The spring sunlight was brilliant, and the branches of the large trees along the roadside, just sprouting new buds, rapidly receded behind her. Leng Hui pedaled fiercely a few times, and the bicycle accelerated like an arrow released from a bow, shooting forward.
The wind whistled past her ears, and Leng Hui’s throat felt so dry it was almost on fire.
She had forgotten to bring her water bottle when she left home today, and as a result, she hadn’t had a single sip of water after working for several hours in the mountains.
As she entered the city, she instinctively slowed her pace.
After lunch, Jiang Jingtao was sitting on the second-floor balcony with his cousin and a few of his cousin’s friends, chatting over tea.
Just as he stood up to pour tea for everyone, he spotted Leng Hui on the road not far away, rhythmically pedaling her bicycle toward him.
The bicycle came to a stop at the gate of the courtyard. Leng Hui planted one foot on the ground and looked up, her eyes meeting Jiang Jingtao’s on the second-floor balcony.
Leng Hui straightened her back, raised both hands to adjust the homemade straw hat woven from branches on her head, and shouted toward the second floor, “Jiang Jingtao, bring me a glass of water! I’m dying of thirst!”
“Coming!” Jiang Jingtao responded.
Jiang Jinghao looked down at Leng Hui, who was now standing with both feet on the ground.
The girl’s cheeks were slightly flushed from the exercise. With her messily woven branch hat and that unruly look in her eyes, his first impression of her was one of wildness.
A raw, untamed wildness.
Like a spirited and energetic young leopard.
“Jingtao, who’s the girl down there?”
Pushing his chair back, Jiang Jingtao headed downstairs as he replied, “She’s my classmate.”
Jiang Jinghao craned his neck for another look at Leng Hui below and nudged Xiao Ye beside him. “Don’t you think that girl down there resembles those unruly new recruits in our unit?”
Both had an unyielding spirit and remarkable resilience.
A young girl riding a 28-inch bicycle, carrying such a large bundle of bamboo shoots, yet still full of energy—at the very least, her physical stamina was impressive.
Xiao Ye’s gaze swept over Leng Hui’s face before he turned and glanced at Jiang Jinghao with a slightly disdainful expression.
“Hey, what’s with that look?” Jiang Jinghao was provoked by his expression.
Xiao Ye asked, “Are you still going to see your fiancée tonight?”
“Yes,” Jiang Jinghao replied, belatedly realizing the implication and quickly explaining, “Don’t get the wrong idea. I’m just purely appreciating.”
Xiao Ye ignored him and turned his attention back to the girl downstairs.
Leng Hui paid no mind to who the people upstairs were. Taking the large glass of cold boiled water Jiang Jingtao handed her, she drank it all in one go. Her parched throat finally felt some relief.
“Hurry up, pull out a few bundles of bamboo shoots from the back. I risked my life to gather these in the mountains today. I heard they taste great stir-fried with preserved meat. Let’s have Aunt Li cook bamboo shoots with preserved meat for dinner tonight.”
“Wow, Leng Hui, there are already bamboo shoots in the mountains now? And you brought back so many! Bamboo shoots stir-fried with diced preserved meat make excellent fillings for dumplings and buns.”
Jiang Jingtao circled the bicycle, exclaiming repeatedly at the neatly stacked fresh spring bamboo shoots on the rear seat.
Leng Hui turned and glared at him. “Stop tempting me! Hurry up and pull out a few bundles of bamboo shoots. I still have to rush back for lunch!”
Knowing full well that she was starving, he was here reciting a menu. She had never met a guy so clueless.
Jiang Jingtao took two bundles of bamboo shoots but refused any more. Leng Hui handed him a small bundle of fiddlehead ferns. “These should taste pretty good. Here’s a small bundle for you.”
“Then I won’t stand on ceremony with you.”
“I never expected you to.”
Seeing Leng Hui push off forcefully and glide far away on her bicycle, Jiang Jingtao shouted toward her retreating figure, “Remember to call me next time you go up the mountain!”
Leng Hui parked her bicycle downstairs and carried a large bundle of bamboo shoots upstairs. Many neighbors from both upper and lower floors asked her which mountain she had gathered them from.
Leng Hui answered without reservation. With so many surrounding mountains, all unclaimed, there was no harm in telling them.
But before she even entered her home, she could hear Old Lady Leng’s loud voice from inside, apparently complaining to Leng Yongkang.
“What use are you all? The whole family sits around idle while I, an old woman, break my back working. I asked your wife to help glue matchboxes this morning, but she refused. She’s getting lazier and lazier. All of you are just freeloaders.”
“Mom, Xiaolin just got out of the hospital. Her body can’t take it.”
Standing outside the door, Leng Hui curled her lip. Leng Yongkang’s emotional intelligence was truly worrying. His words would only add fuel to the fire in Old Lady Leng’s ears.
Sure enough, the next moment Old Lady Leng’s voice grew even sharper. “Does she really think she’s some delicate young lady? Her body can’t take it, but mine can?”
“A lady’s airs with a maid’s fate. Even fallen to this state, she won’t accept her lot. She’s not even as sturdy as this old woman. What’s the use of marrying her? Does she really see herself as just a bedwarming maid?”
“Mom, if you’re tired, we don’t have to glue these matchboxes.”
“Not glue them and wait to drink the northwest wind? You managed to scrape by this month, but I’d like to see what you’ll use to pay for meals next month.” Old Lady Leng remembered the money Leng Hui had snatched from her last time and felt utterly vexed.
Now that Leng Yongkang dared to prevent her from earning money, her anger burned even hotter.
“Bang!”
The first thing Leng Hui did upon entering was throw the large bundle of bamboo shoots she was carrying right at Old Lady Leng’s feet.
It gave both Old Lady Leng and her son a huge fright.
Looking up and seeing it was Leng Hui, Old Lady Leng instinctively launched into her usual stream of abuse. “Trying to kill me, you cursed creature? You can’t wait for me to die early, is that it?”
Throwing such a large bundle of bamboo shoots right at her feet instead of anywhere else—what else could she be trying to do but scare her to death?
“Better if you did die. One less freeloader in the house.”
Leng Hui was furious. Her mother hadn’t fully recovered yet and had only been home for two days, yet Old Lady Leng was already calling her a freeloader. How could she stand for that?
Old Lady Leng clutched her chest in anger. “You damned unfilial daughter, you’ll die a terrible death.”
“Enough with the same old lines. Today this one will die terribly, tomorrow that one will die terribly. As if you’re the only one in this family accumulating virtue who’ll get a peaceful end.”
Before Leng Yongkang could scold her, Leng Hui took off the green straw hat she was wearing and plopped it on his head. “Alright, no lectures from you either. I’ve been wandering the mountains all morning and haven’t even had lunch yet. Go get my food for me.”
Disrespecting her elders and now daring to order him around? Leng Yongkang pointed at himself in shock. “You want me to get food for you?”
“What, is there a problem?” Tang Lin emerged from the inner room, unable to bear Leng Yongkang’s chauvinistic attitude. “It’s just getting a meal. Why so much talk?”
Leng Hui picked up her towel and washbasin and headed to the washroom. After spending half the day crawling through the woods on the mountain, her face and neck felt itchy, so she needed to wash up before eating.
“Everyone else has children serving their fathers, but here I am, a father serving his child. It’s a complete reversal of the natural order.”
“If you’re unwilling to serve, I wouldn’t mind finding Hui Hui a different father to serve her.”
Tang Lin ignored the glaring mother and son pair, untied the bamboo shoots Leng Hui had thrown on the ground.
Leng Yongkang irritably snatched the green straw hat off his head, stood up, and threw it off the building as if venting his anger.
By the time Leng Hui returned from washing her face, the meal was already set on the table.
She glanced at Leng Yongkang, who was still sulking.
Noticing her gaze, Leng Yongkang snorted coldly and ignored her.
Leng Hui muttered under her breath, “How childish!”
Then she sat down to eat.