Aunt Yang gently pushed Xiao Yunying through the door: "Yunying, you wait at home. Tianyun will be back soon, so it won't delay your dinner."
"Alright, thank you for your hard work, Brother Yang."
"It's just chopping wood. He's a rough man, what's so hard about that? Hurry up and go inside and wait. Your Uncle Yang will be back soon. I need to go back and tell him about the washboard."
Xiao Yunying put down her basket and asked Luo Chen, "Is there any other chores at home?"
"There are none available today."
It means it will be available tomorrow.
Putting everything else aside, chopping wood and carrying water are things we do every day.
Xiao Yunying breathed a sigh of relief: "Then I'll rest for a while."
I found a small stool in the shade and sat down, rubbing my sore legs.
Seeing this, Xin'er squatted down next to her and rubbed her legs with her little hands: "Mommy, does your leg hurt?"
"Your legs are a little sore from walking so much, Xin'er. Does it hurt?"
The little guy walked quite a distance yesterday too.
"My feet hurt when I woke up this morning, but they don't hurt now."
Xiao Yunying spoke with Luo Xin for a while, then looked at the three boys still standing in the yard: "What are you all doing standing here? If you want to go out and play, go out and play. If you don't want to play, go back to your room and rest for a while."
Luo Chen sat on the threshold of the main room: "I need to chop firewood when the firewood comes back."
"I'll chop wood, you guys go have fun."
An axe is a sharp tool, and it's easy to get injured if you're not careful, so she didn't feel comfortable letting her child chop firewood.
Luo Chen remained seated.
Xiao Yunying didn't know what was wrong with the child this time, and he didn't say anything, nor did she bother to guess.
Luo Yang said, "Stepmother has worked hard all day. We can chop wood. We've been doing it for so long, we're quite skilled at it."
She found those words quite appealing: "Let's wait until Yang Tianyun brings the firewood back before we talk about it."
Luo Xin snuggled in Xiao Yunying's arms and said sweetly, "Mom, you said yesterday you would make bubbles for Xin'er to play with, can you make them today?"
"It's not possible today, we don't have any bamboo tubes at home. Can Mom make some for you tomorrow?"
The supermarket has bubble toys, but they're all packaged in plastic bottles. She has to change them to bamboo tubes so the children can play with them.
Luo Xin was easy to talk to: "Okay."
Yang Tianyun was quick and returned with a load of firewood in no time.
It wasn't the branches that Luo Chen and his friends picked up; it was a thick tree trunk.
He carried the firewood directly to the backyard, chopped it up, and stacked it in the corner.
New firewood needs to be dried before it can be burned. It is usually left to air out in the yard for a while before being moved into the woodshed or kitchen.
Xiao Yunying tried to persuade him a couple of times but to no avail, so she stopped being coy. He could easily split a piece of wood in two with a single swing of his axe, so it must not have been tiring for him.
Just now, I didn't expect that there wouldn't be enough time to boil water, so Xiao Yunying poured a clay pot of mineral water and added some white sugar to it.
After Yang Tianyun put away the firewood, Xiao Yunying poured him a bowl of water.
"Thank you for your hard work, Brother Yang."
Yang Tianyun didn't stand on ceremony and finished the water in a few gulps: "This water is quite sweet."
Xiao Yunying poured him another bowl: "I added sugar to the water."
"Huh? I'm not drinking it anymore, you can keep it for yourself."
"It's just a bowl of water, Brother Yang, drink it without worry. If Aunt Yang knew that I wouldn't even let you have a bowl of sweet water, she would say I'm stingy."
Yang Tianyun smiled and said, "My mother wouldn't think that way about you."
He had already touched the bowl with his lips, and after finishing it in a few gulps, he handed the bowl back to Xiao Yunying: "I've laid out the firewood for you. If you ever need too much firewood at home, just come to me and I'll chop some for you."
"No need to trouble yourself, Luo Chen and I have collected enough firewood."
“How much firewood can a girl like you gather? My mother said that you have the hands for embroidery, not for rough work. If your hands get rough, you’ll snag the fine fabric.”
Luo Chen, who overheard this, looked at Xiao Yunying's hand.
He had never imagined that her embroidery hands couldn't do rough work, and that they would become rough and smudge the silk and satin.
He just felt that this woman was really bad, lazy and useless, leaving all the work to them.
Yang Tianyun picked up his own hemp rope and axe, and took the carrying pole: "Yun Ying, I'm leaving now. If you need anything in the future, just come to my house and call me."
Xiao Yunying joked, "I'm taking that seriously. Don't find me annoying, Second Brother Yang."
A casual joke made Yang Tianyun a little flustered, his face flushed: "It won't bother you, I, I'll go first."
Xiao Yunying saw him to the door: "Take care, Brother Yang."
She closed the door and turned around, only to see Luo Chen and Luo Yang standing on either side of her, looking at her with serious expressions.
Why are you all surrounding me?
Luo Chen said, "What you just said was a little inappropriate. He is an outsider, and you should keep your distance."
Xiao Yunying rolled her eyes inwardly: "I was just joking with him. If I keep refusing his kindness, it will damage the relationship between our family and Aunt Yang's family. It's just a few polite words. I'm not really going to see him. I'm not disabled. I have hands and feet. What can't I do by myself?"
She's so young and she has so many worries. What, are you afraid she'll abandon her father, whose fate is unknown, and run off with someone else?
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