Lin Mei chatted and laughed with the children before she waved her hands and happily left.
When they got into the house, the children saw a large piece of cloth on the table. It was made of different coloured cloth ends that were cut into triangles and sewn together. Turns out that the entire piece of fabric was a beautiful curtain!
“Mother, you are so crafty!” The children said in surprise.
Lin Lan gave them a blank look, “Stop teasing me, it’s your Third Aunt who is considerate. Knowing that I am not good at sewing, she sewed it up for us.”
Erwang just laughed, “Third Aunt is really good at sewing.”
Maisui was deeply fascinated by it, “Mother, if this is made into clothes, would it look good?”
Lin Lan glanced at it and said earnestly, “My daughter, let’s not use quilts and tablecloths as clothes. After all, clothes were meant to fit on our bodies to look better,” That being said, the piece of fabric in her hands looked to be quite suitable in the making of a school bag.
Maisui nodded, “Okay. Mother, put me and Erwang in the middle.”
The four of them slept on a kang and she slept in the innermost section. Although there was a kang cabinet taking up some space, there was also a curtain for more privacy and she liked the feeling.
Especially the little bastard Sanwang, who would sometimes drink a lot of water and get up in the middle of the night to relieve himself. The problem was that he would stand on the kang and urinate into the urine tank on the ground.
Maisui was so angry told him off several times, to which the brat defended, “At least I’m not peeing outside the tank!”
The next morning she forced him to wash the floor!
Since her daughter requested such, Lin Lan naturally agreed and marked up the space for her.
When Han Qingsong came back, the family sat around on the kang to talk and listen to the radio after dinner.
Lin Lan took out the accumulated ingredients and sorted them out. Tomorrow was the Laba Festival(2) so she would be cooking some Laba congee for the children.
(T/N: A festival in China that is held in commemoration of Gautama Buddha’s enlightenment)
Han Qingsong helped her to do so and the children also came to help, but Sanwang was forbidden to help by his father.
When he played outside, he would pick up small stones and forget to throw them back to where he got them from! However, when he picked peanuts, he somehow knew to place them in his mouth and never did the same when he collected the stones.
Therefore, Han Qingsong forbade him to touch the food.
Sanwang, “Let me tell you a joke,” He learned a lot of jokes from Liu Chuncai.
Lin Lan teased him, “Your sister will read us an article and your Second Brother will read us a recipe to satisfy our cravings. Also, the child will play us a good tune, but as for you, please don’t open your mouth!”
Sanwang pouted, “Eldest Brother, I think I was adopted from the stress; perhaps Elder Brother Xiaowang is the biological son.”
Xiaowang, who was helping Lin Lan, answered seriously, “I am their real son in the first place.”
Dawang sat beside him like an unmoving church bell, not saying a word.
Lin Lan prepared a lot of things— some ingredients were distributed by the Production Team, some were given to her by others from their own vegetable gardens, some were exchanged when she went out to initiate publicity activities and some were given by her maternal family. In short, it took her a long time to prepare the ingredients for Laba porridge.