At noon, Old Li and his apprentice were still busy working in the courtyard. Since they were doing strenuous physical labor, Lin Xiaxia went to Huzi’s house at the foot of the mountain and got some fresh chives. She also took a few eggs from her jar and decided to make dumplings for lunch.
She moved efficiently, kneading the dough and preparing the filling.
She finely chopped the chives, scrambled the eggs until golden, then mixed them together with a little thirteen-spice seasoning, sesame oil, and salt. The delicious aroma immediately filled the air.
Old Li’s young apprentice was only fifteen or sixteen. The smell made him swallow repeatedly, his eyes practically lighting up with anticipation.
Once the dumplings were cooked, Lin Xiaxia scooped them steaming hot into coarse porcelain bowls. The plump white dumplings showed hints of bright green chives through their wrappers, making them look especially appetizing.
Old Li looked at the dumplings in his bowl and became embarrassed instead.
“Young lady, you’re being far too generous. A couple of cornbread buns would’ve been enough. White-flour dumplings are precious these days. I almost don’t dare eat them.”
“Uncle, don’t say that.” Lin Xiaxia handed him a pair of chopsticks.
“Carpentry is hard work, and you’re already charging me very little for making the shelves. You deserve a good meal. Hurry and eat while they’re hot. If you really feel bad about it, just give me a discount the next time I ask you to make some furniture.”
Old Li grinned broadly.
“All right, all right.”
With that, he carefully lifted a dumpling toward his mouth.
His young apprentice bit into one and immediately narrowed his eyes in delight.
“My goodness! I didn’t even get white-flour dumplings this delicious during New Year. I’m really living well today!”
“Just eat. Stop talking so much.”
Old Li lightly smacked the back of his apprentice’s head, but he couldn’t resist picking up another dumpling himself.
The freshness of the chives blended perfectly with the rich flavor of the eggs and the fragrant sesame oil. It was indeed a hundred times better than eating coarse cornbread buns.
Worried that there wouldn’t be enough, Lin Xiaxia had made more than a hundred dumplings.
They were still eating when footsteps suddenly sounded outside the courtyard.
Li Weihong walked in with several people from the educated youth station.
The more Li Weihong had thought about what happened after finishing work that morning, the angrier she had become. Instead of returning to the educated youth station, she had stirred up the others and brought them straight to Lin Xiaxia’s place.
The moment she entered, Li Weihong saw the neatly tilled vegetable patch in the courtyard. Then she looked at the two clean and tidy adobe rooms.
Anger immediately flared inside her.
Why did Lin Xiaxia get to live somewhere so comfortable?
Then she looked up and saw Lin Xiaxia sitting beneath the eaves with Old Li’s apprentice.
And in the bowls they were holding were unmistakably plump, white dumplings!
Li Weihong’s eyes practically turned red with jealousy, and her voice became shrill.
“Lin Xiaxia! You’re really something! We’re exhausting ourselves in the fields earning work points while you’re hiding here taking it easy—and you’re even eating white-flour dumplings? What, did all that grain just fall out of the sky?”
Zhao Jianjun and the others were also surprised when they saw the dumplings.
White flour was precious these days. Dumplings weren’t something ordinary people could afford to eat whenever they wanted.
Their breakfast that morning had consisted of nothing more than cornmeal porridge and wild vegetables.
Lin Xiaxia calmly put down her chopsticks and looked at Li Weihong.
“The village chief arranged for me to live here, and the production brigade agreed to let me stay in the village as a doctor. As for these dumplings, I brought the flour myself. Huzi’s family gave me the chives, and the eggs were gifts from people thanking me. I haven’t spent a single cent of the brigade’s money. So what exactly does any of this have to do with you?”
Listening from the side, Old Li couldn’t help speaking up for her.
“Comrade, there’s no need to speak so aggressively. Educated Youth Lin hired us to work for her, so providing us with a meal is perfectly reasonable. Besides, these dumplings were made with her own food. What’s wrong with her eating them?”
Li Weihong was momentarily speechless.
Seeing Lin Xiaxia remain calm and composed only made her angrier, but she couldn’t find anything to refute her with.
In the end, she could only glare at her resentfully.
“Just you wait! I refuse to believe there’s nowhere I can go to get justice!”
With that, she turned around and stormed away.
Zhao Jianjun and Gao Hongjun exchanged glances before quickly following her.
Lin Xiaxia watched them leave and shook her head before turning toward Old Li.
“Sorry you had to see that.”
“It’s nothing. Some people just can’t stand seeing others live well.”
Old Li waved dismissively.
“Come on, keep eating. The dumplings will get cold.”
His young apprentice muttered as well, “Exactly. She works slowly herself, then gets jealous when she sees someone else eating something good.”
Lin Xiaxia noticed that Old Li had left nearly half a bowl of dumplings untouched.
She immediately understood that he wanted to save them and take them home for his children.
Smiling, she said, “Master Li, finish the dumplings in your bowl while they’re still hot. There are plenty left on the board. I made extra on purpose. When you finish work this evening, take some home and let your children have a taste.”
Life was difficult for every family these days. Eating white-flour dumplings was practically as special as celebrating New Year.
Whenever someone got their hands on something good, their first thought was usually to save some for their children.
Lin Xiaxia understood that perfectly, which was why she had deliberately made extra.
Having his thoughts exposed, Old Li’s face instantly turned red with embarrassment.
“How could I possibly do that? I came here to work for you, yet I’m already eating your food. How could I take more home with me? That wouldn’t be right.”
“It’s fine.”
Lin Xiaxia waved her hand.
“Fresh chives don’t keep well. They’ll lose their flavor overnight, and it’d be a shame to waste them. You might as well take the extra dumplings home.”
Only then did Old Li relax.
He thanked her repeatedly, and that afternoon, he worked even harder.
His plane moved quickly and steadily over the wood, and when assembling the medicine shelves, he paid especially close attention to every mortise-and-tenon joint, afraid of making even the slightest mistake.
Meanwhile, Lin Xiaxia sat beneath the eaves with a notebook and pen, making a list of the medicines she needed to prepare.
She needed plenty of commonly used cold medicine, fever reducers, and anti-inflammatory medicine. She would also need iodine solution, gauze, and bandages for treating injuries.
As for traditional Chinese medicine, she couldn’t forget medicinal herbs such as bupleurum, angelica root, and astragalus for treating and strengthening the body.
In truth, she could simply take all these things directly from her storage space.
But she couldn’t exactly make them appear out of thin air.
She needed to make a trip to the county town first so that when the supplies appeared afterward, everything would seem reasonable.
By late afternoon, when the sun had begun sinking toward the west, Lin Xiaxia put away her notebook and headed toward the village chief’s house.
She had barely reached the entrance when the village chief, who was drying corn in the courtyard, spotted her.
“Xiaxia, you’re here! Come inside and sit!”
The village chief happily walked over to greet her, then shouted toward the house.
“Old woman, hurry and make the girl a bowl of sugar water! Bring out some dried sweet potatoes too!”
“Uncle, there’s really no need to be so polite.”
Lin Xiaxia hurriedly waved her hands.
“I just came to tell you that I’d like to borrow the ox cart tomorrow and make a trip to the county town. Is it far from here?”
“The county town isn’t close. It’ll take about five hours to get there.”
The village chief thought for a moment.
“What are you planning to buy? How about I have Old Six drive the ox cart and take you there? He knows the roads well, so the trip should be quicker.”
“That would be great!”
Lin Xiaxia’s eyes lit up.
“Isn’t our clinic about to open? I want to go to the county town and get some medicine so we can stock up on the commonly used ones.”
“Right, right! That’s important!”
The village chief slapped his thigh enthusiastically.
“Then get up early tomorrow, and I’ll have Old Six take you there.”
“Thank you for the trouble, Uncle.”
“It’s no trouble at all. You’re practically our village’s treasure!”
The village chief smiled so widely that the wrinkles on his face deepened. Then he suddenly remembered something.
“Oh, right. Do you need the village to issue you a certificate to buy the medicine? I can have the clerk write one for you.”
“No need. I have connections. I can get the medicine directly from someone I know.”
Lin Xiaxia had already prepared an excuse and answered with a smile.
By the time she left the village chief’s house, dusk had already fallen.
The mountain breeze carried a chill, and Lin Xiaxia pulled her coat tighter around herself as she walked briskly home.
Once she went to the county town tomorrow and brought back the medicine, the village clinic could officially open.
Just thinking about it filled her with energy.
When she returned to her small courtyard, Old Li and his apprentice had already finished assembling the medicine shelves.
They stood neatly in the main room, sturdy and well-built.
Old Li was packing away his tools when he saw her return. He gave her an honest smile.
“The shelves are finished. Take a look and see if they’re to your liking.”
Lin Xiaxia walked closer to inspect them.
The wooden shelves had been polished smooth without a single splinter, and each shelf board was flat and even.
They were exactly what she had wanted.
“They’re perfect. Thank you so much, Master Li.”
After seeing Old Li and his apprentice off, Lin Xiaxia had just cooked herself a bowl of noodles when someone knocked on the door.