After hiding the money, she continued to pull the quilt over herself to sleep. In the morning, she still prepared food for Qin Guohua and Qin Xiangyang, and then helped Qin Xiangyang with his work. However, her spirits were low and her eyelids droopy due to inadequate sleep. She told herself to endure just a few more days, just a few, and then things would get better.
After selling pancakes for another two days, her scallion pancakes sold extremely well, possibly because in an era of food scarcity, scallion pancakes were the best thing many people had ever tasted.
In those two days, she made over 40 yuan. On the last day, she hardened her heart and made more than two hundred pancakes, earning over 20 yuan. Suddenly, she had nearly 80 yuan in hand, almost the equivalent to three months’ salary for a worker.
Unfortunately, Hu Li returned with her children, preventing Qin Xiangnuan from selling pancakes or earning money any further. But there was no rush, there was still time.
Hu Li first went around the kitchen, opened the flour container and felt relieved to see that the fine flour hadn’t decreased noticeably. They mostly ate fine flour at home, sometimes mixed with coarse flour and some sweet potatoes. Fine flour was a luxury, and although they were frugal, the large number of mouths to feed meant that flour consumption was high.
It wasn’t Qin Xiangyang or Qin Xiangnuan’s fault, but rather Qin Pengfei and Qin Xiangmei should be blamed. From a young age, they were raised on fine flour, and the family prioritized them consuming it, with Qin Xiangyang and Qin Xiangnuan barely getting any.
"Nuannuan, it’s time to eat," Qin Xiangyang placed a bowl in front of his sister, noticing her obedient and adorable appearance, her thin face adorned with eyes like black gemstones. Everyone said Qin Xiangmei was beautiful, but he didn’t agree; he always thought his sister was the prettiest.
Qin Xiangnuan picked up her chopsticks, about to eat, when she noticed something off about Qin Xiangyang’s face - it was too red. She placed her small hand on his forehead.
It was burning hot. She swiftly withdrew her hand, dropped the chopsticks, and ran outside.
"Dad, Dad... Brother has a fever, his head is very hot, he’s sick..."
She ran towards the front yard, shouting as she went, but before she could get there, Hu Li slammed the door shut, "Nonsense fever, if you have time to have a fever, you might as well think about how to finish the work in the fields. All you think about is eating, raising a dog would be more useful than you children."
Qin Xiangnuan bit her tiny lip, the door in front of her shut tight, clearly no one would come out. She had no choice but to fetch a basin of cold water from the well, grab a towel, soak it in the icy water and, with her hands red and hot, place the damp towel on Qin Xiangyang’s forehead. Qin Xiangyang was indeed feverish, and the fever was severe; he had been fine just before, but now he was deliriously talking nonsense.
Could it be that the events of their past life were happening in advance?
She kept placing the wet towel on Qin Xiangyang’s forehead, but his fever showed no signs of subsiding.
Qin Guohua, upon asking Qin Xiangyang to work in the fields, realized something was truly wrong and reluctantly fetched the village doctor. The doctor prescribed some medicine, charging just over one yuan, leaving Qin Guohua fuming and spewing harsh words.