Chapter 178: Unsafe
"Auntie!"
Wen Wan shouted.
Gao Xiulan smiled when she saw her: "Is school over?"
"It's time to go home from school." Wen Wan said, looking at the food piled up beside her and asked her, "Why are there still so many?"
Gao Xiulan said, "What's so much? I've been busy all year and now it's all here. Can you help me lead the formation on the first day of the new year? I have to carry it too. I can't do anything because I'm entangled by this little thing. It's getting dark." The days in the twelfth lunar month are the shortest. After five o'clock, at most six o'clock, you can't see anything.
Wen Wan agreed and said, "Okay! Come here, Xiao Chuyi, I'll hold you. Be good!"
Chuyi liked her very much and his saliva was dripping from his mouth while grinning at her.
Afraid that she couldn't hold the baby, Gao Xiulan got her a small stool so she could sit there and look at things while holding the baby.
Without mother's milk, Gao Xiulan was afraid that the baby would not survive. In fact, no other child was fed as carefully as Chuyi. Rice flour was already a very good thing these days, and with two cans of malted milk mixed in, she managed to feed a chubby little baby.
She was as energetic as a child who had just grown up drinking mother's milk. Wen Wan was sitting on a small stool holding her, with her legs tied in the quilt and kicking vigorously, and she was looking at Wen Wan with an "oh" sound as if she was teasing her.
Gao Xiulan felt relieved when she saw that the child was so well behaved in her arms. She put the sack of eggs in the backpack she used to carry and carried it away.
As soon as we left, Lu Donglin came over with a backpack.
"Sister-in-law, you're out of school!"
Wen Wan nodded, "It's time to go home from school." As she spoke, she watched him put down the backpack and put the potatoes piled there into it. She couldn't help but say, "You should carry less. You're growing taller, and you'll become hunchbacked later."
Lu Donglin didn't care: "It's okay, I'm very strong!"
He was very strong. He carried most of the potatoes in his backpack and was so exhausted that he had to wander on the ground for several times before he got up with the help of a rake. Wen Wan looked at him and saw that both of his legs were trembling.
Zhou Guicai walked back with him, carrying grain on his back. When they were almost out of the wheat field, he asked him, "Donglin, how are you? Is it easier to go to school or work?"
Lu Donglin snorted: "No one is at ease."
Zhou Guicai laughed: "You are a fool. Going to school is so comfortable. You only use your brain in class and don't put in any effort. You don't go to school, and then come back and work from morning till night. It's more annoying than a cow. You are at this age, neither big nor small. If you go to school, you are still a child. But when you come back from school, you are in trouble. You have to be ordered around by adults."
Lu Donglin snorted: "What do you know? I'm not cut out for studying. My head gets a headache as soon as I'm in class. Don't waste your time and money all day. You don't learn anything, and you don't earn any work points. You're just dragging the family down every year." He felt that the current situation was good enough. It was hard work, but he was happy with it.
During a breather, he subconsciously glanced towards the wheat field. The only bad thing was that he could no longer go to and from school with his sister and sister-in-law. It felt like the distance had suddenly widened, as if if he didn't go to school, they would have nothing to talk about.
Wen Wan sat holding Chuyi in the threshing floor. Even as the sky darkened, the field remained bustling with activity, each one busy and bustling. Families with more labor and more rations received more grain—not just grain, but also coupons and money. But families with more people and less labor, with children and elderly parents, were in dire straits. Once they received their share of rations, they had to pay the production team back once the rations were evenly distributed. They also faced gossip and ridicule, as they were being accused of eating relief rations.
Some are happy, some are sad!
Xu Qingming came over with a backpack, and she was wiping Chuyi's saliva.
I always feel that she is still a child. Even after getting married, she is still that little girl in Xu Qingming's eyes. But now holding someone else's child, Xu Qingming feels that she has really grown up and become an adult.
Wen Wan looked up and saw him standing there looking at her. She called out, "Seventh Brother, haven't you collected all your rations yet?"
"I only have so little stuff, and I've already collected it. I saw that Lu Dongping hadn't come back yet, so I wanted to help my cousin and the others, otherwise they would have to grope in the dark."
"Thank you!"
Xu Qingming glanced at her, put down the backpack, picked up the sack on the ground and threw it in.
He was very strong, and he could carry the task in one trip while Lu Donglin had to carry it twice. Wen Wan estimated that one trip would be enough for each of them this time.
Wang Mingfang and Lu Changfa also carried backpacks, followed by Lu Mingqing and his wife Liu Liumei. Together with Lu Cuicui, there were five laborers in the family. The youngest, Lu Sanya, was not used yet and was watching over the food.
It's easier to work with more people, and this is the last trip.
Wen Wan called out as she passed by, "Grandpa, you haven't finished reciting yet?"
Lu Changfa responded: "It's over, there's only this one more trip, it's over!"
Wen Wan smiled: "Your family has a lot of laborers, so you should get a lot this year, right?"
Wang Mingfang didn't wait for Lu Changfa to speak before she took over the conversation: "It's not much. I didn't pay back the loan I made before, and it's not much I paid back. I still have to tighten my belt to make ends meet at the beginning of the new year."
Wen Wan smiled and said, "That's great too."
"Your family can't be compared! Yours has had a bumper harvest this year. You and Dongping get a salary every month, and you get work points at the end of the year. Only Donglinwa and Chun'e can earn some work points, and your parents share some of that. Our family of six are all middle-level cadres, and our lives are getting better and better!"
Wen Wan patted Chu Yi in her arms and smiled, "Hey, people outside think everything is fine, but I know for myself that I am just a drag. Look, the food is right in front of me, but I don't have the guts to take it back."
"How can you say that? You're a pen-wielder, it's normal that you can't do these things." It was rare for Wang Mingfang to speak nicely, and Wen Wan was really surprised.
After chatting for a while, Wang Mingfang said, "Let's not talk about it anymore. It's getting dark. Come over to my house when you're not busy. Sixth sister is about the same age as you. You young wives will have a lot to talk about when you're together."
Wen Wan agreed, looked into the distance, and then looked in front of her. She knew she had to go at least one more time, and she really had to grope in the dark.
On the last trip, Wen Wan carried Chuyi back with Zhang Hongying and the others. Zhang Hongying called Xu Qingming over for dinner, but Xu Qingming didn't go. What kind of thing would it be to just hold hands and go eat? A professional freeloader?
Wen Wan went back and sent Chuyi to the next door. She turned around and waved her hands: "Auntie is really good at feeding children. I haven't held Chuyi for a few days. I feel that he has grown taller." He was so heavy that it was really tiring to carry him all the way.
There was a kerosene lamp burning in the kitchen. Lu Chun'e was lighting the fire while Zhang Hongying was adding water to the pot to cook.
After being delayed in the afternoon, Wen Wan brought the bag of books into the kitchen, put it on the table and prepared to finish the work carefully.
Zhang Hongying looked at the homework book she had taken out and started complaining, "Do you realize how heavy it is? A baby over a hundred days old is incredibly heavy. I spent the entire afternoon carrying it, and I brought it all the way back. Sister-in-law is really something, she treats me like an outsider when she orders me around. Besides, she has a mother of her own, too."
Lu Chun'e said, "It's better not to have her mother. If you ignore her now, she'll have to call her mother when she's in the first grade, and you'll have to take care of her when she's old."
After this interruption, Zhang Hongying stopped complaining about Gao Xiulan and started talking about Li Laiying: "She is so beautiful, but she thinks everyone else is stupid! She gave birth to a child but didn't raise it. What's the point of calling her mother?"
Wen Wan listened to the mother and daughter chattering while cooking, her eyes fixed on the notebook, and she was drawing on it with a pen.
Zhang Hongying said a few words and glanced at the fire pit, then waved to Lu Chun'e, telling her to stop talking and not disturb others who were working.
The room was silent for a moment, with only the occasional popping sounds of flames from the fire pit and stove, and the gurgling sound of the rice porridge in the pot.
Lu Donglin came in from outside, steaming hot, breaking the peace: "Why hasn't my brother come back yet?"
Zhang Hongying said, "Who knows what's going on? Usually at this time of year they're not busy. They're doing training and clearing land, so they come back long ago. I don't know what's going on this year. They've been staying in the commune lately, and they're coming back later and later every day."
Then, he called out to Wen Wan, "Wan Wan, go back and ask him what he does all day. We don't understand, and he's impatient if we ask."
Wen Wan responded.
Zhang Hongying continued, "Are you done with your work? If you are, then eat."
"Let's eat first. I'm hungry."
Wen Wan had already packed up while she was talking. Lu Donglin took the bag and said, "Sister-in-law, I'll put it on the desk in your room."
"Be careful, it's dark outside, don't bump into anything."
Lu Donglin responded and ran away.
After dinner, Lu Dongping still hadn't returned. Everyone in the room was a little worried. It had been late a few days ago, but it had never been so late with no one around.
Zhang Hongying called Wen Wan, "When the water in the pot boils, you should wash it first. After washing and warming it up, go to bed. I'll warm the food in the pot so he can cook it himself when he comes back."
Wen Wan responded: "I don't know if I took a flashlight when I left this morning. It's pitch black and I can't see anything on the way back!"
"He should have taken it. When I came back last night, I saw him and flashed the flashlight."
Wen Wan got up and went to the water to wash her face and brush her teeth, but she also burned her feet. She warmed herself up by the fire and then went into the house with the kettle.
She climbed onto the bed, but the cold quilt made her body temperature dissipate in a short while.
I used to sleep alone and could fall asleep as soon as I touched the bed, even in the cold winter. But now I’m used to having my feet covered, and suddenly it’s really cold sleeping alone!
No matter how hard I press the quilt, I still feel a chill. Why hasn’t Lu Dongping come back yet?
Wen Wan turned over. She was so sleepy that she no longer felt cold and fell into a deep sleep. Lu Dongping did not come back all night.
When Wen Wan got up in the morning, the bed was ice-cold and she sat up suddenly. Lu Dongping didn't come back last night.
I went outside without even having time to comb my hair. When the door opened, the cold wind blew in.
It was past five o'clock and still dark outside, so she had to go back into the house to wash up first.
Before I could finish, Lu Chun'e's voice came from outside: "Sister-in-law, are you up?"
"It's up, it's up."
Wen Wan responded, braided her hair, put on a hat, wrapped herself in a scarf, and went out.
Looking at Lu Donglin who was with Lu Chun'e: "Why are you here so early?"
Lu Donglin scratched his head: "I'm used to getting up early. Come on, I'll accompany you to school and then come back." In fact, Lu Dongping specifically told him to follow him to school in the morning and come back after seeing everyone arrive at school, saying that it was unsafe here recently.
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