Chapter 148: Accept
For Yan Bei, these past few days of continuous incidents meant sleepless nights, where he lay awake watching the stars overhead fade away as the sky gradually turned fish-belly white.
He only hoped that the arrangements made after his last conversation with his father before leaving home would all go as they wished, after all, this concerned whether the Yan Family could smoothly turn things around and how long it would take to stand up again.
Su Ning was meticulous; even in haste, the things she bought were very complete, considering every aspect.
Holding a porcelain basin, plastic cup, and washing supplies, Yan Bei’s heart felt no chill from the cool morning breeze.
After a simple wash, accompanying the first work bell, he had already arrived at the cattle shed.
Last night the brigade leader had already made simple arrangements, but they were all the dirtiest and most tiring jobs.
Behind the not-too-large cattle shed was a small room partitioned off with a plastic shed as the roof; the old man living inside had a thin build, graying temples with sparse hair, and a sallow face etched with deep wrinkles.
Seeing the person standing outside, Liu Wenbo quietly glanced over before lowering his head to start cleaning and sweeping, his face calm as still water with no intention of speaking.
This shaded mountain hollow was behind where villagers often went up the mountain to chop firewood and gather pig grass; the cattle shed’s position was relatively central, with the pigsty not far to the left and a weed-covered slope and path to the right.
The pigsty housed four or five large spotted pigs, plus the only big yellow ox in the cattle shed.
Normally Liu Wenbo was responsible for cleaning the cattle shed and grazing the ox; Lin Tao and Liang Wanru, the couple, took care of cleaning the pigsty and feeding the pigs.
Now with Yan Bei added, and Yan Changrong and his wife in a couple days, their workload would finally lighten, giving them time to breathe and rest.
Without consulting them, Yan Bei nodded slightly in greeting to the few people coming out one after another, then took two wooden buckets, an iron shovel, and a hand-pushed three-wheeler from the pile of tools.
He went to the large pit dug for piling manure and started loading and picking it up; once the buckets were full, he pushed them to the field for irrigation.
The good-quality, seemingly new shirt was now wrinkled and baggy, with trouser legs covered in mud and manure spots everywhere.
In just a short while, he seemed to have transformed from a pampered young master into a stinking, filthy vagrant.
“This young man is a new educated youth?”
No wonder Liang Wanru thought so; aside from the educated youths from a few years ago who came down to the countryside full of enthusiasm in response to the call, who among those who came later did so willingly unless out of desperation or other reasons?
Among every batch of new arrivals, there were always one or two troublemakers; once they caused trouble, the brigade leader would throw them over for punishment and discipline.
Looking at Yan Bei’s temperament, appearance, and age, no one would associate him with their own status at first glance.
“Wanru, don’t get involved this time, and don’t forget last time.”
Liang Wanru, who was bent over cleaning the pigsty, tightened her grip on the bamboo broom involuntarily, as if recalling something; she mockingly curled her lips, then lowered her head to continue cleaning. “I know.”
For a moment, all four busied themselves with their tasks, none speaking.
……
Meanwhile, Su Ning, who had woken up with her biological clock, finished washing and went to the kitchen.
She lit the fire, boiled a pot of hot water, filled both thermoses, and then began preparing breakfast.
For convenience, she didn’t make porridge or noodle dishes, but instead took out the oil residue left from last time’s oil rendering from her space, picked a fresh big cabbage, chopped it into fine filling, and made small steamer buns.
Fortunately, yesterday when buying furniture, she had also picked up quite a few handmade bamboo items, like steamer baskets, winnowing baskets, and other kitchen essentials, without missing any.
The sky was already bright; amid the steaming white mist, the aroma of meat gradually filled the entire kitchen.
“Ning Ning! Has Ning Ning gotten up?”
“Coming~”
She wiped the water stains from her hands with a clean cloth, trotted out of the kitchen, quickly drew the door bolt, and opened the gate.
Outside the gate stood Su Jianqun and Su Jianmin, the two brothers with back baskets on their backs; seeing her, they both grinned simultaneously, showing similar honest smiles.
“Older brother, young man, why are you here so early? Come in, quick!”
“Grandpa was worried you just got back without enough firewood to cook; it was too late when he thought of it yesterday, so early this morning he hurried me to deliver some.”
“These are vegetables picked by grandma and my mom from our own private plot; after you finish eating, bro will bring more!”
In her grandma’s words, even if they emptied their firewood and stripped their private plot bare, it wouldn’t match a fraction of the gifts Ning Ning brought yesterday.
Su Jianmin scratched the back of his head embarrassedly, knowing that if it weren’t for his upcoming winter marriage, with grandpa and grandma’s temperament, they definitely wouldn’t accept these things.
For his sake, they swallowed their pride and accepted; his face burned, so he could only think of ways to make up for it.
He couldn’t help but secretly swear that in the future, whatever good things he had, he certainly wouldn’t forget this sister!
“Older brother, young man, wait a moment!”
Seeing the two finish speaking on their own, drop the things, and prepare to leave, Su Ning had no time to thank them and could only call them back first.
She dashed back to the kitchen, took a small winnowing basket from the top of the cabinet, and lined it with a layer of fine gauze cloth.
She used chopsticks to pick out the freshly steamed small steamer buns from the pot one by one and placed them in the winnowing basket.
The steamer basket was large enough to steam about thirty small steamer buns in one layer; she mentally calculated the number of people in the old man’s family, figuring this should be just enough for two each to taste.
Finally, she covered them with a slightly thicker clean cloth, picked it up, and hurriedly left the kitchen.
“Ning Ning, what are you doing?”
Su Jianqun’s nose twitched sharply; he couldn’t help widening his eyes: if he wasn’t mistaken, the thing stuffed into his arms smelled like meat!
Meat! Fragrant, steaming meat!
But…
He forcefully swallowed his saliva, turned his head decisively, and tried to push the thing back.
But Su Ning, as if anticipating it, had already stepped back several paces, far out of reach.
“These are the small steamer buns I just made this morning; young man, take them back for the old man and old woman to taste, see how my skills are—this is filial piety, no refusing.”
Without waiting for the brothers to speak again, Su Ning half-pushed and half-dragged the stunned pair out the door. “I have something to do later and need to go out, so I won’t keep you two brothers longer!”
“Hey, wait…”
“Heh, this girl~”
Looking at the tightly shut gate, Su Jianqun and the other exchanged glances, both somewhat amused and helpless.
“Older brother, what do we do with these steamed buns?”
“Ning Ning said it’s filial piety; let’s go back first and see what grandpa and grandma say.”
“Okay. Slurp~”
“Don’t drip your saliva in there, look at you!”
Laughingly scolding Su Jianmin, he quickened his pace unconsciously, really afraid that the meaty aroma would make his own mouth water uncontrollably.
The two voices gradually faded; Su Ning, smiling at the corners of her mouth, turned back to the kitchen to prepare the next pot of small steamer buns.
……
After one or two hours of farm work, people in the fields began stopping one after another, either heading home to eat or waiting for family to bring breakfast.
Carrying a small back basket and wearing dark cotton clothes and pants, Su Ning skirted most of the village and finally turned onto the path leading to the front mountain.
The mountain path was narrow, with quite a few children carrying back baskets of pig grass taller than themselves preparing to go down.
The shy, timid ones waited in place for her to pass first; the bold, mischievous ones seized the chance to ask which family she was from and where she was going.
Once they turned into the back mountain hollow, the little ones following her quickly scattered and disappeared.
The three old men had already finished cleaning the shed; Liu Wenbo was grazing the ox not far away, Lin Tao busy clearing and chopping the pig grass the children had brought after calculating work points, so Liang Wanru could boil it for the pigs.
Glancing around without seeing that familiar figure, Su Ning could only stand at the roadside waiting.
She noticed the wariness in their eyes; though she wanted to build connections for the Yan Family members in advance, she didn’t want to rashly approach and cause unnecessary misunderstandings.
“Su Ning? Why are you here?”
Yan Bei, pushing the cart back again, paused in his steps, unsure whether to approach or turn away.
As if not noticing the increasingly intense smell of sweat and manure on him, Su Ning took several large steps to his side, shrugged her shoulders slightly, and said lightly, “Of course to bring you breakfast!”
“You go back first; it’s broad daylight now, not good if someone sees; besides…”
He stank badly now and really didn’t want to fumigate her like this.
He awkwardly turned his head away; his incomparably strong heart always couldn’t help revealing its vulnerable, soft side in front of her.
