Chapter 44: Tan Dafeng
“Come, girl, drink the sugar water!”
“Thank you, Granny.”
Taking the enamel cup with both hands, Su Ning smiled and took a big sip: Hmm, sweet, super sweet.
Granny probably wanted to pour all the brown sugar into it for her at once, showing how genuinely happy she was.
Although somewhat puzzled, Su Ning didn’t rashly ask questions, but instead picked up the bamboo basket she had prepared when calling out at the courtyard gate earlier.
“Granny, you take this…”
“Grandmother!”
Before she could finish speaking, she was interrupted by a boy who suddenly burst in. Thinking for a moment, she smoothly placed the things back in the inconspicuous corner under the table.
The little boy was wearing short sleeve pants pieced together from several different pieces of cloth, with a small hole worn through at the knees.
His sun-darkened, shiny little face clearly froze upon seeing the unfamiliar face in the main hall, then he grinned without any shyness and bounced forward a few steps, looking at her with very curious eyes.
“Call her Auntie, oh no, she should be called Sister!”
Remembering that she had called their eldest son uncle, Granny Tan immediately changed her words, “Gou Wa, call her quickly.”
“Sister!”
“Yes, good boy~”
Stroking his little head, Su Ning reached into the canvas bag and took the opportunity to retrieve from the space a handful of fruit hard candy and a handful of White Rabbit Milk Candy.
“Sister is treating you to candy.”
The little guy looked at the beautifully wrapped fruit hard candy, and upon seeing the White Rabbit Milk Candy that he had only heard of but never eaten, his eyes instantly lit up.
But even though he really wanted it, he didn’t reach out, instead turning his head to look at his own grandmother.
“Take it, your grandmother treated Sister to sugar water, and Sister is treating you to candy, right?”
Her smiling words with double meaning made it hard for Granny Tan to voice the refusal at the corner of her mouth.
The smile on her face deepened, even the nasolabial folds on her forehead relaxed, “Gou Wa, quickly thank Sister, take the candy and share it with your brothers and sisters. Look at me, I’m senile. Go quickly to the field and call your uncle to come back right away!”
“Okay, thank you Sister, Grandmother, I’ll go right now!”
……
Gou Wa ran like the wind along the field ridge, not worried at all about falling, and as soon as he saw the familiar figure, he immediately shouted in his thin little voice, “Uncle! Uncle!”
“What’s up, Gou Wa!”
“There’s a guest at home, a pretty sister, Grandmother wants you to come home quickly!”
A guest? And a girl at that?
Tan Dafeng put down the sickle in his hand and roughly wiped the sweat from his face, “Cang Zi, ask for leave for me.”
“Got it, older brother!”
With his arms pushing off, he had already climbed over the field ridge that was nearly half a person’s height, and Tan Dafeng hurried home with quick steps.
Leaving the Tan family hands still working nonstop in the field, but in their hearts they were all guessing who had come to the house.
“Gou Wa, you say it’s a pretty sister?”
“Yeah, super pretty!”
Gou Wa blew his nose, wiped it casually on the weeds along the field path, and waved to his brothers and sisters while answering.
Once his brothers and sisters came over to his side puzzled, Gou Wa carefully pulled out a big handful of candy from his pants pocket.
“Wow, White Rabbit Milk Candy!”
“Where’d it come from?”
“The pretty sister gave it.”
He Hua Tan looked at the candy she got, cherishingly holding it in her palm, feeling intense curiosity toward this sister whom her little brother, whom she hadn’t met yet, kept calling pretty.
Meanwhile, Tan Dafeng, who had hurried all the way home, froze upon seeing the girl sitting prettily chatting with his own old mother.
“Uncle Tan?”
“Girl, who are you?”
“I’m Lu Fei’s, Uncle Lu’s…”
His two palm-like hands slapped together hard, and the suddenly realizing Tan Dafeng burst into hearty laughter, “Hahahaha, you’re the grandniece Ning Ning that Team Leader Lu mentioned, right?”
“Hehe~”
Nodding shyly, Su Ning half-jokingly and half-seriously replied, “Coming unannounced, Uncle Tan, you welcome me, right?”
“What kind of talk is that? Since you’re Team Leader Lu’s, you’re also my Tan Dafeng’s grandniece. Coming from Uncle Lu’s family, what disturbance?”
Tan Dafeng put on a stern face unhappily and waved his hand, “You mustn’t say that kind of thing!”
“Okay, then I’ll have to come often from now on~”
“Hahahaha, that’s right! Come, you must come often!”
Seeing her eldest son return, Granny Tan immediately stood up and tied the apron on the table again, “Feng Zi, chat with Ning Wa first, I’ll go make a good meal!”
“Okay, got it, Mom.”
“Granny, no need to trouble yourself. I’m not picky, I’ll eat whatever is given, but don’t…”
“Ning Wa, you wait, Granny knows what she’s doing!”
The old woman bustled out of the room energetically, not giving her a chance to say half a word more.
Farmhouses don’t have anything fancy, but with a rare guest coming after great difficulty, of course they’d do their utmost to prepare.
Tan Dafeng saw her urgency seemed like she was afraid people would overthink and have some mental burden, so he lowered his voice to explain, “Your Granny Tan is genuinely happy.”
It wasn’t targeted at just her, but whenever any of his ZY came to the house, they’d get this enthusiastically warm treatment.
This was the Tan family’s heartfelt gratitude, gratitude for the life-saving grain mailed over from ZY from all over the country during the most difficult years.
Whenever there was an opportunity, they wanted to repay it doubly.
“So you, relax and eat and drink well, she’ll be even happier.”
No matter how many times she’d heard about this ZY affection, there was still an indescribable feeling of envy and emotion in her heart.
Smiling and nodding to show she understood, Su Ning was actually thinking about how to unobtrusively leave behind more things.
The bamboo basket only held a few fruits, and after this meal, who knew how much of the Tan family’s rations it would take.
“Ning Ning, is there something you need this time? If you need Uncle Tan’s help, just say it.”
“Indeed, there’s something I want Uncle Tan to help with.”
“Oh? Tell me, what is it?”
Tan Dafeng originally thought it was something tricky, but after hearing her out, the serious expression on his face quickly dissipated.
Just finding a few trustworthy tight-lipped people to transport a shipment, that was simple!
His youngest brother and eldest nephew were both capable quick workers, not big talkers and tight-lipped, and with him personally watching, there’d definitely be no problem.
“The day after tomorrow, where?”
“Fengzhu Ridge, specific location… I’ll be waiting for you all at that road junction ahead of time.”
“Okay, the afternoon of the day after tomorrow at six?”
“Yes, that’s the time arranged with them.”
After smilingly explaining and seeing him agree without issue and readily accept, Su Ning changed the subject.
“By the way, Uncle Tan, each person moving the goods gets twenty bucks, or they can exchange it for goods, but they must take it no matter what.
If you don’t agree… sigh~ I’m unfamiliar here, where else can I find people to help!”
“You little girl, so you were waiting for me here?”
Immediately catching the point in her words, the outmaneuvered Tan Dafeng shook his head with a helpless smile.
Twenty bucks, that was a city worker’s monthly salary!
But thinking of his aging mother at home, whose bones ached terribly every rainy day, yet she was reluctant to spend money to go to the hospital.
His grandniece Jian Guo and He Hua had suddenly reached marriageable age, and the house needed urgent renovation and rebuilding.
All adding up to big expenses, and relying on what they scraped together from the fields all year round wasn’t nearly enough; just filling the whole family’s stomachs was already good.
This favor, he accepted!
“Just as Team Leader Lu said, good girl! Ning Ning, Uncle thanks you.”
“I’m the one asking Uncle for help, how could you be thanking me? Of course it’s me thanking Uncle Tan.”
“Good good good, no more polite words, hahahaha~”
With the matter settled, as the brigade’s noon work bell rang, Granny Tan also prepared a full table of good dishes.
Besides the fresh in-season melon grown in their own field, eggs saved up to exchange for money, the last big rooster slaughtered, and even a full strip cut from the cured meat that was only taken out a little during festivals.
They ate sweet potato porridge but specially gave her rice dry rice.
With this whole big family still afraid they hadn’t hosted her well, Su Ning’s eyes reddened as for the first time she ate herself so full she could hardly walk, and that warm feeling in her heart lingered long after leaving.
“Oww~”
“Gou Wa, don’t yell nonsense!”
“Grandmother, Uncle, Dad, Mom, come look quick!”
After seeing off the guest and just getting home without even sitting down to catch his breath, Tan Dafeng heard Gou Wa yelling inside the room and followed behind his mother into the main hall.
He saw Gou Wa squatting on the ground by the table, with peaches, black grapes, an iron box of malt extract, and two cloth bags with loose mouths in the bamboo basket in front of him.
One bag full of fine white egg noodles, the other red-and-white streaky pork belly that made one’s mouth water just looking at it.
“This, when did Ning Wa bring this in?”
Granny Tan looked at the things on the ground and quickly grabbed her eldest son’s hand, “Where is she? Has Ning Wa gone far?”
“I had Da Zhu take the brigade’s ox cart to send her to town, she’s probably gone by now.”
“Look at this girl, how’d she learn from your those ZY to sneakily hide things? This must cost so much money!”
Tan Dafeng couldn’t help but laugh and cry at his mother’s words, “Mom, next time Ning Ning comes, we’ll host her properly.”
“Okay, after the autumn harvest, you go to Gu City and send Ning Wa some new grain, new veggies, and good stuff from home!”
“Good good, I definitely will!”
