Chapter 5
5
His mother gave him some noodles and dry food, as well as some candy and a small piece of bacon. He took out the candy and bacon and said, "This should be the gift my mother asked me to bring when I return home."
He looked at Cheng Yeran angrily: "Originally, you should have been the one to prepare the return gift, but it turned out that my mother had to worry about it..."
"Aren't we going to the market the day after tomorrow? It's a good opportunity to buy some return gifts. We can't miss out on what others have." Cheng Yeran treated Shen Yuntang's mother as an NPC who issued tasks. Preparing a return gift should be the first task, and it must be done well.
"You have some conscience." I shared the dry food with him. There was not even water to drink at home.
Shen Yuntang looked at the situation at home and knew he had to fetch some water first, and then he had to go up the mountain to chop firewood...
He looked at the man next to him. His man was a lazy guy, so he was afraid that he would have to do all these things himself.
"Why is the water in this water tank so dirty? It's covered with moss. What kind of water should we drink?" Cheng Yeran, a man from the future, only eats fine grains. Eating such coarse grains makes his throat burn. He wanted to drink some water from the water tank, but when he saw the dirty water inside, he quickly took two steps back.
"Go fetch some water from the river." Shen Yuntang went to the warehouse and found a bucket and a shoulder pole. "Wait for me."
"From the river? The river where I bathed yesterday?" Cheng Yeran was shocked. "Will drinking it give you diarrhea?"
"Everyone in the village drinks the water from there. People who spend five cents a day to buy other people's leftovers should stop being picky." Shen Yuntang said nothing more and went out carrying two buckets of water.
Cheng Yeran looked at the water tank. It was very heavy and he had to use some effort to overturn it and pour out the rain water inside. He then wiped the inside with a clean cloth several times before he managed to remove most of the scale.
He also went out of his way to find some materials and made a simple water filter to filter out some impurities in the river water.
When Shen Yuntang came back, he saw that the child was so tired that he was sweating and his face was red.
"You have a small body, you should exercise more. How can you find a girlfriend if you are so weak?" Shen Yuntang saw that the sweat on his head was about to drip into his eyes, so he quickly raised his hand to wipe the sweat off his forehead.
"I'm not a man." Shen Yuntang put down the bucket and was surprised to see that he had actually wiped the water tank clean.
"If you are not a man, what are you?" Cheng Yeran found that he was very dedicated, not like he was acting. This kind of wholehearted dedication was really admirable.
"If I were a man, how could I marry you?" Shen Yuntang felt that he was sometimes weird and said things that were difficult for people to understand. Although his brother looked like a man, he was classified as a non-man because he could have children. This should be common sense that everyone knew. Why would Cheng Yeran say such nonsense? Could it be that he has been alone for too long and his brain has gone bad?
"You rest at home for a while, I'll go fetch some water." Cheng Yeran always had the illusion that asking Shen Yuntang to fetch water was bullying. Obviously, they were all men, but he had a strong desire to protect Shen Yuntang. No matter how he thought about it, it didn't seem normal.
He tried to put the carrying pole on his shoulders, and the two buckets swayed back and forth and were not obedient like they were when they were on Shen Yuntang's shoulders.
"That's not the case," Shen Yuntang helped him adjust his position and asked worriedly, "Can you do it? Otherwise, I'll go."
"A man can't say no." Cheng Yeran's desire to win was aroused, and he went out carrying a bucket of water.
He met many villagers along the way. Every villager who saw him stopped what they were doing and stared at him, and some even greeted him.
"Xiao Ran, are you going to fetch water?"
"It's really different after we got married. We both know how to carry water."
"I told you last night that he cleaned the house, but you didn't believe me. Now you believe me, right?"
"As expected, men need to get married before they can grow up..."
Cheng Yeran listened to their frank comments along the way and wondered what hard work had to do with getting married.
The water tank was quite large and it took four or five trips to fill it up. It also had to be cleaned several times. Cheng Yeran was so picky that he had to boil water to scald the water tank before filling it with water.
Shen Yuntang whispered that he was being pretentious, but still used the few firewood in the house to boil water.
Just filling the water tank was enough to exhaust Cheng Yeran. He had never done such physical work before. He was covered in sweat and his skin was hot.
Shen Yuntang went to fetch some water. He felt better than him, but his breathing was heavier than usual. He wanted to drink some cold water directly, but Cheng Yeran stopped him and insisted that he drink boiled water.
Shen Yuntang waited for the boiled water to cool down, and kept complaining in his heart about Cheng Yeran being troublesome.
After finally finishing drinking the water, he saw Cheng Yeran go in and lie down. He couldn't help but sigh. What could he expect from a lazy guy?
"I'll go up the mountain to chop some firewood. You should eat some dry food at noon and don't buy leftovers from Aunt Li's house." Shen Yuntang felt as if he was instructing a child.
"You want to go chop wood now? Aren't you tired? Go tomorrow." Cheng Yeran was exhausted physically and mentally, and just wanted to catch up on some sleep. "Or go in the afternoon."
"I just had breakfast, why are you so tired?" Shen Yuntang deliberately changed into dirt-resistant clothes.
"Isn't carrying water a job?" Cheng Yeran was surprised. The young man was really energetic.
"Is carrying water considered work? Without chopping wood, we can't make a fire and cook at night." Shen Yuntang didn't say any more to him and turned away.
As soon as he walked out the door, he saw Cheng Yeran following him.
Cheng Yeran was almost exhausted to death that day. He went up the mountain to chop firewood in the morning and carried down a large bundle by himself. After returning home, Shen Yuntang told him that he had to go again to fill up the woodshed.
He was almost scared to death when he heard this, but he always felt that he was older than Shen Yuntang and could not lose to his younger brother, so he could only force himself to keep up. Along the way, he even advised Shen Yuntang several times to take a break, as long as there was enough firewood.
But Shen Yuntang asked him to go home and rest by himself, saying that the time for farming would soon come, and if he didn't fill up the woodshed now, he would have no time later.
Cheng Yeran then remembered that they also had the tasks of growing wheat, raising poultry and repairing houses.
Before doing these tasks, they really have to ensure their own survival needs first.
They went up the mountain twice today, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. Their home was near the foot of the mountain, so it was easy to go up the mountain. Every time Shen Yuntang walked very fast and also dug some wild vegetables and two spring bamboo shoots.
When Cheng Yeran saw him digging wild vegetables, he asked worriedly, "Are you sure you can eat them? Don't eat the wrong ones and get poisoned."
"I have followed my mother to the mountains to dig wild vegetables since I was a child. Not only wild vegetables, I can even recognize some herbs." Shen Yuntang shook off the dirt on the roots of the wild vegetables and put them into the backpack. He turned around and glanced at the man with a tired face. He actually followed her for the whole day and didn't slack off.
If we can maintain the current way of getting along, it will indeed be more comfortable than when I was married to Xia Xiaowu.
But this lazy man will die in three years, so he has to have a child as soon as possible. After the lazy man dies, he can live the rest of his life alone with the child and won't be lonely.
He didn't know the cause of the lazy man's death. It was most likely that he died of illness. He might get the disease next year and die the year after. If he wanted to have a healthy child, he would have to get pregnant this year and give birth next year.
"What's wrong? Is there something dirty on my face?" Cheng Yeran wiped his face, "You've been staring at me for a long time."
"Who looked at you?" Shen Yuntang suddenly came back to his senses and hurried down the mountain, his tone full of shame and anger after being caught peeking: "What's so good about you?"
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