The puppy was still too weak. It barely drank two sips of the warm milk that Xie Zhuo had run to the commune early in the morning to find, and then lay down in the towel without moving. Xie Zhuo carefully placed it by the stove.
“Kaixin doesn’t look good,” Da Bao frowned.
"Hmm," Xie Zhuo nodded. There was nothing he could do about it; the little thing had to fend for itself.
After Xu Yan finished washing up, she saw the three uncles and nephews frowning, squatting next to the puppy, trying their best to get the puppy to eat more.
“How about we feed you with a spoon?” Xiao Bao suggested, “just like you used to feed me medicine.”
Xie Zhuo: "..."
In the end, none of the people could get the puppy to speak again.
Just when the whole family thought that Kaixin really wouldn't survive the winter, it actually survived. However, it was still very weak and didn't grow much, still looking like a mouse.
However, Da Bao and Xiao Bao were very satisfied with its size, and it was easy for the two of them to pick it up.
After the weather warmed up again, the fields became busy again.
When the brigade leader banged on his broken porcelain basin again at the gate and called for people, Xu Yan realized with a start that spring had arrived.
However, it's still not very hot, so you still need to wear a sweater.
Da Bao and Xiao Bao wore the sweaters knitted by Xu Yan to school for two days, and many people came to her house specifically to ask her how to knit such sweaters.
Some people like Da Bao and Xiao Bao's hats, but they can't learn how to knit them themselves. The ones they make are incredibly ugly, so they want to pay Xu Yan to knit them for them.
When Xu Yan first started, she thought she had nothing better to do and that knitting a hat wouldn't take long, so she agreed.
Unexpectedly, more and more people came to her to knit hats, and some even came to her to knit sweaters after seeing the sweater Xie Zhuo was wearing.
"You're really good with your hands," said an aunt who rarely went out, sitting in front of Xu Yan with a small basket in her hand containing two wrapped balls of yarn.
Xu Yan glanced inside and saw that the yarn balls were wrapped in a very fancy way, with yarn of all colors. It was obvious that they had been unwrapped and washed many times, and the yarn was a bit frizzy and white.
"The third brother is already handsome. Wearing the sweater you knitted, he doesn't look like a rough man from our Qingshan Brigade at all. Even city people don't dress as stylishly as him."
Listening to the aunt's incessant praise, Xu Yan wasn't embarrassed at all. She smiled and said, "He's tall, so he looks good in anything."
The aunt probably didn't expect her to be so unmodest. She paused for a moment, then burst out laughing, "That's right, there really isn't another one like the third brother in our brigade when it comes to height."
The two chatted for a while before the aunt finally turned to the main topic: she wanted Xu Yan to knit one for her too.
She was one of those who just couldn't learn it no matter how hard they tried.
“Auntie is clumsy,” the auntie said. “She can do other things, but knitting sweaters is something she’ll probably never learn in her lifetime.”
Xu Yan smiled but didn't reply. She picked up a half-knitted hat from the side of her, looked at it with her eyes down, and then said, "It's not that I don't want to help. Auntie saw it too. I have several other hats here."
The aunt glanced at her hand.
“The commune primary school didn’t have a stove, and the children’s hands were so cold during class that they couldn’t even take them out,” Xu Yan said. “They were just waiting for this hat.”
The woman was wondering what the hat had to do with her frozen hands.
But I held back and didn't say it.
“Well, why don’t you leave it for now? I’m not in a hurry,” the aunt said. “You can knit it for me whenever you have time.”
Xu Yan had a decent winter; everything was peaceful and she didn't encounter any strange people.
I didn't expect that spring would start so soon and some shameless people would already be posting about it.
A slight smile curved her lips as she looked at the woman, her voice soft, "That's fine too. Although I've been quite busy lately, since you've spoken up..."
Before Xu Yan could finish speaking, the auntie grinned and said, "I knew you were a straightforward person. I'll come and pick it up next week."
After saying that, she got up to leave without mentioning how much she would charge for the knitting.
Xu Yan narrowed his eyes.
"Next week is fine too," Xu Yan said as the aunt was about to leave the house. "Let's make it an express service. The aunt is an acquaintance, so let's round it down to five yuan."
"Five yuan?" The auntie suddenly stopped and turned to look at her, her voice rising considerably.
“Yeah,” Xu Yan said, looking confused. “Does Auntie think it’s too cheap? Xie Zhuo also said that the price I set was cheap, one yuan and twenty-five cents for a hat and only five yuan for a sweater.”
"Five yuan? Why don't you just rob someone?" the auntie said with a long face. "How much is a pound of old yarn? You dare to charge five yuan for knitting a sweater!"
Xu Yan still had that bewildered and innocent expression, and asked in return, "Is it not okay? Then how much money do you think is appropriate, Auntie?"
“We’re all from the same brigade,” the auntie said with a long face, looking at her. “We all need help sometimes, so bringing up money seems too formal.”
“Oh,” Xu Yan replied in a drawn-out tone, “Then I need some help right now. My family is so poor that we’re almost starving. Auntie, could you give me five yuan so I can have a decent meal? In return, I’ll knit a sweater for you.”
The woman picked up her basket and walked away without looking back.
When Li Aihua came to pick up her hat, she heard about this and remarked, "You have such a good temper."
"Hmm?" Xu Yan handed her the hat he had knitted for Xiao Shuanzi.
“If it were me, I would have started cursing right away,” Li Aihua said. “You shameless old hag, making you knit a sweater for her son, what will become of your reputation if word gets out?”
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