11
Lu Guoguo angrily poured out the water, then turned and dashed into the kitchen, grumbling as she ran, “That’s right! Not only did I pee on my hands, but I’m also going to use those pee-stained hands to cook for you, brother!”
Damn idiot!
Not to mention now, even as a child, she would never have done something like that!
Lu Zaiyang, standing by the water vat, raised his hand and rubbed his nose. It was mainly because that afternoon, he had heard Li Shan talk about his younger brother wetting his pants often because he couldn’t pull his pants down in time and ended up peeing all over himself. Plus, Lu Guoguo had been washing her hands non-stop just now.
Her hands were already perfectly clean, yet she kept washing them…
Certain that he had annoyed her, Lu Zaiyang washed his hands and conscientiously went into the kitchen to help with dinner. Throughout the evening, he watched the girl with her cheeks puffed up in anger, which he found quite amusing.
“Did you bully Guoguo?”
Taking advantage of Lu Guoguo’s absence while she was in the side room, Lu Laoba turned to ask Lu Zaiyang.
Sun Zhaodi also looked at him curiously. “How did you upset her?”
Lu Zaiyang was too embarrassed to explain and simply admitted, “It was my fault.”
“You have to make it up to her and apologize. How can an older brother bully his younger sister?” Lu Laoba chided.
“I know.”
When Lu Guoguo came out after her bath, she saw Lu Zaiyang standing in the courtyard. Holding her dirty clothes in one hand and an oil lamp in the other, she snorted lightly, then soaked the clothes in a large wooden basin to wash them early the next morning. As for her undergarments, she had already washed them while bathing and would hang them up shortly.
“What will it take for you to calm down?”
Lu Zaiyang watched the back of her round head and asked.
Lu Guoguo made a surprised sound and looked at him skeptically. Did he just say that?
“I said it,” Lu Zaiyang confirmed.
Clearing her throat, Lu Guoguo voiced her thoughts aloud. “I haven’t thought of it yet. I’ll tell you when I do.”
What a great opportunity! She hoped tomorrow’s tasks would include something for him to do!
The opportunity didn’t come the next day—the tasks didn’t refresh. What’s more, Lu Guoguo was assigned to work on the hillside all day, leaving her no chance to “catch fish.”
So, the two fish remained in her space until, five days later, a task finally appeared.
[Today’s Task: Have Lu Zaiyang mend your clothes and wear them after. Task Reward: One pack of F-brand sanitary pads (each pack contains 24 pads, and used pads will be disposed of automatically—no need to worry about waste management).]
This task reward struck right at Lu Guoguo’s heart.
But all her clothes that needed mending had already been repaired. There was nothing left to fix.
Lu Guoguo was also afraid that deliberately damaging her clothes would be considered cheating.
Ever resourceful, Lu Guoguo ran to Sun Zhaodi’s room to chat and ended up “taking a liking” to one of Sun Zhaodi’s light green single-layer tops, which had a long tear on the sleeve.
Sun Zhaodi was more than willing to let her have it. “It’s torn, but the clothes are clean. I’ll mend it for you.”
“No need, Mom. Brother will mend it for me. He promised to apologize.”
Clutching the clothes, Lu Guoguo hurried to Lu Zaiyang’s room but didn’t find him there. Noticing the missing shoulder pole by the water vat, she realized he had gone to fetch water.
So, when Lu Zaiyang returned carrying water, the girl who had been puffing her cheeks at him for days confidently thrust the clothes into his hands. “Mend this for me right now! I want to wear it before breakfast!”
A little worried that the male lead might get angry, Lu Guoguo deliberately added, “If you mend it, I’ll forgive you.”
“Alright,” Lu Zaiyang agreed. He first set the clothes aside in his room, then went to fetch two more buckets of water. After washing his hands, he sat by the main room entrance and diligently began mending the clothes.
Lu Laoba had been called away early by a child from Lu Laoer’s family. When he returned and saw this scene, he noticed the clothes in Lu Zaiyang’s hands looked familiar. He leaned in for a closer look. “You’re using your sewing skills to mend Aunt Sun’s clothes?”
“This shirt belongs to Aunt Sun?”
Lu Zaiyang asked in surprise.
“You didn’t know? Then where did you get this shirt from?”
Lu Laoba was puzzled.
Lu Zaiyang looked at the half-stitched centipede knot on the fabric. “Lu Guoguo asked me to mend it. She said she’d stop being mad if I fixed it.”
Lu Laoba struggled to hold back a laugh. “Well, you better mend it properly then.”
With that, he clasped his hands behind his back and headed to the kitchen to help with breakfast.
When breakfast was served, Lu Guoguo took the mended shirt and examined the repaired area with a serious expression. Seeing the crooked, wobbly centipede knot stitches, she couldn’t help but burst out laughing. Turning to Lu Zaiyang, who looked a bit awkward, she teased, “Brother, your skills aren’t quite up to par, huh.”
“……I tried my best. This is the only stitch I know, Dad taught me.”
Lu Zaiyang lifted his head to stare at the ceiling.
“Alright, I forgive you,” Lu Guoguo said, then immediately dashed into her room, clutching the shirt. Excitedly, she put it on, and the task was marked as completed. She first took out the sanitary pads, feeling them carefully to make sure they were really there, then carefully stored them in her space.
Lu Zaiyang and the others watched Lu Guoguo, who had changed into the shirt and was clearly in high spirits, and for a moment, no one spoke.
During the meal, Lu Zaiyang glanced at Lu Guoguo, who was sitting across from him, several times. She didn’t notice at all, still overjoyed about no longer having to worry about her upcoming period.
She definitely didn’t want to use cloth strips stuffed with plant ash, she just couldn’t get past the idea psychologically.
Just as they were about to leave for work, heavy rain suddenly started pouring down.
So, the family opened the courtyard gate and settled back inside.
Lu Guoguo sat on a small wooden stool by the entrance of the main room, staring blankly at the rain outside.
Meanwhile, Lu Laoba whispered to Lu Zaiyang, “Look how happy Guoguo is. She didn’t even criticize your work she just accepted it, put it on right away, and even found you an excuse. When there were no clothes to mend, she borrowed one for you. What a thoughtful girl.”
Lu Zaiyang: ……That sounds a bit off.
Sun Zhaodi couldn’t help but nudge Lu Laoba. “What are you talking about? By the way, what did Second Brother want with you?”
Lu Laoba clicked his tongue. “Little Third couldn’t get anything out of us, so he went to ask Second Brother and Third Brother. When Second Brother found out he had approached us too, he asked me how we responded.”
“Little Third” referred to Third Uncle.
“Why didn’t he go to Xiao Shi’s people?”
Sun Zhaodi wondered.
“Third Uncle doesn’t want to share anything with them. If he can have it all to himself, that’s obviously best.”
Lu Zaiyang explained.
“True,” Sun Zhaodi said with a look of disgust. “That man from the south must have given him a referral fee. Otherwise, why would he be so enthusiastic?”
“No profit, no effort,” Lu Laoba grumbled. “The old ones are shameless, and the young ones are no better. How old is that Xiao Shi anyway? Not only does he curse like a sailor, but he even followed his older brothers to spy on Widow Wang bathing!”
“How do you know about that?”
Sun Zhaodi gritted her teeth.
Lu Zaiyang quietly shifted a little to the side.
Lu Laoba scratched his head. “Second Brother told me. I wasn’t specifically digging for gossip! You know how Second Brother loves listening to rumors.”
“Hmph,” Sun Zhaodi snorted but didn’t press the matter further.
The heavy rain lasted all day. The next morning, when Lu Guoguo opened the door and saw the rain had lightened considerably, she put on her straw raincoat, grabbed a small bamboo basket, and said she was going out to see if she could find any fish.
It was a good thing that upstream in their village, another production team raised a lot of fish due to their geographical environment. Whenever the water rose or after heavy rain, fish often jumped into the river. Otherwise, she really wouldn’t have had an excuse.
“The river must be flooded. Maybe you shouldn’t go,” Sun Zhaodi said, concerned.
“Can Brother come with me?”
Lu Guoguo really wanted to get those two fish out of her space, so she turned to Lu Zaiyang, who had just stepped out of his room.
Lu Zaiyang glanced at the sky. They couldn’t work in the fields this morning anyway, so he nodded. “Alright, let’s go.”
He put on his raincoat, grabbed a net, and headed out with Lu Guoguo.
“Let them go have fun,” Lu Laoba gently nudged Sun Zhaodi toward the kitchen. “We’ll make breakfast.”
“Be careful!”
Sun Zhaodi called after the two as they were about to leave the yard.
“Got it,” Lu Guoguo and Lu Zaiyang replied.
Just as they reached the fork in the road, they ran into Cuihua and her father, dressed similarly.
“Brother Zaiyang, are you going to catch fish too?”
Many people wanted to try their luck and add an extra dish to their family’s meals.
“Can you only see my brother and not me?”
Lu Guoguo stepped forward, hands on her hips.
“No way!”
Though she had deliberately ignored Lu Guoguo, Cuihua didn’t want her intentions exposed in front of Lu Zaiyang and her own father, so she raised her voice.
Lu Guoguo had spoken up for a simple reason, she didn’t want Cuihua to become her sister-in-law. That would make life miserable!
The male lead already hadn’t ended up with the female lead. If something changed and Cuihua became her sister-in-law, Lu Guoguo would have nowhere to cry.
If sister-in-law relationships were bad, daily life would be difficult.
Watching Lu Guoguo striding ahead like a little turtledove, Lu Zaiyang nodded to Cuihua’s father and followed her.
Cuihua’s father glanced at his daughter, who was hanging her head. “Given the relationship between our two families, don’t even think about getting involved with them.”
Cuihua pursed her lips. “Can’t we get along properly?”
“My relationship with Lu Laoba is just average. Your mother doesn’t get along with Lu Laoba’s wife, and you don’t get along with their daughter. How do you expect to make it work?”
Hearing this, Cuihua felt even worse. But suddenly, a thought crossed her mind: the older generation might not get along, but what about their own generation?
If she could build a good relationship with Lu Guoguo, Lu Guoguo would definitely put in a good word for her with Lu Zaiyang. Wouldn’t that give her a chance?
Cuihua had liked Lu Zaiyang since childhood. Whenever other children bullied her, if Lu Zaiyang happened to pass by and saw it, he would scold the bullies.
In Cuihua’s heart, Lu Zaiyang was like her guardian angel.
Right now, her guardian angel was being directed by Lu Guoguo to split up and search for fish. “I’ll check this side, the water is shallow here. You go over there. You’re tall and have long legs.”
Lu Guoguo pointed to a nearby spot.
Without a word, Lu Zaiyang rolled up his pants and waded into the river. Lu Guoguo did the same. The early spring river water was quite chilly.
But others had already been in the water before them.
“We’ve already checked this area. Nothing here.”
“Then let’s check again. What if they’re hiding in the crevices between the rocks?”
Lu Guoguo replied.
“My eyes are sharp. If I didn’t see any, there definitely aren’t any,” the person said confidently. Seeing they weren’t listening, he shook his head and headed further upstream with his small bamboo basket.
Lu Guoguo placed both hands in the water, then took the opportunity to hide one of the fish among the rocks. As soon as it touched the water, the fish began to move. Afraid it might escape, Lu Guoguo quickly called out, “Brother, brother, brother, brother, brother! There’s a fish! A big, fat fish! Come help me catch it!”
Surprised, Lu Zaiyang waded over. Following her gesture, he indeed spotted a plump carp. Quick as lightning, he caught it in less than two minutes and placed it in the bamboo basket.
While he was putting the fish away, Lu Guoguo waved her hand through the water, releasing the other fish. “There’s another one here!”
Just as Cuihua and her father reached the riverbank, they heard Lu Guoguo’s excited voice and saw Lu Zaiyang swiftly catch another fish and toss it into the basket.
“Come on, let’s search here too!”
Cuihua’s father figured that if these two youngsters could find fish here, an experienced person like him definitely could!
Seeing them enter the river, Lu Guoguo, who had no more fish to release, showed a hint of disdain. She tugged at the sleeve of the person beside her. “Brother, let’s go home. Two big fish are pretty good already.”
Lu Zaiyang felt their luck was almost too good, but noticing Lu Guoguo’s reluctance to interact with Cuihua and her father, he nodded. They gathered the fish and headed home.
The joy of Lu Laoba and his wife upon seeing the two fat fish goes without saying. Meanwhile, Cuihua and her father searched that spot for two hours and came away with nothing but two red crabs. Others who heard the news and came later didn’t even find crabs. For a while, Lu Guoguo and Lu Zaiyang’s good fortune made many in the production team envious.
**