"Yes, grandma, let her go, we will be careful." Several children also pleaded.
Seeing Pan'er crying so sadly, Zhou felt a little sorry for her. "Alright, alright, stop crying. Go ahead if you want to go. But be careful. If you come back with wet clothes, I'll see if grandma will beat you."
Pan'er wiped her tears, ran forward, and took Shuduo and Yanqi's hands, "Let's go." She was afraid that it would be too late and her grandmother would change her mind.
Zhang looked at the child who was walking away and said, "Mom, I'll go back to the yard first." The quilts at home also needed to be dried, and there was still a lot of work to do in the yard.
"Go ahead." Zhou called out to Dashan inside the house. "Dashan, go get the bamboo sticks from the room and give this quilt a good beating. It'll make your sleep more comfortable at night. The quilt has become stiff after covering itself with it for so long."
Dashan hurriedly agreed and went to get a stick. Yan Dahe also came out, "Then I'll go back and tidy up my quilts, and by the way, let Chunxiao's quilts dry out in the sun. It would be a shame not to dry them in such a sunny day."
Everyone was busy with their own things. Chunxiao sat in the yard, watching Dashan and her mother making quilts. Her eldest sister-in-law sat with her, sewing shoe soles. "Shuwen's feet grow very fast. A pair of shoes becomes too small after only six months. It's really frustrating."
"Sister-in-law, children's skills grow fast, so it won't be wasted if you do it. There will be so many younger brothers and sisters in the future. The children in our family are all obedient and sensible. It's you and sister-in-law who taught them well."
"You just came back and haven't been with them much. You can get angry to death when you're naughty. They're not afraid of me, but only of his father and our parents. You'll understand later."
As the two were talking, Yan Bingfa came back from outside.
Tian stood up quickly and said, "Dad, the rice is hot in the pot for you. Would you like to eat in the yard or have it brought to the main hall?"
"You sit here and do your thing, I'll get it myself." Then he went to the kitchen.
Tian sat down again and continued to sew the soles of her shoes.
Yan Bingfa quickly came out with a bowl in one hand and a stool in the other. Seeing that he was going to eat in the yard, Zhou and Dashan put down their bamboo poles and sat down too.
"Dad, how is the house now?"
Yan Bingfa ate his vegetable pancake, glanced at his son and Zhou, then lowered his head and took two mouthfuls of porridge. "It's a little broken, but the walls are okay. It should be habitable after some repairs." He looked at Chunxiao as he ate. "Dad's idea is to build a house next to your second brother. That way it's closer and more convenient. If you really live at the end of the village, it'll be like a separate household. I won't be able to take care of you if you get busy."
"Dad, we were supposed to separate the households. Now that we can live in it after it's been renovated, can you please ask the village head about the price for me? We're not going to live here for just one or two days, maybe for a lifetime."
"Little sister, are you really going to live at the end of the village?" Tian was very confused. "I think it would be better to listen to Dad and build a house nearby. It would be much better to be close."
"Sister-in-law, I live far away and I don't want to listen to the gossip of the villagers."
"She's got a stubborn temper now," Zhou sighed. "I don't know who she took after. Mother knows she's comfortable living alone. Okay, I won't try to persuade her anymore. At most, Mother can walk more often and practice her legs. I just don't know how much the land will cost. If it's expensive, forget it. It's not worth it. If it's expensive, then just build a house nearby and live there."
"Dad, when are you going to see the village head? I'll go with you."
Yan Bingfa glanced at Yan Dashan and said, "Let's go this afternoon. If we really want to live there, it will take several days to build a house. It's better to do it sooner rather than later."
"Dad, let's go tomorrow and take care of my daughter's household registration at the same time."
"That's fine. Then, Dashan, come with me to the mountain this afternoon to collect some firewood. I won't be busy preparing it later, and your sister will need it." Yan Bingfa quickly finished the porridge in his bowl. "This meal is quite sumptuous today. I guess I'm taking advantage of Chunxiao."
Everyone in the yard laughed.
"Dad, please don't embarrass me. I'm a freeloader." Chunxiao looked at the mountains in the distance and said, "I'll go with you. I haven't been to the mountains for a long time and I'm not familiar with the roads."
"We'll be going up the mountain a lot in the future. You just fell into the water, and I see you're still coughing occasionally, so don't go. Rest well at home for a couple of days. Your sister-in-law and I will take you up the mountain later." Zhou wasn't making the quilt, but her hands were busy too. She took Tian's other shoe sole and helped to knit it. "If you really can't stay idle, help me cut some radishes this afternoon and dry them in the sun."
"Okay, then I'll help you cut the radishes. We won't go up the mountain today." Chunxiao looked at Zhou, who was 45 years old, but half her hair was already white. Her father's hair was the same. The couple had spent most of their lives toiling away on food. She couldn't help but sigh inwardly. Their ancestors had lived in poverty for generations, so what else could they do? Now she had to feed the family. She couldn't add to the burden.
After dinner, Yan Bingfa sat for an incense stick of time and then took Yan Dashan and Yan Dahe to the mountain.
Chunxiao followed Zhou to the vegetable garden to pick radishes. "It's cold today, so these radishes are growing strong. We can't eat them all at once. If they keep growing, they'll become hollow. We can eat them after drying them and soaking them in water."
The vegetable patch was right next to the yard. Chunxiao picked a few large ones and loosened the soil with a shovel before pulling them out. Otherwise, the radishes would break and it would be bad. "Mom, I see there are quite a few cabbages over there. Do you want to dry some too?"
"If you don't eat the cabbage, it's fine to leave it in the ground. It's not worth eating it after drying it. Just pick the radishes."
The two finally pulled a dozen or so radishes. Zhou washed them, Chunxiao cut them into strips, and Tian helped hang them out to dry. More people meant faster work, and soon two large winnowing baskets of radishes were drying. They began to make the quilts again, and just as they were doing so, someone arrived in the yard: Aunt Fang, who lived not far away, and her daughter-in-law, Dujuan.
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