Lei Tie put down the basket, took the tether from Qin Mian’s hand, and tied it to a tree. Then, he brought a bundle of fresh paddy straw.
The water ox chewed the straws with its head down as it wagged its tail; it seemed very happy.
Qin Mian didn’t leave. He bent down and fed it a handful of straw. He turned to Lei Tie and said: “You should be close to it too, lest it won’t listen to you when you are plowing the field.”
Lei Tie was stumped for words. He really picked up a handful of straw and fed it to the ox. He raised his big palm and stroked the ox’s head stiffly.
Qin Mian was stunned, then he couldn’t help laughing, “Hahaha…” He was just teasing Lei Tie, but the man took it seriously. An ox’s nature was usually docile and would not cause trouble unless it was deliberately provoked.Lei Tie vaguely understood that he was teased. He was still calm as before and only took a profound glance at Qin Mian. Instead of leaving, he took a handful of straw and continued to feed the ox.
Qin Mian took a look at him with a smile and vaguely felt that it’s awkward for them to feed the young ox together, but somehow, he didn’t find an excuse to go away but watched the ox eat the straw in Lei Tie’s hand and also eat in his own hand.
Running in a hurry, Lei Chuntao saw from a distance that their shoulders seemed to be next to each other but also not, and the view of their backs looked very harmonious. She stopped and a look of deeply moved floated on that pretty face. This scene appeared to give people comfort that no one would want to disturb it. In fact, it seemed that there was nothing wrong with the eldest brother and eldest sister-in-law to live together.
She hesitated for a moment before continued to run over and deliberately raised her volume, “Eldest brother, eldest sister-in-law!” The small bell on her purple thin silk skirt rung along and it sounded very pleasant.
Qin Mian immediately threw away the straw. Lei Tie’s body was stiff for a moment, his hands uneasily loosened before he turned around and shoot a glance at Lei Chuntao.
“Little sister, why are you here?” Qin Mian patted off the debris on his hand and asked politely. These days, he had already found that girls who had yet married were awfully refrained from going out and walked too close to men. It could be seen that this was indeed a time when feudal proprieties were relatively strict. Although Lei Chuntao was his nominal sister-in-law, he still should pay attention to the impact.
Lei Chuntao thought that she had disturbed the two people and felt embarrassed. “Nothing, I… just want to tell you that someone may come…. to trouble you…..” The more she talked, the redder her face was. It’s embarrassing to think of the harsh words that her mother, her second brother, second sister-in-law, and third sister-in-law had said. But they were her mother and her second brother. She was the younger generation, how could she talk about people behind their back? However, if she did not warn the eldest brother and eldest sister-in-law, she would be uneasy. She had no choice but to rush over.After she finished saying, she lowered her head and ran away again.
Qin Mian and Lei Tie knew what she meant by “someone”.
Lei Tie subconsciously looked at Qin Mian and discovered that the other person was at ease. Qin Mian either didn’t care about it or he had some countermeasures, in that case, he also would not take it seriously. Looking back at the ox, he felt a slight regret.
Qin Mian remembered an important thing, “Where is the home base you bought?”
Lei Tie breathed a sigh of relief. He thought Qin Mian was completely unconcerned about it….
“Lock the door.”
Qin Mian locked the door and looked at the ox. He was afraid that someone would steal it but then he thought of how simple the people in the countryside were and that the farmland was not far away from many people in the field. So he put his worry down and followed Lei Tie into the village.
It didn’t take long to get to the west end of the village.
The house planning of Green Mountain Village could passably be computed as standard, basically in a row. Lei Tie bought a three-rooms-space land in the west of the village. There were still marks on the ground that Li Zheng measured last time. There were neighbors in the east, open space in the west, and a grove not far away.
Qin Mian turned around and thought that the position was really good. The old Lei’s house was in the east of the village. To live in the west of the village, they could avoid them and be lacking a few small-minded people. Secondly, there was a vacant lot on the west side and an empty lot on the north side. It would be easy to expand in the future. He felt that Lei Tie was a man of ideas.
“It’s a nice place.” Qin Mian said to Lei Tie with a satisfied look.
Lei Tie nodded, “I’ll buy the materials after plowing the field.”
Qin Mian said: “Brother Zhang should know more about it, you can ask him about the market price of bricks, tiles, and so on. Don’t get cheated.”
“En.”
A married woman’s head stuck out behind a wall. After discovering that Qin Mian noticed her, she squeezed out a smile before her head quickly withdrawn.
Qin Mian assumed that she was their neighbor. There was no need to make a contact with the neighbors at the moment and it would be put off until the house was up.
The duo strolled back home.
Lei Tie took a saw and a bow set with a basket carried on his back, “Wife, I’m going to the mountain.” He left without saying anything more.
Qin Mian didn’t ask but casually said “be careful” as he fetched a coarse toothed wooden rake to turn over the paddy grain for drying. Therefore, Qin Mian didn’t notice that Lei Tie’s body shook when he heard these two words. He took a look back at Qin Mian before he left. The expression in his eyes was deeper than before.
Qin Mian went to the vegetable garden to pick the vegetables he wanted to eat in the evening. When he got home, he didn’t see “someone” coming to find fault, which was quite unexpected.
Without Du Shi, Zhao Shi, and the others came to be an irksome presence, he readily took the opportunity to be at ease. He turned around and saw hawthorn and apple on the ground.
He cut down bamboo and made dozens of long and thin bamboo sticks. He then grabbed a handful of hawthorn, cleaned them, cut in two, and dug out the core before closing the two halves. After that, he fetched a few apples from the space, washed them, and cut them into dices.
He wanted to make tanghulu[1]. So many hawthorn and wild apples couldn’t be wasted, right?
After washing clean the bamboo sticks, he skewed the hawthorn and apple; two hawthorns and a dice of apple for each skewer. After he did a series of ten skewers, he lighted a fire and heated water.
After the water was boiled, he added a proper amount of white sugar, boiled it slowly over medium heat, and constantly stirred it with a spatula. When sugar liquid started to foam, he put the tanghulus in it and rolled them quickly. Then, he put them onto an oiled plate.
After cooling for about ten minutes, the tanghulus were ready, with bright color and attractive aroma.
Hearing the “bang” from outside, he picked up the plate and walked out quickly. Sure enough, it was Lei Tie who came back and was looking at the wooden block and the cut-off bamboo. At his feet laid two logs.
Qin Mian grabbed a tanghulu and took a bite. He nodded and handed out the plate to Lei Tie.
“Taste it.”
Lei Tie frowned. He hadn’t seen it before, but it didn’t look like an adult man’s type of food. His wife carried the plate and did not withdraw his hand. He picked up one and bit it reluctantly.
“It’s not poisonous.” Qin Mian joked, “Don’t worry, you won’t be forced to finish all this. I didn’t see anyone selling this in the town before. I think this is a new thing. It tastes good, sour, and sweet. How about making it to sell?”
“En.” Lei Tie was frowning all the time. It really looked like he was taking poison. He only unfolded his frown when he bit the apple.
Qin Mian saw clearly that Lie Tie swallowed the hawthorns directly but he would chew the apple before it entered the stomach.
“What are these logs for?” Actually, Qin Mian didn’t like sweets either and he was just trying something new today.
“Useful.” Lei Tie replied vaguely. “There’s another trip.”
Qin Mian saw that it was getting late, “Don’t be too late.”
“En.” Lei Tie quickly finished the tanghulu, took out a pheasant in the basket, and left in a hurry.
After Qin Mian cleaned the pheasant, he made more tanghulus, but he didn’t use the apple in the space anymore. It was too troublesome to remove the core and so he omitted the process. Lastly, he counted them and there were more than sixty altogether.
Lei Tie had already come back and was sawing the log into planks.
Qin Mian made a firm stand out of bound paddy straws and stuck the tanghulus on it one by one.
Lei Tie looked at over for a few times, as if thinking of something.
After that, Qin Mian began to cook dinner. A big wok of stewed fowl with chestnut, the strong aroma was captivating. When it was done, he ladled up a large bowl and handed it over to Lei Tie.
“Send it over there.”
Lei Tie was dumbfounded.
Qin Mian knew what he was uncertain about and said with a smile: “We still have to live in the village, so we can’t really become enemies with them over there. It’s fine to tolerate them on the surface, lest we become the cause of people’s gossip.”
With that, he winked at Lei Tie. “At this moment, the busy people in the field are going home one after another. You pick the place where there are many people to walk.”
Lei Tie’s eyes flashed a ghost of a smile and he touched Qin Mian’s head.
Qin Mian rubbed his nose and turned into the kitchen. “Cough, I have other dishes to make.”
The 100 Wen which needed to be given to the old house over there for this month was already prepared at an earlier time. But Du Shi was a capricious mule-headed[2] person. Even if this dish diffused the trouble at this time, there would be another. The 100 Wen should be kept for the next time to block her mouth.
Sure enough, until the next morning, no one from the old house over there came looking for trouble.
Qin Mian got up at dawn, but Lei Tie was no longer in bed. When he saw that the ox was gone, he was shocked. He ran back into the house and upon seeing that the plowing tools were not there, he was relieved.
As he was about to enter the room, he caught a glimpse of several planks that had been nailed together in the shape of a handcart model placed against the wall. He was surprised and pleased.
After breakfast, Lei Tie didn’t come back. Qi Mian took the meal and delivered it to him.
As expected, Lei Tie was in the middle of urging the ox to plow the field. The ox was really docile, pulling the plow forward without any trouble. Half of a mu area had been plowed.
“Brother Tie, have a meal.”
Lei Tie tied the ox’s rope to a wood post before he came over.
“I see some planks outside the room. Are you going to make a cart?” Qin Mian asked.
“Buy you a new one when I have money.” Lei Tie took a quick look at him as he said in a muffled voice and took over the bowl.
Qin Mian couldn’t help but laugh out. He didn’t know what he was feeling at that time. He changed the topic, “I’m going to sell the tanghulu in town later.”
Note:
[1] tanghulu; candied fruits on bamboo skewers dipped in sugar syrup, a common Chinese snack
[2] savage and unreasonable
