket and handed them to Song Xiaolan.

“I won’t eat them, Sister Xiaoxiao.”

“Take them.” She stuffed the candy into Song Xiaolan’s hand and prepared to go back.

She planned to go to the village committee to get her package and remittance slip first. As she came out, she ran into the two children who had run down the mountain earlier. They were carrying a large net bag of crayfish.

“Auntie Tang, this is for you. It’s not anything good, but we caught it ourselves in the river with a trap.” The older child said.

“I can’t take this.” These were the children’s hard-earned catch. How could she take them?

“Auntie Tang, are you disgusted? Although it’s not delicious, it has some meat.” The child’s expression was a little disappointed.

Usually, when they brought the crayfish home, their families would look at them with disgust. After cooking, it was all shells, just a little bit of meat, and it was a lot of work to clean.

“…” Disgusted? How could she be? In her previous life and in the future, this was a delicacy.

“No, Auntie isn’t disgusted. Auntie loves to eat this.” Tang Xiaoxiao took out a handful of candy from her pocket. “Auntie can’t accept your gift for nothing. Auntie will trade candy with you.”

“But you already gave us candy.”

“That was then, this is now. If you don’t take my candy, I can’t take your crayfish.”

The two children looked at each other. “Okay.”

Tang Xiaoxiao smiled and handed them the candy, then happily walked away with the crayfish.

“Brother, we got candy from Auntie Tang again.” The younger boy looked at his older brother.

“Tomorrow morning, let’s go gather pigweed early and get Auntie Tang’s done first.” The older boy patted his younger brother’s head.

“Okay.” The little boy nodded.

Tang Xiaoxiao put the net bag into her carrying basket and went to the village committee to get the package and remittance slip her parents had sent.

The package was the bamboo woven suitcase she hadn’t brought last time, and a bundle of things, probably food. The remittance slip had fifty yuan and an envelope with some tickets.

After putting everything back in the educated youth center, she took out the seasonings she needed to make crayfish from her space and went directly to the Song family. It would take some time to process the crayfish.

“Why did you bring back a bag of things?” Song Jingzhi looked at the crayfish in her hand with some disdain.

“What? This is a gift from my friends. It’s good stuff.”

“This thing isn’t very good to eat. If you want to eat meat, there’s plenty of meat in the back room. Go pick some.”

“Shut up. Go get me a small stool.” Tang Xiaoxiao poured the crayfish into a basin, filled it with water, and took out the brush and scissors she had prepared.

Song Jingzhi glanced at her and had to push his wheelchair to get her a stool.

Sitting on the stool he got for her, she processed the crayfish while asking him.

“Song Jingzhi, did you ask Stones to bring me gloves today?”

“Yeah.” He didn’t deny it.

“I didn’t notice. You’re quite thoughtful.”

Her gaze made him feel uncomfortable. He turned his head away. “Why did you come back so early?”

“I didn’t really do much work.” She told him about what happened on the mountain and the crayfish.

“There’s candy at home. Why don’t you just take candy to trade with them for pigweed in the future?”

She blinked at him. Was he concerned about her? Was he? Was he?