Chapter 30

The tall and sturdy young man spoke with a clear and candid voice.

Shuiqing: “… The family style of the Hu family is really good.”

By the time dinner came, Hu Wenhua was surprised to find two fried eggs still sitting at the bottom of the bowl after finishing the noodles!

He looked surprised at his sister, his burly body trembling slightly.

“Little Uncle, what’s wrong with you?” Seeing Hu Wenhua stop eating well, Fan Hu curiously asked.

“Auntie’s hand-pulled noodles are so delicious. Little Uncle, hurry up and eat, or they’ll be gone later,” Fan He urged.

Yan Qiu, the oldest, afraid they would eat too quickly and choke, softly advised, “No worries, Mom said she cooked two big pots, enough for everyone.”

“Yeah, each person only gets one fried egg, but the hand-pulled noodles are plentiful,” Xing Hui added.

With so many people, the house couldn’t accommodate them all, and there weren’t enough tables and chairs.

The adults squatted together with coarse pottery bowls, eating and chatting about the harvest in the fields, the city entrance fee, the latest price of rice…

The children didn’t like to listen; they gathered to talk about food and drink. However, the fifteen-year-old Little Uncle didn’t squeeze in with the adults but joined them.

Upon hearing his niece’s words, Hu Wenhua paused, “Each person only gets one?”

“What’s wrong, Little Uncle, do you still want to eat? I want to eat too,” Xing Hui thought Little Uncle was craving and continued.

She shouldn’t have said that; as soon as she did, the others felt even hungrier.

But despite their cravings, none of them would ask Auntie to make more for them to eat.

Eggs were a rare treat, and they could also be exchanged for salt and other things. In the past, they didn’t have the privilege to eat them; they didn’t even get a share of the eggs boiled by Auntie.

Now, Auntie gave each of them one, and each sibling felt content.

Fan Jiang used to follow Little Uncle to climb trees to find bird nests and go fishing in the river. Their bond was the strongest. He pleaded, “Little Uncle, don’t go home today, okay? I’ll tell you, our chickens have started laying eggs. My big sister picked twelve eggs this morning! We brought back six more chickens today. Tomorrow morning, we might have twenty eggs. Stay, and if Auntie has more eggs tomorrow, we can eat them.”

Hu Wenhua smiled.

Hearing his niece and nephew’s words, they all had only one egg each, but he had three!

His sister must be pitying him.

“No, finish your chores at home, Little Uncle will go back. In a while, I’ll buy some delicious things for you all to enjoy,” he replied.

The children were small and weak and needed to build up their strength. How could he stay and eat their eggs?

He had to go back to work, send some money to Auntie, and now that they had separate households, there was no need to hide good food; he could send it all to Auntie.

When they heard that Little Uncle was leaving, the five children became gloomy.

Yan Qiu said, “Little Uncle, we’re going to pick mushrooms. Mom said we can sell them for money. When we earn some, we can buy delicious things for you and Grandma and Grandpa!”

Hu Wenhua patted his niece’s dry yellow hair, feeling a pang of heartache.

His sister and the kids had suffered too much before.

He didn’t refuse but agreed, “Okay.”

Hearing Hu Wenhua’s agreement, the children became excited and chattered with him about various interesting stories of picking mushrooms.

Since dinner was early, it was still bright outside after they finished eating. Hu Butcher wiped his mouth and said, “Alright, girls, son-in-law, we’re going back!”

It took nearly half an hour to walk from Shanshui Village to Niutou Town. They had to hurry back; it wouldn’t be convenient to travel in the dark.

Shuiqing also understood this, so she went inside and brought out the prepared brown sugar.

As soon as Hu Butcher’s rough face stiffened, about to scold, he heard his daughter say lightly, “The brown sugar is for Mom, to nourish her body. I have some for myself, and Yan Qiu and Xing Hui have enough too.”

Hu Butcher realized that his daughter had said everything he wanted to say, so he swallowed his words silently.

He took the oiled paper package, and as soon as he lifted it, he could tell it weighed two catties. After a while, he said with a nasal tone, “Alright, let your mom enjoy your fortune!”

How many coins would two catties of brown sugar fetch? His daughter was really generous.

He sneakily glanced at his son-in-law and saw that he looked calm and seemed to understand and agree. His backbone straightened a bit.

Before coming, his wife repeatedly reminded him not to take anything from their daughter’s house, afraid that bringing things back would make their son-in-law look down on them, that their daughter would lose face in front of her husband and have no status at home.

But now that her son-in-law had agreed, was everything alright?

“Wow, such a filial daughter. Butcher Hu, what are you waiting for? Hurry up and take it.”

“If it were me, I’d hold it close to my chest, afraid someone might snatch it away!”

The men who had come along shouted loudly.

Butcher Hu’s old face turned red, and he spat out, “Nonsense!”

This was brown sugar. How could you carry it in your chest without it melting? Over time, it would clump together.

With his large fan-like hands, he grasped the oiled paper package tied with hemp rope and affectionately said to the children, “Behave well at home. Grandpa will have your uncle bring you some fatty meat another day!”

He turned to look at his frail son-in-law, his expression turning to one of disappointment. However, for the sake of the brown sugar, he held his tongue, nodded, and waved, shouting, “Alright, we’re leaving! No need to see us off!”

With laughter and chatter, the group of about twenty people gradually walked away.

There were many of them, and given the overall stability of this era with no natural disasters in their area, they were not worried about safety.

Shuiqing and Fan Jin escorted them to the village entrance before heading back.

On the way back, they ran into Aunt Zhang and others who had come to deliver gorgon fruit.

“Second Fan’s wife,”

Hearing this title, Shuiqing’s temples throbbed.

She hurriedly stopped them, saying, “Aunties, just call me Shuiqing, it’s easier!”

Hearing her say this, the other women realized that the previous title was indeed awkward, so they changed their address, “Shuiqing, look at my gorgon fruit. As you suggested, I peeled it and kept it in water. I just took it out before coming here. It’s still fresh, not dry at all. Is that okay?”

After saying this, they were still unsure.

Others feared that soaking the fruit would increase its weight. Would these wealthy city folk think they had bad intentions?

Shuiqing squeezed the fruit and was very satisfied, “It’s fine, Sister Guifen. Did you bring the scale?”

A scale was a rare item. Only the village head’s family had one. They had mentioned borrowing it while discussing matters at the village head’s house at noon.

Wang Guifen immediately said, “I brought it! How could I not?”

“Good, let’s go to my place. We’ll weigh everything and record it along with what we weighed at noon. Tomorrow, we’ll distribute rice according to the recorded weight.”

“Alright!”

“We’ll do as you say!”

The ten or so women were even more lively than the men earlier. Arm in arm, they chatted and laughed as they walked towards the high ground on the edge of the village.

At the old Fan house, Mother Fan watched the noisy group of women in surprise and frowned, “How strange, is there some celebration in the village recently?”