Chapter 60: Chapter 58: Eyes Only for Money

“Exactly. She’s the only one who thinks so highly of herself.” Yang Liying stood up, irritated. “I’m not going to be the one to say it. The Yang family’s youngest already wronged Lin Lan once. Are we going to let that effeminate Tian Jianshe wrong her again?”

She grew annoyed just thinking about what her second sister had said. She had clearly told her that Lin Lan wasn’t the same person she used to be, yet her sister kept insisting that for a lazy good-for-nothing like Lin Lan, marrying Tian Jianshe would be the luckiest thing that could happen to her.

Her younger brother had been dead for less than a year, and her cousin-aunt was already at their door playing matchmaker. Anyone would be furious, yet she was still trying to lobby for it.

’All she cares about is marrying Lin Lan off to Tian Jianshe so she can get something out of it. She only has eyes for money! Why doesn’t she stop and think that Lin Lan is her own nephew’s mother!’

Zhao Dehai chuckled. “I don’t think you need to worry. Just think about how fierce Lin Lan is now. If your cousin-aunt dares to show up and propose a match, she’ll probably get chased out with a big broom.”

Yang Liying thought about it and agreed. “You’re right! I’ll go give her a heads-up tomorrow, just in case she gets tricked by my second sister.”

“Lin Lan wanted you to come over. She has something to tell you,” Zhao Dehai said.

Yang Liying nodded and went to the kitchen to help her daughter make dinner.

****

Grandma returned with Little Douzi and saw Lin Lan bustling about in the vegetable patch. She handed her a bunch of chive roots. “I walked around a bit and got you some chives to plant.”

“Quite a few people are saying you’re feisty now. They saw you chase Sun Xiuhua down with a cattle whip. Some said you did the right thing—that a gossipmonger like her deserves to be taught a lesson.”

She didn’t tell Lin Lan that she had also confronted a few women who loved to stir up trouble, warning them that if they dared to spread nonsense, she would bring the Yang family to their doors.

Lin Lan knew plenty of people in the production team would have both good and bad things to say, but she didn’t care what they thought. Everyone gossips and is gossiped about.

’Never mind an era with zero entertainment like this one. Even twenty or thirty years from now, when there’s no shortage of TVs, cell phones, and all kinds of amusements, gossip will still be flying everywhere.’

“Let them talk!” Lin Lan said with a laugh, taking the chives and planting them next to the scallions. She shoveled some soil over them, then stood up and dusted the dirt from her hands. Beaming at Grandma, she said, “I made some pork bone and daikon soup. Let’s wash up and eat.”

Grandma smiled and nodded. “Bone soup is delicious, but it uses up so much firewood. I saw you’re running low. Go fetch a couple of loads from my place.”

Lin Lan shook her head. “I had Master Li help me buy two tons of coal, so I’m not worried about running out of fuel.”

Grandma looked at her, her heart aching for the expense. “Two tons of coal must have cost dozens of yuan!”

Lin Lan beamed at her. “Don’t worry. I got a wholesale order from Zhou Xiaohong today. I can make an extra ten yuan or so every day…”

When Grandma learned that Zhou Xiaohong was buying wholesale from her, she thought it was a good business opportunity. But then she worried—Lin Lan was so used to being lazy, could she really wake up that early to do it?

The three of them went to the backyard to ladle water and wash their hands. Lin Lan picked some cilantro and scallion leaves, then mixed some chili oil and Sichuan peppercorn powder to make a dipping sauce for the daikon.

She lifted the pot lid, took out the remaining half piece of braised pig liver, and sliced it onto a plate.

She brought out an earthenware bowl and ladled the pork bone and daikon soup into it. The broth was a fragrant, milky white, the round daikon radishes were sweet and juicy, and with a sprinkle of chopped scallions on top, the aroma alone was enough to make your mouth water.

Lin Lan picked up a large bone with her chopsticks and placed it in Grandma’s bowl, then gave another to Little Douzi. “You two eat more of these big bones. Master Little Li says they’re good for your bones—they replenish your calcium.”

Grandma smiled and picked up the bone in her bowl. “I don’t know if they’re good for you, but the soup is definitely delicious. It just uses too much firewood. It’s not as easy to find firewood here in the plains as it is back at your parents’ home.”

Lin Lan nodded. “That’s right! In the mountains, you never have to worry about running out of firewood.”

Little Douzi slurped up some of the marrow from his bone and looked up at Lin Lan. “Mama, I didn’t find your name in the picture book.”

Lin Lan glanced at his greasy little mouth and took out a handkerchief to wipe it. “If it’s not in this one, you can look for it in the next book. You should ask Brother Kai to teach you the Pinyin that Mama reads at night. Then you can use Pinyin to learn new words.”

Little Douzi pouted as he waited for Lin Lan to finish wiping his mouth. “Mm! I know a, o, e…”

“So smart!” Lin Lan chuckled and ladled half a bowl of bone soup for him. “Don’t drink too much, or you’ll be drawing maps tonight.”

Little Douzi pouted. “I only did that when I was little, and Mama’s still talking about it.”

“Listen to you, ’when I was little’!”

Lin Lan and Grandma both laughed.

WOOF WOOF! Under the table, Dahuang stared at the bone in Little Douzi’s hand, darting back and forth anxiously.

“Dahuang, you’re so greedy!” Little Douzi gave the bone to him, and Dahuang snatched it up and ran outside.

Little Douzi pointed at the dog. “Great-Grandma, Dahuang’s going to hide his bone again.”

Grandma chuckled. “That’s what dogs do. They like to hide things.”

Lin Lan shoveled the last of her rice into her mouth and said to Grandma, “Grand-aunt, take your time eating. Just leave the bowls, I’ll wash them when I get back. I’m going to finish planting the rest of the vegetable seedlings.”

“Go on! If you don’t finish soon, it’ll be dark.”

After she finished eating, Grandma helped Lin Lan wash the pots and bowls and heat up the hogwash before saying her goodbyes and heading home.

Little Douzi called the chicks back from the bamboo grove, mixed some feed for them, and even counted them carefully before running to tell Lin Lan, “Mama, the little chickies are home for sleepy-sleep.”

Lin Lan looked up and smiled warmly at him. “Good boy. Mama’s Little Douzi is the most capable.”

Little Douzi grinned so wide his eyes nearly disappeared. “I’m going to go sweep.”

By the time Lin Lan had planted all the seedlings and watered the vegetable patch with a round of liquid manure, the sky was completely dark.

The piglets in the sty were squealing wildly with hunger, and Little Douzi had dozed off sitting in his little bamboo chair.

Lin Lan then remembered that she hadn’t moved the bedding back into the room, nor had she even papered the windows. She had no choice but to carry him into the side room to sleep.

She watched him squirm a couple of times under the covers, his small hand grabbing the corner of the quilt as he fell into a deep sleep, before she went out to close the courtyard gate.

When she reached the gate, she saw scattered, dim yellow lights over by the rice paddies. It turned out some people were on the ridges between the fields, using paper lanterns to hunt for eels.

She remembered a time she went eel hunting in the paddies with her younger aunt. They had pulled a rat snake out of an eel hole in one of the ridges. The two of them, aunt and niece, had been scared out of their wits. They threw their bamboo tongs into the middle of the field and fled home in a panic, losing their shoes along the way.

Thinking of those carefree days, a smile appeared on Lin Lan’s face. She leaned against the doorframe, watching for a moment before closing the gate and going back to ladle out pig feed and clean the sty.

After feeding the piglets, she found an old vegetable basket, scrubbed it clean, and hung it on the clothes-drying pole by the door. Tomorrow, she would line it with a layer of white cloth to hold the kidney bean rolls.

Only then did she go back inside to heat a pot of water for a bath. She also gave the sleeping Little Douzi a quick wash-down, then finished sewing the white cloth into the basket before finally getting into bed.

She gently patted Little Douzi, listening to the faint sound of his breathing as she drifted off to sleep.

Lin Lan was in a daze when she heard the rooster crow. She hurriedly rolled out of bed, tucked Little Douzi’s quilt in tighter, placed a pillow along the edge of the bed to act as a rail, and went to the kitchen.

She rinsed the red beans and large white beans, put them in a pot, and sat in front of the stove opening. While feeding the fire, she began trimming broad beans.

’Not having a watch is so inconvenient,’ she thought. ’I don’t even know what time it is. Once I have a bit more money, I need to figure out a way to buy one!’

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep