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Chu Yue pursed her lips and asked, “Husband, can’t you hire any other carpenters?”
“It’s not that I can’t, but Master Liu’s skills are exceptional. Why? Do you know of a better craftsman?”
Chu Yue smiled and shook her head. “What kind of carpenter do I know? Since you think Master Liu is good, then let it be him.”
She didn’t want to tell him because Wu Yong was Master Liu’s disciple. If she asked for someone else, he might think something strange of her.
Lu Xinghe gently touched her head and said, “Tomorrow is your fourteenth birthday. After tomorrow, Yueyue will be one year older.”
Chu Yue lowered her head a little uncomfortably.
“Husband, don’t keep touching my head. I won’t grow taller.”
Yun Cuihe covered her mouth and smiled. “What does a girl need to be so tall for? We have Xinghe, who is tall enough. But Yueyue has been with us for two months, and she seems to have grown taller. Her face looks much healthier now too.”
She looked at Chu Yue, and in her eyes was the tender pride of a mother seeing her daughter grow.
Lu Xinghe nodded in agreement. “She has grown a bit taller.”
Hearing this, Chu Yue was extremely happy. She had just turned fourteen, and now she had to make efforts while she could still grow. Once she started her monthly cycle, it would be hard to grow any taller.
—
On the fifteenth of August, during the Moon Festival, which was also Chu Yue’s birthday, Yun Cuihe got up early. She took the basket down from the kitchen beam, taking out the white flour that Chu Yue and Lu Xinghe had bought from the town when they first went to buy rice.
Chu Yue had used three pounds of the flour before to make noodles, leaving two pounds, which were now used by Yun Cuihe to make noodles. She also steamed five pancakes and fried eggs for everyone.
Lu Xingping came into the kitchen and exclaimed, “Wow! Today’s breakfast is so lavish!”
Yun Cuihe smiled while working, “Of course! Today is not only the festival, but also your sister-in-law’s birthday. Have you fed the chickens yet?”
Lu Xingping quickly nodded. “They’ve been fed, don’t worry, mom.”
Looking at her son’s confident face, Yun Cuihe shook her head and laughed. “I don’t know who you take after. Your father was never like this.”
Lu Xing’an, sitting behind the stove, spoke quietly, “He must have been picked up from the mountain. He doesn’t look like me. I don’t know whose child he is.”
Lu Xingping immediately got upset. “Lu Xing’an, stop talking nonsense! You’re the one who was picked up from the mountain! I’m not your son, why should I look like you?”
Lu Xing’an smiled faintly.
“Don’t get angry. Mother hasn’t even said anything. Whether you were picked up or not, It’s what mother says that counts.”
Lu Xingping then turned to look at Yun Cuihe with a pout. “Mother?”
Looking at her two quarreling sons, Yun Cuihe felt both amused and helpless. She patted Lu Xingping’s head with a warm smile. “You’re so kind-hearted and naive. You believe everything Xing’an says. Back then, I could barely take care of myself, how could I have the time to pick up a child from the mountains? If you weren’t my son, you’d have been fed to wolves by now.”
Lu Xingping listened to her, then hugged Yun Cuihe, sniffing her.
“Mother is the best.”
Yun Cuihe patted her son’s back helplessly. “You’re already eight, why are you still acting like a little kid? What if others see and laugh?”
Instead of letting go, Lu Xingping hugged her even tighter. “I don’t care about others. Even if I’m eighteen, I’ll still be your child.”
Looking at her son, who was so childlike, Yun Cuihe sighed and patted his back.
“Your older brother and sister-in-law are still in the room reading. The noodles are almost ready, go call them to eat.”
Only then did Lu Xingping let go of his mother and run out to call them.
“Yue’er, this is for you.”
As soon as Chu Yue sat at the table, Yun Cuihe placed a bowl with two eggs in front of her.
Chu Yue looked at her in surprise. “Mother, why did you give me two eggs?”
“Today is the Mid-Autumn Festival, and also your birthday. Double happiness! Shouldn’t you eat more eggs?” Yun Cuihe smiled and brought out the noodles and pancakes. “Hurry and eat, or it’ll get cold. We don’t have other food at home, so we’ll just make do with a few extra eggs for the festival.”
Chu Yue gazed at the two eggs in her bowl, feeling deeply moved.
Although she was born on the Mid-Autumn Festival, when she was at her birth family, no one ever mentioned her birthday.
Every day, when she opened her eyes, she was met with endless chores.
Why was there such a big difference, even though they were both mothers?
After the meal, Lu Xinghe took out a portrait from his desk. In the portrait, the girl had a pink-and-white hairpin in her hair, holding a bowl of rice porridge. Her beautiful face had a bright smile, and her sparkling eyes seemed to gaze at someone outside the painting, as if they could see his reflection in them.
Chu Yue saw Lu Xinghe looking at the picture with such joy and hurried over to ask, “Husband, what are you looking at?”
“A portrait,” Lu Xinghe answered with a soft smile.
Chu Yue looked at the picture and felt it was somewhat familiar. “Is this?”
Lu Xinghe placed the picture on the table and wrote the year in the corner, also noting the words “at the age of marriage” beside it in small characters.
Chu Yue hesitated, “Husband, is the person in the picture me?”
Lu Xinghe nodded. “Yes, it’s you.”
Chu Yue muttered discontentedly, “Why am I holding a bowl? And that smile looks so silly.”
Lu Xinghe smiled, slightly curling his lips. “I originally planned to paint a portrait for you every year on your birthday. When I picked up the brush, the first thing that came to my mind was this scene. I thought it was interesting, so I decided to paint it.”
Chu Yue’s face flushed slightly. She glanced outside and thought to herself, so her husband liked it when she looked at him with those eyes.
But deep down, she felt a sweet warmth, sweeter than eating honey.
Around noon, Chu Youqian and Chu Dashan finally arrived at Banpo Village.
The half-day journey had left the two lazy men grumbling continuously, and along the way, they scolded Chu Yue for not taking the initiative to send anything to her family.
When they arrived at the entrance of Banpo Village, Chu Dashan pointed excitedly at the brick house in the distance and exclaimed, “Dad, there are actually wealthy families in Banpo Village now! Look at that brick house, it’s quite grand!”
Chu Youqian slapped Chu Dashan’s hand down.
“Just because it’s grand doesn’t mean you should point and talk about it. Don’t let people laugh at your lack of manners.”
Chu Dashan mumbled unhappily, “I’ve never had manners. If our family could build a brick house, would I be so envious of someone else’s?”