The red hawthorn fruit was covered with amber, hardened syrup, which delivered a mix of crunchiness, sourness and sweetness to its taste. The children were reluctant to finish up the delicious treat.
After a while, Han Qingsong came back with a paper bag of items in his hand before handing it to Lin Lan.
Maisui handed him the remaining hawthorn fruit. Han Qingsong took it and stuffed it into Lin Lan’s mouth.
Lin Lan was looking through the contents of the paper bag when the snack was abruptly stuffed into her mouth, making her cheeks turn red.
Maisui and Erwang were used to their father giving delicious foods to their mother and not them. Upon seeing that, the duo laughed secretly and pretended that they didn’t witness anything.
Lin Lan chewed the hawthorn slowly, savouring the sweet and sour taste as she opened the paper bag in her hand, “Wow! Look!”
The children’s attention turned to her as they hurried to look at what she found. It turned out that there were a lot of dried mushrooms in the bag!
Lin Lan was surprised, “Where did such a large amount of quality mushrooms come from?”
Whether it was in the countryside or in the city, fresh and dried mushrooms were both very expensive. At this time, there was no such thing as artificial cultivation, so all of these were picked from the mountains. The mountainous area on their side was barren, which resulted in a low amount of mushrooms being harvested. Only after the summer and autumn rain passed would some grow, which was why mushrooms were rarely eaten by locals.
Han Qingsong said, “The benefits from the revolutionary committee owed me a reward previously, so I asked for an extra portion.”
Lin Lan estimated that since mushrooms were so rare, there were probably a select few people in the committee who were granted them as a reward. She wondered if he even had a share in the first place.
Though, she didn’t pry too much as she just smiled and said, “In two days, the Production Team will butcher the pigs and divide the meat, so let’s stew some pork vermicelli with mushrooms by then!”
The children were very happy. There used to be mushrooms at home, which were sent back by Han Qingsong, but their grandmother would always use them to stew some meat for their youngest aunt and uncle to have. All this time, they’ve never managed to have a single bite.
However, the fragrance was deeply imprinted in their minds, especially for Maisui. Since she followed Han Jinyu a lot, she managed to get a small taste of it, which still lingered in her memory to this day.
Lin Lan talked about Han Qingsong’s reward again since it was already stirring in the back of her mind all along. Previously, after Zhao Anpin’s case and from the words of the Yellow River Brigade’s Leader, there was supposedly a reward but Han Qingsong had never gotten anything as a bonus up until now.
He said that he would save it until the end of the year before claiming it altogether.
She was looking forward to receiving a gift package by the end of the year, but she thought that this was a nice change too since there was a chance that the people in charge might not be as willing to grant luxurious rewards.
“Those two boys, sigh. Time’s almost up, so why aren’t they back yet?”
Han Qingsong said he was going to look for them, but before he left, Sanwang ran after Dawang from afar. The brothers were panting hard, but they did manage to return before time was up.