Several families in the village have said that they want to borrow the two houses, but the old Secretary Head mentioned that too many wanted it and he didn’t know who to give it to.
The end result was that no one could get it.
But now, he was generous enough to let Han Qingsong live in them.
“Maybe it’s a gift of sorts.”
“Who knows? He is an official, so naturally, he wouldn’t hesitate to give in.”
“Wasn’t the Old Three supposed to divorce the marriage with the shrew? So why are they moving out now? What’s going on with that family actually?”
“How would I know what’s going on? I’m not the elder of their family.”
“Hey, speaking of the old lady, where is she?”
“To be honest, Han Qingsong is really a good young man. Hey, if it weren’t for that, Chunxiang should have married him.”
“To hell with you, what sort of nonsense are you speaking of?”
Han Qingsong moved quickly, preparing the materials for the two rooms in half a day and borrowing ready-made adobes from headquarters to set up the kang.
Fortunately, there were adobes in headquarters.
Out of the two huts, half of one was left as the main room and the other half would be their bedrooms. It was equipped with a long kang and a rectangular box-shaped hole was carved in the middle to store sweet potatoes. It was also capable of separating the two sides, where gender could be divided. When the children grow up in the future, it would be more convenient for them as well.
Nowadays, many people do not have separate kangs for men and women. The whole family would usually sleep together on a kang and the children would crowd on it together even after they grew up.
Besides, some of the children who were married would end up sleeping on the same kang with their partners as well.
Therefore, Han Qingsong’s design was enough to spark the envy of the others.
Lin Lan watched for a while before she went back to have a few more bites of her breakfast before going to work. Because of the pain in her arm, she couldn’t pick up the big hoe, so she went to the cotton field to pick up some bugs with a fork.
There were still people spraying some medicine over there, so the smell of 1605 pills(3) drifted ten miles downwind. The smell made Lin Lan’s heart uneasy as she disliked it. She worked so hard to push her way through the afternoon heat, so by the time she was done, she had a splitting migraine and she quickly left the field.
(T/N: 1605 pills is a medical term, used to name a butalbital, acetaminophen and caffeine tablet)
When she came back, she went over to the huts to check things out. There, she saw that Han Qingsong was squatting on the roof and throwing on some yellow mud.
He was wearing a racer vest, revealing his strong and muscular arms as his sweat glistened in the sun as if he was smeared with oil.
He glanced at Lin Lan before putting his hand on the roof. Then, he slipped out and slid down, jumping nimbly.
Lin Lan was so startled by him that her heart felt like it had latched in her throat. What if his old injuries relapsed by jumping down ?
Han Qingsong walked to her in three or so steps, “Bring some food over for lunch, I won’t be going back to eat.”
Lin Lan pondered that once she went back, the old lady would keep asking her questions, so she would rather finish her work beforehand.
Han Qingsong glanced at her, “Is your arm okay?”
Lin Lan rubbed, “It still hurts.”
“Why didn’t you ask for a sick leave when it hurts?” Han Qingsong also thought that according to her habit, she would definitely ask for leave and not work if she was injured. He truly never thought that she wouldn’t take the chance to call in absent, so he inquired.