4: This sister
Lu Zaiyang glanced sideways at the wicker door across the way, which had been slammed shut with a bang, then walked into his room. He casually grabbed the pair of pants and tossed them aside before lifting the bamboo plank under his pillow. Seeing the grey money pouch was still there, his eyes held a trace of confusion.
Lu Guoguo coming over to mend his pants—this seemed more and more bizarre no matter how he looked at it.
Yet, strangely, nothing in the room was missing.
Lu Zaiyang pressed the bamboo plank and pillow back down, then picked up the pants again and examined them closely. There was just an additional line of very fine, neat stitching. Nothing else.
How strange.
A hint of bewilderment surfaced on Lu Zaiyang’s face.
What exactly was she trying to do?
And where on earth had his undershirt gone?
Lu Zaiyang didn’t ponder for too long. As a diligent person, he had plenty to do. He secured his door with a dry straw latch, then grabbed a hoe and headed to their private vegetable plot to tidy it up.
As soon as he left the courtyard gate, Lu Guoguo, who had been pressing her ear against the door listening for movement, opened her own door. She had just checked the task panel; the task was still red, meaning it wasn’t completed.
Lu Guoguo’s gaze fixed on the bamboo drying poles in the courtyard. Hanging on them were the family’s clothes, but each person only had one set, and those were patched-up ones. In these times, most clothes were made from fabric people bought themselves, and fabric ration coupons were scarce. It wasn’t uncommon for many families to have two brothers sharing a single pair of pants.
Before the original owner came to the Lu family, she had two sets of spring-summer clothes and two sets of autumn-winter clothes—four garments total. After coming to the Lu household, Lu Laoba bought new fabric and had Sun Zhaodi make another set of spring-summer clothes for her. So, the original owner had five garments. In this era that favored sons over daughters, this could be considered quite favored.
Currently hanging on the bamboo pole was one of Lu Zaiyang’s grey spring outfits.
When Lu Guoguo transmigrated, she was holding the upper garment, which she later hung back up.
Now, Lu Guoguo eyed the grey pants next to that upper garment with a covetous gaze. This wasn’t just any pair of pants; it was a plump, delicious five-jin-three-liang rabbit!
But seeing the courtyard gate wide open, it was clear Lu Zaiyang hadn’t gone far. He might be lurking outside the courtyard again, “fishing” like he did in the morning.
Lu Guoguo sighed, withdrew her gaze, and sat down by her own doorway.
She looked at the task again.
[Go to Lu Zaiyang’s room and take one of his pants.]
Lu Guoguo sprang to her feet. She first went and bolted the courtyard gate, then laboriously loosened the dry straw latch that Lu Zaiyang had firmly secured on his door. She ran inside, grabbed the pair of pants, and swiftly dashed back to her own room.
[Submit Task!]
Holding the pants, Lu Guoguo silently chanted in her mind.
[Task Completed! Please Confirm Reward Delivery Location!]
Seeing the red text on the task panel turn black, Lu Guoguo didn’t have time to look at the reward delivery options. She immediately ran back, returned the pants to their original spot, and then used all the strength she had from drinking soy milk as a child to secure the dry straw latch back in place.
After returning to her room, she let out a long breath and wiped the sweat from her forehead.
Nerve-wracking and thrilling!
She had grasped the key points of the task: first, Lu Zaiyang’s room; second, take one of his pants.
She had fulfilled both requirements. Even if she returned the pants afterward, it was after the task was completed.
Lu Guoguo mentally gave herself a thumbs-up. Then, catching sight of the bamboo-plank bed out of the corner of her eye, she suddenly remembered Lu Zaiyang’s undershirt was still hidden under it.
Should she return it now?
Thinking of the dry straw latch she had so firmly secured on the door, Lu Guoguo immediately dismissed the idea.
Deal with the rabbit first.
Glancing at the reward delivery options, one seemed like a fill-in-the-blank field, and below that was a Space Warehouse.
Lu Guoguo chose to temporarily store the rabbit in the Space Warehouse.
After all, she wasn’t very familiar with the surrounding area yet, and the original owner, being lazy, hadn’t paid much attention to where the nearby woods were either.
[Item Stored.]
Seeing those words, Lu Guoguo felt at ease and wandered around the courtyard for a while. Then, she tossed the undershirt behind the gardenia bush in a corner of the yard. To make it look like it had truly been blown there by the wind, she even rubbed the undershirt vigorously on the ground to dirty it up.
The gardenia bush was about half a person’s height. It had been planted the year Lu Laoba adopted Lu Zaiyang.
Lu Zaiyang wasn’t Lu Laoba’s biological son; he was the son of Lu Laoliu. But Lu Laoliu had died from a serious illness when Lu Zaiyang was two. Lu Zaiyang’s maternal family couldn’t bear to see their daughter widowed so young, so they arranged another marriage for her and took her away. Lu Zaiyang was formally adopted by the then-single Lu Laoba, witnessed by several elders of the production team. This was before the original owner was born, when her biological father was still alive and kicking.
After glancing at the flower buds on the gardenia bush, Lu Guoguo clasped her hands behind her back and returned to her room with a smile.
When Lu Zaiyang returned from the vegetable plot and saw Lu Guoguo’s door still closed, he wasn’t surprised. After putting away the hoe and washing his hands, Lu Zaiyang went out again. This time, he closed the courtyard gate because he was going to help with the house-building at the Lin family’s place, which was a fair distance from home.
Hearing the commotion, Lu Guoguo opened her door. She knew this seemed a bit cowardly, but the original owner’s relationship with Lu Zaiyang really wasn’t good, and it was somewhat awkward. Since she wasn’t familiar with him either, of course she’d avoid him when she could.
Toward evening, Lu Guoguo set the meal on the table. Seeing they hadn’t returned yet, she collected all the clothes from outside—except for Lu Zaiyang’s.
When Lu Zaiyang and the other two returned, Lu Zaiyang noticed that on the drying pole in the courtyard, only his clothes were fluttering in the breeze.
“Mom, Uncle, Brother, dinner’s ready.”
Lu Guoguo’s voice came from the main room.
“Coming. Did you heat water, Guoguo?”
Sun Zhaodi asked as she washed her hands. After a full day’s work, they needed to freshen up. Their family was made of people who liked cleanliness.
“It’s in the pot. It’ll be ready to use after dinner,” Lu Guoguo poked her small head out from the main room doorway.
Noticing Lu Zaiyang’s gaze on her, Lu Guoguo immediately withdrew her head.
Seeing this, Lu Laoba looked at his silent son. “Did you two have a falling out?”
Sun Zhaodi also glanced over.
Lu Zaiyang lowered his eyes. “No.”
There really hadn’t been any direct confrontation, even though he suspected that person had stolen his undershirt—just no evidence.
“Zaiyang, you’re the older brother. Don’t bully your sister, okay?”
Lu Laoba admonished.
“You really didn’t need to say that,” Sun Zhaodi shot him a look. “If Guoguo doesn’t bully Zaiyang, that’s already a blessing.”
Just as they were talking, rain suddenly started falling. The three quickly finished washing their hands and wiping their faces before heading into the main room for dinner.
Lu Guoguo moved the oil lamp from the corner of the table to the center. Lu Laoba took out a match and lit the lamp. The family sat down to eat.
Dinner was mixed-grain vegetable porridge, stir-fried cabbage, and a bowl of pickled mustard tuber and radish cubes.
By the dim lamplight, everyone ate while chatting. The main conversation was between Lu Laoba and his wife, with Lu Zaiyang occasionally chiming in. Only Lu Guoguo remained silent.
But her quiet demeanor, listening intently to the three, didn’t strike anyone as odd. Sun Zhaodi and Lu Laoba just felt their child had suddenly grown up overnight. Only Lu Zaiyang thought she was strange.
But the two weren’t close. Although he respected Sun Zhaodi, they weren’t intimate enough for him to say, “Your daughter isn’t acting right; something’s off.”
He just thought he’d keep an eye on her, making sure she didn’t stir up any trouble and hurt his father and aunt’s feelings.
The undershirt behind the gardenia bush was discovered by Lu Laoba.
He came out after bathing in the small side room and, in a flash of lightning, spotted something familiar behind the gardenia bush. Braving the rain, he went over and grabbed it, realizing it was his son’s undershirt, missing for days. Excited, he ran toward the main room. “Zaiyang! I found your undershirt! It must have been blown behind the gardenia bush by the wind! It’s a bit dirty, but it’ll be fine after washing.”
“Huh?”
Lu Zaiyang, who never expected the undershirt to end up there, stood up and took the dirty lump. Out of the corner of his eye, he glanced at Lu Guoguo, who was sitting against the wall talking to Sun Zhaodi.
Lu Guoguo was also extremely nervous at that moment. To avoid anyone noticing her odd expression, she even pretended to yawn, then looked at Lu Laoba and the others.
“It’s good that it’s found,” Sun Zhaodi was also happy to hear this. “With such heavy rain tonight, it must have gotten even dirtier. It’ll need soaking to wash properly.”
“Alright,” Lu Zaiyang withdrew his gaze, took the dirty undershirt, and found a wooden bucket to soak it in.
So, it wasn’t stolen by her after all.
Lu Zaiyang suddenly felt a bit ashamed. No matter what, she was his younger sister. He shouldn’t have thought so badly of her.
He reflected on this slightly.
Seeing that no one was suspicious, Lu Guoguo’s mood soared.
Later, when returning to their room to rest, Sun Zhaodi lay in Lu Laoba’s arms, full of emotion. “Guoguo changing so much suddenly reminds me of when she was twelve. She was taught by those gossips to oppose me. Originally, she was such a well-behaved child. But after that one night, she became distant.”
Hearing this, Lu Laoba held her tighter. “A girl changes many times by eighteen. The child has grown up and now understands things. Zaiyang was disobedient before too, but didn’t he get better later?”
“Zaiyang was disobedient before?”
Sun Zhaodi didn’t believe it.
“Yes. Even though he was adopted by me, the production team gossiped about all sorts of things. Some went too far. I had just beaten up the older ones, and then he went and beat up the younger ones. He didn’t control his strength as well as I did and knocked out several of the younger one’s teeth. We had to pay compensation.”
“That’s called disobedience?”
Sun Zhaodi gently punched him. Lu Laoba laughed heartily and held her even tighter.
Lu Guoguo stared at the little rabbit displayed in the small square of her Space Warehouse and swallowed her saliva.
Tomorrow! Tomorrow she’d find a chance to release the rabbit! Tomorrow they’d eat rabbit meat!
Perhaps because she was thinking about rabbits right before sleep, Lu Guoguo dreamed she was surrounded by a group of white rabbits. She petted this one, hugged that one, her mind filled with ways to cook rabbit meat. Consequently, she woke up hungry in the morning.
It wasn’t light yet.
It was still raining outside.
From the sound, it was quite heavy.
Lu Guoguo sat up and rubbed her stomach.
Meals without much oil and fat felt like nothing after eating them.
Plus, with such a temptation in her space, could she not be greedy?
After sitting for over ten minutes, Lu Guoguo was about to lie down and go back to sleep when she heard Lu Laoba and Sun Zhaodi’s voices.
So, she didn’t lie back down. She dressed, left her hair down, opened the door, and went out.
“Guoguo’s up?”
Seeing her up so early, Sun Zhaodi’s eyes were full of relief. It wasn’t a dream yesterday; the child really had become sensible.
“Mhm, woke up early,” Lu Guoguo replied, sweeping her gaze over Lu Zaiyang standing by the main room entrance. She took the wooden comb down from the wall to comb her hair. The wooden combs at home were all made by Lu Laoba.
After simply combing her hair, she braided it into one large braid down her back, looking spirited and quite pretty.
“The rain is so heavy; I wonder how things are over at Old Lin’s place. I’ll go see if they need any help,” Lu Laoba said. After he and Lu Zaiyang finished washing up, they put on straw raincoats and headed to the Lin family’s.
Sun Zhaodi and Lu Guoguo tidied up and then started making breakfast.
“Mom, it’s raining today. Are you still going to help at the Lin family’s?”
Lu Guoguo asked while feeding the fire.
“We won’t go if it’s raining,” Sun Zhaodi smiled. “After the rain stops, I’ll go to the bamboo grove to see if any spring bamboo shoots have just sprouted. Digging some to stir-fry or make sour bamboo shoots would be good.”
“I want to go too,” Lu Guoguo quickly said. Wasn’t this the perfect opportunity to release the rabbit?
“Alright,” Sun Zhaodi’s smile deepened. How many years had it been since she’d been this close with her daughter? She was truly happy.
Lu Zaiyang and the others returned half an hour later.
Lu Laoba took off his straw raincoat and said to Lu Guoguo and the others, “Quite a few people went. We couldn’t help much anyway. People standing in the courtyard on a rainy day just track in mud and water. Better to come back.”
“Alright, wash your hands and eat then,” Sun Zhaodi nodded.
After breakfast, it was still raining. Lu Laoba and his son took out the unfinished bamboo baskets they had been weaving earlier and continued. Sun Zhaodi brought out a sewing basket and started mending Lu Laoba’s clothes. Lu Zaiyang thought of the pants Lu Guoguo had mended yesterday and looked at Lu Guoguo, who was sitting idly to the side.
Just as Lu Guoguo was about to avoid his gaze, she saw the task panel suddenly appear before her. The latest task: [Mend Lu Zaiyang’s clothes. Task Reward: Twenty cents.]
“Brother, do you have any clothes or pants that need mending?”
Lu Guoguo sat up straight and proper, meeting Lu Zaiyang’s gaze as she asked.
**