Lin Lan, “Sanwang, why is your book so dark? Why do you keep rubbing your hands over your handwriting?”
After finishing writing with the pencil, his hands must have brushed across the book countless times, making the pages full of black smudges.
Sanwang was confident, “The teacher always asks me to write more! He liked to bully me!”
Lin Lan had to talk about life with classmate Sanwang and also threaten him in the meantime. If he was disobedient, he would be ___ when his father came back; if there were delicious delicacies to eat, he wouldn’t be allowed to have them. She could also add that he wouldn’t be allowed to go into the river next summer.
Classmate Sanwang went to the kang with a blank and lost appearance for the last time, “Xiaowang ah, when will you grow up?”
Xiaowang, “I’m already grown up.”
Sanwang, “Then when are you going to go to school?”
Xiaowang, “I won’t make mom angry even if I go to school.”
Sanwang, “…bye, good night.”
Lin Lan The Mother sent the children to bed before she looked around one by one. Paying special attention to Maisui, she properly covered her with the quilt in order to avoid the night breeze.
Seeing how her mother was caring for her intimately, Maisui felt a surge of warmth in her heart. Feeling that her mother was caring and empathetic, she slept sweetly that night.
After Xiaowang was settled down, she handled her personal hygiene matters and got up the kang.
First, she wrote a publicity plan with her left hand, leaving a strew of mistakes all over the paper. Then, she started working on patching up Dawang’s pants.
Dawang had grown rather rapidly recently, so the space in the hind and the thigh areas have been getting tighter for him. She wasn’t able to make a new pair for him at the moment, so she took apart the two areas and inserted another piece of cloth for the pants.
This was actually a common practice for all households.
However, other people’s homes didn’t pay attention to colour matching and had a tendency to use whichever cloth that was available to them, which made the outcome particularly ugly. Lin Lan wasn’t able to pull that off as she strived for harmony and unity of colour as well as aestheticism.
After sewing for a while, she looked outside. The sky was dark and there was a slight pattering sound amidst the wind. It was probably raining now, but she didn’t know if he was still in the meeting or was he on his way home.
After half past nine, Lin Lan heard the door knock and knew that Han Qingsong had returned.
She immediately set her feet on the ground and ran out. The fire was still smouldering inside the stove, so the rice could be heated up again by throwing a handful of grass into the burner.
There was still some lukewarm water in the pot, which meant that Han Qingsong came back just in time to wash up and rid himself from the chilly weather in order to not catch a cold. At the same time, Lin Lan would warm up his meal for him.
Han Qingsong parked his bicycle and came in from outside. Although it was merely drizzling, his clothes were sodden.
“Take off your clothes, wash up and put on some clean ones,” Lin Lan poured the water for him and grabbed his lunch box, placing it inside the pot to heat it up.
He still brought back two compartments of meat and vegetables, both obtained from the County canteen.