Chapter 163: Meeting
“Older brother?”
Just like a conditioned reflex, when Yan Nan saw the dangerous glint flickering in his narrowed eyes, the skin on his back couldn’t help but tighten.
Yan Dong came back to his senses, shook his head at him, and had no intention of saying more.
Although the younger siblings below were not much younger than him, as the eldest, they could almost be considered ones he had raised single-handedly.
So all along, Yan Dong had habitually shouldered everything for them, only hoping that the younger siblings could all live freely and comfortably.
Even now, this mindset couldn’t change for a while.
He carefully tucked the two newly wrapped small paper packets into his inner pocket, then subconsciously pressed down on the cotton clothes outside as Yan Nan pulled them together.
Although he didn’t know how much money and ration coupons Su Ning’s older brother had sent, judging by his expression, Yan Nan already had some guesses about the medicine he had traded for.
Truly, a tiger fallen in the flatlands gets bullied by dogs!
He ground his molars, a blaze suddenly flaring up in his eyes, and only after circulating his energy back and forth several times with effort did he barely suppress it.
“Little Nan, I’ll go to the farm to work later, you stay behind and take good care of Dad.”
This was the bonus given by Shi Dali, who was fairly satisfied with this simple transaction.
In any case, it temporarily spared the two from heavy labor, which was undoubtedly the best for Father’s current condition.
“Older brother, how about I go work instead…”
“Listen to me.”
“Oh.”
……
In the blink of an eye, several days passed, Yan Ziyu’s medicine was all used up, and the wound hadn’t worsened further but also hadn’t healed.
Now he was continuously running a low fever, still had to limp along gritting his teeth to complete the heavy tasks assigned from above every day.
This was no less than a vicious cycle, making his wound heal even slower, and if it continued, it would only get worse.
In just a few short days, he had rapidly lost a ton of weight, his entire body thin to an unbelievable degree.
That large cotton-padded jacket, which had originally fit perfectly, now hung on him like a skeleton, looking empty and loose.
Yan Dong and Yan Nan, the two brothers, felt anxious seeing it, and could only desperately finish their own tasks each day to turn around and help him.
The reclaimed land farm was vast with sparse population, each person responsible for reclaiming over ten mu of land, and besides that, they had to fertilize the soil before it froze hard.
Not only did it require turning the soil, plowing, digging up gravel and tree roots, but also irrigating with manure and spreading plant ash; under conditions of not eating enough or sleeping well, even with their physical condition, a full day of work was somewhat unbearable.
Not to mention the injured father, and the frail mother.
Taking advantage of the meal pickup time, Yan Nan quickly scanned the crowd for Xiang Mingyu and her daughter.
Until he saw that familiar figure, joy immediately surged in his eyes.
You had to know that meal pickup in a cell was done in turns; no one wanted to give up this rare chance to stretch their legs to just one person, so running into each other was purely down to luck.
The siblings’ gazes met unexpectedly, and after tacitly nodding in greeting, they passed through the people around them and lined up one after the other in the same queue at the back.
“Older brother, how are you and Dad and little brother?”
“We’re fine, Dad… his leg still hasn’t healed, what about you and Mom? Has anyone bullied you over there? Can your bodies still hold up?”
Thinking of the hardships and suffering endured these days, Yan Xi suddenly sniffed hard, forcefully blinking away the tears unconsciously gathering in her eyes.
In front of Mom, she had to be strong to hold up a piece of sky for her, not daring to show even a bit of weakness.
She knew that every night her mother secretly cried behind her back, both heartbroken and worried.
“With me here, they don’t dare do anything, older brother don’t worry about us, I’ll take good care of Mom, as for Dad…”
“You don’t worry either, nor does Mom, I’ll try to find a way for Dad’s injury.”
Slightly lowering his eyes, Yan Dong knew these words were just comfort; the letter he sent out had been completely returned, no one to turn to for help, penniless and resourceless, what good way could there be to resolve the current predicament.
Forcing a smile, Yan Dong quickly reached out and ruffled her hair on top of her head, pretending not to see her moistened eyelashes, “Our Xi Xi has grown up, Mom is entrusted to you to take care of, okay.”
“Mm! I will…”
“You’re up, what are you chattering about, hurry it up!”
The rare tender moment was interrupted, and the siblings’ expressions both looked unpleasant, their gazes even colder than each other.
The shouting person froze, his hand holding the ladle trembling involuntarily, but seeing neither was a soft target, he didn’t say more.
Only when serving them their food, his hand shook like it had cramps, sauerkraut with meat bits and stewed noodles, the already scant meat bits ended up with not even a speck.
Already knowing the mindset of these petty people, suppressing their anger, the two didn’t argue with him as he wished but turned and left.
“Tch~”
That person’s lips curled up, a flash of disdain in his eyes: Thought they were tough nuts, just this?
Right before parting, the two finally exchanged a glance, forced to swallow the words they hadn’t had time to say.
Yan Dong, who had taken a deep breath and was just about to turn, saw Shi Dali from the previous transaction rushing toward him in a frantic sprint.
“You, to you Yan Dong come with me quick!”
“Older brother?”
Hearing this, she immediately stopped, Yan Xi quickly turned back and stepped forward a few paces, instinctively trying to block him behind her.
Thinking of how the one in their room had looked after being taken away and coming back, Yan Xi’s expression couldn’t help but show some urgency.
“It’s fine Xi Xi, you go back first, it’s cold, the food will get cold soon.”
Shi Dali ignored their thoughts, shoving the food and flatbread from Yan Dong’s hands entirely into the hands of a nearby guard, “So much nonsense, hurry up!”
Shaking his head at her, under Yan Xi’s gaze full of worry, Yan Dong quickly left with Shi Dali.
After being led out of the checkpoint to a row of guards’ dormitory building, Yan Dong raised his brows slightly, but his expression showed no change.
“Brother Dong!”
“Little Xu, how come it’s you?”
Only until he was roughly half-pushed and half-shoved into a room, and saw the person inside pacing anxiously like a fly, did that face show obvious change.
Looking back at the now-closed room door, Yan Dong could no longer control his excited expression and quickly stepped forward, “You brat, how did you get here at this time?”
“I happened to be free, so I ran this errand for A Bei, Brother Dong these are the things he asked me to bring, take a look.”
For easy carrying, Su Ning had stuffed all the urgently needed things into two large leather suitcases when preparing.
But big items like quilts and such were really hard to bring, so he could only bring more money and ration coupons for him to figure things out on this side.
Wang Xu had also been delayed half a day because of this, otherwise he should have arrived early in the morning.
“I only had this many cotton coupons on hand, so I bought two, I’ll stay here a few more days and think of ways to get more over later.”
“No rush on this, when we left someone sent cotton clothes, cotton pants, bedding, plus these two from you, it’s enough.”
“Right, and the most important!”
He hurriedly pulled out the small bag hidden in his arms and handed it over, “A Bei heard about Uncle Yan’s injury, this is medicine specially obtained, remember to use it on Uncle right away.”
Following Su Ning’s instructions, he explained each porcelain bottle’s medicine one by one.
Yan Dong clutched the medicine bottles tightly in his arms, nearly tearing up, “Little Xu thank you!”
Truly life-saving, perfectly timely!
“Heh heh, I didn’t do much, just running an errand for my older brother.”
“Also thank your brother and Uncle Wang.”
Silly grinning as he touched his nose, the usually carefree guy always called unserious was thanked so earnestly for the first time, and Wang Xu really felt a bit unaccustomed.
As for those words about the Yan Family, he scoffed and didn’t take them to heart at all; no matter if the Yan Family was in the mud now, as long as he, his brother, and the Wang family recognized the person, it was fine.
It was also because of his reputation that no one outside cared whether he was home or not, so he was entrusted with this important task.
Thinking of this, Wang Xu subconsciously straightened his back: he still had his uses!
Practically grinning ear to ear, Wang Xu happily turned and pushed over the two large leather suitcases one after another, “Stone Dali said only ten minutes, Brother Dong take the stuff in first, I’ll come see you tomorrow!”
“Rest assured, I’ve given them plenty of benefits, they won’t check again, Brother Dong just rest assured and take it.”
“Good, then we’ll talk about anything else tomorrow.”
“Hey, sure!”
Since there was medicine now, Yan Dong naturally wanted to hurry back to use it on Father; as for news from outside, there would be time tomorrow to ask in detail.
Carrying the two large boxes out, sure enough all the way back to their quarters, not a single guard jumped out, and while Yan Dong breathed a sigh of relief, he also secretly pondered: to make them all turn a blind eye like this must have cost quite a bit.
