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Chapter 294: Chapter 284: You, Still Young
Sister-in-law Wu’s wisdom all came from personal experiences. She said that men, when they start drinking, don’t know when to stop, and sure enough, those three men at Li Hongjun’s place didn’t break up until nine at night.
Li Hongjun and Wu Guoqiang teamed up to send Wu Chaoyang home before coming back to pick up their wives and children from Sister-in-law Wu’s.
Shen Yunfang saw Li Hongjun’s face flushed black, picked up her son who was already deep asleep, and wouldn’t let that drunkard of a father touch him, fearing he might accidentally drop the child in his muddled state.
Just a few steps and the pair were back at their own house, which had already been tidied up a bit, and the kang table was taken down. Shen Yunfang was fairly satisfied.
She hurried to make the bed and help the small and the large one to sleep.
"Wife, wife, stop fussing about, come on up here, let’s sleep," Li Hongjun lay on the kang, eyeing his diligently bustling wife with a twinkle in his eyes.
Shen Yunfang gave him a glance, "Just get some good sleep, don’t go crazy with the booze, or else I won’t let you touch a drop of alcohol ever again."
These words were quite effective, Li Hongjun immediately kept quiet, but his eyes still followed his wife wherever she went.
Realizing it was indeed getting late, Shen Yunfang decided to leave the unwashed plates and bowls in a basin of water to soak until the next morning for cleaning. Having tidied herself up, she saw both the large and the small one on the kang were with closed eyes and climbed onto the kang, turned off the lamp, took off her clothes, and went to sleep.
But just as she slipped off her clothes and under the covers, a large hand sneaked in behind her, "Wife..." a sticky, muffled voice echoed in her ear.
"Weren’t you asleep?" Shen Yunfang got a startle.
"I can’t sleep without holding you," Li Hongjun said as he gently bit her earlobe and slowly licked it.
"What are you doing, the child is right beside us, you better go to sleep and cut it out," Shen Yunfang said in a harsh whisper, goosebumps all over her body.
"Wife, dear wife, I really can’t sleep. You don’t believe me, try and feel," Li Hongjun’s slightly wheedling voice came in the darkness.
As a result, the moment Shen Yunfang touched it, she got fired up, and throughout the night Li Hongjun’s side of the bed would sporadically emit "hiss... ah... umm..." sounds.
The next day, after waking up, Shen Yunfang made a decision. She would tidy up the west room, so in the future, when people came to eat, they would eat in the west room. This way, no matter how long those men drank, it wouldn’t affect her. She and her child could stay in the east room, and when bedtime came, just go to sleep. If Li Hongjun drank too much, he could just sleep directly in the west room to avoid disturbing her and the child.
She drew back the curtains, and it was already bright outside. She knew she must have slept in, looked at her watch, and sure enough, it was past nine o’clock. Turning her head to look at her son, who was still asleep, smacking his lips, it seemed like his dad had already taken care of him earlier this morning.
Leaning over to kiss her son on the face, she then pulled her cotton clothes and trousers from under the quilt, got dressed, and left the room.
The basin of dishes she had soaked the night before was gone, probably washed by Li Hongjun that morning, and there was also a bowl of egg custard and two big sweet potatoes in the pot, left as her breakfast by Li Hongjun.
She had no appetite, so she simply ate the egg custard, and then sliced the sweet potatoes quickly, bringing them inside to place in rows on the stove. Of course, she put her own iron plate on the stove and laid the sweet potatoes on it. In no time, the iron plate would dry out the moisture from the sweet potatoes, making them crispy and crunchy.
In the blink of an eye, a week had passed. On Sunday morning, Mrs. Wu came over early to help Shen Yunfang with chores at Li Hongjun’s house.
"Oh, Yunfang," said Mrs. Wu with a sigh, "isn’t it a waste to slaughter so many quails at once? If you kept them, you could collect several dozen eggs a day. Even though quail eggs are small, they’re still eggs."
"It’s not a waste. These quails have been raised for almost a year, and their prime egg-laying days are long past. Now’s the perfect time to butcher them for meat." As Shen Yunfang spoke, her hands didn’t stop moving. In a moment, she had slaughtered a basin full of quails. Next, it was Mrs. Wu’s turn to help by scalding them with boiling water and cleaning them up.
Actually, Shen Yunfang was just comforting Mrs. Wu. The culling rate for her quails was quite high, and they rarely kept any beyond eight months. 𝖓𝔬𝖛𝔭𝔲𝖇.𝔠𝔬𝖒
Mrs. Wu nodded, feeling somewhat reassured. But she still found it hard to accept Yunfang slaughtering a whole basin of quails at once. "You didn’t have to kill so many at once. I think just ten or eight for show would have sufficed. You want to make sure there’s enough to eat, don’t you?"
"Just enough won’t do. But today we have many guests coming. If we only had ten or eight, I’m afraid not everyone would get even one. I reckon, since it’s our first time hosting guests since we moved, we shouldn’t be too stingy. Besides, we have them and didn’t spend any money," Yunfang said with a smile.
"You’re still young," Mrs. Wu remarked and stopped at that.
Although she knew Yunfang’s nature was quite good, they hadn’t been in contact long enough. She only had a superficial understanding of Yunfang’s temperament and character, so Mrs. Wu didn’t think it proper to say too much.
If it had been someone she was more familiar with, Mrs. Wu would have definitely advised her. Whether it was the first time or not, hosting a meal wasn’t such a big deal. If someone had a good heart, even if you served them simple fare, they would appreciate your kindness. But if they were ungrateful, even if you cut your own flesh for their meal, they would forget about it soon after leaving. So there was no face to lose. Of course, Mrs. Wu wasn’t suggesting you shouldn’t prepare anything for guests, but slaughtering so many quails that were still laying eggs just for a meal seemed like a waste to her.
"I’ll go in and check on the kids." Hearing giggles from inside, Yunfang felt a bit worried. After placing the last quail in the basin, she headed inside.
Upon entering, she saw her own little Pangpang waving his tiny fists on the kang bed, playing by himself. Tingting, the little friend, was feeding Taxue pumpkin seed shells. Taxue didn’t seem to fancy pumpkin seed shells much, dodging the little hands reaching towards him. Taxue’s fluffy head tickled Tingting’s hand, causing her to giggle nonstop.
Seeing the children playing so happily, Yunfang unconsciously smiled along and said, "Tingting, are you hungry? Auntie will bring you something tasty."
"Okay," Tingting replied sweetly.
Yunfang turned and picked up an iron pot with a lid from the stove.
"What’s that you’re taking? Better not feed that to the girl now. Leave it for lunch," said Mrs. Wu, thinking Yunfang was going to feed her daughter food intended for the noon meal. They were already embarrassed to come over for the meal; it wouldn’t be right to start eating early. After all, with food provisions being so limited, hosting just once could take a family who knows how long to save up for.
Yunfang didn’t listen. "These are quail eggs I pickled yesterday, not for lunch. Who has the time to peel quail eggs during the meal? I want Tingting to taste them and tell me if they’re too salty or too bland. Don’t worry about it."
