Chapter 89 – The first night (8)
Li Yan saw the taut expression on Li Mo. He slightly smiled and said, “Oldest brother, you have to try harder too. Third brother will keep trying until he succeeds.”
Li Mo didn’t say anything. Instead, he pushed open the door to Li Man’s room and stepped inside. He saw that water was still dripping from the thatched roof and the bed was already thoroughly soaked. It was evident that room wasn’t in a useable state.
Li Yan followed him into the room and said, “Even if the roof is fixed, this room won’t be habitable soon.
“En.” Li Mo felt distressed. This hut had almost twenty years of history. Li Man’s current room had once been their mother’s bedroom. After their parents had passed away, no one had been living here. It was used to store odds and ends instead. After a long time passed, this hut had become dilapidated. He had though this hut could last another year, but last night’s sudden rainstorm had wrecked this hut. It was basically a mud pit now.
“We’ll see. Let’s try fixing it first.” Li Mo looked at the roof and tried to think of a way to minimize the damage.
Li Yan didn’t really care about the damaged roof. “Oldest brother, our home only has one room where people can sleep. Is wife going to share a bed with us for the next several days?”
“…” Li Mo’s heart abruptly jumped. “Let’s talk about that later.”
Li Yan didn’t say another word.
Li Hua was standing in the doorway as he looked at the interior of the hut. His long eyebrows were also furrowed. After a long pause, he suggested, “How about we set up another bed in our hut?” If they all slept on a bed, there would always be worries that something would happen. He… didn’t want to see her… doing that… with any of his older brothers.
“En.” Li Mo thought this idea was doable.
Li Yan curved his lips and meaningfully looked at Li Hua. He more or less had an idea of what his fourth brother was thinking. But, there was only one wife, and there were five of them. Even if Little Five was still young right now and didn’t count, there were still four of them. No matter how unwilling he was; he couldn’t monopolize their wife.
—
Li Man was washing the rice to make congee and kneading dough to make pancakes.
Li Shu was helping her by tending to the fire. He wanted to say something funny to make her laugh, but he couldn’t think of a single joke. He would only poke his head out from underneath to sneak glances at his wife from time to time. The more he looked, the more he thought that wife looked good. It felt as if his heart was being wrapped in sweetness. He kept tossing firewood into the fire without paying attention.
The fire soon became too hot. Before Li Man had time to flip the pancakes she was making, it had already become burnt on one side. She urgently said, “Smaller, make the fire smaller.”
Li Shu thought she had said something else. When he frantically rushed over, Li Man fiercely glared at him and pointed at the pieces of pancakes that she had hastily picked up. “Look, they’re all burnt. You can be the one that eats these later.”
He had though something really bad had happened. His heart was still palpitating from the recent scare. “Sure, I’ll eat it. I’ll eat anything as long as you’re the one making it.” Li Shu picked up a piece of burnt pancake and smiled as he bit off a piece.
Seeing him like this, Li Man wasn’t able to say aloud any reprimanding words. She only pushed him to the side so she could tend to the fire by herself.
“I’ll do it.” Li Shu hastily tried to stop her.
Li Man glanced at him. Thinking about how she still had to keep an eye on the stovetop, she urged him, “Alright then, keep the fire lower this time.”
“En,” Li Shu happily agreed.
—
Li Mo left the hut and saw the rapport between Li Man and his third brother in the kitchen. After a pause, he continued outside and braved the rain that had started again.
Li Hua was standing under the eaves and called out, “Oldest brother.” He didn’t know where his oldest brother was going. He hadn’t even put on a woven rush raincoat.
Li Mo didn’t even turn his head back and only answered, “I’ll come back soon.”
Li Hua’s eyes were full of worry. He and his brothers had always listened to oldest brother’s words. But now, because of the matter with their wife, it felt as if his oldest brother had been faced with unanimous betrayal. He was probably feeling bad, right?
“Hey, stop worrying. Oldest brother is aware,” Li Yan comfortingly said and gently patted his fourth brother’s shoulder.