When Ling Yao brought Ruan Xi home, Zhou Xueyun was cooking on the stove wearing an apron. Ling Zhiyuan also came back and was sitting behind the stove making a fire. When the couple saw Ruan Xi, they greeted her with a smile and asked Ling Yao to take her out to play first.
Ruan Xi could feel that the atmosphere in the Ling family was really good today.
Ling Zhiyuan and Zhou Xueyun both seemed to be in a rare relaxed state. They were gentle and polite to her, and their words were also very enthusiastic. Especially Zhou Xueyun, she looked like two different people compared to when she first woke up.
After all, they were not very familiar with each other, and Ling Yao was afraid that Ruan Xi would feel uncomfortable staying with Ling Zhiyuan and Zhou Xueyun, so after saying hello, he took her out. The two walked around the stilt house, then sat down on a rock facing the wind to rest and chat.
Ling Yao was very relaxed and felt that the wind in the mountains was sweet today.
He looked at Ruan Xi and said with a smile: "I have been here for so long, and this is the first time I feel that the villagers are so welcoming."
Just now he ran to Ruan's house to find Ruan Xi, and on the way he met some familiar-looking adults. Those people greeted him with a smile, called his name affectionately, and asked him where he was going. This had never happened before.
Ruan Xi looked at him, the evening wind blowing her hair around her temples. She smiled and said, "People are like this. If you are distant with me, then I will be distant with you. If you are good to me, then I will definitely be good to you too. Sincerity for sincerity."
Although the country people are a little rough, they are simple and honest, and there are many enthusiastic people among them.
Of course, everyone suddenly showed such respect and enthusiasm for Zhou Xueyun and Ling Yao not just because Zhou Xueyun kindly rescued Xiao Yanzi. Another very important reason is that there has not been even a barefoot doctor in several nearby villages.
If Ruan Xi's prediction is correct, there will be many people who will bring things to the stilt house to look for Zhou Xueyun in the future.
Illness is the most difficult thing to endure. If someone can cure it, who would be willing to endure it?
Especially when children are sick, adults become even more anxious and angry.
Ruan Xi and Ling Yao were sitting on a rock, talking in the evening breeze. When they heard Zhou Xueyun calling them to eat, they got up and went into the stilt house. However, before I reached the wooden stairs, I could smell the aroma of meat.
Ling Yao hadn't eaten meat for half a year and couldn't help but swallowing silently.
Ruan Xi didn't laugh at him when he saw it. No matter how badly someone beat a child, who wouldn't want to eat some meat these days?
Ruan Xi followed Ling Yao into the house and sat down at the table. The food and dishes were already on the table. Ruan Xi sat down, picked up the chopsticks, smiled and said to Zhou Xueyun: "Thank you, Auntie."
Zhou Xueyun picked up a chicken leg with her chopsticks and put it directly into Ruan Xi's bowl, saying to her, "Don't be polite, eat quickly."
Ruan Xi felt a little embarrassed, but in order not to embarrass Zhou Xueyun, she happily accepted the chicken leg.
Not only was he very happy to accept it, he was also very happy to eat it.
Zhou Xueyun looked at her while eating and said, "Thank you for taking care of our Yaoyao during this time."
Ruan Xi couldn't stand this and said hurriedly, "Auntie, I'm not taking care of him, but I'm always bothering him."
She and Ruan Jie would go to Ling Yao to study textbooks every afternoon, and each time they would study for half a day. Ling Yao spent a lot of time and patience on her and Ruan Jie, so it wasn't really her who was taking care of him.
Zhou Xueyun didn't know about these things, but she could feel that Ling Yao had become different since he made friend with Ruan Xi. At least he became obviously more cheerful and happy, and no longer as dull and wooden as before.
And today, Ruan Xi helped her break four years of depression, allowing her to once again feel the kindness and sincerity between people. The enthusiasm and respect shown to her by those people in the production team that day had a great impact on her mentality.
She even began to reflect on whether she had been overly sensitive and was afraid of taking risks over the years.
So she said, “Thank you anyway.”
Ruan Xi thought for a moment and said with a smile: "Okay, then I accept it."
Zhou Xueyun smiled easily, reached out to pick up the serving chopsticks, and picked up another piece of chicken leg for her.
A few words brought them closer together and the atmosphere at the table became relaxed.
After Ling Yao finished gnawing on the chicken neck and ate a mouthful of rice, he asked Zhou Xueyun, "Mom, I also want to go to the production team to help harvest rice tomorrow. I want to go with Xixi and the others to pick up rice ears, and then cut grass for the pigs to feed. Is that okay?"
Zhou Xueyun had previously not allowed him to go among the crowd and had always asked him to go out and herd pigs. Now her mindset had changed. She nodded at Ling Yao and said, "In the future, just do whatever you want to do. You don't have to ask me for everything. Just be careful with your words and actions and don't do bad things."
After hearing this, Ruan Xi continued, "That's definitely not the case. The kid is so well behaved."
Zhou Xueyun smiled when she heard this, thinking it was just a joke among the children, and asked, "You call him cub?"
Ruan Xi nodded, "I am one year older than him, and he calls me sister."
Ling Yao immediately replied: "I didn't call you sister, I called you Xixi."
Zhou Xueyun glanced at him and said with a smile, "Why? Do you think I'm wronged by calling you sister?"
Ling Yao lowered his head to eat and didn't respond.
Seeing him like this, Zhou Xueyun stopped talking to him and found another topic to chat with Ruan Xi. Naturally, they talked about some insignificant and light-hearted topics, just to make children happy.
After dinner, it was dark outside. Zhou Xueyun did not keep Ruan Xi for long and asked Ling Zhiyuan to take her home.
Ling Yao squeezed in and said, "Let Dad rest, I'll take care of him."
Zhou Xueyun thought that he was already a grown-up boy, so she didn't say anything and asked him to send it off.
Ling Yao and Ruan Xi walked forward side by side, their mood as clear as the moonlight tonight.
While talking to Ruan Xi, he thought to himself - being trapped here didn't seem like a particularly bad thing.
After sending Ruan Xi to the door of her home, he watched Ruan Xi go into the house.
On the way back, he ran, letting the night mountain breeze fill his collar and making him feel as if he was about to fly.
The crescent moon is crescent, the silver light is fragmented, and the stones under your feet are singing.
When Ling Yao woke up early the next morning, he was more energetic than any previous morning.
Together with Ling Zhiyuan and Zhou Xueyun, he fed the pigs and chickens, cooked and ate, then took his sickle and put on a straw hat, went to the production team's terraced fields to gather, listened to the team leader's arrangements, and started a new day's rice harvesting task.
He saw Ruan Xi and Ruan Jie in the fields, so he took his sickle and went to join them.
He helped the production team harvest rice for half the morning. In the afternoon, he went to the mountains with Ruan Xi and Ruan Jie to cut wild vegetables. Then he would look for fields where rice had just been harvested, and then run to the fields with a basket to pick up rice ears before anyone else.
When picking rice ears, he saw Gao Haiyang and his gang. They stood on the ridge of the field and shouted at Ling Yao -
"Hey! Idiot! Don't you know whether you are a man or a woman?"
"Why do you play with girls all the time? Don't you know you are a man?"
"Look at him, he looks like a woman. He must think he is a woman."
"Ha ha ha ha……"
Ruan Xi picked up a ball of mud from the ground and threw it at them, cursing, "You idiots! Get away from me!"
Because they had been warned by Ruan Changsheng, Gao Haiyang and the others didn't dare to come up and do anything. They could only make a few provocative remarks. Seeing Ruan Xi getting angry and about to rush towards them, they made a face, turned around, patted their butts, and ran away.
Ruan Xi threw the mud ball in his hand fiercely and cursed loudly: "How shameless!"
After cursing, he shouted again: "If you continue to be such a jerk, I will ask my uncle to beat you to death!!"
Ruan Jie said from the side: "They are so boring."
Ruan Xi said slowly, "Ignore these idiots, we just need to take care of ourselves."
Ling Yao didn't care how Gao Haiyang and the others laughed at him. He nodded to Ruan Xi and said, "Yeah."
So the three of them continued to pick up rice ears, chatting, laughing and playing.
After the busy farming season is over, the vegetation and other crops on the mountains slowly turn into yellow, orange and red. From a distance, it looks like a colorful fairy tale world and the scenery is as beautiful as an oil painting.
The rice is harvested, threshed and dried, and it is time to distribute the grain.
After the grain was distributed to each production team, Ruan Zhigao set a time and notified all the village cadres to hold a commendation meeting in the yard of the brigade’s Revolutionary Committee to praise and reward the advanced representatives of good people and good deeds in the village.
On the day of the meeting, the director of the women's department and several other women started working early.
In fact, there was nothing to do, just put out a few tables and some benches to make it look presentable.
After the busy farming season ended, Ruan Xi resumed his life of learning a craft. He spent most of the day at the old tailor's house, half of the day studying with Ling Yao and Ruan Jie on the hillside, and the rest of the time was spent at home.
Because the village was going to hold a commendation meeting this afternoon, she came back after having lunch at the old tailor's house.
When I got home, I found the house was bustling with activity. It turned out that my fourth aunt Ruan Cuilan came with her husband and two children.
The family had finished their meal, and when Ruan Xi entered the house, she greeted them with a smile, "Fourth Aunt, Fourth Uncle."
When Ruan Cuilan saw her, she said to her fourth uncle, "Did you see that? My two nieces have grown up. Look at the girls in our Ruan family, each one is more beautiful than the other."
Fourth uncle smiled and said, "It seems like I haven't been here for a long time."
Didn’t the Dragon Boat Festival just come?
Ruan Xi smiled and found a bench to sit next to Ruan Jie, listening to the conversation of the elders with her silently.
In the west room of the main house, Sun Xiaohui sat on the edge of the bed, threading a needle with a serious expression on her face, talking to Ruan Changgui who was lying on the bedside, and asked him, "Are you going to the commendation meeting this afternoon?"
Ruan Changgui said decisively: "No, I might as well sleep at home with this time."
Because of the commendation meeting, Ruan Zhigao gave all the village members half a day off.
Sun Xiaohui put the thread end in her mouth again, sipped it, and continued to thread it into the eye of the needle. "Then I won't go either. It has nothing to do with our family anyway. The main thing is to praise Zhou Xueyun for saving people. It's really worth it."
Ruan Changgui turned his head to look at her, "How can saving people be so important? It's not worth it?"
Sun Xiaohui snorted, "They held a commendation meeting to praise this and reward that, but they wrongly accused Xiao Yanzi, who was promoted by my Yuehua, saying that our Yuehua wanted to harm people and smashed my family's pots and bowls. I think it's not worth it."
Thinking about the losses his family suffered because of this incident, Ruan Changgui stopped talking.
The pots and bowls were bought for them by Ruan Zhigao when he divided the family property. The pots had to be repaired if they were broken, but the bowls were too broken to be repaired, so he had to go to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy new ones. Because I didn't have much money, I went to the production team to earn a lot of work points.
Using work points to offset debt is equivalent to borrowing money, and these work points will be deducted when settling accounts at the end of the year.
After the separation, life has been really miserable, with debts everywhere.
I owed eggs to Ruan Yuejin before so that he could learn the craft, and now I owe money to Ruan Yuehua.
After a long moment, Ruan Changgui said, "I should not have listened to your idea of dividing the family."
If we don't split up the family, at least if we encounter such an accident, we don't have to worry about having no money at home.
Liu Xinghua had been saving the money and tickets sent back by her elder brother Ruan Changfu for half a year. She didn't have to save the tickets, she could take them to the black market to exchange them for money when she had time, as there were many people who wanted to buy them. She hadn't eaten the vegetables and eggs at home in the past six months and exchanged them for money, so she was not short of money.
The family lived a good life in the past because most of the money and tickets sent back by Ruan Changfu were spent at home. They had enough food, such as oil, salt, sauce and vinegar. Most of the vegetables grown at home and the eggs laid by the hens were also kept for themselves. The rest were exchanged for money. They could even have meat when they had nothing to do. Liu Xinghua was willing to spend money at that time, and he and Sun Xiaohui were also happy.
As for him and Sun Xiaohui, they still eat most of the fruits and vegetables themselves, and the rest they exchange for some pocket money is barely enough to buy lamp oil and matches, let alone save them. When something happens, naturally you either use it as work points or borrow money.
Although Liu Xinghua suddenly started saving money in order to let Ruan Changsheng get married, she would still pay for other people in the family when they encountered problems, such as Ruan Xi going to learn a craft, and Ruan Zhigao and Ruan Changsheng would also support him when he encountered problems.
Before, they wanted to split up the family because Liu Xinghua was saving money and they didn't want to share the pressure of Ruan Changsheng's marriage. Now that something happened and they had no food to eat, it was naturally impossible for them to expect Liu Xinghua to give them money.
After all, when the family was divided, they were given every bit of food and other items. Liu Xinghua even spent money to buy them everything, including building a stove, buying pots and bowls, and making tables and chairs, leaving them no room to complain.
And now not only will they not give them money, but Ruan Zhigao and Ruan Changsheng, who used to be his biological father and brother, even ignore him directly, comparing him to outsiders who are even worse than him. He would be polite and lend a hand to outsiders.
Now he is all alone and has to deal with everything on his own, which makes him very exhausted.
It would be fine if life was good, but it was obvious that things were getting worse and worse, and he felt very upset.
Sun Xiaohui knew that life had been hard lately, but she was the one who had asked for a separation in the first place, so she didn't say anything discouraging and slapped herself in the face. She just said, "Why are you in such a hurry? Wait a little longer. Everything will be fine once Yuejin gets his wages."
Ruan Changgui said, "He has been learning for so long, but he hasn't earned a penny. He broke the old tailor's things before, and he even brought a lot of fruits and vegetables as an apology, right? How well has he learned? Can he succeed?"
Sun Xiaohui said, "Oh, isn't it because there are not many people making clothes in this month when the weather is neither good nor bad? Wait for another two months, and every household will be busy making new clothes for the New Year. Tailor shops will be busy, and then you can get paid, right?"
Ruan Changgui held his breath and said, "Don't just sit there and watch Xiaoxi get paid."
Sun Xiaohui laughed out loud, "That's absolutely impossible. Xiaoxi can't even operate the machine, how is that possible? Our Yuejin has at least learned to operate the sewing machine. If he goes out to make clothes, he will definitely get more wages than Xiaoxi. She will only get less than Yuejin if she does odd jobs. It's even more impossible for her to just stare blankly. It must be Xiaoxi who is jealous of our Yuejin. Maybe she is just staring blankly."
Ruan Changgui breathed a sigh of relief and lay down, then turned sideways and prepared to go to sleep, "I hope so."
Sun Xiaohui looked at him: "It's not a hope! It's a certainty!"
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