Chapter 62: Chapter 60: A Woman Can’t Beat a Man

Lin Lan smiled as she took it and said to Little Douzi, who was standing to the side watching her curiously, “Little Douzi, say thank you to Auntie Zhou.”

“Thank you, Auntie Zhou!” Little Douzi said, looking at Zhou Xiaohong. “Mama, she’s the auntie who sells the yummy cakes.”

After hearing this, Zhou Xiaohong smiled and pinched Little Douzi’s cheek. “You little smarty, you have such a good memory!”

Lin Lan nodded happily. “Mhm! I just have to read his picture books to him a few times and he memorizes them. He even reads them to his great-grandmother.” As she spoke, she brought a chair over for Zhou Xiaohong.

Zhou Xiaohong looked at Little Douzi. “That’s impressive! Make sure you study hard when you grow up.”

Little Douzi nodded and looked at Lin Lan. “Mama, I’m going to let the chicks out.”

“Go on,” Lin Lan said, then turned to Zhou Xiaohong. “Sister Zhou, how many children do you have?”

“Three!” Zhou Xiaohong’s face filled with pride as she spoke of her children. “One daughter and two sons. The two youngest are boy-girl twins in the fifth grade this year. My oldest son is in his second year of middle school at City No. 1 Middle. He’s first in his class every year. He even says that if he could take the college entrance exams now, he’d pass. He wants to get into Kyoto University when he’s older.”

Lin Lan looked at her with envy. “Sister Zhou, you’re so blessed. You have both a son and a daughter, and they’re all so well-behaved.”

Zhou Xiaohong sighed. “Children from poor families have to grow up fast. Their father has a bad kidney and can’t do heavy labor, so they’ve learned to be more mature than other kids.”

Lin Lan looked at her sun-weathered face and praised her, “That’s because you’ve raised them well. There are plenty of people who come from poor families but have no desire to better themselves, who just give up and wallow in their misery because things are tough.”

’She recalled that in the future, there would be children who’d blame their parents for not being successful enough to make them the children of the rich and powerful.’

Zhou Xiaohong couldn’t agree more. “Little Lin, let me tell you, you must never spoil your children. If your boy can do something himself, let him do it. Don’t feel bad for him. If he misbehaves, you have to spank him when it’s called for. But after you do, you have to teach him so he understands what he did wrong. And when he does something right, you have to praise him, too.”

“Sister Zhou, that’s great advice. Thank you for teaching me.”

“That’s what my mother taught me. There were eight of us kids, and every single one of us was well-behaved…” Seeing that Lin Lan was not only listening but truly taking her words to heart, Zhou Xiaohong began to share all her parenting wisdom.

After sitting for a little while, they started packing the goods. When Zhou Xiaohong saw Lin Lan retrieve the kidney bean rolls from the well to keep them cool, she noticed the basket was lined with a clean white cloth and repeatedly praised her for her thoroughness.

’She felt she’d made the right choice in partnering with Lin Lan. In the food business, you have to be clean and hygienic for your business to last.’

Zhou Xiaohong packed the orchid beans into her back basket, then took out money for Lin Lan. “Little Lin,” she said with a smile, “it’s nineteen-fifty in total. Here you go. I’ll head out now. I’ll bring a basket over for you this afternoon, so we’ll have two to rotate.”

Lin Lan smiled and nodded. “Okay. Remember not to leave the bean rolls exposed to the air. They have to be covered with a cloth to keep them looking good for customers.”

“Got it!” Zhou Xiaohong hoisted the back basket onto her shoulder, picked up the other basket, and headed for the courtyard gate.

Lin Lan walked her to the gate with a smile. “Hope business is booming!”

Zhou Xiaohong smiled and nodded. “It will be!” She had already checked out the spot by the tunnel entrance; people were selling roasted peanuts and sunflower seeds, but no one had orchid beans or kidney bean rolls.

Lin Lan watched until Zhou Xiaohong was out of sight, then went back inside. She found Little Douzi by the compost pile, using a bamboo sliver to dig for earthworms. She turned, went to the kitchen to ladle out some slop, and began to feed the pigs.

Little Douzi plucked a pumpkin leaf, placed the earthworms he’d collected on it, and carried it carefully to the bamboo grove. Setting the leaf on the ground, he called out to the chickens, “CLUCK-CLUCK~ CLUCK-CLUCK.”

Hearing his call, the chickens in the bamboo grove came scrambling over. Little Douzi nudged the pumpkin leaf with his foot. “Hurry up and eat. Eat up and lay some eggies for me.”

A dozen or so chickens pounced on the leaf and began to gobble up the worms. Little Douzi watched them finish, then clapped his little hands together. “Be good and don’t run off. I’ll be back to catch more for you this afternoon.”

Lin Lan stood at the back door, smiling as she watched her child acting like a little adult. “Son, let’s go to Great-Grandma’s.”

“Okay!” Little Douzi left the chickens and ran toward Lin Lan.

Lin Lan closed the back gate and led Little Douzi onto the tractor path. She saw a chubby boy, about six or seven years old, walking toward them. As he passed, the boy deliberately spat on the ground.

Lin Lan glanced at the boy, recognizing him as Zhang Yazhen’s youngest son. ’A child this young has already learned to spit and curse like a shrew in the street. It seems Zhang Yazhen must have said plenty of nasty things about me in front of him, filling his head with hatred, for him to act like this.’

Little Douzi tugged on Lin Lan’s hand and looked up at her. “Mama, Xiong Weicheng is really mean. He likes to snatch things from other kids.”

Lin Lan knelt to look him in the eye. “Has he ever snatched anything from you?”

Little Douzi shook his head. “No. I play with Brother Kai and Brother Jun, not with him.”

Worried that Xiong Weicheng might deliberately pick a fight to bully him, Lin Lan instructed, “Little Douzi, if he ever tries to snatch your things, just give them to him. Don’t try to fight him. Come home and get Mama, understand?”

Little Douzi furrowed his brow. “No! Why should I give him my things? I can’t win a fight, but I have teeth. I can bite him.” He even bared his pearly white baby teeth to prove his point.

’Lin Lan knew how much he treasured his picture books and his iron hoop. He always put them away in the little wooden box in his room after playing. He would never be willing to just give them to someone else.’

She picked him up, worried. “But look how big he is. You definitely can’t win if you fight him. Just give him your things first, then come home and get Mama or your great-aunt to help get them back.”

Little Douzi drooped his head and thought for a moment. Wrapping his arms around her neck, he rested his head on her shoulder and said dejectedly, “Brother Kai says girls can’t beat boys in a fight. I won’t take my picture books outside anymore.”

It took Lin Lan a moment to understand what he meant. ’He’s afraid I wouldn’t be able to win against Xiong Weicheng’s father, so he’d rather not take his things out and give Xiong Weicheng a reason to start trouble.’

Her son’s maturity made her heart ache. ’At the same time,’ she wondered, ’what on earth do these boys talk about when they play together?’

“Little Douzi, we’re not afraid of them. Even if Mama can’t win a fight against his dad, we still have your four uncles. Your third uncle is a soldier in the Liberation Army. He wouldn’t dare lay a hand on me.”

Hearing this, Little Douzi looked up, his eyes sparkling. “And Youngest Uncle is a policeman! We can have him arrest them! Mama, when I grow up and become a policeman, we won’t have to be afraid of bad people anymore.”

’All little boys want to be policemen,’ Lin Lan thought, nodding with a smile. “Okay. You’ll be a policeman when you grow up.”

****

At noon, Yang Liying was in the fields picking some vegetable stems. Wearing a straw hat and carrying a basket, she went to Lin Lan’s house.

When she reached the edge of the private plot, she saw the rapeseed plants swaying and called out, “Lin Lan, are you in the field?”

“Yes!” Lin Lan emerged from the rapeseed patch, her arms full of fresh grass. Seeing Yang Liying and her basket, she smiled. “Bok choy stems! Those are my favorite.”

Yang Liying brushed the stray bits of grass off her clothes and grinned. “It’s getting so warm, the vegetables are bolting after just two days. If you like them, I’ll have Little Yun bring you some more in a couple of days. There are some sweet rapeseed stems in there too. They’re delicious flash-fried with some dried chilies.”

She paused, then asked, “Is Little Douzi still at his great-aunt’s?”

Lin Lan nodded. “He had lunch there, so I didn’t go get him.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep