Chapter 61 Awards
Lao Qi and Lao Lin huddled in front of the embers of the brazier for half the night before Su Tong came back.
Su Tong saw that the two old men were still awake, so he spoke without waiting for them to ask:
"Aunt Cuifen is fine. She has been worried too much for a long time and has been malnourished. In addition, she didn't pay attention to her previous minor illnesses. Now she has fluid in her lungs and cardiovascular problems... The disease can be cured, but it's not easy to get rid of it. We can only take care of it slowly."
After saying that, he yawned, "Okay, go to bed! We'll talk about it tomorrow!"
The two old men looked at each other and finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Lao Qi used tongs to dig out two soft roasted sweet potatoes from the hot ashes and looked at the closed door.
Lao Lin sighed and said, "Keep it for now!"
The next morning, Su Tong woke up half an hour late. When he got up, someone was already busy in the yard.
Two old men were pruning bamboo branches, Ma Daming was stacking adobe bricks in the corner of the yard, and a dark and thin young man was sawing bamboo with one foot on a bench. The yard, which was not big to begin with, was now packed.
Seeing Su Tong coming out, everyone in the yard turned their eyes to her. Ma Daming spoke first, "Tongya! I heard that you were busy at Er Laizi's house for half the night last night. Why don't you sleep a little longer!"
Su Tong then remembered that Shitou had come to tell her last night that Ma Daming would bring people over to help her build the kang and make furniture. She smiled and said:
"I've slept well! I almost forgot you guys were coming over today!"
Su Tong looked at the dark and thin bamboo craftsman and found that he looked familiar. He found that it was the young man who had ridden the tractor with him when he was discharged from the hospital. After searching his mind for a while, he remembered who he was and said:
"This must be Master Zheng, right? I'm sorry I didn't recognize you last time I took the bus. Thank you for your hard work today!"
“No, no…don’t…”
The young man seemed very reserved. He put down the saw in a panic, waved his hands for a long time, and didn't utter a complete sentence.
Ma Daming laughed at the side, "Tongya! I remember you and Liangping were classmates, right? No need to be so polite!"
Zheng Liangping hurriedly followed up, "Yes, yes! You're welcome! Just call me Liangping!"
Su Tong smiled and said, "My classmate was still young at that time, but now he is a craftsman, so it's only natural to call him master!"
Zheng Liangping was obviously a little embarrassed. He didn't know where to put his hands and feet, and didn't know how to respond.
Su Tong saw it and turned to the kitchen, "Then you guys go ahead and do your work, I'll go make breakfast!"
But I felt a little confused. Several generations of the Zheng family have been bamboo craftsmen. They have traveled around and eaten at many people's homes. They have seen more scenes than ordinary villagers. It shouldn't be like this!
Ma Daming shouted from behind: "Tongya, we came here after breakfast, just make some hot tea!"
"knew!"
Su Tong agreed, but his men still cleaned the pot and put a few poached eggs in it.
According to the rules in the countryside, when you invite a craftsman to your home, in addition to paying him wages, you also have to provide three meals a day. Since they had already had breakfast, she made a bowl of egg tea for each of them. She couldn't be rude.
When she served four bowls of hot poached eggs in several portions, everyone in the yard was stunned. Four poached eggs with brown sugar in one bowl...
This, this is something that the wives in the village can only eat once during their confinement period, and this girl brought it out so carelessly!
The two old men took it silently. They were used to this girl's "wastefulness". They were used to eating whatever was given to them and didn't dare to say much.
Ma Daming clicked his tongue in pain, "You are... wasting things! It would be great to keep this for nourishment! Give it to us rough guys to eat this... this..."
"It's okay! Uncle Ma! I just went to the market yesterday, and I just happened to have some at home, you guys can eat it... I'm going to the village entrance to look for my uncle, and I also need to go to Aunt Cuifen's house."
Su Tong walked out with a cloth bag filled with eggs and a few pounds of rice. She didn't notice Zheng Liangping's eyes lifted from the edge of the bowl and followed her closely until the gate closed...
"Ryohei! This is a real girl! She has done everything, let's just eat! After eating, get back to work!"
Ma Daming sighed and started eating in big mouthfuls.
Zheng Liangping sipped the brown sugar water in the bowl and after a long while he nodded heavily and said "hmm".
As the New Year was getting closer, many villagers went to the town to do shopping, and the cows had rested for a while, so the old man's ox cart started running again.
When Su Tong arrived, there were already quite a few people on the ox cart. Su Tong handed a prescription and a purchase order along with five dollars to the old uncle, and asked him to help get Aunt Cuifen's medicine back.
The old man naturally knew what happened last night. After collecting the prescription and the money, he sighed and said, "Girl! You are a good person! I will go to your house a few more times and ask your mother to take you back."
"No hurry! Uncle! I'm doing fine now! Let's talk about it later!"
Su Tong smiled and didn't explain much.
In the eyes of the elderly, children are always dependent on their mothers, but they don’t know that their mothers would like to eat the children’s flesh and drink their blood.
Su Tong turned around and picked up the cloth bag and went to Aunt Cuifen's house. In fact, Aunt Cuifen's illness was not a serious one. To put it bluntly, most of it was because she was angry with Wu Erlai, and a small part was because she was worried about the money and delayed treatment. In addition, she didn't have any nutritional supplements on weekdays, so she ended up in her current condition.
But this also shows how difficult it was for Aunt Cuifen to help the two old men back then. Her family was originally a run-down business, but she was still able to save food to support the two old men who were despised by the whole village. Just for this reason, Su Tong was willing to help her. Of course, it would be even better if she could teach Wu Erlaizi a lesson at the same time.
As expected, there was no one at home, and no one knew where Wu Erlai had gone.
Su Tong lit a fire on the stove and cooked the rice porridge before sitting down beside Aunt Cuifen's bed to give her acupuncture.
Before the acupuncture treatment was completed, Shi Tou came rushing in.
"Sister Tongya! Sister Tongya! I've been looking for you for a long time! Something big has happened!"
Su Tong frowned, raised his finger and said "shush", "keep your voice down, Auntie is sick! What happened?"
"The reporters are here! They said they want to interview the hero and his hometown! They also said they want to receive an award, and all the drummers and gongs are here. Secretary Wu told you to get ready..."
Shitou's face was full of excitement and he was panting as he ran.
"Why didn't you notify me? You came as soon as I said you would?"
"It is said that Secretary Wu went to the county for a meeting yesterday, and today the reporters followed him along. The old playground at the educated youth site is being set up! The gong and drum team from the commune will be here soon, and there will be an award ceremony... and the county leaders will also be here!"
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