Chapter 20

“Xu Di, how much did you bring? You child, you’re so honest!”

Yan Fangfang and her husband, Liang Bo, saw Xu Di carrying a large bag, struggling to walk, from afar.

“I overestimated myself, I thought I could carry it, but I couldn’t after walking for a while.”

Xu Di had also misjudged the weight of the soil. The soil from her space was really heavy, it was a dead weight.

“You’re so small, how strong can you be? Let your brother Liang carry it, let’s go home first, it’s so cold.”

“Then I’ll trouble Brother Liang.”

Xu Di was pulled by Yan Fangfang, they walked quickly towards home, the weather was truly cold.

“Mom, Xu Di is here.”

“Come in quickly, it’s cold, come over and have a bowl of brown sugar ginger water.”

Aunt Wang’s warm voice came out, Xu Di’s heart warmed.

“Aunt Wang, Grandma Qian.”

As soon as Xu Di entered the house, a porcelain mug was shoved into her hand, it was filled with steaming brown sugar ginger water.

“Grandma Qian, Mom, Xu Di is so honest, she carried such a big bag of soil. I didn’t even dare to try, it looked so heavy.”

Yan Fangfang and her mother-in-law, along with Grandma Qian, imitated Xu Di’s struggling walk.

“Sit down and rest for a while, you’re so tired, you only needed to bring a little.”

Aunt Wang pulled Xu Di to sit next to Grandma Qian, she held Kangkang, who was playing with a tin frog, and glanced at Xu Di every now and then, wanting to say something, but a little embarrassed.

“Kangkang, do you remember your little aunt?”

Kangkang’s bright big eyes stared at Xu Di for a long time, he seemed to have forgotten.

“We fought the monster together, do you remember?”

“Ah! Yes, we are big heroes.”

Kangkang wasn’t afraid anymore, he firmly believed that he was a big hero who defeated the monster.

“Yes, we are big heroes.”

Xu Di’s words made Kangkang quickly accept her, he even handed his toy to Xu Di.

“Auntie, here you go, the frog jumps really fast.”

“Really? How do you play with it?”

Xu Di seriously asked Kangkang, as if she really didn’t know how to play.

“You have to do it like this.”

Kangkang held the tin frog in his left hand and used his right hand to wind the spring on the frog.  After winding it, he placed it on the ground, and the frog jumped forward on its own, this was a memory of a generation!

“See, it’s easy, Auntie, you try it.”

Xu Di picked up the stopped frog, wound the spring, and placed it on the ground, the frog started jumping.

“Haha…”

Both the big one and the small one burst into joyful laughter, it was simple happiness.

“What’s so funny?”

Liang Bo carried the bag in with difficulty, he had never really exerted himself since he was a child, he had stopped several times along the way.

“Why are you only back now, Xu Di has been here for half a day.”

Aunt Wang glanced at her son, his forehead was sweating, was he tired?

“Mom, you don’t know how heavy this bag of soil is.”

Liang Bo shook his hand, his arm was sore.

“Little Bo, you just lack exercise.”

Grandma Qian patted Liang Bo’s arm, the child was weak and sickly when he was young, his strength wasn’t even as great as hers, an old lady.

Grandma Qian opened the bag and looked at the soil.

“Oh, this soil is black and fertile, it’s quite fertile!”

“Grandma Qian, this was dug from the mountain, there’s a thick layer of humus on top.”

Xu Di explained, this soil was similar to the soil under the rotten leaves on the mountain.

“I was wondering, why is it so soft.”

Grandma Qian grew up in the village, she knew how to do all kinds of farm work, she was familiar with the land.

“What’s this?”

Kangkang ran over, looking at the things in the bag, he didn’t recognize it.

“This is soil, it’s used for planting vegetables.”

Xu Di grabbed a handful of soil and let Kangkang look at it.

“This is different.”

He meant that the soil he usually saw was different from this.

“This is good for planting vegetables, they grow fast.”

“Then I want to plant too.”

Kangkang also wanted to grab the soil, but Xu Di stopped him.  She knew that the child was a bit delicate, she didn’t know if his family would let him touch the soil.

“Kangkang, wait a minute, the soil is cold, you find some gloves to wear later, otherwise, your hands will freeze.”

“Then why doesn’t Auntie’s hand freeze?”

The little boy tilted his head, full of questions.

“Because Auntie is an adult, her hands are thick and resistant to the cold.”

Children were hard to fool.

“Here, the flowerpots are here.”

Liang Bo carried in a few flowerpots from outside, they were quite big.

Yan Fangfang also found a pair of woolen gloves for Kangkang to wear, afraid that he would get a stomachache after playing with the soil.

Xu Di taught Kangkang how to put the soil into the flowerpots, and to gently press it down with his hands.

The soil was filled to a little more than two-thirds full, that was enough.

“Okay, let’s plant some vegetables.” Xu Di took out the seeds and chives from her bag.

“Oh, these are chives, right?”

Grandma Qian recognized the chives when she saw Xu Di pull them out.

“Grandma Qian is so amazing, you recognized them at a glance. My grandpa’s trough has a lot of them planted, I pulled some over. This is faster than planting chive seeds, they’ll sprout in a few days.”

Xu Di taught Kangkang how to plant the chive roots.  The little guy learned seriously, he did it step by step, not making a single mistake.

They hadn’t finished planting one flowerpot, there were still some left.

“Well, I’ll keep these, I’ll plant them later too. Whether they grow or not, it’s nice to see a pot of green seedlings in your house in the middle of winter.”

Grandma Qian saw that Xu Di had brought a lot of soil and seeds, and she also wanted to plant vegetables.

“Then I’ll help you plant them later, I also have lettuce, spinach, coriander, small radishes, and Chinese cabbage seeds.”

Xu Di only brought seeds for leafy greens, she didn’t bring eggplant, beans, or those vegetables with long growing cycles.

“There are so many, these small vegetables sprout quickly, they’ll grow quite tall in ten days or eight days.”

“Yeah, they’re all short-growing vegetables.”

Xu Di and Grandma Qian chatted about planting vegetables, the Liang family didn’t understand much about this, they listened seriously.

Xu Di planted a few more types of vegetables with Kangkang, a total of five flowerpots.  There was still a lot of soil left in the bag.

“Come on, Xu Di, help me plant a few pots of vegetables, then we’ll go back to your Aunt Wang’s house to eat delicious food.”

“We’re having hot pot for lunch, everything is ready, come back quickly after you’re done planting.”

Aunt Wang echoed Grandma Qian, she had prepared a lot of meat.

“How could I not come back for delicious food, I’ll be back soon.”

Grandma Qian led the way, Xu Di carried the soil behind her.

It was much lighter this time, it was easy to carry.

They walked out of Aunt Wang’s family courtyard, Grandma Qian’s place was in the next family courtyard.

“This is the government family courtyard, my place isn’t far from here.”

Grandma Qian introduced the area as they walked, Xu Di had a new understanding of the area.

Grandma Qian lived on the second floor, a three-bedroom apartment.

The house was neat and clean.

“Auntie Qian, you’re back.”

A woman in her forties came out of the kitchen, she should be the housekeeper.

“Little Wu, this is Xu Di, a close junior of mine. Xu Di, call her Aunt Wu, she’s been assigned to take care of me.”

Grandma Qian, although she was only the head of the Women’s Federation before she retired, she had once transmitted information, she had made many contributions, her treatment was really not bad.

“Hello, Aunt Wu!”

Xu Di greeted her as usual, she followed Grandma Qian to the balcony, where there were a few empty flowerpots.

They worked quickly, and soon they had planted the chives and the small vegetables.

“Okay, let’s go, let’s go to the Liang family for hot pot.”

Grandma Qian carried a cloth bag and called Xu Di to leave. The old and the young, laughing and talking, left.