Chapter 18 Chapter 18 (Minor Repair) Cheng Xinmeng...

Cheng Xin dreamed that she was trapped in a rice field on a summer night.

The rice fields were piled with harvested rice, and there was no one around. The sound of cicadas clung to the sweat on his cheeks, and two buttons of Geng Yunye's shirt were torn open, his bronze collarbone was faintly visible, and his Adam's apple moved up and down with his breathing.

His palms were supporting the full ears of rice, and the rice awns brushed across her collarbone, tickling her.

"This way." He brought her into his arms, his voice hoarse as if he had been cutting rice during the day, and his body temperature seeped through the wet cloth.

Cheng Xin leaned her back against the hot chest, not knowing what to do with her hands so she subconsciously rolled up the corner of her clothes.

The hot air mixed with the smell of soapberry brushed over her earlobe: "When I taught you to read, you always wrote the character 'Geng' as a fire character." His fingertips slid across her palm, which was hot from the rough calluses. "Write it like this..."

The next moment the scene changed again.

The moonlight coated the rice ears with a layer of icing.

She heard herself complaining coquettishly, "My hair got tangled in my buttons."

Geng Yunye unbuttoned his shirt as neatly as he did during the day, and the sound of the fabric tearing made her tremble. Cheng Xin held the button with thread ends, and veins in his forearms throbbed. When he tucked the hem of his shirt into his trousers, half of his waistline was exposed, and beads of sweat slid down his collarbone under the moonlight.

Geng Yunye's voice rang in her ears, "Four more?" His Adam's apple rolled in the shadows, and he held her hot earlobe with his palm and gradually moved closer. The thimble she used to sew in the afternoon suddenly hit the wrists of the two people, which scared her awake.

Frogs croaked outside the window, and Cheng Xin grabbed the soaked pillowcase to calm her breathing. Moonlight streamed into the room, illuminating the shirt hanging on the bedside.

Cheng Xin started rummaging through the drawers before dawn, banging the wooden cabinet doors.

Cheng Lei came out rubbing his eyes, his hair sticking up in a mess: "Sister, what are you looking for so early in the morning?"

"Where are the paper and pen?" Cheng Xin lifted the mat to check.

"It's gone long ago, sister. You haven't been to school for many years. You don't want to study now, do you?" Cheng Lei yawned and retreated into the house.

The Cheng family could not afford to send their children to school. When Cheng Xin was a child, the Cheng family did not split up and she was able to graduate from junior high school. Cheng Lei only went to elementary school and could barely count and recognize simple words.

She continued to search. She remembered that she had put it away and kept it herself, but she couldn't remember where she put it for a while.

Cheng Xin drove her brother away: "Don't worry about it, I'm writing something." The sound of cloth tearing in the dream rang in her ears, and the beauty in the dream emerged in her mind from time to time. Cheng Xin quickened her search speed.

Cheng Lei yawned, turned around and went into the house, "Sister, please be gentle, I want to sleep a little longer."

"Feed the rabbits!" Cheng Xin grabbed him by the collar, "A boy of fourteen or fifteen years old can sleep better than a pig."

Cheng Lei muttered as he picked up the backpack, kicked his straw sandals against the threshold and turned back to pick them up.

Cheng Xin rummaged through the moldy exercise books and pencil stubs in the camphorwood cabinet. Only a section of the pencil was left that was as long as a thumb.

"That's enough." She muttered as she moved a bamboo stool to sit in the yard, got into position and began to write Geng Yunye's name.

But my brain was like a paste. I felt like I could write, but the tip of the pen wouldn't go down. After a long time, I could only write the character for "fire".

Chen Ying came out of the house with her hair braided, thinking about going to the market to sell mushrooms after dinner: "Sister, are you practicing calligraphy so early in the morning?"

Cheng Xin quickly hid the notebook in her arms: "I wanted to test whether my hands were new to it, but I forgot everything."

Chen Ying stood on tiptoe and glimpsed the word "fire". She burst out laughing: "You want to write Brother Geng's name? You can't have forgotten your own name!"

Cheng Xin's ears felt hot: "You are so smart, can you write?"

"I learned it secretly!" Chen Ying snatched the notebook away, "Don't blame me if you make any mistakes."

She pretended to write "Geng Yunye", but actually wrote "Huoer Yunlimao".

Cheng Xin held the notebook and nodded: "So the radical of fire is on the left." She followed the wrong character with her fingers and pointed, "This character is quite exquisite."

Chen Ying sat next to Cheng Xin, bored, and poked at the wrong words she had deliberately written on her homework book: "Sister, I want to go to the market by myself."

Cheng Xin leaned back, holding the notebook in her arms: "I'll go with you at noon."

"The mushrooms we picked yesterday don't last long." Chen Ying pulled her braids and walked around in circles. "Wang Jiangang and his friends are going to the commune to sell wild boar meat. I'm taking a ride."

Cheng Xin frowned: "How old are you...Don't go with them, or people will gossip about you behind your back."

"He came to our house the day before yesterday to eat meat and wanted to lick the plate!" Chen Ying suddenly hugged her neck and shook her, "He should return the favor!" Her nails pinched Cheng Xin's shoulder.

Cheng Xin held the pencil and scratched on the notebook. She closed the notebook and said, "I will go talk to Wang Jiangang in person later and ask him to take special care of you on the way. Otherwise, you will eat our meat in vain."

Chen Ying pressed herself against Cheng's chest, rubbing her nose against her neck and said coquettishly, "Sister is the best! I will buy you some vanishing cream when I make money."

Cheng Xin was helpless because of her rubbing: "Spending money recklessly!" But the corners of her mouth curled up.

Geng Yunye pushed the housing application form in front of the team leader, a respected old man who leaned in to take a closer look while biting his unlit pipe.

"You have a sharp eye! You even found this location." The captain stamped the document swiftly. "I see you running around all the time. What's the background of the girl you like that makes you so fascinated? When are you going to bring her back?"

"A girl who is clever and down-to-earth." Geng Yunye smiled, "I'll try to marry her before the end of the year."

After a few pleasantries, he mentioned the weather problem for harvesting millet.

Geng Yunye said solemnly, "This summer has been rainy and the weather is changeable. Our brigade is close to the sea and may be affected by typhoons. It is best to harvest the millet as soon as possible. The brigade has little land to begin with, and no one can bear the responsibility if there is any loss."

The captain believed Geng Yunye's words without a doubt. His discharge information had been sent to the commune for verification, and it was a formal officer's resume.

"Okay, we have a meeting today to discuss the harvest. It will only take a few days anyway, and every household only has that much land."

"By the way, what kind of house do you want to build? Nowadays, people in the countryside are using a mixture of bricks and mud to build houses. The houses they build are sturdy and are not afraid of wind or rain."

Geng Yunye pondered and said, "Let's build a brick house. It's sturdy."

The captain thought for a moment and said, "That's fine. The city is built with brick houses, which look more solid."

Geng Yunye tapped the list with his index finger joints, and his sleeves left two gray marks on the glass plate. "We need a dozen strong laborers, 80 cents a day, noodles with corn cakes for lunch, and mixed grain buns for dinner. We need two people to cook, and the place needs to be habitable before the beginning of winter."

The captain knocked his pipe against the edge of the table loudly: "Mother Yan Zi can cook big pot rice, but the steamed buns she makes are harder than rocks. Let my third daughter-in-law take charge of the cooking. She can do it alone, there is no need for two people."

Geng Yunye nodded: "The wages should not be less, as long as the meals are served on time."

The captain smiled and explained: "The third son's wife is diligent and has suffered from her youth. I promise that she will not delay anything."

Geng Yunye took out a half-broken pencil and drew a horizontal line on the back of the list: "Three hundred tiles, I want the most common ones, not the newly fired plum blossom tiles."

The team leader took out an abacus and moved the beads, making a clacking sound. "We'll take the maximum number of red bricks that the tractor can carry, and let Old Li keep 20 bags of cement. We're all from the same commune, and we won't cheat our own people."

He opened the drawer and threw out a pack of Daqianmen cigarettes. "Take this to Lao Wang. He will definitely pick the strongest bricks for you."

Geng Yunye pushed the cigarette back and said, "Uncle, how can I let you spend money? I have to find someone to do the work myself. I'll trouble you to help me keep an eye on the construction of the house."

Geng Yunye drew lines on the paper with a pencil, and the tip of the pen made a rustling sound. The floor height was marked at 3.2 meters, the window on the south wall was five steps away from the stove, all the walls were painted with two horizontal lines to represent cement, the ground was also painted with cement, and finally a square was drawn in the main room. This was the entire design.