Free Web NovelChapter 419: Chapter 221: A Beautiful Life
Juhua had already prepped the ingredients before she left. Upon returning, she quickly cooked the rice, pan-fried a large bowl of wild scallion omelet, stewed a bowl of dried mushrooms, and steamed some cured meat. With the addition of salted duck eggs, stir-fried amaranth, stir-fried celtuce, and a bowl of thick stew from yesterday made with cured meat and dried bamboo shoots, it was plenty of food.
She had also wanted to make a soup, but Yang Family said not to bother and that they could have it that evening.
During the meal, Yang Family watched Qingmu and Zhang Huai devour their food as energetically as they worked, and her heart ached for them. She piled Zhang Huai’s bowl high with the scallion omelet and cured meat, then personally peeled a salted duck egg and handed it to him. "Eat up," she said, her voice full of affection. "You two studied for so long, only to be thrown into days of transplanting seedlings. You must be exhausted. At your age, you’re still growing. The hard work itself isn’t the issue, but it’s crucial that you eat well, or your bodies won’t be able to handle it. Sigh! You look like you’ve lost so much weight."
As she spoke, perhaps feeling she’d neglected her son, she quickly added some cured meat to Qingmu’s bowl as well.
Qingmu saw his mother’s intentions as clear as day, but he didn’t call her out for only remembering him as an afterthought. Suppressing a laugh, he lowered his head and kept eating, thinking, ’This kid is stealing my thunder.’
Zhang Huai wasn’t one for false modesty. He thanked her, then asked in surprise, "Have I lost weight? How come my mom hasn’t said anything? I’m a grown man—what’s a little work like this? I don’t feel that tired. With transplanting, the main challenge is just bending over for so long. As for real hard labor, harvesting and threshing the rice is much more strenuous."
He turned to look at Qingmu. "You look fine to me. Not a bit thinner."
Yang Family was a bit embarrassed. It was just something she had said offhandedly. Parents always want their children to eat more and grow up strong; to them, even losing the slightest bit of weight is a big deal.
She laughed. "Well, not a lot. But you’ll definitely have lost a size by the time the wheat harvest is over. Use these next few days to have your mother cook you some hearty food to build you up. Times are better now, so don’t be so frugal. Eating well comes first. It doesn’t matter if your clothes are a little plain; what’s most important is to take good care of your health."
Juhua noticed her mother was being especially affectionate with Zhang Huai today. Though she was always kind to him, her tone had never been this intimate. She was clearly treating him like a prospective son-in-law, which left Juhua at a loss for words. ’Mom, aren’t you rushing things a little?’
She glanced over at Qingmu and Zhang Huai. They were both the picture of health, practically radiating vitality and youthful vigor—stronger than their family’s ox, even. Where was the slightest sign of exhaustion? ’If anyone’s gotten thinner, it’s me,’ she thought. She wasn’t sure if it was from the hard work or a growth spurt, since she had shot up in height this year.
With this in mind, she deliberately feigned confusion. "How come I don’t see it? I think my brother and Brother Huai Zi have actually gotten a little chubbier! It makes sense, doesn’t it? When you’re tired from hard work, you get a bigger appetite and eat more than usual. Wouldn’t you gain weight then? Besides, the meals are always better during transplanting season. We bring out all the treats we normally wouldn’t eat. How could they possibly get thinner eating like this?"
Seeing his mother’s blank look, Qingmu suppressed a laugh. "You’re the sharp-eyed one, all right. We should use the big scale for weighing pigs later to see if we’ve really lost any weight."
Juhua burst out laughing.
Zhang Huai wolfed down the rest of his food in a couple of bites and laughed. "You can get on the scale if you want, but I’m not doing it. That’s for pigs at the market."
After the meal, Qingmu helped feed the pigs. Juhua grabbed a small bucket, shouldered a small shrimp net, and picked up a small wicker basket before following the boys back out to the fields.
Along the way, Qingmu told her about the plan he and Zhang Huai had made to pave the path. Juhua was thrilled. She exclaimed that she’d never even thought of it, and imagined how beautiful it would be once the willows grew tall, walking to the river along a shaded, tree-lined lane.
Eager to get started, Qingmu and Zhang Huai hurriedly finished transplanting the remaining seedlings and rushed back to work on the path. Juhua, for her part, hastily netted a random assortment of small fish, shrimp, and Ni Qiu to release into the fishpond before joining them. Even Yang Family came over, happily wielding a shovel to help move earth.
Juhua surveyed the empty space in front of their courtyard gate. "We can’t just spread the pebbles on the path," she told her brother and Zhang Huai. "They’ll get scattered everywhere. I think we should dig a trench and lay the pebbles inside it, flush with the ground. That will keep things neat."
Qingmu and Zhang Huai nodded in unison, both agreeing that this was a more practical approach.
So the two of them set to work, first digging a shallow trench three or four inches deep and about two feet wide. It ran all the way to the spot by the river where Juhua did her laundry. Next, they started another trench from the plot of Zhang Huai’s house, a much longer route.
