After that, Ye Liu directed the bullock-cart back to the village. They would resume their purchase of tomatoes after lunch.
At home…
Liu Duo sat in her rocking chair, leisurely playing with Bai Xiaojiao. Occasionally, she would steal glances at her handsome husband, Ye Ling, who was revising their accounts not far away. It was certainly a picture of bliss.
“Ling, how heavy do you think Xiaojiao is right now?” she asked him.
It had been a few months since they got Bai Xiaojiao home, and it had since grown from a barely weaned kitten to a fat, fluffy cat.
Ye Ling glanced over at Bai Xiaojiao and smiled. “I’m guessing it should be about three jin or four. Why don’t we give it a weigh?”
“Sure.” Liu Duo nodded and carried the cat over to Ye Ling.
And then, the two began to measure Bai Xiaojiao’s weight.
They placed the cat in the bamboo basket, but it started to mew out of nervousness when it could no longer feel the stability of the ground.
Hei Xiaomeng came running at the sound of the purring. It looked at the cat and barked a few times, as if taunting him.
“Don’t be afraid, Xiaojiao, we’re just weighing you a bit. Be good,” Ye Ling softly comforted it.
Liu Duo consoled the cat too, but it eventually got frightened by Hei Xiaomeng’s barking, leaped out of the basket and scurried away.
The affair escalated into a giant chase between cat and dog.
“Xiaomeng, don’t run after Xiaojiao!” Liu Duo smacked herself on the forehead helplessly. Their efforts to weigh Bai Xiaojiao had gone to waste.
“We’re back.” Right then, Ye Liu slowly brought the bullock-cart into the yard.
Ye Ling looked over at them. “Liu, why are you guys back so early today?”
He headed to the yard, ready to help unload the freshly purchased tomatoes.
Ye Liu snickered and peered at Ye Mo, not saying a word. His younger brother should be the one to answer this.
He took a trip to town, which meant they had lesser time than usual to get tomatoes.
Liu Duo got to the yard too and noticed the amount of tomatoes on the cart was far fewer than what they’d gotten in the past few days.
Ye Mo gazed at Liu Duo, clearing his throat to say something. But Liu Duo spoke first. “We’ll take what we have. You guys can go again in the afternoon.”
It was fair for the size of their collection to differ each time. It could not possibly be always fruitful.
Ye Mo quickly concurred. “Yes, we didn’t get much in the morning. We’ll go later.”
Yet, Li Wazi chose this time to talk. “Actually we went to town just now, that’s why we could only get so little.”
Went to town?
Liu Duo and Ye Ling got suspicious. Why did they go to town? They did not lack anything at home, and they had not loaded any tomato sauce onto the bullock-cart when they set off in the morning.
Ye Liu could not resist a laugh, but he did not intend to explain. Instead, he went to park the bullock-cart before unloading their stash.
He would leave Ye Mo to deal with this!
Frustration brewed within Ye Mo once Li Wazi spilled the beans. Why did he have to bring this up?
He did not want Liu Duo to think that he was being lazy. Worse, he did not want her to know that he went to town to get the portraits.
Yet Li Wazi was purely thinking that there should be nothing wrong with reporting their whereabouts to Liu Duo.
“Brother Li, why did you guys go to town?” Ye Ling curiously asked.
Ye Mo, worried that Li Wazi would blurt out the truth, answered before his friend could.