Chapter 9 009 Two Little Baskets
The two children had only five wild duck eggs in their pockets combined. They carefully carried the eggs, which were only slightly larger than ping-pong balls, home and put them in the kitchen. Then, Song Shiyi, familiar with the place, went to the side yard to search and found a slightly broken basket.
“Grandpa and Grandma can weave baskets. They can’t bear to throw away these slightly damaged ones, and they have nowhere to put them, so they pile them up here,” Song Shiyi emptied the other miscellaneous items from the basket and then explained to Song Xiaoli, who had just arrived at their home, “If you want anything, you can come here and look around. You might find it. Just don’t make a mess of it, and Grandpa and Grandma won’t care.”
Song Xiaoli looked around. The bamboo basket that her little cousin had found was almost up to her shoulder when placed on the ground. She was short, about 90 centimeters tall, so she definitely couldn't carry the basket. Her little cousin was taller, but the height difference between children a few years old wasn't that big. He was only about 1.1 meters tall, so carrying the basket would also be a bit difficult for him.
"Hey buddy, isn't this too big? Won't it drag on the floor if we carry it?"
"It seems a bit..." Song Shiyi picked it up and tried it on. Since the straps were made for adults and were very loose, when he, a child, carried it, it was loose and swayed, causing the basket to tilt backward a lot and the bottom to easily touch the ground. "What should I do?"
Song Xiaoli crawled into the pile of clutter and asked the system to scan it. She saw several beautifully woven baskets in the back, the size of which was perfect for children. They were tied with small, faded cloth flowers that were no longer recognizable. They must have been woven by her grandparents for her mother to play with a long time ago.
"Brother!" Song Xiaoli found a very tricky angle, barely able to see the small baskets through the gap. "Look inside, it seems there are even smaller baskets."
"Really? I've never seen this before?" Song Shiyi walked to that spot, somewhat annoyed, and peered through the gap underneath. "It looks like a basket, but it's hidden too deep inside, isn't it?"
The little boy hesitated for a while, torn between rummaging through the clutter and going to get more eggs to eat. In the end, wanting to eat eggs won out. He rolled up his sleeves and, in a very elder brotherly manner, told Song Xiaoli to stand back a bit, "You stay away, I'll rummage through them!"
If Song Shiyi were to rummage through everything by himself, it would take forever, and he could easily knock over the pile of things, potentially getting hit. Song Xiaoli, with the system's help, knew the fastest and safest way to move the items, and immediately suggested, "Brother, I'll keep an eye on things for you. I'll tell you which ones to move first, okay? If you bring the things down for me, they won't get messy even if I pile them outside, and Grandpa and the others won't be angry."
Song Shiyi thought it made sense and nodded in agreement.
It took the two of them nearly forty minutes to finally bring the small basket inside back to light. However, there was a lot of dust and cobwebs inside, and some rotten things were emitting a strange smell, which made the two of them sneeze incessantly.
Song Shiyi quickly scooped out all the small baskets stacked together, then immediately ran outside the pile of miscellaneous items and sneezed five or six times in a row. "Achoo, achoo! My goodness, Grandpa and the others, how long have these things been left untouched in there?"
Song Xiaoli helped her little cousin disassemble several baskets. Judging from their size, she roughly guessed that they were probably toys her mother played with when she was between three and ten years old. There were four small baskets in total, each one bigger and more delicate than the last. The straps were made of twisted hemp rope, and the shoulder area was covered with scraps of cloth, so they didn't feel rough when carried.
These things made Song Xiaoli realize how much her mother was pampered at home back then, which explains why she was easily emotionally hurt after leaving home.
Song Xiaoli chose the smallest basket, emptied out some wooden toys, and then used a broom to dust off the inside and outside of the basket. In her heart, she was thinking that she would pamper her mother in the future and not let her mother feel wronged.
“This is just right for me,” Song Shiyi said, unaware of what his cousin was thinking. He picked out a small basket, casually patted it with a rag, and then slung it over his shoulder. “It just feels a little strange.”
This is a fancy basket woven for girls. It looks a bit strange to see a bald boy like my little cousin carrying it.
But they couldn't worry about the details anymore. They each put on their small baskets and headed towards the stream behind the mountain.
This time, Song Shiyi also brought out the small tool his mother used to scoop up duckweed from the water.
When the two of them went out together again, they happened to run into Song Wanxia, who was returning home.
Looking at the baskets her daughter and nephew were carrying, Song Wanxia felt they looked familiar. "Where are you going again? Where did you find those little baskets?"
“We found them in the pile of junk,” Song Shiyi answered quickly. “Auntie, we found a bunch of eggs. We need to hurry and put them back. We’re off now. The pile of junk is a bit messy. If you have time, could you help tidy it up? Otherwise, my dad will scold me again.”
“Okay,” Song Wanxia thought it was no big deal and readily agreed, then looked at Song Xiaoli.
Song Xiaoli knew her mother wanted to hear her answer, so she said, "Mom, don't worry, I'll listen to my older brother, I won't run far or play in the water, and I'll be back soon. If you miss me, you can call out from the back mountain, and I'll come back as soon as I hear you!"
The way she said it made it sound like a mother couldn't live without her child. Song Wanxia blushed a little, put down the two large baskets of cucumbers and tender cowpeas, went over and patted her daughter's head, "Go play, but you don't have any clothes to change into, so don't get your clothes too dirty."
"Okay." Song Xiaoli replied softly, waved to her mother, and then embarked on another egg-hunting journey with her little cousin.
Seeing that the two children had disappeared, Song Wanxia did miss her daughter a little. Without her little girl following her around, she felt empty inside. "This won't do." They had only been apart for a short time today. After she went to work, she would only be able to see her daughter in the morning and evening. Wouldn't she be anxious thinking about her during the day?
Suppressing her unease, Song Wanxia carried the washed vegetables to the main room. She took out an oval bamboo tray and laid out the cowpeas and cucumbers to dry. Once dry, they could be pickled when the others returned to help. After finishing, she went to the side yard to tidy up the pile of miscellaneous items, only to find that the pigsty, which had been used as a storage area, was almost completely emptied. She wondered how long it would take to clean it all up.
Song Wanxia sighed wearily and simply emptied everything out of the room. She wiped the useful items clean and separated them by type, while preparing to throw away or burn the useless ones. She also piled some of the firewood separately to make room for the still useful items.
While her mother was busy working, Song Xiaoli wasn't idle either. With her nimble little hands, she took the eggs out of the net that her cousin handed her and then neatly put them into the basket. "Brother, this layer is full again!"
In her small basket, she first put a layer of chopped grass, then a layer of eggs, then another thick layer of chopped grass, then another layer of eggs, and so on, until she had piled up six layers of eggs, which filled more than half the basket.
"Just put this much in your basket, or you won't be able to carry it anymore," Song Shiyi said, looking at the sweat on his sister's forehead. He thoughtfully lifted the basket off the ground. "Let's find a place to hide your basket first, and then we'll continue to fill mine up."
"good!"
Even though the two children had limited strength, they managed to fill Song Shiyi's larger basket with eggs before noon through their joint efforts.
Song Shiyi then sprinkled some more weeds on top to cover it up, put the basket on his back, and led his sister back to find her basket.
This time they went a little further, almost reaching a deep pool upstream. It took them nearly twenty minutes to walk back to where they had hidden the basket. Fortunately, no one else came by, and people usually don't rummage through things that are obviously owned. The two checked and found the egg was still inside. With her cousin's help, Song Xiaoli also put her basket on her back.
With this small but heavy burden, the two walked slowly and carefully. When they got home, the whole family had returned from work. They were all worried because the two children were not there and only Song Wanxia was busy packing things in the side yard.
"Where is the child?" Zhang Lian asked.
Song Wanxia was so focused on packing that she didn't realize it was lunchtime. She only found out when her mother asked her that her daughter and the others hadn't come home yet.
"Shiyi took Xiaoli to play near the back mountain, haven't they come back yet?"
"Oh my god!" Zhang Lian hurriedly went out the door and headed towards the back mountain to look for him, shouting as she went, "Xiao Li, T Shiyi, where are you two? Come back for dinner!"
Song Shiyi and Song Xiaoli both heard the shouts, but given their current pace, they were still quite far from home. They could only shout back as loudly as possible, "Coming! We'll be right back!"
It's good that there's a response; at least it means the child is alright. Zhang Lian breathed a sigh of relief.
Just then, Song Dianchen arrived and roughly determined that the children had followed the path along the stream. "Mom, you go back and help with the cooking. I'll go pick them up."
"Okay, sure." I still have to work in the afternoon, so I need to make lunch quickly.
Song Dianchen strode forward with his strong, long legs, moving swiftly towards the two children. Seeing that his youngest son and niece were both clean, especially Song Xiaoli, who didn't seem to be injured or frightened, he felt relieved.
He was really afraid that his youngest son was too immature and would take his three-year-old sister running around and hurt such a tender little girl.
"Why didn't you look at the sky when you went out to play? How far did you go? Why are you only coming back now?" Song Dianchen said to his youngest son with a long face and a harsh tone.
Song Shiyi was used to his father treating him like this. He simply pointed behind him with the bamboo pole and said, "Xiao Li and I caught some wild duck eggs. We were thinking of filling the basket before going back, so we forgot about the time."
In the past, when Song Shiyi went out to play, he could usually come back in time for meals. This time, he went a bit further away, had to take care of his little sister, and was carrying fragile items, so he was a little slower.
"What are you doing fishing for eggs?" Song Dianchen thought it was just kids playing house. If wild eggs were so easy to find, he would go out to look for them every morning and evening. "It's one thing for you to mess around, but you're dragging your sister along too! Give me the basket and go back to wash up. You're all sweaty..."
Song Shiyi carried a full basket on his back, and Song Xiaoli carried a basket that was more than half full. They were indeed tired after walking such a long distance, so they quickly unloaded their things and handed them to the adults. Finally, they could go home with their burdens lifted.
Heavy items for children are nothing to Song Dianchen, who is incredibly muscular. He can carry two baskets with one hand and still have one hand free to carry his tired son, Song Xiaoli, while his son jogs behind him.
Song Xiaoli leaned on her uncle's shoulder, encouraging her younger cousin, "Come on, come on, come on! Ask my mom to cook one...two eggs for us at noon!"
"You guys are running around and not coming home on time. You're lucky you're not getting a beating, and you still want to eat eggs?" Song Dianchen casually reprimanded.
But when they got home, the two children really did take out a lot of eggs from their baskets, and he couldn't bring himself to refuse them.
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