After the meal and the clearing of the table, the whole family gathered in the east room to chat.
They didn’t leave their hands idle.
The mushrooms had to be sorted, and the hazelnuts and walnuts needed to be moved to the storage room so they could be brought out to dry the next day.
Liu Siwei washed a small basin of groundcherries and brought a few stalks of corn to the kang (heated brick bed) next to Liu Si Tian.
“Little sister, try this. This year’s corn stalks are super sweet.”
This year, the corn stalks were not only sweet but also juicy, tastier than in previous years. Liu Siwei crunched away on them.
Liu Si Tian licked her lips, a bit tempted, but decided against it. “Fourth Brother, I won’t have any.”
She was afraid the skin of the corn stalk would scratch her mouth, and her little baby teeth couldn’t bite through it anyway. “I don’t really like groundcherries either; they’re too sweet. Brother, could you wash a tomato for me?”
“Get a small one, I won’t be able to finish a big one,” she added, as her stomach hadn’t quite digested the meal yet.
“Wait right there, I’ll wash one for you.” Liu Siwei slipped on his shoes and jumped directly from the kitchen window into the garden, picked a red tomato, and returned the same way.
He washed it thoroughly and removed the stem before handing it to Liu Si Tian.
The service was impeccable.
In return, he got a smiling face from his sister.
The skin was thin, the juice abundant, the flesh thick, and the tomato flavor was rich—it was a hundred times better than the tomatoes in her past life, which were all skin.
In her past life, tomatoes were dry, had no juice, and while they looked red, they had absolutely no flavor.
“Tian Tian, don’t eat anything else after this; it’ll be hard to digest before bed and you’ll feel uncomfortable,” Li Sufen advised her, then turned to her youngest son. “While you’re at it, take the honey to your Third Uncle’s house.”
“Grandpa, Grandma, we’re here!”
As soon as she finished speaking, they heard Liu Sinan and Liu Sibei calling from the courtyard. Moments later, Liu Manjin’s family of four entered the room.
“At this hour, how come you all came?” Old Lady Liu asked.
“Nothing major, we just finished eating and came over to stroll around,” Liu Manjin said. He picked up his niece from the kang, showered her with affection, and then tossed her high into the air.
“Giggle, giggle… Third Uncle, higher, toss me higher!”
The two brothers, Sinan and Sibei, looked on with envy. Don’t misunderstand; they weren’t envious of Liu Si Tian, but of Liu Manjin.
They also adored their clever, sweet younger sister and enjoyed playing with her.
“Stop playing now, put Tian Tian back on the kang.” The tossing was too high, making Old Lady Liu feel heart-fluttering anxiety.
Liu Manjin put her down reluctantly and laughed, “If only I could have a daughter like Tian Tian.”
“By the way, Mother, Xiuying is pregnant again. I just came to tell you; we found out this morning.”
Liu Manjin had been grinning all afternoon, and Sun Xiuying was also smiling with pursed lips, her face slightly flushed, her eyes drifting toward Liu Si Tian.
A daughter who was well-behaved, sweet-talking, and soft and adorable—the couple had been craving one for a long time.
Is my precious granddaughter someone anyone can just produce? Old Lady Liu thought to herself, though she said “Good, good, good” out loud.
She took her daughter-in-law’s hand and asked, “Is there anything you want to eat?” “Are you feeling uncomfortable?” “If the Third one is ever in a bad temper, come tell me, and I’ll have your father deal with him.”
Sun Xiuying pursed her lips and whispered, “I don’t feel uncomfortable anywhere, I’m doing fine.”
Liu Manjin, however, looked displeased. “Mother, when was I ever bad to my wife? I dote on my wife.”
Sun Xiuying’s face turned even redder.
“Hehehe…” Liu Si Tian laughed out loud. Her third aunt was already a mother of two, yet she was still so pure and shy.
Oh my, this era!
Hearing her niece’s strange laughter, even Liu Manjin blushed a little.
She wanted to laugh again, but was met with an “eye-killer” gaze from Li Sufen.
Li Sufen: What does this little brat know? She just knows how to giggle.
While the adults chatted, the brothers gathered together. Their hands were busy sorting mushrooms, but their mouths were also active, with Liu Siwei boasting about how delicious the roast rabbit meat was.
This made the two cousins, Sinan and Sibei, envious. “We want to eat it too! We’ve never had roast rabbit before!”
They had only ever eaten rabbit stewed with potatoes.
“Next time, we’ll roast two more, and I’ll call you over. In a few days, my sister said she wants to eat ‘Beggar’s Chicken’.”
“What’s ‘Beggar’s Chicken’?”
“How would I know?” Liu Siwei shrugged. “Anyway, it’s delicious. If it wasn’t good, my sister wouldn’t want to eat it.”
The two boys nodded in agreement. “Tian Tian really loves to eat; she was a glutton even before her teeth had all grown in.”
Liu Si Tian: What do you mean I’m a glutton? You’re talking about me right to my face.
However, these brothers from her Third Uncle’s house were also a bit slow-witted. This wouldn’t do; she had to start “reforming” them.
Liu Si Tian’s awareness now encompassed the entire Liu household; she had heard every word of the complaint Liu Sishu had made that afternoon.
In this era, education was the simplest shortcut to changing one’s life. If you wanted to get out of the countryside, what else could you do besides study?
In her past life, she had gone to university, but it hadn’t been a very good one, and she regretted it terribly. Later, she kept asking herself, Why couldn’t I study hard when I was in high school? What was so good about TV? What was so good about novels? Why did I have to copy homework!
She had actually scored quite well in her middle school exams and had been accepted into the best high school in the city. It was all her own fault for her late-blooming teenage rebellion. She had let herself down!
Since she had such a good opportunity this time, she had to seize it.
In an era when getting into Qinghua University or Peking University was at its easiest, she wouldn’t just seize it for herself; none of the Old Liu family would be left behind.
One is weak like a sheep, but together they are like a pack of wolves. This was about unity.
She couldn’t help but sigh out loud, “If the youth are strong, then the nation is strong.”
The rest of the Old Liu family: ???
They were just chatting when they heard this tiny person sighing out a famous quote—they had no idea where she’d heard it.
Old Man Liu laughed and patted the kang. “Come here, Tian Tian, come to Grandpa, and Grandpa will tell you a story.”
“Coming!”
“What story will Grandpa tell? About the little Japanese soldiers?”
“Sure…”
The two chatted happily, questions and answers flowing back and forth.
Liu Si Tian’s eyes sparkled. “Grandpa, are there really treasures? Is it true that the little Japanese soldiers hid their stolen treasures in a hurry while they were fleeing?”
The other boys were curious too, staring at their grandfather with burning eyes.
Treasure!
The boys exchanged a look, instantly reading the meaning in each other’s eyes: Treasure hunting!
Liu Si Tian interjected, “Whether it’s true or false, we definitely won’t get them. Even if it is true, the place where the treasure is hidden must have traps.”
“Right, right, there must be traps, hahaha…” Seeing his granddaughter so sharp-witted, Old Man Liu laughed heartily.
Back when that rumor started, plenty of people had gone up the mountain to search, including him—he had gone twice. But a group of them had searched for over half a year and hadn’t found even a broken bowl. After a while, they had given up. After all, it was just a rumor.
The boys wanted to ask more, but were interrupted by Old Lady Liu. “Alright, stop being curious. Who knows who started that nonsense? There’s no treasure; the villagers have practically leveled the mountain, and they didn’t find anything.”
The boys were crestfallen.