Volume One, Chapter 8: Our Family May Go Hungry, But Never Little Second Sister
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Seeing the woman’s casual behavior, Lu Hang couldn’t help but blush and speak up to stop her. At the same time, he felt a bit uneasy inside. This woman! Did she not regard him as a man? Otherwise, why would she shamelessly undress in front of him repeatedly?
“Huh?”
“What did you say?”
Tang Guanguan didn’t understand what the man meant. She quickly lifted her head and then bent down again to struggle with her soaking wet pants.
Lu Hang was speechless. He turned his face away—“Don’t look if it’s inappropriate!”
Once cotton pants get wet, they cling tightly to the legs, making them hard to remove. Tang Guanguan tried several times but found it too difficult.
So she hopped over to the edge of the kang (heated platform), sat down, and stretched her leg out toward Lu Hang, who was leaning against the head of the kang.
“Can you help pull the pant leg—”
At her words, Lu Hang turned his head and caught a glimpse of her smooth, half-bare leg flashing before his eyes.
His back stiffened suddenly, his ears burning, and he quickly averted his gaze.
This woman—he didn’t even know what to say!
His expression was utterly strange!
“Pull it! It’s soaked and stuck to me; I can’t get it off,” Tang Guanguan urged.
Under her pressing tone, Lu Hang took a deep breath, clenched his teeth, closed his eyes, and reached out his hand—
After changing clothes, Tang Guanguan rolled up the dirty pants, planning to take them out to wash, when she caught sight of a bundle of dirty clothes tucked under the corner of the kang.
“Are these the ones you changed out of?” she asked.
Following her gaze, Lu Hang’s eyes sharpened with unease.
It was the military green uniform he had dirtied last night, planning to wash secretly later that evening—
His pupils dilated, panic flickering in his eyes. He blurted out hurriedly, “Don’t move!”
But it was too late.
“I’ll help you wash them clean,” Tang Guanguan said as she climbed onto the kang, grabbed the clothes, and left the room.
Lu Hang stared at the door as it slammed shut with a bang, his face drained of all hope.
His expression was stern and long-faced.
That’s how men are.
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Guanguan hoped she wasn’t mocking him?
Ten minutes later, Tang Guanguan drew water from the well, scrubbing the dirty clothes with detergent while muttering worriedly.
“What on earth got on Lu Hang’s pants? It’s all dried up and so hard to clean—”
Rice soup?
At that moment, the courtyard gate rattled.
Tang’s father and mother, Wang Xiuying, returned carrying hoes.
Tang Guanguan looked up; both looked grim, and she instinctively asked, “Father, mother? Did something happen?”
“Eh—”
Tang’s father sighed low.
He squatted in the corner, took out his large tobacco pipe, knocked it against the wall, packed it with tobacco, lit it, and took several deep puffs, silent as a clam.
Tang’s mother, with a blue headscarf wrapped around her head, shook off some dust after removing it and glared reproachfully at her husband.
At the same time, she comforted their second daughter, “Er Ya, don’t worry. The group’s harvest was poor. It froze early this year, so they stopped working.”
Currently, farmland in the countryside was divided by groups; Shitou Village was split into three groups. The other two groups had already ceased work days ago. Today, Tang’s father’s group finished their last bit of fieldwork and declared a halt.
“Don’t worry, we won’t let anyone in our family go hungry, especially not you, Er Ya.”
Saying this, Tang’s mother rubbed her hands on her clothes, pulled out a boiled egg from her pocket, and handed it to Tang Guanguan. “This was cooked this morning in the main courtyard. Keep it for when you’re hungry.”
The “main courtyard” referred to the neighboring east courtyard where her eldest uncle’s family and her grandparents lived.
That courtyard was much larger than the one Tang Guanguan’s family lived in now.
Before the family split, food from both yards was pooled monthly by each household contributing a portion of their grain and eaten together. Usually, the eldest uncle’s wife and Tang’s mother took turns cooking, and the youngest sister, Tang Jing, helped out.
Tang’s father, still squatting in the corner, saw his wife take out an egg and searched his own clothes.
He also pulled out an egg and handed it over.
The elderly couple shared the same thought.
“You take this for Hangzi to eat. He’s recovering and can’t lack nutrition.”
Tang Guanguan held the egg in one hand, feeling as if the little egg weighed a thousand pounds, and her heart turned sour.
This was what her parents had saved secretly just for her!
The Tang family was poor, but her parents did their utmost to care for her.
In her past life, she had been blinded by foolishness and failed to recognize who truly loved her.
“Father, mother, it’s no big deal to stop working. We rely on the mountains and rivers!” She could take her father to catch fish in the river.
Tang Guanguan hadn’t expected that the cold she had been pondering about that morning would actually lead to work stopping so quickly. What she thought came true.
Not a moment too soon!
Shitou Village’s land was scarce and full of stones, unsuitable for large-scale farming.
So, Shitou was basically the only village nearby that grew vegetables.
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At this time, there were no greenhouses yet in the village, and the vegetable growing season was short due to the temperature.
This was why Shitou Village was so poor.
Hearing her second daughter’s words, Tang’s father didn’t take them seriously.
He squatted back in the corner and took another puff of his dry tobacco.
His heavily wrinkled face was clouded with worry.
With stones all over the mountains and fields, what could possibly be edible?
His gaze landed on the pile of bamboo strips in the corner, and he exhaled a smoke ring, muttering, “It’s fine. Starting tomorrow, I’ll weave bamboo baskets to sell in the nearby villages.”
“At least we won’t let you girls go hungry!”
Unlike in past years, when policies were stricter, and the authorities urged self-reliance without troubling the state, selling small handmade items no longer counted as speculation or profiteering.
However, most surrounding villages were currently in their off-season; fewer people bought baskets and troughs, so earnings would be low.
Tang’s father didn’t dare say this aloud. As the man and pillar of the family, he would do whatever it took to keep the household afloat!
Tang Guanguan glanced at the bamboo strips. They had other uses for them but said nothing more. She wrung out the last two pieces of clothing and hung them up, then turned and went to her younger sister’s room.
“Here, eat the egg. After you finish, come with your second sister to work this afternoon!”
Tang Jing was sitting with needle and thread, patching a cotton-padded garment that had worn thin, when she suddenly noticed the red-skinned egg on the floral kang blanket and looked up in surprise.
“You went and stole another egg?”
Remembering the dirty words their eldest uncle’s wife had shouted all morning, the little girl’s expression darkened.
She was fuming!
“Can’t you just behave? Do you enjoy getting scolded?”
Tang Guanguan’s lips twitched.
This little girl—was truly disrespectful!
She even dared to scold her own elder sister!
“It’s not stolen. Father and mother saved it for us!”
Tang Guanguan said irritably, then her eyes rested on the tattered garment in her little sister’s hands.
That gray cotton coat already had no fewer than ten patches!
Her tone softened as she urged, “Hurry up and eat. Come find me when you’re done! You need strength for work; you won’t be able to work hungry!”
“If I eat it, then what will father and mother eat?”
The little girl looked at the egg and swallowed nervously.
After a struggle, she handed the egg back, saying, “Better give it to father and mother!”
Hearing this, Tang Guanguan’s eyes softened considerably.
Though her little sister was sharp-tongued, she was still filial at heart!