NOVPUBLin Lan argued back in an agitated tone, “How is this a waste of food? Are the captured cicadas no longer considered meat?”
“How many of them can you manage to catch anyways? Either way, it’s definitely a waste of flour and time. Plus, if you really have the skills, you might as well use those skills to earn more work points,” Once again, the women were just unhappy that Lin Lan was able to coddle and spoil her children by letting them do whatever they wanted to.
“You’re saying that we’re wasting food just because you don’t know how to catch cicadas? Do you think that everyone is as useless as you are?” Lin Lan retorted and let out a harumph of disdain.
Dawang had no intentions to catch cicadas at all, but after hearing this, he hurriedly hung up the remaining clothes before leading his younger brothers off to indulge in their bug-catching activities.
Xiaowang immediately climbed ashore as he stood on the big stone slab and asked Lin Lan to help wipe the water off his body. He then put on a vest and grabbed his harmonica, “Mom, I’ll play a tune for the cicadas to make them more willing to be sticked by Eldest Brother.”
The women nearby all curled their lips and snickered at each other.
Lin Lan just let the kids run off as they liked. After all, she could wash the rest herself. If Maisui didn’t want to go, she could choose to stay behind and help her out as well.
When the kids went to catch the cicadas, they even brought over some pancakes and pickled vegetables for their mother and sister. At the very least, they would have something to nibble on to prevent them from going hungry.
After eating the pancakes, Lin Lan and Maisui decided to wash up before going home in order to avoid the need of coming back for the second time.
Some of the women left after finishing their load whereas some came back after having a meal. Upon seeing Lin Lan still washing her laundry, some started to laugh and tease, “Aiya, why is someone so capable today? Not everyone can wash clothes for an entire day.”
Anyone could tell whether those were words of praise or cleverly disguised words of insult. This was meant to be a mockery of Lin Lan, implying that she was usually lazy but was somehow pretending to be diligent today.
Lin Lan smiled and said, “I can’t help it, there are too many clothes and quilts, so I do need an entire day to wash them.”
The women were unhappy once more upon hearing her retorts as their facial expressions darkened. There was only one quilt in the entire household for most of them and they only needed to wash them once a year.
Moreover, their cotton-padded clothes were worn for more than half a year before being washed once. Therefore, they were really dirty and worn out. After soaking them in alkaline water and then hitting them repeatedly with a mallet, the water oozing out of them was practically blackened.
They stopped talking to Lin Lan after that and she didn’t bother to care. It was just a matter of washing clothes, so why was there so much drama?
As a result, when she and Maisui were about to finish washing the rest, the brothers came back.
Sanwang shouted, “Mom, look!”
Several women turned their heads to see what was going on and their eyes widened in shock. Was this fake? Who on Earth was skilled enough to catch that many cicadas?
