Chapter 74 Robbery

Song Liyun was washing the pot with hot water and nodded: "Brother, the vegetables are so tender, they must taste delicious."

"Hey! Of course it's tender. It hasn't grown yet. It will take at least another half month before it can be eaten. Why are you pulling it out now?"

Song Zhenping said anxiously. He thought Xiaoyun didn't understand, and explained: "There are too many seedlings and they are too crowded. The poor ones will grow out. Only the good ones can grow up."

Song Liyun smiled and asked, "What will we do with the seedlings when they grow up?"

"To eat!" Song Zhenping was a little confused. Why ask such a question? Of course, the purpose of growing vegetables is to eat.

"Yeah! I'm eating it right now!"

"That's not right, you have to grow up to eat it!"

"If you start eating now, you can thin out the seedlings every day, have tender vegetables every day, and eat the largest plants every day."

"No, farming can't be like this..."

Song Zhenping was so anxious that sweat broke out on his forehead, and he still wanted to explain that the food had to be grown up before it could be eaten.

This is just like a thought-provoking ethical question: If you have a basket of apples in front of you, should you eat the best one first or the worst one?

It is said that you can tell whether a person is a pessimist or an optimist by the way they make choices.

Song Liyun came from the end of the world, so of course she didn't care whether it was good or bad, she would eat her fill first and then take everything.

She said nothing more, just put the noodles in Song Zhenping's hand and said, "Are you hungry? If you are, eat. We'll talk after you eat."

With such delicious noodles in front of him, Song Zhenping's stomach instantly growled. He murmured, "What a pity for the vegetable seedlings!"

As soon as he opened his mouth, the fragrance filled his nose and his saliva surged, almost choking him.

The body is the most honest.

Xiao An had already washed his hands and came over. His eyes lit up when he saw his face. For him, having something to eat was all that mattered.

The following days were a mixture of joy and sorrow for Song Zhenping.

It turns out that vegetables can be grown in the greenhouse, and they grow well. Looking at the green in winter, he doesn't want to leave the greenhouse all the time except when making acorn tofu.

But Xiaoyun is too good at eating. She said that the seedlings are delicious when they are tender, and they have to be pulled out as soon as they grow a little bigger.

Every time he saw these vegetables being put into the pot and fried before they were even grown, he would feel distressed and guilty and would eat an extra bowl of rice.

Not only him, everyone ate with a big appetite every meal, and the rice and flour jars were getting empty almost every day.

He wanted to save money, buy rice for his younger brothers and sisters, and make fine cotton clothes. He also wanted to buy mutton and horse meat from those who sold them, but he couldn't let Yun'er touch the treasure bag again.

To support such expenses, his income of more than 20 cents a day is definitely not enough.

Fortunately, the worries didn’t last for two days. When the first snowflakes fell, the business of Acorn Tofu suddenly picked up.

Boss Mu's income increased from three pots to five, and his daily income also rose to forty-five cents. If he continued like this, he would become rich in no time.

On this day, on the way back from delivering the goods, Song Zhenping was stopped by Xue Zhuang.

Mrs. Cui has been running a small restaurant selling acorn tofu for more than half a month. After the previous incident, both parties knew who was buying and who was selling, and the two families also tacitly understood each other and did not say anything.

When Xue Zhuang called him at this time, Song Zhenping suddenly became nervous.

After leaving the military camp, Xue Zhuang no longer had to endure hard training. He got married and started a family. With three meals a day, he was visibly gaining weight. With the addition of a sheepskin cloak that came from nowhere, he became even more burly.

Even though he had eaten full meals for two months, Song Zhenping was still thin and looked as weak as a chick when he stood in front of him.

Song Zhenping frowned and said nervously, "General Xue..." As soon as he said that, he remembered that Xue Zhuang was no longer a sergeant. He wanted to change his words, but he didn't know what to call him.

Xue Zhuang looked at Song Zhenping and laughed: "Daping, I heard Lao Mu call you like this, you don't mind, do you?"

Song Zhenping became increasingly nervous, holding the package tightly in his arms, and took a step back, asking, "What are you going to do?"

I had a quarrel with Mr. Xue at a banquet, and later Uncle Kui told me to be careful of retaliation. I don't usually meet him, so why is he being polite to me for no reason?

We are outside the town, there is no one around, and I am carrying some red sugar cubes. These things cost me fifty cents, so I hope I don't get robbed.

Xue Zhuang smiled warmly and cordially, "Brother Ping, I'm twenty-five years old and married, so I'll just act like an elder. You can just call me Brother Xue."

"Look, our two families are both military households, and now we call each other brothers.

I was to blame for what happened before, because I drank too much and offended Brother Ping and Sister Yun.

It's been a long time, if there are any problems, please be generous and don't make a fuss."

Hearing that he wanted to reconcile with him, Song Zhenping felt a little relieved. He and Xue Zhuang had met when they were choosing a house. If it weren't for the dirty talk those soldiers said during the drink, he would not have had any bad feelings towards Xue Zhuang.

Hearing this apology, the disgust in his heart mostly dissipated, but he was tongue-tied and couldn't come up with anything nice to say, so he could only nod his head carelessly: "Never mind, never mind!"

Xue Zhuang laughed even more happily when he heard this. He stepped forward and patted his shoulder, saying, "It's still early today. Come sit with me for a while. I've got some good meat from the garrison. Let's have some wine and warm ourselves up."

Song Zhenping was startled by his sudden pat and shook his head repeatedly: "No, I still have to go back to peel acorns, later... later!"

"Hey! What do you mean later? Let's go. It's so rare for us to meet. It's better to do it today than today."

Xue Zhuang grabbed Song Zhenping's arm, like an eagle catching a chick. Song Zhenping couldn't struggle, so he was half dragged and half carried away by force.

Time passed quickly and it was noon. Song Liyun cooked the meal, but she waited and waited but Song Zhenping didn't come back. Seeing that Xiao An was rubbing his stomach because of hunger, she decided not to wait any longer.

He first served Xiao Ansheng some baked pancakes and millet porridge with pickles, and gave Hei Jin a large whole grain pancake, then he gave the other two instructions:

"Xiao An, you and Hei Jin eat at home first. I'm going into town to look for my brother. Be careful to lock the door."

Although it has been snowing these past two days, it is only sparse snowflakes and the road is not difficult to walk on.

She was worried that something had happened to Boss Mu and that Song Zhenping was delayed.

Xiao An and Hei Jin were already used to staying at home, and they nodded in unison when they heard this. Hei Jin even carefully sent Song Liyun out the door, and as soon as she left, he somersaulted back to the kitchen.

Xiao An was standing on a stool and opening the pot lid: "Hei Jin, there are sugar packets in the pot!"

Heijin immediately turned up his lips and laughed.

After walking out of the woods, Song Liyun took out a square scarf to wrap her head and strode towards the town.

When she arrived at Boss Mu's store, she didn't see Song Zhenping except for two soldiers who were buying things.

When the two soldiers saw a girl suddenly coming, they stood aside and whispered to each other.

Song Liyun was anxious, and regardless of the others around, she asked Boss Mu, who was pulling a leather wine bag from the corner of the shelf, "Boss Mu, has my brother been here today?"

Boss Mu's hair was covered in dust. Seeing that it was Song Liyun, he was surprised and said, "Isn't Daping in a hurry to go home to peel acorns? I asked him to stay a little longer, but he refused. He asked what kind of cakes you want to make, and then left with the brown sugar. How come he hasn't come home yet? That's impossible!"

(End of this chapter)