Chapter 13

Each of them got one small chicken leg and one small chicken wing. Yan Mingli picked up some of the offal for himself and ate it slowly.

“Brother, here are the chicken wings for you. I can’t finish them.” Yan Mingcheng said as he was about to put the chicken wings into Yan Mingli’s bowl.

Yan Mingli tilted the bowl aside and glared at him. “Mingxue can finish it, why can’t you? Eat it quickly! There’s still so much meat, big brother won’t starve himself.”

“Brother, I want to go to work with you.” He is already six years old and can do things within his ability, such as picking up cow dung, cutting grass for pigs, and collecting firewood.

“Go after you turn eight.” There are indeed children in the village who go to work at the age of six, but those children are stronger than Mingcheng and Mingxue. They are still too thin.

“Then big brother, can I go with Erni to pick wild vegetables?” Yan Mingxue said incoherently while gnawing on a chicken leg, his eyes full of joy that he wanted to tell the world.

“Okay, but you can only go to the north slope, and you are not allowed to tell others what we ate.” Yan Mingli knew that she wanted to share her happiness with her friends, but such sharing was dangerous, so he had to stop her.

“Okay!” Yan Mingxue lowered her head somewhat disappointedly. She also wanted to raise her chin proudly like Erni and say, “What I ate today were chicken legs and chicken wings. They were delicious!”

Every time her eldest brother would stop her, but she couldn’t help but continue asking.

“Mingxue, do you still want to eat chicken in the future?” Yan Mingli asked Yan Mingxue who lowered her head.

“Brother, I want to.” Yan Mingxue raised her head and nodded vigorously, her eyes sparkling.

“Then don’t say it, otherwise you will not only not be able to eat meat, but also not be able to eat the food in the cabinet.” Yan Mingli had to make her understand that there were some things that must never be said. If she couldn’t understand it in one go, then he would say it a few more times, and she would eventually understand.

“Brother, I won’t tell anyone.” Yan Mingcheng was the first to express his opinion, and Yan Mingxue immediately followed suit: “Brother, I won’t tell anyone either.”

“Well, I’ll get some corn grits out later, and you can make corn porridge at home in the afternoon.” Yan Mingli saw that the two children had almost finished eating, and then he began to eat with big mouthfuls.

“Brother, when can we have rice porridge?” Although corn porridge is good, rice tastes better.

Yan Mingxue didn’t have any complicated thoughts. After she couldn’t share what she had eaten for lunch, she immediately turned her attention to the fragrant rice porridge. She raised her face and looked at Yan Mingli with anticipation, her black grape-like eyes shining brightly.

“I’ll cook for you tomorrow morning.” Yan Mingxue was very happy to get Yan Mingli’s promise. She happily scooped herself a bowl of delicious chicken soup. It was so delicious!

“Brother, are you going to work late?” Yan Mingcheng asked hurriedly after seeing the two people finish their conversation.

“Yeah.” Yan Mingli nodded.

“Brother, I…” Yan Mingcheng was interrupted by Yan Mingli before he could finish his words, “Don’t think too much. I’m nineteen years old and I don’t need a six-year-old child to help me.”

“Brother, I’ll make some extra corn porridge tonight for you to eat when you get home.” Since I can’t help my brother in earning work points, I must help him more in other areas.

“Well, the door will not be locked today. You watch Mingxue. If you meet Li Tiezhu, don’t force him. Just stay away.” Yan Mingli reminded.

Li Tiezhu is two years older than them and is stronger than them. He doesn’t want to study and doesn’t help with housework. Every day he just leads a group of children around the village, attracting cats and dogs and being very annoying.

Today, a stone was thrown into the Yang family’s yard, scaring the hens so much that they fluttered around and failed to lay an egg for seven days; tomorrow, a pile of cow dung was thrown into the He family’s yard, and the widow He was so angry that she stood at the door and cursed the Li family’s old house for three days.

“Brother, I will look after my sister.” Yan Mingcheng promised.

Yan Mingxue also quickly said: “Brother, Erni and I will go to the north slope and dig wild vegetables and come back.”

Although she is not as smart as her elder and second brothers, she is not a fool who knows nothing. When she meets a bad boy like Li Tiezhu, she will of course run as far as she can.

“Well, listen more to your second brother.” Seeing that they had all put down their bowls and chopsticks, Yan Mingli picked up the earthenware jar and poured all the remaining soup into the bowl, then drank it all in one breath.

Seeing this, Yan Mingcheng immediately stood up to clean up the dishes, and Yan Mingxue also quickly stood up and picked up the earthenware jar.

Seeing that they had gone to the kitchen to work, Yan Mingli rolled up the remaining twenty-one yuan in rags and hid it under the bed.

The yellow mud on the wall near the head of the bed had loosened a little, and there was a hole of medium size. He put some stuff in it and blocked it with bamboo blocks. Neither mice nor people should be able to find it.

It’s not that he was on guard against Mingcheng and Mingxue, but he was worried that his uncles, aunts, and cousins would see them.

Although he had made those people restrain themselves a lot because of his ferocity, they were still related by blood after all. If they were really shameless, it would be very annoying.

He was not afraid of them, but he didn’t want to cause trouble. After all, Mingcheng and Mingxue were still young.

When there were only two children left at home, his nominal aunt had instructed his cousins to sneak into his house several times.

A handful of cornmeal, half a foot of cloth, whatever he saw, he would take it. Sometimes when he really couldn’t find anything to take, he would even dig out a bundle of firewood from the pile of firewood and take it away.

So if they find out, not only will I lose the money, but I will also lose the good things in the cabinet.

Because he was already eighteen years old, in their eyes, there were enough reasons to ask him to be filial to his grandparents on behalf of his mom and dad, although those so-called reasons were far-fetched.

After cleaning the bedroom, Yan Mingli poured himself a basin of cold water, wiped the sweat and flesh smell off his body with cotton cloth, and then changed into his boxer shorts, his only other old homespun vest, and homespun pants that only reached his calves.

Then, he would put the clothes he had taken off into the basin of water and scrub them several times, then take them to the yard, wring them dry, and hang them on a simple clothesline.

After giving his younger brothers and sisters some instructions again, Yan Mingli went out and headed towards the brigade headquarters.

In recent years, his job was basically carrying manure. He would take the manure buckets out from the brigade’s warehouse, then carry them to the manure pit next to the cowshed in the northwest of the village, fill two large buckets, and then pour a few scoops of manure on the designated land.

A bucket of manure water weighs 50 kilograms, and two buckets need to be carried at a time. Two buckets are only enough to irrigate one mu of land. Most villagers do not have the energy to do this tiring, dirty work that does not earn high work points.

Therefore, this job is always assigned to people with bad backgrounds or who have committed crimes.

The work assigned to him today was in Yazilin, a piece of land of five mu and three fen, which meant he had to make at least fifty-three trips.

Fortunately, the manure pond is not far from the duck forest. He makes six or seven trips an hour, so it should be no problem to finish the work before work tomorrow morning.

When Yan Mingli was walking in the field carrying the dung bucket, Mo Yutong finally got out of the car that was shaking so hard that it was worse than death.