"Xiao Moran, are you sick? What are you doing tearing the roof off so early in the morning?" Su Xiaonuan scolded as soon as she opened her mouth.
"I'm fixing the leaks." Xiao Moran held up a piece of green tile and waved it. "There are still new tiles in the house. I'm replacing all the broken ones so you can live here more comfortably."
"Then you shouldn't start work so early, right?"
"I have a lot to do today. I'm going to the provincial capital tomorrow, so I need to get the roof repaired as soon as possible."
Are you going to the provincial capital tomorrow?
“Yes, my classmates wrote to me. They have a project they want me to come and work on,” he said loudly. “We weren’t home yesterday, so Uncle Li collected the mail for me and delivered it to me this morning. So, I’ll have to do a lot more work today.”
Su Xiaonuan thought to herself, "It's good that you're going to the provincial capital. It will save me from feeling awkward around you. Without you at home, my life will be more carefree. Otherwise, wherever I go, there will be a pair of eyes watching me."
She looked at herself and was relieved that she hadn't been exposed. Luckily, the two little ones wouldn't try to undress her; otherwise, it would have been so embarrassing if the guy on the roof had seen her.
"Hurry up and tidy up the things on the bed, lest dust fall down," he shouted laboriously from above. "Put the bed tidy up and get out of here, don't come back in until I've finished fixing it."
Su Xiaonuan quickly got out of bed, sent the child out first, and then tidied up the things on the bed later.
He looked up and said, "Be careful, don't fall!"
"I know." Xiao Moran was so happy by her words that he wanted to leap down, but the opening was too small to accommodate his body.
He believed that she cared about him.
As for Su Xiaonuan, she was just saying it casually. Even if the person above wasn't Xiao Moran, he would still give the same instructions.
"Sister-in-law, you're up?" Moxi brought her a basin of hot water. "My brother asked me to boil some water for you."
"Your brother said he'd boil some water for me?" Su Xiaonuan was instantly embarrassed. She thought to herself, "That bastard Xiao Moran must have been spying on me from the roof. Otherwise, how would he know I'm on my period?"
Just as she was about to lash out, Zhang Yulan came over and said, "Xiao Nuan, bring out your and the child's clothes for me to wash in a bit. Don't use cold water these days, don't go into the kitchen, and don't do any heavy work."
"Oh," she replied, carrying the washbasin to the yard, where she found Xiao Moran smiling at her.
She punched and kicked him.
He simply smiled without saying a word.
That morning, Su Xiaonuan was pampered like a pampered young lady, not allowed to do anything, only allowed to sit in the courtyard to rest, waiting for food to be served to her and clothes to be put on her back.
Mornings in the countryside are quite busy. Moxi is cooking in the kitchen while her mother-in-law is busy running around. First, she chops pig feed, then she sweeps the yard. Sweeping the yard after the rain is quite strenuous, and she has to bend down to pick up any bits that aren't swept clean. After sweeping the yard, she waters the flowers and plants, and then she washes the family's clothes.
Su Xiaonuan tried to help several times but was stopped each time.
On a clear morning after the rain, the air was pleasant. Sitting in the courtyard filled with the fragrance of flowers and the sounds of birds, drinking tea, watching the children laugh and play, and watching her husband busy on the roof, she felt for a moment that this was her home.
"Breakfast is ready," Mersey called out.
DouDou and GuoGuo ran the fastest. When they were crossing the threshold, the two little ones helped each other. The threshold of the main room was quite high, and their short legs couldn't step over it in one go.
Su Xiaonuan smiled with relief. After all, they are brothers, and they will help each other when it comes to overcoming difficulties. Last night, when the two little ones were arguing, she was still thinking about how to get them to unite. Now she doesn't have to worry about it anymore.
Xiao Moran had already come down from the roof, washed his hands, and walked to her side. "What are you thinking about so intently again?"
"It's quite interesting to watch them cross the threshold."
"Come on in, have breakfast. I've already repaired your roof. After breakfast, I'll make you a mattress," he instructed her. "When I'm not home, if someone comes to cause trouble, don't be stubborn. Don't suffer any losses."
Do you think I'm the kind of person who would suffer a loss in the short term?
Xiao Moran smiled, because he believed that with her abilities, no one could bully her now.
The breakfast that Mo Ran made was quite simple: cornmeal porridge, steamed sweet potatoes, a bowl of cold water spinach salad, and boiled eggs separately for Su Xiaonuan and her two children.
In the past, only eggs were boiled for the two children in the morning, but this morning Su Xiaonuan actually got some. It seems that she has a very important position in this family.
After yesterday's lesson, DouDou and GuoGuo stopped eating alone and handed her the eggs. "Mommy, eggs are for everyone to eat together."
"Good girl!" Su Xiaonuan kissed each of the children's foreheads, then peeled the three eggs and cut them in half.
They refused to eat the eggs.
Su Xiaonuan scolded them without any politeness. "A family shouldn't be divided. If we're going to eat, we should all eat together. If we're not going to eat, then no one should eat. The children have finally developed this kind of awareness, but you're not cooperating. Then let them continue to eat alone. They'll grow up to be selfish people."
After she scolded them like that, they all fell silent, took the eggs, and started eating.
After Su Xiaonuan's guidance, the two children now share whatever they eat with everyone, which is completely different from before.
DouDou and GuoGuo would call out cutely for their mothers to eat, and then for their grandmothers, fathers, and aunts to eat, making the adults so happy that they kept praising them as good children.
"Xiao Nuan, see if there's anything you need me to do around the house, and arrange it quickly. I'll go make a mattress for you and your children now." Xiao Moran put down the bowl and chopsticks and stood up.
"Making mattresses?" Zhang Yulan and her daughter looked at him with doubt at the same time.
"Aren't there lots of unused hemp hanging in the storage room? Xiao Nuan wants to use hemp to make a mattress."
"Using hemp to make a mattress?"
Seeing the astonished looks on her mother-in-law and sister-in-law's faces, she explained, "Using hemp to make mattresses is breathable and environmentally friendly. It's more comfortable than laying straw on the bed. Moxi, we'll make hemp mattress covers together in a bit."
"What are you standing there for? Hurry up and go weave some hemp nets. Maybe it'll be another way to make money." Zhang Yulan no longer doubted her daughter-in-law's abilities and gave Moxi a push. "Learn from your sister-in-law properly."
After cleaning up the kitchen, Zhang Yulan went to work in the fields.
Following Xiao Nuan's instructions, Xiao Moran wove a hollowed-out bed frame using bamboo strips and bamboo strips. Then, he stuffed all the tangled hemp into the mattress, covered it with the mattress cover woven by the two sisters-in-law, and sewed the opening closed with a needle.
When the mattress was laid out, Xiao Moran and his sister were both amazed. They sat on the bed and tried it out, and both thought the invention was fantastic.
“It’s a pity there’s not much hemp left, otherwise I would have made a mattress like this too,” Moshe said regretfully. “This is so much better than the straw we use, and we don’t have to worry about straw dust getting on our clothes.”
"It was my oversight. If we replaced the stuffed hemp with a more breathable filling and only used hemp to weave the mattress cover, we could make more mattresses like this." Su Xiaonuan wasn't very satisfied with this design. After all, it didn't have springs and didn't feel like a Simmons mattress; it was only for temporary use.
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