Immediately after, they returned to the room.
They were lying on the bed again.
Little Tangtang lay on her mother’s arm, kicked her small legs, turned over, and rolled to the side.
Su Yu’s heart pounded wildly. Holding her breath, she carefully checked Tangtang’s condition. Only after seeing that nothing was wrong did she finally breathe a sigh of relief.
This space could actually bring other people inside?
She lay on the bed and calmed herself for a moment, then decided to enter again and take a look.
Little Tangtang usually slept for an hour and a half every noon, so Su Yu still had plenty of time.
When she entered the space again, nothing was different from before.
Su Yu glanced around and soon saw the vegetable roots placed beside the well.
There were dozens of roots, now lying wilted on the ground.
Su Yu picked them up, planted them into the soil one by one, then drew water from the well and watered them.
The whole process took less than twenty minutes. She did not dare stay long and quickly left the space.
Because of that, she did not see that the vegetable roots she had just planted were already beginning to sprout leaves behind her.
After leaving the space, Su Yu opened her eyes and found herself still lying on the bed.
But then she suddenly realized—
Little Tangtang was no longer where she had been.
“Tang Tang! Tang Tang!”
She hurriedly climbed out of bed and searched the whole room.
But she could not find her anywhere.
Just then, Wang Liang, the neighbor’s child, seemed to hear her voice and ran over.
“Auntie Su, I saw little Tangtang going that way just now.”
Su Yu looked in the direction he pointed and quickly ran off to look for her.
“Tang Tang! Tang Tang, where are you?!”
The road ahead was a main path. Su Yu followed it while calling out again and again.
But even after leaving the village entrance and reaching the fields, she still had not found her.
Extreme panic wrapped around her.
Su Yu’s mind was already beginning to collapse, and tears once again flowed uncontrollably.
“Su Yu!” someone in the field seemed to call out to her. “Your Tangtang went toward the fields. She probably went to look for your man.”
Su Yu’s mind trembled. In her panic, she even forgot to thank the person and rushed straight toward the place they had mentioned.
A child’s steps were slow.
Before long, Su Yu caught up with Tangtang.
“Tang Tang! Stop!”
Tangtang’s tiny body froze. When she turned back and saw Su Yu, tears immediately welled up, and she ran toward her.
“Mommy, Mommy…”
Little Tangtang hugged Su Yu’s leg tightly.
“Mommy, where did you go? When I woke up, you were gone. Waaah… Mommy, my feet hurt…”
Guilt nearly drowned Su Yu’s heart. She forced herself to steady her emotions and picked Tangtang up.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. It was Mommy’s fault.”
Little Tangtang kissed her cheek.
“It’s okay, Mommy.”
Su Yu still felt lingering fear. She kissed Tangtang as if she had just regained something precious.
“It was Mommy’s fault. Mommy won’t do that again. But little Tangtang also has to promise Mommy that you won’t run out of the village by yourself anymore, okay?”
Little Tangtang kicked her legs lightly.
“Mm. I won’t do it again.”
The little girl still sounded a little aggrieved.
“Mommy, I wanted to find Daddy.”
“Why were you looking for Daddy?”
“Mommy was gone, so I wanted Daddy to find Mommy.”
Mist gathered in Su Yu’s eyes. Holding Tangtang, she walked toward the field where Tang Chen was.
“Alright. Then Mommy will go with you to find Daddy now, okay?”
But little Tangtang refused.
Her milky voice sounded out,
“Mommy, put me down! Mommy, put me down!”
Helpless, Su Yu could only put her down.
Little Tangtang raised her soft little hand, held her mother’s hand, and swung it gently. Lifting her small chin, she said,
“Mommy isn’t feeling well. Tangtang will hold your hand…”
Warmth filled Su Yu’s heart.
The big hand and small hand held each other as they walked toward the fields together.
It was currently the autumn harvest season, and the fields were full of people busy harvesting wheat.
Most were working hard with their heads down, though some were secretly slacking off.
“Oh my! Isn’t this Su Yu? What, your illness is cured?”
As they passed a field, a woman wearing a straw hat raised her head, put her hands on her waist, and glared at Su Yu with disdain.
Su Yu swept her gaze over her and searched through her memories before finally remembering who this person was.
Li Rui, an educated youth who was suspected of liking Tang Chen.
The female educated youths all had some level of fondness for Tang Chen.
He was gentle, knowledgeable, and even skilled at farm work. On top of that, he knew how to repair machines. Whenever machinery in the village or even the county broke down, people would come looking for him.
Yet such an outstanding man had passed over all the female educated youths and married a village woman instead.
This made the female educated youths at the youth station extremely resentful.
In her previous life, Su Yu had often gotten angry because of these women.
But after living a second life, she had matured a great deal.
She merely raised an eyebrow and nodded.
Without paying them any more attention, she held her bouncing little daughter’s hand and continued toward the child’s father.
Being ignored by her made Li Rui’s anger surge.
Before she could vent the rage filling her mouth, another educated youth beside her pulled her back.
“Alright, alright. Don’t be angry. Why bother getting mad at her? She’s just a village woman…”
“A village woman?”
Another female educated youth, Lu Zhaoyun, looked down on them and sneered.
“I say, you two have taken a liking to Tang Chen, but he doesn’t like either of you. He likes the village woman you keep talking about! And that village woman is even very beautiful! Neither of you can compare!”
“You—!”
The argument behind them did not affect Su Yu and Tangtang.
Their steps did not stop, and they were almost there.
“Daddy!”
Little Tangtang had sharp eyes and spotted her father at once.
“Daddy is over there!”
Tang Chen was moving wheat in the field.
The golden wheat had been tied into bundles like small hills, and he carried them on his back as he walked out.
A child’s voice was sharp and thin, yet very pleasant to hear. Tang Chen instantly heard his precious daughter’s voice.
He looked up and saw his wife picking up their little daughter.
With both hands occupied by the wheat, he could only call out,
“Hey, wait there! I’ll be out right away!”
The blazing sun made people dizzy. Watching Tang Chen drenched in sweat, Su Yu’s heart ached terribly.
She quickly went forward to help, not forgetting to tell Tangtang to wait at the edge of the field.
Tangtang obediently stood there, tilting her head as she watched her parents.
After a while, she squatted down and began picking up something from the ground.
Only when her parents reached her did she stand up and say softly,
“Daddy, Mommy, you’ve worked hard.”
Tang Chen freed one hand and wanted to pat Tangtang’s little head, but when he saw his hand was covered in dirt, he moved it away.
“Why did little Tangtang come here?”
He smiled and spoke to Tangtang, then looked at Su Yu.
“Didn’t we agree that you would rest properly at home? Why did you come to the fields?”
Before Su Yu could speak, little Tangtang cleverly answered,
“No! We just missed Daddy, so we came to see Daddy!”
Tang Chen was instantly sweetened by the little girl.
He smiled and was about to say something else when his daughter stretched out her hand and opened her palm happily.
“Daddy, look. These fell down.”
They were wheat grains that had probably fallen when someone moved the wheat earlier.
“Mm. Little Tangtang picked them up, so little Tangtang can keep them for now, okay?”
Tangtang swung her little head and followed her parents toward the place where the wheat was stored.
When they arrived and Tang Chen set down the wheat, Tangtang even took out her own little stash and wanted to hand it over.
The scorekeeper looked at the pitiful few grains of wheat in Tangtang’s hand and smiled, patting her head.
“Little Tangtang, you can keep those for yourself.”
Tangtang was extremely excited. All afternoon, she kept picking things up from the ground.
As for Su Yu, although her illness had not fully recovered, she was arranged to sit beside the scorekeeper and help with the records.
She wrote quickly, her handwriting was beautiful, and her arithmetic was good.
With her help, the scorekeeper’s work became much easier. He praised Su Yu again and again, extremely satisfied with her.
While they were busy, Su Yu did not feel it much.
But on the way home, she finally noticed her discomfort.
Little Tangtang was also like an eggplant beaten by frost, listless and wilted. In the end, Tang Chen carried her home on his back.
The little girl lay on her father’s back and fell asleep drowsily, still mumbling,
“Mommy, I picked up so many wheat grains today. Uncle Scorekeeper said I could bring them home myself.”
“When we get home, I want to plant the wheat…”
Hearing this, Su Yu paused.
Plant them?