Or was she testing him?
Rong Zhaonan’s eyes flickered, and he decisively changed the subject. “Didn’t you ask me to fix the roof?”
Only then did Ning Yuan remember. So, Rong Zhaonan had been on the roof beam to fix the roof.
She looked up at the roof and, sure enough, could no longer see any spots where light leaked through.
Although it wasn’t properly repaired with tiles, the leaking spots had been sealed with thick covers made of straw and wooden planks.
She looked puzzled. “You know how to fix a roof? Then why didn’t you fix it before?”
He had been sent down for several years. This little hut next to the Cowshed, leaking wind and rain, must have been torturous.
Rong Zhaonan said flatly, “Because I’m lazy.”
Ning Yuan, who was drinking water, choked. “Cough, cough, cough…”
As expected of a big shot, his answer was both direct and piercing.
She couldn’t help but wipe her mouth. “Then why did you fix it when I asked you to?”
Rong Zhaonan looked her up and down. “If I didn’t agree, you would have climbed up to fix the roof yourself. So, it was better for me to do it.”
Ning Yuan smiled. “Since you’re so lazy, you could have just let me fix it!”
This big shot was actually quite a warm guy.
Rong Zhaonan adjusted the black-framed glasses on his nose and said emotionlessly, “Your limbs are not well-developed. You would most likely fall from the roof beam and get injured. The person who would have to take care of you would be me, and I hate trouble.”
Ning Yuan was speechless. “…”
So Rong Dalao was just too lazy to take care of her in case she fell and got hurt.
She took back her words about him being a warm guy!
“Don’t worry, I wouldn’t need you to take care of me. I wouldn’t owe you anything,” Ning Yuan said with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes, tossing a shoebox in front of him.
Rong Zhaonan paused and looked down at the shoebox. Inside was a new pair of men’s yellow canvas-and-rubber shoes.
He picked them up and saw that they were exactly his size.
A strange glint flashed in the man’s long, narrow eyes. “For me?”
“Yeah, didn’t you fix the roof? Consider this your wages. They cost two yuan a pair,” Ning Yuan said, flipping her braid and turning to prepare their afternoon meal.
No wonder Rong Zhaonan was so miserably tormented later on. The moment he opened that mouth of his, he could probably offend everyone, right?
After all these years of being sent down, the only low-profile behavior he had learned was to keep his mouth shut and stand in a corner pretending to be a winter melon.
But the moment this “winter melon” spoke, his words were still infuriating.
After watching Ning Yuan’s slender figure leave with a bucket, a vegetable basket, and other tools, Rong Zhaonan lowered his gaze to study the canvas shoes in his hands.
He didn’t stand on ceremony, sitting down and putting on the shoes.
Behind his lenses, Rong Zhaonan’s handsome face revealed a peculiar and complex expression.
His own yellow canvas shoes, worn for years, were covered in several patches and were almost falling apart.
He had once applied to go to the Production Brigade’s supply and marketing cooperative to buy shoes.
But the Red Armband who came to inspect his submitted self-criticism report had not approved it, instead mocking him and harshly criticizing him for lacking a spirit of hardship and simplicity.
After that, he never submitted another request to go to the cooperative, preferring to weave his own straw sandals in the future.
And yet, this little secret agent, Ning Yuan, had actually noticed that his shoes were about to fall apart…
Rong Zhaonan’s lips curved into a silent smile. If this was one of her methods to get close to him…
Then, he had to admit, it was indeed somewhat effective.
Still, he had to remain vigilant against the sugar-coated bullets of enemy agents…
…
Ning Yuan went to the small stream again, but this time, while fishing, she also cut down some bamboo from the bank.
She shaved the bamboo into strips and slivers and began to weave shrimp traps.
If the bamboo strips were too thick, weaving the traps was troublesome, and it was easy to cut one’s hands when bending them. If they were too thin, they broke easily.
It took her a while. Aside from the first trap, which was a bit slow to make, she quickly finished the next few simple ones.
Ning Yuan threaded the earthworms she had caught onto bamboo slivers, stuffed them into the traps as bait, and then placed the five traps into the stream.
These traps could actually catch not only small shrimp but also a good number of fish.
The traps had a wide belly and a narrow neck, with a funnel-shaped entrance woven from bamboo strips inside.
On the inner side of the funnel, there were some umbrella-like, sharp-tipped bamboo thorns angled inward.
Greedy fish and shrimp would enter the trap, but when they tried to get out, they would be pricked by the bamboo thorns at the exit.
By the time she finished work at dusk, she had two yellow eels in her traps, and she had also caught three bass. She would eat her fill tonight.
Ning Yuan efficiently cleaned the fish by the river, placed them all in her fish basket, and then put the shrimp traps back into the stream.
Carrying the basket, she cheerfully avoided people and slipped back to the Cowshed in the dark.
Rong Zhaonan had just finished settling all the cattle. With bits of straw in his hair, he was coming out of the Cowshed carrying a fodder bucket.
Ning Yuan glanced at the worn-out yellow canvas shoes on his feet and grumbled with some displeasure, “What, is the size wrong, or do you look down on the shoes I bought?”
Rong Zhaonan brushed the straw from his hair. “There’s no need to wear good shoes into the Cowshed.”
Ning Yuan froze. So he was reluctant to wear them.
For some reason, she suddenly felt a pang of sorrow. He should have been a man like a favored son of heaven, yet he had been worn down to the point of being reluctant to wear a single pair of canvas shoes.
She sighed. “Shoes are bought to be worn. Otherwise, are you going to wait for them to go bad while you keep wearing your broken ones?”
Later, when society became much more prosperous, many elderly people were still accustomed to being frugal.
They couldn’t bear to eat the good meat and dishes their children and grandchildren brought, letting them spoil in the refrigerator. Then, thinking it a waste to throw them out, they’d eat them, only to get sick and spend even more money in the hospital.
Rong Zhaonan looked into Ning Yuan’s large eyes and coughed lightly. “I know. I’ll go change my shoes.”
With that, he put down the fodder bucket and followed her into the room.
But Ning Yuan shot him an unfriendly glare. “What are you changing for now? You stink all over. Go take a shower.”
With that, she turned and went into the hut.
Rong Zhaonan’s expression soured slightly. He subconsciously lowered his head and sniffed himself, then went to shower with a dark face.
The smell was indeed too strong!
Ning Yuan took an old aluminum pot from the back stove and started making congee.
She had originally planned to make stir-fried eel slices, but she had forgotten to get peppers today, so she decided to make eel congee instead!
She marinated the sliced eel with ginger and the pepper she had specially bought today. When the congee came to a boil, she added the eel slices to the pot, and a rich aroma began to roll out.
Ning Yuan continued to grill the three skewered bass over the small stove, the heat from the firewood curling around the fish.
The fish oil sizzled, releasing a charred fragrance. Brushed with soy sauce and salt, the flavors of ginger, scallions, and wild perilla seeped into the flesh.
The oil dripped onto the firewood, and the aroma of the ginger, scallions, and wild perilla from inside the fish bellies once again filled the air.
Rong Zhaonan came out after his shower, his hair dripping wet. Smelling the fragrance, he couldn’t help but sniff the air lightly.
“It’s a good thing the Cowshed is at the foot of the mountain, far from where most people live. Otherwise, with you undermining the collective like this day after day, you’d be dragged out for public criticism tomorrow, have your ‘capitalist tail’ cut off, and be forced to write a self-criticism.”
Ning Yuan turned the fish in her hands and rolled her eyes at him. “Heh, afraid of having your capitalist tail cut off? Then you don’t have to eat.”
But when she looked up, she saw his bare, beautifully defined upper body.
Her face instantly flushed red. “You’re not wearing a shirt again! Go put on a shirt!”
Seeing her blush and look uncomfortable, Rong Zhaonan chuckled softly and turned back to the room. “Oh, but I am wearing pants.”
He had been here alone for several years, and when the weather was too hot, he really wasn’t used to putting on a shirt after a shower.
The little secret agent got shy just from seeing a man’s body. How was she supposed to carry out her mission?
Ning Yuan couldn’t help but pat her own cheeks, quickly getting up to check on the eel congee at the back stove.
She was an “old lady” who had lived for decades. How could she still blush like a young girl at the sight of a young man’s bare chest?
Just as Ning Yuan turned toward the back stove, she suddenly saw a dark figure pick up her pot of eel congee, turn, and run toward the small path behind them!
“Stop! Put down my pot! Someone’s stealing!” Ning Yuan was startled and panicked, immediately chasing after them.
That was her and Rong Zhaonan’s dinner!
It was dark. Seeing her in pursuit, the dark figure suddenly stopped, picked up something, and threw it viciously at her head.