48.048 is a bit ignorant.
The next day, Su Yu and Ning Jin got up together, made three pancakes with a mixture of white flour and sweet potato flour, cooked half a pot of vermicelli soup, added sesame oil, and two handfuls of green vegetables. They each cracked an egg. When they were done cooking, Su Yu went into the room to check the time; it wasn't even 6:30 yet.
So she didn't wake the two kids up. She and Ningjin moved a table to the yard and ate first. While blowing on the vermicelli, she asked, "Did you forget to buy sweet potato noodles when you went to complain to my dad the day before yesterday?"
"That's right." Ning Jin took a bite of the pancake and nodded. "I forgot about that. How many meals do we have left at home? If we run out, we'll eat white flour pancakes. I'll go buy some when I get back. Don't go back to the village tonight." Although the security is good now, there are still people like Xu Laosan. He was quite worried about her going home alone after getting off work at six o'clock.
"Okay, don't worry about things at home." Su Yu picked up a fried egg from the bowl and put it in his hands. Eggs are something we eat every day, so they're not a rare treat, but he still saved his portion for last so that she and the child could have them.
Ning Jin sighed, looking at the eggs in the bowl. "I'm a strong man, why would I need to eat eggs? In previous years, poached eggs were for postpartum women."
But he couldn't hide the smile on his face. Su Yu smiled, picked up her bowl, took a sip of soup, and said, "I'll make dumplings for you when you come back in a few days. Things have been too chaotic since I came back, so I haven't been able to cook anything special for you."
"Okay," he replied crisply.
After finishing his meal, he grabbed his bag containing clothes, shoes, and socks, opened the door, and went to work. Su Yu washed the dishes for both of them, and scrubbed the clothes she had soaked in the morning clean. She didn't even have time to take them to the weir to pound them, so she just scooped water from the tub to remove the foam. It seemed like from now on, she should wash the clothes after her evening shower.
"Ping An, Xiao Yuan, get up and eat." She called from outside the bedroom, and after waiting for a response from inside, she waited a while longer. When she didn't hear any movement, she pushed the door open and pulled her ear. "What time did you two go to sleep last night? It's almost 7:30. Get up quickly, your dad and I have already finished eating."
"I got up, I just wanted to rest for a bit, I didn't fall asleep with my eyes closed." Ping An threw off the covers, wearing only a pair of shorts, yawning as he shuffled in his cloth shoes and sat on a stool to get dressed. Su Yu then tugged at the boy in the inner room, "You brat, you got up and didn't even answer."
Xiao Yuan stroked his hair and smiled, then followed his mother out to wash up.
"The vermicelli soup and flatbread are in the pot. After you finish eating, wash your dishes and go to school. When you come back at noon, pick some greens from the garden and put them in the vermicelli soup to heat up again, or cook the noodles yourself. I'll cook rice when I get back tonight." Su Yu took out two one-cent bills from her pocket and gave them to the two boys. "It's time. I have to go to work. You two hurry up and don't be late for school."
"What about those two cents?" Ping An called out to the person who was about to leave.
"I'll give it to you when you get back tonight. I need to know what you two had for lunch." With that, the person disappeared through the door.
"Um, Master, you forgot your hat and scarf," Shu Manpo quickly reminded her as soon as she finished talking.
"Oh dear, I almost forgot, thank goodness you reminded me." Su Yu turned the car around and hurried back, bursting into the door in a flurry, grabbing her hat and scarf and leaving.
The two children, slurping noodles with their bowls in hand, watched her dart in and out in a flash. As the bicycle bell faded into the distance, they hurried to finish their meal.
"Sister Er Ya, we're here! Let's go to school." Around the corner of the alley, a little girl, not even as tall as Xiao Yuan, leaned against the wall waiting. Seeing them arrive and walk out, she asked, "Are the doors locked?"
“It’s locked up, and Xiao Hei is also locked up inside, without a leash,” Xiao Yuan replied.
The three walked together, and as they approached the school, two more people joined their group, a boy and a girl.
"Little Egg, why are you looking so long? Who owes you money? Tell me, and I'll help you get it back." Ping An put his hand on the shoulder of a tanned boy, looking every bit the big brother.
"My dad is going to find me a stepmother," Xiao Dan said dejectedly. "The date has been set, but I only found out yesterday."
"Huh? Your mom isn't dead, is she? If she's not dead, why is your dad marrying a new wife?" Ping An shouted. Xiao Dan's dad was a squad leader in the Revolutionary Committee office. He heard that his dad and mom were divorced, and his mom was now somewhere being reformed with his grandparents. Was she dead?
Little Egg shook his head, "My mom isn't dead."
“It’s better that you’re not dead. You have two mothers. Don’t look down. Let me tell you, with a stepmother you can eat and drink well and get a brother for free.” He put his arm around Xiao Yuan on the other side and said proudly, “His mother is my stepmother. She treats me very well, even better than Er Ya’s biological mother treats her.”
Er Ya secretly rolled her eyes, cursing the idiot in her heart, but her face remained expressionless, as if she hadn't heard anything. She always had a blank face in front of outsiders. At school, apart from Xiao Yuan and the big idiot, she didn't talk to anyone else. When others looked at her after Ping An's words, they saw that she was still the same and turned their eyes away.
Children cannot sway the decisions made by adults. A week later, Xiao Yuan and Ping An ate the wedding candy brought by Xiao Dan. Er Ya also received a milk candy from Xiao Dan, taking advantage of the couple's good fortune.
"How is it? Does your stepmother treat you well?" Ping An asked, sucking on a candy.
"It's alright, she's the one who grabbed the candy for me." Xiao Dan didn't mention that the woman ignored him behind his grandparents' backs, and that his dad sometimes ignored him when he saw him on the street.
“I told you, stepmothers are great.” Ping An was happy that his words had been confirmed, and this time Er Ya didn’t roll her eyes.
Meanwhile, when Su Yu arrived, everyone else was already there. She leaned over to look at Qiu Fuli's watch and said, "It's not even eight o'clock yet. It gave me quite a fright. I thought I was late."
Since the people had already arrived at work, Qiu Fuli no longer needed to hide it. Pointing to Yu Yuan'an, he said to Liu Quan, "They've been here for over an hour. They can leave around 10 o'clock."
"So, as long as there's enough time, you can leave earlier. For example, if I don't go home at noon and am working in the orchard, I can leave around four in the afternoon?" Su Yu asked.
"Sure, but mainly it depends on whether you finish your work. It's not about killing time. They have their own schedules and are professional and reliable, so they can manage their own time," Qiu Fuli hinted.
Su Yu realized that the freedom to choose when to leave work was only for those who had made contributions. She wanted to be like Yu Yuan'an and Liu Quan, and she wanted to prove her worth.
"Okay, I'm going to work now. Brother Qiu, have you bought the lime yet?"
“I bought five packs. Go try them first. If they work, I’ll buy you more. If they don’t, you know this stuff isn’t cheap.” He shrugged.
Fine, anyway, she's not the one catching bugs every day. Su Yu figured it was time to sprinkle the acid water a second time, and asked him if the person who would sprinkle the water tomorrow had been arranged yet.
"It's the same few people, I've made all the arrangements."
So Su Yu went to brush lime onto the hill of sour oranges. On the way, she called over two men who looked honest and quiet. She poured water into the lime bucket, stirred it evenly, and then had the two men brush lime onto the orange trees. She wasn't idle either; the adult insects on the orange trees were still gnawing on the leaves.
"Sister-in-law, are there any mats in the warehouse for drying things?" Su Yu asked upon returning to the village.
Upon learning that there were some, she carried two mats and laid them under the fruit trees. She put on a hat, tightened her trousers and cuffs, climbed up the orange tree, hugged the thickest branch, and shook it wildly with her feet and hands. Each branch swayed wildly a few times with varying amplitude. When she came down from the tree, many adult insects had fallen onto the mats, along with orange blossoms.
After crushing the fallen adult insects, she dragged the mat to another tree. After half a day, Su Yu's legs were so tired that they were weak. She had already covered half of the orange trees. The two men who were painting with lime had also used up five bags of lime, but they had only painted half of the orange trees.
"Technician Yu, shall we go now?" one of the men asked. "Are we coming back this afternoon?" He pointed to the mat.
“No need to come over. You two are quite heavy. Thick branches are fine, but thinner ones are easy to break. It’s more suitable for women and children to climb up and swing around.” Su Yu added, “This job is suitable for women to be in the tree and men to drag mats and stomp on insects below.”
She immediately went down the mountain to find Qiu Fuli and found that Yu Yuan'an and Liu Quan, who had said they could leave work early, hadn't left either; they were still in the orange orchard. She told them about her method of catching insects that morning and how the people were assigned, "I can finish catching all the orange trees on one hill in a day by myself, although my hill is relatively small, but it should be faster than having people catch insects and take them home to feed the chickens."
"Were the insects caught cleanly?" Liu Quan asked.
“There are bound to be some strays. This method is the fastest way to check all the orange trees. Otherwise, we don’t have enough manpower. If we only carefully check the orange trees in front, the ones that haven’t been checked will be eaten bare.” Su Yu frowned and asked, “Does that mean we can catch them all by hand?”
“Following your method, we’ll bring all the mats over this afternoon. The women and the shorter men can climb the trees, and fifty people can shake all the orange trees in half a day,” Qiu Fuli said, making his choice.
He said to Su Yu in a friendly tone, "Sure, young people are quick-witted. I'll have the cook stew some eggs for you at noon to help you recover. The chickens here aren't fed grain. They eat rotten fruit when there's fruit, and when there isn't, they're let out in the orchard to catch insects. Their eggs taste better than the ones sold at the supply and marketing cooperative." He boasted.
"Then I must try it." Su Yu agreed, falling half a step behind Qiu Fuli, and followed him down the mountain.
The younger Liu Quan's face stiffened. He remained silent for a moment, then asked at the foot of the mountain, "Shaking the trees must have knocked off a lot of orange blossoms, right? They're almost ready for pollination now. If the blossoms are gone, this year's harvest will be reduced."
Before Su Yu could speak, Yu Yuan'an said, "A reduced yield is better than no yield at all. Most of the flowers that can be shaken off are problematic, so it's better to discard them. How can everything be perfect?" Then he brought up the matter of lime.
Su Yu appreciated his kindness and looked at Qiu Fuli, saying, "We've used them all up, but we've only used them to paint half of the fruit trees. It would be great if we could get five more packs."
"Buy it, I'll have someone buy it later, it should arrive this afternoon. Look at you two, you're even giving me the cold shoulder. I'm just worried about wasting things, not being stingy." Qiu Fuli was exceptionally sharp-witted when he wasn't being impulsive, and he pointed at Yu Yuan'an with a smile, saying that he wanted to label him as a stingy person.
Liu Quan walked at the back, watching the people in front chatting and laughing. Compared to Su Yu, he seemed more like a newcomer being ostracized. He spat inwardly and silently followed.
During the lunch break, Su Yu sat alone in the cafeteria, feeling bored. She glanced outside and, seeing that it wasn't too hot, decided to go to the orchard first. It wasn't summer yet, and the temperature hadn't risen. The orchard, with its shaded trees, was actually cooler than the open space outside.
She climbed the tree and shook off the insects, shaking a few trees and resting for a while. By the time the workers came at two o'clock, she had only shaken twenty trees.
"Oh, you're really serious? Coming here in the middle of the day to get things done?" Qiu Fuli joked as he came over, followed by several people carrying lime.
"Of course, I also want to experience what it's like to leave work early." Once the workers arrived, she was free. The two men who were painting the lime were the same ones from the morning, but two women came to shake the trees, and there was also a man dragging mats to stomp on insects.
"Then you can leave once you finish your work here, you don't need to come and tell me again." He noticed that Su Yu was indeed fast at working, spending her days painting with lime and shaking off insects. Compared to her, Liu Quan looked down on her. Liu Quan was hesitant and impatient, and he always had to ask Yu Yuan'an before he dared to do anything. He was a coward who was afraid of taking responsibility.
Su Yu finished up her work and went to say hello to him. She asked what time it was, and since it was just past four o'clock, she happily told them, "Brothers, I'm going home now. You guys keep going."
After she left, Yu Yuan'an chuckled, "I need to kill this bug quickly, and also broaden her horizons so that she won't see me from the moment she arrives at work until the day she leaves."
Qiu Fuli laughed, "He is a bit ignorant."
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