Continuing with the morning tasks. Liang Hongmei asked Lin Yinghui to bring the sewing machine from the hallway, and in the afternoon, mother and daughter each had a sewing machine in the room. They were busy until the evening.
Lin Yinghui and Han Yi smoothed out the doorway with cement, and after it dried, they would install the door. Han Yi and his brother drank quite a bit of rice wine at night. The rice wine had a strong kick; on their way back, they got some wind, and when they got home, Han Yi’s face was awfully red. Although he wasn’t unconscious from being drunk, he was not much better.
He vomited twice in the yard before settling down. Han Yi handled his liquor quite well; once drunk, he would just sleep it off. It was much less trouble with Mom around. Lin Wan could make fifty to sixty pieces of clothing in a day.
Afraid Han Yi might vomit again at some point, Lin Wan didn’t dare fall asleep just like that. She moved the sewing machine to their bedroom and continued sewing clothes by the lamplight while watching over him.
It wasn’t even past ten before she finally washed up and went to bed.
Not sure how long after falling asleep, she woke up groggily to find the person next to her had woken up sometime unknown.
"It’s late, are you sober now?" Lin Wan, still in a sleepy tone, asked.
"I sobered up a while ago, can’t sleep."
"Feeling better? Want some water?" Lin Wan was worried he’d feel unwell after drinking so much the night before.
"Not too bad, not that uncomfortable. Why aren’t you asleep?" Han Yi asked, feeling tender-hearted.
"It’s nothing, just can’t sleep. Did some extra work and watched over you." Lin Wan rubbed her eyes and, in the dim light, checked the time—just past three in the morning.
Lin Wan turned over, hugged him, and drifted back into dreamland.
The next day, they didn’t wake up until a little past ten. Lin Wan noticed the weather had gotten much cooler today. She quickly took out the red shirt she had left for herself last time and paired it with cropped pants.
Lin Wan also found an outfit for Han Yi—a cotton shirt with white and gray vertical stripes. She had discovered this fabric on the day of the Mid-Autumn Festival in a corner of a store counter. At the time, she thought this pattern was rare. She bought a yard, and for her brother, she got a piece with small gray fish printed on a white background.
Lin Wan had made them into shirts. The pants were black Dacron.
"Why didn’t you wake me up earlier? If Mom saw, I’d be so embarrassed."
Han Yi was now neatly dressed, holding an English magazine, engrossed in reading beside Lin Wan. Seeing her flustered appearance, he found it very adorable and said to her, "Mom is in the west room."
Last night, he really did get drunk, and it made things hard for her. Feeling sorry for her, he didn’t wake her in the morning. Who knew she was truly exhausted? After helping Mom at the morning market, she was still sound asleep. She didn’t even notice when her mother-in-law came over to help her sew clothes.
"Mom is here," Lin Wan quickly got dressed to check on her mom.
"Mom is helping you make clothes. Hurry and wash up." With that, Han Yi got up too, reheating the breakfast that his mother-in-law had brought over in the morning. He also made Lin Wan a plate of scrambled eggs with scallions.
"Hurry and eat, the weather’s cold and it cools off fast."
"Okay," Lin Wan quickly ate her meal in the kitchen and asked Han Yi to help move the sewing machine to the west room.
And so began another busy day.
Han Yi didn’t idle either, staying by Lin Wan’s side, helping to sew buttons.
Lin Wan, in all her years, discovered for the first time that he knew how to sew.
"In the team, we train a lot, and clothes coming undone is common. I picked up a bit," he explained.
Liang Hongmei listened to her son-in-law and praised Han Yi warmly, causing Lin Wan to feel a bit jealous again.
In the afternoon, Liang Hongmei helped her daughter until two or three o’clock, then rode her bike to the restaurant.