"Daddy, time for dinner."
"Jiaojiao, how did you get in here? What if you fell?" Ruan Jianguo’s entire face wrinkled with concern as he looked around at the steel bars and cement stones and hurriedly picked her up.
Ruan Jiaojiao expertly wrapped her arms around his neck and took out a small handkerchief from her pocket to wipe the sweat from his forehead.
With May approaching, the weather was getting hotter, especially the noon sun, which made it hard to keep one’s eyes open. Ruan Jianguo felt the soft, fragrant touch of his little girl’s hands on his forehead as she busied herself and squinted his eyes in enjoyment, feeling incredibly content.
In the countryside, people preferred boys, but he couldn’t understand for the life of him what good those brats were. His little girl, on the other hand, was the very incarnation of a caring little quilted jacket.
He beckoned the workers nearby to join him for lunch while playfully engaging with Ruan Jiaojiao in his arms.
He asked her who she loved the most, who was her favorite, and reveled in the joy of her satisfying answers, laughing uncontrollably.
"..." Ruan Jiaojiao’s inner voice spread its hands helplessly. Encountering people from the Ruan family , she had no choice but to play along with these little games of who loved whom the most every day.
The Ruan Family were genuine folks. Although they had sweet potato meals, they were always filling. The dishes might not be rich, but every now and then they would have some cured meat. Their food was truly top-notch. The workers were paid by the day and would drag out the work for others in order to earn an extra day’s pay, but not for the Ruan Family. Here, they worked earnestly and made rapid progress.
When Ruan Jianguo went into the kitchen to serve himself some food, he spotted the gray and white rabbit in the chicken coop out back. The envy on the faces of the workers was palpable; they admired the Ruan Family’s capabilities. Rumor had it the family often went hunting in the mountains. However, Ruan Jianguo frowned at the sight of the rabbit, his mood turning somber.
After the meal, Ruan Jianguo told the workers to take an hour’s rest. They were all down-to-earth, unpretentious folk who found spots to lie down and enjoyed the brief leisure time of the midday break.
Ruan Jianguo pulled Ruanlin Family’s mother into the inner room and asked, "Mom, did Jiaojiao catch that rabbit again?"
"No, it was Xiaoxi who got it."
"Xiaoxi?" Ruan Jianguo’s furrowed brow relaxed, only to knit together again almost immediately: "Where did he catch it? The back mountain? They should go there less often, especially a child as young as he is. What if he’s taken by monkeys again?" The incident of Jiaojiao being kidnapped by monkeys still sent shivers down Jianguo’s spine, and he had forbidden all the boys from venturing near the back mountain.
Hearing this, Ruanlin Family’s mother also looked concerned and said, "I didn’t ask, but I’ll remind him when he comes back." The tale of monkeys abducting a person had served as a cautionary tale for everyone in the village with children. Now, no one dared to let children wander to the back mountain, for fear of the monkeys taking them away, which would leave them without recourse to heaven or earth.
However, thinking of Xiu Xi planning to sell the rabbit and buy candy for Ruan Jiaojiao, she shared this with Ruan Jianguo as if it were a joke.
Ruan Jianguo was surprised at first but then shook his head resignedly: "This kid, he’s really thoughtful, even more concerned about our Jiaojiao than her own brothers."
"Certainly," Ruanlin Family’s mother agreed, her impression of Xiu Xi genuinely positive.
Thinking of Xiu Xi attending school with Ruan Jiaojiao in September, she asked Ruan Jianguo, "They’ll be starting school in September, and you’re constructing the house, decorating, hiring workers—everything costs money. If it’s too difficult, I can take care of Xiaoxi’s expenses..."