“Officer Liu, it’s already so late. Why don’t you come to our home and have a drink, rest, and have a meal before leaving.”
He refused, “Sister-in-law, there are still tasks I have to do, so I’ll need to go first.”
He waved his hand, before he pedalled his bicycle and left.
Lin Lan hurriedly waved goodbye. Seeing that Dawang was standing on the side with his neck stubbornly facing the side, he didn’t seem like he knew his mistake at all. She suddenly became angry and slapped him again, “You arrogant child, you ran away without saying a word? “
Dawang slanted the corners of his mouth. He used to run out every day and he didn’t see her bothering to ask, but now, she apparently cared a lot.
“Okay, don’t try to give me an attitude. When your father comes back, you’ll know what happens. Go home and wash up.”
Dawang turned around and ran, “I’m going to mow the grass.”
He ran so fast that Lin Lan disappeared before she regained her senses.
Mother of God, how are you going to do that if you don’t even have a shovel to mow the grass?
She leaned the hoe on the wall and went to the vegetable garden to pick some vegetables, planning to come back and cook them.
Now, each family had only a little private land. In addition to the subsidy for planting food, it was also handy for planting vegetables.
When the family split up, they gave Lin Lan two vegetable plots, but there were still vegetables, so everyone was going to eat them together. They would grow their own vegetables when the summer vegetables were out of season.
Lin Lan wanted to pick two foreign persimmons to make an egg soup. The children traded the eggs for their efforts of cutting grass at someone else’s home.
She also wanted to pick lentils and eggplants to stew them.
At this time, these vegetables were basically the same. Picking two of these kinds of melons were enough for several meals, so she didn’t have to pick too many.
Today, when she looked at it, she wondered why it seemed like there were so little vegetables left.
Was it harmed by the naughty children?
She looked at the neighbours. Everything was fairly normal, so how come hers was the only one affected?
At this time, Zhang Caihong, the daughter-in-law of Han Yongshun’s family, came to pick vegetables. Seeing Lin Lan, she smiled and said, “Sister-in-law, your second sister-in-law picked all the vegetables a while ago. My family can’t finish all of ours, so you can pick some.”
Lin Lan was baffled that there was still this kind of snarky trick played on her.
She smiled and said, “Thank you Caihong, but since it was my second sister-in-law who picked them, I should just take it back from their house.”
She lifted her foot and went to the old lady’s house. When she walked to the door, she heard the exaggerated laughter in the yard. It turned out that the youngest uncle and aunt came back.
She didn’t think much about it. She didn’t think that Han Er’s sister-in-law deliberately picked all the vegetables and purposefully left nothing for her to eat. She thought that there might be a food shortage since the two youngest had returned.
She went back to her vegetable garden and saw that Zhang Caihong was pulling weeds and catching insects. Then she said, “My house’s two youngests are back, so they need more food. Sister Caihong let me borrow two eggplants if you don’t mind.”
Zhang Caihong said with a smile, “Why are you being so polite like that? If we can’t finish it, it will be a disaster as well. You go pick those eggplants and lentils.”
Lin Lan thanked her and picked two large purple eggplants. She also got a small pot of lentils. They grew kidney beans with white skin and large grains, which were particularly fragrant when stewed. The locals would roll their eyes out of envy.