Song Yan was very good at maintaining good relationships with his neighbors. Wei Aiguo watched as Song Yan left with several baskets of steamed buns.
Of these women, only Sister Tian was home. The others had all gone into the mountains. Song Yan left the things with the child watching the house.
Looking at the basket of steamed buns, Sister Tian kept praising Song Yan for his skillful hands.
“Sister-in-law, what do you want? I can knit quite a lot of things,” Song Yan said.
"I feel so bad that you've had to go through all this trouble." Sister Tian held the bamboo basket with obvious delight.
Song Yan: "Make me a pair of gloves! The kind with five fingers. Otherwise, they'll rub against my hands when I'm weaving bamboo baskets. I'll also weave a bamboo basket for you, do you want one?"
"If I make you a pair of gloves, I can get a bamboo basket—I'm getting a great deal!" Aunt Tian's family had gloves made on hand. Women often made gloves from the sturdy, undamaged pieces of their children's old clothes. They kept a supply of gloves at home.
The middle-aged man genuinely wanted to earn some pocket money. Song Yan saw him delivering charcoal when he returned. His charcoal was really good. Song Yan also asked him to deliver another five cents worth of bamboo strips, this time more of the slightly thicker ones, for making edgings.
The middle-aged man happily agreed.
At noon, Wei Aiguo asked Song Yan to cook noodles. She had cuts on her hands, and they didn't want her to get them wet. Cooking noodles was easier.
Actually, it was just a tiny scratch on his finger, nothing serious. But Wei Aiguo insisted that Song Yan avoid getting it wet as much as possible, so Song Yan listened to him.
At dinner time, Song Yan was preparing a cold vegetable salad. Wei Aiguo wanted to wash the vegetables. He only had one hand, so it wasn't very convenient for him. But he insisted, so Song Yan let him.
Song Yan put charcoal into the coal stove and started it up. He borrowed an iron grate from Sister He's house and placed the sweet potatoes on it. Song Yan kept turning them over. When Wei Aiguo wasn't watching, Song Yan took out a few sweet potatoes that had been roasting in the ceramic jar in his spatial storage.
These sweet potatoes were sprouted by Song Yan using spring water from his spatial dimension and then replanted within it. Once roasted, their sweet aroma was incredibly enticing.
Song Yan broke one open and handed half to Wei Aiguo. The two of them slowly began to eat.
"So sweet." There were no sweet potatoes in Qingshan Brigade; Wei Aiguo only got to eat them after he arrived in the south. He thought the taste of sweet potatoes was just average. He didn't expect them to taste so good after roasting.
The two hadn't even finished eating a sweet potato when they heard the front door open. Looking through the window, they saw Qiu Hai enter, followed by Xu Liangsheng, Fang Shengjie, and Wang Jinhui. What were they doing here?
"What's that smell? Are sweet potatoes this fragrant? They all smell sweet!" Qiu Haixian ran in.
"What brings you here?" Song Yan asked.
"My dad said I needed too much training and said he'd send me to the army camp. The other three families thought my dad's idea was good, so we all came. I'm exhausted after a long day, and I'm so hungry." Qiu Hai ran to the kitchen and swallowed hard as he looked at the sweet potatoes.
Qiu Hai offered him plenty of food, but he refused to take any. Song Yan wouldn't be so stingy as to withhold sweet potatoes from him.
Song Yan picked up the sweet potatoes, put them in a basin, and gave them to the group.
The four boys wolfed it down. Sigh, it's true what they say, "A bunch of teenagers can eat their fathers out of house and home." Not satisfied, they even licked their lips.
Song Yan and Wei Aiguo ate the first one; they hadn't had their fill yet.
Maybe it was someone else's dinner. They ate it all and then felt a little embarrassed.
"Let's go to the cafeteria and get our food here!" Xu Liangsheng suggested.
The rest nodded in agreement. They thought they should get more food so they could bring some of their food back; they couldn't just eat their food for free.
"Sister Song, are you going to the canteen to get food too? Give me your lunchbox, I'll get it back for you," Qiu Hai said. Wei Aiguo was a soldier, so his meals were definitely free.
Song Yan glanced back at Wei Aiguo; he didn't object. Actually, rural people have rather mixed customs. Unlike people living in apartment buildings in later generations, who might live across the hall for years without recognizing their neighbors. It's almost unheard of to kick out neighbors who come over for a meal.
Song Yan gave the lunchbox to Qiu Hai and told him to only take food for Wei Aiguo.
Song Yan went to the kitchen and mixed the wild vegetables. He also made a stir-fry of wild eggs and luncheon meat. There were still some leftover steamed buns, enough to eat.
When the boys came back, they smelled something fresh and took a deep sniff. It smelled like luncheon meat, but why did it smell so good?
There's only one small table at home, not many chairs, so everyone eats standing up.
"It's delicious! What kind of dish is this?" Wang Jinhui asked.
"It's just wild vegetables from the mountains."
"It's so delicious."
Song Yan hadn't known they were coming, so he hadn't prepared much wild vegetable. These kids took turns eating it, and the plate was almost empty. Eventually, they stopped eating the wild vegetables altogether.
They are a bit mischievous and prone to causing trouble, but they still have at least some basic manners.
"If you'd like some, I'll make some more tomorrow."
"Sure, sis, these wild vegetables taste amazing," Xu Liangsheng said.
The others nodded in agreement.
Everyone ate quickly, and soon everything was gone.
Qiu Hai was the most diligent, busying himself washing the lunchboxes. The others also helped pick up chopsticks and such. Only Fang Shengjie stood there, seemingly doing nothing.
Since they were there, Wei Aiguo chatted with them in a very friendly manner, asking them what kind of training they had participated in that day, and whether they were tired, etc.
Song Yan discovered that if Wei Aiguo didn't want to create an awkward silence, he could chat with people in a calm and unhurried manner.
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