Chapter 26.2

Today, Li Xiao came back a bit late. It was past four in the afternoon when he finished selling and returned, saying he had seen an old man lying by the roadside. He and Zhou Jian had turned back to take the man to the city hospital.

Seeing that it was already getting dark, he and Zhou Jian unloaded the things and then went out again, without even eating.

Jiang Rou hurried back to the house and took out the fried rice crusts she had made in the afternoon to bring to them.

Li Xiao often didn’t eat on time, so Jiang Rou would always prepare some snacks at home. Since she had already given the snacks to Sister Jiang, she had fried some rice crusts today, which came in handy now.

“Take this and eat on the road. Come back early.”

Li Xiao didn’t bother with pleasantries, directly opening a piece to eat and also giving Zhou Jian a piece, saying, “We’re leaving. Be careful at home.”

“Okay.”

Zhou Jian also waved to Jiang Rou, “Goodbye, sister-in-law.”

“Goodbye.”

The two drove away directly.

Jiang Rou deliberately cooked dinner later in the evening, but even after she had finished eating, Li Xiao still hadn’t returned. It wasn’t until after nine o’clock that she heard a noise outside.

Jiang Rou had just finished feeding the child and was preparing to go to sleep. When she heard the noise, she got up, put on her clothes, and got out of bed. She didn’t turn on the light, not wanting to wake the child. As she left the room, Li Xiao was just stepping over the threshold, limping, and raising his arm to steady himself.

Upon suddenly seeing Jiang Rou coming out, he asked in surprise, “Why aren’t you asleep?”

Jiang Rou immediately sensed that something was wrong. She frowned and turned on the lights in the main room, revealing that Li Xiao was soaked, with his lower body covered in yellow mud.

“What happened to you?” she asked, concerned.

Li Xiao tried to brush it off, saying, “It’s nothing; I just accidentally fell.”

He continued walking forward, clearly not wanting Jiang Rou to probe further, and quickly changed the subject: “Is there anything to eat?”

Jiang Rou gave him a disapproving look. When had she ever not left food for him? His attempt to change the topic was too obvious.

Still, she went to the kitchen to take out the warm food she had kept in the pot for him. Then she went back to the room to find clean clothes for him. Fortunately, it had been sunny today, and he could take a hot bath.

As she thought about the way he had been walking, she couldn’t help but ask, “What happened to your foot just now?”

The man glanced up and replied, “I just didn’t see the road clearly and twisted it when getting out of the bike.”

Jiang Rou looked at him with suspicion but said nothing more. She went to the kitchen, filled a basin with cold water, and brought it to the room.

After Li Xiao finished eating, he washed and marinated the pig intestines he had brought back, working late into the night, and then took a shower.

When he returned to the room, Jiang Rou was still awake, sitting on the bed, reading a book. An An slept soundly, so having the light on didn’t matter.

He first walked to the table, picked up the Yashuang (a type of skincare cream), took a bit in his palm, rubbed it on, and then quickly rubbed it on his face.

Jiang Rou said that he would look old if he didn’t use this since he was always out.

Although he didn’t care much about his appearance, the thought of Jiang Rou saying that they would send An An to college in the future, and people misunderstanding them as a father with two daughters, made him somewhat unable to accept it.

Although he thought Jiang Rou was thinking too far ahead.

Jiang Rou instructed him to wring out the towel that had been soaked in cold water and apply it to his foot. “There isn’t any medicine for bruises at home. Apply this first. I’ll go to the pharmacy tomorrow.”

Li Xiao did as he was told, then walked over to the bed and sat down, trying to ignore the pain. His face remained expressionless, but the pain was clearly there.

When he had come back earlier, he thought Jiang Rou was asleep, which is why he dared to limp openly. Now, fearing that she would worry, he tried to mask his discomfort.

Hearing her concern made him feel a warmth deep inside. 

Even though he was exhausted, the thought of seeing her and their child each day made all the hard work seem worth it.

Earlier, when he fell into the pit with his bike, he had been genuinely scared. At that moment, his mind raced with thoughts of what would happen to Jiang Rou and their child if something serious happened to him. He couldn’t bear the idea of his woman and child ending up with someone else, like Zhou Jian, who married Wang Yan, a widow, and got himself a free son. Just the thought of it was unbearable.

He glanced at An An sleeping soundly in the middle of the bed and smiled, then wrapped the towel around his injured ankle.

The cold towel on his ankle made him shiver, but it did alleviate some of the sharp pain.

After applying it for a while, he looked at Jiang Rou, who was lying inside and watching him, and said, “Go to sleep.”

He threw the towel, which was no longer cold, into the basin and turned off the light before lying down to sleep.

-o-o-o-o-o-

The next day, Li Xiao woke up before dawn again. The little one lying next to him was still sleeping, so he got up to wash up before coming back to feed An An. 

But as soon as his foot touched the ground, he winced in pain.

Although his voice was not loud, Jiang Rou, who was sleeping inside, still heard it. She rubbed her eyes and opened her eyes to look at him, and she asked in a sleepy and hoarse voice, “Is your foot not healed yet? Don’t go out today; take a day off.”

“It’s okay; it doesn’t hurt; it’s just that the floor is too cold.”

Jiang Rou didn’t believe it and sat up, saying, “Lift your feet up for me to see.”

Li Xiao turned his back to her as he dressed, not following her instructions. He simply said, “I’ll earn a bit more money. Next year, I’ll go south and try my luck. I’ll leave this money for you and An An to use at home.”

Jiang Rou was taken aback by this, reached out to pull him, and said, “There’s no need to push yourself so hard.”

Li Xiao had finished dressing and turned back to look at her. “What’s the big deal? I’ve had worse injuries before from fights. It’s really nothing.”

With that, he stood up and went outside, walking as if everything were normal.

He glanced back at the door with a mischievous smile and said, “See? I told you it’s nothing.”

Jiang Rou frowned.

-o-o-o-

When Li Xiao came back at noon, Jiang Rou clearly noticed that his walking posture was different. Ignoring his protests, she pushed him into a chair and lifted the leg of his pants to check. She saw that his ankle was severely swollen.

Jiang Rou’s face darkened instantly, and she looked up at him. “Is this what you meant by ‘nothing’?”

Li Xiao responded sheepishly, “It doesn’t hurt.”

But as he met Jiang Rou’s serious gaze, his voice trailed off. Finally, he made a “tsk” sound, rubbing his head helplessly, and tried to bargain, “I just need to work for two more days. Business has been really good lately. Haven’t you noticed I’ve been coming home early these days? I haven’t done anything too strenuous, just helped sell vegetables, so I didn’t have to walk much.”

Jiang Rou was silent for a moment before suggesting, “How about this? You stay home and take care of An An, while Zhou Jian and I will go to the city.”

She hadn’t even finished her sentence when Li Xiao frowned and interrupted her. “No.”

It was freezing outside, and when he was busy, he barely had time to eat. How could Jiang Rou endure that?

Jiang Rou sighed, then relented, “Forget it; I’ll talk to Zhou Jian and take the next two days off to rest at home.”

Seeing his calm and resigned expression, Jiang Rou felt inexplicably sweet inside.

But she didn’t let her feelings show on her face. Instead, she pursed her lips and put on a deliberately stern expression. “Let’s see the situation first, and we’ll talk about it then.”

Li Xiao was genuinely afraid of upsetting her. Since he had decided to rest, he knew he had to obediently lie down and take it easy.

Jiang Rou wanted to take him to the hospital, but Li Xiao really didn’t want to go. In his mind, there was no reason to go unless he was on the verge of dying.

Jiang Rou couldn’t persuade him otherwise, and since it happened to snow heavily that afternoon, she reluctantly let it go. However, she still went out to buy a bottle of medicinal wine, and when she returned home, she then went to Zhou Jian’s house to inform him that Li Xiao would need to rest for the next few days.

Zhou Jian had also been injured a few days earlier. When he heard that Li Xiao needed to rest, before he could even respond, Wang Yan quickly agreed on his behalf, saying, “If Brother is resting, you should also take a good rest.”

Alright then…

With this, Zhou Jian decided to take a break for a couple of days.

-o-o-o-

In the afternoon, Jiang Rou applied medicinal alcohol to Li Xiao and told him to get a good rest.

In Jiang Rou’s previous life, her colleagues often got injured while chasing prisoners. As long as the injuries weren’t too serious, they would rub medicinal wine on them.

Perhaps Li Xiao had been truly exhausted lately because once he fell asleep, he couldn’t get up. He slept from one o’clock in the afternoon until five o’clock. If Jiang Rou hadn’t woken him up, he might have continued sleeping.

An An lay beside him, playing with her small hands. When she saw Jiang Rou coming over, she excitedly kicked her little feet.

Jiang Rou sat on the edge of the bed, first leaning in to tease An An. Seeing that Li Xiao remained motionless, she sat up straight and reached out to touch his forehead, worried that he might have a fever.

She also touched her own forehead and felt that it was a bit warm, so she gently pushed him and softly called, “Li Xiao, wake up. Don’t sleep anymore, or you’ll have trouble sleeping tonight.”

After pushing him twice, Li Xiao frowned and then opened his eyes hazily.

Although his eyes were open, he seemed not to be fully awake, staring vacantly at the ceiling. Jiang Rou, unsure, reached out to touch his forehead again and murmured, “It shouldn’t be a fever, right?”

Feeling the touch on his forehead, the man let out a light laugh.

He raised his hand to hold the small hand on his forehead, slightly lowered his eyes, and looked at Jiang Rou.

His dark eyes carried a hint of sparkle. “Is your hand a thermometer? Did you figure it out just by touching it?”

Since he had slept for so long, his voice sounded a bit hoarse and deep.

When Jiang Rou heard his teasing, she looked at him. Their eyes met, and the warmth in Li Xiao’s deep gaze made her cheeks flush slightly.

Feeling uncomfortable, she quickly pulled her hand back and averted her gaze. She said sharply, “You’re so good at sleeping; it’s scary.”

She stood up and turned to leave.

Li Xiao watched her back with some regret, pulled back his hand, lay there for a while, then sighed and reluctantly got out of bed. He picked up An An, who was playing by himself, changed his diaper, and went outside with him.

-o-o-o-o-

Since Li Xiao was at home today, Jiang Rou cooked breakfast a little earlier, and when he got up, he could eat.

In the kitchen, Jiang Rou took the burning charcoal out of the stove and put it into a red clay basin. This was a winter heating device in this area. She took two small scoops of burning hot charcoal, covered it with some ash, and placed the fire basin into a wooden barrel that was half her height.

The barrel could be round or rectangular. Then she covered the charcoal basin with a hollowed-out wooden lid so that one could stand on it and warm themselves.

After winter began, Jiang Rou relied on this device to dry An An’s diapers. She even bent over it to dry her hair after washing it, and last time her hair almost caught fire.

After setting up the hot charcoal, Jiang Rou stood up and carried the fire basin back to the room.

Li Xiao, for reasons unknown, followed her, carrying An An.

Wherever she went, he went too.

Jiang Rou, feeling puzzled, looked at him after gathering the shoes from the yard and asked, “Why are you following me? Go and serve the food.”

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Rice Crust

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