“It hurts, how could it not? Let’s not sell tomorrow, okay? Let’s rest for two days.” Jiang Qingqing felt a pang of concern. Her husband had never been injured like this before.
Zhang Liunian pulled her into his embrace, smiling with immense joy. His wife was worried about him; he knew it.
But with the family’s dire situation, how could they not sell? Not only did they have to sell, but he also had to sell more.
Only then could they pay off their debts and he could rebuild a house.
If he remembered correctly, this house would collapse in two months.
So they were truly short of money now.
“No, we still owe half the village money, and it’s been years. We can’t not repay it.”
“But you’re injured like this, you can’t get hurt further!”
“I’m a man; this injury is nothing. I’ll be fine in a couple of days.”
“But…” Jiang Qingqing couldn’t finish her sentence before Zhang Liunian kissed her on the cheek.
Boom!
Her mind roared, stunning Jiang Qingqing into a statue, motionless.
Zhang Liunian hadn’t expected that a simple kiss on her cheek would render her speechless.
Suppressing a smile, he tilted his head, his shoulders shaking.
Jiang Qingqing came back to her senses only to see Zhang Liunian chuckling. Embarrassed and annoyed, she playfully punched him with her small fist and turned to leave the room. “Come eat quickly.”
“Okay.” Zhang Liunian put on his clothes and followed her out.
Sitting at the dining table, there was braised pork, deep-fried crayfish, spicy eggplant, and egg drop soup.
There were a total of four dishes, all in generous portions.
These dishes were prepared by Jiang Qingqing and Zhang Xiaomei together.
Before they could even pick up their chopsticks, sounds of swallowing filled the air. Zhang Liunian looked at his wife, daughter, younger sister, and the mute, noticing they were all swallowing saliva, waiting for him.
Zhang Liunian chuckled, “Eat quickly!” After speaking, he first served two servings of meat to his wife and daughter, then to his sister and the mute, and finally helped himself.
He put the braised pork into his mouth and chewed it a few times. The aroma immediately burst in his mouth. The taste was truly good, better than his own cooking.
Although Zhang Liunian had accumulated his first fortune through braised delicacies, he was not as skilled in home cooking.
And the reason his crayfish tasted better and better was because he added more seasonings.
If he excluded the addition of seasonings, he was truly inferior to his wife and sister.
“It’s delicious, Huabao is so happy, there’s meat!”
Huabao puffed out her chubby cheeks, chewing the braised pork like a little squirrel.
Zhang Liunian was captivated by his daughter’s little face, finding her more and more adorable the more he looked at her.
Unable to resist, he reached out to wipe her greasy little mouth. To his surprise, Huabao got angry after he wiped it.
“Daddy’s bad, that’s Huabao’s oil!” Huabao said, even licking the oil from around her mouth into her mouth.
Zhang Liunian was momentarily stunned by his daughter’s action, and in the next instant, he began to feel melancholic again.
His daughter’s behavior was surely related to being hungry in the past; this was his failure as a father.
“Huabao, be good. From now on, we’ll have plenty of food, and you won’t have to be like this!” Jiang Qingqing, seeing Zhang Liunian’s distress, busily instructed their daughter, telling her not to do that, as it wasn't very polite.
Huabao seemed to understand but not fully, “Huabao listens to Mama.”
Jiang Qingqing rubbed her daughter’s head and then served Zhang Liunian a piece of meat. “Eat quickly!”
Zhang Liunian nodded and buried his head in his meal.
While they were eating white rice with braised pork, Tu Meili next door was enraged.
“They’re actually eating meat at Zhang Liunian’s house? Damn it, when did he have money to eat meat?”
Zhang Liunian, who had always lived a life worse than hers, was eating meat for two consecutive days. This infuriated Tu Meili.
She was still eating sweet potato gruel every day, while that lazy bum Zhang Liunian was eating meat.
Not only that, but he had also hit her. She was about to run for the position of Women’s Director, and he had hit her like that. Didn’t she have any dignity?
“No, I have to find out where he got the money from. I can’t let him live more comfortably than me.” Tu Meili made up her mind, biting fiercely into the sweet potato in her hand, as if biting Zhang Liunian himself.
As night fell, the mute returned home. As soon as he entered the door, a shoe flew towards his head. The mute couldn’t dodge it in time, and the shoe hit his face. But since he couldn’t speak, he could only endure it.
“I asked you to fetch water to irrigate the fields, where were you? You weren’t seen all day.” The speaker was the mute’s elder brother, Zhang Guangtou.
He was fifteen years older than the mute. When their parents died, he had already started a family, but the mute was only 8 years old, of working age.
After their parents died, the mute began working for his elder brother’s family, toiling for seventeen years without money, food, or clothes, only a plank to sleep on.
After hearing Zhang Liunian’s words yesterday, he decided he wouldn’t do it anymore.
He didn’t want this kind of life.
“I don’t care where you went today; you will go to the fields tomorrow.” Zhang Guangtou said, picking up the shoe and leaving.
He was confident that his younger brother would obey, so he left with great certainty.
However, the mute simply returned to the storage room and lay down.
He took out three yuan from his pocket. The mute was extremely excited. This was the first time he had ever touched money in his life, and it was earned through his own labor. It felt so good, so good.
…
“Qingqing, here’s today’s money.”
After he had settled his sleeping daughter, Zhang Liunian placed the money he had earned that day in front of his wife.
Jiang Qingqing immediately began counting with joy. “One, two, three…”
After she finished counting, she was stunned. There was a total of 108 yuan.
This money was what remained after their check-up, purchasing items, paying wages, and all other expenses.
Moreover, the crayfish required no cost; they just needed to be caught.
Therefore, this money was their net profit for the day.
“Liunian, am I dreaming? We broke the hundred mark?” Jiang Qingqing, holding a stack of bills, looked at Zhang Liunian in disbelief.
Zhang Liunian took off his shirt and sat beside her. “We broke the hundred mark?”
“Ah!” Jiang Qingqing let out a stifled cry of excitement, then hugged Zhang Liunian tightly.
“Let me tell you a secret, we now have over a hundred yuan in savings!” Jiang Qingqing whispered into Zhang Liunian’s ear.
Zhang Liunian held his wife, preventing her from falling off the bed. “Then you must remember, it will only increase in the future.”
“Repaying our debts is within reach!” Jiang Qingqing said, then thought of how hard her husband had worked all day. She let go of Zhang Liunian. “Why don’t we buy a bicycle first? It would be more convenient for you to travel to the county town.”
His wife was worried about him. Zhang Liunian’s eyes twinkled with a smile as he lifted his large hand and placed it on Jiang Qingqing’s buttocks.
Jiang Qingqing’s body stiffened, not daring to move. Her little face instantly turned red, her eyes darting left and right, not daring to look at Zhang Liunian.
Zhang Liunian spoke to himself, “We’ll buy it after we pay off the debts.”
Not repaying debts truly felt bad. If he could repay the debts, Zhang Liunian still wanted to prioritize that.
“But you’ll be very tired,” Jiang Qingqing murmured softly, still not daring to look at Zhang Liunian.