Chapter 14: A New Job

“Let’s talk at home,” Su Miaomiao lowered her voice.

Huo Xinyuan quickly looked around. Seeing that no one was following his little sister, he hurried back with her.

When Su Miaomiao appeared in front of the Huo family carrying that large cloth bag, everyone looked surprised.

“Miaomiao, what did you bring?” Tang Chunlan hurried up to take it from her, but the moment she lifted it, she almost dropped it. Thankfully, Su Miaomiao reacted fast and caught it.

“What’s inside? Why is it so heavy?” Tang Chunlan asked in astonishment.

Su Miaomiao placed the bag down in front of everyone and carefully opened it.

The moment the Huo family saw what was inside, their eyes went wide in shock.

Huo Jianguo was the first to snap out of it. He immediately looked around, quickly closed the bag, and looked at Su Miaomiao with nervous concern.

“Miaomiao, where did you get all of this?”

Su Miaomiao explained everything that had happened that morning to the Huo family.

After hearing the story, they remained silent for a long while.

“Little sis, you know medicine?” Huo Zhenbo stared at Su Miaomiao in a daze.

“I studied a bit when I was living with my foster father. After he passed, I didn’t keep learning,” Su Miaomiao said. This wasn’t entirely untrue — she had only learned some basics. But the master who had taught her was long gone, and no one in this world knew the true extent of her skills now.

“So that’s it. Your foster father must have treated you quite well,” Huo Zhenbo said without much suspicion.

Su Miaomiao nodded. “He always treated me like his real daughter, so you don’t need to feel guilty. Life with him wasn’t so bad.”

But none of the Huo family could truly accept that. No matter how good it had been, how could it compare to the life of a general’s daughter?

Su Miaomiao squatted down and pulled out a few steaming hot meat buns from the cloth bag, handing them to Huo Zhenbo.

“Big Brother, share these meat buns with Grandpa, Grandma, and Mom and Dad.”

Huo Zhenbo took the warm buns. The rich aroma of meat wafted from them, and he couldn’t help but swallow hard.

He turned around and handed buns to Grandpa and Grandma Huo, then gave the last two to Huo Jianguo and Tang Chunlan.

“These are for Miaomiao,” Huo Jianguo refused to take his.

“Miaomiao should keep mine too,” Tang Chunlan quickly echoed.

Seeing that they were trying to return the food, Huo Zhenbo turned back to Su Miaomiao, but she pulled out several more big buns and stuffed them into his arms.

“No need to give yours up. Everyone gets one,” Su Miaomiao said as she took one herself and took a big bite.

Huo Zhenbo looked at the juicy, fragrant bun and felt like even his organs were turning with hunger.

“Hurry and eat, or it won’t taste good once it’s cold. You all worked all morning. If you don’t eat something good for lunch, you’ll have no strength to go back out,” Su Miaomiao said while munching.

Huo Zhenbo thought for a moment, then began dividing up the buns he was holding.

“Little sis is right. We need to eat well to earn work points.” With that, he took a bite too.

With just one bite, Huo Zhenbo felt the exhaustion from the entire morning melt away.

That bowl of corn gruel from earlier had burned off in less than half an hour. He had been relying purely on willpower for the rest of the time, which made them all slow down significantly.

Seeing their eldest brother eat, Huo Minxue and Huo Xinyuan began eating too.

“Grandpa, Grandma, Dad, Mom — these buns are amazing! You have to try them!” Huo Xinyuan said excitedly with a mouth full of bun, looking at Huo Jianguo and the others.

Even Huo Jianguo, a seasoned soldier, couldn’t stop the emotion rising in his chest.

He lowered his head and took a bite, his throat tightening with emotion.

He had fought and struggled all his life, hoping to give his wife and children a prosperous and secure home — yet in the end, they had to rely on the daughter who had suffered alone out in the world.

He felt like he had utterly failed.

Huo Jianguo quietly wiped a tear from the corner of his eye.

Tang Chunlan noticed and silently held his hand.

For a moment, no one in the Huo family said a word. They all quietly stared at their meat buns.

Even the pot of cornmeal porridge that Tang Chunlan had cooked wasn’t wasted—everyone got a bowl and drank it all down with the meat buns in hand.

The other things Su Miaomiao brought back were carefully hidden away inside the house.

After lunch, Huo Jianguo and the others rested for a while. When they heard the whistle, they went back to work.

This time, no matter what, Tang Chunlan insisted on going with them. Huo Jianguo couldn’t refuse and had to take her along.

Grandpa and Grandma Huo also planned to go cut some grass nearby to feed the cattle.

That job was relatively easy, and no one objected.

In the end, only Su Miaomiao was left at home.

She wasn’t in a rush to go out to the fields—truthfully, she wasn’t very good at that kind of labor.

More importantly, the effort and the reward were completely out of proportion.

That went against her principle: “The more work, the more pay.”

Taking advantage of the time, Su Miaomiao tidied up the house a bit.

Since there was hardly anything in the house, it didn’t take long.

With nothing else to do, Su Miaomiao sat at the doorway, watching the clouds roll by and the flowers bloom and fall.

As the evening approached and work was ending, the person she had been waiting for finally arrived.

Wang Hongjie was walking toward her, still holding that tobacco pipe, step by step.

Su Miaomiao immediately got up and went forward to greet him.

“Village Chief, what brings you here? Is something the matter?”

Wang Hongjie looked around the cowshed. The previously dirty and chaotic environment was now neat and clean.

Though there was still hardly any furniture, the place already looked much more comfortable.

He nodded to himself—this Huo family really wasn’t bad.

That afternoon during work, he had specially observed them. He noticed that every single member of the Huo family was hardworking and diligent. Not one of them slacked off.

What’s more, Huo Jianguo cherished his wife, and their sons were all very filial to their mother.

A family like this was unlikely to raise poor-quality children.

“You’re Su Miaomiao, right?” Wang Hongjie asked.

“Yes,” Su Miaomiao nodded.

“I’ve looked into your family’s situation a bit. You could say you were caught up in an unfortunate disaster. But since you’re here, you might as well make the most of it. Sometimes, a curse can turn out to be a blessing,” he said slowly.

“You’re right, Village Chief. At the very least, I’ve found my family again,” Su Miaomiao followed his lead and replied politely.

“I noticed that your parents and brothers care for you a lot—they don’t even want you to go to the fields. But one more worker means one more food share. I happen to have a task that suits you well. Would you be willing to do it?”

Now that he’d set the stage, Wang Hongjie didn’t beat around the bush anymore.

“Just tell me what it is, Village Chief. As long as I can do it, I’ll take it without hesitation,” Su Miaomiao said firmly.

“You’ve probably noticed, the only barefoot doctor in the village is Old Zhao. His medical knowledge is self-taught—he can barely treat a headache or fever. Most of the time, it’s not even effective, which delays the team’s progress.”

“But your skills have been acknowledged by the county hospital’s doctors. If you could go help Old Zhao, I believe the village’s healthcare problems would finally be solved.”

“Don’t worry. If you agree, I’ll make sure you get full work points every day,” Wang Hongjie said, clearly and deliberately.