Chapter 40: Good or bad depends on luck
With Lu Dongping around, Wen Wan didn't need to ask for the things she bought. She just needed to carry the backpack on her back, and let Lu Dongping carry the rest.
He walked very fast even though his hands were full, as if the things in his hands were weightless.
Accommodating Wenwan's speed, it was already late when we returned to the team.
From a distance, the terraces are lined with green wheat seedlings, and the ridges and paths are crisscrossed.
Smoke curls up above the houses that rise and fall on the mountainside, accompanied by the rolling hills in the distance, creating a poetic and picturesque scene.
Lu Dongping sent the person directly to the educated youth point.
Bring the things to her room: "Let's go home for dinner!"
Wen Wan was too lazy to move: "I'm so tired, I'm not hungry, it's getting late, you should go back!"
Lu Dongping reached out to pull her: "How can you not be hungry? You had dinner at around two o'clock, and it's almost six o'clock now. What if you don't eat and get hungry again at night? Are you going to cry?"
Wen Wan shook her head: "I'm so tired and want to sleep. I really don't want to eat. You go quickly."
Seeing that she looked listless, Lu Dongping frowned slightly and reached out to touch her forehead, which was warm.
"Then you should go to bed early. I'm going back now. I'll bring you a kettle later so you can use it at night."
Wen Wan responded, and Lu Dongping left the house, closing the door behind him.
The pocket in his hand was empty. He took a look at the shack with fire next to him and strode towards home.
It was almost dark. The moon should have been bright near the fifteenth day of the lunar month, but the weather was bad, with layers of dark clouds overhead. The moon rose only to be enveloped by them again. It was like walking down a path from small to large; even without light, you could still tell where to step.
The door was also dark, with only a faint light coming from the kitchen.
Lu Dongping went straight to the kitchen with his bag.
Lu Mingjiang and his friends had already eaten and were not there at the moment. Only Zhang Hongying and Lu Chun'e were in the kitchen, sitting by the fire and sewing shoe soles.
He and Wenwan's meal was warm in the pot.
As soon as she entered the room, Zhang Hongying asked, "Why did you come back so late? Where's Wen Wan?"
Lu Dongping put his pocket on a chair beside him and went to get rice from the pot.
"I went to the county town bathhouse and took a shower. I think I caught a cold, so I didn't feel like moving and went straight to bed. After dinner, I went back to the brigade clinic and asked for two IV bottles that could be filled with boiling water. I brought them over to cover her."
Zhang Hongying sat by the fire, holding a half-finished shoe sole in her hand. She inserted the thickened needle into the shoe, pushed it with a thimble, and a needle tip popped out. Then she used a clamp to pinch and pull the needle out. There were thousands of stitches, and each one was extremely difficult.
Lu Chun'e sat on the side and did the same thing.
Rural girls have to learn things like making shoe soles and mending clothes from a young age.
"These city people are just too bad. Why would they take a bath in such cold weather? It's better to get a little dirty than to get sick. It's a good thing it's December so we don't have to work. What would happen if we were busy that time?"
Lu Chun'e smiled and said, "Mom, you don't understand. Habits become second nature. The living habits of people in the city are different from ours. We need to adapt to it."
Zhang Hongying suddenly remembered: "Going to the bathhouse to take a bath costs money, right?"
Lu Dongping nodded: "Money and tickets."
Zhang Hongying smacked her lips. "Why else would they say life is easier in the city?" Then, looking at the two pockets on the chair, she asked Lu Dongping, "What did you buy?"
"I didn't buy anything. Wen Wan bought it. About ten pounds of flour and some rice."
Zhang Hongying was stunned for a moment. "Can you buy this stuff in the city? Isn't it forbidden to buy and sell? You better be careful, you're a bit too bold. This will cost a lot of money, right? You still have the flour you brought back in the first half of the year, so don't waste it anymore. If you're looking for a partner, there are plenty of other places to spend money!"
Lu Dongping swallowed his food and said, "I didn't buy it, Wen Wan did."
Zhang Hongying was stunned for a moment: "Why did you bring it home if it was bought by Wen Wan? Didn't God give us food rations? We have only been living together for a few days?" Although the family was poor, they still had to save face. She would never take advantage of such small things.
Lu Dongping stood up to collect the dishes and wash the pots, his hands moving as he replied, "We're just sharing the meal. She has nothing over there, so what's the point of taking her rations? I'll just take them back and continue cooking whatever you want to eat."
Then he glanced at Lu Chun'e and asked, "When will I get the notification letter after the exam today?"
Lu Chun'e said, "On the 20th, spend a day with Donglinwa."
"Where is Lu Donglin?"
Zhang Hongying said, "After having dinner with your worthless father, you went to visit people. You feel like you have thorns on your butt and can't sit still for a moment."
Lu Dongping scraped the water used to wash the pot into the pig feed bucket, and then scooped in more water to rinse the bowls and pot again.
"Mom, you have to worry about Lu Donglin's studies and take good care of him. It's rare that we have the conditions to let him go to school now. At least he can graduate from elementary school, learn to read and do accounting, and not be cheated in the future."
Zhang Hongying's head hurts when she hears Lu Donglin talking about studying.
"If you're really not cut out for studying, you might as well just come back home. It's a waste of a few cents for a whole semester."
Lu Donglin added more water to the pot and started the fire. "I don't expect him to pass the high school entrance exam and go to the city, but if he has the conditions, it's always good for him to learn more words while he's still young."
At that time, there was a famine and people were barely surviving, so how could they have the energy to study?
Life is much better now, so we shouldn’t waste the opportunity.
Zhang Hongying said, "I'm just an illiterate blind man. You'd better rely on Chun'e instead of me. She's in junior high school after all, so she can definitely teach you a little bit about elementary school."
Lu Chun'e hurriedly shook her head: "I can't teach him!"
She and Lu Donglin were good siblings when they didn't talk about studying, but when they talked about studying, Lu Donglin always found ways to sneakily tease her.
She also wanted to study hard and take the technical secondary school entrance exam, so she didn't have that much time to play tricks with Lu Donglin.
The kitchen became quiet, the water in the pot began to smoke and soon began to boil.
Lu Dongping filled the kettles at home and Wen Wan's, and took out the IV bottle and filled it with water. He made two and gave one to Lu Chun'e.
Lu Chun'e hugged him and smiled: "Brother, can this be considered as taking advantage of Sister Wen Wan?"
Lu Dongping nodded: "Okay!"
After saying that, he held the thermos in his arms and carried the kettle out of the house.
Lu Chun'e stuffed the bottle into the quilt, turned around and added water to the pot, and then returned to the fire.
While sewing shoe soles, he chatted with Zhang Hongying.
"My brother really likes Sister Wen Wan. I've never seen him so patient and good-tempered in my life."
Zhang Hongying sighed, "You're still young and don't understand. Life is more than just liking someone. Wen Wan is from a big city, has a good family background, and has high standards. It's hard for her to be with your brother. Even if they do, it'll be hard to live a happy life in the future."
"But my brother likes it. What's the point of living if I can't live with the person I love?"
Zhang Hongying laughed. "What do you kids know? Back then, we were all introduced by matchmakers. We didn't even meet each other. All we needed was the adults' approval. We only found out about the other person's height, weight, and body type after we got married. That's how we lived our lives."
Whether it's good or not depends on luck.
Lu Chun'e couldn't understand how two people who had never met each other could live together.
"Mom, if my brother likes it, you will like it too, right? You will be nice to Sister Wen Wan, right?"
Zhang Hongying asked her, "Do you like that little girl too?"
Lu Chun'e nodded without hesitation: "I like her! Sister Wenwan is good-looking, has a good temper, and knows a lot. I like her, I like her too, and Lu Donglin likes her too."
As he said this, he leaned back a bit and said, "It would be great if she really became my sister-in-law and part of our family."
"Mom, although our family conditions are not good, if we treat her well, do you think she will agree to marry my brother?"
Will it? Zhang Hongying didn’t know.
Lu Dongping went to the educated youth site again in the dark. By then, Liu Changqing and the others had already eaten and rested.
He knocked on Wenwan's door and shouted a few times.
Wen Wan was woken up by him from her drowsy sleep, and she turned on the flashlight and went downstairs.
Lu Dongping didn't go into the house. He stood at the door and handed her the kettle and bottle: "Go to bed and cover yourself with it. Cover yourself with it all night and you won't feel uncomfortable when you wake up tomorrow morning."
Wen Wan nodded dazedly and walked inside, but he called out to her again, "Remember to lock the door."
Wen Wan responded and told him to drive slowly, then she locked the door and got back into bed holding the hot bottle.
She caught a cold and her body alternated between hot and cold at night.
When it was cold, she curled up and shivered in a daze. When it was hot, she wished she could hang herself out of the quilt.
She couldn't hear clearly what Wang Jianmao and the others were saying outside, as it seemed to disappear after a while.
Until it became quiet again, it was bright outside and light came into the house through the windows and cracks in the door.
She was soundly asleep and unaware of anything.
Lu Dongping agreed and was going to the commune starting today. He left early and told Lu Chun'e several times: "Go down and see Wen Wan and ask her to come over for dinner."
Before the meal was ready, Lu Chun'e ran to the educated youth site. The sky was gloomy and there was a cold wind. Her face was cut and hurt as she walked.
The people at the educated youth site were all gone at the moment, probably having gone up the mountain. Lu Chun'e glanced at the two wooden doors. One was locked, the other not. She went to the unlocked room, knocked on it, and called out, "Sister Wenwan!"
Wen Wan tossed and turned for most of the night and finally fell into a comfortable sleep when it was almost dawn. How could she wake up so easily?
Lu Chun'e raised her voice and started knocking on the door. It took a long time before there was any movement from inside.
Wen Wan hurriedly put on her cotton coat and went downstairs to open the door.
"Chun'e, why are you here? Come in, it's cold outside!" In the blink of an eye, the heat from her body dissipated.
Chun'e heard her speaking with a strong nasal tone and hurriedly closed the door: "Sister, do you have a cold?"
Wen Wan nodded as she put on her clothes: "Well, I guess it was from the shower. It was quite warm inside the bathhouse, but the place to change clothes outside was too cold. I woke up from the cold several times in the middle of the night, and fell asleep by dawn."
Lu Chun'e said, "After dinner, I'll dig some ginger and boil some for you. Drink a bowl of it to sweat, and you'll be well soon."
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