“What shame?”
Su Yun didn’t understand.
Just as Xiao Yuan was about to speak, his gaze fell on her now-short hair.
“Your hair…”
“Oh, I sold it at the recycling station. Got five yuan for it.”
When Su Yun mentioned it, she touched her short hair and couldn’t help but laugh.
“I didn’t expect hair to be so valuable. Five yuan can buy three or four jin of meat!”
Xiao Yuan’s eyes darkened, a faint emotion stirring in his heart.
He muttered hoarsely, “You… you didn’t have to… cut it…”
Since he had taken her in, he would do his best to make sure she had enough to eat and warm clothes to wear…
“Does it look bad? I think short hair is much more convenient.”
Su Yun wasn’t sad at all about her hair being cut short.
“It’s easier to wash, dries quickly, and saves water and shampoo. It’s much more convenient.”
As she spoke, she carried her backpack into the room.
The kitchen was very run-down. The fine rice, refined flour, and cooking oil she had bought were stored there.
Although the bedroom was also shabby, at least it was a place to sleep, and there was no need to worry about thieves in the middle of the night.
She took out the rice, flour, cotton, defective cloth, an oil lamp, and lamp oil from her backpack.
She also carried the pork that Li San had given her.
“Xiao Yuan, you know how to weave things, right? Can you make a few bamboo baskets and baskets for the house first?”
“Yes. What kind do you want?”
Xiao Yuan asked.
Su Yun explained, “Can you make lidded bamboo baskets? I also want two bamboo baskets with lids.”
Without lids, storing things never felt safe.
“Alright.”
After placing the pork in the kitchen, Su Yun drank some water and returned to the bedroom.
She took out cotton, cloth, scissors, needle, and thread, sat by the doorway, and began sewing a cotton-padded jacket by hand.
As a doctor, she naturally had skillful hands.
These hands could hold iron tools and surgical scalpels—needlework was nothing difficult.
In just one afternoon, she made a cotton coat for Xiao Yuan.
The stitches were neat, dense, and sturdy.
“Try it on.”
After finishing the coat, she rubbed her arms and stood up, handing it to the man who had been quietly weaving bamboo baskets.
Beside him, a finished bamboo basket had already taken shape.
He looked up in surprise at the cotton coat in her hands.
“For… for me?”
“Mm? Who else is there in this house?”
“But…”
Xiao Yuan wanted to say she should make clothes for herself first.
But facing her bright, sincere eyes, his lips moved slightly, and he couldn’t refuse.
“I…”
“Try it on. If it doesn’t fit, tell me. I’ll take this basket inside to store things.”
It was already getting dark.
Oil lamps were expensive.
She needed to cook dinner as soon as possible.
Su Yun returned to the house. Thinking of the piece of pork in the kitchen, she decided to make a simplified version of iron-pot rice that night.
She added a bowl of rice into a large pot and poured in water, then covered it to cook.
At the same time, she cut a portion of the pork into evenly sized thin slices, washed them, and placed them in a bowl with a little soy sauce to marinate.
She cut half a cabbage into long strips.
When the rice was almost done, she opened the lid, laid the pork slices over the rice, and placed the cabbage on top as well.
Then she covered the pot again and let it steam.
She estimated the time—about five minutes until dinner.
“Xiao Yuan, wash your hands and eat!”
She called out toward the courtyard.
She served out the fragrant rice—topped with tender cabbage and glossy pork slices.
It was visually, aromatically, and tastefully excellent.
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Xiao Yuan leaned on his crutches and came in from outside. Seeing the steaming bowl of rice on the table, he suddenly felt hungry.
Next door, Qin Jiao was cooking when she faintly smelled meat.
She sniffed carefully and confirmed the smell—it was meat from next door, the cripple’s house!
“Great! That cripple dares to secretly eat meat behind our backs!”
Qin Jiao threw down the cabbage in her hand and rolled up her sleeves aggressively, ready to storm out.
“What are you doing again?”
Qin Aiguo, who had just returned from work carrying a hoe, frowned deeply at his daughter, who was missing a front tooth and still causing trouble.
Qin Jiao burst into tears.
“Dad, they’re eating meat next door.”
“They have meat but didn’t bring any for us or Mom. That’s too much!”
“I’m going over to demand an explanation!”
In reality, Qin Jiao just wanted to eat meat herself.
Although Qin Aiguo had embezzled quite a bit and even hid gold bars in his ancestral grave (now already taken by Su Yun), they only ate meat once every ten days or half a month.
Of course Qin Aiguo understood his daughter’s thoughts.
He glared at her. “Have you forgotten how you lost your tooth? You still want to provoke that shrew Su Yun? Want to lose another tooth?”
Qin Jiao was unwilling and aggrieved. “Dad!”
“You’re the team leader of the second production group! Our family is eating rough grain, so why is that cripple’s family living better than us?”
“Can you swallow this?”
Of course Qin Aiguo couldn’t swallow it.
Not to mention, the money Su Yun used to buy meat was extorted from him.
He had dominated the production brigade for half his life, even the brigade captain listened to him.
This was the first time he had suffered a loss at the hands of a young girl.
“Stay out of this.”
He stopped Qin Jiao and told her to prepare dinner.
“Tell your mother I’m going out. Don’t wait for me to eat.”
“Okay.”
Qin Jiao didn’t dare ask where he was going and went back into the kitchen.
The smell of meat still lingered, making her restless.
She couldn’t swallow this anger.
She needed to tell her mother properly.
She had to make her understand how unfilial and awful that cripple really was.
Qin Aiguo walked with his hands behind his back along the village road toward the Fifth Production Team.
The Su family was also preparing dinner.
When they saw Qin Aiguo arrive, Su Dafu and Luo Fenlan immediately smiled warmly.
“Relative-in-law is here! Have you eaten? Come sit, come sit!”
They were extremely attentive toward this in-law, who controlled over a hundred households as a group leader.
Qin Aiguo frowned so deeply at their constant “in-law” address that it looked like he could kill a fly.
But he still had to accept it.
After all, his disappointing son had gotten involved with Su Zhen.
Just earlier, when passing the fishpond bamboo grove, he even saw his son Qin Xiao and Su Zhen sneaking into an abandoned hut by the pond…
Su Dafu revealed blackened teeth from smoking dry tobacco. “In-law, did you come for something?”
“Are you here to discuss the marriage between Zhenzhen and Qin Xiao?”
Clearly, the Su family already knew about their affair.
Qin Aiguo glared at him. “It hasn’t been long. Wait a bit longer.”
“The Su family doesn’t care about reputation, but my Qin family does.”
They needed to wait until the entire brigade believed that Su Yun was shameless and had thrown herself onto the cripple Xiao Yuan’s bed before discussing marriage matters.
As for Qin Xiao, that fool who had already secretly registered a marriage with Su Zhen, that had to be hidden for now.
As long as no one exposed it, with him in control of the brigade, Su Yun that little wretch wouldn’t be able to turn the world upside down.
Su Dafu nodded repeatedly with a flattering smile.
“In-law, is there anything else?”
Qin Aiguo glanced at him approvingly.
“Su Yun.”