“I know, I won’t get lost,” Jiang Yue replied.
“That’s good, that’s good.” Li Hehua laughed. She was afraid of this happening. T
The books that Xue Yan copied were wrapped in cloth and put in the basket, right at the top. Finally, he put the basket back on his back.
“Do you need me to send you to the village entrance?” Li Hehua asked. The ox cart was at the village entrance.
“It’s okay. You should help Yifu. He can’t handle it alone. If you help him, he’ll be more relaxed with his work.” Xue Yan said.
“I should.” Li Hehua responded with a smile.
Xue Yifu, who had already returned to the shed to cut wood, laughed naively when he heard this. He was not good with words, but his younger brother was especially good to him.
In order to reassure Li Hehua, Xue Yan held Jiang Yue’s hand and went out.
Everyone in the family felt that as long as he held Jiang Yue’s hand, she would never go missing.
The ox cart was parked at the entrance of the village. Usually, if no one wanted to borrow it, Tian would park the ox cart at the entrance of the village. He would go to town once a day, in the morning and back in the afternoon. He would bring a few people along so that he could earn some money.
Tian had spent almost all of his family’s savings to buy this cow at the beginning of the year. He raised this cow as if he were raising a treasure.
When Xue Yan and Jiang Yue arrived at the village entrance, Tian was tending to the cattle, and three people were waiting beside the ox cart.
Jiang Yue and Xue Yan walked to Tian and greeted him politely, “Hello.”
Tian immediately exclaimed in surprise, “Xue Yan and Jiang Yue, are you taking to x cart to town too?”
“Yes.”
“That’s good, that’s good.” Tian chuckled. “But it’s just you both? Where are the adults in your family?”
“Just us,” Xue Yan said, “They know we’re going to town.”
“And they’re okay with it?”
“We’ll be going back and forth. I’ve stayed in town for three years, so I’m very familiar with it. They can rest assured.”
“Alright then,” Tian was relieved to hear that. He let the two children sit on his ox cart willingly. Otherwise, if something were to happen, he would not be able to explain himself. “We’ve finally gathered five people and can go to town. Wait a moment, I’ll bring the cow over and latch it on.”
One of the three people who had been waiting for a long time immediately joked, “We finally have enough people. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have left.”
“Right?” Tian was still chuckling. “I just wanted to wait and see if there were still people going to town. There are two more people now, right? I didn’t wait for nothing!”
“Yes, you have two more people here. That’s four coins more for the round trip.” That person teased again.
“Why are you saying this? If your family had an ox cart, you would also want to have more people at a time.” Tian had a good temper and was even chuckling. “Alright, alright, the cart is ready. Come, Xue Yan, Jiang Yue, you guys go up too. I’ll help you.”
“Thank you.” Xue Yan and Jiang Yue both thanked him politely.
Since they had to sit down, Xue Yan didn’t want to carry the basket anymore, so he took it off and held it in his arms. Jiang Yue sat next to him and held the basket with one hand to help him stabilize it.
“What’s in the basket?” Someone was curious.
Tian, who had raised his whip and was about to drive the ox cart, was also curious. He stretched his neck and came over to take a look.
Jiang Yue repeated what she had said to Liu Guixia and the others.
Tian glanced at the contents of the basket and nodded. “It does look like an opened belly. No wonder it’s called that.”