Meanwhile, Liu Yu had already returned to the fabric store.
Liu Wensheng was sitting on a small stool, kicking his feet out of boredom. “Brother, did you buy everything you needed?”
Liu Yu replied, “I didn’t buy things right away. I ran into a foolish beggar who was almost dying of thirst yet did not know how to ask for water, so it delayed me a bit.”
Liu Wensheng exclaimed, “Ah, that is indeed quite foolish.”
The quilt cover had already been sewn. The auntie folded the quilt cover together with the bedsheets, stuffed them into a bag, and handed them to Liu Yu.
Liu Yu expressed his gratitude. Before leaving, he gave her an extra six cents to buy the water ladle. That water ladle had been used by that man, but Liu Yu did not mind it. After all, it was not poisonous, and it could be used again after a wash, but he felt embarrassed to return it to someone else.
By the afternoon, the sun was no longer as scorching. The three of them carried their heavy large bamboo baskets, chatting and laughing all the way as they entered the village. When Liu Yu arrived home, it was only a little past three in the afternoon. After putting their things down and resting for a short while, Liu Wenyu and his brother said they needed to head home.
Liu Yu did not detain them. He poured the candies out of the bag, divided fifteen for each of them, and kept the remaining thirteen for himself to eat. The brothers felt too embarrassed to take them, so he feigned anger. In his opinion, being willing to accompany him so far to buy things on such a hot day was loyal enough. If he bought candies and refused to share them, keeping them all for himself, that would simply be too excessive.
Liu Yu had been tired all day, so he wanted to eat something good that evening to reward himself. He actually felt a little nostalgic for the braised pork he used to make in his past life, but no matter how much he wanted to eat it, he had no way of buying it today. It was not because he was reluctant to spend the money, but because the weather was too hot to keep it from spoiling.
Liu Yu thought to himself that since he had no conditions to eat meat, eating something semi-vegetarian would do as well. Therefore, he washed some rice, cracked two eggs to steam right on top of the rice, and stir-fried a dish of dry-fried chili peppers.
Half an hour later, he sat on the threshold, holding his bowl and happily eating white rice. Nowadays in the village, very few families could bear to eat such solid white rice. Even if they cooked a pot on a rare occasion, they had to mix in half a pot of crushed corn.
Liu Yu was different. He had always been generous with himself when it came to food and drink. Unlike other households that had a large family to support, he was currently feeding himself alone, with no one else to worry about. If the money ran out, he would just figure out another way to earn more. He certainly would not let himself starve to death.
He suddenly thought of the man he had met today and could not help chuckling. There really was someone almost starving himself to death.
The eggs steamed this way turned out exceptionally well, forming Liu Yu’s favorite honeycomb-like texture. Eating them mixed with rice made the flavor even more savory; he actually disliked that kind of delicate and smooth texture. This could be considered one of his unique little quirks regarding food.
When he finished the last green pepper along with the rice, the tip of Liu Yu’s nose was glistening with fine beads of sweat from the spiciness. He finally felt a realistic sense that he was still alive. Sure enough, no matter where the people of China went, they could never leave behind their hometown cooking.
As night fell, Liu Yu carefully checked the items he had purchased today, picking out the lettuce and small Chinese cabbage seeds. He planned to plant them early the next morning in the vegetable patch in front of his yard. These two vegetables had a short growth cycle and could be harvested in just over a month after sowing.
After blowing out the candle on the counter, Liu Yu lay down on the bed. The temperature dropped at night, and hugging his quilt, he quickly drifted into a sound sleep.
Waking up naturally early the next morning without a single dream, Liu Yu felt much more energetic than the previous few days. After washing up, he simply boiled a pot of porridge and then carried a pair of water buckets to the river to fetch water.
It had not rained for many days, and the soil had caked into hard blocks. If he wanted to plant vegetables, he had to water the ground first and then loosen the soil, otherwise planting them would be a waste of effort. Fortunately, Liu Yu had been quite interested in agriculture in his past life. If it were any other young person, they probably would not have known where to start.
By the river, Liu Yu heard someone calling out to him from afar. The voice sounded somewhat familiar, and when he looked up, it was indeed the wild monkey Liu Wensheng.
“Brother, I will help you carry them!”
Liu Yu declined politely, “No need, go play somewhere else!” It was a joke to let a child carry water for him when he was already a big boy.
However, the next second, Liu Wensheng acted as if he had not heard a word, picked up the water buckets directly, and strode off at a flying pace.
He had tried carrying them himself earlier. Carrying them back was doable, but certainly not with Liu Wensheng’s steady and swift pace.
Facts proved that his strength really could not match the other boy’s. No wonder the kid did not take what he said seriously; he had simply taken it as a joke.
Liu Wensheng was like a calf with endless energy, stubbornly carrying five loads of water back and forth until the fifth bucket was emptied, thoroughly soaking the vegetable patch.
Taking advantage of the time the boy spent fetching water, Liu Yu secretly washed an egg and dropped it into the porridge. Making an ox plow the fields without letting it graze was something only capitalists would do; he did not want his friend to suffer a loss while doing hard labor for him.
While Liu Yu used a hoe to turn over the soil, Liu Wensheng dropped the vegetable seeds into the holes. By the time they covered the soil, it was already past nine o’clock, and the porridge in the pot had long since finished cooking.
While the child was still busy in the vegetable patch, Liu Yu stepped into the kitchen. The moment he lifted the pot lid, a rich aroma of rice wafted over his face.
He took two large bowls from the cabinet to dish out the porridge, and even peeled an egg for Liu Wensheng, burying it at the bottom of the bowl. Children loved sweets, so he added a spoonful of white sugar on top.
“Put down what you are doing and come eat breakfast!” Liu Yu stood at the courtyard gate and shouted.
Liu Wensheng replied without even raising his head, “Brother, you eat! I already ate in the morning.”
Liu Yu felt helpless. At their age, they were growing fast, and their bodies required a massive amount of nutrition. Regardless of how fiercely the boy worked, he got hungry just as fast. When he was around ten years old, eating four meals a day was nothing for him.
Insisting on his own way, Liu Yu carried the bowl over to the boy and commanded, “Drink it!”
Unable to stubborn his way out of it, Liu Wensheng took the bowl and took a large gulp. The taste was wrong! He widened his eyes slightly and took another careful sip. Now he was certain: white sugar had been added to the porridge, and a tender white egg lay hidden beneath the thick rice gruel. A wave of warmth instantly surged into his heart.
“Wuu, Brother, you are so good to me.” He split the egg in half and placed one half into Liu Yu’s bowl.
Liu Yu did not decline either, knowing that if he refused to eat, the child certainly would not want to eat it either.
Nor did Liu Wensheng eat in vain. After drinking two consecutive bowls of sweet porridge, he worked with even greater vigor, carrying water back and forth with a rhythmic puffing sound, wishing he could plant all of Liu Yu’s land by the end of the morning.
Around noon, one could hear Aunt Guifang’s voice calling her child back for lunch from far away. Liu Yu took the hoe from the boy’s hand and told him to go back and eat. “Thank you for your hard work, go back and eat first! You do not need to come help in the afternoon; I can finish up the remaining bit in a little while.”
Liu Wensheng dawdled as he hurried home. He simply did not want to go back. Liu Wenyu had gone to town for school and could only return on the weekend, leaving him all alone at home where he would either be scolded by his mother or beaten by his father. Staying here was much more comfortable; Liu Yu never scolded him and always gave him good food.
Liu Yu had no idea that he had inadvertently brainwashed a young teenager into becoming free labor. Right now, he was fretting over what to have for lunch. Liu Yu suffered from summer lethargy; once summer arrived, if there was no air conditioning, he could not swallow a single bite of food. Having transmigrated and starved for a few days, he had become much more obedient, but when the noon sun was blazing, he still lacked any appetite.
After much deliberation, he ended up drinking a small bowl of the remaining morning porridge to barely fill his stomach. If only he had watermelon to eat, chilled in well water for a while, taking a bite would cool a person down instantly, Liu Yu thought with a blissful expression.
Liu Yu took a nap, and when he woke up it was already past three o’clock. He simply washed his face and went out toward Second Grandma’s house, carrying a small packet of brown sugar along the way.
“Heqing, you finally have time to drop by for a visit?” Second Grandma was sewing clothes outside her courtyard. Seeing Liu Yu approach, she teased with a smile.
Her little granddaughter, Erni, was accompanying her alone out of boredom. Seeing Liu Yu arrive, the little girl hopped and skipped over to him. Liu Yu patted her head and handed the brown sugar over smoothly.
Looking closely, Second Grandma realized it was a packet of brown sugar and immediately scolded, “Look at you, coming over without any major holiday, why bring such expensive things? Do you have too much money and nowhere to spend it?”
It was no wonder she scolded him, as brown sugar was precious in this day and age. Only when a wife was postpartum and needed to nourish her body could she frequently drink this sort of thing. Ordinarily, on ordinary days without any special occasions, no family could bear to drink it.
Liu Yu chuckled. “Give it to Erni and the others to drink. Maybe it will help them grow taller! To be precise, I still have not returned the sesame oil noodles you gave me earlier!”
Second Grandma tapped him on the head a few times and told him to stop spouting nonsense.
“Second Grandma, I came this time to ask if you have any chili pepper varieties suitable for planting in September. I want to ask you for some chili seeds to raise seedlings.”
Second Grandma thought for a moment, stood up, and walked into the house. When she came out, she held a small bag in her hand. She handed the bag to Liu Yu and said, “These chili peppers are suitable and sun-resistant, but you still need to be careful and water them frequently.”
Liu Yu nodded repeatedly. After chatting with her for a while, he headed back. He had to cultivate the seeds before dark; once the seedlings sprouted, he could achieve self-sufficiency in chili peppers.
In Qinghe Town, a man in ragged clothing sat drinking water on the steps outside a rice shop.
Ever since he finished eating the two flatbreads Liu Yu had given him, he had finally built up his psychological construction and started trying to find a job. However, the town currently required identity verification for hiring, and some places even demanded a work-approval certificate issued by the local village. These were things Zhou Yu could not produce at present.
He had no way to go to the police station to apply for an ID because it required presenting relevant evidence, and the Zhou family was currently searching everywhere for him. Once any trace was exposed, countless assassins would come swarming over upon hearing the news.
In his twenty-four years of life, he had never experienced such destitution, always living in pampered luxury.
He also wanted to return to the Zhou family as soon as possible, but right now was not a good time. Intuition told him that returning rashly at present would only lead him straight into a dead end hanging out in the open. The power dynamic within the Zhou family in City J was probably overwhelmingly one-sided by now, and he could not be certain whether the confidants who were once in his faction had been purged from the company or successfully turned.
Faltering back and forth like this, Zhou Yu ultimately found a job at a grain store. The boss only wanted strong and sturdy porters, paying a wage of forty-five cents a day, requiring no ID and settling accounts on the same day. Although the wage was a bit low, this was already the most suitable job Zhou Yu could find at present.
He planned to settle down himself and then mail a letter to Xu Shaobo to probe his situation and attitude, before deciding how to proceed specifically.
Zhou Yu drank the remaining water in his hand in one gulp, lowering his gaze in deep thought. He wondered if the old master was still around. Although the grandfather and grandson had never lived together and lacked deep emotional bonds, and even the meager family affection was mixed with elements of utilization, at least while the old master was alive, he could act as a steady balance scale to effectively check and balance the relationship between himself and the eldest branch’s family.
Another cart of rice arrived, and the grain store owner shouted loudly, urging them to hurry up and move the rice. Zhou Yu quickly composed his emotions, stood up, and walked toward the mountain of a rice cart.