Early in the morning, while Xia Qingqing was sleeping soundly, there was a loud knocking on her door.
Dog Egg's childish voice rang out from outside the door: "Sister, get up! Get up quickly, or you'll miss the oxcart."
Hearing the incessant shouting outside the door, Xia Qingqing covered her ears, took a deep breath, and then got out of bed: "Stop shouting, ancestor, I'm coming."
After the door opened, Gou Dan looked at his sleepy-eyed sister with a smile and said, "I'll go brush my teeth first, sis, come over here quickly after you're dressed."
"Okay," Xia Qingqing replied listlessly.
She stayed up late reading last night and didn't go to bed until midnight. It's only 6 a.m. now, so she hasn't had enough sleep at all.
When Xia Qingqing came out after changing her clothes, Zhang Hongyan and Gou Dan were already drinking porridge.
Xia Qingqing yawned and said lazily, "Mom, why don't you sleep a little longer?"
It takes at least half an hour to cook porridge, which means Zhang Hongyan got up at around 5 a.m. She didn't need to get up so early to start work at 7 a.m. It must be because she got up specifically to make breakfast for herself and Gou Dan.
"Sis, stop dawdling and come eat!" Gou Dan was getting impatient with his sister's slow pace and couldn't help but urge her on.
He earned this opportunity to go to the county town through his own efforts; if he hadn't caught the oxcart, his sister definitely wouldn't have taken him.
Zhang Hongyan also disliked her daughter's unhurried manner: "Stop daydreaming and go wash your face. If you keep dawdling like this, you won't even be able to eat shit while it's still hot."
"Yue, Mom, you're really something. You're drinking your porridge and you're talking about poop and poop," Xia Qingqing said, feeling nauseous from her mother's antics. She quickly ran to the kitchen, barely able to look at the bowl of porridge on the table.
Two hours later.
The oxcart slowly came to a stop, and Gou Dan got off without Xia Qingqing's help.
Looking around excitedly, she raised her little head and asked Xia Qingqing, "Sister, where are we going first? To the supply and marketing cooperative?"
"Let's go to the state-run restaurant first." Xia Qingqing hadn't been able to finish her porridge at home, and after nearly two hours on the oxcart, she was starving and just wanted to get to the state-run restaurant to eat something.
The two siblings arrived at the state-run restaurant. Xia Qingqing asked Gou Dan to reserve a seat, and then she went to the window to order.
We ordered a total of 10 meat buns and two bowls of wontons.
When the wontons were served, Gou Dan smelled the aroma, and his stomach, which wasn't hungry before, suddenly started rumbling.
Xia Qingqing doesn't really like wontons because she prefers meat. However, many shops' wontons are mostly just wrappers and have no flavor at all. But people in this era are honest; meat buns are full of meat, so wontons probably won't be too shabby.
She tentatively tasted one of the wontons in the bowl, her eyes instantly lit up, and she silently gave a thumbs up.
As expected of a state-run restaurant, the wontons were extremely delicious, with thin wrappers and generous fillings.
As soon as Liu Dinglan entered the state-run restaurant, she saw Xia Qingqing sitting at the table in the center eating wontons. She ran towards her excitedly and called out, "Qingqing!"
"Lanlan, what a coincidence!" Xia Qingqing heard someone call her, looked up and saw Liu Dinglan, and smiled at her.
Liu Dinglan pointed at Gou Dan, who had his head buried in the bowl, and asked, "Is this your younger brother? He looks just like you."
"Yes, this is my brother Xia Jiale. Lele, quickly greet her. This is Sister Lanlan." Xia Qingqing patted Gou Dan on the shoulder. Gou Dan wasn't home when Liu Dinglan came last time, so he didn't recognize her.
Reminded by his sister, Gou Dan reluctantly lifted his head from the bowl, soup stains still clinging to the corner of his mouth: "Hello, Sister Lanlan."
"Oh, little Lele is so cute," Liu Dinglan said, pinching Gou Dan's little face.
Dog Egg dodged away somewhat unhappily. Honestly, why do adults always like to pinch me? It's so annoying!
It was only then that Liu Dinglan realized that she seemed to have overlooked her older brother. Turning around, she indeed saw her older brother standing at the door, silently staring at her.
"Brother, come here quickly," Liu Dinglan touched her nose and waved to her older brother.
Liu Xu raised an eyebrow, strode over, and unceremoniously tapped Liu Dinglan's forehead: "You finally remembered your older brother. I thought you hadn't remembered me at all today."
"Hehe, I'm just so excited to run into Qingqing! Brother, this is Xia Qingqing, the savior I told you about," Liu Dinglan excitedly introduced Xia Qingqing to her older brother.
Then he turned to Xia Qingqing and said, "Qingqing, this is my older brother Liu Xu. You can call him older brother just like I do."
Xia Qingqing stood up and smiled politely at Liu Xu: "Hello, Brother Liu."
I couldn't help but click my tongue in surprise. I didn't expect Liu Dinglan's brother to be so handsome. He had thick eyebrows, big eyes, and a high nose bridge. He was a typical tough guy, and this kind of look was very popular in this era.
"Hello, just call me Brother Xu, calling me Brother Liu makes me sound old," Liu Xu smiled at Xia Qingqing, secretly sizing up the girl in front of him. She was pretty and cute, barely reaching his shoulder. He wondered where she got the courage to save her.
But it must be said that Liu Xu had a very good impression of his sister's savior. Ever since he came home yesterday, his sister had been praising Xia Qingqing to him incessantly, saying how wonderful and amazing she was. He could tell that his sister liked this girl.
Liu Dinglan pulled her brother to sit down next to Xia Qingqing: "Brother, you sit down first. I'll go buy some food. You can stay the usual."
After saying that, Liu Dinglan hurriedly walked away. She wanted to create an opportunity for her older brother and Qingqing to be alone together, hoping that her brother could live up to her expectations and bring Qingqing home to be his sister-in-law.
As for Gou Dan, who was sitting next to her earnestly eating wontons, he had long been ignored by Liu Dinglan.
"Qingqing, do you mind if I call you that?" Liu Xu sat down without feeling awkward and took the initiative to talk to Xia Qingqing.
Xia Qingqing shook her head: "I don't mind. Don't you guys have to go to work today, Brother Xu?"
This was just making conversation. If someone was eating at a state-run restaurant at this hour, they definitely didn't have to work. But Xia Qingqing didn't know what to say to them, so she just exchanged some casual pleasantries.
"I'm taking a break. I just got back from driving yesterday, and Lanlan is off today too. She insisted on dragging me to the state-run restaurant for breakfast," Liu Xu said with a hint of helplessness.
He had been driving for more than half a month and hadn't had a good rest. He finally got home to rest and wanted to sleep in, but his sister dragged him to breakfast, claiming that not eating breakfast was bad for his health.
When Xia Qingqing heard that Liu Xugang had just returned in his sports car, she asked him some questions about driving a sports car. Gou Dan, sitting next to him, listened with great interest, looking at his older brother with envy.
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