Chen Xueniang spread her hands toward Xibao, "I don’t have any either, little baby."
"Oh!" Xibao’s voice was very gloomy.
Feng Qingxue picked him up, "It’s a bit chilly outside, Sister Chen, we’re going home first. We’ll meet here in the backyard early tomorrow morning. When we get to our Wanglou Brigade, you can’t complain that it’s dirty and smelly."
"No complaints! No complaints!" Chen Xueniang laughed delightedly.
Dirty and smelly - can anything be dirtier than a human heart, worse than a human’s mouth?
The purest and the filthiest in this world are both human hearts.
Thinking about the scene of digging up wild vegetables, and the kindness of Feng Qingxue and Wang Cuilan, Chen Xueniang showed a smile. She prepared a large bamboo basket for herself to take wild vegetables back home. After some thought, she put two pounds of cornmeal in a small cloth bag and placed it in the bamboo basket along with the remaining half-pack of Golden Fruit Bars at home.
Thinking she still was lacking, Chen Xueniang hastily bought a pound of sugar cubes and a pack of walnut crisp while the grocery store was still open.
The basket was covered with a cloth, and nobody could see what was inside unless with sharp eyes.
The next morning when she went out, she saw Wang Cuilan also carrying a bamboo basket, Feng Qingxue carrying a basket on her back, and Lu Tianjun pushing his bicycle. On the wooden seat in the back of the bike was a chubby baby wearing a tiger-shaped hat, occupying the seat entirely.
It was quite cold in the early spring, the chubby baby was wearing cashmere clothes inside, with a thin red cotton vest and black striped velvet open-crotch pants outside, and tiger-head shoes on his feet. He was excitedly twisting around on the seat, calling out "mama" repeatedly.
Besides "mama", Wang Cuilan seemed to have never heard him say anything else.
"Does Xibao only know how to call ’mama’?" she asked.
Feng Qingxue laughed lightly, "He’s too silly, he only knows how to call ’mama’. We’ve been trying to teach him to call ’dada’ for a long time, but he still can’t say it."
Chen Xueniang curiously asked, "What does his father do? Is he a farmer too?"
"His father is a soldier, he’s currently stationed at a border."
Upon hearing Feng Qingxue’s words, Chen Xueniang showed respect, "Soldiers are great, without their sacrifice, we would be left crying at home! The son of a hero is bound to be great just like Xibao."
"Don’t flatter him too much, even the son of a tiger could be a dog!"
As they talked, their group left the back street, crossed an alley, and suddenly bumped into a young man and woman walking side by side. There was a faint smile on the man’s face, and the girl looked shy and bashful, like a fresh flower in the mist.
Feng Qingxue recognized at a glance that the man was Zhang Yi, who had been on a blind date with Zhao Mingfang. It seemed like he was still on the blind date.
Zhang Yi evidently noticed them too and promptly came over to greet them, "Aunt Cuilan."
Wang Cuilan examined him carefully, "Zhang Yi, what are you doing here so early? Oh, you’re meeting your date, right? I remember Secretary Huang introduced her to you."
"Yes." Zhang Yi took a glance at the girl standing next to him, "Her name is Zhou Yulan. I’m taking her to a department store to buy some things."
Everyone present understood after hearing this — it seemed that they were taken with each other and were now out shopping together.
Seeing the glowing romance between the young man and woman before her, Feng Qingxue couldn’t help but think of her and Lu Jiang. Their first meeting and shopping date was so similar to the scene before her eyes!
Before she could finish her thought, the sound of footsteps came from behind, along with a young girl.
It was none other than Zhao Mingfang.
She rushed over to Zhang Yi and slapped him, "Zhang Yi, what are you playing at? You won’t take me to the department store to buy a Plum Blossom watch, but you’ll take her? How can you do this to me?"
Double work is killing me, I want to cry, o(╥﹏╥)o